DARE WHEN OTHERS DON’T
ZERO HOUR OPERATION: NIGHT OF DEATH REVISITED PAGE 4-5
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President Cyril Ramaphosa remains tight-lipped on the details of the robbery. Photo by Jaco Marais / Gallo Images
RAMAPHOSA BOLTS FROM PHALA PHALA WOES And the ATM is deeply worried the Phala Phala probe may be stymied… By Staff Reporters
T
he African Transformation Movement (ATM) says its push to have police conduct in the handling of the theft at President Cyril Ramaphosa’s farm probed, is being brushed aside to protect an “elusive” president. In June, the party wrote to the Public Protector (PP) to probe Ramaphosa. Suspended PP Busisiwe Mkhwebane commenced the investiga-
tions and was summarily suspended by Ramaphosa within hours before the Western Cape High Court was to rule on the legality of Ramaphosa’s intentions to suspend her. The party also requested the Independent Police Investigative Directorate (Ipid) boss Jennifer Ntlatseng to investigate police officers who are alleged to have gone to Namibia to trace individuals suspected of breaking into Ramaphosa’s farm. The movement said it was concerned how both the Ipid and the PP were dragging their feet in probing
the matter while Ramaphosa was “now attending every other meeting or summit outside the country in order to avoid facing his woes in the country.” ATM says it has been told by Ipid to submit a sworn statement for the police watchdog body to investigate the President’s stolen millions of dollars. The PP has entered into an agreement with the president; granting him and extension to respond to the 30 questions sent to him by Adv. Mkhwebane before her suspension.
In a statement issued on Friday 1 July, ATM said it was dismayed by the “secret deal” entered into by the Acting Public Protector, Advocate Kholeka Gcaleka and the President. ATM spokesperson, Sibusiso Mncwabe said the ATM should have been the first to be briefed by Advocate Gcaleka before making the deal. The public protector’s office issued a statement issued on Friday 1 July, in which it said: “The institution wishes to take the opportunity to inform the public that the investigation concerned remains on track.
Thus far, a total of four complaints have been received. Two were lodged in terms of the Executive Members’ Ethics Act (EMEA) while the rest were lodged under the Public Protector Act. “Following a letter written to him for a response to the allegations, the President, through his attorneys, requested an extension of the initial return date of 22 June 2022.
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Story Continued from Page 1 "Upon a careful consideration of the request, which was brought to Acting Public Protector Adv. Kholeka Gcaleka’s attention by the investigation officer for approval, it was acceded to. “It must be noted that requests such as the President’s, are quite common where the PPSA’s investigative work is concerned. In fact, the President made a similar request in respect of a previous EMEA investigation (Bosasa) and that request was also acceded to. “Decisions to accede to such requests are always informed by a careful consideration of the reasons advanced by respondents, the need on the part of the PPSA to be fair to respondents and the amount of information requested from the respondents.”
ATM president Vuyo Zungula has called on law enforcement authorities to suspend all police officers allegedly implicated in the scandal.
Dubious deal “Advocate Gcaleka entered into a private deal with a suspect - President Cyril Ramaphosa, this alone is reason enough for the president to step aside to allow himself time to respond to all the alleged criminal and unethical conduct. “The ATM wishes to remind the Acting Public Protector that in the absence of the Public Protector, Adv. Mkhwebane, she has a duty to protect the people of South African, not Ramaphosa. “The ATM shudders to think what will happen to the investigation by Ramaphosa’s subordinates, including Commissioner of SAPS, Commissioner of SARS among others, if he can strike extension deals with the Acting Public Protector, Adv. Gcaleka. This private deal goes a long way to explain the hurried and premature suspension of the Public Protector, Adv. Mkhwebane,” Mncwabe said.
Police playing hide and seek Meanwhile, the police are sticking to their guns. The Ministry and the office of the National Commissioner told The Telegram that there was nothing untoward in their investigation into the robbery at President Cyril Ramaphosa’s Phala Phala farm. Minister of Police spokesperson Lirandzu Themba said: “Minister Bheki Cele is on record to say he had no knowledge of this incident.” Colonel Athlenda Mathe, spokesperson for the National Commissioner, General Fannie Masemola also washed his hands saying; “the National Commissioner wishes not to be drawn into commenting into an active investigation which is currently being conducted by the Directorate for Priority Crimes Investigations (DPCI). "The National Commissioner is therefore requesting that the inves-
tigators on this case be afforded the opportunity to do their work without any interference.” Complicit and possible cover up by police of the unreported theft of Phala-Phala millions has dominated the news since former spy boss Arthur Fraser laid a criminal case against Ramaphosa for failing to report the robbery as required by law on June 1 2022. Fraser alleged Ramaphosa’s Phala Phala farm in Waterberg, Limpopo was robbed of more than US$4 million in February 2020. This was done in collusion with his domestic worker. He further alleged that Ramaphosa was involved in defeating the ends of justice, kidnapping of suspects, interrogating and bribing them and thereafter concealing the crime from the police. Former national police commissioner Khehla Sitole has pointed
Bheki Cele claims he has no knowledge of the robbery.
an accusing finger at the current national police commissioner, Gen Fannie Masemola saying he should have known about the theft of money from President’s farm. Sitole said if there was a security breach on the president, property, the law said that there should be two reports; one from the local police station and another from the head of the Presidential Protection Unit Major General Wally Rhoode. He said that Masemola was in charge of operations and should have known about the incident. According to Namibian media reports, the Namibian Police confirmed the arrest of one of the suspects named by Fraser in affidavit Imanuwela David. It is claimed that their South African counterparts were not cooperating with them in the investigation of the robbery. They are said to have made a
formal request to South Africa to confirm whether a crime had been registered in South Africa but there was no assistance. ATM president Vuyo Zungula has called on law enforcement authorities to suspend all police officers allegedly implicated in Ramaphosa’s Phala Phala farm saga because police were seemingly covering up. Zungula cited leaked reports that Namibian police were in contact with South African officers, including Masemola and Sitole, following the burglary and theft, and that they were involved in "some secretive and off-the-books investigation." Ramaphosa remained tight-lipped about the details of the robbery. He last spoke on the matter when he told journalists following his reply to the Presidency budget vote speech that he will wait for "due process" to be completed before replying to any media enquiries.
RAMAPHOSA UNDER FIRE AFTER RANCH BURGLARY FUELS QUESTIONS OVER WEALTH CONTACT US
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C
yril Ramaphosa’s first encounter with an Ankole, a breed of long-horned cattle prized by game hunters, came on a trip to east Africa almost 20 years ago. “Once I had first set eyes on the Ankole in Uganda I was determined — in some ways to the point of obsession — to ensure this breed could find a new home in South Africa,” Ramaphosa wrote in 2018, on his way to becoming one of the country’s biggest breeders of cattle and rare game. Now it is Ramaphosa who has become a target after a mysterious burglary at his Phala Phala game reserve where Ankole sales take place stoked questions over the transparency of the president’s wealth — just as he prepares to stand for re-election as African National Congress leader. Ramaphosa became president in 2018 after winning a power struggle in the ruling ANC over the fallout from systemic corruption under his predecessor Jacob Zuma. In comparison with Zuma, Ramaphosa was relatively untarnished by allegations of looting the state. But the scandal over the theft at the 4,500-hectare property shows the crisis of money and influence in the ANC is far from over. Ramaphosa has admitted there was a burglary at his home but said far less than $4mn was taken, while declining to say how much. There are strict controls in South Africa on the holding of foreign currency. “How much money was found at Phala Phala? Did he bank it, when did he bank it, when did he declare it?” asked Judith February, executive officer at Freedom Under Law, a legal NGO. “There are more questions than answers.” There has been “no transparency, there has been no accountability from the president”, she added. Ralph Mathekga, a political analyst, said the issues were undercutting
President Cyril Ramaphosa posing with his Ankole cattle before the Farmgate scandal hit headlines. Photo by Daniel Naude the president’s image as a saviour of the ANC and made him look as culpable as other politicians in the eyes of South Africans. “When you look at him [Ramaphosa] on his own, and not as an alternative to Zuma, he doesn’t stand out so well,” Mathekga added. Ramaphosa’s wealth is intertwined with the story of the ANC’s post-apartheid rule. A one-time protégé of founding father Nelson Mandela, Ramaphosa left parliament in 1997 and founded the investment group Shanduka in 2001 as opportu-
nities opened up for black ownership of the economy. ANC elites were at the forefront of these opportunities with access to so-called empowerment financing for investments. Shanduka bought up assets including mines and McDonald’s franchises, allowing Ramaphosa to indulge his passion for herding. In 2012, Ramaphosa had to apologise for bidding up to R19.5mn ($1.2mn) for a buffalo and her calf at an auction in Rustenburg, seen as an egregiously large sum of money to spend on livestock.
Lukhona Mnguni, head of policy and research at Rivonia Circle, a civic think-tank, said the fact that the president was receiving an income from the game farm on top of his R3million presidential salary “raises questions that will need to be put to bed at some point”. South Africa’s constitution says senior officials must not allow conflicts between their private interests and their responsibilities. Ramaphosa has always said he has declared his farming interests to parliament. Game sales are part of a broader industry encompassing eco-tourism, hunting and breeding that contributes about $1bn to South Africa’s economy. Payments at high-profile auctions are usually via bank transfer. Analysts say private cash sales do take place but still need to be declared for tax and currency regulations. Seeking to explain the game sales at Phala Phala, Ramaphosa told ANC members that he had local and international customers who “come through and buy animals and some of them come to also hunt on the farm”. With South Africa a centre for both legal and illegal trade in wildlife “it is generally only right at the bottom [of the illegal trade] that cash is being moved around a lot”, said Simone Haysom, environmental crime expert at the Global Initiative against Transnational Organised Crime. “For the legal trade, it would be unusual to use a large amount of cash,” such as at Phala Phala, she said. With Ramaphosa facing a battle over re-election as head of the ANC in December, the mystery over the ranch theft gives ammunition to Zuma and his allies, analysts say. “Unfortunately this is tarnishing his image and his credibility as an institutional reformer,” Freedom Under Law’s February said. “There’s something very unsavoury about what’s happening at Phala Phala.” – ft.com
CITY PRESS, 5 SEPTEMBER, 2021
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news: VBS LIQUIDATORS GUN FOR VENDA KING
The liquidators of VBS Mutual Bank applied for a writ of execution at the Johannesburg High Court last month to recoup more than R10 million allegedly owned by a family trust whose sole trustees are Venda King Toni Mphephu Ramabulana and Portia Mphephu.
