----- Original Message ----- From: "Michael Perelman" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Patrick, is the South African strike as powerful as it sounds? Please let us know.
Hi comrades, yes, it's an amazing time here, as the rumbling from below may get louder in political terms, especially given state repression. You can keep up with SA politics at http://lists.kabissa.org/mailman/listinfo/debate where we're lucky that Norm files reports from GreenLeft Weekly. Today there are hints of a settlement (below). Cheers, Patrick http://www.greenleft.org.au/2007/714/37065 SOUTH AFRICA South Africa: Sackings fuel national strike, protests Norm Dixon 14 June 2007 Up to 2 million workers have hit back at the African National Congress (ANC) government's sacking of striking health workers, its deployment of army strikebreakers and increasing police violence against strikers. On June 13 the more than 700,000 teachers, nurses, health workers and other government workers on strike for higher pay were joined by hundreds of thousands of other unionists and supporters in a nationwide solidarity strike. Hundreds of thousands of people marched across the country. The public-sector affiliates of the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU), together with members of other union federations, walked out on June 1 for a pay increase of 12%, better housing and medical allowances, and an increase of the minimum annual pay of a public servant from R36,000 to R46,200 (A$5960 to $7650). Public servants' pay, especially the lowest paid, has fallen behind increases in food prices and housing costs for a decade. However, the government insists that any pay increase must be linked to its conservative inflation index (which excludes housing mortgage payments and downplays food prices). On the eve of the June 13 sympathy strike, public service and administration minister Geraldine Fraser-Moleketi relented slightly and raised the government's pay offer from a below-inflation 6.5% to 7.25%. The offer was immediately rejected by the unions. On June 8 the unions decided to revise their pay demand downwards to 10%. The solidarity strike brought defiant workers into the streets of at least 43 major cities and towns. More than 25,000 marched through Johannesburg and 20,000 marched in Pretoria. In KwaZulu-Natal province, Durban and Pietermaritzburg were brought to a standstill by large demonstrations. In Cape Town, as more than 25,000 workers gathered, the right-wing Democratic Alliance-controlled city council's police attempted to prevent a march from taking place. Across the country, the militant South African Municipal Workers Union and other unions took strike action and joined the marches. Bus and train workers joined the strike in most centres, as did kombi-bus taxi drivers. Due to laws that severely restrict "secondary strikes", the powerful mineworkers' and the metalworkers' unions did not join the strike but did participate in the marches. Workers' anger has been stoked by mounting state repression. Picketers have come under repeated attack by police using water cannon, tear gas, rubber bullets, stun grenades and batons. The ANC national government provocatively mobilised large numbers of armed soldiers on June 13. In a revealing statement, spokesperson Colonel Sydney Zeeman told the June 13 Cape Town Argus that the army had "deployed units nationwide in our traditional role of providing support for the police. It is a very big deployment." Zeeman could only be referring the "tradition" established under the hated Apartheid regime! The government secured court orders to widen the legal definition of "essential workers" so as to deny around 300,000 of the country's more than 1 million public servants the right to strike. Many nurses, doctors and health workers have defied the orders. On June 9, Fraser-Moleketi and health minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang sacked 638 health workers who had not returned to work. Fraser-Moleketi claimed that the sackings are "in the interests of the patients and the country". COSATU general secretary Zwelinzima Vavi in response vowed, "We will not settle the strike until all threats have been withdrawn and every person who went on strike goes back to a workplace". Thulas Nxesi, general secretary of the 220,000-strong South African Democratic Teachers Union, told workers at the June 13 Johannesburg rally, "Any injury to one is an injury to all. Dismiss one, dismiss all!" The government has mobilised army medics as strikebreakers in hospitals. Soldiers are also doing the work of non-medical hospital staff, including porters, cleaners and cooks. Thousands more, decked out in bullet-proof vests and armed with automatic weapons, are stationed at pickets lines outside hospitals and schools. On June 13, the South African Communist Party (SACP) publicly condemned "state-led violence directed at workers" who have demonstrated peacefully during the strike. "These actions are provocative in the extreme and are aimed at demoralising workers through intimidation . We also call upon all senior government leaders to condemn all acts of violence and intimidation from whichever quarter it emerges, including the police. We must desist from one-sided, anti-worker and selective condemnation of violence, whilst turning a blind eye to state-initiated violence against striking workers . "The actions of government have thus far showed little commitment on its part, and instead have resorted to tactics that are tantamount to union and worker bashing, and sowing divisions within the ranks of the workers through termination of employment and appropriation of the media to smash and bash unions . Whilst we all do not like to see the disruption of public services, the SACP will always be on the side of the workers on their