I was watching eNCA's Checkpoint last night. A program on Coligny.
A couple of things struck me and made
me realize that it is late in the day for this country. It is a quarter to midnight, and time is running out...
An elderly black gentleman was interviewed. He has a couple of cattle, it
was said he was a farmer. I am not sure if he has his own farm or just let his
cattle graze wherever he sees a piece of grass.
Anyway, what he said is worrying. He said the white people of Coligny were
attacked, NOT because they are guilty of something themselves. They were
attacked “because they are guilty by association."
He was referring to the two white men who are accused of killing a 16-year-old
boy, although the two white men said that he jumped off a moving bakkie. Therefore,
in his mind, he apparently believes and
is convinced that you can attack all people in the town, just because of the
perceived crimes of two white men, although they certainly have the right to be
presumed innocent until proven guilty.
He did not say if the Indian townspeople, and Bangladeshi and other foreign
nationals whose property have also been destroyed are also guilty by
association.
The local farmer who employed the two white men has to be guarded by SAPS
now, around the clock.
The elderly black gentleman said that as soon as the SAPS leave, the farmer
will be attacked, and said the old black gentleman;
the farmer's land “must be given for us to farm.”
Now here something is clear to me. Some party is planting ideas in those
African people's heads. I only have two suspect parties in this regard, and one
is Julius Malema and his red berets. We know the EFF is active in Coligny, and we are aware Malema has said on numerous occasions
that land should be invaded. In fact, he has court cases running against him in
that regard.
The local Zancster party has run the municipality
into the ground and was facing service
delivery protests, and so it would be very convenient for them to deflect
attention away from themselves and start blaming whites.
Then I want to know if one farm is
occupied, where it all will end. Certainly, it will spread like wildfire.
Who will be in charge on these farms? Will it be a free for all? Will it be
collective farms? Will these farms be divided into a little block for everyone,
like communal land in tribal areas?
Will it be like a situation straight
out of the book Animal Farm by George Orwell, where the “oppressor” has been
removed, and now the “oppressed “are all equal?
However, where a few leaders will step forward on the farm and say:
Comrades, we are all equal, but we need leaders, so some of us will just be a
little bit more equal than you.
We need to wake up fast, and realize that all of us have to do whatever we
can to remove the klepto/ fascist Zuptacabal, as soon as possible- that cabal is
poisoning and infecting the body politic, the collective
national discourse.
We need to get the looters out so that
more money can become available so that we can get more people like that
elderly black gentleman settled legally on his own piece of land.
Do whatever you can. Join civil society groups like Save SA, OUTA,
Afriforum, Helen Suzman Foundation. Try
to become active citizens in your communities, join groups, and become
politically active.
Children pump water at communal tap in Durban, South Africa. The country is facing a mounting water infrastructure challenge. REUTERS/Rogan Ward
A lot of what is being presented as radical economic transformation initiatives in South Africa is simply state capture by a corrupt elite. The water sector provides a lens through which this issue can be viewed in a very practical way. The consequences will be dire if the situation is not addressed.
The minister of water affairs and sanitation Nomvula Mokonyane, stands at the centre of the unfolding tragedy. Billions of rands are at stake in a story that threatens the lives and livelihoods of all water users.
So, are the controversial activities of some political leaders ensuring that water comes out of the taps in rural villages? Have their decisions contributed to the security of the water supplies that are needed to keep industries working and the economy of the country growing? Is the country making the right investments in its water future? Is there value for money? Is the right infrastructure being built, in the right place, and is it built properly?
At the most basic level, the number of people whose taps no longer provide a reliable water supply grew by almost 2 million between 2011 to 2015. This is a problem particularly in rural areas but it is spreading to urban areas as well. In Mangaung, one of South Africa’s eight metropoles, 70% of people questioned, reported water cuts that lasted more than two days in 2015. In most cases, it has been shown that the problem is bad management not a shortage of water.
At the other end of the scale, the picture is no better. Expansion of the biggest and most important water supply scheme in the country, the Vaal River System, is more than five years late.
Destructive political intervention
The effective functioning of the Vaal system underpins a large part of the country’s economy and around 35% of the population. Its failure would have disastrous consequences for lives and livelihoods and every year’s delay costs at least R500 million.
The main reason for the latest delay is that Mokonyane has spent two years changing the rules and governance of the project. Her stated reasons for doing this include that the changes were part of government’s economic transformation agenda to ensure that a broader array of companies could compete for contracts.