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LUKAU’S P R50M RENTAL By Staff Reporter
develop our continent when united report for the year ended December and this is an essential thing for our 31, 2018 exposed shocking levels of people to see and experience in our graft, with the power utility paying US$4,9 million for transformers nine lifetime,” Charumbira. ersistent power outages which Charumbira, a traditional leader, years ago, which were never delivsubstituted rowdy parliamenserved as Deputy Minister in the Min- ered. tarians, were a blemish on the istry of Local Government and Public “In April last year, Zesa Holdings proceedings at the Pan-Africa Works in 2000. He holds Masters in reduced average power output at Parliament (PAP) as Zimbabwean Business Administration (MBA) as anchor power station, Kariba South Chief Fortune Charumbira was well as Bachelor in Administration by 5,3% to 445 megawatts after the elected new PAP president. Law and Labour Law. He is a spe- Zambezi River Authority cut the water Last year, chaos erupted as southcialist in Institutional Change and allocation for electricity generation ern African MPs forcibly prevented Performance Improvement. by 5,3% from 38 billion cubic metres the election from going ahead His countryman and journalist to 36 billion cubic metres,” he said. demanding regional rotation. Nyasha Chingono said Charumbira Chingono said Zimbabwe’s power They said West Africa should not was familiar with the power outages utility has also been locked in a field a candidate as it had previously as Zimbabwe has been plunged into legal battle with businessman Wickheld the presidency, as had central darkness for years now. nell Chivayo over a multi-million Africa and east Africa. So, only southThe crisis begun after water levels 100-megawatt Gwanda solar project. ern and north Africa should contest PAY UP Alleluia Ministries International in Kramerville, Sandton. The church defended pastor Alph Lukau (inset) at the Kariba Dam fell to its lowest “The US$5PHOTO: million solar project, the election. after he performed the so-called miracle resurrection of Elliot Moyo in 2019 LUBA LESOLLE / GALLO IMAGES since 1996, worsening the power which was expected to ease ZimbaOn Tuesday, June 28 the opening generation catastrophe. He said “The bwe’s session was delayed for hours as the MDUDUZI NONYANE guard, perennial who refused to power provide mechallenges, with his Zimbabwe and Zambia depend onname,isdidnow dead thebutwater mduduzi.nonyane@citypress.co.za not allow me in access told me following to wait. He South African power utility Eskom into the guard on the property andnot the Kariba Dam for nearly half theirdisappeared revelations thathut Chivayo could continued its stage 6 load-shedding echnology distribution and warehousing spoke to this supervisor, who came out to speak to me. power. deliver the power plant,” explained. not seen in over two years. Red-faced giant Tarsus Shared Services is battling to “After explaining the purpose of my visit and the “Southern Africa has sunlight He said a major source of power, South African parliamentarians were recover a R50 million deficit allegedly documentation that I had with me, the supervisor also for three quarters of the day. We the Hwange Thermal Power Station, at pains to explain the embarrassowed by controversial pastor Alph Lukau refused to provide me access. shouldn’t be having a power crisis if “Similarly, just like South Africa’s power ment. and several of his business associates. he refused to provide me Kusile with his name. I our governments had simply cared.couldstation was ANC Chief Whip The matterPemmy relates to aMajodina cancelled lease see that he hadconstantly been speakingbreaking to someone down over have been with us forhis cellular due to obsolete evicted from the premises early securitiesSolar and/orsolutions members’ and agreement pertaining premises ofbetween Alleluia phone from timeequipment. to time ... After seeing the said there wereto the meetings last Pan-African year because itParliament could no follows but multiple Ministries Internationalofficials in Sandton,and Johannesburg. gate, the supervisor that I long time because of politicalletters attached Zesa’sto the problems bear asaidstriking parliamentary Eskom NEW President of the Fortune Charumbira in the middle. directors’aregisters longer meet the R1 million monthly requests ineptitude for access, and is such a The company lodged a court application this week at should come [back] the next day,” they say. and corruption nothing resembles to its South African counin an effort to minimise the impact Photo by Felix Dlangamandla / Daily Maverick rental fee. clear interference with an the Johannesburg High Court, flagging three companies shot to fame over the past two years by has been done,” he told The Tele- Lukau terpart Eskom. of load-shedding on the PAP parliaThe company instituted, among unconditional statutory right. The linked to Lukau for failing to declare their company performing so-called miracles during his church services, gram. At Kusile alone, corruption, theft mentary session. other things, arbitration applicant requests that a punitive security registers in their arbitration process as including when he publicly “resurrected” a man. by his Southern on us by outside continents and Chingono saidof there were sim- Lukau and fraud, with poor manNothing worked out like test for Presidency proceedings in which it claimed: cost award be made against each prescribed by the Companies Act,and citingPAP, that the claimed that coupled the man, Elliot Moyo, had died 161 votes resulted in us identifying one another ilarities between South Africa andand the agement and planning, Arrear rentals and out charges up the respondents.” information sought would enable it to trackAfrica, the intricateAfrica Caucus and.got latter’s body was inadequate brought to the pastor by his any other business in South ACCORDING TOFrancophones ARBITRATION of 203 votes casttowith 31it abstaining as Anglophones, and the date cancelled the The applicants say thispointing refusal has out that Southfamilyhave web ofconducted companies thatin operate the church in South a few days Zimbabwe seenlater. the construction costs of was darkness. DOCUMENTS, TARSUS SHARED sublease; put a strain on thecould arbitration Africa and throughout Africa. Thethe incident angeredballoon some within religious and 11 spoilt papers. As the first Lusophones,” said Charumbira. Africa be on its way to experifacility totheR161 billion The African Union (AU) pulled all SERVICES HAS BEEN TRYING Damages for the coloperiod the process, encing further delaying the The court papers also indicate that attempts to serve order of business, .he community, who called for Lukau to be investigated byof attacked He said as PAP president, his prespower outages that may last from the initial estimated cost the stops to ensure that last year’s TO RECOVER THE DEBT was in occupation after recovery of debts. Lukau and a close business partner, identified as John nial regionalism defendant the Commission for the Promotion and Protection of the in his election vicidency was for everyone in the condays up to weeks as experienced byRightsR78 billion. scenes not to have be repeated. SINCE MARCH 2018, LEADING the cancellation; They further highlighted that their Ferguson, were with a summons failed, as theyThe have of Cultural, Religious and Linguistic Communities tory speech. tinent irrespective how they voted. Zimbabweans. The of the alleged dodgy TO THE PERIOD Africa continental body assigned . Future loss of rentals and legal representative visited Lukau’s allegedly taken up residence in Portugal and refuse to after a video of value his purported resurrection of Moyo went “I want us to come together. “It isWHEN highTHE time we put CHURCH WASour Africhallenges have been wors-viral. contracts reach a staggering Moussa Faki Mahamat the chairpercharges calculated from the date known place“Power of business in June, accept service through legal counsel. EVICTED FROM THE PREMISES We need to immediately and forward and do away ening duewas todenied corruption at the state It also R178 billion which is almost half of the defendant fight ceased to occupy can people but the representative They “the appellant to requires the emerged in 2019 that Lukau’s church members son ofemphasise the AU that Commission oversee EARLY LAST YEAR, Together, destroy divisions caused by these with unnecessary conflicts. the premises as a church until the entry. entity. Among a number of fraud-regarded information in the registers in order to unravel the him as being similar to debt Jesus, proclaiming that Eskom's crippling of approxithe elections. AFTER WHICH IT COULD NO expiry date of the sublease; and “The premises has access control relationship between Lukau and Ferguson, and the he was crucified for helping to heal others. foreign languages in Africa imposed we can achieve more, we will only ulent deals, the Auditor-General’s mately R411 billion. Charumbira was seconded to conLONGER MEET THE R1 MILLION
SCANDAL
T
respondents [King Vision Holdings, Alph Lukau Group and Al Resident Holdings] to recover the debts due by Lukau and Ferguson”. According to its arbitration documents, Tarsus Shared Services has been trying to recover the debt since March wechurch hearwasthe 2018, relating to the henever period when the
W
Companies linked to the controversial megachurch preacher evade debt collection as he and his business associates are said to be in Portugal
R1M
. Restoration of the premises. and requires a security guard to MONTHLY RENTAL FEE The proceedings also reveal that allow access. I spoke to the security church leaders, including Lukau, guard on duty and asked that I be have blatantly refused to grant the applicants access to allowed into the property in order to deliver the request information pertaining to company directors. to the respondents to inspect the securities and/or “As the refusal to allow access to the respondents’ member registers of the respondents.
The applicant’s lawyer, Andrew Scarrott of AB Scarrott Attorneys, declined to comment. “I have received your enquiry, [but] I have no instructions to make any comment at this time,” he said. Efforts to source comment from Lukau and the rienced worst load shedding, companies werethe unsuccessful.
LOAD SHEDDING TRIPS THE COUNTRY’S ECONOMY SWITCH WHERE IT MATTERS MOST TOP FASHION GURU MUST PAY BACK THE MONEY
words LOAD SHEDDING, we cannot help but have feelings of despondency and frustration, particularly to businesses that are housed in homes or buildings that do not have alternative power solutions like a generator or solar system. JULIA MADIBOGO julia.madibogo@citypress.co.za Businesses feel the loss of power the most, particularly smaller growBusinessperson Kabelo Ncholo has accused celebrity ing businesses that do not have fashion designer Paledi Segapo of reneging on a the necessary infrastructure to help repayment arrangement the pair entered into out of cope theallegedly loss offailed power supply. court afterwith the latter to deliver the Not only items are that businesses tryingand to wedding-related Ncholo had ordered paid for. whether the storm of the pandemic, Ncholo dragged Segapo to the Johannesburg High they are now faced with the impact Court an effort to recoup payments he made to the of in load shedding. Palse fashion label owner while preparing for his When businesses experience load wedding. shedding, some of them atare to Segapo was scheduled to appear theforced Randburg close their doors because they canMagistrates’ Court on Tuesday on a separate criminal notoffunction orsame runtransaction. their businesses charge fraud for the That matter do was not not placed the roll, however, due as they haveonthe infrastructo ture the out-of-court settlementisagreement that the pair and security compromised. reached. Load shedding has the potential National Prosecuting Authority spokesperson Phindi to breed theft as burglar alarms are Mjonondwane confirmed that the matter was “not rendered unusable or ratherwith cannot placed on the roll, pending consultation the operate at optimal levels and this complainant”. Ncholo opened a civil case against Segapo in leavesfirst businesses vulnerable to theft April 2019other and then opened a activities. criminal case of fraud and criminal in August of thebusinesses same year to push latter to pay Small are the faced with him back. loss of profits during load shedding In the settlement agreement, which City Press has because mostNovember cases they require seen and whichin is dated 2020, the
R300 000
South Africa’s population and 3 to 4
attach Segapo’s assets after the designer allegedlyelectricity has BUSINESS hours without major IS SLOW moved out of his place of business. financial implications on these busiFashion Segapo, who has styled celebrities Idolsdo SA businesses nesses.including Not only loose designer producer and host ProVerb, award-winning musician production and profits, they have Paledi Prince Kaybee, veteran actor Warren Masemola and US no access to Wi-Fi which relies on IN THE SETTLEMENT AGREEMENT, WHICH Segapo says singer Tevin Campbell, was hired by Ncholo in 2018 to CITY PRESS HAS SEEN AND WHICH IS DATED electricity and when businesses are his business design attire for his wedding, which was scheduled to NOVEMBER 2020, THE SEASONED DESIGNER notNorth ableWest. to connect to the network, has been take place in 2019 at Sun City, AGREED TO PAY BACK ABOUT R300 000 TO by The wedding did not takethey place that year and Ncholo may miss importantaffected informaNCHOLO BY THE END OF NOVEMBER got married in November last year or after obtaining tion not havethe the abilityCovid-19 to send PHOTO: OUPA services of other designers. out quotations, invoices, etc. BOPAPE/ seasoned designer agreed to pay back about R300 000 According to Ncholo, the popular designer was also Load shedding affects traffic GALLO IMAGES to Ncholo by the end of November. set to arrange a team that was meant to include a lights – this can potentially result “The defendant shall pay the plaintiff an amount of wedding planner, a photographer, a hair and make-up in missed meetings, arriving late R297 000 in a full and final settlement of the dispute, artist, and a booking for a segment in the lifestyle at work or deliveries delaying [an offer] which the plaintiff accepts on the terms and television programme Top Billing. conditions contained herein,” reads the settlement. To secure his services, Segapo a andreportedly goods requested not arriving on time. The conditions were that Segapo had to make the R150 000 deposit of the R300 000 he had load chargedshedding the Although schedules first payment of R118 500 by the end of March, and the businessperson for his suit, his bride’s gown and attire are provided and businesses may try other payments were to be made in R20 000 monthly for the entire bridal party. plan accordingly and try incorporate instalments until the end of November. However, Segapo allegedly only created outfits for the Segapo was also asked to pay Ncholo’s R30 000 legal bride and the bridesmaids. the schedule times in their business operations, costs on or before December 31 this year. The settlement letter states that failure by this the is not a sustainable allpaid small businesses have to the electricity to function and their However, saysrun Ncholo, Segapo Not has only R85 000 seasoned designer pay what is due to Ncholo per long term solution. privilege ofend alternate thus of far and is expected 000 by the of the power settlementsupply. agreement will trigger pursuit of a businesses. A loss profits is astoapay R45 When businesses get affected, month or Ncholo will move to obtain Smalla judgment businessescivil arecase. at the heart this trickles down to the economy. result of loss ofthis production, where against him. not workYesterday, Segapo said he couldn’t comment as the of South Africa’s economy as they employees are essentially In a report by CSIR energy centre But the businessperson says he is scared that, even if matter was sub judice. provide employment to majority of ing during periods of load shedding. 2019was where he obtains a judgment, there might be no way to However, he said his storefrom in Newtown closedSouth Africa expe-
it cost the economy between R60 billion and R120 billion. Already by then it was predicted that load shedding would last up to 3 years and since then, no action has been implemented to turn the situation around to ensure that SA’s energy sector recovers. Load shedding leads to further job losses and in turn results in lower production, spending, and further negatively affecting the economic growth of the country. Energy analyst Mike Rossouw Mike Roosouw said: “I don’t see the light at the end of the tunnel. In fact, I see a big train coming down the tunnel at us. We are going to see load shedding and for much longer. Load shedding is part of the reason why the economy is unable to lift itself out of a low growth environment. "It is rather difficult for growth to take place when there is no due to Covid-19 – not so that he could avoid making power. Businesses flourish in an payment to Ncholo. environment of my consistency and “Why would I discontinue businesses while I have to [conduct] I am notabout the first person are often business? uncertain how to close their store the moment given because we are going much to atproduce the cirthrough a difficult time. cumstances of load shedding and “What they are doing is making me look like I am a it determining the level of output.” thug on the run when the truth is that I could not – tmmbs.co.za afford to pay rent,” he said.
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ZERO HOUR OPERATION: NIGHT OF DEATH REVISITED The memories of 25 June 1985 drops ice to the bottom of Zero-Hour Operation survivor’s soul. The thought of the ruined youthful bodies he had seen; bodies that were ruined by the ruthless apartheid regime haunts him. With the advent of democracy, like the millions of other citizens, he had expected and imagined that somehow he would never have to think again about the way people destroy other people’s lives. It is a night I will never forget. When my memory wanders back to the freezing winter night of 25 of June 1985, I still get chills rushing through my body and soul. The more I think back to that night, the greater my agony. What a deadly and cold night it was. What a terrible night, indeed. It is one I would rather forget than think of, and unfortunately that is not how life works. It does not work that way and never will. I have tried to banish the bad memories to a dark and deep dungeon, but they always find their way back. They do not want to go away. They are with me all the time. On the night of 25 June, I lost beloved friends and comrades in an operation dubbed Zero Hour by the hardcore racist regime under the leadership of the verkrampte and murderous PW Botha. Botha – together with members of the State Security Council, a police commissioner and a senior member of the Security Branch General Johan Van der Merwe, Minister of Law and Order Louis Le Grange, Minister of Defence General Magnus Malan and the Head of the C2 Unit in Vlakplass, Brigadier Willem Schoon – devised a
the youth leadership in Kwa-Thema, Tsakane and Duduza (Kwatsaduza), in what today is called Ekurhuleni.
OPINION
BY THABANG NZIMA lethal plan. Like evil witches of yore they prepared, in their cauldron of intense hatred, a deadly diet which they called Zero Hour Operation. They conspired to entrap and murder members of the Congress of South African Students (Cosas) and
The height of insurrection The year 1985 was the pinnacle of the semi-insurrectionary stage of the revolution. Kwatsaduza was at the forefront and spearheaded protest action and mass mobilisation to render the country ungovernable and apartheid unworkable. Our activities were a direct response to the revolutionary call made by the late President General of the African National Congress (ANC) and Commander in Chief of uMkhonto weSizwe (MK), comrade Oliver Reginald Tambo, affectionately known as OR. The appropriately organised and well-controlled mass mobilisation and protest actions ultimately drew the attention of the notorious Security Forces. They kept their beady murderous eyes on Cosas and youth leaders, marking them as targets for elimination. Zero Hour Operation, which was ocherstrated at the higher echelons of the apatheid regime’s security cluster, was masterminded by Eugene de Kock, then head of counter intelligence at the infamous Vlakplaas, and
Joe Mamasela, a former MK operative who had became an Askari.