demand for decent living wage." COSATU president Willie Madisha, also an SACP central committee member, told the Pretoria rally that government ministers had forgotten where they had come from and should resign. Zwelinzima Vavi, also an SACP leader, has made similar calls. These sharp rebukes highlight not only the growing political tensions that exist between the neoliberal, pro-rich ANC regime and its "allies", the 1.8-million member COSATU and the 50,000-strong SACP, but also within the SACP leadership. Several prominent SACP members are also cabinet ministers in the ANC government and are leading the attacks on striking workers. The minister for safety and security, responsible for directing the actions of the police, is Charles Nqakula, the SACP's national chairperson. Nqakula shamelessly declared on June 12 that he was "going to continue to deploy members of the South African Police Service, who will be assisted by units of the South African National Defence Force . to deal with protection of all workers who want to go to work". Nqakula sits on the government committee, with Fraser-Moleketi, that is overseeing the "negotiations" with the striking unions. On June 8, Nqakula, Fraser-Moleketi, defence minister Mosiuoa "Terror" Lekota and national police commissioner Jackie Selebi were jeered by striking workers as they visited the Kalafong hospital near Pretoria, escorted by armed police and soldiers. The ministers were there to visit army scabs inside the hospital. Ronnie Kasrils, another SACP central committee member, is in charge of the country's spy agency, which is unlikely to be sitting on its hands during the dispute. Transport minister Jeff Radebe and local government minister Sydney Mufamadi are maintaining cabinet solidarity despite their SACP membership. There is also a widespread perception that Fraser-Moleketi remains a member of the SACP. This has been reported by some sections of the South African press, and many SACP and COSATU members believe she is a member or are unsure. Socialist newspapers around the world have also repeated the assertion that she remains in the SACP. SACP spokesperson Masela Maleka told Green Left Weekly this was not the case. Fraser-Moleketi left the party sometime after 2002, when she was not re-elected as the party's national deputy chairperson, he said. Oddly, however, the SACP seems reluctant to publicly clarify Fraser-Moleketi's membership status. The antics of the SACP's "comrade ministers" will make it harder for those in the SACP leadership who are resisting demands for a reassessment of the Tripartite Alliance between the ANC, COSATU and the SACP. In May, the SACP's influential Gauteng provincial congress overwhelmingly voted for the party to run its own candidates in elections from 2009, and that SACP members who are ANC ministers abide by the policies of the SACP or resign from their positions. The resolution will be discussed by the SACP's 12th national congress in July. Meanwhile, the public sector strike is likely to escalate further. Unionised police and soldiers, members of the COSATU-affiliated Police and Prisons Civil Rights Union and the South African Security Forces Union, have threatened to join the strike, despite being legally defined as "essential workers" and outlawed from striking. Wage disputes in the mining and manufacturing industries, and among local government workers, are also on the horizon. From: International News, Green Left Weekly issue #714 <http://www.greenleft.org.au/back/2007/714> 20 June 2007. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Times, 18 June Strike: End in sight Thokozani Mtshali and Borrie La Grange A breakthrough is in sight that would end the 18-day public-sector workers' strike. Both government and labour representatives, who met last night in Pretoria, are hopeful an agreement will be reached soon. Thulas Nxesi, the general secretary of the South African Democratic Teachers Union, said last night that the unions were "optimistic" about "a quick solution" to the strike. Nxesi said: "We don't know the outcome at this stage, but all the parties recognise that the strike has had a negative impact." The unions were consulting their members about what they would accept as a compromise. He said: "Our members are the ones who will tell us what would be an acceptable offer if the employer cannot meet our current demand of a 10percent increase." The government side also said it was optimistic. Louis Rabkin, spokesman for the public service and administration minister, Geraldine Fraser- Moleketi, said the parties had moved "a bit closer to the solution to this dispute". The government presented a new offer on Friday of a 7.25 percent increase, moving up slightly from its earlier offer of a 6.5 percent pay rise. The unions backed down on their initial demands, coming down from 12 percent to 10percent. Though they have rejected the 7.25 percent offer , most of them feel it is a fair basis from which to begin new negotiations. Tahir Maepa, of the National Professional Teachers' Organisation of South Africa said: "We think the government needs to move up and we are hopeful that we will manage to move them." Most of the 300 000 teachers striking belong to Sadtu and Naptosa. Striking teachers said they wanted a quick resolution. Meyra Venter, a teacher with 21 years' experience, said her monthly take-home salary was R5800. A 7percent increase in her pay would mean about R300 a month more. Venter said: "With this kind of salary, I need to use my credit card to survive each month. Every year I use all my bonus to settle my debts. "This has become a vicious circle and it is a common situation among teachers." Cynthia Malatjie, a nurse at the Johannesburg Hospital, said: "Based on my current salary, a 10percent increase will mean an additional R400 a month and