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WARNING: May contain strong language
MAY 29 - JUNE 24, 2020
Breaking the echo chamber in the city bowl and beyond.
Cold times for artists
Our artists who entertain us and create meaning in our world are thrown into poverty as government dallies Story on Page 2
Artwork by Julia Grey. Follow her on Instagram @juliamarygrey
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Cold times for artists Steve Kretzmann After losing all their income as theatres and performance venues shut down with immediate effect from 15 March, it took a further two months before a tiny percentage of artists received any relief funding from government. Of over 5,000 applications from artists seeking relief from the Department of Sports, Arts and Culture, only 488 artists have been paid out, eight weeks after relief funding for artists and athletes was announced. A list of those who received money was published on the Department of Sports, Arts and Culture (DSAC) website in the last week of May. One of these artists, actor Toni Morkel, said she received the R12,000 she asked for on Monday 18 May. A R150m relief fund was announced by the Department of Sports, Arts and Culture (DSAC) on 25 March, with criteria for applications announced on 29 March and a submission deadline of 4 April. This was extended to 6 April as many artists were not able to obtain the necessary documents within the time frame. “If we cannot provide relief to artists in a period of six weeks from date it was announced, then there’s something fundamentally wrong with the way we understand poverty,” said Market Theatre CEO Ismail Mohamed during a radio interview on 7 May. It took a further two weeks before money was disbursed by the DSAC, capped at a maximum of R20,000 per artist or company. Labeling the R150m set aside by the DSAC, which is to be shared by artists and athletes, as a ‘relief fund’ has also been criticised, as the R150m comes out of the existing DSAC budget for productions and events that were canceled due to the lockdown, rather than being additional emergency relief. “The Department has therefore reprioritized its budget allocation from quarter one to avail over R150 million to provide the much needed relief to practitioners in the sector,” stated DSAC minister Nathi Mthethwa on 25 March. Thus, this was money the department was already committed to paying. Over one million people affected There are 92,163 people directly employed in arts and culture sector stated DSAC Director-General Vusumusi Mkhize in a 702 radio broadcast interview with Eusebius McKaiser on 7 May. A further 335,000 people worked in support of the industry, with the creative and cultural industry supporting a further 698,000 people in ancillary services or crew. Cumulatively, said Mkhize, the sector directly and indirectly supports 1.1 million people. These figures are backed up by those of the South African Cultural Observatory. SA Cultural Observatory chief economist Jen Snowball said the creative economy contributed R74 billion to the economy in 2018, or 1.7% of the national GDP. If the multiplier effect was taken into account (including people such as an accountant working for a theatre company or catering company employed in the film industry) the sector accounted for 5.5% of GDP, said Snowball. Further, the arts and culture sector had been growing at 2.4% per year from 2016 to 2018, outstripping the economic growth of
1.1%. The R150m ‘relief fund’, however, only applies to those 92, 163 artists whose income is solely reliant on the creative sector. Artists facing a desperate situation One of the 4,512 artists who applied for relief but has not received anything, is Cape Town film choreographer Didi Moses. Moses said she sent the department proof of canceled contracts, email addresses and contact details of people who could verify her information, as well as her monthly expenses, but it took six weeks before she even received a response to say her application was declined, but she could appeal. She said her appeal then bounced back and after much frustration she took to Twitter in a social media campaign to try get a response from Mthethwa, after which she finally received a proper email address for her appeal 60 days after her initial application. Two weeks later, she had still received no further response to her appeal. “How can you expect us to survive for two months when we’ve been abiding by the laws laid down by the President?” she asked. She said she has not been able to pay any of her bills, including her rent, and is accumulating a mountain of debt. Even though film companies could now commence work with a maximum crew of 50, it did not automatically mean there was work for crew or actors. Additionally, much of the work came from international companies who were not able to travel here. Moses, along with theatre producers and actors Mother City News spoke to, only expect to be able to return to any form of regular or semi-regular work in 2021. Moses said the situation was resulting in breakdowns among artists. “Some artists I know can’t get out of bed,” she said, adding that at 2am she had to counsel a fellow artist who was considering suicide. “People can’t anymore.” There are young artists and those in their 60s who can’t pay their bills, she said, and are in danger of losing their cars, their houses. Opaque processes How the DSAC chose the 488 beneficiaries who have received money so far, is a mystery. Morkel said she received money for her role as stage manager for a theatre production that was booked for the Klein Karoo Nationale Kunstefees, but neither the director, Sylvaine Strike, nor the three actors, had received money even though they all submitted the same paperwork. This was confirmed by Strike. Strike, an award-winning theatre director based in Johannesburg, said she had four contracts which would have seen her through until November. Despite providing proof of cancellation for all four productions along with other required documentation, all she had received was an initial acknowledgment of receipt and later, a request to resend her tax clearance certificate. Homegrown efforts Meanwhile, the Theatre Benevolent Fund, established to assist aged or infirm theatre practitioners, along their other civil society and industry initiatives, has be doing what they can to bridge the gap. In a statement released in May, the Theatre Benevolent Fund (TBF), whose executive is unpaid and voluntary, stated they had paid
out R401,000 by way of “about 800 food vouchers” to theatre practitioners after receiving R250,000 from a private donor and R151,000 from other donors. However, the funds are now exhausted and the TBF has had to close its relief fund. The TBF welcomed independent auditing of their relief efforts. The Feed Our Crew initiative is also providing R500 vouchers to technical crew behind the actors and performers. Mother City News was unable to reach them before deadline to find out how many people they have helped. No response from government While the belated disbursement of funds to 488 artists is welcomed, numerous questions about transparency remain, among them the tenders awarded to companies to run live streaming artists’ work on digital platform. A respected industry source told Mother City News that three companies had been selected but this could not be confirmed as the DSAC did not respond to questions. Among the questions sent to the DSAC’s ministerial spokesperson, department spokesperson, and chief director of communications and marketing on the evening of 25 May, were: 1.