Lekatsa, Thokozani Mkhize and I, Thabang Nzima.
The hour of death Mamasela and Enos Nkala descended on Kwatsaduza and lured Cosas and youth leaders under the guise that, as part of celebrating the 30th anniversary of the Freedom Charter, we were to carry out an aggressive operation against enemy agents and state infrastructure on the wintry night of 25 June at midnight. 00hr 00min, gave birth to the name Zero Hour Operation. Sixteen young revolutionaries were given booby-trapped hand grenades and limpet mines. Eight pupils and youth leaders died on that night, when the hand grenades and limpet mines exploded in their hands, triggered by the zero timing. The comrades who perished that dreadful night were Congress Mtshweni, Ngungunyane Mashabane, Lucky Mogodi, Osborne Dhlamini, Vincent Nokwindla, Mathibe Modisane, Moboa Mashiane and Jabulani Mahlangu. Comrades who survived but sustained multiple injuries were Hosea Lengosane, Humprey Tshabalala (died in 2003), John Mlangeni (died in 2018), JB Mazuza, Oupa
Injured survivors were arrested Due to the severity of their injuries, survivors were taken to various hospitals around Kwatsaduza, where they were eventually arrested and kept under police guard. I managed to evade arrest and went into hiding and finally left for exile where I joined the ANC. A trial called the Duduza Terrorism Trial ensued in the Pretoria High Court and lasted for 20 months. During the trial, police involvement and their machination were exposed. This resulted in a deal being made, where the accused’s sentence was reduced to 16 months - for the unlawfull possession of hand grenades. Unpacking the night of death The Tsakane unit comprised five of us. It was Hosea Lengosane, Thokozani Mkhize, myself, (three of us from Tsakane), Vincent Nokwindla and Jabulani Mahlangu (from KwaThema).
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NEWS
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with a deep-rooted sense of grief and indescribable anger against Mamasela and his gang of murderers.
Joe Mamasela was involved in the torture and killing of anti-apartheid activists. Photo Chris Collingridge/ iol.co.za
Story Continued from Page 4
PW Botha authorised Zero Hour Operation. Photo rgssouthafrica
We converged at Diale’s house, which we often used as our meeting place, in Matse Street. We were among a group of 10 comrades in the house and unbeknown to them, was the fact we were in a mission that night. At around 10pm, Mamasela and Nkala arrived to hand us the grenades. We agreed and confirmed that at exactly midnight we would attack our chosen target. At around 11:30 pm, we moved toward our target - a house in Ndabezitha Street, one of the main streets in Tsakane, belonging to a notorious policeman, a Mr Baloyi. At almost 12 midnight, we neared Baloyi’s house and were ready to blow it up with grenades. Just before we could carry out the attack, in unison and as planned, we heard loud explosions coming from Duduza. Another massive explosion came from KwaThema, which we suspected was a limpet mine. The explosions served as a cue for us to attack. What followed was a big explosion, which knocked us down. This was not what we expect would happen. The grenades had exploded in our hands. Jabulani Mahlangu and Vincent Nokwindla’s grenades exploded
simultaneous, fatally wounding both. Hosea Lengosane and Thokozani Mkhize’s, exploded immediately thereafter, seriously injuring the three of us. My grenade did not explode because as I was about to pull the pin, I was knocked down by the impact of the first four grenades. As I stood up, staggering, an indescribale shock assailed me as I saw my fellow comrades, Jabulani and Vincent lying dead. Their bodies blown up by the booby-trapped hand grenades. Hosea and Thokozani were spreadeagled on the ground, unable to move. Instinctively, it dawned on me that something was wrong with the hand grenades, because not a single one reached the intended target. I immediately bolted into the darkness of the night to avoid being spotted and eventually arrested on the scene. I felt an excrutiating pang of sadness and bitterness as I left my fallen comrades behind. That horrible and terrifying sight of my comrades lying dead, is still etched in my memory. I carry it with me. Later, it turned out the same fate had come to pass on our comrades in Duduza and Kwa-Thema. This was a rude awakening for me…that there is indeed no easy walk to freedom. The death of my comrades left me
Freedom for a few is no freedom at all While we celebrated the birth of a constitutional democracy in 1994, with the marching of time the political direction the country has taken, has eroded all our hopes and aspirations. The values enshrined in our Constitution, which advocate for a culture of human rights and a better life for all, are like pie in the sky. It is a bitter pill to swallow that 28 years of freedom have yielded nothing. Instead, it has extended misery to the overwhelming population of South Africa. The sacrifices seem to have been in vain. All the hopes of a better life that we longed, fought for and envisaged that this freedom will deliver have diminished. The contribution and sacrifices made by fallen comrades in the Zero Hour Operation are not acknowledged, memorialised and/or celebrated by our democratic government. Their contribution to the struggle and the supreme price of sacrifice that they paid in the end, has been deleted from the national memory. All was in vain. It is heartbreaking that the ideals of the struggle we waged and the Freedom Charter that we so cherished have not been realised. We took a bigoted detour along the way of the democratic dispensation. We have abandoned all the ideals contained in the Freedom Charter. We have allowed ourselves to be consumed by greed and corruption, at the expense of our people, whom we claim to represent and lead. For us to realise the ideals of the Freedom Charter, we need a complete overhaul in our deliberations. It has become a matter of urgency to undo the perilous state we find ourselves in today. If we delay any further than we have done for 28 years, we are doomed and it won’t be long before South Africa becomes a failed state. That would be heartwrenchingly sad - because we have massive potential to thrive as a nation.
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NEWS
CRIME IN SA: HEALTHCARE WORKERS CARRY A HEAVY BURDEN By Ndivhuwo Mukwevho
W
ith healthcare workers having barely survived the wrath of Covid-19 for almost two-and-ahalf years, there is nowhere to hide when an ongoing stream of crime victims are admitted to hospitals. Murders, rape, and gender-based violence (GBV) are a part of daily reality in the country. And now, trade unions representing most health care providers have had enough. They say these workers face the brunt of this violence, working within an already stretched healthcare system. According to the latest crime statistics for the period between January and March this year, 1 107 people more people were killed compared to 2021 for the same period. This means there was an increase of 22% in murders, and sexual offences rose by 13%. Speaking to Health-e News, South African Medical Association (SAMA), spokesperson, Dr Mvuyisi Mzukwa, said crime has become a health crisis, negatively impacting the already stretched public healthcare system. The psychological burden “It is a crisis because it negatively
impacts the already limited health resources. The impact is largely psychological because healthcare workers are exposed to gross outcomes of violence and need psychological support. Secondly, the burden of disease is increased, meaning more work within a limited healthcare workforce,” said Dr Mzukwa. According to Dr Mzukwa, healthcare workers in the country are battling to cope, with the increased burden of work, as a result of criminal activities that involve violence. Dr Mzukwa further stated that there was limited mental health support for healthcare workers who are subjected to trauma. “As I indicated earlier, there is little or no support for healthcare workers. There is little or no debriefing after attending to a traumatic case. The counselling infrastructure has almost collapsed,” he said. 'Crime adds to the squeeze’ Democratic Nursing Organisation (DENOSA) communications manager, Sibongiseni Delihlazo, agrees with Dr Mzukwa, stating that criminal activities add further strain. “We live in a country that does not have enough resources to cater to its citizens, so when you have crime as an additional problem, it squeezes the country’s healthcare system even further,” said Delihlazo.
Delihlazo said that most victims of crime end up at healthcare facilities, overcrowding the system. “Crime is a man-made kind of disaster for the country because criminality is a man-made phenomenon,” he said. “We have a country with a high vehicle accident rate that puts a lot of pressure on the health system. Many of these patients, unfortunately, don’t make it and end up at healthcare facilities. So crime is an additional problem in a country that does not have enough resources allocated to the health services. It just turns the entire country’s health system into chaos,” said Delihlazo. At boiling point Delihlazo further indicated that healthcare workers were also often victims of crime. This, as well as corruption, as seen with the PPE tenders, is a step too far. Earlier this year, an assistant nurse was shot dead by her ex-partner while on duty at a Tembisa hospital in Gauteng. The World Health Organisation (WHO) says violence against health workers is unacceptable. Not only does it hurt the psychological and physical well-being of healthcare staff, but it also affects their motivation. Therefore, this violence compromises the quality of care and puts healthcare provision at risk. – Health-e News
Healthcare workers are exposed to many potentially traumatic events leading to significant distress and moral suffering.
The spike in crime has left healthcare workers scared and vulnerable to mental health issues, burnout and in some instances, suicide.
MEN ARE ALSO VICTIMS OF ABUSE It’s time to talk
Just because I am a man, it does not mean she cannot hurt me. I am human too…but nobody believes me.
www.mensvoice.co.za
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NEWS
AS DEADLINE APPROACHES, ZIMBABWEANS FACE A STARK CHOICE: START FROM ZERO IN A BROKEN COUNTRY OR LIVE UNDOCUMENTED IN SA Shepherd Muroyiwa at his veggie stall where he sells produce popular with other Zimbabweans. Photo by Tariro Washinyira/GroundUp
From 1 January 2023, hundreds of thousands of Zimbabweans and their children will no longer be able to live, work and go to school legally in South Africa. By Tariro Washinyira
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hree Zimbabweans who held Zimbabwean Exemption Permits (ZEP), which the South African government has now scrapped, share their anxiety and anguish as they face deportation, uprooting their lives and children and starting all over again in Zimbabwe, or continuing to live in South Africa as undocumented aliens. Shepherd Muroyiwa is one of about 178,000 Zimbabweans badly affected by the cabinet decision not to renew the ZEP, which expired in December 2021. ZEP holders were given until the end of December 2022 to legalise their status in the country by other means. For most this is not possible. Muroyiwa runs a market in Parow, Cape Town, which specialises in fresh produce popular with immigrants – spinach, covo, pumpkin leaves, okra, mazoe crush concentrate, kapenta fish and mopani worms. “There are no other people [here] selling what I specialise in. Moving to Zimbabwe would mean the death of my family’s livelihood,” says Muroyiwa. “It is like walking into darkness. We don’t know how we will survive.” Muroyiwa established his business in 2009. “We are only filling the gap and augmenting the South African economy. We can’t be accused of taking business from the citizens … There is empty space [a stall] right next to
"Surely the situation leaves me with no choice but to live under the radar,” says a maths teacher who has been living in South Africa since 2008 and now faces possible deportation with the scrapping of the Zimbabwean Exemption Permit. Photo by Tariro Washinyira/GroundUp
me. Why are they [South Africans] not taking it? “If a South African takes over my business, to whom he is going to sell? As immigrants we have common foods we eat, and we sell to each other,” he said. A single mother and preschool principal, who has been living in South Africa for 13 years and asked not to be identified, said she had hoped to get a waiver. A waiver allows Home Affairs to disregard certain
requirements for permission to stay, such as when an employer can prove they advertised for a job but no South Africans qualified. She applied for a waiver from Home Affairs in December last year, but she has never even received a response. She followed up in February but was told she cannot start a new permit application until she gets a response. She is anxious. She showed GroundUp copies of rejected waivers
other Zimbabweans had received. Relocating, she said, would be starting from zero. “If we sell our belongings, it’s not going to be purchased for the actual value,” she said. “My 12-year-old child speaks English and Afrikaans only. How is she going to be integrated in Zimbabwean government schools? … Children who have already moved to Zimbabwe are stressed. The adjustment is going to be huge.” Another ZEP holder, who also asked to remain anonymous, teaches grade 5 maths. Only grade 8 to 12 maths teachers qualify for critical skills. “I will lose my job … Mentally it’s eating me up, trying to think how I am going to survive,” he said. He used to teach in a rural school in Zimbabwe but fled political violence in 2008. “I had to run away from home, sleep in the mountains and eventually I came to South Africa. I had to sleep in a queue braving cold, rainy weather for days before I got asylum, which I renewed every six months before the government implemented DZP [now the ZEP.] “So, since then, I was on that permit. I got a teaching job in 2016. Before that I worked for a property management company. I then studied a BA in environmental management with Unisa and completed it last year,” he said. He has two sons at university, a third in high school and a daughter in primary school. He says he has loans, furniture accounts and a mortgage to pay. But without legal status his bank account will be closed. “I don’t even want to imagine it,” he said. He said he will never get a job in Zimbabwe’s civil service. “I would rather live here undocumented and I will only go when they deport me. This means I am turning myself into a life of a criminal to run away from law enforcement and Home Affairs officials, which is
something that should not be happening to a professional person like me. Surely, the situation leaves me with no choice but to live under the radar,” he said. “We are in this position because of this brotherhood in Africa where presidents are shielding instead of rebuking one another when they go astray. If South Africa had done the right thing from the beginning we might not have been here or stayed this far,” he said, presumably referring to former President Thabo Mbeki’s policy of “quiet diplomacy” towards Zimbabwe in the 2000s, which many believe gave Zanu-PF, Zimbabwe’s ruling party, a free hand to loot the country. Activist Anthony Muteti said: “The situation has not improved in Zimbabwe. The South African government has not done enough to make the ruling party ZANU-PF accountable. They declared the election in Zimbabwe free and fair when people were intimidated and murdered.” “A lot of Zimbabweans are going to come back undocumented … The intensification of security at the border is not going to work; it is a dream; it is a fantasy. I come from a province close to South Africa where people used to walk to South Africa for so many years. Our forefathers have established families; it will go on forever.” Julius Shamu, a Zimbabwe community leader, says: “As for the claims of Zimbabweans taking jobs from South Africans, I do not agree. How would people working for themselves, take jobs from South Africans? How can you tell a person who has been living in the country for more than ten years to go back to his country without proper planning?” He said the Helen Suzman Foundation’s challenge to government’s decision not to renew the ZEP gives Zimbabweans some hope. At least there are people and organisations fighting on their side, he said. – groundup.org.za
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TECH
Intelligent systems are powering world’s largest search engines, helping us sort never-ending heaps of data into meaningful categories.
