Julius Malema pulls tender strings

Aug 05 2011

Julius Malema is doling out state tenders to his pals through a company that is part-owned by his family trust.
The Ratanang Family Trust, founded by Malema, the ANC Youth League leader, holds shares in On-Point Engineering, which administers a large part of the multibillion-rand budget of Limpopo's roads and transport department.

This means that Malema has at least indirect influence over who is awarded tenders from a three-year budget allocation of reportedly R4.6-billion -- although he, On-Point and the department deny it.

In 2009, the department set up a programme management unit (PMU) to take over many of the department's functions in planning, contracting for and overseeing road works.

In a twist at odds with Malema's stance on nationalisation, it outsourced the running of the unit to On-Point for three years at a fee of R52-million.

Since then, companies linked to Malema, his business partner in On-Point, Lesiba Gwangwa, and his friend and political ally, Limpopo premier Cassel Mathale, have shared in some of the contracts administered by the unit.
While there is no evidence of bribery, these revelations come in the wake of City Press allegations about a businessman who allegedly paid a tender kickback into the Ratanang Family Trust. Malema has flatly denied taking kickbacks.

Anatomy of a scam?
On-Point, which is headed by Gwangwa, is a sister company of SGL, which started out as Segwalo Consulting Engineers in 2002. Segwalo Consulting, SGL and On-Point overlap -- they have used the same address and telephone numbers in Polokwane, and Gwangwa has been a director or member of each of the entities over the years.

Malema was a director of SGL in 2009 and 2010, but resigned around the time the public protector investigated the company to see if he had unduly influenced the many tenders awarded to it.
While the public protector, Thuli Madonsela, found no evidence that he had manipulated the tender process, she reported that much of the required paper trail could not be found.
Malema's association with the SGL surfaced again this year when his opponents bemoaned what they called the "SGL-isation" of politics when they tried to prevent him from getting a second term as the head of the youth league.

Although he continues to deny any involvement with SGL he now admits he is a shareholder in On-Point through the trust, but he refuses to disclose the value of the shareholding and denies any involvement in company operations.

However, the following web of tenders, exposed in the PMU's records in the Mail & Guardian's possession, raises a number of questions:

• Late last year, Segwalo Consulting, which was then headed by Gwangwa but which has since been deregistered, was appointed as consultant on a road maintenance contract worth R5.2-million administered by the PMU.
  
  Gwangwa denies any wrong-doing. Speaking through his lawyer, Mpoyana Ledwaba (who also administers Malema's family trust), he said: "We are made to believe that the contract was awarded during 2008 by the Roads Agency of Limpopo, but was later transferred with many others to [the roads and transport department]" -- when the PMU came into effect. Gwangwa said the conflict of interest was then flagged "in writing".
• Another of On-Point's directors, Arthur Mpotseng Phetla, who is listed as the sole owner of Mpotseng Infrastructure, was awarded six tenders towards the end of 2010 with a total value of R5.2-million.
  
  But Phetla claimed he was never a director of Gwangwa's firm. "I don’t know how my name appeared there," he said. "I was never a director of On-Point, neither then or now."
• A Malema family member has also benefited. Earlier this year his younger cousin, Tshepo Malema, was paid just over R1-million to fix potholes in a local road. The younger Malema said that, although it was true, the PMU did not award the contract.
Malema's friend Tebadi Collins Foromo was paid R917 000 about the same time as Tshepo Malema and also for fixing potholes. Although he confirmed this, he denied he was a friend of Malema's and denied allegations that until recently he was Malema's Polokwane driver. "He's my leader. He's not my friend. And if they thought I used to drive him in 2004, 2005 and 2006, it's because I had a car," he said.
• Mathale also appears to be just a step away from the PMU's tendering process. Helen Moreroa is reportedly the romantic partner of Selby Manthata, who Mathale said in an interview earlier this year was his business partner. Moreroa is also the business partner of Mokgadi Kgohloane, the premier's wife, in a string of companies.
  
  A company Moreroa owns, Oceansite Trading, won a R6.2-million tender for roads maintenance last year. There is no evidence to suggest that she is a player in the construction industry. Rather, local business people say she is both politically connected and a "friend" of On-Point.
  
  Again, Gwangwa denied any "conflict of interest" or knowledge of a relationship with Oceansite that would lead to one.
  
  Moreroa refused to respond to questions of a possible conflict and Mathale also distanced himself from any such suggestion. The premier's spokesperson said: "If people do business, it is not the premier's business."
  
  His wife could not be reached. Manthata also went to ground.
• Manthata's company, Selby Construction, has been awarded at least two tenders: one for R7.7-million, the other for R11.7-million. The first was awarded on May 17 2010, the same day Oceansite won its bid.

It appears that On-Point is effectively doling out deals to friends and allies through the PMU. According to insiders, some of the tender adjudication meetings take place at The Ranch hotel on the outskirts of Polokwane, and Gwangwa, or other representatives of the PMU, frequently attend.

Gwanga was adamant that he had "no authority" to award tenders -- which was echoed by the provincial minister for roads and transport, Pinky Kekana. She said that was not the case, -- "our procurement processes are watertight" -- and, if any representative of the PMU attended those meetings, it was only to "render technical support".

Deconstructing RAL
Until 2009 the bulk of the work that is carried out today by the PMU was done by the Roads Agency of Limpopo (RAL).

According to industry leaders, the parastatal performed well and was widely regarded as efficient, though its critics say they favoured only a handful of companies.