What percentage of the R150m relief fund as announced by Minister Nathi
Mthethwa on 25 March 2020, is set aside for arts and culture, as opposed to sports? 2. Who are the members of the Arts and Culture adjudication committee for the disbursement of the arts and culture portion of the R150m relief fund? 3. How many times have they met? 4. Are they getting paid to meet, and if so, are they being paid at the standard Treasury rate of R1,300 per day, with a day for preparation added? 5. Is there any representative from the DSAC, or arts and culture more broadly, on the Covid-19 National Command Council? If so, who are they? 6. Three companies are believed to have been awarded tenders by the DSAC, to create, or facilitate the creation of live streaming digital content. What are the company names? 7. What is the monetary value of the contracts they have received? 8. Are these contractors to be paid from the arts and culture section of the R150m relief fund? Although a read receipt was received by Mother City News 36 minutes after the questions were emailed, no response was forthcoming by the deadline of noon, 28 May, a full two-and-a-half days later.
MAY 29 - JUNE 24, 2020
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More free water and electricity in new City budget Steve Kretzmann The new City budget for 2020/21, which was passed on 27 May through a Skypefacilitated council meeting, contains some relief for low-income households as the economic freefall caused by the Covid-19 lockdown takes effect. In his speech tabling the R54.4 billion budget, Executive Mayor Dan Plato announced a R3 billion social package to support indigent families, the disabled, and pensioners. Plato stated households living on properties valued at less than R300,000, or with income below R4,500 per month, would not pay property rates or refuse tariffs. They would also receive 10.5 kilolitres of water per month free of charge and receive 60 kilowatt hours of free elecricity, with the proviso consumption was kept low. The threshold for being able to register as indigent was raised to a household income of R7,000 per month. “We know that many have already lost their jobs or fallen on hard times,” stated Plato. He said the impact of Covid-19 cost the City budget R2 billion, but this “burden” was not being passed on to residents. Our annual rates increases are the lowest of all metros who have tabled budgets so far. Good governance is enabling us to absorb the estimated R2 billion COVID-19 impact on our budget, without passing this burden onto residents. “More people can not only qualify for relief, but do so via a quicker and easier application process,” he said, and stated interest-free payment options have been made available for people who have fallen behind on paying their rates. Questioned on whether water management devices (WMDs) which have been installed at household inlet valves
Running taps... Malwande Saki, lives on his mother’s state-subsidised property in Masiphumelele, said the water management device on the municipal inlet valve used to restrict flow to 200 litres a day, but since the Covid-19 lockdown it had been adjusted to allow a free flow. Photo: Steve Kretzmann
and which, for households in debt to the municipality, restrict flow to 200 litres a day (6.5 kilolitres a month), will be altered to allow an increased flow of 350 litres a day (10 kilolitres a month), the City stated this had been done during the Covid-19 lockdown period. Executive deputy mayor and mayco member for finance Ian Neilson said water “is not being restricted for debt” during the Covid-19 lockdown period. Masiphumelele resident Malwande Saki, who lives on his mother’s property which had a 200 litre per day restriction prior to lockdown, said City technicians came and
adjusted the WMD on the property after he emailed the City about the restriction about two weeks into lockdown. “They (City) sent a guy,” said Saki, “he did mention that at the end of Covid things might change. So at some stage we will go back to getting our water restricted, but for now the water does not cut off.” Neilson said free basic water allocation was supplied to about 40% of Cape Town households. Asked whether municipal debt would still be taken as a percentage of pre-paid electricity purchases by residents qualifying for the 60 kilowatt hours of free electricity,
Neilson said the free electricity was provided by tokens, which needed to be claimed, and thus was not purchases. “If there is any debt recovery it only happens on purchasing.” He said 27.7% of Cape Town households in the City supply areas received free basic electricity, but data for those supplied directly by Eskom was not available. Mother City News also asked the City how many WMDs are installed across the City, but an answer was not supplied before going to print.