anything less than that would not be worth the strike." The government has fired striking workers in the essential services and has started docking the pay of teachers who stayed away. An end to the strike will be welcome news for the private sector, because the stayaways, which started at the beginning of the month, have had a negative effect on its ability to transfer property and conclude vehicle sales. Operations at the Deeds Office and at vehicle licensing departments have been affected by the strike, causing losses for property developers and car dealers. http://www.sundaytimes.co.za/News/Article.aspx?id=495091 2. Sowetan, 18 June Unions to set wage hike range Congress of SA Trade Unions-affiliates will meet today to come up with a range of percentage increases they are prepared to accept to end the three-week old public service strike. It is understood that the Independent Labour Caucus has already set a percentage range within which it can accept a deal. "The Cosatu unions have not come with any percentage. We're still standing at 10 percent," Cosatu president Willie Madisha said yesterday. "We'll be looking at ranges to finalise this thing," he said. Madisha was speaking from the Public Service Co-ordinating Bargaining Council (PSCBC) in Centurion, south of Pretoria, where government and unions negotiators were thrashing out the remaining sticking points. The issue of a percentage increase will be discussed in a full council meeting on Tuesday or Wednesday. "We are discussing occupation specific dispensation, housing, medical aid and the return to work...," said Madisha. "We think we can be able to move forward, we have narrowed the differences, the only major problem is around the percentage," he said. He met with other union leaders at the PSCBC on Sunday afternoon before the sitting of the full council. On Thursday, the government revised its wage proposal to include a 7.25 percent increase. "There isn't a union I know off that's prepared to accept 7.25 percent," said National Professional Teachers' Union president Dave Balt. He did not say what percentage increase the unions were willing to accept. "I would love to say we are close. It's dangerous to say we are close. I think there is still hard bargaining to take place, but we are all... feeling the urgency and pressure to resolve this thing sooner rather than later," he said. In the meantime the strike continues. Sapa http://www.sowetan.co.za/News/Article.aspx?id=495358 3. IOL, 17 June State and unions meet separately Government and public service union negotiators were locked in separate caucuses on Sunday afternoon, discussing proposals to end the public service wage dispute. The parties were supposed to start a joint discussion at the Public Service Co-ordinating Bargaining Council (PSCBC) in Centurion, south of Pretoria, at 2pm. Instead, they were meeting separately to discuss developments over the weekend. "I think it is a positive sign the parties are engaged in very serious discussions around proposals that were put forward and they are considering their options," said independent mediator Meshack Ravuku. It is understood that some of the discussion are around proposals by a technical task team - consisting of the mediators, government and labour negotiators - on minimum service agreements and suggestions on how to deal with dismissed workers and the no work, no pay rule. Unions have yet to indicate whether they will agree to the government's revised pay package proposal tabled on Thursday. This includes a general salary increase of 7.25 percent for this year. The parties are expected to start joint talks later in the afternoon, when the unions are to make their position known. - Sapa http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=594&art_id=nw20070617164925741C678524 4. IOL, 17 June Unions' demand still standing at 10% The Congress of South African Trade Unions-affiliates will meet on Monday to come up with a range of percentage increases they are prepared to accept to end the three-week old public service strike. It is understood that the Independent Labour Caucus has already set a percentage range within which it can accept a deal. "The Cosatu unions have not come with any percentage. We're still standing at 10 percent," Cosatu President Willie Madisha said on Sunday. "We'll be looking at ranges to finalise this thing," he said. 'We'll be looking at ranges to finalise this thing' Madisha was speaking from the Public Service Co-ordinating Bargaining Council (PSCBC) in Centurion, south of Pretoria, where government and unions negotiators were thrashing out the remaining sticking points. The issue of a percentage increase will be discussed in a full council meeting on Tuesday or Wednesday. "We are discussing occupation specific dispensation, housing, medical aid and the return to work...," said Madisha. "We think we can be able to move forward, we have narrowed the differences, the only major problem is around the percentage," he said. He met with other union leaders at the PSCBC on Sunday afternoon before the sitting of the full council. On Thursday, the government revised its wage proposal to include a 7,25 percent increase. "There is't a union I know off that's prepared to accept 7,25 percent," said National Professional Teachers' Union President Dave Balt. He did not say what percentage increase the unions were willing to accept. "I would love to say we are close. It's dangerous to say we are close. I think there is still hard bargaining to take place, but we are all... feeling the urgency and pressure to resolve this thing sooner rather than later," he said. In the meantime the strike continues. - Sapa http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=594&art_id=nw20070617214500749C809087 5. Bush Radio, 17 June Nehawu holds public service wage