Numsa Media Monitor

Monday 30 May 2016

A daily compilation of local, national and international articles dealing with

labour related issues

Numsa

New Federation

Capital globalisation a high cost for those at rockface

Basic Cele, Sunday Independent, 29 May 2016 [As originally submitted]

On 30 April 2016, at the Workers Summit, 1406 representatives of 51 trade unions - and one existing federation, Nactu - supported by a range of civil society and community organisations, committed themselves to building a new, worker-controlled, democratic, non-racial, non-sexist, independent, financially self-sufficient, internationalist, socialist-orientated and militant union federation.

An intense process of discussion and consultation around five documents relating to the new federation is now underway within all the unions involved, and we want also to involve the wider working-class movement. This is the second of five articles about the documents.

Capital and how it has restructured locally and internationally and its impact on the state of the Labour Movement in South Africa and internationally

The imminent creation of the biggest-ever global brewing company, with the merger between SA Miller and In-Bev, has brought home to even non-political beer drinkers the extent of the globalisation of the economy.

It is certainly not a new phenomenon. Next year marks the centenary of Lenin’s definitive work, Imperialism: the highest stage of capitalism, which gives us a 5-point definition of imperialism, as he saw it in 1916:

(1) The concentration of production and capital has developed to such a high stage that it has created monopolies which play a decisive role in economic life;

(2) The merging of bank capital with industrial capital, and the creation, on the basis of this "finance capital", of a financial oligarchy;

(3) The export of capital as distinguished from the export of commodities acquires exceptional importance;

(4) The formation of international monopolist capitalist associations which share the world among themselves, and

(5) The territorial division of the whole world among the biggest capitalist powers is completed. Imperialism is capitalism at that stage of development at which the dominance of monopolies and finance capital is established; in which the export of capital has acquired pronounced importance; in which the division of the world among the international trusts has begun, in which the division of all territories of the globe among the biggest capitalist powers has been completed.

Little of this needs to be changed to define today’s imperialism - global monopoly capitalism. The only big difference is the speed with which the trends which he identified are being implemented, particularly through the use of information technology to transfer capital around the world in seconds.

In South Africa, as well as the brewing monolith, we have seen more and more key companies shaking off their local base and becoming global players, like ABSA being swallowed by Barclays Bank, ArcelorMittalSA (formerly Iscor) becoming Indian-owned and Old Mutual, BHP, Rio Tinto, Glencore, Anglo-American and others all relocating outside South Africa.

It also leads to more and more capital flooding out of the country, often into tax havens, where it can earn interest or be reinvested anywhere in the world.

These developments in South Africa are replicated throughout the world, more so in developing countries, which have not escaped from the economic imperialism that still dominates their economies, particularly in those countries, including SA, which have remained over-dependent on the export of raw materials rather than developing their own manufacturing base.

For the world’s workers the most important consequence of this intensified globalisation has been to undermine even further and faster the basic rights which we have fought for and won in many countries and which are also clearly stated in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights agreed by the United Nations in 1948.

As the Irish Congress of Trade Unions (ICTU) has said: “These laws and international instruments were fought for by generations of workers and their trade unions, working together locally, nationally and internationally. Some would say that it was really the trade union movement, working through the International Labour Organisation, that invented the modern human rights system.

“But,” they warn, “free market globalisation is deliberately undermining this protection. Millions of workers are seeing their hard-won rights under attack. They are experiencing a decline in their working terms and conditions. They are finding the public services that they and their communities rely on weakened through privatisation.”

The danger that globalisation poses to workers is that the capitalists, and governments, can move billions of rands around the world at the touch of a button, without any regard to the consequences for jobs, the environment and local communities.

The capitalists themselves outsource their responsibility to take decisions to investment brokers and portfolio managers, whose mandate is simply to get the best return on their clients’ investments, with no regard to anything else.

The big problem for workers is that in order to fight back against this bosses’ onslaught they need more united, militant and democratically worker-controlled unions, not only nationally but internationally. But we are experiencing the very opposite – workers’ movements which are becoming more fragmented, weak and bureaucratic.

In South Africa only 24% of workers are union members, scattered among 3 registered labour federations and 179 registered trade unions. 76% of workers are unorganised, most of them in the most vulnerable sectors.

This is reflected globally. Trade union on-line journal Equal Times reports that: “The International Trade Union Confederation , with its 176 million members in 161 countries, is the largest global trade union platform and the biggest democratic force in the world. Yet it only represents 7% of all workers – and trade union membership rates are even lower than this in many countries. Moreover, this international union often superposes fragmented and divided national trade union movements (there are some 500 trade unions registered in the Democratic Republic of Congo), that are lacking in resources, capacities and training. Even in France, whose workers have such militant traditions, a pathetic 8% of workers are organised!

“Neoliberalism has thus been coupled with growth in precarious and informal employment, the sharp rise in unemployment and inequalities, and the fragmentation and shattering of salaried and stable work. This brutal change in the nature of employment is neither accidental nor accessory: it is at the heart of the neoliberal programme, which seeks to weaken, to avoid or destroy all forms of worker organisation and to reconfigure the relations between them, their employers and the state, for the benefit of market forces.”

It is a dire situation but we must never let workers fall into the trap of thinking that because we have a huge global problem there is nothing we, the employers or even the government, can do about it. That would be a recipe for capitulation and opening the door to even worse exploitation. We have to fight back, and fight even harder.

That is why the Workers’ Summit and the launch of the new federation are so crucial. It is our only chance to turn the tide and revive the militancy of the young Cosatu by bringing together the workers from all federations, including Cosatu, all unions, non-union workers and the unemployed.

It must forge a new fighting force to take on the bosses and be as broad-based and democratic as possible, excluding only unions set up by employers to stop genuine unions being formed, and organised from the bottom up, with policies hammered out by the members themselves and leaders elected, accountable and subject to recall.

But it must be a movement firmly committed to a socialist programme that will liberate workers from the global monopoly capitalist economy and transform the lives of the working class and society as a whole, and must link up with similar movements around the world and strike to achieve our most famous slogan – Workers of the world unite! You have nothing to lose but your chains!

South African workers

AMCU union launches strike at Sibanye's Kroondal mine

Zandi Shabalala Reuters, 27 May 2016

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - Workers began an indefinite strike at Sibanye Gold's Kroondal platinum mine in South Africa on Friday to demand transport because they were being attacked after working night shifts, their union said.