AI CAN EVEN HELP YOU BETTER LIFE By Chirag Thumar
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ust a few years ago, it would have been hard to imagine just how significant Artificial Intelligence (AI) would be for our daily lives. These days, intelligent systems are powering world’s largest search engines, helping us sort never-ending heaps of data into meaningful categories, and can understand most of what we are saying and even translate it into a different language. This is partially a natural consequence of the increase in computational power and higher availability of very capable hardware. But hardware itself may not be the biggest driving force behind many recent artificial intelligence breakthroughs. Our global move to the cloud has led to an incredible growth when it comes to the amount of data stored online. This has a profound impact on the development and use of AI. Modern Deep Learning networks can use col-
By Luis Monzon Artificial Intelligence has become so integrated into the technology stack that it goes largely unnoticed. When you take a picture with a newer iPhone, for instance, the phone collects a couple of frames and analyses it at the pixel level to identify what is in the scene and balance the exposure to produce a crisp, detailed final picture. All this happens in a fraction of the time it took you to read that sentence. Outside of turning you into a better photographer, AI is verifying your identity and enabling all the smart solutions that make your personal admin more convenient. Need a quick loan for your business? There’s an AI engine doing an instant credit assessment to approve your application in minutes. “When NGA first started playing with data, we made a decision to ensure that our models used ethical AI,” explains NGA CEO Mark Germishuys.
lected information to learn and gain the ability to, for example, recognise spam email from authentic messages or organise pictures of trees based on their species. When taking a closer look at some of the most important subfields that are contributing toward the advancement of artificial intelligence by leveraging the power hidden inside large data sets, we can better understand where this exciting technology heading. Machine Learning Computers are naturally very good at solving certain problems. For example, even the cheapest computer that you can buy today could easily calculate a complex trajectory of a moving object, perform statistical analysis, or land a spacecraft on the Moon. But there’s a different set of problems that is difficult to handle even for the most powerful supercomputers in existence. Unlike the world of computers, the real world isn’t algorithmic and
predictable. In fact, it’s rather messy. That’s why we have to heavily rely on intuition in order to identify objects, decide when we should visit a doctor, or what we should wear when we go out. Machine learning is a new approach to problem-solving that relies on programs that learn how to solve problems based on the data they receive. Machine learning is already successfully used in practice to identify faces of people, localize earthquakes, predict fluctuations on the stock market, or recommend users news topics based on their interests and previous likes. Neural Networks Machine learning would largely be impossible, at least on the scale we see today, if it wasn’t for the use of neural networks. They are approximations of the human brain composed of hundreds and thousands individual pieces of software and hardware. Each little neuron is responsible for a single,
small task and its output gives the signal to higher systems. A good example is a network designed to recognize handwriting. At the smallest scale, individual neurons perform relatively simple operations, such as line curvature analysis. Their output is passed to other neurons, which operate under a different set of rules, until an output neuron is activated. The biggest downside to neural networks is their reliance on large data sets and their slow learning speed. Furthermore, their output is hardly predictable, and it can take a very long time to discover the reasoning behind a particular decision of a network.
Integrative AI would allow humans to interact with machines on a much more personal level, and it would allow machines to learn and retrieve new information in a much more efficient manner. Unfortunately, only a little progress has been made in this area, and it will take many years of dedicated research before artificial intelligence systems will have the same perceptual ability as humans do. However, it’s inevitable that the consumer demand will drive the innovation and power new waves of research, which will help us get another step closer toward a more human vision of what artificial intelligence could look like.
Integrative AI Just like neurons in large neural networks, complex AI system necessitates integration of many competencies, such as vision, learning, language, speech, planning, and others, to allow machines to fully act in an open-world environment.
Conclusion Despite consumers getting gradually more used to the world where intelligent systems are being able to perform increasingly complex tasks, we still have a long way ahead of us before we can even remotely approach complex thinking of humans. – thriveglobal.com
THE THREE SIGNS OF A GREAT AI SOLUTION Here are the three Signs: Ethical AI Ethical AI is a catch-all consideration that helps eliminate bias and minimise discrimination by constantly improving the data sets used to train machine learning tools, as well as improve data handling and privacy. On the AI bias side companies like Goldman Sachs and Amazon have faced major reputational damage for relying on AI tools that actively discriminated along gender lines when granting credit and filling vacancies. But the company damage of choosing the wrong AI solution can be financial too, with all the funds spent on research and development evaporating with the failed project. “Data needs controls because there’s more to it than simply scrap-
ing data,” Germishuys says. “One of the biggest problems we see globally is false positives. Our SocialListener product is trained to look at context because it analyses sentiment and negative keywords. This helps deliver a clean data set that is free of the noise.” Data Anonymity Data anonymity is another major concern for companies that are forced to lean increasingly on AI tools. Since the Protection of Personal Information Act (POPIA) came into effect in 2020 the associated limitations around data gathering have compromised legacy lead generation techniques. NGA gained an early advantage by basing its AI on public domain data. The company’s RiskSecure solution monitors transaction behaviour in the absence of attached identity to
gain a more reliable understanding of fraudulent activity patterns. This pattern matching can then be scaled to larger data sets and serve as a prediction tool that can dynamically flag similar behaviour. “Our sentiment score can predict market trends because we have the entire history of the internet to trawl for patterns. And these patterns do repeat themselves,” Germishuys explains. “We also have the capacity to support our products because we’ve built them from scratch using revenue we generated from other parts of the business and not impatient venture capital.” Market Readiness Market readiness is a big problem Germishuys sees in the AI industry, with many vendors overpromising customer benefits and then under-
delivering on unrealistic expectations. “Don’t lie to clients about readiness, just get the MVP (minimum viable product) out,” he says. NGA is committed to delivering excellence and working alongside customers to create unique solutions that meet their needs. The company has become a global leader in AI development because it considers international AI firms as its competition. It can be cheaper for local clients or regional offices of multinational corporations to buy off-the-shelf from major international technology vendors, hence the NGA global approach. Business owners need to be mindful of the state of AI technology and how they can leverage these tools to improve productivity and efficiency. These tools are becoming essential to compete in the marketplace and finding the right technology partner could be the difference between success and failure. – itnewsafrica.com
YOUR TAKE
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SA MISSIONS IN AN EVER-CHANGING DIPLOMATIC LANDSCAPE F
ollowing the appointment of Zane Dangor as the new Director-General of the Department of International Relations and Cooperation (Dirco), a Heads of Mission Conference (HOM22) was hosted from 7 to 11 April. Inaugurated by President Cyril Ramaphosa, this significant conference of South African ambassadors, high commissioners, and consuls-general presented an opportunity for the President to interact with his chief representatives abroad. This is the apex interface between the president and his chief representatives abroad. Chief representatives obtained briefings from Ramaphosa and his executive on progress made in advancing the country’s domestic priorities and how these can be reinforced by South African missions abroad, working together with nations of the world to advance South Africa’s foreign policy agenda. Representatives also used the session to reflect and share their thoughts about successes, prospects and challenges they face in the execution of the country’s foreign policy. Heads of Mission carry with them the hopes and aspirations of millions of men and women of our country. As the first line of defence in foreign land, they shine the country’s light among nation states. “As Heads of Mission, you are tasked with leading the drive to promote our country abroad,” said Ramaphosa in his address. It is through their work that South Africa can be positioned as a preferred destination for trade, investment and tourism, among many other key strategic sectors geared toward building our economy. The growth of our country’s economy depends on the extent to which Heads of Mission and their teams can translate national priorities into pragmatic action. “We will pursue our national interest as we pursue the common interests of our global humanity. As we look to recovery and reconstruction, I call on you, as Heads of Mission, to use all the diplomatic tools at your disposal to advance the political, economic and social interests of South Africa and the rest of the continent,” he said. “Our missions must be at the forefront of building networks and being part of activities to strengthen the African Continental Free Trade Area.” This, therefore, requires collective effort by missions to work together with key government stakeholders from other government departments at home and sing from the same hymn book. New Diplomacy In his famous “Fourteen Points” speech of 1918, US President Woodrow Wilson said: “Open covenants of peace, openly arrived at, after which there shall be no private international understanding of any kind but diplomacy, shall proceed always frankly and in the public view.” This heralded what became known as the “new diplomacy”. This was primarily associated with exposing diplomacy to the media and public opinion. “Diplomacy, as a method that governments use to influence the actions of foreign governments through peaceful tactics such as negotiation and dialogue,” a
YOUR TAKE BY BOBBY J MOROE
modern diplomat must be suitably equipped with skills, knowledge and understanding that would enable them to perform their tasks with ease. Modern diplomats must be creative, agile and catalytic in order to be responsive to the challenge of modern-day diplomacy. A diplomat’s ability to foster sound bilateral and multilateral cooperation with other nations is drawn from good grounding on the fundamentals of diplomacy. Such fundamentals include, but not limited to, research and analysis of global developments and how these may affect the home country, advice on the home governments’ response to prevailing global situations, engage foreign diplomats and the host country, handle public diplomacy events and convene trade and investment seminars and road shows. Dirco, has been intentional in instilling a common understanding on South African diplomats the objectives of South Africa’s foreign policy and how these can be juxtaposed to domestic priorities. Efforts have also been made to ensure that the academy imparts knowledge about the functions of South African missions abroad and the expectations from the country’s diplomats. “Diplomats need to be more innovative and find new ways of practicing their craft. We need to adapt to digital diplomacy and host targeted seminars to sell South Africa,” Ramaphosa said. Pandemic The advent of Covid-19 had a big impact on the world and South Africa’s diplomatic missions abroad, in a way that required innovate, pragmatic and sustainable interventions to neutralise the long-term effects of on our country’s foreign policy engagements. In his address at the conference, Ramaphosa further stated: “Not only has the pandemic upended national economies, health systems and societal relations, it has also changed the diplomatic landscape. “Over the past two years, and at differing points, we have been swept up by both undesirable and unfavourable currents.” The overall prevailing changes in the diplomatic landscape will therefore necessitate a great deal of effort to equally recalibrate and restore South Africa’s ‘diplomatic charm’ in order to revive the gains of previous years. In South Africa, the government has already done exceptionally well in reviving the country’s economy
The pandemic has had a strong impact on the diplomatic landscape. Photo by Aotearoa after almost two years of a frightening pause. According to the World Bank’s South Africa Economic Update, “the reason for low growth and high unemployment do not lie in the government’s crisis response. Instead, the pandemic has exposed long-standing structural weaknesses that have progressively worsened since the global financial crisis of 2008-09”. For 2021, the World Bank projected a gross domestic product (GDP) growth of 4%, followed by 2.1% in 2022 and 1.5% in 2023. Ramaphosa said: “Economic Reconstruction and Recovery Plan (ERRP) aims to build a new economy and unleash South Africa’s true potential and give impetus to the positive signs of economic growth. The overarching goal of the ERRP is to create sustainable, resilient and inclusive economy. It will focus on priorities such as food security, energy security and green economy, amongst others. “The ERRP is our roadmap, and each of you has an essential role to play in its implementation.” The South African missions abroad are facing a great, but exciting task of ensuring that these national efforts find resonance with their diplomatic engagements in their respective countries of accreditation. Following the conference there is sharper focus on the implementation of strong, achievable and targeted Mission Annual Plans (MAP) the heads of missions’ contribution toward reviving the economy in line with the ERRP. It is through the work of our missions abroad that investor confidence can be restored in the midst of the prevailing global challenges. Our government has already developed mechanisms that are able to quantify the value that our missions bring into the country’s trade and investment landscape. What remains is to create a framework to monitor and track the extent to which each of our missions are able to contribute to the national efforts. This approach will assist government in determining strengths and weaknesses of missions and
leverage on their capabilities. “So, we want you to be ambassadors not just for our flag, but for our economy. You need to seek out new ways to grow trade and attract investment into South Africa. You need to pave the way for outbound investment into existing and new markets. “We count on you to market abroad the immense opportunities that exist in the South African economy,” said Ramaphosa. Missions can approach their post-Covid-19 agenda by identifying quick wins which reside within the ambit of our national interest. These can be drawn into the Missions Annual Plans for implementation. It is also important to introduce a unique implementation framework of operation in order to forestall potential deviations. This framework should be flexible and responsive. With rigidity, there is little room for real innovation. Efforts must be made to avoid it in our recovery strategy. The approach should recognise changes that arose as a result of the pandemic. The following three areas, which are well-known, could be considered as low-hanging fruits or quick wins: Tourism, Trade and Investment To promote and position South Africa as a preferred destination for tourism, trade and investment in host countries, working together with key strategic partners in such sectors. For our country to achieve the figures we have set ourselves to achieve in the tourism, trade and investment sectors there is a need to introduce responsive immigration policies capable of addressing the country’s intentions. Similarly, in order to increase foreign direct investment, our visa regime must be accommodative to investors. Real innovation is required post the pandemic. It is important to change gear and liberate some of our approaches to doing business, without compromising the laws of the land. People-to-people Relations We must strengthen and encourage
people to people relations through engagement in activities of common interest and mutual benefit. Citizens of nation states are key in determining the success of diplomatic relations between any two nations. It is therefore important to create platforms and conducive environments through which people can interact at various levels. These will cultivate tolerance, and promote cultural understanding and appreciation. Therefore, diplomats in missions have a great task of assisting the Heads of Mission to identify relevant platforms and structures, working together with local communities (business, youth, NGOs, etc.) in the countries of accreditation. Public Diplomacy Missions should establish strong public diplomacy machineries as primary currency to strategically position South Africa’s foreign policy in host countries. It is the task of missions abroad to showcase South Africa’s tapestry of culture, diversity and other key aspect of the country through social media platforms and appropriate events. Traditionally, National Days have always been used as powerful public diplomacy tools through which host countries can be exposed to South Africa’s culture, trade, investment and other areas. As diplomats, we must support all efforts toward building a capable state through our work in missions. It is our duty to “possess an abiding interest in and passion for the art and craft of diplomacy and international relations”. We must remain true patriots, with the national flag always on our sleeves. In support of the Heads of Mission to achieve the Post-Covid-19 agenda, we must come up with innovations that are responsive to the prevailing developments. Dr Bobby J Moroe is the Deputy High Commissioner of South Africa to the Federal Republic of Nigeria. He holds a PhD in Political Science and writes in his personal capacity.
