Politics.za

One of the ramifications of the current governments perpetuation of race based policies is that we inevitably arrive at a situation where someone, somewhere has to make decisions over who is black enough or who is too white. As has become apparent, there are those in government who no longer consider the coloured population of South Africa to be black enough. That seems to have spread outside of government as well into sport. According to South African Rugby Union Deputy President Mike Stofile coloured players should not be included in racial quotas:

Seven black players in the Springbok starting line-up for the 2011 World Cup are not enough, says South African Rugby Union (Saru) Deputy President Mike Stofile.

And the term “black” should not include coloured players, as that could limit the number of opportunities for players of colour.

Stofile was responding to a weekend newspaper report that quoted Saru President Oregan Hoskins as saying that there should be a target of selecting seven black players in the Bok starting team for the next World Cup in 2011.

That Mike Stofile is the the brother of Sports and Recreations Minister Makhenkesi Stofile might not be that big a surprise.

Update: And how’s this for more race based sports madness. At the SA Netball Interprovincial Championships teams must field a team with an exact black to white ratio of 5:2 and if they do not they get docked points. But this also applies if a team has too few whites, such as the team from Zululand which is composed entirely of black players. All their opponents get a 6 point head start. At least they’re applying the rules evenly but it’s still madness!

There’s nothing I hate more in politics than pettiness. And this report from the Johannesburg City Council is a prime example.

As a result of a ruling approved by the ANC’s 136 councillors last week, the amount of time each party is allowed on the floor of the chamber will be proportional to their amount of elected representatives.

The smallest parties such as the IFP will therefore only be allowed to speak for four seconds while even the main opposition Democratic Alliance (DA), which has 59 councillors, can only speak for two-and-a-half minutes.

I think the ANC councillors knew exactly that when they passed this ruling. Of course with the size of the ANC majority in the council it wouldn’t have mattered if the opposition parties were given unlimited time on the floor, the outcome would have been the same.

Let’s face it. The funding of political parties in SA is a complete mess. In what other country which would aspire to call itself a democracy would a political party go to court to keep money (at least R3 500 000 that we know of) donated by a fraudster at a time when he was possibly insolvent?

The DA claims to have returned the R250 000 that was donated to them, although had they received as large a sum as the ANC are fighting to keep one thinks they may not have been so keen to hand the cash back.

Say what you will about the money that surrounds politics in the USA but at least there is legislated transparency (although I’m sure plenty slips below the radar). Unfortunately in SA there is not much momentum to open up the funding of political parties.

The larger political parties (ANC and… uh that’s it) want to keep their donor list private to prevent the more dodgy sources of income (Brett Kebble, Oilgate/Mvume, Chancellor House) from coming to light. The smaller political parties (DA and everyone else although the ACDP disclosed their funding… once… in 2003) would prefer their donors be kept private to prevent any kind of backlash from government towards them.

Either way the situation stinks.

With Tokyo Sexwale’s campaign to be the next president rapidly heating up I can’t help but wonder if the emergence of a ‘business friendly’ candidate like Tokyo means that any hope for Trevor Manuel to enter the presidential race is rapidly diminishing?

Due to my impending marriage regular blogging will resume shortly after the 17th of July.

See you then.

The Western Cape provincial branch of COSATU is about to withdraw from the nationwide public services strike. I assume this means they have decided to accept the government’s latest salary increase offer.

I think this is a bit of a watershed moment in labour/government relations. Not only is there a split in the ANC/COSATU/SACP tri-partite alliance but it seems there might even be splits amongst COSATU itself, both at a national level (between Willie Madisha and Zwelinzima Vavi) and now on a regional level. It will be interesting to see how other COSATU provincial branches react.

It’s also interesting to note that many people suspected COSATU planned to use the strike in order to influence the upcoming ANC policy committee meeting. Now COSATU are going into the meeting with even less power than before.

June 18: Cosatu: Strikers not getting tired

June 19: It’s time to settle on wages, says Vavi

Jonny Steinberg (author of the most excellent SA prison gang treatise ‘The Number’) has a rather scathing editorial in today’s Business Day comparing presidential hopeful Tokyo Sexwale to Italian Prime Minister (and media mogul) Silvio Berlusconi.

Steinberg all but accuses Sexwale of buying his current support and claims Sexwale will have to keep on paying his supporters should he come to power.

There is a polite silence about this matter, a discreet aversion of the eyes from Sexwale’s way of conducting politics. And yet if there was ever a spade that asked to be called by its name it is this one. A man has just thrown his hat into the race for this country’s presidency. He has also just given various members of parliament, cabinet ministers, the spouses of cabinet ministers, at least one judge and one public commentator — and who knows who else, it isn’t all out yet — sizeable nest eggs. Could the character of a Sexwale presidency ever be written out more clearly?

I do think Steinberg is being a bit harsh. While it’s true both Berlusconi and Sexwale are wealthy, Sexwale at least does have considerable political experience being a past premier of Gauteng.

That being said I tend to not like politics where the size of the campaigners chequebook is an indicator of whether they will win or not, but it’s better than the hush hush positioning and manoeuvring we would otherwise have with the ANC.

With the ongoing strike President Mbeki has wisely decided to send his recommended +50% hike in salaray back to the * deep breath * Independent Commission for the Remuneration of Public Office Bearers. I guess it’s hard to justify offering workers a 7.25% raise when you’re giving yourself an extra 500K a year.

Once the strike is over I assume the offer (or one close to it) will be sneaked back in quietly.

And speaking of strikes it seems workers at Eskom may soon be going on strike as well. But that is alright because Eskom has been running so smooth lately that I’m sure it will have no effect. Right? Right

Thanks to some shoddy planning SA is facing an electricity crunch for the next few years. Let’s not have the same thing happen with our water supply. According to that article around one third of our 1000 treatment plants are in need of urgent repair and maintenance to avoid an all out crisis.

Director-General of the Department of Water Affairs and Forestry, Jabu Sindane found these statistics “disturbing”.

Now I’m not sure what exactly is required to make sure that a country can function properly, but I’m pretty sure “A reliable source of water” is in the top five. I don’t think there’s a segment of SA that doesn’t rely on it somehow. So to have the man who is in charge of the running of the department that oversees our water say he only finds it disturbing now when two thirds of treatment plants require maintenance and half of them are understaffed is a bit… disturbing.