"The company doesn't want to provide transport for its employees and these are basic conditions of employment," Joseph Mathunjwa, president of South Africa's Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union (AMCU) told Reuters.

AMCU is the main union at the Kroondal mine located in the Rustenburg platinum belt and has about 7,000 workers.

Sibanye's spokesman James Wellsted said the gold and platinum producer would seek a court order to stop the strike because it was negatively affecting output.

"With metal prices being low for AMCU to now go on strike over issues that are being dealt with is irresponsible. This poses a threat of to the viability of the mine," he said.

AMCU led a record and sometimes violent five-month wage strike at three major platinum producers in 2014.

Unions and platinum companies are expected to start wage talks in the next few weeks.

Sibanye acquired the Kroondal mine when it bought Aquarius Platinum in October last year for $295 million.

http://af.reuters.com/article/investingNews/idAFKCN0YI0SK

Amcu on strike at Sibanye’s Kroondal

Allan Seccombe, Business Day, 30 May 2016

SIBANYE Gold is dealing with its first platinum strike after members of the Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union (Amcu) downed tools at its Kroondal mine on Friday.

The company obtained a court interdict and said it expected the employees to return to work on Monday or face disciplinary action.

Company spokesman James Wellsted said the mine had been shut on Friday for employee-safety reasons after reports of "minor incidents of intimidation". The strike was called after a dispute was declared over the provision of transport to employees. The mine, near Rustenburg, employs 10,000 people and Amcu represents about 65% of the workforce.

Amcu spokesman Manzini Zungu told Bloomberg the strike related to transport, travelling and drilling allowances, and safety bonuses.

Kroondal is owned by Aquarius Platinum, a company Sibanye bought for $294m as part of its expansion into platinum.

Sibanye bid at least R4.5bn for the Rustenburg mines put up for sale by Anglo American Platinum. That deal is expected to close later this year.

The two platinum assets will vault Sibanye into fifth spot of leading platinum group metal producers, with annual output of 1.1-million ounces of platinum, palladium, gold, and rhodium.

Amplats, Russia’s Norilsk Nickel, Impala Platinum and Lonmin are the top-four sources of platinum group metals.

The platinum sector is heading into wage talks in July. The three-year wage deal expiring this year was reached after a damaging five-month strike by Amcu on platinum mines around Rustenburg.

It was the longest strike in SA’s history, and took more than 1-million ounces of platinum off the market. The length of the strike put many platinum mining companies’ already stretched balance sheets under pressure and contributed to the widespread restructuring of the industry, with mines closed or sold.

Sibanye CEO Neal Froneman has said he doubted this year’s wage talks would result in a similarly lengthy strike, arguing that Amcu had gained knowledge of the weakness of the platinum market and this message had been taken to workers by companies themselves.

http://www.bdlive.co.za/business/mining/2016/05/30/amcu-on-strike-at-sibanyes-kroondal

NUM disturbed that operations at Lily Mine resume in June

Thando Kubheka, EWN, 28 May 2016

JOHANNESBURG – The National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) says it’s disturbed that operations at the Lily Mine in Barberton will resume next month despite the fact that three workers are still trapped underground after a shaft caved in in February.

The mine confirmed today that work will begin after major investment by a Canadian company.

Operations were halted at the mine in Mpumalanga when a section collapsed leaving dozens of miners trapped underground.

Pretty Nkambule, Yvonne Mnisi and Solomon Nyerende have still not been found after rock falls complicated rescue efforts.

NUM spokesperson Livhuwani Mammburu said, “We asked the company to first rescue those workers, it’s a worrying situation for the families because they need to find closure.”

http://ewn.co.za/2016/05/28/NUM-disturbed-that-operations-at-Lily-Mine-resume-in-June

'Jobs for cash' probe recommends limiting unions at schools

Jenni Evans, News24, 27 May 2016

Cape Town - Teachers and principals could be banned from being office bearers in political parties or unions if recommendations following the "jobs for cash" probe are carried through, Parliament heard on Friday.

School governing bodies could also have their wings clipped regarding their right to recommend people for senior posts.

These recommendations are contained in the Ministerial Task Team (MTT) findings prepared for Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga, following a probe into allegations reported by City Press in 2014. The findings were presented to Parliament's committee on basic education for discussion.

The team, headed by Professor John Volmink, found that there was some truth to the claims in six of the nine provinces, and had given itself until August to prepare evidence for handing over to the police for corruption charges.

DA MP Gavin Davis said Motshekga should have been present, given the political nature of many of the findings. Sadtu is aligned with the majority party, the ANC, to which Motshekga belongs.

Motshekga had sent apologies for missing the meeting.

"It will require political will to carry it out," said Davis, who wants those implicated to be suspended immediately.

120 cases in 6 provinces

Davis also objected to the SA Democratic Teachers Union (Sadtu) not being present after being fingered in the allegations. The initial release of the report was delayed so that unions such as Sadtu could read through it first. The full report was finally released on May 20 and is available on the department's website. The shortened presentation to Parliament made no references to any specific union.

The investigation looked into 120 cases in six provinces - Eastern Cape, Gauteng, Kwa-Zulu-Natal, Limpopo, Mpumalanga and North West. It emerged that some cases were based on hearsay or malice, and that in some cases, people were too scared to talk.

The team found that the process of appointing people at schools in South Africa was "riddled with inconsistencies" with schools with weaker authority being taken advantage of. In the Northern Cape and Western Cape, there was a balance of power between Sadtu and other unions.

"So the Department of Education is effectively in control of education in one third of South Africa's provinces," the report claimed.

A contributing factor was that there had been a wave of principals retiring - up from 400 in 2008 to an expected 1 500 in 2017.

No suspensions or arrests, yet

Volmink said the team did not start with a "judgment in our back pocket", but the data had pointed to Sadtu's dominance, and the potential for abuse in this.

"The MTT does not take issue with the fact that Sadtu is a powerful union. We cannot blame Sadtu for being powerful," he said.

"However, when one has dominance and you become reckless about that dominance and you use your dominance in a way that hurts the other parties; it is at that point that one becomes liable," he said.

Director General Hubert Mathanzima Mweli said the department was grateful to everybody who came forward with information, and to City Press.

There had been no suspensions or arrests yet, but that would come, he said

"We are not interested [in to] which union they belong, our interest is to correct the wrong that happens in the system."

He told the committee that the department had to consider centralised teacher recruitment, as well as the licensing of teachers.