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OPINION & ANALYSIS
Editorial JORDAAN, A BEACON OF TRIUMPHANT FAILURE
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anny Jordaan’s re-election as the South African Football Association (Safa) president is nothing worth celebrating. The man has successfully shuffled from one blunder to another. The grim reality is that Jordaan is no longer worthy of leading South African football. He has served Safa in different capacities since 1992 and frankly he has not done anything praiseworthy. Presiding over the country’s football governing body for a third term makes him the archetypal despot who does not want to let go. The one-manship of Jordaan leads one to conclude that somewhere in the back of his head there is a brain cell that makes him believe Safa is his fiefdom. Two former Safa chief executives, Dennis Mumble and Thamsanqa Gay Mokoena, wrote intensely critical letters accusing Jordaan of violating corporate governance statutes. They also brought to light that Jordaan was a dictator. They are not the only critical voices of Jordaan’s dictatorship tendencies. In her book A Song for Banyana, published in July 2021, Fran Hilton-Smith, an award-winning coach and sports personality, and a crusader for women's rights, wrote: “…his style of ‘leadership’ consisted of shouting a lot and trying to intimidate people.” Ria Ledwaba was spot-on when she said: “I think you cannot have football where it’s a one-man show, that’s the truth, they can say whatever they say, but the bottom line is that’s how he rules at the association.” In 2012, Safa conceptualised a master plan called Vision 2022. The intention, as we were misled, was to develop the men’s and women’s national teams. It also sought to ensure that Bafana qualified for the Afcon and advance further in the group stages of the 2022 World Cup. All that came to naught. Vision 2022 The goals of the new Safa leadership have been defined and mapped out in a plan called Vision 2022 Vision 2022 is a fundamental rebuilding of the structures of SAFA at all levels to create the conditions that will bring about the sustained international success of our national teams. We have set our sights on a longterm development plan to achieve the goal of always being in the top 3 of the African rankings, and in the top 20 of the World rankings. 10% of the South African population must play football. Therefore, we need to redouble our efforts to: ● Launch a vibrant schools football programme; ● Strengthen women’s football significantly After his landslide victory Jordaan said: “We want a Bafana Bafana team that’s competitive, a strong technical plan that can support football in the country, a clean pathway from junior to senior international football and a succession plan.” How will he get Safa to achieve the above when they had 10 years to implement Vision 2022 but failed spectacularly? Jordaan has always kicked the ball out of the park. Hence Safa is in total shambles. In May, City Press reported that despite being out-of-money, Safa was somehow able to grant
each of its 40 member national executive committee R520 000 in honoraria. That is just above R20 million. If this was not a blatant election gambit, how else do you explain Jordaan’s victory when current and former members have made damning allegations against him? There can be no doubt that Safa has serious governance issues when it disburses millions to people for being in the national executive committee, volunteers who have done zilch except to hero-worship Jordaan. Those who are more deserving, the ones who slave away to ensure that the game of football in the amateur ranks stays alive, do not get these types of windfalls. Development Our football is paying a hefty penalty for disregarding youth development. There is an urgent need for radical action to save South African football from sinking further into the bottom of a dark sewer hole. It must start with getting rid of the clowns who jump around to the command of the dictator at Safa House. They must be kicked out of the park because not a single one of them has the ability to understand what football means to the nation. We can no longer allow people who score own goals to be in charge of the beautiful game. None of them has ever listened to wise counsel. In September 2006, former Bafana Bafana coach, Carlos Alberto Gomes Parreira, asked: “How can a country that wants to be a powerhouse not have proper development structures? “The picture we have is not the best possible. Where are we going to find the players to build the national team for the 2010 World Cup if we do not have the proper youth structures?” Not long after that, Mandla Mazibuko, a former Safa executive committee member, admitted: “We have overlooked development for a long time now. “There has been an outcry for a long time, but we never took heed of the many calls for the implementation of proper development structures. We are unfortunately paying the price for bad planning on our part. We would not be sitting where we are at the moment had we paid attention to our youth development structures. We have to go back to the drawing board insofar as our youth structures.” The drawing board says Jordaan and his bootlickers must vacate Safa House.
Thabo Mbeki celebrated his 80th birthday at the Sandton Convention Centre. Photo by Ziphozonke Lushaba/timeslive.co.za
THE ANC: ET TU MBEKI
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or a nation stunned by spine-chilling allegations of mafia-esque activities against its president, the glitzy celebration of former president Thabo Mbeki’s 80th birthday in Sandton was a welcome jamboree to light up the national mood for a fleeting moment. Besides serving as a temporary pacifier to a nation in distress, the occasion holds historic significance. Thabo Mvuyelwa Mbeki, born on 18 June 1942, produced some shining spots in our history, just as he was responsible for dimming a lot more. He was South Africa’s second president, from 14 June 1999 to 24 September 2008, having served as deputy to the founding president, Nelson Mandela since 1994. He has been the ANC’s heir apparent from his youth as a protégé of Oliver Reginald “OR” Tambo. Many ANC leaders, including Nelson Mandela and Walter Sisulu, liked him as well. With a Master of Economics degree from the University of Sussex in London, Mbeki stood head-and-shoulders above many of his peers, politically and intellectually. He pioneered many ground breaking thought leadership initiatives like the African Renaissance and the New Partnership for Africa's Development (Nepad). During his tenure, South Africa experienced economic growth never seen since the Second World War. The country saw three years of average 5% economic growth between 2004 and 2007 with a blossoming black middle class. Even when he faltered, it was magnificently camouflaged by his fluency. An astute wordsmith, Mbeki foretold his unflattering future as rosily as only he could. In the book Oliver Tambo Remembered edited by Pallo Jordan in 2007, Mbeki revealed that Tambo taught him to understand leadership, including never to lie and never to make false and unrealistic promises. "History will make its own judgment about whether or not we have fully honoured the continuing mission Oliver Tambo gave us in 1989 to look after the ANC and make sure it succeeds," he opined. Well-read and a Shakespearian scholar, when he placed his fate in the hands of history as the final arbiter, Mbeki must have erased from his mind the words of a Jacobean playwright, John Fletcher, who said: “Of all the forms of wisdom, hindsight is by general consent the least merciful, the most unforgiving.” In his second term as president, he commandeered a dizzying height of political support. The ANC enjoyed 70% of electoral support. Today, there are fears the party may not make it
MY TAKE
MBANGWA XABA as one of the governing partners in some provinces as the country faces possible coalition governments in 2024. As we celebrated his birthday, we could not help but look back at his role in getting the ANC to its current moribund position. To recap, let us revisit the ANC’s 50th National Conference in 1997 at the University of the North West. The outgoing president at the time, Nelson Mandela, declined a second term. Mbeki and Jacob Zuma were elected unopposed as president and deputy, respectively. The same happened at the 51st conference, held at the University of Stellenbosch. This time, however, significant disagreements emerged. Mbeki was accused of propagating neoliberal economic policies by ANC partners of the Tripartite Alliance - Cosatu and the SACP. In fact, he opposed a resolution supporting Black Economic Empowerment (BEE) but lost. He gave those he labelled “extreme left” in the party a dressing down in his closing speech. The ANC went to that conference faced with its first major scandals the Arms Deal and Mbeki’s HIV/Aids denialism. Unsubstantiated allegations started doing rounds that he was somehow complicit in the assassination of Chris Hani in 1993 and his relationship with Winnie Mandela and Zuma took a turn for the worst. Things were so bad that Zuma had to announce publicly that he had no presidential ambitions ahead of the conference. In December 2007 at the 52nd, the infamous Polokwane conference, the ANC was publicly at war with itself. Mbeki wanted a third term at
all costs. History was made as the era of factional slates was heralded in the ANC and for the first time since 1952 the ANC leadership was fiercely contested. Zuma won and from that day onward there was no peace in the organisation. A break-away formation that was pro-Mbeki, the Congress of the People (Cope) was born as Mbeki and his supporters were out of sorts. When he resigned as president in September 2008, Alec Russell of the Financial Times, in an opinion piece, “Mbeki: Aloof leader who fell from grace,” wrote: “On Saturday, he was ousted from the presidency accused by his rivals in the ruling African National Congress of abusing the offices of state to pursue his political enemies, mocked abroad for his policies on Aids and the crisis in neighbouring Zimbabwe and derided at home for losing touch with his people. “His career had once promised to mark him out as one of the great statesmen of postcolonial Africa. Instead, he has suffered a humiliating fall from grace at the end of a saga of intrigue, hubris and nemesis, worthy of Shakespeare whose works he has long commended to his comrades.” In hindsight, what could have happened had Mbeki suppressed his huge appetite for power? What if he did not enforce capitalist free-market macro-economic policies and stuck to the revolutionary course of the pro-poor economic policies? What if he intervened in Zimbabwe before it descended into an economic meltdown? What if he had the foresight on the HIV/Aids pandemic? What if he had placed the unity of the ANC above his own love for power? What would have become of this deeply divided nation had Mbeki set aside his aloofness and followed the humanist reconciliatory brilliance of Nelson Mandela that sought to forge a new nation? What if his leadership was grounded in the desire and ability to transcend above his wisdom, to fortify the country’s democratic foundations? We will never know. It’s all buried in the past. What is left is his eloquence, words that masked his actions so well that a few dare pass an opinion that Mbeki had a hand in ripping the ANC apart. Even fewer will concede that the ANC is not only at war with itself, but it is at the receiving end of history’s merciless and unforgiving punishment for the sins of just one man. Those sloganeering for the renewal and the unity of the ANC will do themselves a big favour if they were to take a leaf from Mbeki’s chapter talk is cheap and history is ruthless.
OPINION & ANALYSIS
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SHIRKING RESPONSIBILITY COMPOUNDS LOAD SHEDDING PROBLEM
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here is an easy but dangerous game that visionless leaders love to play - the blame game. When the smelly brown stuff hits the fan, spreading unbearable stench, a clueless leader always chooses the easiest thing in the world - pointing fingers and finding all kinds of faults with their predecessors. Well, why burden yourself with an unnecessary task called responsibility, for a bad state of affairs when you can always blame others? Why cause yourself the inconvenience of owning up to your blunders and inadequacies that might be contributing to a terrible situation? Hey, nothing is as fulfilling to dimwits who have no clue which way is up, than firing off their mouths blaming everyone before them, instead of coming up with solutions. Tell the world how bad the previous chaps were and voila, the problem disappears. Well, the truth is the problem grows bigger because the numbskull has no real solution. Regrettably, this unhealthy idea to blame others as an alternative to accountability has become a major part of our so-called leaders. It has embedded itself in the genes of our culture. When it comes to government and that moribund entity called Eskom, the blame game is on steroids. When a president, a minister and a CEO, together with the board of directors, throw their dirty hands in the air and blame state capture for the screw-ups at Eskom, they are
unwittingly telling us: "Hey, we are in the dark and it's not our fault. It’s completely out of our control and that’s why we must find somebody or something to blame.” We are no longer interested in listening to blundering and inept people using state capture as a scapegoat. They are super schmucks to think we will fall for the truckload of bull manure that we are experiencing the worst load shedding since 2019 because of state capture – the infamous nine wasted years. Do they also think we are blockheads who will believe their claptrap about some imaginary sabotage and labour disputes for failing to keep the lights on? Granted, the old man from KwaDakwadunuse, who responds to the name Jacob Zuma and his curry-dishing Guptas behaved like kids in a toy shop, but President Cyril Ramaphosa, Pravin Gordhan, the board and executives at Eskom have thus far failed to craft and implement a proper turnaround strategy. A rage that nearly cut oxygen supply to my brain surged when Ramaphosa spoke up for the bungling Eskom board and executives by blaming policy slipups and the effects of state capture for the recurrent load shedding. Ramaphosa’s disingenuity is nauseating. In all his high-minded mouthings, never once has he mentioned the function he performed when Zuma delegated him the duty to be in charge of the Eskom war room back
This must not be allowed to continue. Photo by Nic Bothma/EPA
in 2015. If your mind is not blocked by factionalist attitudes and hero-worshipping, you might remember that Zuma entrusted Ramaphosa with the responsibility of overseeing the improvement of Eskom in what was branded the war room. The imaginary war room comprised of Eskom, National Treasury, Public Enterprises, Department of Water and Sanitation, Department of Energy, Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs and the Department of Economic Development, as well as technocrats. Their function was to examine Eskom’s short and long-term power challenges. I am truly curious to understand how a man who was elaborately involved in operations that were purposed to salvage Eskom from its crisis failed to foresee that the power utility was post-haste making its way to a crippling load shedding period. My uninformed take is that he is too timid to admit that they played a finger wringing game instead of coming up with solutions. Today, with his cleverly worded public statements he wants us to believe that he is shocked by what is going on at Eskom. Their amazing skill at playing the blame game has made them lose focus on overhauling the problematic Eskom. They must move out of the field of blame game which they use to try and convince us that all is under control. Eskom has been struggling,
severely, in the past weeks to keep the lights on, blaming plant failures, labour disputes and the infamous maintenance logjam, and financial troubles. Eskom Chief Executive Officer Andre de Ruyter who has been in charge for over two years, has thus far presided over cycles of missed targets to stabilise the utility’s performance. The less said about the weepy board the better. They were tasked with turning Eskom’s fortunes around and they have failed colossally. De Ruyter and the board have failed to bring any bit of improvement, excluding, of course, reducing debt through massive retrenchments. It’s time to go In an article published by iol.co.za the Black Business Council (BBC) expressed concern about the negative impact and the risk load shedding has on the country’s economic recovery. Kganki Matabane, BBC CEO said: “The continuous rolling blackouts and load-shedding by André Marinus de Ruyter, including moving the country to stage six, giving a plethora of excuses, is unacceptable for a struggling economy trying to recover from the impact of Covid-19. “Until and unless our government, as shareholders, takes the drastic steps to remove the incompetent management and inadequate Board of Eskom, who have time to come with laughable excuses such
as continuously blaming state capture instead of solving the electricity generation challenges, the country must forget about any prospect of economic recovery. “Our beloved country is becoming a laughing stock of the world and a failing state due to lack of political will to hold those who are paid to provide reliable electricity to account. We call upon President Ramaphosa to do the right thing if he does not want to be remembered as the President who brought our economy to its knees.” Any idiot with barely enough brains to fill a teaspoon would know that electricity deficits in general have a negative impact on the economy. So, it is no overreaction to ask De Ruyter and the Eskom board of directors vacate Megawatt Park. As for the governing party which failed foresee how demand for electricity would grow as areas that were neglected got connected to the grid, 2024 is around the corner. These rowdy and uncouth leaders showed Eskom engineers the middle finger in 1998 when they warned of the shrinking reserve capacity and the need to plot for growing electricity demand. The engineers’ request for government to commit to build for more capacity was thrown out the window. The ANC has been reckless and shown a massive lack of foresight. We will no longer avail ourselves to be shafted without the benefit of protection.