To push through this position, she fired Dr Zodwa Dlamini, South Africa’s chief delegate in charge of a daily project oversight in Lesotho. She replaced Dlamini with a lawyer with no engineering or water knowledge.
Then she cancelled a tender that had already been closed after reportedly meeting with officials of the company that was excluded because it did not have the required expertise.
More scandals
In between the township tap and the big dams of Lesotho, there are many more sad stories. Newspaper reports tell of huge contracts given to political friends – R4 billion in Limpopo Province alone. There are many question marks over their performance and Limpopo remains one of the worst performing provinces with 60% of its households suffering long interruptions in supply in 2015.
In October Mokonyane’s department took out full page advertisements boasting that the Auditor General had given them a “clean audit”. But then in November the Auditor General highlighted the department as one of the worst offenders for billions of rands of irregular expenditure.
Mokonyane then claimed that the irregularities were due to drought despite the fact that they occurred after three years of normal to above average rainfall in the province concerned.
Meanwhile, officials in the national government and water professionals have been horrified to learn that, in the Free State, the minister and mayor of Mangaung are pushing ahead with proposals to build a R2 billion pipeline to bring more water to the city from the Gariep Dam on the Orange River. Technical studies –- carried out by the Mokonyane’s department – show that this is three times more expensive than other alternatives that could meet the city’s needs for the next 20 years. If this project goes ahead, it will reduce funds for water provision in the province by more than a R1 billion.
Radical transformation
Mokonyane has justified her actions on the grounds that she is promoting radical economic transformation. But what does that mean and is it true?
In 2015 the handover report of the first National Planning Commission said that radical change was necessary to end poverty and inequality and ensure a prosperous South Africa.
The commission spoke of the need to move away from narrow black economic empowerment benefiting only a few people to more broad-based approaches. The shift emphasised supporting people engaged in productive activities rather than just middlemen. It pointed out that new economic tools would be needed to achieve this. Conventional economic policies would need to be interrogated and support, such as long-term low-income loans, would need to be provided.
It is important to consider decisions that are being taken today and ask whether they are moving the country in this direction.
My contention is that, based on what’s happening in the water sector, they are not. When companies without capabilities are appointed to do jobs, they have two choices. They can appoint others to do the work for them, the traditional middleman approach. Or they will try to do the job themselves, resulting in delays and cost overruns.
Take a large project like the Polihali Dam and tunnels for Lesotho Highlands Phase 2. This is no small job.
The Polihali dam will be 169 metres high, almost as tall as one of Johannesburg’s tallest buildings, the Ponte City. The tunnel, big enough to drive a double decker bus down, will be over 30 kms long. So choosing inexperienced contractors could result in disastrous delays and cost overruns.
If decisions taken in the name of radical transformation put the water supplies to major centres at risk of interruption, economic activity will stagnate or move elsewhere. With it will go the jobs and opportunities to engage more people in the economy. Already, many South African corporations are worrying about the water security of their operations in places like Gauteng.
Playing into the pockets of the elite
When money is wasted there will simply be less available to provide services to those who do not yet have them. This will in turn reduce demand for the basic goods and services in house building and construction that should be part of any radical economic transformation.
Mokonyane faces mounting criticism for her handling of water matters. Her department has reportedly been the subject of investigations by the public protector and the police’s Special Investigating Unit. In response she has appointed her own task team led by a lawyer to investigate. Whether its work will be independent is highly questionable.
The view through the lens of water is thus clear. The shenanigans in the water sector have little to do with radical economic transformation. They are more about the ongoing enrichment of a new elite.
Energy Minister Mmamoloko Nkhensani Kubayi ® being sworn in. EPA
Nuclear energy in South Africa is a highly contested issue; so much so that a court recently ruled against the government’s plans to issue a contract for the construction of eight new nuclear power stations.
The ruling appeared to have delivered a significant blow to President Jacob Zuma, and those who support him, who had set their sights on immediate nuclear expansion. The court’s decision was met with jubilation by those opposing the nuclear plan.
The expectation was that the government would appeal the decision. It didn’t, but this shouldn’t be read as a shift in its thinking.
Minister of Energy Nkhensani Kubayi made it clear after the court ruling that, while there would be no appeal, the government remained fully committed to nuclear expansion, and was planning to initiate a new process without delay.