Test sewage, not people Sewage samples reveal virus concentration in a community. The Covid-19 virus can be detected in sewage, as parts of the virus are excreted by infected persons. This has been ascertained by scientific studies, among them a recent study by 12 scientists, most of whom are at Yale University, Connecticut, USA. Their study*, which is not yet peerreviewed, shows that the concentration of the virus RNA found in sewage sludge corresponded with the virus’s epidemiological curve in the community – in this instance New Haven, Connecticut – which is served by the sewerage works where the sludge is tested. The concentrations of the virus in sewage samples was a leading indicator of outbreak dynamics in the community. The study states the peak in virus RNA concentration in the sewage was seven days prior to the peak in Covid-19 cases in the community as determined by testing data, and peaked three days earlier than hospital admissions. “SARS-CoV-2 RNA concentrations in
sewage sludge were a leading indicator of community outbreak dynamics over hospitalization and compiled COVID-19 testing data,” states the study. The implications are expanded by Dr Anthony Turton from the Centre for Environmental Management at the University of the Free State. It is much easier to analyse sewage samples from a waste water treatment works receiving waste from a particular community, than individually testing every member of the community, says Turton. “A person being tested has to go to a designated facility where they come into contact with other potential carriers; so even if they test negative today, this does not mean that they will not become infected on their way home,” he said. Testing individuals “is costly, logistically complex, and is known to be out of reach even to advanced economies”, says Turton, yet without testing government cannot “maintain its core mandate to protect
citizens without destroying the economy by a perpetual lockdown”. If sewage testing is done regularly and accurately, it reveals the total viral load present in a defined cohort of people at a precise moment in time”. “It is not as granular as individual testing, but it is a convenient way of gathering data about the rate of change and specific epicenters of change or emerging hotspots,” stated Turton.
He said it was broadly accepted consensus that the virus RNA as found in sewage was not infectious, although “there is some mention of faecal-oral transmission” of the SARS virus in peer-reviewed literature. *The full title of the study is SARS-CoV-2 RNA concentrations in primary municipal sewage sludge as a leading indicator of COVID-19 outbreak dynamics
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MAY 29 - JUNE 24, 2020
Food review
Local indi restaurants delivering Matilda Tullie Authentic, traditional, and delicious Asian restaurant KimChi is one of many local businesses making it easy to have a safe and flavour-packed lockdown dinner. As the government placed a strict national shutdown on non-essential goods amid the Covid-19 pandemic led to an immediate shutdown of restaurants. But now that they are allowed to open for home delivery, we need to show up and help them keep their shops afloat and their staff paid. And of course we want them to be there when we can enjoy eating out in company again. We chose KimChi, which is tucked away inside the courtyard of the Upper Eastside hotel located in the industrial-chic Brickfield Road in Salt River. This local restaurant explores diverse traditional dishes from Korea, Japan, Thailand, and China. It has something to offer every hungry diner. Their food is fresh and packed with delicious aromatic flavors which will get your senses tingling and your mouth salivating. The variety of dishes are sweet, tangy, spicy, crispy, crunchy and juicy all in one bite! Our three-women digs decided to drop the home cooked dinner for one night and explore the takeaway list from local restaurants in our area. One of us took to
Uber Eats, one to Mr. Delivery and another scrolling Google. With all of us settling on Asian cuisine, we happily agreed to explore the well-reviewed KimChi. With each main meal averaging around R75 and a diverse choice, we were chuffed with our new find. We hadn’t been on a little adventure since lockdown began and decided to do a telephone takeaway order to collect. Luckily, we were a short drive away as our five-part order would be ready in a speedy 10-15 minutes. Off we huddled with our sanitizers and face masks to collect our dinner. Easy directions to follow on Google maps got us straight there. To keep to the social distancing rules of lockdown, only one of us went inside to collect and pay. The small kitchen was run by two friendly individuals both sporting masks. Our order was fresh and ready on arrival. Payment could be done with card or SnapScan. Sanitizer was also available at the front desk. KimChi is also available for delivery by Uber Eats or Mr. Delivery- so no excuse to not try something new. Back home we unpacked our order and started on the starters of vegetarian spring rolls and six-piece Korean fried chicken. Both were delicious. The Korean fried chicken was half sticky soy glaze, while the other half was a sweet and sour glaze. The chicken pieces were drenched in sauce yet still had crunch. We each had a different main. There was
a Chinese vegetarian main, a chicken chow mien noodle dish, and a traditional Japanese pork teppanyaki noodles. The dishes were huge and packed with flavor. The meat protein in the dishes was succulent and juicy, nothing dry or tough, which can sometimes happen if it is over fried. The vegetables
were fresh and crunchy- from green beans and cabbage to courgettes and peppers. We slurped our last noodle with harmonious satisfaction. Definitely a happy evening. The bill came to R355 and was paid in full by Mother City News
Wine