report back meeting Odette Ismail The National Education Health and Allied Workers Union will today have a public service wage report back meeting for all it's members. The meeting will take place at the Goodhope Centre in Cape Town from 10h00 to 12h00. On the agenda will be discussions on Public Service Wage report Back Dismissals and the Non-payment and deductions from salaries. Suraya Jawoodeen, Provincial Secretary for Nehawu indicated in a statement that a special negotiator will report back on the latest government offer of 7.25%. She says it is compulsory that all Nehawu Shopstewards and members from Cape Town, Worcester, Stellenbosch and Paarl attend the meeting. Members also need to make sure that their transport needs are communicated to the provincial office early this morning. Jawoodeen says the health department is trying to get members to sign an affidavit which is not according to procedure. She adds that no member must indivually communicate with their mangers regarding their dismissals. http://bushradionews.blogspot.com/2007/06/nehawu-holds-public-service-wage-report.html 6. SABC, 18 June Zuma criticises government over the ongoing strike Jacob Zuma, the ANC deputy president, has criticised the government in failing to put an end to the ongoing public sector strike. Zuma says the government has failed to provide leadership in dealing with the protracted wage negotiations. Zuma was addressing a mass rally in Ntabankulu in the Eastern Cape yesterday. Meanwhile, the Public sector unions will meet today to come up with a range of percentage increases that they are prepared to accept. The unions yesterday rejected the government's improved wage offer of 7.25%. http://www.sabcnews.co.za/economy/labour/0,2172,151074,00.html 7. City Press, 17 June [comment] Striking workers make an ass of the rule of law ON FRIDAY, the public-service strike entered its third week, and by the time this paper went to print, the negotiating parties had not arrived at a settlement. For the sake of the country, we hope an end will come sooner rather than later. In the meantime, this strike has left many of us rather unsettled as to the rule of law. The right of workers to strike is enshrined in our much-lauded Constitution. Yet, in 1995, the Labour Relations Act (LRA), and subsequent gazetted notices - in 1997 and 1998 - defined certain services as essential. Workers in such designated services may not strike. Should they do so, they are liable for dismissal. These include safety and security services, the regulation of air traffic and the weather bureau, the supply and distribution of water, fire fighting, the payment of social grants and correctional services. In the health sector, this includes, nurses and all support staff such as porters, laundry workers and filing clerks. There are provisions in the LRA for deals to be struck between employers and unions for minimum levels of service should there be a dispute. This, by law,commits unions to provide minimum levels of service to cover emergencies and life-threatening situations. Two weeks before the strike, National Education, Health and Allied Workers' Union secretary-general Fikile Majola promised that unions had agreed among themselves to run "a skeletal staff of more or less 25% of the staff in any institution". This, in spite of his charge that: "We have now come to the conclusion that the government doesn't want to negotiate a minimum service agreement because it wants to undermine strike action." Kenny Govender, the state's chief negotiator in the wage talks, on the other hand, denied that the government was unwilling to negotiate agreements, saying the difference with labour was in what the number should be to maintain minimum levels of service. "If you take the ICU (intensive care unit) at a hospital, we believe all staff should be there," he said. The unions have not adhered to their 25% promise. Instead, hospitals have closed, doctors and nurses trying to get to work have been assaulted and patients have been barred from seeking health care. Scores of people - the exact numbers may never be known - from Engcobo to Thohoyandou, have died as a result of health workers turning their collective back on them. As millions continue to be held to ransom by the 600 000 Cosatu-affiliated union members, the government is justified, by law, in firing essential workers who should have gone back to work after June 4. If the government backs down, it will be relaying a dangerous message that it is willing to abandon the population to the thuggery of unions. http://www.news24.com/City_Press/Leaders/0,,186-189_2131256,00.html 8. The Star, 18 June [opinion] Public service offer is more than just 7,25% Lewis Rabkin, Spokesperson for the Minister of Public Service and Administration Government shares the view that teachers are under-rewarded. We also realise that many members of the public do not have the details of government's offer, particularly with regard to packages for specific occupations. It is precisely because of this that government is proposing the Occupation Specific Dispensation (OSD), through which we anticipate such professionals getting significant increases, with recognition and reward for qualifications, service and performance. These new salary scales will provide for career progression and are aimed to both attract and retain professionals in their chosen work areas. They will do this by offering competitive salaries whereby it will no longer be necessary to move into management or out of the sector for career advancement. But where's the beef? What are the rands and cents? While the full details will be negotiated in the sector bargaining council (such are the complex processes of wage negotiations), we anticipate that if the 7,25% is accepted, with the new salary scale (OSD), the commencing