This signals a realisation by government that an appeal would have little chance of success, and that a lengthy court process would tie up the parties in legal cases for months or even years. This would delay a nuclear build even further.
The minister has made it clear that the government is not giving up on its push for the controversial nuclear plan. But it has realised the process must start from scratch. This is the clearest indication yet that Zuma intends launching the nuclear build before his term of office ends in 2019.
Adding to fears that the government isn’t giving up the fight was the surprise reinstatement of Brian Molefe as CEO of the country’s power utility Eskom. Molefe left the job under a cloud six months ago. His reappointment led to immediate and widespread public outrage. Many have interpreted his return as beefing up the quest for nuclear.
Molefe’s return, however, isn’t as critical to the nuclear project as imagined, as Eskom has maintained his pro-nuclear stance in his absence.
What’s more important is that it’s clear that contestation around the future of South Africa’s energy sector will continue unabated. This despite the president having been severely weakened in recent months, and with it the power of the pro-nuclear lobby supported by his faction.
What the court ruled
The High Court decided that three international intergovernmental nuclear agreements and two ministerial proclamations to kick start the establishment of new nuclear power plants were unconstitutional and illegal.
The order nullified an agreement in which South Africa had committed to appointing Russian agency Rosatom to build new nuclear plants. The agreement had allocated the build to Rosatom without costs being established or a competitive tender process.
The court also negated the government’s decision to delegate nuclear power procurement to Eskom and ruled that the country’s energy regulator was compelled to engage in meaningful public consultation before any major development can proceed.
By saying that it will restart the process from scratch, the government came to the obvious conclusion that it could only achieve its objective without the double albatross of the Russian agreement and the short circuiting of consultative processes hanging around their head.
Nuclear isn’t needed, but remains in play
The drive to develop 9.6 GW of new nuclear energy generating capacity is the result of a governmental Integrated Resource Plan for electricity drafted in 2010. But the plan is now completely outdated. It overestimated electricity demand growth, and did not anticipate the dramatic drop in the cost of renewable energy technology, particularly solar photovoltaics.
The latest draft, published in 2016, does not foresee any need for nuclear for the next 20 years. Studies have also shown that a larger renewable energy investment is more feasible in South Africa than was previously thought.
Nuclear’s main drawback is the excessively high costs. It has been widely argued that this technology is unaffordable.
So why the inexplicable urgency to drive this highly expensive programme?
One answer is that it shows there’s massive outside pressure influencing the push. The influence over the president enjoyed by politically connected business people, in particular the Gupta family, suggests that local oligarchs might be manipulating the president.
It is, however, probable that the dominant source of the pressure on the president are Russian interests, in particular President Vladimir Putin. There is no proof, only speculation, about the high degree of influence the Kremlin has over the South African head of state. What is known is that Zuma endorsed the nuclear agreement concluded without due process with Russia in 2014 after a private meeting with Putin in Moscow.
What is likely to happen next
In line with the ministerial announcement, expectations are that new intergovernmental nuclear cooperation agreements will be concluded and tabled in parliament before the end of this year. The Russian agreement is likely to be aligned with agreements that have been signed with France, China, South Korea and the US, removing all specifics that afford Rosatom an advantage. Despite this, perceptions will remain that the Russians have been promised the nuclear build.
Even so, and despite the president’s current efforts, new nuclear power plant developments remain improbable in the next decade. This is because the publication of the final energy plan document – expected in the coming months – and any adjustments to the draft in favour of nuclear are likely to be vigorously challenged in the now mandatory consultative process. This will make it almost impossible to initiate a nuclear build before 2019.
The political terrain will become even trickier after that as the country will go to the polls in a general election in 2019. The ruling party won’t be able to afford being associated with a controversial nuclear agenda during an election year.
By Joseph Chirume
16 May 2017 Protesters blocked roads in Motherwell on the weekend after a prolonged electricity failure. Photo: Joseph Chirume.
Protests in Motherwell, Port Elizabeth, turned violent on
Saturday after residents were left without electricity from Friday.
Electricity was restored on Sunday. A vehicle was torched and all major
roads into the township blocked with burning tyres and debris. Five cars
were badly damaged.
Nelson Mandela Bay Metropolitan Municipality spokesperson Mthubanzi
Mniki said, “Over the weekend it was a cable fault that led to the
blackout. Fixing it took time.”