Distress in the winelands Sade Allcock Although liquor sales are allowed from June 1, the two-month ban on the sale of alcohol, combined with a ban on exports, has decimated the wine industry. Figures released by VinPro on 28 May reveal about 80 wineries and 350 producers have gone out of business, and 18,000 workers have lost their jobs. Vinpro is a non-profit company which represents 2 500 South African wine producers, cellars and stakeholders in an industry that employs about 290 000 people. Their statistics show that up to 20% of the South African wine sector as a whole, which is almost solely based in the Western Cape, has been irreversibly affected by the nationwide ban on alcohol. The industry lost R200 million per week on exports over the stage 5 and stage 4 lockdown periods, and R300 million per week on local sales, bringing total revenue losses to about R3 billion. It is unsure whether the wine industry will ever be able to claw back these losses. There are also indirect costs such as international reputation loss, overseas wine listings, and the loss of industry relationships built up over years, which are incalculable. Gerard Holden of Holden Manz Wine Estate said they have lost about R5m over the
past two months and had to lay off 75% of the staff. “The bills keep coming in and we see no support or relief from government whatsoever,” said Holden. Nosey Pieterse, president of the Black Association of the Wine and Spirits Industry (BAWSI) and chief negotiator for the Rural Agriculture and Allied Workers Union (RAAWU) was angered about job losses. Pieterse said farm workers were categorised by government as essential workers (government made a last-minute concession that allowed for the harvesting and storage activities essential to prevent the wastage of primary goods) and therefore should not have been affected by the lockdown. But he said he is inundated with Unemployment Insurance Fund (UIF) applications from farm workers due to “unscrupulous farmers” using the lockdown as an opportunity to terminate workers’ contracts. He said during the lockdown farm workers have had few options available to them to fight decisions by farmers to lay them off, as the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration (CCMA) is functioning on a skeleton staff and the trade unions and NGOs they would approach for help are classified as non-essential, leaving employees vulnerable. He said up until now trade unions have conducted all business via phone or email
Unharvested grapes dry on the vines outside Rawsonville.
but he hoped the easing of lockdown would allow unions to meet with management and stewards to attempt negotiation on behalf of the workers. However, he said “the damage has already been done”. The alcohol ban could also result in a shortage of storage at the end of the year due to a backup of surplus stock, said Johan Morkel, manager of Aan De Doorns Wine
Cellar outside Worcester. Aan De Doorns is a co-operative of 26 farms and Morkel said farmers are pessimistic about the ability of the wine industry to recover. Numerous cellar owners and winemakers interviewed voiced concern over the future of the industry, and VinPro stated it will take many years to recover.
MAY 29 - JUNE 24, 2020
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Book Reviews
The Distance: Floats like a bee Steve Kretzmann Such a strange book, The Distance by Ivan Vladislavic. It’s about Muhammad Ali, told from the view of a boy growing up around Pretoria in the 1970s. A boy who “fell in love” with him. Fell in love in the way a boy can; a seemingly improbable infatuation with an idea. It is also not about Muhammad Ali so much as it is about improbable infatuation, which in itself is can be about channeling one’s focus into a narrow plane in order to avoid having to deal with other uncomfortable realities. The Transvaal, and parts of Pretoria, in the background, were familiar, as was the facility, which young Joe displays, of inward focus to clear the disturbing clutter of contradictions that characterised apartheid South Africa. Ali, as Joe prefers to refer to him, for all the bombast and blood and lights of his fights, was abstract to a boy in sanctioned South Africa never able to see him, not even on TV. Information only available from what was in the newspaper, which he clipped and filed obsessively. Even in this way Ali was many, many times more accessible than Nelson Mandela – mentioned once
in the book - who, through his absence determined by National Party propaganda, was an unspoken shadow behind a state whose fear, to paraphrase Bright Blue, was huge and angry. Then there is Branko, Joe’s elder brother, who in alternating passages provides his view on Joe’s behaviour. Branko is out there, questing rather than questioning. His view of Joe’s activities contains an elder brother’s indulgence, but also an elder brother’s detachment, which widens into adulthood, until Joe and his Ali scrapbooks appear in his wellordered middle class existence. Joe mentions Ali not being quite black, at least not in the way a white Pretoria boy would have been familiar with blackness, and thus somehow holding a middle ground, being, as it were, a racial bridge. Ali also spoke out, stood up for his own agency, firmly stating he be addressed as Muhamed Ali, his Islamic name, rather than his birth name, Cassius Clay. He was famous for blowing his own trumpet, which was frowned upon by the patriarchal Afrikaaner culture that infused every aspect of whiteness no matter what language you spoke. Hence Joe’s father rooting for more modest George Foreman, with Branko following his lead. Vladislavic doesn’t say so, but supporting
High Five by Joe Ide This is number four in the IQ series, starring Isiah, a modern Sherlock Holmes type operating in the LA ganglands. The plot of this one is a little more frenetic, partially because the key witness to a murder who might also be the murderer has multiple personality disorder, so Isiah has to try to engage with each of the person’s five different personalities at different times to try to uncover what went down. Ide is a really good storyteller and his description of gang violence feels like he could be writing about the Flats, and Isiah remains one of the best modern crime fiction inventions. Jack Reacher se gat.