Soon after Mathale's administration was sworn in half way through that year, the parastatal came under the whip of the roads and transport department -- a significant chunk of the agency's budget and some of its core functions were transferred to the department, Pricewaterhouse Coopers was called in to investigate allegations of corruption (as yet unproven), and the PMU was established.

The tender to administer the unit was advertised in September 2009, the same month On-Point was created as a company in its current form and just days before bids were due to be submitted.

Gwangwa was appointed to the company's board on September 16, an address was registered on the 24th, the company was named on the 25th and bids were due to be submitted on October 1.

In the following weeks the contract was awarded to On-Point, which by then, was only weeks old and with no track record, despite the terms of reference stating that technical experience and capacity was "a minimum requirement" for a successful bid.

The winning team should have included "architects, quantity surveyors, civil engineers, structural engineers and project managers" with experience in "the design and construction of roads", which were among other requirements specified in the tender document.

Gwangwa's team was apparently lacking in capacity and, although he listed engineers among them, none had road experience.
Charles Kawanga was one of the engineers presented as an experienced and skilled engineer as part of On-Point's bid.

But he was a former director of SGL who had long since resigned. He later lodged a complaint with civil engineering authorities about the fact that his name was being improperly used by On-Point.
It is not clear why the On-Point team won the tender. There were 16 bidders and the M&G asked the department to reveal the shortlist. It agreed to do so but the list had not arrived before going to print.

"Yes, we are close to On-Point"

Julius Malema has admitted that he is behind On-Point Engineers, the firm that runs the programme management unit in Limpopo's roads and transport department.

"Yes, we are close to On-Point," he said. "We are shareholders as a family" through "the [Ratanang Family] Trust".

His words put an end to nearly two years of speculation about his links to the company, which has been associated with a string of government tenders.
But Malema insisted that he did not "participate actively" in the day-to-day running of On-Point and did not influence the tenders the company had won or was awarded.

"At On-Point I've never done that. I do not know what happens at On-Point. I just queue when the dividends are due." Then he quickly corrected this: "And not me, the trust does that."
The Ratanang Family Trust is named after Malema's son, who is its only named beneficiary.

Malema played his hand in an interview last week during research for an upcoming book about his life and his politics. He was aware that part of the interview could be published in the M&G.

The interview took place in the wake of an allegation in City Press newspaper that Malema had demanded that a businessman pay R200 000 to the trust as a kickback for a tender -- an allegation Malema denied.

Malema refused to reveal the extent of the trust's shareholding in On-Point or the amount the trust earns in dividends.

"I'm not going to tell you anything about that," he said. "I'm a participant. That is what is important." -- Fiona Forde

Fiona Forde is the author of the soon-to-be released An Inconvenient Youth: Julius Malema and the "new" ANC

Responses from the various interested parties

Julius Malema
The ANC Youth League president denied he was able to influence tender awards through the Ratanang Family Trust's shareholding in On-Point.

"You are talking to the wrong person. Being a shareholder does not mean we know what is going on in the company. I am not involved in the running of the company and I can't respond to what I don't know. I am just a shareholder … the trust is a shareholder."

Limpopo department of roads and transport

Spokesperson Thesan Moodley said: "We were not aware, nor were we interested [in Malema's interest in On-Point], as the information would have been irrelevant to the prescribed supply-chain management process."

Questioned about On-Point's competence at the time of the bid, he said: "Based on the evaluation criteria they were recommended for appointment, having met the requirements as contained in the tender or bid documents."

That On-Point was formed days before the bid was not a problem, he said: "It is not unusual for companies to establish vehicles to respond to opportunities as they arise."

Commenting on certain contracted companies' ties to Malema, Limpopo Premier Cassel Mathale and On-Point staff members Lesiba Gwangwa and Arthur Mpotseng Phetla, Moodley said: "[The programme management unit] only participates on invitation to render technical support during once-off evaluation processes convened in the context of a bid evaluation.

"[It] does not serve in the bid adjudication [committee] and therefore under no circumstances shall [the unit] award contracts on behalf of the [department]. Our procurement processes are watertight as they comprise several officials from different directorates and sometimes … external support.

"All committees are required in terms of the law to declare any possible or potential conflict of interest. If necessary, an appointed member has to recuse himself or herself from the process."

On the transfer of duties from the Roads Agency of Limpopo to the department at the time the unit was formed, Moodley said: "In fact, [the agency] remains with the huge responsibility of building or upgrading roads in the province. The department took the decision to consolidate the split maintenance functions to make it easier to manage them and also to build on unified support to the programme."

On-Point

On-Point's lawyer, Mpoyana Ledwaba, said that as a shareholder Malema did not participate in the company's day-to-day to activities. He was adamant that On-Point and the programme management unit did not "have any authority whatsoever to award tenders and has never awarded any tender".

But the terms of reference for the bid stated that On-Point's responsibilities would include "evaluating" and "selecting" successful bidders.

Ledwaba dismissed allegations that the company did not have the technical capacity for the contract at the time of the bid.

He said On-Point had partnered with "reputable institutions in preparation of [the] bid [and] both national and international partners in executing the project" and supplied a list of partners, including architects, engineers and IT experts. Apart from the civil engineers, it is unclear which of them were part of On-Point's bid in October 2009.

Ledwaba added: "Contrary to your views, the team has turned around a previously underperforming department, which is now able to meet and exceed its set targets."