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SHOWBIZ
RANGOATO HLASANE SALUTES KWAITO’S INTELLECTUAL LEGACY
efore harepa artist Johannes Mokgwadi recorded the song Tsodio Le Khwembu from his 1974 album – telling the story of a fugitive on the run with an accomplice after the murder of his uncle – Tsodio was an obscure tale travelling through Sepedi orature. Mokgwadi could not have known it then, but by transforming a parable of human fallacy into song, he was enacting a tradition that would open it to further reinterpretation. Over time the tale of Tsodio would come to be a way of expressing distress about social issues. Artist Paulina Mphoka who performs Kiba le Dinaka, Sepedi traditional dance music, was the first of many to broaden the tale of Tsodio and place it in the social context of her time. Mphoka’s version, Mosadi Wa Sepankana, marks a critical turn. By infusing it with the fugitive state of self-employed beer-selling women, it became a song considering the plight of Black women in the face of power. For cultural worker and co-founder of Keleketla! Library, Rangoato Hlasane, whose essayistic film Sesasedi sa Tsodio attempts to locate and interrogate the meaning of the tale, Mphoka’s version is the most important in the trajectory of the song. “Lebo Mathosa is the first woman to popularise the tale of Tsodio, but it was Paulina Mphoka who stripped it of its patriarchal connotations and expanded its social context to include women,” says Hlasane.
Tsodio’s turns In 1998, a decade after Mphoka expanded Tsodio’s context, legendary Xitsonga singer Joe Shirimani recorded Marabastad, an album that carried its own rendition of the folktale. Shirimani’s version marked another turn, with the tale taking on a more pop feel and losing much of its traditional sound. The generation with which Shirimani’s Tsodio resonated had largely new priorities. These were men and women who were reeling from years spent as migrant workers in the country’s economic hubs only to face mass entrenchments as the effects of Thabo Mbeki’s accelerated neo-liberal policies began to show at the dawn of the new millennium. But it wasn’t until kwaito star Lebo Mathosa recorded her 2000 debut solo project Intro-EP that the Tsodio folktale lost its conservative interpretation and became a mainstream phenomenon. “My research about the tale of Tsodio is born out of my interest in Lebo Mathosa as a subject. She is essentially the person who exposed it to a wider audience,” Hlasane says. Mathosa encountered the folktale as a teenager, when she went to live with her grandmother who loved the story. It is what Mathosa’s grandmother says about the tale (“we are all Tsodio”) that fuels Hlasane’s curiosity about its multiple contexts or what he describes as the tale’s “umbilical cords”. “I was fascinated by what she meant when she said we are all Tsodio, and I think it’s about Blackness as something fugitive or the notion of Blackness as this restless thing, but I’m also fascinated by its endurance and how the tale continues to attract people from different genres like amapiano,” says Hlasane. Though Mathosa’s take on the tale of Tsodio is not specific to any socio-political issue (she leaves it to the listener) the restlessness that imbues her song could be read as an expression of the disappointment of a born-free generation beginning to reckon with the limitations of their freedom. Some of those limitations are brilliantly captured in Teboho Mahlatsi and Angus Gibson’s controversial SABC drama series Yizo Yizo. Despite democratic freedom, public schools largely remained under-resourced, the quality of healthcare in many communities was regressing and the state had failed to adequately respond to the HIV/Aids epidemic. In the early 2000s, news of hor-
Vusi Mahlasela and Azah Mphago at Mahlasela’s home in Mamelodi. Photo by Bongani Mndaweni, Supplied by Rangoato Hlasane/ newframe.com
sonically and visually from Kiba le Dinaka for his sophomore album Motswako Tape II.
Teboho Diphehlo, Karabo Pitso, Nhlanhla Mahanke, Thapelo Mpho, Relekane Lenela, Leballo Lenela and Ronald Masetla in Meadowlands. Photo by Bongani Mndaweni, Supplied by Rangoato Hlasane/ newframe.com
popularity. And with the news of her sexuality and plight of Black queer women in the country, its social context and meaning intensified – and could also be read as an expression of the plight of Black queer women in a country baying for their blood. In a more recent context, Hlasane explains that the restlessness of Tsodio can also represent the fear of women besieged by gender-based violence in the country.
Bhekisisa Pilot Biller, Rangoato Hlasane, Malose Malahlela and Gillian Fleischmann on location at Lotlamoreng Dam in Mahikeng. Photo by Bongani Mndaweni, Supplied by Rangoato Hlasane/ newframe.com
rific homophobic attacks and murders regularly made headlines. It was also around this time that Mathosa came out as bisexual. By then, she had released two successful albums, but as a song Tsodio continued to enjoy
Sesasedi Sa Tsodio Narrated by Masello Motana with videography by Bhekisisa Pilot Biller and music scored by trombonist Siya Makuzeni and Azah Mphago, Sesasedi sa Tsodio is an attempt to explore the multiple contexts that have become attached to the tale of Tsodio. To musician Vusi Mahlasela, who features in the film, Tsodio’s restlessness represents African youth’s fear of farm labour – especially in the then Transvaal where, in the 1950s, potato farms were notorious for exploitation. That fear is relevant today where exploitation of children is still prevalent on farms. “It’s a film that raises more questions than it answers, but it’s also a film that points to our other ways of
being as a people, our histories,” says Hlasane. The film is set against the backdrop of three places that have and continue to contribute significantly to South Africa’s incessant hunger for migrant labour: Meadowlands, Mamelodi and Mahikeng. It speculates that because of their shared history of migrant labour and force removal, these are the places that Tsodio was most likely to run. To honour this trajectory, Hlasane has been screening the film in all three. To Hlasane, these areas are more than just sites of conquests. “It’s about issues of language and for me these three places are where the advancement of our language has been most intense,” he says. By this, Hlasane is thinking about what the youth of Mahikeng did in using motswako to assert and expand Setswana as a language in which to express themselves. To make his point, he features rapper Motlapele “Momolemi” Morule who brings to the film his famous “blue collar dreams” verse. There is, of course, precedent between Sepedi cultural music and motswako – Edgar Makgaledise (DJ Lemonka) borrows
A communal act Sesasedi sa Tsodio is part of Hlasane’s PhD thesis at the University of the Witwatersrand, which explores kwaito visual culture. Borrowing from Anjalika Sagar and Kodwo Eshun’s London-based The Otolith Group – which creates research-driven films and performances – Hlasane is not oblivious to the limitations of his chosen medium. “Essayistic films aren’t for everyone, but I like that because it’s really an attempt to grapple with a subject. It makes room for failure. There are no foregone conclusions. I see myself more as a writer than a filmmaker and sharing the film is part of a writing process. As we screen the film and have these conversations, my thesis is being written,” he says. An important part of Hlasane’s work is that the communities around which the film is centred are part of the process. Each screening is followed by an engagement with the audience. By sharing the film with these people, Hlasane is partly addressing the concern that institutions of higher learning are often extracting knowledge from communities without giving them recognition. Because a big part of what Hlasane is trying to do is to recognise African oral histories and honour kwaito as a legitimate archive of that history, it became important to address what he laments as the poor state of archiving in the country by documenting the process. In their book Born to Kwaito, Sihle Mthembu and Esinako Ndabeni argue that we have not even begun to scratch the surface of the complex legacies of kwaito. Hlasane’s film can be read as a response to this – it is ultimately about the unfinished business of the genre and how to honour its legacies, particularly its intellectual legacy. It may have been born in the precarity of urban migrant life but some of kwaito’s most important songs were sonic interventions influenced by the complexity of African culture. And that it continues to enjoy resurgence as an academic subject speaks to how just much of its legacy we are yet to uncover. – This article was first published by New Frame.
FEATURE
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Hutch during his visit to the National Museum of Slavery, which exhibits artefacts evoking the horrors of a slave trade. Photo by euronews.com
NOKUTHULA’S LOVE OF THE WRITTEN WORD! By Edward Tsumele
to come up with solutions. “What happened is that this conversation about the need for a multi-disciplinary approach in the academy has been going on for some time, dating back to the time when Professor Tawana Kupe (now Vice Chancellor and Principal of the University of Pretoria), was still a dean of the humanities at Wits in 2007, when I completed my PhD in African Literature. “Last year, I made a proposal to the University of Pretoria, proposing that I would like to write a book about the artistic life and output of Dolly Rathebe as a Writer in Residency Fellow. Fortunately, the Senate accepted my proposal,” she said.
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bout 15 years ago, Nokuthula Mazibuko Msimang was a common figure in the newsrooms and broadcasting spaces where she worked as a journalist and a TV producer. However, these days she is a common figure in academic halls, libraries and book publishing spaces. This is because the former print journalist and TV producer is now an academic whose life pursuit these days is research and writing. And she enjoys her current life. “The fact of the matter is that the academy has always loved me and I, in turn, have always loved the academy. As a young person growing up in the township, I have always embraced learning and reading. Right now, I am enjoying what I am doing in the academic spaces as well as writing and publishing books,” she said. This interview was done on the eve of the launch of her new book titled Soweto Tea Party. “As we grew up, we were told stories about the lives of the freedom fighters and cultural activists, such as Tata Walter Sisulu, Mama Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, Mama Miriam Makeba, Mama Nadine Gordimer and others. Of course, this information was whispered to us by adults as these people, including Papa were banned. “As children, we honestly believed that somehow through a magic wand, they were going to bless us with their presence. This as adults silently doubted as to whether such a day would ever arrive. “So, this book recaptures that childhood magic. The stories were told through songs such as Malaika by Mariam Makeba,” said Mazibuko Msimang. The book was launched at the Book
Dr Nokuthula Mazibuko Msimang is a Writing and Research Artist Fellow at the University of Pretoria's Future Africa Institute.