Bunny by Mona Awad Thought this was another campus novel about alienation and privilege and the creative process. And maybe it is. But it pretty quickly became bunny zombie apocalypse slasher dreamscape thing. Not a genre that works for me. Hated it but had some weird compulsion to finish it which seems to have something to do with lockdown and some anxiety about finishing things I start.
Ali, and particularly cutting every mention of him from the household newspapers to be glued in a scrapbook, was in a conventional white South African household, a revolutionary act. This is something Branko has to make sense of later on. Having the elder brother comment on the younger is a wonderful lever for the author to view his younger self, although Vladislavik is too smooth a writer for this, or any other device, to seem obvious, which is what makes this book linger much longer than the recognition of time and place warrant in themselves. It was a strange read as in there was no reason not to put the novel down at any point, yet the writing rolls on and through the next scenario, until you realise you’ve gone further along than you expected, having enjoyed the view from one bend to the next. And then finding a subtler picture underlaid, and a lingering unease, unsettling as the feel of glove on the cheek during a mock-punch at the weigh-in. The Distance was published in 2019 by Umuzi. Vladislavic has published numerous novels and stories, won numerous accolades, including the Windham-Campbell Prize for fiction, and is a Distinguished Professor in the Creative Writing Department at Wits.
Hunger by Roxane Gay This is a truly captivating book. Roxane’s work is personal so it feels more like a conversation. The book is a memoir of her body and how getting sexually assaulted at 12-years-old shaped her body and her life as a whole. I love how she tells her story, I see parts of myself in her story without trying to steal her narrative. Her journey is authentic and it shows the difficulty of healing from trauma even when one has loving people in their lives. I definitely recommend.
House on Fripp Island by Rebecca Kauffman Proof, book coming Julyish I think. I enjoyed her last novel, Gunners, and enjoyed this just as much. Light escapist reading: Two families go on holiday together. We know from the beginning that someone dies, but don’t know who, but while the mystery of who’s going to peg and why hangs over the novel, it’s more about families, relationships and that kind of stuff than it is about the impending death. Diverting, engaging, recommendable but unlikely to knock anyone’s socks off.
Short reviews supplied by staff of The Book Lounge, the best indi bookstore in Cape Town.
Real Life by Brandon Taylor Outstanding, disturbing novel recently published in the US and is being released here later in the year. Narrator, Wallace, is black, queer, from the south, part of an intense postgrad biochemistry group at an unnamed American midwest university. Most of the novel takes place over a weekend as a series of intense interactions between Wallace and his friends-strokecolleagues who are all white and serve to show how alone Wallace is in this crowd. Then there’s the disturbing and violent sex between Wallace and Miller - a straight” male part of the group - that grows more violent as the weekend progresses. It’s a deeply contemporary novel, partially comparable to Sally Rooney in that it is a smart young dialogue-rich novel, but also nods to European existentialist writing. Taylor has created a memorably lost central character in Wallace, a man hiding in plain sight, suffering constant aggressions and racist slights, but one who is so complex in his own history and desires and contradictions that he resists simply being an object or victim. Ultimately, Real Life is a poignant study of alienation - generational, racial, sexual, academic. Quite brilliant
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MAY 29 - JUNE 24, 2020
About the Koeberg Public Safety Information Forum
Section 26(4) of the NNR Act states that “The holder of a nuclear installation license must establish a public safety information forum as prescribed in order to inform the persons living in the municipal area in respect of which an emergency plan has been established on nuclear safety and radiation safety matters.” What is the Public Safety Information Forum (PSIF)? The PSIF is a meeting which takes place four times a year. It is used as a platform for residents within the municipal boundary of Koeberg Nuclear Power Station, to enquire about and receive nuclear safety related information from the facility. Which topics are discussed? The forum will address any topic that the members feel could impact their health, environment, and safety from a nuclear emergency preparedness point of view. Who should attend? All persons living within the municipal area around Koeberg, all affected and interested organisations or parties, and any other persons concerned about their health and safety from a nuclear and radiation safety point of view are welcome to attend the forum. Persons wishing to attend are requested to register as a member. How do I register? Kindly email your details, i.e. full name, contact number, organisation (if applicable) or indicate whether you are a resident, to JoshuaD@eskom.co.za or contact tel. +27 21 550 4238. When are the PSIF meetings held? Dates for the meetings are published in the annual Koeberg Emergency Plan Calendar, which residents around the station would have received in January 2020. The PSIF meeting dates for this year are: • Thursday, 25 June 2020; • Thursday, 17 September 2020; and • Thursday, 26 November 2020. Who to talk to For more information, contact Lewis Phidza, Koeberg Stakeholder Management Manager, at tel. +27 21 550 5758 or send an email to PhidzaNL@eskom.co.za. Alternatively contact Debbie Joshua at tel. +27 21 550 4238 or send an email to JoshuaD@eskom.co.za Should you not have received a Koeberg Emergency Plan Calendar and are a resident in the 16km radius of the station (Urgent Protective Action Zone), please contact the Koeberg Stakeholder Management Department at tel. +27 21 550 4238.