The report recommended, amongst other things, that:

- Illegal action must be reported to police, and disciplinary action be taken against those who are in charge of checking against corruption but fail to do so;

- The department must set up a unit that whistleblowers can report contraventions to;

- The department of education must regain control in all provinces with a clear distinction between itself and unions;

- The powers of school governing bodies to make recommendations for senior posts above level 2 must be removed through an amendment to the SA Schools Act and the Employment of Educators Act;

- The observer status of unions regarding recruitment needs to be renegotiated.

http://www.news24.com/SouthAfrica/News/jobs-for-cash-probe-recommends-limiting-unions-at-schools-20160527

Sadtu explains refusal to appear before Parliament

Steve Benghu, East Coast Radio, 26 May 2016

Teachers' union Sadtu is refusing to appear before Parliament to answer questions on findings around the recently released 'jobs for cash' report.

The comment comes after the Basic Education Portfolio Committee received a request to have the union appear in the House.

The report found that although Sadtu was not involved in selling posts, 38 education officials who are members of the union had individually been found to have acted fraudulently.

Sadtu's Nomusa Cembi says those implicated had not acted on the instruction of the union.

''As Sadtu, we never took a decision for anyone to sell posts. The department is not telling the world enough that there is nowhere in the report where they have found evidence that Sadtu sold posts,'' she said.

Meanwhile, the DA has called on the teachers implicated in the report to be suspended.

Also read: Legal action promised against those implicated in the so-called ‘jobs for cash’ scandal

MP Gavin Davis says there have been several recommendations to Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga, including criminal prosecution.

''What we are calling for is for those teachers and officials implicated in the jobs for cash scandal to be suspended, pending the outcome of a criminal investigation.

''We need all teachers and officials to be focused on one thing and that is the education of our children. If they are worried about descending themselves in criminal charges they won't be able to focus on their core mandate which is teaching our children,'' he said.

https://www.ecr.co.za/news-sport/news/sadtu-explains-refusal-appear-parliament/

Cosatu looks to rebuild

Amy Musgrave, Daily News, 27 May 2016

Johannesburg - Now that the dust has settled in Cosatu, the federation has turned its attention to rebuilding itself and attracting new members.

Cosatu leaders said its recruitment drive would include attracting new members around campaigns which would push for the government owning 50% of all mining companies and opposing the Treasury’s austerity measures which have stopped vacancies from being filled in the public service.

The federation’s organisational well-being has taken a back seat since its last congress in 2012 when divisions between the leadership began to spill out in public. Cosatu’s expulsion of metalworkers union Numsa and mass retrenchments have also negatively affected the federation’s numbers.

Although Cosatu president, S’dumo Dlamini, said on Thursday that the formation of a new labour federation was not something that was discussed at a high-level Cosatu meeting this week, the challenge represented by the new organisation will serve to focus Cosatu leaders’ minds. The fact that the new venture is spearheaded by Cosatu’s longest serving general secretary, Zwelinzima Vavi and Numsa, now the country’s largest union, only serves to amplify the threat.

Cosatu general secretary, Bheki Ntshalintshali, told reporters on Thursday it had been agreed that a special central executive committee (CEC) would be fotrmed to deal with organisational issues only, including resolving those of affiliates.

http://www.iol.co.za/dailynews/news/cosatu-looks-to-rebuild-2027182

Durban Metro head 'should face disciplinary action for official misconduct'

Steve Benghu, East Coast Radio, 26 May 2016

The South African Municipal Workers' Union in KwaZulu-Natal feels Durban Metro Police Chief Eugene Nzama should face disciplinary action following an altercation at a shop in Springfield.

Nzama was reportedly stopped by one of the guards at the shop's door asking him for a slip showing proof of payment.

He allegedly refused and called in Metro officers to arrest the two guards.

Metro Police then reportedly returned to the shop a few days later to arrest a new guard over security permit issues.

CCTV images of the incident have also been released.

Samwu's Jaycee Ncanana says Nzama should face consequences of his actions.

''He has to be prosecuted internally due to the fact that the guy is the face of eThekwini under Metro Police. Therefore, whatever he does has an impact on eThekwini Metro. Actually, Samwu is on record saying that Mr Nzama has got a tendency of abusing his power,'' he said.

https://www.ecr.co.za/news-sport/news/durban-metro-head-should-face-disciplinary-action-official-misconduct/

Cosatu lashes out at Gordhan, Zwane and Motshekga

Getrude Makhafola, Independent Media/ANA, 26 May 2016

Johannesburg – The Congress of SA Trade Unions (Cosatu) on Monday accused three cabinet ministers of taking aim at the labour federation in what it termed a “troubling pattern”.

Mineral Resources Minister Mosebenzi Zwane, Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga and Finance Minister Pravin Ghordan targeted Cosatu publicly, said secretary Bheki Ntshalintshali.

He accused Zwane of lying about Cosatu affiliate, the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) and has since refused to meet with the union leaders.

“They [NUM] requested a meeting with him so that they can talk face to face. The disappointment and anger the union expresses is that he is refusing to meet them… this is a stakeholder calling on a minister to meet and discuss issues, and he declines. How is he going to serve their stakeholders because NUM is the main player in the mining industry,” said Ntshalintshali.

He said the trade union federation was not in a position to state what Zwane allegedly lied about at an event in the Free State, and was willing to give him another chance to meet with NUM, failing which, Cosatu would make public the minister’s remarks.

Cosatu further accused Motshekga of joining opposition parties against the SA Democratic Teachers Union (Sadtu) on the so-called jobs for cash scandal that has hit the basic education sector.

“Minister Motshekga has joined opposition parties and colluded with them to engage on a misinformation against Sadtu. Cosatu views these as an attack on the federation itself and will not allow itself to be victimised,” said Ntshalintshali.

The country’s biggest teachers union was fingered in the damning report released on Friday, which showed revealed the union’s level of control over the sector, and said there was grounds for criminal charges of corruption for determining who gets hired or not at schools in six of South Africa’s nine provinces.

The Democratic Alliance requested that Sadtu be hauled before the Parliament’s portfolio committee on basic education.

Regarding Gordhan, Cosatu accused him of “reviewing and misrepresenting” the policies of the ANC.

“He has continuously used public servants as a scapegoat for the country’s economic woes and his austerity measures are hitting the working class.”

Ntshalintshali said the Treasury and the SA Reserve Bank were the “biggest obstacles” to government’s economic programme and both needed to be brought into line.

