31 August 2006

Democracy All Round

SADTU is the South African Democratic Teachers Union, a strong affiliate of COSATU. It was addressed yesterday by its President (and President of COSATU) Willie Madisha, and by the Minister of Defence, Mosiuoa Lekota, who is also the National Chairperson of the ANC. Their speeches are reported in the Star today in general terms, while the more specific (to SADTU), relevant and pointed remarks of COSATU General Secretary Zwelinzima Vavi made at the same venue are downplayed or ignored. See the link below for the full text of Vavi’s input, and find out something about SADTU and the true political content of the present conjuncture. The Worker’s Survey commissioned by COSATU from its think-tank NALEDI was released yesterday. The document linked below is a short introductory announcement and summary of the report. The report itself (700 KB PDF) can be downloaded from the NALEDI web site. The launch of the Worker’s Survey took place yesterday at the same venue where SADTU is holding its Congress – Gallagher Estate, Midrand, which is also the venue where COSATU is to hold its 9th Congress from the 18th to the 21st of September. The first of the four items from the Business Day linked below was put as the main item on the paper's front page under the headline “Cosatu pours cold water on SACP split from ANC”. The report itself is not bad but this headline (headlines are always written in the newsroom by sub-editors, not by reporters) seems to come from one of those people who learn nothing and forget nothing. Both the SACP and COSATU are already autonomous and do not have to split from anything. The question is: What will be the direction taken by the ANC? In the article, COSATU GS Vavi is quoted as putting it this way: “Cosatu should capture the leadership of the ANC and steer it away from business and the middle classes.” Precisely. The report on the Thint company affidavit released yesterday contains this line: “Thetard (of Thint) had been required to write the “encrypted fax” incriminating Zuma, Shaik and the company in a bribery deal.” This goes a lot further than previous reports. It says that former Justice Minister Penuell Maduna had the charges withdrawn from Thint, not so much to validate an existing piece of paper found in a waste bin, but in fact to forge this evidence from a blank sheet of paper. Who is really on trial for corruption now? Maduna. The court is supposed to reconvene in a few days’ time. See the link below. Karima Brown’s opinion piece, from Tuesday’s Business Day, is partly a variation on the “lame duck” theme, whereby under the US two-fixed-terms presidential system that was somehow forced upon South Africa, the end of the presidency is inevitably dominated, as Brown puts it, by the fact that the President has a “best before” date pinned to his back. See the link below for an interesting read. Finally and for the record, also from Tuesday’s Business Day, it is reported that the anti-mercenary bill has been passed by Parliament. Let us hope that the process is completed soon and that this law in application will have the effect that we want – no more South Africans as hired guns overseas, nor in Africa for that matter. Click on these links: Address to SADTU 6th National Congress, COSATU GS Z Vavi (2985 words) The Workers Survey, COSATU Press Release 13h00 060830 (843 words) COSATU seeks pro-poor ANC, Brown and Musgrave, B Day (537 words) Zuma trial delays hurt Thint business, Ernest Mabuza, B Day (436 words) Life beyond Mbeki sell-by date, Karima Brown, Business Day (832 words) Parliament approves mercenaries bill, Sapa and Business Day (776 words)

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