South Africa

I saw this Press Conference and it was disturbing on so many different levels. Donald Rumsfeld seems to be fast losing his grip on reality and is starting to resemble a twisted combination of Dr Strangelove/Colonel Kurtz :

Washington - More than two and a half years into the Iraq war, Donald H Rumsfeld has decided the enemy are not insurgents. "This is a group of people who don't merit the word 'insurgency,' I think," the US defence secretary said on Tuesday at a Pentagon news conference. He said the thought had come to him suddenly over the Thanksgiving weekend.

 

"It was an epiphany." Rumsfeld's comments drew chuckles but had a serious side. "I think that you can have a legitimate insurgency in a country that has popular support and has a cohesiveness and has a legitimate gripe," he said. "These people don't have a legitimate gripe." Still, he acknowledged that his point may not be supported by the standard definition of 'insurgent'. He promised to look it up.

 

Webster's New World College Dictionary defines the term "insurgent" as "rising up against established authority".

 

Even General Peter Pace, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, who stood beside Rumsfeld at the news conference, found it impossible to describe the fighting in Iraq without twice using the term 'insurgent'. After the word slipped out the first time, Pace looked sheepishly at Rumsfeld and quipped apologetically, "I have to use the word 'insurgent' because I can't think of a better word right now." Without missing a beat, Rumsfeld replied with a wide grin: "Enemies of the legitimate Iraqi government. How's that?"

 

At another point in their news conference, Rumsfeld and Pace had an unusual exchange in which Rumsfeld corrected his senior military adviser, only to have Pace gently insist that it was the defence secretary who was wrong. A reporter asked Pace what US commanders in Iraq are supposed to do if they find Iraqi forces abusing prisoners. Pace replied that if inhumane treatment is observed it is a service member's duty to stop it. "I don't think you mean they have an obligation to physically stop it - it's to report it," Rumsfeld said, turning to Pace.

 

Replied the general: "If they are physically present when inhumane treatment is taking place, sir, they have an obligation to try to stop it."

 

Truly bizarre and truly disturbing.

A South African mercenary in Iraq is causing waves in the news, for a bit of background :

A "trophy" video appearing to show security guards in Baghdad randomly shooting Iraqi civilians has sparked two investigations after it was posted on the internet, the Sunday Telegraph can reveal.  The video, which first appeared on a website that has been linked unofficially to Aegis Defence Services, contained four separate clips, in which security guards open fire with automatic rifles at civilian cars. All of the shooting incidents apparently took place on "route Irish", a road that links the airport to Baghdad....read on  

 

CrooksandLiars is reporting that :

 

C&L has learned through sources close to the investigation that the man who is seen shooting vehhicles on this video in Iraq was a South African employee of Aegis Victory team named Danny Heydenreycher. He served in the British military for 6 years. After the incident the Regional Director for Victory ROC tried to fire Heydenreycher, but the team threatened to resign if he did. Aegis held an "inquiry" into it.

 

The actual video is HERE, the accent is definitely South African.

Ferial Haffajee is a journalist that I have a lot of respect for. As Editor of the M&G she consistently delivers the goods with easily the best paper in SA. However, her latest Comment and Analysis piece on BEE left me a bit on disappointed. While I did agree with some of the things she wrote, on other counts I thought she was off the mark.   

BEE is spoken of in a language of limitation and of failure, instead of potential and success. The currency of this debate has quickly become that of “usual suspects”; “waBenzi” and “elite”. It is particularly galling because the commentators are usually privileged (white) people who live in leafy suburbs and who choose not to drive Mercs: in other words, elites themselves but with different motoring habits and of liberal and left politics.

Even if their modes of transport are beat up Jettas and their dress of choice scruffy Levi’s (or Fairtrade denims), they have had the benefits of inter-generational wealth transfer and the comfort of bequests and annuities that allow for good education for their children and ensure comfortable golden years. This inter-generational wealth and dignity is so taken for granted that many of these commentators are blinded to the fact that for many of the compatriots they so label, the goals are just the same; I am, for example, the first generation in my family to have a retirement annuity. For many of my cousins and I, we are the first generation (most of us beneficiaries of employment equity) who will bequeath to our children.