Although company records indicate that On-Point was only activated from a differently named shelf company days before the bid, Ledwaba said it "was established long before the tender was advertised, to pursue various potential business opportunities".

http://mg.co.za/article/2011-08-05-how-julius-malema-pulls-tender-strings

SA loans billions to Mswati's kingdom

03 Aug 2011

2.5 billion rand to be exact

South Africa has agreed to a 2.5 billion rand ($368-million, 259-million-euro) loan to neighbouring Swaziland, which is suffering a crippling financial crisis, the Reserve Bank said Wednesday.

Spokesman Hlengani Mathebula confirmed the deal but declined to give details on the loan.

“The South African Reserve Bank is just a facilitating mechanism,” he said.

The loan amounts to just one-quarter of the request reportedly made by Swazi King Mswati III.

South Africa’s powerful labour unions, key allies of the ruling African National Congress, have joined Swazi activists in pressing for Pretoria to demand democratic reforms in exchange for the loan.

Mswati is Africa’s last absolute monarch and the financial crisis has sparked a series of demonstrations since April demanding reforms.

“We are thankful” to South Africa, Mswati said at a palace briefing late Tuesday.

“This shows that they are good neighbours.

“We hope that the financial assistance we have received will assist in alleviating the country from the fiscal problems,” he added, according to the independent daily Times of Swaziland.

The king sought to deflect accusations of financial mismanagement, saying Swaziland is “not the only country faced with fiscal crisis, but the world over”.

“But it must be stressed that this is not a gift but a loan, which naturally should be repaid.

“This is why every Swazi must play his or her role by working hard wherever he is to ensure that the country gets back to its feet the soonest,” he said, according to the royal-owned Observer newspaper.

• Swaziland has been battling to stay solvent after losing 60 percent of its revenues from a regional customs union, the government’s main source of income, last year.

The government froze public-sector salaries and asked unions to accept pay cuts, leading to mass protests that were violently put down by security forces.


http://www.sowetanlive.co.za/news/2011/08/03/sa-loans-billions-to-mswati-s-kingdom

The signs of the brewing South African Race-War

By Mike Smith
1st of August 2011

Matthew 24:32-35
32 “Now learn this parable from the fig tree: When its branch has already become tender and puts forth leaves, you know that summer is near. 33 So you also, when you see all these things, know that it is near—at the doors! 34...Bible-NKJV

There are certain things happening lately in South Africa that should be of great concern to its entire people.
For a long time now the ANC and its leaders like President Zuma and Julias Malema of the youth league have been singing songs about killing whites, such as “Kill the Boers; Kill the farmers” and “Bring me my machine gun”. They keep on trying to convince us that these are harmless struggle songs and part of their culture despite the court ruling that it is not only hate-speech, but also enticing violence and calling for genocide of the white people in South Africa.

Despite the ongoing violent crime in South Africa there is also the mass protest of ANC supporters against the ANC and the police. There are also strikes by taxi drivers cutting off all roads to major cities such as Cape Town, Johannesburg and Pretoria. How does one make sense of all of this?

These so called mass demo’s are training exercises for mass mobilization and the taxis blocking off the roads are part of it.

Remember that the ANC’s real soldiers are not the police and military. Their powers are limited as according to international law. Civilians on the other hand have a free run to do what they want, as it Rwanda.

It is called “People’s War”, originally founded by Mao Tze Tung and later perfected in Vietnam by general Vo Nguyen Giap. Recently Dr. Anthea Jeffrey wrote a book about how the ANC employed these techniques after visiting Vietnam in 1979 to learn from General Giap.

The use of civilian dressed women and children in attacks against real soldiers has several benefits. It basically gives them a free reign to do what they want, because if the soldiers strike back they will be acting against the Geneva Convention and the opposition will use every dead child and woman for propaganda purposes to recruit ten more.

The atrocities committed by such civilian dressed “Freedom Fighters” cannot be classed as military actions, but rather ordinary crime committed by rowdy civilian mobs.

During the 1980’s we have seen how these ANC civilian mobs killed thousands of blacks by the horrific necklace method.

In “People’s War” the role of the army and the police is to smooth the way for the civilian forces. They are to block escape routes, surround the enemy, but the actual killing will be done by so called civilians, that way nobody in the army or the government can later be held accountable for what civilian mobs have done.

Later on the police and army will claim that they tried to help and prevent the massacres that they aided in.
This same technique was used by the Israeli soldiers in 1982 at the Sabra and Shatilla refugee camps when they surrounded the refugee camps and the Lebanese Phalangists went in to rape and massacre the inhabitants.

When the ANC Youth League president Julias Malema travelled to Zimbabwe to personally learn from Mugabe how land evasions of white farms should be done, people started to pay attention.

Earlier this year he has started calling for the confiscating of white owned farms without compensation, whilst not a peep from his seniors in the ANC.

The same thing happened when he started calling for the nationalization of the mines. He traveled to Venezuela to learn this trick from Hugo Chavez.

The whole time people waited in vain for the ANC to discipline this out of control rambling idiot, because quietly the ANC supports him 100%. Now it has emerged that the ANC in North West as well as The ANC in Limpopo has now officially backed the ANC Youth League to nationalize mines and other sectors of the economy.

At the same time, 8000 members of the ANC Youth League and the Young Communist League will be trained at Saldanha and Bloemfontein (De Brug) military bases. The ANC denies that they will be receiving military training, instead they will be receiving training in “Life Skills”, “Artisanship”, “Patriotism” and “Discipline”…

This military training for the ANC youth has been planned from the very top of the ANC and it has the backing of the Minister Of Defense, Lindiwe Sisulu . These are the Mugabe Green Bombers all over again.