salary of a teacher with a 4-year qualification will go from R99 540 to R114 423 come January 1 2008. This is a 14,95% increase in salary at entry level before adding in the considerable benefits available to a public servants, which bring the package at entry level to R169 689, if accepted. With 10 years of service, the salary will go from R109 962 to R126 067 (excluding benefits), a 14,65% increase. In July there will be a further adjustment of CPIX +1%. With implementation commencing in January, principals on level 10 with 5 years' experience will, subject to negotiations in the sector bargaining chamber, receive a basic salary increase from R191 742 to R219 904 (before benefits of housing allowance, medical assistance and pension.) Government is committed to introducing special packages that will reflect the value and importance of teachers in our drive to build an enhanced, skilled and globally competitive society. We urge educators, nurses and other professionals to study the details of our proposals and we are confident that when they are fully appreciated they will support our initiatives to build the public service as an employer of choice. http://www.thestar.co.za/index.php?fArticleId=3888597 9. Business Report, 18 June Eskom, labour in wages power play By SAMANTHA ENSLIN-PAYNE Durban - Three unions, representing more than two-thirds of Eskom's 31 000-strong workforce, are gearing up to strike even though legislation deems the provision of electricity an essential service. Dirk Hermann, deputy general secretary of Solidarity, said on Friday: "We believe there will be a route for a full-blown strike." The three unions will announce their plans today. This comes after wage talks deadlocked last week, when Eskom failed to increase its 6 percent offer and unions refused to drop demands for 12 percent. The National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) represents 11 000 Eskom employees, Solidarity 7 000 and the National Union of Metalworkers of SA 6 000. In terms of the labour legislation, Eskom's generation, transmission and distribution operations were deemed essential services, said Eskom spokesperson Fani Zulu. There is no minimum service agreement between Eskom and the unions, thereby giving the power utility room to claim that all its workers are essential. The unions dispute this. Lesiba Seshoka, NUM's spokesperson, said: "We want a minimum service agreement to decide who are essential staff." This matter has been referred to the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration. But the unions want to press ahead with a strike. They are seeking legal advice on how to force a minimum service agreement through the courts and on a legal route to strike. "We do not have clarity on this yet," said Hermann The unions initially demanded a 15 percent wage hike; they later dropped it to 12 percent. Eskom first offered 5.5 percent and upped it to 6 percent after talks deadlocked. The wage demand was based on research on the inflation rate for the average worker, taking into account price increases for food, transport, housing, school fees, water and electricity, said Hermann. Among the price hikes workers could face is an 18 percent increase in electricity prices from next year. The research put average inflation for union members at 2 percentage points above CPIX (the consumer price index, excluding costs of mortgage bonds), which in April was 6.3 percent and breached the Reserve Bank's inflation target. Hermann said that in light of this a rise of 8 percent or 9 percent would put Eskom workers in the same position as before. Anything less would mean a cut in wages. The wage demand is also based on scarce skills. "Eskom has a skills shortage. We have to price our skills as a commodity," Hermann said. Eskom said 6 percent was its final offer but it had asked for further talks this week, the unions said. "We will participate in the talks but will also start mobilising for action," Hermann said. http://www.busrep.co.za/index.php?fArticleId=3888835 10. News24, 18 June Eskom 'adamant on 6%' South African power company Eskom is sticking with an offer of a 6% wage rise, well below the 12% hike that unions are demanding, the National Union of Mineworkers said this week. "Eskom employs the same outdated public sector negotiation tactics of spending numerous months without agreement and denying workers the right to strike in the form of minimum service disagreement," the trade union said in an e-mailed statement. NUM said it has referred the matter of a minimum service agreement to the country's CCMA for conciliation. "We lowered our demands from 15% to 12% to try and accommodate Eskom's attitude and yet they remain steadfast and noncommittal to make a movement" said Paris Mashego, NUM negotiator at Eskom. The union said that on the issue of housing, Eskom remains at R450 while the union believes the allowance should be moved to R500. "Housing is a basic need, houses are expensive and Eskom should consider assisting its low income people" Mashego said. NUM said it will be reporting back to its members on the stalemate. http://www.fin24.co.za/articles/business/display_article.aspx?Nav=ns&lvl2=buss&ArticleID=1518-1786_2131869 11. City Press, 17 June Provident fund battle By Irene Louw A Johannesburg High court battle over the management of a union's provident fund will play itself out this week when trustees square up with the Chemical, Energy, Paper, Printing, Wood and Allied Workers' Union (Ceppwawu). The union has already expelled the principal officer and the five members it elected as trustees. Ceppwawu general secretary Welile Nolingo would not comment on the case. The trust's principal officer, Albert Shabalala, confirmed the expulsions. A union resolution dictating how its national provident fund should be run led to