MAY 29 - JUNE 24, 2020
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Police watchdog pulls investigators from state capture probe Daneel Knoetze The Independent Police Investigative Directorate (IPID) has recalled two investigators from a special task team probing corruption allegations against top police officials, including former police commissioner Kgomotso Phahlane. The investigators have also been told to hand over their dockets to head office. Viewfinder has the names of the investigators and has seen documentary evidence from within IPID about the recall. Former IPID officials interviewed by Viewfinder see this as an attempt to scupper high-level corruption investigations and to protect accused cops from prosecution. IPID spokesman Sontaga Seisa responded to a query from Viewfinder. He did not deny that the investigators were recalled. “In respects of our internal working arrangement, IPID will request that the rights of employees be protected particularly when it comes to employer and employee relationships. It is on that basis that IPID is not prepared to go public and discuss internal working arrangements via media. The main focus of IPID is to continue supporting all its Investigators in order to carry out its constitutional mandate,” he said. The task team is a subdivision of the National Prosecuting Authority’s (NPA) Investigating Directorate (ID). The ID was established by President Cyril Ramaphosa in April 2019 to investigate “serious, high profile or complex corruption cases” emanating from the state capture era. Various IPID investigations fall within this category. In July 2019 IPID agreed to second six of its investigators to the NPA to work as a task team under ID head Hermione Cronjé. One of the investigators who was recalled is probing the relationship between the police and a Durban company called Brainwave Projects 1323, trading as I-View Integrated Systems. According to an affidavit submitted by former IPID director Robert McBride to the Pretoria High Court in 2018, police paid I-View R33 million for software to monitor social media sites during the #FeesMustFall protests. The software was apparently never installed. McBride has also stated that police paid I-View R21 million for a cell phone encryption system. The system was apparently intended to block IPID from monitoring Phahlane’s communication with a team of police officers appointed to obstruct the directorate’s corruption investigations, McBride wrote. IPID is also investigating allegations that I-View was part of a scheme to defraud the state of tens of millions of rand. The money was allegedly destined to be laundered to buy votes for the faction of former President Jacob Zuma during the ANC’s elective conference at NASREC in 2017. Ramaphosa beat Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma by a narrow margin of votes at the conference. Both of the investigators who have been recalled have been probing Phahlane’s relationship with businessman Keith Keating. Phahlane is alleged to have built a house in the Sable Hills Estate, north of Pretoria, and to have purchased vehicles for himself, his wife and sister from kickbacks received from Keating’s company, Forensic Data Analysts. In December 2017 IPID raided the homes of Phahlane and Keating. But, the evidence seized remained embargoed as Keating
Former police commissioner Kgomotso Phahlane. Photo: Leila Dougan, Daily Maverick
challenged the legality of IPID’s raid all the way to the Constitutional Court. In November 2019, the Constitutional Court dismissed Keating’s appeal, freeing IPID up to go through more than 200 bags of evidence obtained during the raid. An estimate from within IPID, seen by Viewfinder, indicates that this job alone would still take the ID task team, including the investigators who have now been recalled, more than six months to complete. The recall of the investigators from the team takes place against a backdrop of strife over IPID’s probes into high-level corruption. Most of the investigations originate from IPID’s National Specialised Investigation Team (NSIT), a unit established under McBride in 2015 to tackle complex corruption cases against police top brass. Soon after the unit was established, McBride was suspended by then-police minister Nathi Nhleko. IPID’s incoming head, Israel Kgamanyane, then suspended the national head of investigations Matthews Sesoko. In September 2019, Sesoko testified at the Zondo Commission of Inquiry into Allegations of State Capture that Nhleko had ordered Kgamanyane to suspend him. In September 2016, the Constitutional Court declared McBride’s suspension unlawful and set it aside. McBride returned to IPID and reinstated Sesoko. The NSIT started investigating Phahlane. Mandla Mahlangu, the lead investigator on the Phahlane “house” and “vehicles” investigations, received