“The position taken by the Treasury with regard to public service vacancies, means that vacancies in hospitals at the level of administrative staff, potters and gardeners are going to be eliminated… we are ready to campaign in opposition to the Treasury’s austerity measures.”

http://www.iol.co.za/news/politics/cosatu-lashes-out-at-gordhan-zwane-and-motshekga-2026830

Cosatu frustrated over other Nedlac constituents’ stance on minimum wage

Karl Gernetzky, Business Report, 26 May 2016

THE Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) said on Thursday it would consult with members after a series of bilateral meetings aimed at resolving an impasse over the implementation of a national minimum wage.

Should these fail to lead to a breakthrough, members of the federation will decide what course of rolling mass action will be needed to put pressure on business and the state, Cosatu general-secretary Bheki Ntshalintshali said during a briefing in Johannesburg.

Bilateral meetings between National Economic Development and Labour Council (Nedlac) constituents and Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa are scheduled, but Cosatu has accused the state of stifling talks and business of "ideological resistance" to a national minimum wage.

Speaking at a briefing following the conclusion of the federation’s three day central executive committee on Wednesday, Ntshalintshali said talks had not yet reached a formal deadlock but unions were "deeply frustrated" by the positions taken by other Nedlac constituents.

"It is totally unacceptable that two years after the ANC committed to implementing a national minimum wage, there has been little significant progress in the negotiations," Ntshalintshali said.

Cosatu had said on Wednesday a deadlock had been reached, however business on the same day moved to deny that the process had halted. A representative from the business constituency at the council told Business Day organised business remained committed, but part of a process that was evidence-led, did not result in job destruction, and was suitable to SA’s specific context.

"This is not a simple task, particularly given the economic social and employment challenges currently facing us as a country," the representative said.

Cosatu on Thursday levelled several grievances over the Treasury’s approach to key issues at Nedlac, including comprehensive social security reform and national healthcare reform.

Cosatu president Sdumo Dlamini said however the federation’s concerns should not be viewed "very narrowly" as concerns against individuals at the Treasury – including Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan.

"We see from that institution a continuous negation of the policies that seek to support the radical socio-economic transformation, and it affects us, the workers, directly," said Dlamini.

Cosatu on Thursday also expressed concerns over internal divisions within the ANC, saying it would seek bilateral meetings with both the ruling party and the South African Communist Party (SACP) ahead of an alliance summit.

The federation remained ready to deliver the ANC a "decisive electoral victory" in the August 3 polls, but remained firm it would not support candidates imposed unprocedurely on communities, but would be participating in the party’s forthcoming national list conference.

http://www.bdlive.co.za/national/labour/2016/05/26/cosatu-frustrated-over-other-nedlac-constituents-stance-on-minimum-wage

South Africa

Key Lonmin exec was SSA spook - report

Pieter-Louis Myburgh, Rapport, 28 May 2016

Johannesburg - Lonmin’s foremost representative during the 2012 strikes at its Marikana mine was a covert agent of the State Security Agency (SSA).

Rapport reports that former Lonmin human resources head Barnard Mokwena, whose harsh stance towards the striking workers was widely condemned after the Marikana massacre, was listed as a paid “deep cover” agent on the SSA’s central source index from 2004 until at least the end of 2012.

Mokwena came under fire at the Farlam commission of inquiry into the massacre after evidence was submitted that showed he encouraged police to act strongly against the workers and the Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union (Amcu), and that he’d convinced his fellow Lonmin executives not to negotiate with them.

Amcu president Joseph Mathunjwa, lawyers of the wounded and arrested miners and lawyers for the families of the dead workers said any evidence showing that Lonmin and the government colluded against workers could affect ongoing civil claims against the company and the state.

In addition, just over a year after the Marikana massacre, while Mokwena still worked for Lonmin, he founded a company which would later play a key role in a covert intelligence operation to establish a new labour union tasked with disempowering Amcu.

Denial

Mokwena has strongly denied being a government intelligence operative or ever being paid for such work.

“I know about that stuff, those rumours, I have heard about it, and what I can tell you is that I’ve made my submissions at the Marikana commission...,” he said.

However, Rapport has seen intelligence documents and correspondence confirming his appointment and payment by the SSA as a “deep cover” source or agent.

The documents reveal that Dennis Dlomo, the SSA’s then acting director general, received a letter from Johan Schaefer from BDK Attorneys at the end of 2012. Schaefer was representing Barnard Mokwena’s wife, Mandisa, in her ongoing fraud case in the North Gauteng High Court involving tenders she’d awarded in her previous job as a senior SARS official.

In the letter, Schaefer claimed Mandisa was a covert SSA agent who needed the agency’s protection in the SARS matter, because any scrutiny of her bank account risked revealing secret payments from the SSA and would blow her cover. Asked about the letter, Schaefer said he couldn’t comment.

After receiving the letter, Dlomo then instructed Nozuko Bam, the SSA’s then director of domestic intelligence collection, to check whether Mandisa’s name appeared on the agency’s central source index, the documents show.

In November 2012, three months after the Marikana massacre, Bam’s search on the database revealed that Mandisa’s husband, Barnard, and not Mandisa, was registered as a covert agent or source of the SSA who’d been paid by the agency since 2004.

It would later transpire that Mandisa was also a covert agent who’d been handled by Thulani Dhlomo, the SSA’s head of special operations. The identity of Barnard’s SSA handler was verified by Rapport.

There is no evidence that Mokwena’s behaviour towards Amcu or any of the striking workers during the Marikana strike was influenced by the SSA or any other government official.

Suspicions

However, his establishment in October 2013 of Kazol Resources, a private company, and the company’s subsequent activities, only adds to suspicions.

Kazol’s three directors are Barnard, Mandisa, and Peter Silenga. Earlier this month, Rappport revealed that Silenga is an SSA agent with links to the agency’s Special Operations Unit (SOU).

Silenga was directly involved in the establishment of the Workers Association Union (WAU), a new labour union in Rustenburg which, according to founding member Thebe Maswabi, had a “strict mandate to disempower Amcu by drawing members from it”.

In March, Maswabi sued President Jacob Zuma, State Security Minister David Mahlobo and other senior government leaders for R120 million, alleging that Zuma told him to form the new union. He claimed that after “the government” stopped funding him for the project, he ran into serious financial problems.

Rapport reported that Silenga travelled to Rustenburg early in 2014 to help Maswabi rent commercial and residential property for the WAU.

A source with direct insight in the matter said Mandisa indicated that Kazol Resources was given a contract to help establish the new union, hence Silenga’s involvement.

