Politics.za

Funding a political party in South Africa is an expensive business. It’s estimated the ANC spent R100 million alone in the last national elections which is much much more than the amount the ANC earns from it’s members, who pay R12 a year in membership dues. We know political parties receive funding from other sources particularly massive donations, such as the R25 million given to the ANC (and R500 000 to the DA) by Brett Kebble. Because SA has no laws requiring political parties to disclose their funding, which both the ANC and DA prefer for differing reasons, we have no real idea of exactly who is secretly buying favour.

Which is why the $2 billion deal between SA’s Chancellor House and Russia’s Azot to build a new fertiliser plant in SA stinks to high heaven and it’s definitely not due to the fertiliser. Chancellor House was originally uncovered as an ANC fundraising front by the Mail & Guardian and the Financial Mail covered them in January and found them to be a particularly shady one at that. Even ANC Secretary General Kgalema Motlanthe was unaware of their presence but later admitted to it’s role as an “ANC vehicle”.

Now this deal stinks because it the first deal to emerge from the newly established SA-Russia Business Council and coincidentally this deal involves a company that does not only have close ties to the ANC, it is for all intents and purposes the ANC itself. ANC PR spokesman Smuts Ngonyama has denied that there is anything suspicious about the deal and claims that Chancellor House has nothing to do with the ANC despite Motlanthe’s earlier admission about Chancellor House.

Reports are coming out of Zimbabwe that opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai is in rough shape in a jail cell after receiving a rather thorough beating at the hands of Mugabe’s finest.

With his imprisonment, along with about 100 others, and the subsequent ban on demonstrations by the Mugabe government the MDC seems to be once again a more united opposition front, following a few years of infighting.

If the reports about Tvangirai are true I wonder what our government’s response will be considering our own past with police brutality.

Western Cape Transport and Public Works MEC Marius Fransman has proposed a moratorium on employment equity in order to lure back skilled white expats to the Western Cape. While I’m sure many will applaud this proposal the fact is that it’s not going to work.

Most skilled South Africans who leave don’t do it because of employment equity, they do so either to earn more money, for better employment opportunities in their field or for travel. The growing number of black South Africans seeking work opportunities out of the country is a testament to the lure of working overseas. Other countries, especially Commonwealth countries, face the same difficulty of losing skilled workers to London and Europe. There are probably as many Australians as South Africans in the UK but I don’t think they left Australia due to employment equity back home.

Finance Minister Trevor Manuel on Thursday poured cold water on calls for a change to affirmative action and the country’s employment equity law.

However he does admit that current law is not being implemented correctly

It is there. In its practice it frequently is very poorly used. It is sadly abused, but it is there and the intent of the Act is abundantly clear.

China is pursuing a mutually beneficial relationship with Africa, in contrast to the West’s colonial exploitation of the continent

It’s tough to take that at face value when cheap Chinese imports made with near slave labour has already put at a minimum 40 000 South African textile workers out of job.

Let’s be clear here. If China could they would strip mine Africa bare. Every country on this planet makes sure their own interests are taken care of first and in China’s case it’s interests are getting cheap resources so they can continue to produce cheap goods and then sell them back to us.

Chinese Premier Hu Jintao has arrived in South Africa for a two day state visit. I was expecting COSATU to be a bit more vocal about his visit considering that China is responsible for putting countless of it’s members out of a job, over 40 000 in the Western Cape textile industry alone, but I guess for the sake of tri-partite unity they are keeping shtum. One thing Mbeki doesn’t need right now is another uproar hot on the heels of the German corruption investigation and FNB ad pulling fracas.

Despite repeated claims by government that the arms deal was “not affected by any corruption”, the German government has now asked the National Prosecuting Authority for assistance in their own investigation. That kind of adds a bit more weight to the accusations. Independent Democrat leader Patricia De Lille is also getting back to her old corruption busting roots that everyone initially loved her for, as opposed to her suicidal political strategies in the Cape Town local government, by personally going to both Germany and the UK to meet with investigators there.

The German investigation is focusing on Chippy Shaik (brother of already convicted bribery middle man Schabir Shaik, fancy that) and his alleged $3 million bribe he solicited from German firm ThyssenKrupp, who were awarded the contract to build the SA Navy’s Valour class frigates. At the time Chippy was the head of aquisitions for the arms deal so of course he would be the guy to bribe if you had to, not to mention the guy to throw a few juicy contracts his brothers way. The eye opening thing to me was that up until 1999 bribery wasn’t even illegal in Germany, you just filed it under ‘other expenses’ on your balance sheet.

To me it seems the pressure is building on Thabo Mbeki at an increasing rate. It’s one thing to brush off accusations of bribery from the “jealous opposition”, it’s a lot harder when the governments of Germany and the UK start making the same rumbling noises. This coupled with the whole FNB pulled ad fiasco is going to make the upcoming State of the Nation address very interesting.

This administration’s foreign policy is becoming more of a mystery to me. Following the puzzling no vote at the UN over the resolution against Myanmar SA has now declined to send any peacekeeping troops to Somalia.

After the formation of the African Union there was much ballyhoo about finding African solutions to African problems, especially an African peace keeping force to be deployed in the various hotspots that dot the continent. South Africa, having the most sophisticated military force in Africa and being the leading proponent of an “African Renaissance”, is expected to provide a significant contribution towards any peace keeping activities and to that affect we already have troops in Burundi and the Congo.

Defence Minister Mosiuoa Lekota decided it would be best to explore other options. If the Ethiopian soldiers, who helped the interim Somali government defeat the Islamist rebels, are not replaced when they withdraw the country might implode into war again.

South Africa is losing valuable opportunities to secure foreign investment because of its close political ties with the rest of Africa.

By all sane accounts South Africa’s ‘quiet diplomacy’ strategy with Zimbabwe has been a complete failure. The country continues it’s economic death spiral sending masses of refugees across the border, Bob Mugabe seems intent to ride the entire thing to the bottom and nary a peep out of Mbeki or Foreign Minister Dlamini-Zuma.

So why they continue to think it’s the best weapon in their foreign affair arsenal is baffling and at the same time infuriating as witnessed in our teaming up with China and Russia in voting against a security council resolution that condemns Myanmar (incorrectly referred to as Burma in the linked article) for it’s continued human rights abuses.

If South Africa wants to be seen as a champion of human rights then at some point they will have to actually champion human rights.

Embassies are considered to be sovereign territory, so I wonder if the sustained criminal assaults on embassies and consulates in Pretoria might be heading to the UN security council soon?

Thabo Mbeki might be having a terrible year at home but he can still point to his role as elder African stateman helping to mediate in conflicts across the continent. However it seems his efforts there might not be welcome any more opposition rebels in Coite D’Ivoire consider Mbeki to be biased against them. Dude’s not having a good year.