the expulsion of trustees from the organisation. Court papers in Fin24 sister publication City Press's possession show the heart of the battle to be around the union's insistence on "interfering" with the management of the fund. Trustees expelled Shabalala and all its member- elected trustees were expelled from the union because of their refusal to allow the union to get involved in the management of the fund. According to the applicants' affidavit, the union tried to interfere with the "fiduciary duties of the trustees, the board's obligation and entitlement to amend rules of the fund and the exercise of independent judgment by the trustees". Ceppwawu is the result of a merger of a number of unions including the Chemical Workers' Industrial Union and the Paper Printing Wood and Allied Workers' Union (PPWAWU). Prior to the merger, the latter formed the PPWAWU National Provident Fund which was administered by Alexander Forbes. In April the fund was transferred to NBC. The fund is worth close to R1bn and has an estimated 10 000 beneficiaries. It is now managed by Lekana Employee Benefit Solutions. Union kept in the dark The applicants' founding affidavit reads that a decision was taken in March 2002 to move the fund's administration out of NBC into Southern Negotiated Retirement Funds Services, a division of Momentum. "In direct response to this, the union passed a resolution at its August 2002 congress requiring union trustees to account to the union for their conduct as trustees," the affidavit reads. According to Shabalala, in order to comply with Pension Funds Act requirements, the board last year "unanimously resolved to amend the rules of the fund". This was done without informing the union. The union then instituted a disciplinary enquiry into various officers of the fund, three of whom were charged with misconduct and failure to inform the union's National Executive Council of the amendments, amending the fund rules without a mandate from fund members and/or union constitutional structures and failure to inform the union of the amendments affected. "The union wants us to implement what is against the law. We apply our minds in the best interest of the members," Shabalala said. Unions play critical role According to a pension fund expert, the case is interesting given the current controversies about the exercise of independent discretion by pension fund trustees when they are placed under pressure by their employers or pension fund administrators or, in this case, by the union which established the fund. In the respondent's answering affidavit, Nolingo denies that the union was interfering with or attempting to interfere with the fiduciary duties of the trustees and that the union in fact respects these duties. The affidavit further states that "there is nothing wrong, improper or unlawful in requiring trustees who are union members and who are appointed by the union to account to the union for their conduct as trustees of the fund". Actuarial consultant Donald Molema said trade unions play a critical role in the establishment of retirement funds. But, he said, once established, the pension funds become a separate legal entity from a trade union. Fidentia scandal "The pension fund is run by a board of trustees which is elected by members. In the case of industry funds, trustees are often shop-stewards or union officials, simultaneously representing workers as fund members and members of the trade union. "From time to time, the question of the independence of trustees from the union arises. Whatever its meaning, independence does not seem to derive from law, at least not in the strictest sense of the word independence." The case unfolds as the trustees' judgment has been questioned in the Fidentia scandal. The industry is also questioning the role played by brokers, who get a commission, in moving funds between fund managers. http://www.fin24.co.za/articles/business/display_article.aspx?Nav=ns&lvl2=buss&ArticleID=1518-1786_2131537 12. Sowetan, 18 June ANC leadership battle hotting up Chris Otton A devastating strike and looming policy conference are finally prodding the shadowy contest for the leadership of the ANC into the open, even if no candidate wants to admit it. As the ANC's deputy president Jacob Zuma, questioned again about succeeding President Thabo Mbeki, insisted : "In the ANC, we do not run." Zuma's grinning assertion, however, might have sounded more convincing if it was delivered elsewhere than in a packed room of journalists, before embarking on interviews with international TV networks. And when Tokyo Sexwale insisted earlier that the candidates for December's election had not yet been identified, it escaped the attention of few that he was delivering a speech entitled: "Public conversations on leadership with Tokyo." The next ANC president will be formally elected in December , with the winner finding him or herself in pole position to take over as head of state in 2009. And, according to Cape Town-based analyst Zwelethu Jolobe, the next few weeks will be key to finding out who will most likely become South Africa's third president since the birth of democracy in 1994. "It's all opened up the race up much more and you might now find one or two more candidates coming into the race," Jolobe said. Zuma's quest for the top post has been given a new boost by the most serious bout of worker unrest since the end of apartheid over the past two weeks. He has been positioning himself as a champion of the poor and his name has been chanted at a number of the workers' rallies. He used three high-profile appearances last week to bemoan what he described as a "widening gap between the rich and poor" and to express his belief that the strike could and should have been avoided. Jolobe said it was "not a coincidence" that Zuma had been