Speaking from Kazol Resources’s Rustenburg offices, Barnard Mokwena denied his company played any part in WAU’s establishment.

“No, that is not true. I don’t even know about the WAU, Kazol Resources is now mostly involved with setting up engineering workshops in Rustenburg,” he said. “Peter has never said to me that he is or was an intelligence operative.”

SSA spokesperson Brian Dube did not answer detailed questions.

“I hope you are not asking me, once again, to reveal operational details and (the) identity of sources,” he said in an SMS.

Lonmin spokesperson Sue Vey said: “Unfortunately we have no knowledge of the allegations”.

'Not a trained intelligence officer'

One crucial piece of evidence submitted to the Farlam commission was a transcript of a conversation between Barnard Mokwena and former North West police commissioner Zukiswa Mbombo. The two met at Lonmin’s offices two days before the massacre.

The transcript shows Mokwena took a hard line against the striking miners and Amcu, whom he viewed as the main culprit.

“... I am not a trained intelligence officer,” Mokwena told Mbombo while he revealed new information that supposedly proved Amcu’s complicity.

“Our priority is, we want people arrested, okay. It is very clear Amcu is behind it (the strike), very clear...”

Later, at the Farlam commission, Mokwena was forced to retract this claim. He also retracted a claim he’d made to Mbombo that it was Amcu who’d fuelled the workers’ R12 500 per month wage demand.

A memo Mokwena wrote to Lonmin executives a week before the massacre, later submitted at the commission, underpinned his refusal to negotiate with the workers.

Because the striking miners rejected the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM), the strike fell “outside the collective bargaining structure” and Lonmin could opt not to recognise the strike, Mokwena suggested in the memo.

He tried to convince his colleagues that Lonmin should fire the miners and call police to deal with them.

http://www.news24.com/SouthAfrica/News/key-lonmin-exec-was-ssa-spook-20160529

Fitch: High minimum wage will cost SA

Neo Goba and Reuters, TimesLive, 27 May 2016

Ratings agency Fitch has warned the ANC to avoid introducing populist measures such as a minimum wage in the run-up to local elections, while Cosatu has threatened to strike over the government's slow implementation of the proposed policy.

Fitch, which rates South Africa at BBB-, one notch above speculative grade, is expected to publish a review of the country's debt rating on June 3.

The government is mulling the implementation of a national minimum wage but has not set a date for its introduction.

"The authorities may see a need to react to the discontent about insufficient improvement to living standards by pushing costly social programmes," Fitch head of EMEA sovereign ratings Jan Friederich told a banking conference, referring to the upcoming elections.

"Authorities may feel, if they have a poor showing, that there is a need for quick fixes like the introduction of a high minimum wage that would appear to help the poor but may also discourage investment," he said.

But Cosatu general secretary Bheki Ntshalintshali yesterday said it was "totally unacceptable" that two years after the ANC had committed to the minimum wage, there had been no significant progress.

"The [central executive committee] endorsed the view of labour at the National Economic Development and Labour Council that we need to declare a formal dispute to break the current deadlock. Going forward we shall be mobilising workers to embark on a protected mass action in demand of a national minimum wage," he said.

Current talks focused on what the minimum wage should be set at as there was disagreement.

Labour wants the floor set at R4500-R5500 a month, while business is keeping its cards close to its chest.

Cosatu has blamed business, saying it was the main party responsible for the impasse.

The business constituency in Nedlac was initially opposed to setting a base wage, but is now advocating for it to be as low as R1800.

http://www.timeslive.co.za/thetimes/2016/05/27/Fitch-High-minimum-wage-will-cost-SA

Cosatu warns the ANC has entered a new phase of decline

Stephen Grootes, EWN, 26 May 2016

JOHANNESBURG - The Congress of South African Trade Unions’ (Cosatu) Central Executive Committee says decisive leadership is required to navigate through the

current period of turmoil, disunity and ill-discipline in the African National Congress (ANC) and the alliance.

The trade union federation also says that it’s unhappy at the way internal politics in the KwaZulu-Natal ANC have resulted in Senzo Mchunu being forced to step down as premier.

Cosatu says the present situation is unsustainable for the ANC and that the movement as a whole risks entering a new phase of decline and deterioration that will only get worse.

It also says never-ending scandals could lead to people not believing that the movement occupies the moral high ground.

Cosatu General Secretary Bheki Ntshalintshali also says they’re worried about how the spat between Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan and the Hawks is playing out.

“We are not taking sides in terms of whether there should be an investigation against the minister or not. People are equal before the law but the leaks and the public spat unnecessarily take confidence from the people.”

The federation says the decision to force Mchunu to resign was unnecessary and not properly thought out.

Cosatu also says the never-ending scandals engulfing the ANC and the tripartite alliance risk eroding the moral high ground of the movement and weakening its political capacity to lead society.

It says the ANC has a narrow focus on internal factional battles and growing social distance from the people.

It says that the current situation has emboldened counter-revolutionary forces.

Ntshalintshali says they’re very worried.

“We raised a number of issues; the question of corruption, the question of using of money for whatever position, the killing of people for positions and what’s really happening in the movement as it goes for political position (sic).”

http://ewn.co.za/2016/05/26/Cosatu-Decisive-leadership-is-required-within-ANC

Cosatu urges ANC to take responsibility, resolve disunity & scandals

Stephen Grootes, EWN, 27 May 2016

JOHANNESBURG – The Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) says the African National Congress (ANC) and the liberation movement need to take responsibility to resolve their degeneration and that never-ending scandals are hurting the party’s claim to the moral high ground.

It also says the current political crisis facing the ANC is a crisis of the entire movement, which reflects its collective weakness.

Cosatu’s Central Executive Committee (CEC) says decisive leadership is needed to navigate through the current period, which is being characterised by turmoil, disunity, factionalism and ill-discipline.

Cosatu General-Secretary Bheki Ntshalitshali says this involves everyone.

"The people that are affected is all of us, that’s why we’re also duty-bound to look in Cosatu and say, what about the division in the movement, are we not in the same position as the African National Congress?”

Cosatu is also furious at the way Senzo Mchunu was forced to resign as KwaZulu-Natal premier, saying it was not consulted about the move.

The former premier will be replaced by Transport and Safety MEC Willies Mchunu.

The party has quelled speculation that started last week about Mchunu's role in provincial government following several accusations leveled against him.