It is illegal to have private armies in South Africa and illegal for any political party to military train its members with taxpayer’s money.

As this is not enough, The ANC has allocated more funds to train the National Rural Youth Service Corps (NARYSEC).

The training starts with seven weeks basic training at a military base, Bloemfontein and is two years long (national service?). They are also paid R1320 a month…

“Besides the soft skills, NARYSEC recruits, who supposed to be from rural wards and minimum requirements is Grade 10, also receive hard skills training – for careers as bricklayers, electricians, plumbers, carpenters, roofers, welders, etc. Throughout the two years' intensive training, recruits get a stipend of R1 320 per month.” Government source

Training bricklayers, carpenters, electricians…? At a Military base…?

These youths will be deployed into wards in rural areas.

Excuse me, but this sounds a lot like Mao Tse Tung when he first proposed “People’s War”. He said that cells should be started in the country side from where the people soldiers would go out and carries out their terror campaign and forced recruiting. Eventually the cells would grow into each other and surround entire towns or cities which will then eventually fall to the people’s army. It was General Giap who also used this tactic in cities itself.

Now Julias Malema wants to send a team to neighboring Botswana to consolidate the opposition in order to topple the “puppet government” of President Ian Khama whom he sees as a puppet of the big “imperialist” mining bosses. Source

In an article in Times Live Malema said the "willing buyer, willing seller" concept had to be thrown out of the window.

"They [white people] must pay for making us slaves. We must punish them. And now they must pay. If we don't, we are paying them for calling us k*****s," he said. [Kaffirs]

"They must appreciate the fact that we have forgiven them, but must know we will never forget."

Apart from destabilizing the neighboring country and toppling it, it will serve two more purposes, namely provide a buffer against possible white refugees wanting to flee there and serve as a base for insurgents into South Africa.

It has also come to my attention that secret FEMA style military concentration camps identical to that in the USA are being erected in Kimberley South Africa all while The US marines are engaged in a large scale (biggest ever) military exercise together with the SA army

It seems as if we are in for some interesting times in South Africa.

 

 

http://mspoliticalcommentary.blogspot.com/2011/08/signs-of-brewing-south-african-race-war.html

The shocking Parallels between Mugabe’s ”NYS Green Bombers” and Zuma’s NARYSEC youth brigade

By Mike Smith
2nd of August 2011

Since 1994 when the Marxist Terrorist regime came to power in South Africa, the public were split on a certain issue, that of us becoming a second Zimbabwe.

There was always a tiny minority pointing out the obvious signs and parallels with what happened in Zimbabwe and on the other hand a vast majority saying that it would never happen in South Africa.

Today the question is not anymore if it can happen in South Africa, but how far are we away from it?

There will still be the deniers, making it off as scaremongering, sensationalism or conspiracy theories...

When the 140 km Berlin Wall was erected around West Berlin by the East German GDR it did not happen instantaneously. The inner German fence separating East from West Germany started in the 1950’s. On the 15th of June 1961 a reporter asked General Secretary Walter Ulbricht if the fence would run past the Brandenburg Gate. Ulbricht told him; “Nobody has the intention to build any wall”…A month and a half later the fence came up.

The first concrete blocks were put down four days later, but the wall was only completed much later.

The reason was to stop the defections and brain drain from East Germany to West Germany, but according to the Communist GDR it was an “Anti Fascists Protection Wall” that protected the poor East Germans from the evil fascist West… And some people believed this junk…

In the beginning many people could defect to the West across the main “Inner German Border”. In Berlin in 1961 it was only a barbed wire barricade that could easily be overrun by an angry mob. Yet people stayed. 17 million Germans would eventually be trapped in a Communist prison where all freedom would disappear in a secret police state run by the Stasi.

Every third person became a Stasi informer. The GDR was a real life hell-hole with no privacy, disappearances of thousands of people without a trace, restrictions on every conceivable freedom from the freedom to move around to the freedom to speak or even to think. Everybody just wanted to get away, but anybody trying to escape was summarily shot dead.

Why would the people stay and not try to escape, especially in the beginning when they could? It is a mindset I struggle to understand.

When the bricks were laid one on top of the other and people saw the wall get higher and higher, why did they not escape? When Ida Siekmann fell to her death trying to escape by jumping out of her apartment, when Günter Litfin was shot dead swimming across the Spree River to escape, why did the people not see the writing on the wall? Why do people seem to live in denial of evil even when it knocks them directly in the face?

In South Africa, despite thousands of white farmers killed since 1994 and many more whites raped, barbarically tortured and executed by blacks, many whites are still in denial that this is a murderous war and slow genocide waged on whites by blacks. Despite all the evidence rubbed under their noses and shoved in their faces, they simply refuse to believe the truth.

So how far are we from Zimbabwe style invasions of white farms by black paramilitary forces? Not far if one looks at the evidence and the parallels.

In Zimbabwe (2001), Robert Mugabe trained youth soldiers between 10 and 30 years old. Giving military training to anybody younger than 18 years is prohibited by the Geneva Convention and considered a child soldier.

Nevertheless, these youth soldiers became known as the National Youth Services, dubbed “The Green Bombers” because of the military uniforms they wore.

The Solidarity Peace Trust (SPT) reported back then that the Zimbabwe government told the press that the training of the youths was “allegedly aimed at skills enhancement, patriotism and moral education”

It started with voluntary basic training and Mugabe then made it unofficial compulsory national service of two years.