Now to me most of the negative characterisations of BEE have arisen recently because many have started to believe that the promised mass based program has been hijacked by the politically well connected who have changed a well meaning program into a get super-rich Casino. The words that Haffajee chooses  “usual suspects”; “waBenzi” and “elite” shows this, if people were truly against BEE they would use different, much harsher adjectives to vent their rejection of BEE. The motoring habits comment I just find bizarre and I think Haffajee misses the point. Again, the way BEE was sold to South Africa was as a means to empower and enable the majority through providing them with the tools to succeed. I do not remember reading in the BEE charter a section that recipients should be filthy rich and engage in as much conspicuos consumption as possible! The "annuity" aside is just a lowblow meant to reinforce Haffajee's perception that the White Liberal Middle class has no right to complain about any part of BEE, as if it makes any difference -- valid criticism is valid criticism no matter who makes it. Would it make any difference if it was someone in the townships making the same comments (as many do).  

Of course, like all rapid wealth creation, and especially that which is so aggressively state-assisted, BEE is swashbuckling with all the elements of frontier capitalism.

 

It is replete with quick fortunes, backbiting, shady characters and eyebrow-raising business habits, many of which we cover in the Mail & Guardian. It is a capitalist process, after all. Established business in South Africa has always had such eyebrow-raising habits: cartels are commonplace; corporate governance is new and not terribly well entrenched; there are few links between performance and pay and, until the era of unbundling, the usual suspects owned everything. Apart from a few laudable exceptions, the coverage of these practices by analysts and journalists was nowhere near as robust as that of BEE.

 

Double standards?

BEE is many things but is most definitely NOT capitalism. It is much closer to a form of hybrid socialism, which is another reason why the obscene fortunes made by so many BEE Kings is all the more depressing. Is the coverage a double standard? Of course it is! Capital in SA has got away with too much for too long, but if we work from this precept then why shouldn't BEE deals be held up to higher scrutiny? Aren't you Ferial, falling into the same trap of "BEE [being] spoken of in a language of limitation and of failure". Instead why don't we raise the scrutiny of ALL Capital rather than reduce our focus on BEE, now we are talking in the language of "potential and success"

Yet to label and malign the whole process, does not allow for a textured and nuanced debate the era requires. Of course, the accumulation of connection as symbolised by the former director general of communications, Andile Ngcaba, whose stake in Telkom earned him more than R800-million is ripe for criticism.

He bought a stake from the Thintana consortium, a Malaysian-American joint venture, to which he had initially sold a stake in Telkom as the director general of communications. Ngcaba has gone on to erect an empire of IT interests; he is there in every big deal.

 

That is the smoking gun for BEE in its present form and I agree with Haffajee wholeheartedly on this count. The entire BEE process is not a failure and there are a number of noticeable successes, however we still have a very long way to go before we can consider the program a success that all South Africans can be proud of.

An interesting document penned by a member of the Young Communists has surfaced in the M&G questioning the rationale for the far Lefts support for Jay-Z. Why I say it is interesting is because normally almost any discussion document that is written by a member of SASCO/ANCYL/YCL, is so full of ludicrous Marxist/Leninist jargon that you really have to wonder if the writer actually even knew what they were saying when they penned it. This document is well written and begins to ask the questions that many of the rest have been asking -- what does the far Left see in Jay-Z and why?

Can JZ really be regarded as part of left and working-class forces in the ANC? JZ’s role in the isolation and marginalisation of a working-class programme in the ANC requires scrutiny. Can JZ really provide breathing space for a left project, as it is sometimes argued and implied? Indeed, individuals play an important role in revolutions. But then, what was JZ’s role in the rightwards shift of the ANC? The case for the political defence of JZ must still be made from a coherent and strategic standpoint. Up to now, such as case has not been made. Even when such as case is made it must be linked to a political programme. What political programme does JZ stand for? What political programme are we seeking to push and win by supporting JZ?

 

As a public figure, JZ has taken what can be described as controversial and conservative standpoints on gender equality (polygamy, virginity testing and sexuality), economic policy, ethnicity and pandering to the interests of the traditional and undemocratic elite in rural areas. It is not clear what role he has played in the government and as an ANC leader during key moments of working-class struggle on economic policy. He may have called for alliance forums to discuss differences, but is this representative of a principled and consistent political champion of a left working-class agenda? His lifestyle also raises largely forgotten and ignored questions about the lifestyle of leaders and the subsequent social distance from our mass base. Is he indeed linked politically, commercially and personally to businessman Schabir Shaik and other problematic business interests? If these links exist, what should poor and working people make of such links? What is his understanding of the role of theory and intellectuals in the struggle, given his reported attacks on intellectuals?