Circle Capital bookstore in Melville on June 16. The bookshop, besides selling African books by African authors, has also emerged as a trusted place to source children’s books. The book tells Mazibuko Msimang’s story as an artist, story-teller, researcher and academic. The transformation took place in the past 15 years since she left her TV work and the newsroom. Her life has been as varied and as interesting as the stories she tells and the plots and characters she weaves into them to create that literary magic which touches readers, young and old, as well as contributing knowledge to society through academic papers she presents wherever she finds an opportunity and a platform to do so. For example, when the iconic
Drum Magazine celebrated its 70th Year anniversary in 2021, she wrote a paper that focused on the 1950s Drum Magazine’s favourite pin girl, Dolly Rathebe, whose fame during that time came from her vocal abilities, acting talent and good looks. The presentation of that paper has since morphed into something bigger for Mazibuko Msimang. Last year, she made news when the University of Pretoria appointed her as the inaugural Writing Fellow of Future Africa Institute – a mainly science-focused institute that is slowly transforming itself into a trans-disciplinary institute whereby natural sciences scholars collaborate with social science scholars in their scholarly research. This is in recognition of the fact that the world’s complex problems require a multi-disciplinary approach
About Soweto Tea Party Guess who’s coming to Princess and Baba’s Soweto Tea Party! Tat’uNelson Mandela? Mama Lilian Ngoyi and Mama Nadine Gordimer? Who else is coming? Miriam Makeba? The book, which is available in all 11 official languages, is based on the author’s own experiences about a time when her father, Fanyana Mazibuko, then a teacher at Morris Isaacson High and a freedom fighter, was placed under house arrest by the apartheid regime in the 70s and 80s. Her parents kept the children mentally resilient by relating stories about struggle heroes and playing African music. This slice of Soweto history is brought to life by Samantha Van Riet’s moving and magical illustrations. However, Mazibuko Msimang’s life journey is more complex than this. Over 25 years, she has worked as a writer, academic, producer and broadcaster, creating value-based content for young and old audiences/readers on multiple platforms. She is part of the Puku Children’s Literature network where she consults
on Special Projects. Her academic work also entails supervising Masters students at AFDA – The School for the Creative Economy. Mazibuko Msimang has published six books for young readers: In the Fast Lane (2003, New Africa Books, translated into isiXhosa by Dr Xolisa Guzula); A Mozambican Summer (2005, New Africa Books); Spring Offensive (2006, Timbila); Love Songs for Nheti (2006, Vivlia), Freedom Song (2008, Pearson) and Qhawe! Mokgadi Caster Semenya (2021, New Africa Books) celebrating the life of the champion gold medallist. Her debut adult novel is titled The Daughters of Nandi (2021, Paivapo). Her books for young readers celebrate positive cultural and social values and encourage self-love, confidence, courage and resilience. In 2003, she was awarded the Bessie Head writing fellowship, which enabled her to complete and publish the collective biography, Spring Offensive. About her residency at the University of Pretoria, she said she was almost half way through her writing project on the life and times of Dolly Rathebe. “What I would like to add is that opportunities such as the one I got at the University of Pretoria are useful in that one has access to archives as primary sources, apart from interviewing people such as her daughter and others who were there with her,” she said. “The fellowship also affords one to focus on the work without the worry of having to earn a living elsewhere as you research and write. All these are important factors, and I hope in future the university will increase the number of fellows to, say, five.” Her fellowship, which commenced in 2021, will come to an end in 2023. – citylifearts.co.za
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LABOUR MATTERS
WERE FELICITY’S ACTIONS LADEN WITH DISHONESTY?
n the previous article, we looked at the case of Felicity Austin-Day a Walmer Park, Gqeberha, ABSA Branch Manager who had deposited money (R100) into 10 inactive accounts at the branch that was under her supervision. For the sake of continuity, let us briefly recap of the facts around this case. As mentioned above, Felicity deposited R100 into 10 such inactive accounts. Based on this specific bank’s operating systems, the act of depositing money into these accounts, which until then had been deemed dormant, resulted in these accounts being rendered active. This was done without the knowledge or approval of the respective customers. Felicity was subsequently charged on two counts: Count 1: It is alleged that you acted dishonestly, in the execution of your duties as a branch manager of ABSA, 6th Avenue, Walmer Park, when you made irregular cash deposits into customer accounts. Count 2: It is alleged that you failed to adhere to the Group’s laid down policies and procedures in the executions of your duties as a branch manager. Felicity was found guilty and subsequently dismissed. She challenged, on substantive grounds, the basis of her dismissal through the CCMA. The CCMA ruled in her favour. The bank referred the matter to the Labour Court (LC). As stated in the previous column, the LC set aside the arbitration award and ruled that her dismissal had been substantively fair, and dismissed her unfair dismissal claim. This article seeks to have, as its area of focus, the rationale behind the above decision by the LC, notwithstanding the fact that a higher court, the Labour Appeals Court (LAC) was to later overturn the decision of the LC. It is my considered opinion that, in the context of workplace law, the issues raised by the LC are critical. It determined that the real issue that had to be decided upon was whether the act of making deposits, in or of itself, could be classified as being dishonest. It was common cause that the
UMSEBENZI TEBOHO MOKOENA
deposits were irregular as it was an established industry norm and practice that bank officials could not, and ought not, make the deposits into customer’s accounts. Importantly, Felicity knew this, but nevertheless went ahead and made the deposits. In her defence, she sought to rely on the following points: ● She saw the deposit as a way of motivating her staff. ● She had used her own money. ● She had been transparent in doing so, to a point where she even brought this to the attention of her seniors. ● The bank had not suffered any loss or prejudice. The LC however, while noting the above, was, and rightly so, critical of how the CCMA had examined the evidence before it. It noted that in essence, the CCMA, in arriving at its decision, focused on how Felicity had made the deposits, not why she had done so and thus could not arrive at a proper determination whether she had acted dishonestly, or not. Accordingly, the LC zoomed in on this issue. In placing greater focus on the WHY (motive), the LC sought to establish, based on the facts, Felicity’s state of mind when she made the deposits.
The LC held that in a criminal law context, there needs to be a causal link between what is referred to as actus reus (action or conduct, which is a constituent element of a crime) and mens rea (intention or knowledge of wrongdoing, which constitutes part of the definition of a crime). In probing the issue of dishonesty further, the LC looked at the dictionary definition of dishonesty. According to the “New Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on historical principles, edited by Lesly Brown Volume, dishonesty is defined as an act of a
person lacking in probity or integrity, untrustworthy, apt to steal, cheat, lie or act fraudulently. Based on the above, the LC then posed pertinent questions: ● What does one call the irregularly depositing of funds into the accounts of customers without their knowledge and consent, and to do so knowingly so? ● Could it be said that in the activating these dormant accounts, Felicity knew, or could reasonably be expected to have known that this would have the net effect of increasing the num-
ber of “active” bank accounts for this particular branch, therefore strengthening the impression that her particular branch was performing at a much higher level than it actually was? At this point, it is vital to take note that the branch was operating at 84% before these accounts were activated. ● Naturally, the activation increased the percentage, and marginal as it was, as some may argue. ● Given that the accounts were not activated by the customers, could it be said that in making those deposits, Felicity knew or ought to have known that this would, in fact, cheat/mislead the system into believing that the real owners of these accounts were, in fact, keeping those accounts active, when this was not the case? ● Did Felicity consider that the owners of these accounts may no longer have wanted to conduct business with the bank? A possibility clearly supported by the fact that they had rendered their accounts inactive and that out of the 10 accounts she had made a deposit into, only one was acted upon by its real owner. Why did she not consider engaging these customers for purposes of determining whether they were still interested in doing business with the bank? Examining the evidence before it, for purposes of answering these questions, the LC concluded, and rightly so in my view, that to suggest that Felicity had acted honestly was not a conclusion that a reasonable person possibly could arrive at. Therefore, it concluded that she had, in fact, acted dishonestly, with the concomitant intention. In this regard, the LC opined that intention in this instance constituted necessary mens rea of a conduct that fits the term dishonesty, in that based on the facts, it could reasonably be inferred that she knew and was conscious when she made those deposits what she was intending and hoping to achieve. As I concluded in the previous article on the same matter, this case is a rather interesting one. It raises important issues for consideration in the workplace within the context of discipline. And, while I do concede, and defer to the LAC, I am of the opinion that the principles contained in this judgment are too significant to ignore.
MOTORING
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FRIDAY, JULY1/ JULY14
QUANTUM LEAP INTO THE FUTURE! I
must admit, the first time I saw the Hyundai Staria I thought it was a Botswana or Nigerian rendering as we never get treated to such beauties in Mzansi. This offering is one of a kind and honestly you will struggle to compare it to anything in the market. It looks like a cross between the Citroen Spacetourer, the Toyota Pro Ace and some futuristic EV. Gone are days when MPVs were used by hotel shuttle companies or large families when they go on holidays. For the past decade, renderings like the Mercedes V class and the VW Caravelle have made the MPVs userfriendly for daily commuting. Easy to park at shopping malls, they have honestly been rehabilitated to spend less time next to the gas stations. However, when talking about this duo, you should be ready to fork out between R1,3 million and R2,3 million - with instalments as high as R45,000 per month. The Staria has come to the rescue. The H1 has gone a long way, and just as it was beginning to be a hit, it has been replaced by the Staria. Is it as good as its predecessor, or better? There are three trim levels: Executive, Elite and the top-of-the-range Luxury, which Hyundai was generous to offer me. The styling is futuristic but maybe some conservative customers might not be pleased with such a bold leap forward. This is not a panel-van wannabe like its predecessor. It is a bold fashion statement. As I approached it from the front, I was greeted by the snub nose with bronze finishes and EV-type LED headlamps fused together. LED is only on the Luxury model. Just above are horizontally running day lights that give this vehicle an EV type of look - neat and clean flowing lines on the side. With its taller rear LED lights you
RIDE ON DUMI XABA
do not confuse this beauty for anything on the road come day or night. Press the button and the powered sliding doors opens up to reveal those luxury airplane-like individual seats. Three sets of side-by-side seats and a bench at the rear. There are USB charging ports for all your passengers as well as cup holders. There is enough boot space for bikes or those huge holiday suitcases. This is, by no means, a mini-family mover, like some SUVs. It is a proper full 9-seater. At 5.2 metres, it is really a beast of a machine. The cockpit is cleverly placed on top of the dashboard to keep your eyes on the road at all times. Like in the Palisade, Hyundai has done away with the gear leaver, replacing it with a switch-like transmission. Depress the brake pedal and press that START button and the 2.2-litre famous Hyundai oil burner comes alive. So is your cockpit and infotainment.
I must admit, as the price of everything goes up, I was quite impressed by the level of trim compared to other manufactures like VW and Mercedes. This is at around a R800K for the entry level. You can't ignore this rendering as value for money. I am not sure if most customers will be happy with the shape though. It might be too futuristic and bold for some, but it turned heads everywhere I went, even on the busy freeways. The engine and the gearbox are brilliantly matched. Overtaking and freeway cruising are a breeze for this machine. You forget that you are in a large vehicle. It pulls easily and the steering is responsive. Not too soft and neither too hard. As you indicate to turn, the camera gives you a view of the side you are intending to turn to, making it impossible to scratch those luxury rims. Reverse cameras also make it easy to navigate this behemoth. The windows are huge and the sitting position is high. Nothing obscures your view, even on city driving. I honestly didn't even feel like I was driving a minibus. Please note, you will need a PDP for the 11-seater. What do you get for R1,1m? Electric windows, power sliding doors, full leather interior, air-conditioning, climate control, Bluetooth connectivity post for all seat rows, cup-holders, electric folding mirrors, multi-functional steering wheel, remote function with keyless entry, keyless Start, a Bose sound system and a whole lot more. Hyundai Staria 2.2D Luxury trim base price R 1,104,000 Engine Gearbox Power Torque 0 to 100 Top speed
2.2 i4 diesel 8 speed automatic gearbox 130kw 430Nm 12.4s 185KMS
All this comes with a seven-year 200,000km warranty and a105,000 service plan.
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FRIDAY, JULY1/ JULY14
FEATURE
Thato Montse with wine brand on the set of Real Housewives of Cape Town. Photo Supplied/foodformzansi.co.za
REAL HOUSEWIFE TURNS PASSION FOR WINE INTO A BUSINESS By Nicole Ludolph
T
hato Montse is one of the Real Housewives of Cape Town heading to our television screens this July, where she says we will be seeing much more of her wine brand and indeed other aspects of her life. A marketer by profession, Montse had some experience working on alcohol brands before she started Thato Wines. “I studied brand communication and did my diploma at Vega School. I [then] did my postgraduate in design thinking and brand innovation, and from there I went to work in advertising, where I worked on the Savannah brand and also on Amarula.” The start of an amazing journey It was at this time, during her tenure at a prominent advertising agency, that she was approached by a wine brand to do their digital marketing. Montse says that this campaign is what placed her in the direction of starting her wine brand. “[Their] objective was clearly to make sales. And I [said] ‘no, those are not smart objectives’. So, I ended up rebranding and repositioning that brand and I realised that the wine industry is predominantly old, white, [and] predominantly male.” Montse says she found that the wine brands in the country were very, very conservative, and it occurred to her that she should actually just start her own brand. “I saw a gap in the market, and I went and registered at University of Stellenbosch. I did a garagiste wine-making course, and from there, I went to the Cape Wine Academy, [where] I studied winemaking.” A reflection of culture and heritage Montse has always been a wine lover, and says one of her favourite aspects
Thato Montse loves good wine, so much so that she started her own wine brand. Through Thato Wines, she wishes not only to cater to an untapped market but also wants to showcase her heritage.
grapes to harvesting time. I know the varietals; I know my target market, [which] is the middle emerging market and also the affluent, aspirational, and the elite market. I know the palate that [these demographics] want and what motivates them. No stone is left unturned and I work hand-in-hand with the winemakers.” A woman in the wine industry For Montse, putting together a wine brand has not been an easy journey. She says sometimes wine consumers are reluctant to buy an obviously black brand. “There is no transformation and we are battling because, in terms of our target market, if [people] hear it’s called Thato Wines, they don’t want to support you.’ Montse says the industry is highly competitive and capital-heavy, and people are not willing to share their knowledge, making it even harder to crack. “I think the best investment was for me to study winemaking, and to align myself with other wine farms. Also, the wine industry is very capital intensive, so not everybody can invest in it.”