Further, the SPT reported “In contradiction of claims that the training would not aim at imparting military skills, military drills including weapons training are shown to have been major elements of youth training since the first youth intakes during 2001.”
These youths were guilty of murder, torture, rape, voter intimidation, destruction of property, attacks on businesses, disruption of opposition MDC rallies and ultimately invasions of white owned farms, killing farmers and their families and chasing them off their land.

The SPT further reported that the youths had the protection of the police and military to do what they wanted…

“The militia have an ambivalent relationship with law enforcing agencies including the army and police. On the whole, the youth militia have impunity, often working under the direction of war veterans and alongside government agencies in their illegal activities. They are seldom arrested or prevented from breaking the law.”

There were also reports of large scale sexual abuse inside these training camps; Youngsters raping each other as well as the instructors raping the youngsters.

Just like Mugabe founded the National Youth Services to aid with “Land Reform” in rural areas, the ANC founded the National Rural Youth Service Corps (NARYSEC) under the guidance of the Ministry of Rural Development and the Ministry of Defense.

Look at the names…it is almost identical to what Mugabe has.

Just like Mugabe, it started with voluntary basic training of seven weeks and then advanced training up to two years.

As I said in a previous report 8000 members of the ANC Youth League and the Young Communist League will be trained at Saldanha and Bloemfontein (De Brug) military bases. The ANC denied that they will be receiving military training; instead they will be receiving training in “Life Skills”, “Artisanship”, “Patriotism” and “Discipline”…

This is exactly what Mugabe said of the NYS or “Green Bombers” in 2001.

Recently, a Green Bomber was quoted in the local papers as saying, “We’re ZANU PF’s ‘B’ team. The army is the ‘A’ team, and we do the things government does not want the ‘A’ team to do.”
This is exactly what I said in my previous post. The army and police will not do the fighting so much. They will assist and protect the youths to viciously slaughter the whites.

Let there be no doubt or any illusions as to what the ANC’s plans are with the 8000 Narysec youths they are currently training. They are training them to steal white farms, to chase the white owners off or brutally rape, torture and kill them.

Those who have said Zimbabwe will never happen to South Africa should now take note of what the ANC Marxist scum are doing.

Remember that the ANC moves by deception and when these deceptions are exposed their plans become half as effective.

The time has come to put defense structures in place. The time has come to train every man, woman, child and dog alike. The time has come to plan and put contingencies in place. The time has come to warn others, to organize, to talk, to spread the word, to stock up…The time for the whites’ last stand on the African continent has arrived…

Stay strong. Remember there was a time when we were also youths…


Source One
Source Two
NYS - Wikipedia
Mugabe inspecting the Green Bombers at a Passing out parade

Zuma’s time has come

The Black Family: Zuma’s time has come

Denzil Taylor

For me, it doesn’t really matter that this is Jacob Zuma’s first term as president. Previously, he served as deputy president.

Zuma came to power on the wave of a party unhappy with former president Thabo Mbeki’s leadership style. And many will argue it was a lot more than mere leadership issues that got him fired. Mbeki’s time had come.

I will now argue that Zuma’s time has come.

Never in its modern history has the party been so weakened and divided. Never has it been so vulnerable as it has become under Zuma’s leadership. Never has the ruling party been so ineffective as a government.
The secretary-general reports have over the years spoken about the weaknesses in the organisation – about the infighting, weak branches and careerism. They have dealt with nondelivery and its reasons, and even corruption. They have even spoken about the tensions in the alliance.

But never, I think, have the reports dealt with the issue and the extent of the divided and weak leadership (top six) as we have now. Or even the alliance, and its dysfunctional nature, torn apart, as is the case today.

Present events are of the extreme.

There is the ANC Youth League that runs roughshod over everything and everyone it disagrees with, or who disagree with it.

Deputy President Kgalema Motlanthe came under fire for daring to question the Youth League. Science and Technology Minister Naledi Pandor was told that her accent was not “African” and she was ridiculed publicly.

Zuma himself has had to sit on a podium with these young comrades while they ridicule both him and his lifestyle.

Today’s headlines around ANCYL president Julius Malema are about his so-called “secret” trust fund, from ill-gotten tenders.

It’s what pays for the parties, the now famous wrist watch, the vehicles, the homes and expensive alcohol, they say. But the issue here is not Julius.

Consider the public protector.

A brave individual who should have government’s full support for the work she does. Yes, they issued a statement to this effect. A statement! That’s all.

Consider the past few months of her work and the individuals involved.

Senior police officials and a minister who are all implicated in a deal that suggests that everything is not above board. It’s a deal that defies logic. And if it were not this serious we would all be laughing and rolling on the floor. Someone really tried to pull this off – at the taxpayer’s expense. It is always at the taxpayer’s expense.
Closer to home for Zuma is the so-called plot to oust him. His comrades want him removed. Does the plot really exist? Does the list of individuals exist? My guess is it does. I would go further to suggest that Zuma knows this. Sufficient numbers of ANC NEC members have suggested publicly that it does. Enough reason for Zuma to take it seriously.

But is this enough reason to ask that he serve one term? Probably not.

What is extremely worrying, though, is what is being allowed to happen on the ground. The devastating effect of a local government strategy gone wrong and a government increasing unconcerned about the funds that are meant for local government, and in particular, service delivery.
This, while individuals and their close family members become millionaires overnight.
Just what will we have to show when we celebrate 20 years of democracy? More importantly, let’s not celebrate 100 years of existence as a party next year knowing what we know. That had we done what was needed to be done, with the funds available, our poor would be in a better place today.