 

Go read the rest for yourself, it's well worth it! As a side-note, the Young Communist League is considering suspending the member who wrote this discussion paper.

- The big news of the day is of course Jay-Z's upcoming Press conference, however the fireworks have already started. Business Day is reporting that the big man may be shortly stepping down as ANC Deputy-President! This comes on the back of reports that by the end of the week he will be charged with rape...watch this space for further updates.    

- A rather depressing story that by 2010 nearly six million South Africans will be HIV+. A sad indictment for Manto comes with the revelation that "[A]ccording to the model, just 120 000 of the country's 520 000 Aids sufferers in need of anti-retroviral treatment were receiving the drugs. About 1.5m South Africans had died of Aids-related illnesses since the start of the pandemic." Noticing anything Anthony "Blinkers" Brink! 

- Teachers are doing their thing to help fight Cancer, one hair at a time!

Today in History : 2001 - Enron, the largest US energy-trading concern collapses after its credit is downgraded to junk-bond status and its smaller rival, Dynegy Inc., backs out of a $9bn deal to buy the troubled company.

According to the Snohomish County Public Utility District, which obtained audiotapes of trader conversations from the Justice Department and transcribed them, traders openly discussed creating congestion on transmission lines, taking generating units offline to pump up electricity prices and overall manipulation of the California power market.

 

For example, in one transcript a trader asks about "all the money you guys stole from those poor grandmothers of California." To which the Enron trader responds, "Yeah, Grandma Millie, man. But she's the one who couldn't figure out how to (expletive) vote on the butterfly ballot."

 

Conversations that involve Forney, Belden and Richter appear throughout the transcripts. In one of those transcripts, a trader says to Richter, "So, uh, somebody's figured out how to set congestion?" Richter: "Well, we ... we can set it if we want. I mean, it's not a hard game to do ..." In another, an Enron trader identified as David discusses shutting down a steamer from a generating unit to increase prices.

 

"I was wondering, um, the demand out there is er ... there's not much, ah, demand for power at all and we're running kind of fat. Um, if you took down the steamer, how long would it take to get it back up? "Oh, it's not something you want to just be turning on and off every hour. Let's put it that way," another trader says. "If we shut it down, could you bring it back up in three — three or four hours, something like that?" David asks.

 

"Oh, yeah," the other trader says. "Well, why don't you just go ahead and shut her down, then, if that's OK," David says.

 

There's one for the "the best market is an unregulated market" crowd... 

It takes a special kind of man to take a functioning newsroom and bring it to its knees. With a smoke in one hand and a Marlborough Manesque devotion to duty, this man can break an organisation so completely that senior staff desert in droves. Giving a wink to his idol Leni Riefenstahl, this man of vision changes dynamic debate and news analysis into hollow, sycophantic government spin. In SA we have such a man...

Snuki "Goebbels" Zikala!   

Yes, he's (unfortunately) back on Someamoungus! Our favourite journalist spinmerchant with his government mandated checklist of "3 Ministers and a Thabo soundbite" per news broadcast is again making his presence felt at the SABC for all the wrong reasons. Witness the latest :

Several top journalists have quit the SABC, reportedly because their working conditions under Snuki Zikalala, the managing director of news, have become intolerable. Several SABC staffers told The Sunday Independent on condition of anonymity they too would leave if given the opportunity because as journalists they were expected to present exclusively positive stories about government activities.

Lesego Mncwango, the SABC spokesperson, on Friday confirmed the resignations of Vuyo Mvoko, the political editor, and Kalay Maistry and Clayson Monyela, both senior political reporters. Three members of the science desk - Mahlatse Gallens, Stuart Thompson and Mandla Zembe - have also quit. Zembe was allegedly hounded by S'bu Ndebele, the KwaZulu-Natal premier, for reporting that Ndebele had been stoned at a June 16 meeting.

 

Lesego also denied that Snookums was causing members to flee :

On Friday, Mncwango, rejected "faceless critics" who claimed "things have worsened". He said there was a "new mood" at the SABC, and a definite sense of common purpose among the board and management.