death threats via SMS. Crime Intelligence officer Tlou Kgomo, who transferred out of the IPID when McBride returned in 2016, also reportedly offered Mahlangu a “Brigadier” position in the police service if he turned on IPID management and implicated them in wrongdoing. Mahlangu recorded a phone call wherein the offer was allegedly made, reported it and was due to testify against Kgomo at a Crime Intelligence disciplinary hearing in 2019. Just days before the hearing was scheduled to take place, Mahlangu was ambushed and shot at near his house outside Pretoria, according to several Viewfinder sources. Viewfinder has obtained a handwritten statement, dated 3 October 2019, wherein Mahlangu states that “due to
Former IPID head Robert McBride. Photo: Leila Dougan, Daily Maverick
my security concerns and even those of my family, I have decided not to continue with my testimony as it is posing a risk on me.” Viewfinder understands that the statement is in reference to testimony against Kgomo at his disciplinary hearing. In March 2019, Phahlane was arrested on corruption charges stemming from the allegedly corrupt procurement and installation of lights and sirens in police vehicles in Gauteng. This is commonly referred to as the “blue-lights” case and is the most well known and advanced of IPID’s high-level corruption investigations. The day before Phahlane’s arrest in 2019, Parliament upheld police minister Bheki Cele’s decision not to renew McBride’s contract as IPID head. And in February 2020, Cele missed the deadline for appointing a new head, promoting Patrick Setshedi to acting head. Days after taking office Setshedi suspended Sesoko. Setshedi contends that Sesoko must answer to allegations of misconduct, but former officials sympathetic to Sesoko believe that the suspension was essentially a rerun of the 2015 ploy to castrate the IPID’s special investigations team. Phahlane and several co-accused senior police officials appeared in the Johannesburg Specialised Commercial
Crimes Court for a pretrial hearing in March 2020. Mahlangu, the lead investigator on the Phahlane “house” and “vehicles” investigation, was shot dead at his home in Pretoria shortly before this pretrial hearing. Viewfinder understands that, directly prior to his murder, Mahlangu had also been subpoenaed to testify at Kgomo’s disciplinary hearing. In April, City Press reported that one of the alleged murderers had confessed that he was a hired gun paid for by police to assassinate Mahlangu. The two investigators that IPID apparently recalled last week were part of the team tasked with picking up Mahlangu’s torch, and taking the corruption probe against Phahlane forward. ID head Hermione Cronjé did not respond to a query sent to her via NPA spokesperson Bulelwa Makeke. Makeke said that “the heads of these units are in discussions”. This article forms part of an ongoing Viewfinder series on alleged police criminality and police oversight in South Africa. It was made possible, in part, by a grant from the Henry Nxumalo Fund for Investigative Reporting. Published originally on GroundUp.
Breaking the echo chamber in the city bowl and beyond
Two months ago we were all skeeming three weeks, we do this. Ha! Shit got real. Look at us now, 63 days and counting. Three weeks. Se voet! No theatres. No steamy music gigs. No jols. In the meantime we been skarreling for twak and a bit of booze across WhatsApp groups (thank god for end to end ecryption) while better getting to know the people we live with just took on a whole new dimension. We’re the better for it. There have been forlorn braais, plummeting bank balances, mounting debt, Netflix ennui, and misunderstandings. There have also been wild dances in the lounge to old vinyl records, zol, feeding schemes mobilised by civil society, books, no rush hour hassles, and oohs and aahs over new conceptual brilliance delivered through a screen. There’s been a lot of screen, the bad and the good. We’re scouting for the good. We also asked some people whose opinions and tastes we respect, to gooi in some of the things they’re looking out for. Here’s to rubbing shoulders in the future.
It’s all Insta We’ve mentioned Rob van Vuuren and Louw Venter. They, together with comedians such as Nik Rabinowitz and other actor-comedians such as Alan Committee, having been putting out there since Day when they got over the initial shock of losing all their income in one blow. Insta, of course. Joining the fray has been Schalk Bezuidenhout. He of Canary, or actually, Kanarie, for which he has been nominated for a SAFTA Golden Horn Best Actor award. He already has a ‘Horn for Best Supporting Actor in the comedy TV show Hotel. Anyway, he’s kak good and has been going on kookiest, loveliest rants from inside what looks like a well-kept car from the ‘70s. Or from his bed.