raising his profile at a time when Mbeki's government is at odds with the unions. If Zuma is the choice of the left, the millionaire Sexwale has emerged as the champion of business leaders who have thrived under Mbeki's tenure after mapping out his "dream of creating wealth for all". Sexwale has admitted he has been lobbied to stand . According to analyst Aubrey Matshiqi, Sexwale is playing a bold game by "playing his cards much more openly" than other hopefuls. He agreed other candidates could soon be smoked out by the policy conference, including the likes of Cyril Ramaphosa, Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma and Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, who was last week hailed by Mbeki as "a true leader". Matshiqi said the apparent endorsement of Mlambo-Ngcuka could even be a ploy by Mbeki to build up support among women while he mulls standing again for the party leader even if he is forbidden from a third term as head of state. But with even Mbeki yet to come clean on his plans, many observers say the ANC needs to end its instinct of dealing with matters behind closed doors. - Sapa-AFP http://www.sowetan.co.za/News/Article.aspx?id=494965 13. Sunday Independent, 17 June Strike sends message to ANC Christelle Terreblanche With 10 days before the start of the ANC's policy conference, it became clear this week that the ruling party would be under pressure to respond to what has now been described as a "watershed" strike. Commentators were unanimous that the unprecedented levels of support for the public servants' wage strike is sending a strong message of frustration to the ANC. Leonard Gentle, the national director of the University of Cape Town's International Labour Resource and Information Group, said the strike was unique in several ways, primarily because its widespread support made it "the first truly non-racial strike" since 1994. "It is the scale of it, drawing in a whole range of forces that has not been part of previous strikes, the new dynamics of white teachers joining and across-the-board solidarity that makes it a watershed show of force," said Gentle. 'Demonstrated widespread dissatisfaction in society' He points out that the strike was also the first in which workers expressed their anger directly to the state and ruling party, without any mediating forces softening the clash, as in other recent strikes. "This is the first direct kind of challenge, and it amounts indirectly to a political strike in the sense that it will have an effect on the ANC conference, whether it was the intention of the union leaders or not," he said. Like most other analysts, he was at pains to stress that the original intention of the strike was not to influence the ANC policy debate, but was now likely to do so. Gentle said opposition parties' contention that the strike amounted to an alliance spat, reducing it to a stand-off between Jacob Zuma and President Thabo Mbeki, had missed the point. Devan Pillay, an associate sociology professor at the University of the Witwatersrand, echoed this, stressing that the strike had demonstrated "widespread dissatisfaction in society". "The union movement will try to use the mobilisation to influence policy," said Pillay. He suggested that while the ANC would try to control the discussions tightly, "the energy and momentum created by the strike made room to see the unexpected [at the conference]". Union leaders such as Zwelinzima Vavi, the Cosatu general secretary, were also careful to play down the political dimensions of the strike this week and it is understood that even they were surprised by the support that emerged. Whether or not the anger spills over onto the congress floor, like the revolt over Zuma at the 2005 mid-term policy conference, still depends on a number of factors. John Daniels, a Durban-based independent historian, pointed out that the strike was at its most powerful in KwaZulu-Natal, where it identified strongly with Zuma. "Whatever settlement is reached, it will embolden the unions and structures in KZN around Zuma." Claire Ceruti of Johannesburg University's Centre for Sociological Research said: "This time on the ground there is a real sense of inequality coming from the workers. The very people that are the middle classes - the teachers, nurses - are not seeing themselves that way at the moment." http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=594&art_id=vn20070617092147568C150339 14. Sunday Times, 17 June Any warmth left in the alliance withered to nothing this winter In time, we will look back on this winter as one of the most depressing times in our evolving nation. This was the winter that saw South Africans shake their heads in disbelief as a simple wage dispute between the government and public sector unions turned into an unseemly brawl. Nurses cast aside their oath, jettisoned their care-giving instincts and abandoned the sick to suffer. Teachers not only turned their backs on the classroom on the eve of mid-year exams, but returned to the school yard to beat up those of their colleagues who were still teaching, and to hound pupils out of classrooms. Acts of hooliganism were perpetrated by members of professions that have always been looked up to as role-model occupations. It is a winter in which we have seen the ANC government pull troops from the barracks and deploy them outside state buildings. This was not because of some threat by anti-state forces, but to protect property and limb from marauding members of Cosatu -- the ANC's partner in the tripartite alliance. For the ANC and its allies, Cosatu and the SA Communist Party, this winter will be remembered as the one in which the folly and futility of the alliance was laid bare. If they are astute, this cold season should mark the point where they began to accept that it was all over. There