And when we reflect on those 100 years, let’s be brutally honest with ourselves and say what needs to be said.

That we have kept the poor impoverished because of the greed of some individuals and a party that will not face up to this reality.

Let’s not merely throw a party, or several, invite a band, a chommie, shout a few slogans and party through the night.

The sad truth is that funds meant for local government expenditure is at risk from this government. At risk from the get-rich-quick schemes that deprive the poorest of the poor.

Reports of corruption and maladministration have never been on this scale or frequency. Even more disturbing is the scale of theft. Mind-boggling! One hundred million here, 500 million there.

I doubt Zuma has the capacity to stop the rot. I doubt he has the capacity to deliver on that promise of “A better life for all”.

The ANC has many a cadre who can step up to the plate and take on this responsibility. Please won’t someone do just that? For the sake of this country!

Denzil Taylor is managing editor of news and sport at Jacaranda 94.2FM. He writes in his personal capacity.

http://www.thenewage.co.za/blogdetail.aspx?mid=186&blog_id=%201003

If You Think You Know South Africa

Professor Johnny Molefe's invalid qualification

August 1 2011

Professor Johnny Molefe

The Tshwane University of Technology (TUT) has appointed Professor Johnny Molefe as vice-chancellor of the institution despite his being in possession of an invalid qualification, claiming he was the victim of an unaccredited institution.

Molefe, who has been acting vice-chancellor of TUT since last year, was appointed permanently to the position on Friday despite the controversy caused by the allegations over his unrecognised doctorate.

His appointment has raised eyebrows since it was established that the Doctor of Business Administration qualification he has was obtained from an unaccredited institution.

It has also resulted in the resignation of two university council members who were concerned about how the matter was handled.

The DA has written to Parliament’s higher education and training portfolio committee to summon the university’s council chairman to explain the appointment to Parliament.

The SA Qualifications Authority (Saqa) first wrote to the former vice-chancellor, Professor Errol Tyobeka, in 2007 informing him that Molefe’s qualification was not legitimate.

It was obtained from St George University International, a West Indies institution known for selling doctorates and other qualifications online.

These revelations were also brought to the attention of the university by the Ministry of Higher Education and Training, and subsequently led to an investigation by the university council.

But the council has defended Molefe, saying he was a victim of the fraudulent institution and would not have known that the university was unaccredited.

“Neither the employer nor Professor Molefe knew or could have known the ‘adverse status’ of the university.

“He could not have known that St George University International was not accredited because chances are his employers may have verified its status as well.

“Had he been fraudulent, he would not have voluntarily subjected his doctoral degree for evaluation,” said the council.

Council chairman Malesela Motlatla confirmed that Technikon North West (later merged to become TUT) had paid the fees for Molefe to obtain the doctorate from St George University International as the “institution” had misrepresented itself to the university and to Molefe.

According to Motlatla, Molefe had opted to study for his doctorate with an international university as there was no other university in South Africa that offered a doctorate in Business Administration in 2000.

He said he had no reason to lie about the doctorate as he already had enough qualifications to apply for the position.

Motlatla has also slammed Saqa for releasing an “unsolicited” report as part of an investigation that was never commissioned by the council, and of which they have no knowledge.

“Initially, the Saqa had previously issued verification for Professor Molefe’s qualifications in 2002 and 2007 respectively.

“Subsequent to that, they had since issued an unsolicited report on 31 May 2011 which states that neither St George University nor St George University International is an accredited higher education institution in the West Indies or in any other country.

“In dealing with the matter, Saqa violated its own rules and guidelines for confidentiality, fairness, integrity, honesty, and consistency,” said Motlatla.

Dr Junita Kloppers-Lourens MP, DA shadow minister of higher education and training, said the appointment of Molefe was “absolutely unacceptable” and she accused Molefe of having been involved in a criminal act.

She confirmed that she had sent a letter to portfolio committee chairman Motswane Malale that the TUT Council chairman should be summoned to give an explanation of the “bizarre” decision.

“The man is guilty of fraud because he actually solicited a fake qualification and passed it off as legitimate in his CV despite knowing very well that it is not.

“He is guilty of a criminal act and it is unacceptable that external members of the council have pushed for him to be appointed regardless of the evidence that he was involved in fraud,” said Kloppers-Lourens.

She said it was very concerning that TUT was in the business of rewarding students with qualification for their hard work, yet they had appointed a vice-chancellor who had obtained his qualifications fraudulently.

The National Education, Health and Allied Workers Union (Nehawu) said it would only comment on the matter after the union had met today.

TUT Central SRC president Nkululeko Maphanga said the SRC would only communicate its official position on the matter on Monday.

Molefe said he was not yet in a position to comment on the university council’s decision to appoint him.

http://www.iol.co.za/news/south-africa/gauteng/row-over-top-tut-post-1.1109272

Malema paid R2m cash for House

2011-07-31

ANC Youth League leader Julius Malema paid more than R2m in cash to buy a luxury house in Sandton.

In an exclusive interview with City Press, the previous owner of the R3.6m house revealed that Malema:

» First rented the house at R18 000 a month and paid the rent for a full year up front;

» Paid a cash deposit of R360 000 on the property; and

» Settled the outstanding amount of more than R1.7m on the R3.6m – after an Absa bond of R1.5m paid out – in “two or three” cash deposits into his account shortly after the sale went through.

Malema previously claimed that the house was fully bonded by Absa.
Millionaire lifestyle

This poses further questions about the source of Malema’s money, which funds his millionaire lifestyle.