Music These guys will blow your brains out. Ecstasy mash your life. Sorry, couldn’t help it. militiabroadcast.com have a veeery interesting lineup. You should check it out, there’s something there for you. We got our fingers hovering over SIR LSG on 30 May, SGVO on 11 June, and of course there’s Zoë Modiga on 31 May. There’s also Prime Circle later in the month but Rubber Duc on 27 June could be fun. Looks about R80 to R100 for your virtual ticket.
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Visual Art Capetonian mixed media artist Julia Grey has come out of the shadows with a collage a day for lockdown (well, for the first five weeks, now she’s slowed the pace a bit because a work a day is pretty draining). Julia’s witty, incisive visual commentary on the ‘ronacoaster’, which she publishes on her Insta (@juliamarygrey), not only caught our eye, as can be seen by our front page, but one of her works was also used as a cover by the Financial Mail in early April. Keep an eye on her, and snap up one of her works if you’re fast enough.
Dutch Choice In a bid to break our own echo chamber, we asked Anneke Jansen, who is the manager of the Asko|Schönberg ensemble in Amsterdam, and before that, was founder and director of the Amsterdam Fringe Festival, to tell us where she’s getting her lockdown kicks. What follows is Anneke’s writing, lightly, very lightly edited My always go-to absurdists favorite cartoonist – who is responsible for the fact my dog is called Drieluik (Triptic in English) - is Gummbah. He’s a Dutch cartoonist/artist/writer/ performer who now luckily also shares his absurd world view in English. https://gummbah.nl There’s Bad Seed Teevee. It was especially helpful when Corona hit and the concert he was supposed to give in Amsterdam a few weeks ago got cancelled. It’s nice to always have access to a lot of Cave, besides on vinyl of course Another – and yes this is a bit of a promotion because the Asko|Schönberg ensemble for which I work is one of the partners – is the NITE Hotel. Every Friday (since the first one on 1 May) you can go wander around in the rooms artists have created made, hang out in the bar with people you don’t know or friends you meet there (it’s with a Zoom function), participate in pub quizzes, ask questions to the director in the before/aftertalks and see a registration of a show at 20.15. It’s a very welcome substitute for actually not being able to go to theatres together and has a strong focus on the socialising we’re missing now. Or at least I am... Then there is a project called ‘With Love – ten letters of comfort’ instigated by international literature festival Read My World based in Amsterdam. With of course borders closed and festivals locked down so far, being an international literature festival with a wide global focus can prove challenging. The curators, writers and team came up with an idea to let writers write personal physical letters that you can subscribe to. Remember missing getting letters? This is it. Perfect gift I now give to people who are feeling down by the current situation and a beautiful reminder of our global humanity. Find it at readmyworld.nl/en/with-love/ Something I’m looking forward to and which will air this month, is Michael Sheen and David
You’re assured of a great concert when Sipho ‘Hotstix’ Mabuse takes the stage. Go to covidzero.co.za, put some money down and watch and listen to Sipho with Tony Cedras and others as they blow down the Baxter. It’s a recording of the once-off concert of 25 October 2018. Friday the 25th to be exact. So there will be some nostalgia at catching glimpses of an audience gathered in a theatre, but it’s a special moment in time and only available online until June 5. The donation you make for your ticket also directly benefits the artists, and the venue. So if you want to see musos like them back in the flesh again...you know the rest.
Tennant in a new lockdown comedy staged for BBC One.
While you’re there at covid-zero.co.za check out the crazy Living Legends gig setting up for the 28 June. Music discovery of the month is Malian singer and guitarist Fatoumata Diawara. fatoumatadiawara.com will not disappoint. If you are not in the least impressed, we need to reconsider this relationship.
Film Cabin Fever, the first film shot under lockdown in SA is in post-production and due to be premiered sometime soon. Directed by Tim Greene, who put out call via Facebook for actors and writers wanting to participate, it was created by zoom calls and the actors recording themselves with cellphones or laptops. The trailer looks like it’s a bit of a soap opera, but even if it is, the originality of the idea makes it worth checking out. Keep an eye on Tim Greene SA on Vimeo and go to vimeo.com/415128736 to see the trailer. Cinemas pretty much around the world have been closed due to the ‘rona (except perhaps a few in the ‘States – not sure) and there’s all these film festivals dressed up with nowhere to go, so they decided to come to us, together as the We Are One Global Film Festival. What this means is for ten days, between 29 May and 7 June, you, we, us, have a smorgasbord of incredible films available on Youtube as 20 international film festivals make their selections available, free of charge. No more buggering around on Netflix for a while, eh. It’s all happening at youtube.com/WeAreOne
We dream of being back in the theatre.
We buy vinyl. If you have inherited a crateful, or shifted to digital, we’ll exchange for cash. Call 083 348 4936. We’ll come to you.