is much denial in ANC ranks about the parlous health of the alliance, with insistence that the "historical imperatives" that led to the formation of the alliance still remain. Never mind the fact that they have spent the past 13 years throttling each other and fighting the sort of battles in which only sworn enemies engage. Witness the anger in the language of the union leaders as they spoke about the very government they have campaigned to give overwhelming electoral mandates in three successive general elections. And the venom directed at government leaders, themselves senior leaders of the ANC-led alliance. Posters carried by striking workers were low on taste and utterly derisory of ministers. The rhetoric of the union leaders did not give one the impression that it was directed at political allies. Said National Education Health and Allied Workers Union provincial secretary Suraya Jawooden: "The police did not stop us overthrowing apartheid; the police are not going to stop any public service worker from striking." Cosatu president Willie Madisha, seen as closer to the ANC than other senior Cosatu leaders, even used the word "war" in relation to the conflict. Clearly the leaders of the alliance can no longer sustain the argument that those who predict the demise of the alliance are reactionary counter-revolutionaries who do not understand the "nature of the alliance". The basis of the symbiotic alliance between the ANC and the then Communist Party of South Africa and South African Congress of Trade Unions (later SACP and Cosatu) was the removal of the apartheid system and the creation of a democratic, non-racist, non-sexist society. It was understood back then that the philosophies of the alliance partners would never be similar. The ANC was a nationalist movement, while the others were by nature socialist. During its time in exile, the ANC did shift leftwards, largely influenced by financial, logistical and moral support given by the world's socialist states, and the lukewarm response of Western countries to the anti-apartheid cause. Many top-ranking ANC members were underground SACP members who studied political theory in the Eastern bloc. It was fair, then, for committed socialists to believe that the ANC had socialist ideas that would necessarily be translated into ANC policy once South Africa was free. But that is not the ANC of today. Today's ANC, which defines itself as a "a disciplined force of the Left", is nothing of the sort. The ANC has embraced the free market as the nation's economic template and sees itself aligning more with Western European social democratic parties than the militant parties it cavorted with during the Cold War. It has successfully created a black middle class that wants to get rich and is as materialistic as you can get. This materialism and consumerism have been accompanied by all the attendant immoralities. On top of that, the party has made South Africa an attractive playground for the world's rich , who are snapping up prime coastal and inland property, and descend on our shores for a week or two of revelry every year. And there is no reversing this. The next generation of middle-class South Africans are invested in this environment -- and will be the first to defend it -- as is the working class, which is as consumerist as the moneyed classes. The ANC in government wants to balance its budgets and make the country attractive to foreign investors and friendly in policy to the business sector. Yes, it will retain socially conscious policies and expand the social welfare net and use parastatals to drive growth. But that is about as far as it will go, and it is no different from your mainstream Western political parties. The ANC has sung Goodbye Lenin, and no matter how hard they try, the left-wing allies are not going to get the "movement" to go back there. What the ANC and its allies should learn is to relate to one another normally, as a trade union federation would to a government. Such engagement would be more realistically structured, more practical, and devoid of the deceit that exists when former friends pretend they still like each other. http://www.sundaytimes.co.za/PrintEdition/Article.aspx?id=494357 15. The Star, 18 June Treasurer denies bid to unsettle SACP Christelle Terreblanche SA Communist Party treasurer Phillip Dexter has denied being part of an orchestrated campaign to discredit some of the party's leadership ahead of its national congress next month. It follows the leaking of an incisive criticism of the state of the SA Communist Party, authored by Dexter, which has been interpreted as aimed at the leadership style of SACP secretary-general Blade Nzimande. In it, he described the leadership as "rigid, doctrinaire, dogmatic, quasi-Stalinist". The document had forced tensions among the party leadership into the open ahead of its 12th congress, due to be held in Port Elizabeth next month. Dexter, however, said he stood by his paper, entitled "Working class leadership, Political Power and Hegemony in the National Democratic Revolution: The role and responsibility of the SACP". He said he wanted to open discussion, but apologised for offending any of the party's leadership in person. In a response to the 26-page document, the party, by inference, accused Dexter of being part of an orchestrated attempt to "discredit its credibility". It suggested that the leaking of the paper to the media was similar to the "Special Browse" intelligence document "leaked" last month. The intelligence document alleged that ANC deputy president Jacob Zuma and Nzimande had been part of a plot to seize power from President Thabo Mbeki. The origin and veracity of the report was still being investigated, and Zuma and Nzimande have denied the allegations. http://www.thestar.co.za/index.php?fArticleId=3888546