Thato Montse introducing her wines at the Royal Cape Yacht Club. Photo Supplied/foodformzansi.co.za
Thato Montse’s wine brand uses grapes from the Orange River region. Photo Supplied/foodformzansi.co.za
of consuming wine, in general, is the sense of sophistication around it. She says she had never intended to have her own wine brand, but after working on the wine campaign, fell in love with the process. “Owning [a wine brand] that is mine wasn’t at the back of my mind, but then after doing research, and after rebranding and repositioning that [other] brand, I saw a gap in the
market. I fell in love with it, [and asked myself] ‘why am I doing a strategy for other people? Why can’t I do strategy for myself?’” Originally from Lesotho, Montse is big on authenticity. When she started her own brand, she really wanted it to be a reflection of her culture and her heritage. “I really wanted a brand that tells my story and that resonates with
our target market on a human-centric [level]. I wanted a brand that can embrace my own culture, traditions, and heritage, as well as tell an authentic story.” This is why she is so invested in every part of the process. She says she has tapped into her target markets and is keen on giving them what they desire. “I’m involved, from picking the
Africa in a bottle Still, Montse feels positive about the future of her brand. She explains that the international market is currently her core market but is aiming to change that. “I’m all about pushing the envelope and making the impossible possible. I knew this was mine and that God will make a way.” Ultimately, Montse is determined to achieve her goals and do what she has set out to do. For her, owning a wine brand is much more than just sales. “My brand is telling the Basotho story. Thato Wines celebrates my culture and embraces my heritage. It’s Africa in a bottle.” – foodformzansi.co.za
SPORT
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FRIDAY, JULY1/ JULY14
Papwa Sewgolum dared to dream and succeeded in the face of devastating adversity. Photo by Fairfax Media Archive
The Sunshine Tour announced its inaugural Papwa Sewgolum Class for the 2022/23 season. Photo by Sunshine Tour
HELPING YOUNG GOLFERS GET INTO THE SWING OF THINGS! By Staff Reporter
S
outh African professional golf has hit the ball out of the cat box for historically disadvantaged professional golfers, with the new Papwa Sewgolum Class. With the support from major corporate sponsors, this initiative will combine more playing opportunities to promote greater inclusion in the game. The support comes from Investec, SuperSport, Betway, VAT It, DNI, Credit Guarantee, Cobra Puma and TaylorMade, and The Papwa Foundation. A total of 61 formerly underprivileged golfers, including experienced professionals such as Dylan Naidoo, Keenan Davidse and Heinrich Bruiners, as well as the younger generation of Franklin Manchest and Karabo Mokoena, will be granted opportunities to ace their professional careers as the first intake of the Papwa Sewgolum Class for the 2022/23 season. Papwa Sewgolum Sewsunker Papwa Sewgolum was a top class golfer, with little formal schooling. In fact he attended school up to Standard 2 (Grade 4). When his father died, Papwa was 13 years old and, left with the responsibility of looking after his mother
and younger brother. He had to leave school and find work. An autodidactic golfer, who could barely read or write, Papwa dared to dream and succeeded in the face of devastating adversity, which included a racist golfing establishment and - in a classic irony of apartheid logic – a government which actively undermined his accomplishments and outrageously humiliated and scorned him. Papwa is famous for his reversed, cross-handed grip (called the “Sewsunker” grip even today). But he is possibly most famous for beating Gary Player and winning the 1965 Natal Open. The Natal Open was held at the Durban Country Club, which at the time did not allow black people into the clubhouse. Sewgolum won the tournament, the only black people in a field of 113 players. At the time of the prize-giving, he had to receive his trophy outside, in the pouring rain, while the white players sat comfortably inside. The pictures of him in the rain were broadcast around the world, resulting in an international outcry and a number of countries imposing sanctions on South African sporting events. Just as his career looked as if it would take off, the South African government banned him from all local tournaments, and also withdrew
his passport, preventing him from competing abroad. Deriving from being denied the right to play the game he loved, Papwa was said to be a broken man, struggling to survive and staring forlornly at his golf trophies. He died a pauper in 1978. “The establishment of the Papwa Sewgolum Class 2022/23 not only recognises Papwa’s role in highlighting the need for golf to be more inclusive, but it also contributes to building a lasting legacy in keeping with the notable success he achieved at home and abroad,” said Jehad Kasu, executive board member and spokesperson of The Papwa Foundation. “We are encouraged by the Sunshine Tour’s commitment to meaningfully transform the sport in collaboration with the Papwa Foundation and look forward to crystallising a lasting partnership through which we enable an opportunity to all qualifying, aspirant historically disadvantaged golfers, to achieve greatness.” Comprehensive Development Initiative The Papwa Sewgolum Class is one of the most comprehensive development initiatives within South African sport which seeks to build on the work done by the South African Golf Development Board (SAGDB) and GolfRSA to identify the raw amateur
Story Continued from Page 20 Given the much-celebrated speech of former president Nelson Mandela that “sports have the power to change the world,” one would think that organisations such as Fit2Run would receive active support. Yet, its struggle to exist tells a more sobering tale. Fit2Run continues as a non-profit organisation, affirming that it is not sports, but individual and collective commitments that can change the world. But such changes require sacrifices and endurance to overcome the odds. Rather than earning a living from their professional expertise and experience in athletics, Ontong and his colleagues have taken to nurturing athletes for whom they will forever be raising funds. Increasing specialisation in track-and-field, road-running, and cross-country, means that athletics is no longer the cheap sport it is often made out to be.
Sharlan Boer, Norman Ontong (coach) and Chenique Sas. Photo, courtesy of Norman Ontong The difference between collapsing at the finish line and finishing the race with raised arms is related to
good (and often expensive) nutrition. The real success of Fit2Run is personified more by Boer than Sas.
talent within the game, and to then provide a sustainable pathway into the professional arena for historically disadvantaged golfers. Naidoo is a key example of what the Papwa Sewgolum Class aspires to achieve, with the rising star having come through the ranks of securing his playing privileges via the Vusi Ngubeni Tournament for historically disadvantaged professionals and winning on the Altron Big Easy Tour before progressing to his place on the Sunshine Tour where he finished third in the Rookie of the Year race in 2020 behind current PGA Tour and DP World Tour stars Garrick Higgo and Wilco Nienaber. Naidoo has now also secured his playing privileges on the Korn Ferry Tour in the United States, which is the main feeder tour to the PGA Tour. Davidse has also used his opportunities to move to the next level in his career, working his way up to his current Sunshine Tour status and finishing a career-high of 16th on the Luno Order of Merit for the past season. He has also progressed onto the Challenge Tour, the main feeder Tour to the DP World Tour. Sunshine Tour and Altron Big Easy Tour The inaugural Papwa Sewgolum Class for this season will have greater opporBoer has been with Fit2Run from the beginning of the organisation. It is no surprise that she would run a race to her coach’s strategy to ensure Sas’s victory. Boer holds many regional records in her main events and regularly qualifies for nationals. At this stage, she is less likely to break any national or world records, but she is already mentoring upcoming athletes at Fit2Run. A recent New Frame article about Keegan van der Merwe, a 26-yearold working class coloured athlete from Mitchell’s Plain in the Western Cape, puts the work Fit2Run does in perspective. Despite commitment, talent, and grit, the level of athletics success Van der Merwe aspires to has thus far eluded him. His story also points to the neglected “sports development” that organisations like Fit2Run try to address. In the absence of Fit2Run, the stories of Boer, Sas and hundreds of
tunities to compete on the Sunshine Tour and Altron Big Easy Tour through the expanded schedules and increased prize money offered on both these tours, and with monthly financial assistance towards their tournament golf expenses, including their tournament entry fees. The Altron Big Easy Tour alone, one of the main areas of competition for the Papwa Sewgolum Class, will feature ten tournaments in a schedule that commenced in May and running till September and has record prize money. The prize money for each 36-hole tournament will be R150 000, which is an increase of R50 000 per tournament from the 2021 season. Quality Coaching The Papwa Sewgolum Class golfers will also receive access to quality coaching, golf courses, gyms and fitness instructors at the World of Golf. TaylorMade and Cobra Puma Golf will provide them with equipment and apparel, and they will have access to a sports psychologist and career counselling. Further career paths within the golf industry have also been created through a partnership with the PGA of South Africa that allows for members of the Papwa Sewgolum Class to begin the qualification to become recognised PGA professionals. other young athletes from Worcester’s coloured and black townships that Fit2Run caters for, would be similar to Keegan Van der Merwe’s. Sas has potential and time on her side to chase the world record in the steeplechase. And when she does, South Africans from all walks will not only cheer her on and celebrate all her victories as their own (as they have for Caster Semenya and Wayde van Niekerk), but also will admire the courage, struggles, and sacrifices she has made to achieve such success. However, there are few South Africans the likes of Ontong and his team. Whether she breaks the world record or not, Sas is assured that Fit2Run will be there to help drive her success and that of other aspiring athletes. – africasacountry.com Tarminder Kaur is an anthropologist of subaltern sports and a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Johannesburg
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DARE WHEN OTHERS DON’T — {sportdesk@thetelegramlive.co.za} — FRIDAY, JULY 1/JULY 14, 2022 —
IT TAKES A TEAM TO RAISE AN ATHLETE By Tarminder Kaur
O
n April 22, 17-year-old Chenique Sas ran her personal best (PB) at the Athletics South Africa (ASA) Senior Track and Field National Championships at Green Point Athletics Stadium in Cape Town to win gold in the 3,000-meter steeplechase. In its summary of the event, ASA reported: “Chenique Sas collapsed at the finish after a tough 3 000m steeplechase race in 10:43.20, narrowly holding off Lizandre Mulder (10:44.14).” Steeplechase is known for being among the toughest track-and-field events. Although this was a “pure klas” (pure class) achievement for Sas, as various local newspapers reported, the focus on her “collapsing” or “exhaustion” fails to capture the significance of her victory. The story of struggle and sacrifice in the making of an athlete is not for governing bodies like ASA to tell. To unpack such stories requires attending to the athletes who crossed the finish line a few seconds later, the coach who remains unnamed, and the team that nurtures children against all odds. Let’s start with the athlete Sas “held off.” Lizandre Mulder runs for Free State. She is white. Sas runs for Boland. She is coloured. Mulder recently graduated with a law degree from the University of the Free State and is set up for a successful career, with or without athletics. Sas, on the other hand, is at HTS Drostdy, previously a whites-only school, only because of her athletics achievements. Neither her material circumstances, nor her grades, would have qualified her to attend this school. Mulder trains alongside the likes of Olympian Wayde van Niekerk and Paralympian Louzanne Coetzee, at the state-of-the-art sports facilities of KovsieSport. Sas trains with a volunteer organisation, almost persona non grata in athletics circles. Still, this was not the first time Sas outran Mulder, seven years her senior and better known among the race officials and commentators. The last time Sas beat Mulder was at the Athletes Academy Invitational on March 28, where the two athletes pushed each other to achieve their individual PBs in the 3000m steeplechase. Sas might continue to enter future competitions as an underdog, but on the running track the SasMulder combo has all the makings of a healthy rivalry.
Sas is a member of Fit2Run, a small non-profit initiative run entirely by volunteers. It was established in 2008, when a group of committed runners and schoolteachers in Worcester and adjoining farmlands area observed, year after year, that while the primary school athletics competitions were dominated by coloured and African athletes from underprivileged backgrounds, the secondary school competitions were dominated by white athletes from privileged backgrounds. Their first response to support the talented primary school athletes was to introduce them to the local athletics club. But they soon found that the athletics club had no programme for juniors and members were unwelcoming to children from poorer backgrounds. This is when Norman Ontong (Sas’s coach) and colleagues decided to set up Fit2Run, which would focus primarily on junior athletes. In 2011, Fit2Run, based in Worcester, a small town 120km northeast of Cape Town, was finally ratified as an athletics club by Boland Athletics, the regional athletics federation, affiliated to ASA. However, the “club” status was revoked before long. As Ontong shares in a chapter we co-wrote about Fit2Run for a book on physical culture in South Africa: “Based on Boland Athletics’ policy of “one club per town or municipal area” (Boland Athletics, 2012: sec.31.4.7), ostensibly put in place to unify racially separated athletics clubs in each town under apartheid, WAC [Worcester Athletic Club, the local athletics club] filed an objection against Fit2Run Athletics Club. We soon found ourselves in a legal battle with Boland Athletics, who won the case. By the end of 2012, they retracted our club status.” On the same day of her greatest achievement thus far, Sas also had her training partner, Sharlan Boer, running the finals. Boer runs for Western Province. She is a friend and a mentor to Sas. While both athletes train under the expert guidance of Ontong at Fit2Run’s training facilities, they run for different clubs, affiliated with different athletics federations within the Western Cape. This is one of the ramifications of the retraction of Fit2Run as an athletics club. Western Cape is the only province in the country with three provincial athletics governing bodies, despite the government’s mandate to have one provincial governing body per sporting code. Not only is it expensive to compete as independent athletes, the Fit2Run athletes also end up running for dif-
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Race, class and the story of struggle and sacrifice in the making of South Africa’s next generation of track and field athletes.
Chenique Sas has potential and time on her side to chase the world record in the steeplechase. Photo by Die Son ferent clubs affiliated with different federations. This effaces Fit2Run and the many struggles and sacrifices behind the success of the likes of Sas. It effaces the work of coaches and volunteers, who bear the burden of the legacies of apartheid but cannot be acknowledged when they tackle the socio-economic class manifestations of racist policies that remain in post-apartheid South Africa. Communication scholars have pointed to how sports commentaries remain racialized, wherein which black athletes are repeatedly congratulated for their “natural” talent and white athletes for their technical skill and intelligence. The behindthe-scenes work, analysis, last-min-
ute adjusting of race strategy, and care practiced by black athletes and coaches is lost in the way athletics results are reported by controlling bodies like ASA or sports media. The following example from Ontong, an experienced and successful runner, coach, and a meticulous student of the sport, is instructive. It shows how strategy was adjusted, after consideration of the line-up of the final race: “The time [of Sas] was fastest but Kristy Bell was named as the favourite [to win the race]. I analysed all the athletes in her [Sas’s] race. One hour before the SAs [the race], we changed plans. "Our original plan was to go for the qualifying time for the World Youth
(U20) Championships in Colombia, later this year (August 2-7), no matter if we came 3rd. When I analysed the other athletes, I recognized that Sharlan was the fastest in a 2000m SC, Chenique 2nd and Bell 3rd. So, we decided to go for the win. That’s why Sharlan was in front for the first 3 rounds. “There was not enough info about the athletes’ 3000m SC races. That’s why I went back to their 2000m SC times. We didn’t worry about Mulder because Chenique beat her four weeks before [in the same event]. But Mulder came back really good.”
Story Continues on Page 19