To fund his lifestyle, an actuary calculated this week that Malema would have to earn about R123 000 a month.

City Press asked the actuary to estimate what monthly salary Malema would have had to earn to fund a moderate lifestyle, his two houses - in Sandown and Polokwane - and payments on his Mercedes-Benz C63.

The R123 000 puts Malema in the top 1.1% of earners in the country who receive an income of more than R1.2m a year.

Malema’s only official income is from the ANC, rumoured to be R50 000 a month or R600 000 a year.

This would only be enough to fund half of his lifestyle expenses, according to the actuary’s estimates.

Few cash buyers

Property economist Erwin Rode said on Saturday that he did not have statistics of South Africans who bought properties for cash compared with those who are bonded, but added that there were very few cash buyers.

“If I have to guess, I would say it is not more than 10% of buyers who pay cash for houses.

“Generally, a person who can put down R1.7m for a property is either a high-income earner or is close to retirement - typically people who are over 50 years old or earn in the top brackets.
It is very difficult for the man in the street to accumulate R1.7m after income tax.”

Malema has consistently labelled himself as “poor” and last year said he lives on “hand-outs”.

Confirmation of the cash transactions by the former owner of Malema’s Sandown house, Ken Hollingsworth, also undermines Malema’s public claims that the house is fully bonded by Absa.

Won't respond

At a press conference two weeks ago, Malema said: “That house you (the media) always make a noise about in Sandton ... it’s owned by Absa.
“And if I fail to pay it, for sure, Maria Ramos (Absa group chief executive) would be very happy she’s taking a house from a man who is leading a nationalisation campaign, because she does not want nationalisation.”

The Absa bond of R1.5m on the house only covers 42% of the total purchase price. The rest, according to Hollingsworth, was settled in cash paid into his bank account.
Malema this week failed to respond to questions about the purchase of the house, which is currently being demolished and rebuilt.

Revelations about more cash transactions followed after City Press revealed the existence of the Ratanang Family Trust last week, a vehicle allegedly used by Malema to receive cash bribes from contractors after facilitating government work for them.
Paid up front

A businessman who claims to have deposited R200 000 into the trust’s account told City Press the youth leader allegedly used the trust to receive money from politicians, companies, mayors, contractors and municipal managers in exchange for him facilitating deals and pushing certain political agendas.

On Thursday Malema told a public gathering in Queenstown that businessmen deposited money into the trust for him to distribute to a range of charities.

Malema failed to list these charities and the amounts allegedly paid to them.

According to Hollingsworth, Malema rented his Sandown house from May 2009 for R18 000 a month.

“He paid a deposit of two months’ rent (R36 000) and after that, the full balance (R180 000) was paid up front.”
Shortly after he moved into the property, Malema requested that he could make security renovations to the house, which Hollingsworth approved.

Balance paid in cash

In mid-2009, while visiting Cape Town, Malema contacted Hollingsworth and asked him to attend a meeting at the Twelve Apostles Hotel.

“Malema said he wanted to make an offer to buy the house.”

Hollingsworth didn’t want to sell the house at the time, but a few months later, he informed his estate agent that he was ready to sell.

“Malema paid a 10% deposit, which was R360 000, after the (purchase) documents were signed. He had an Absa bond for R1.5 million. The balance was paid in cash deposits into my account,” Hollingsworth said.

He couldn’t recall the origin of the payments and said he received the balance of about R1.7m in “two or three tranches”.

http://www.news24.com/SouthAfrica/News/Malema-paid-R2m-cash-for-house-20110731

ANC Youth league's childish mischief

31 July, 2011

Earlier this week the ANC Youth League sent out a statement alerting the media to its president Julius Malema's visit to the Eastern Cape.

The purpose of the visit, the bold headline said, would be "to attend the court hearing of a white man who shot an ordinary African gentleman".

The body of the statement told us that Malema would attend "the bail application hearing of a white man who shot an innocent defenceless gentleman". It further stated that Siyabonga Ndabe had been shot by his "white neighbour" and remained in a critical condition in hospital.

That was three angry references to whites in a short two-paragraph statement.

Malema did indeed turn up at the bail application with a singing entourage of youth league supporters. When he addressed them outside court, he used the opportunity to slam the "willing buyer, willing seller" model of land reform, saying whites should "pay for making us slaves".

"We must punish them. And now they must pay. If we don't, we are paying them for calling us kaffirs ...

"They must appreciate the fact that we have forgiven them, but must know we will never forget," Malema thundered.

Earlier in the week, the youth league had accused agents of "white supremacy" of being behind recent corruption allegations against Malema.

Extreme anti-white rhetoric has become a recurrent theme in youth league speech in the past year or so. It reached a crescendo in the run-up to the elections when Malema labelled whites as criminals who "must be treated as such".

Now this talk is coming from an organisation which is a key component of the ANC, a party which has for nearly 100 years championed the principle of non-racialism. Not even black consciousness and Africanist parties would dare mouth such crass racism. They simply do not preach anti-whiteness.

Yet the ANC, the standard bearer of non-racialism, tolerates this within its ranks.

There are always the predictable defences. They range from the claim that these utterances should not be taken seriously because it is only the youth league and not the mother body that is making them.

This argument goes on to say that youngsters are expected to say outrageous things and they will become rational with age.

There are three fundamental flaws in this argument.

The main one is that this is not just any bunch of youngsters. The leaders of the ANC Youth League are hugely influential and their message carries through society.

If they were peripheral players, why would the league's nationalisation drive be causing such havoc within the ANC's policy-making machinery, the government and the mining sector domestically and internationally? If it was not for the youth league, we may not have had the regime change that we saw in Polokwane in 2007.