‘Present situation is unsustainable'

Cosatu says the present situation is unsustainable for the ANC and that the movement as a whole risks entering a new phase of decline and deterioration that will only get worse.

Ntshalintshali also said they’re worried about how the spat between Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan and the Hawks is playing out.

“We are not taking sides in terms of whether there should be an investigation against the minister or not. People are equal before the law but the leaks and the public spat unnecessarily take confidence from the people.”

The federation says the decision to force Mchunu to resign was unnecessary and not properly thought out.

Cosatu says the never-ending scandals engulfing the ANC and the Tripartite Alliance risk eroding the moral high ground of the movement and weakening its political capacity to lead society.

It says the ANC has a narrow focus on internal factional battles and growing social distance from the people.

It says that the current situation has emboldened counter-revolutionary forces.

Ntshalintshali says they’re very worried.

http://ewn.co.za/2016/05/27/Cosatu-urges-ANC-to-take-responsibility-to-resolve-disunity-and-scandals

Cracks in tripartite alliance over Mchunu recall

Mayibongwe Maqhina, Daily News, 26 May 2016

Durban - The SACP in KwaZulu-Natal has laid bare crippling tensions in the tripartite alliance, claiming it learnt of plans to recall former premier Senzo Mchunu nearly two months ago, when the move was presented to the alliance as a done deal.

This claim flies in the face of an ANC statement that the nomination of newly-appointed Premier Willies Mchunu followed “a consultation with the tripartite alliance … which also endorsed the proposal made by the leader of the alliance, the ANC”.

SACP provincial secretary, Themba Mthembu, made the startling claim on Wednesday, shaking the foundation of the alliance in the province.

Mthembu said Senzo Mchunu’s ousting first emerged at the meeting of the alliance partners on March 31 in preparation for the alliance summit adjourned two days later.

The ANC in KZN had confirmed on Monday that Mchunu was asked to resign after assessment of the KZN government.

But the SACP feels it had been lied to when the assessment was done.

Mthembu said the handling of the recall of Mchunu had strained relations within the alliance.

“The alliance relations are being shaken. We need to go back and finish the business we were supposed to do,” he said in reference to the adjourned alliance meeting.

Khaye Nkwanyana, SACP executive member, said the party was concerned that some in the party had called on the communists to break away from the alliance, and that this had passed without condemnation from the ruling party.

“To us it represents that such a statement has support in the leadership of the ANC,” he said.

http://www.iol.co.za/dailynews/news/cracks-in-tripartite-alliance-over-mchunu-recall-2026457

Nicola’s Notes: Cash crunch

Nicola Mawson, Business Report, 27 May 2016

Very few of us are not feeling the pinch with food prices seemingly spiralling out of control - every month I pay more for less - interest rates going up, the looming threat of a petrol hike and countless other additional expenses.

We’re all battling to get to the end of the month with even R5 to spare in our bank accounts, and banks are taking advantage of this by pushing overdrafts at consumers who are already despairing at the amount of debt they have.

I’ve lost track of the number of calls and app-based offers I have had to rack up a ridiculous amount of debt.

Apparently, most consumers owe more than 75 percent of their monthly salary cheques to financial institutions.

Myself and many of my friends have started shopping smarter. Rather than making a separate trip to benefit from specials in the knock-and-drop, we plan a route that takes us past the store.

And yes, we read the knock-and-drop to find out where mince is cheapest.

For me, this harks back to my childhood, except back then petrol was not even R1 and it made sense for my mom to drive all over the West Rand in search of the specials in the paper.

Now, many of us also use the internet to find the best price for coffee, and stash that away in as much bulk as possible. We read articles telling us which outlet has the lowest food inflation in store.

Luxuries are a thing of the past.

And it’s the poor, who spend half of what they earn on food and a good deal on transport, who are hardest hit.

The National Union of Metalworkers of SA (Numsa) makes the point that items like bread, samp, mealie meal, cooking oil and potatoes became 11 percent more expensive year-on-year in April. Electricity has gone up 22 percent on average each year since 2008.

“Nearly all the biggest price increases are on items on which workers and the poor spend a higher percentage of their incomes than the rich. It means that in real terms all those on fixed incomes are substantially poorer than a year ago.”

Wage demands

Admittedly, the union is making this point in the midst of wage negotiations across several industries. But it’s understandable why it’s doing that; apart from the obvious rhetoric.

The union has made several demands of the industries in which its members work, and none of these are surprising, because unions tend to beat the same drum year in and year out.

For example, when it comes to wage hikes, the union is demanding 20 percent. That’s not unusual. Neither are its demands for insourcing of outsourced work, a R5 000-per-month housing allowance and a renewed call to ban labour brokers.

What will be different about this round of talks is the pain its members face when they battle to put food on the table.

Says Numsa: “For the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa, 2016 is the most important bargaining round for decades, as workers face unprecedented attacks on their standard of living and job security.

“Jobs, especially in the manufacturing sectors, are becoming more and more precarious, as retrenchments are announced almost daily; whole workplaces and

even entire industries are in danger of disappearing and throwing thousands more on to the streets.

“Why we are insisting on real increases and not just amounts that reduce the drop in income they have already suffered.”

I fear this will end badly. With rolling strikes that become violent and also cause additional harm to an economy that cannot take any more battering.

The union did not, as yet, make the point that some companies are still in a position to pay out dividends, but the profit-at-what-cost argument will be made soon.

It’s understandable that workers will see themselves as exploited so shareholders can line their pockets.

However, there is only so much give in companies’ bottom lines at the moment, and any profit - which shareholders demand - has to come through cost cutting, which inevitably leads to job cuts.

It’s the typical catch-22 situation.

And it happens with every round of wage negotiations.

This year though, for the sake of our economy and jobs, we need to find some other way of dealing with this issue, or else we’re just like the child who repeatedly runs into a brick wall and doesn’t learn that he will get hurt.

We need to find some way of giving more to workers without harming the very businesses they work for.

Anyone have any bright ideas?

* Nicola Mawson is the online editor of Business Report

http://www.iol.co.za/business/opinion/nicolas-notes-cash-crunch-2026981

International

France set for transport strike chaos

News24/AFP, 29 May 2016

Paris - France is bracing for a week of severe disruption to transport after unions

called for more action in their bitter stand-off with the Socialist government over its

labour market reforms.

The escalating unrest, which last week sparked petrol shortages that forced the

government to dip into strategic fuel reserves, comes less than two weeks before

football fans pour into France for the Euro 2016 championships.