On Monday, residents were again without electricity for two hours
after a circuit breaker at Motherwell South substation tripped,
according to Mniki.
Police spokesperson Andre Beegte said a case of public violence had been opened but there had been no arrests.
During the protests, a young boy, holding stones in both his hands,
said, “This place will soon be ungovernable … We will only open this
road when electricity is restored. No car will pass this area or we will
burn both the driver and their car.”
Thoko Amanzi, a mother of two who works as a mechanic in Uitenhage,
said, “The residents are justified to protest, but I don’t condone the
destroying of property. It is very expensive to buy a car only to see it
being burned to ashes by an angry mob that has issues with their
municipality. I don’t support this violent behaviour. We should only
protest peacefully.”
She said, “We were caught unaware by this blackout. I had stashed my
deep fridge with food stuff to last the entire month. I have had to
throw away the food to dogs because it was smelling badly … Where will I
get money to replace that food? I only get paid at the end of the month
and there are two weeks remaining.”
She said she was hoping to join other residents to seek compensation from the municipality.
Residents scrambled to buy candles and paraffin at spaza shops. Bread and milk also soon vanished from shelves.
Mohammed Musa, who owns a spaza shop in NU8, said, “We quickly ran
out of stock. Residents were buying in panic. Bread, candles, matches as
well as paraffin quickly sold out. We also sold a lot of drinks and
tinned food as some residents did not have time to cook on their own.
The situation reminded me of a war zone where people buy in bulk to
stockpile food.”
Musa said they could not restock their shelves because “we were
afraid that our vehicles would be stoned. So we ended up turning away
hungry customers. By Sunday morning, I had run out of food stuffs.”
Published originally on
GroundUp
.
By Ihsaan Haffejee
9 May 2017 A resident tries to calm the situation in Eldorado Park
on Monday, but without any success as the violence escalated. All
photos: Ihsaan Haffejee
Residents from Eldorado Park and Freedom Park
protested over the lack of housing and jobs on Monday. The protest
turned violent; residents and police had running battles along the
Golden Highway which runs through both suburbs.
Shaun Jacobs a young protester explained what set off
the protests: “There’s no development in this area. There is no future
for the youth here. Why do you think so many people from here get
involved in selling drugs and stealing? It’s because there are no
opportunities.”
Protesters broke a road sign and used it as a shield against police.
Earlier residents blockaded the Golden Highway as well
as the N12 and N1 highways which led to traffic congestion for people
leaving the southern suburbs on their way to work. Police managed to
unblock the highways but the Golden Highway remained shut to traffic
well into the late afternoon. In the morning commuters were seen making
u-turns and heading home as all exits out of the suburbs were blocked.
Police opened fire with rubber bullets and tear gas.
Protesters from the two suburbs joined forces as they
attempted to push police back. They were armed themselves with stones
and petrol bombs. Police retaliated by firing rubber bullets and teargas
into the crowd. A few tear gas canisters landed in houses causing panic
among the people living in them. Members of the South African Police
Service (SAPS) flying squad also entered the fray when reports of the
looting of a nearby Shoprite surfaced. The SAPS flying squad members
charged the crowd armed with live ammunition, with a few rounds being
fired into the air. A commanding officer withdrew the flying squad
members and opted instead to utilise members of the Public Order Police
who are trained for crowd control.
Protesters and police had running battles.Residents used shields to protect themselves from rubber bullets and teargas cannisters, and they threw stones at police.
Elija Williams said that the pleas of the communities
were ignored by government. He accused politicians of only visiting the
area when votes are needed to win elections. “My grandmother died living
in a shack. I’m most probably going to die living in a shack. I don’t
want my child to also have to live their entire life in a shack with no
electricity,” said Williams.
Some schools in the area had to close and learners were
sent home due to the escalating violence. Some learners cried on the
side of the road crying after inhaling teargas fired by the police.
Some learners were overcome with teargas.
Residents vowed to continue to protest until Gauteng
Human Settlement MEC Paul Mashatile came to the area to listen to their
grievances. Protesters vented their frustrations at both local and
national government with some calling for the resignation of
Johannesburg Mayor Herman Mashaba while other could be heard chanting
“Zuma must fall”. Later in the afternoon Gauteng MEC for Community
Safety Sizakele Nkosi-Malobane visited the area calling for calm to be
restored. She confirmed that the Shoprite, Spar and BP garage were
looted and that twelve people were arrested.