"We can confirm that the individuals are leaving the SABC to pursue both career and academic development. We reject the suggestion of an 'exodus'. As is the case with all media institutions, journalists choose to further their careers by moving to other employers. This is accepted practice in newsrooms."

 

To which a "faceless critic" (hint hint nudge nudge) replied :

"There is no spirit at the SABC, she's talking crap, she's paid to spin."

 

So who are you gonna believe?

- Following hard on the heels of the Gautrain debacle is the Gauteng provincial governments proposed R2,5-billion government precinct. Critics have blasted the idea as a white elephant that will cost much more than predicted -- already costs have ballooned 100%.

 But Neil Fraser, an architect with the Central Johannesburg Partnership, expressed shock as he and a quantity surveyor had done a rough cost estimate of R1-billion.
"Even at that price it would have been a stupid and worthless exercise. What are we getting? Messed-up traffic patterns, the reduction of four lanes to two (in Market and Commissioner streets), a place which independent assessors have said fewer people will use than currently do now, and, above that, they are demolishing perfectly good buildings. "We will be getting less than we have for R2,5-billion."

Fraser said that objectors, including the Heritage Trust, have appealed to Minister of Arts and Culture Pallo Jordan to convene a tribunal to review Sahra's decision. "I cannot see that the city needs a huge square, poorly conceived and at the expense of good heritage buildings. "After all, the city has already got Beyers Naudé Square, and Mary Fitzgerald Square which was purpose-built to host events and gatherings of up to 50 000 people."

 

- Is back-door amnesty on the cards for those who did not apply to the TRC? According to IOL, a draft document setting out guidelines for post-Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) prosecutions is being circulated. "The draft also proposes allowing the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) to hold closed-door meetings with perpetrators to decide whether to prosecute them or not." In this humble bloggers opinion, a bad idea! Both apartheid functionaries and liberation cadres knew the stakes when they decided not to testify, now they must accept responsibility for their (in)actions.

- Al-Jazeera is heading to SA (great news, the more diversity in news we have the better!).  “For South African viewers, a fresh approach means two things. We will treat any African story as a normal news event, and we won’t fall into the trap of only dealing with Africa when there’s war,” explains Claude Colart, the senior producer at AJI’s Johannesburg bureau.

- The torpedoes are in the water and heading for SAS Zuma, the crew is getting ready to abandon ship -- fast!  

The "Friends of JZ" show their anger over the rape allegation. 

Found this interesting CGI movie called Alive in Joburg while surfing the net. The creator Neill Blomkamp is a South African expat :

"In 2004, Neill was recognized as "One of the top five directors to watch" at the First Boards Awards, featured in the "Saatchi & Saatchi New Directors Showcase" at Cannes, and short-listed at the "Shark Awards". In 2005 Neill received the award for "Outstanding VFX in a commercial" for "Citroen-Alive with technology" at the VES awards in California. He has since been featured in Shots, Shoot, Campaign, and Creativity magazine and recently won three awards in London, England at the "BTAA" award show. Neill is represented by Spy Films Internationally as a Director/C.G Artist of both T.V. commercials and music videos."

 

You can checkout more of his amazing work here.  

A lot of very interesting stories in the Suntimes today,

- First off there is the lead article which alleges that the police are pushing to prosecute Jay-Z on a charge of rape. They believe they have collected “sufficient evidence” to make “a credible case” against him. Could this be the final straw for the big man?

- Ronnie "I love Zim" Kasrils was summoned to attend a meeting of SACP heavyweights where he was questioned and asked to explain the role of the National Intelligence Agency in the Jacob Zuma saga. Why our Intelligence Minister seems to only need to explain his actions to a tiny segment of the South African population is beyond me. Throw the rest of us a bone Ronnie! An interesting comment on last weeks NEC meeting is also quoted "[It was the]most brutal ANC gathering I have ever attended. We spent three days swimming in blood. It was not nice.” To be a fly on the wall at that meeting...

- A must read is the Business Times interview with the Deputy President which focuses on her plans for helping SA reach 6% growth, the Aids Crises, ANC infighting and a lot more. The full interview is here and a summary of sorts can be found here. The interview covers a lot of ground and anyone wanting to take a look into what's on the governments mind for the future should check it out.

- Interesting read about a relatively "new" group in Joburg, who are making waves.