President Francois Hollande and the government are refusing to give in to the

hardline CGT union's demand that it withdraw the planned reforms.

The union has responded by calling for strikes on the national rail network beginning

on Tuesday and commuters on the Paris Metro network will be hit by industrial action

from Thursday.

Air travellers are also set to face more cancellations and delays.

Six of France's eight oil refineries were on Sunday still halted or running at reduced

capacity due to action by union activists.

Strikes continued at oil terminals in the southern city of Marseille and at the terminal

in the northern port of Le Havre, which supplies kerosene to Paris's two main

airports. A skeleton service is, however, allowing some supplies to get through.

'There will be petrol'

The government insisted that the situation would improve on Monday for motorists

who have been forced to queue for petrol and have been restricted in how much they

can buy in many parts of the country.

"There will be petrol. Things are getting better although we need to stay on our

guard," government spokesperson Stephane Le Foll told France 3 television.

Riot police on Friday cleared all the remaining blockades at fuel depots, allowing

more supplies to reach petrol stations. One depot remains on strike.

Hollande's tough line was echoed by Prime Minister Manuel Valls on Saturday, when

he held talks with bosses in the oil and transport sectors.

He pledged to defend the labour law reform "to the end" and said withdrawing it

would be a "bad thing for working people".

At issue are measures aimed at injecting more flexibility into France's famously-rigid

labour market by making it easier to hire and fire employees.

Companies would also be able to negotiate terms and conditions with their workers

rather than be bound by industry-wide agreements.

But the unions say the moves will erode job security and fail to bring down

unemployment which is stuck at just under 10 percent.

No climbdown

Forty-six percent of French people want the government to scrap the reforms,

according to an opinion poll in the Journal du Dimanche newspaper on Sunday.

Forty percent think they should be modified and just 13% want them left unchanged.

The conflict comes a year before presidential elections in which Hollande is

considering seeking a second term despite popularity ratings that are among the

lowest for a post-war French leader.

There is no sign that the unions will back down soon.

They have called for another national day of rallies and strikes on June 14, the day

that the Senate, the upper house of parliament, begins examining the law.

All eyes this week will be on the railways. With negotiations on working conditions

delicately balanced, unions have called for rolling strikes to begin on Tuesday.

They look set to be more disruptive than last week, when four out of five trains ran

despite strikes calls.

Mass stoppages would add to mounting problems for rail operator SNCF which had

to deal with power cuts on Saturday and Sunday that crippled part of the network.

Euro 2016

Civil aviation unions have called for a strike from next Friday to Saturday over their

own demands.

A leading member of the Socialist Party tried to play down concerns that the strikes

will play havoc with Euro 2016 which kicks off on June 10 and will take place at 10

venues across France.

"There will be no train or Metro strikes during Euro 2016," Jean-Christophe

Cambadelis, the party's secretary general, said.

He said the unions were mistaken "if they believe for a second that they will take

France hostage".

But Alain Juppe, the centre-right former prime minister who leads opinion polls for

the presidential election, said he was concerned that the unions were digging in.

"This is going to go on for the whole of June and perhaps for the whole of July too,"

he said on Friday.

http://www.news24.com/World/News/france-set-for-transport-strike-chaos-20160529

Workers vote to strike at South32’s Cerro Matoso nickel mine

Amid a dispute over negotiations on a wage agreement.

Andrew Willis and David Stringer, Bloomberg, 30 May 2016

Workers at South32’s Cerro Matoso, the world’s second-biggest ferro-nickel mine,

voted to take strike action amid a dispute over negotiations n a wage agreement.

Members of the Sintracerromatoso union approved the move at the operation in

northern Colombia, the union’s negotiator Eder Blanco confirmed in a text message.

A strike must begin before June 14, and a deal to avert the action could be reached

before then.

A previous strike at Cerro Matoso in April 2015 caused output to fall, leading to an

increase in global prices. The nickel complex is among the world’s largest, with

output of 27,200 metric tons in the nine months to March 31.

Perth-based South32 will continue to seek a resolution of the dispute, spokesman

Tony Johnson said by phone. South32 fell 0.6% to A$1.60 by 11:58 a.m. in Sydney

trading, trimming its advance this year to 50%.

Even as nickel prices rebounded 11% since touching a 13-year low in February,

many producers continue to be loss-making. About 70% of global output is still

unprofitable, according to GMK Norilsk Nickel PJSC, one of the world’s largest

producers.

South32 is seeking to cut operating costs at Cerro Matoso by about a third and will

reduce the number of employees and contractors by about 350 by the end of July,

equivalent to 18% of the asset’s staff at June 30, 2015, the producer said in

February.

Talks with Sintracerromatoso, the mine’s largest union, had centered on a company

proposal to cut benefits and peg this year’s salary increase to 50% of Colombia’s

2015 year-end inflation rate of 6.77%, union president Domingo Hernandez said

earlier this month.

http://www.mineweb.com/news/base-metals-and-minerals/workers-vote-strike-

south32s-cerro-matoso-nickel-mine/

Comment and analysis

We Shall be the Prey and the Vulture

Richard Pithouse, Counterpunch, 26 May 2016

In the great anti-colonial poem of his youth, Notebook of Return to My Native Land,

written on the eve of the Second World War, Aimé Césaire wrote a profound

optimism into the world. He offers a marvellous image of the arrival of a moment of

celebration that, “with a purple rustle of its great joyous wings” will make “the shack

life burst like an overripe pomegranate”.

But in South Africa today, as in much of the world, an explosion in a shack

settlement is more likely to be a gas stove erupting into a ball of flame, or a stun

grenade, than anything that is in anyway analogous to the sweet rubies raining out of

a pomegranate. On Monday this week the state sent out its men with guns to evict

people occupying land in Suurman, outside Pretoria. The squatters fought back. At

the end of the battle two of the men sent out to break down the shacks, and destroy

the building material, were dead.

This was usual. It’s far more common for it to be the people whose homes are being

destroyed, or who are being disconnected from electricity or water, to be killed in

these everyday skirmishes. In October 2013 nine people were shot, and two killed,

when the municipality in Durban sent out its security guards to disconnect people

from electricity in a suburban shack settlement. When the law, and the ways that it is

enforced, assume that we all have money – and criminalise attempts to make a life

amid impoverishment – rule by violence is inevitable. So too, in the end, are violent

responses to violent forms of rule.