The second one is that his rhetoric undoes the gains we have made in creating a non-racial society. As this column has stated previously, Malema and the youth league's racial rhetoric have the same polarising effect as the antics of the prehistoric creatures who call themselves AfriForum.

The third and most critical flaw is that because the league's voice is powerful, it has the potential to stoke fires in the tinderbox that is our unequal society.

There are angry, restless youths roaming the streets of our country with hopelessness written on their foreheads. The more you drum it into their consciousness that a certain racial group is responsible for their miserable state of affairs the more you increase chances of racial enmity. It is anyone's guess what the consequences of this will be.

Like all demagogues, Malema and his comrades play on very real concerns. The legacy of apartheid is still with us and it is most stark in the racially skewed distribution of wealth.

Corporate South Africa has been a half-hearted and cynical implementer of legislated employment equity and empowerment policies. And as long as the face of wealth is largely pale, you are bound to get questions about the value of political power.

Although we have done reasonably well in forging a sense of nationhood, there are still unacceptable levels of racism in our everyday lives - both overt and covert. Many farmers still treat their workers like medieval serfs.

The ground is therefore lush and welcoming for a demagogue to plant hatred.

If this nation - and the party that leads it - is still committed to the non-racialism project, we cannot ignore the caustic acid spewing from Malema's mouth. The ANC leadership should be whipping the youth league into line on the principle of non-racialism. That is not an area in which the league can claim autonomy and independence of thought.

The ANC cannot afford to let one of its own organs take the country on a backward and destructive route.

http://www.timeslive.co.za/opinion/columnists/2011/07/31/anc-youth-league-s-childish-mischief

Mining Tycoons Back Malema

23rd September 2010

Mining giants Bridgette Radebe and Minister Tokyo Sexwale have thrown their weight behind the nationalisation of the country’s mineral resources, saying the time has come for the state to reclaim its rightful share.

In a closed-door session on economic transformation at the ANC’s national general council yesterday, the two heavyweights argued that the days of monopoly ownership of the country’s mines had come to an end.

“It doesn’t matter how we skin this cat, but we have to skin it,” Radebe, who is president of the South African Mining Development Association, told The Mercury.

“The problem is the capitalists’ mining model, which says: take a piece of land, explore, exploit, extract, export, leave ghost towns and go overseas,” said the woman who has been in mining operations for the past 23 years. She is billionaire Patrice Motsepe’s sister and wife of Justice Minister Jeff Radebe.

“When we created a new South Africa, 83% of the resources were owned by the minority. Now 91% is owned by the monopolies. And I ask myself, as a committed economic activist, is this the South Africa we fought for? We are sliding backwards. Some fundamental decisions have to be made.”

What she proposed to the ANC mid-term meeting yesterday was a multi-faceted approach to claw back ownership.

“We can have a public-private partnership,” like Botswana has entered into with De Beers and in which both parties have a 50:50 share under the banner Debswana, fuelling “70% of the country’s gross domestic product”.

“We can have 100% state ownership,” she added, while her third proposal would see ailing BEE firms, “who have become more of a burden to the mining companies” sell their shares to government.

“I don’t like using the word nationalisation because people don’t listen,” she said. “I’m saying let’s state-own, control and manage.”

She points to the example of the United States where President Barack Obama recently provided a financial cushion for the banks.

“He bought out those banks. What was that? Nationalisation? He calls it a bail-out,” she said.

Human Settlements Minister Sexwale also pushed for nationalisation, but through a state-owned mining company.

While he endorsed this form of nationalisation, he urged the ruling party to proceed with “caution” as history was littered with examples of nationalisation gone awry.

He also appealed for a “balanced approach” which was both practical and realistic to avoid South Africa proceeding down a path that would be detrimental for the country’s economy. The minister also called for a detailed study that would outline the full extent of possible future state ownership.

Radebe told yesterday’s meeting: “Begin with me. I have mines. You can take them. I’m not looking for money.” However, she was quick to add that her offer was not to be interpreted as a precedent for mine grabs.

“What I am saying is I am willing. That’s all. We don’t want expropriation. We want a situation that works for everyone and this works for me.”

The endorsement for what is potentially a costly move comes at a time when the ANC-led government is already sinking under the weight of added costs to the public purse, with an enlarged cabinet under President Jacob Zuma, a recession that has cut jobs and income tax revenue accordingly, while calls earlier this week for a multibillion-rand public health system will only add to the financial burden.

However, Radebe insists the money required to buy into or buy out mines can be found through mining royalties. She was also confident that the country had the expertise that was required to efficiently run hi-tech underground operations, saying that like the big mining houses do, the South African government could contract out management of the mines to experienced firms.

Their support for nationalisation comes at a time when ANC Youth League president Julius Malema is sorely in need of a political dig-out.

Yet Radebe was quick to point out that this was not about personalities.

“It’s not about Julius and it’s not about Bridgette. It’s about what is going to make a fundamental change to the country,” she said.

However, not everyone was as warm to the idea as Radebe, Sexwale or the majority of delegates who The Mercury understands roundly backed a move to nationalise.

Minister Trevor Manuel, who was the rapporteur of the session, had his knuckles wrapped by ANCYL members when they argued he wasn’t interpreting the message from the floor correctly. But his office downplayed the incident, saying there were noises from “certain individuals” but it was no more than that.

http://www.iol.co.za/news/politics/mining-tycoons-back-malema-1.681141