But political violence is not solely a matter of what the police and other armed forces

available to the state do to impoverished people as an everyday practice. It’s also a

matter of political repression. When leading people in the African National Congress

(ANC) continue to make sense of the world via the categories developed during the

armed struggle the party is conflated with the nation and dissent, including popular

and democratic forms of dissent, with betrayal or conspiracy. Students, miners and

squatters have all been read as agents of malicious and illicit conspiracies, often

imagined as foreign, and subject to violent repression. This will not stop until the

ANC accepts that the nation exceeds the party and that people have a right to

organise independently and to take positions and make alliances of their own

choosing.

The police kill protestors all over the country and vulnerable groups like prisoners,

sex workers, street traders and squatters are ruled with violence all over the country.

But while the most egregious single incident of rule by violence was, of course, the

massacre of striking workers at Marikana near Rustenburg in 2012 the problem of

political violence is particularly acute in the province of KwaZulu-Natal. It is usually

assumed that this is rooted in the militarisation of politics in this part of the country

during the last years of apartheid.

One aspect of the endemic political violence in this part of the country is that police

killings happen at a significantly higher rate here than anywhere else. These killings

are largely directed at people deemed to be criminal. The political dimensions of this

exceed the evident fact that when trying to make a life as an impoverished person is

read as criminal the line between criminality and impoverishment often becomes

blurred. The distinction between the criminal and the political also becomes blurred

when political dissent is, in practice, deemed to be illegitimate.

There have been many cases in which the police have killed unarmed protestors in

towns and cities across KwaZulu-Natal. These killings usually receive very little

attention in elite publics. It’s not unusual for news reports to not even deem it

necessary to note the name of a person that has been killed by the police on a

protest. It’s usually only when the people killed by the police are in or linked to a

struggle with some access to the media that these events are received with as

worthy of elite attention.

The first of these cases was in 2000 when the police killed Michael Makabane, a

student at the then University of Durban-Westville. Another police murder in the

same city that received some media attention was that of Monica Ngcobo in 2006.

She was 22 when she was shot dead as she passed a protest on her way to work. In

2013 the police murdered Nqobile Nzuza. She was shot while participating in a road

blockade organised in defence of a land occupation close to the main campus of the

university in Durban. She was 17.

But it is political assassinations that are a particular feature of political life in

KwaZulu-Natal. It has been estimated that up to 90% of all political killings since the

end of apartheid have happened in this province. In 2013 David Bruce published an

academic paper that recorded 450 political murders in KwaZulu-Natal. They do occur

in some other provinces, most notably the North West and Mpumalanga, but are,

Bruce showed, overwhelmingly concentrated in KwaZulu-Natal.

The political killings in this province are often related to rivalries within the ruling

party. These rivalries can be solely a matter of power and patronage. But they can

also be related to broader political divisions within the ruling party and its alliance

partners. In August last year three leaders in the metal workers’ union, Njabulo

Ndebele, Sibonelo “John-John” Ntuli and Ntobeko Maphumulo were murdered in

Isithebe, not far from Durban. In January this year two members of the South African

Communist Party (SACP), Bongani Hlatshwayo and Phillip Dlamini, were murdered

in Inchanga, also close to Durban.

There have also been a number of assassinations in Durban that have targeted of

people organizing independently of the ruling party and its allies. In 2006

Sinethemba Myeni and Mazwi ‘Komi’ Zulu, both former SACP members, were killed

in Umlazi, after supporting an independent candidate in the local government

elections that year. Thembinkosi Qumbelo, an activist who had worked in Cato Crest

with a number of organisations, was assassinated in 2013. Nkululeko Gwala, also

from Cato Crest and a member of the squatters’ movement Abahlali baseMjondolo

was assassinated in the same year. Thuli Ndlovu, the chairperson of the Abahlali

baseMjondolo branch in KwaNdengezi, was assassinated the following year. A few

weeks later Mobeni Khwela, an SACP activist, was also assassinated in

KwaNdengezi.

On Friday last week two ANC councilors, Mduduzi Ngcobo and Velile Lutsheku,

along with their hitman Mlungisi Ndlovu, were found guilty of the murder of Thuli

Ndlovu. They were given life sentences. There is often impunity for political killings

and convictions are important bulwarks against this impunity. In this case a proper

investigation, resulting in a conviction, was possible because of sustained

organisation and struggle in KwaNdengezi by both Abahlali baseMjondolo and the

SACP, often working together in a tactical alliance against repression, and because

senior politicians with SACP links were willing to intervene after the murder of

Khwela.

In 1956, in an altogether less optimistic poem, Césaire wrote that “When the world

shall be a tower of silence . . .we shall be the prey and the vulture”. This has all too

often been the fate of the postcolony. What Abahlali baseMjondolo have called ‘the

politic of blood’ – a phenomenon that includes the mobilization of xenophobic and

ethnic violence – is not solely the responsibility of the state and the ruling party. The

tower of silence welcomes the full range of elites into its isolation from the rest of

society.

Much of the media, civil society (frequently understood as NGOs), the academy, and

many religious formations too, have operated on the basis that democracy is doing

fine for as long as the safety and freedoms of elites are secure. It is often implicitly

assumed that politics is, or should be, an engagement between elites. The general

lack of regard within elite society for the lives of people who are poor and black has

enabled political violence to fester in the zones of domination and exclusion and to

entrench itself deep within in the circuits of patronage that flow from the state.

In Discourse on Colonialism, his famous anti-colonial pamphlet first published in

1950 Césaire shows that in the colonial imagination the category of the human, or

the fully human, is reserved for people rendered as white. After confronting the

reader with a gathering flood of images of colonial degradation and abuse he offers

an equation: “colonization = ‘thingification’ ”. If we take this seriously a genuinely

anti-colonial politics must recover the human, not as another abstraction, but as a

concrete point of departure for political discourse and practice. “A prospect”, Frantz

Fanon insisted in his exploration of the crisis of the post-colony, “is human because

conscious and sovereign persons dwell within”.

South Africa will not be able to step off the path that we are on, a path that winds into

ever tighter circles of violence, if we don’t find a way to affirm, in principle and in

practice, that democracy must mean that everyone counts and that everyone has the

same right to intervene in the political. Every political murder must be understood as

crisis. The justice won for Thuli Ndlovu must be extended to everyone else cut down

in the increasingly bloody underside of our democracy.

Dr. Richard Pithouse teaches politics at Rhodes University in South Africa.

http://www.counterpunch.org/2016/05/26/we-shall-be-the-prey-and-the-vulture/