Old and new kids on the block

There were a number of new parties in the South African election. Two of these were the Agang SA and the EFF. My personal view is that Dr Ramphele could have made a huge contribution to the polical life. The party in fact failed to do what they set out to do. They only got one seat in the National Assembly and now they (just like Cope did after the previous election) are fighting over the leadership. News.iafrica.comhttp://news.iafrica.com/sa/944293.html writes:

It emerged last week that the party's chairperson Mike Tshishonga and Ramphele had registered conflicting fraud cases with the police to ascertain who opened an account for the party to receive a R200 000 refund from the Independent Electoral Commission.

A sad story.

The other ”new kid on the block” is of course the EFF and their Commander in Chief, Julius Malema. In his response to President Zuma after the State of Nation Address he really managed to stir the feelings of the house. A number of times other MP’s protested  - as far as I understand on silly points. For instance when Malema did not say ’honourable’ Cyril Ramaphosa.

The EFF has found a vacuum to the left of the ANC. To the right is only the DA and a number of very small parties. The question is whether the EFF will convince the masses. Malema and his gang are dressed in working clothes but are they really revolutionary? I doubt it. Malema’s speech was good, but will the party make a difference in the Parliament? Listen to the speech here. 

Another series of events are possibly even more interesting. Taking place outside the parliament. South Africa has just seen the end of the longest strike ever. The one in the platinum mines. Over five months. And the back drop is the Marikana massacre. (Malema also mentioned this in his speech. Claiming quite frankly that the ANC-led government murdered those mine workers.

I have written about this before. The old union for Mine workers (NUM) was not behind this strike but the new union, Amcu, was. They are not loyal to the ANC. I presume most of them vote for the EFF. NUM is part of COSATU. Which is in a tripartite alliance with the ANC and the SACP (the South African Communist Party). It has always been a mystery to me, how the Communist party can support a government which is definitely not communist.

When the strike in the platinum field ended it didn’t take long for another union to declare that they also will go on strike. This time it is the metal workers union (NUMSA). It is part of the COSATU but very critical to the tripartite alliance. They say they will form another election alliance. Will it be with the EFF? If so we are going to see major changes in the upcoming municipal elections in 2016.

Good news and bad news from Africa

The good news from South Africa is that the five month long mining strike ends. BDLive reports that workers will go back to work on Wednesday. But I have also understood that some of the platinum companies had a lot of platinum in stock, so maybe the strike, for them, came in handy.

It has however been bad for South African economy and the families of the mine workers have suffered. Amcu asked for ZAR 12 500 per month. Some of them might get this in three years time. It is difficult to understand if all the workers will get this much. ZAR 12 500 is not much if you take into account that the work is dangerous and they work long hours way from their families. It equals EUR 870. But at least its better than many other South African employees.

Another good announcement is that the Sudanese woman Meriam Ibrahim is released from death row. According to The Guardian it might be the result of international campaigns.

But on the other hand there are no good news from Nigeria about the 200+ schoolgrils, who according to News24, are still missing. Despite international campaigns.

Just like the three Al Jazeera journalists in Egypt, who were sentenced today to long sentences. This is sad news for media freedom. And it is sad news for Egypt. What happened to the arabic spring?

The Marikana Commemoration

Yesterday marked the first anniversary of the shootings in Marikana. I have tried to follow this on the web, in newspapers and other media like radio and TV. Some things have become clearer but I still have some questions.

First of the all the day was calm. No incidents were reported. There were worries about new fights between rivalling trade unions. According to the National police commissioner Riah Phiyega, quoted in Mail and Guardian,

… all parties present behaved in a manner indicative of the respect being paid to all those who passed away over this period in 2012 …

The South African Council of Churches (SACC) was one of the organisers. (It’s good to see that the Council is still active, although this is a bit re-active rather than pro-active). I was a bit surprised that the Government was not part of the commemoration, but given the fact that the police was heavily involved in the shootings (yes, they actually shot 34 miners) this can be understood. Another remarkable thing is that only one trade union was represented on the stage, namely the youngest and now largest at Lonmins mine in Marikana: AMCU. But after some research I understood that the other unions wanted to avoid conflicts and decided not to join.

But then the question arises: if the shot mine workers were from different trade unions, how can the other trade unions decide not to be part of the commemoration? In fact, my interpretation is that the shot mine workers (at least the 34 who were shot by the police) came from AMCU only. Maybe the other 10, who were killed before 16 August last year, belonged to other unions. This opens up for other questions like: Why did the police shoot workers from AMCU? Why is not the Government (ANC) part of the commemoration? (The ANC is in an alliance with Cosatu. The oldest trade union for mine workers, NUM, belong to Cosatu). My confusion has to do with the relation between NUM, Cosatu, ANC, Lonmin and the police force. As reader you can understand what kind of question I want to ask ….

There is an on-going investigation: the Farlam commission. Former Arts and Culture Minister, Pallo Jordan, is quite harsh in BDLive:

The ANC government eschewed the methods of repressive governments: armed police, security police raids, followed by arrests. But the snail’s pace at which the Farlam Commission is carrying out its inquiry compounds the tragedy. We need answers in a hurry to correct the crowd-control methods employed by our police.

It’s going to be interesting to follow what comes out of this.

On a closing note: ANC was not present. But almost all the other political parties were. Trying to get votes, of course. But also initiative. According to Citypress Julius Malema stole the show. Having said, as Mail and Guardian puts it:

Zuma and Lonmin have blood on their hands

Maybe that answers the question I did not ask. Whether this is right or wrong it makes me worried that Malema is the one at the centre of the stage in all this.

Marikana and Cosatu

The reader of this blogpost will understand that I have not fully understood the situation. Let me give some short insights:

The Congress of South African Trade Unions' (Cosatu's) central executive committee is gathered tonight in a serious meeting. According to BusinessDayLive the Cosatu general secretary Zwelinzima Vavi’s fate is on the agenda. He is accused of having raped a woman in the organisation.

On 16 August one year has passed after the massacre at Marikana. Today I read in Mail & Guardian that the new trade union, AMCU, has been recognised as the majority union at Lonmin. The old one, NUM, is a member of Cosatu.

IOL news says that Vavi scandal has claimed its first casualty. A special national executive committee of the SA Democratic Teachers Union has suspended Thobile Ntola, president of the teachers’ union Sadtu. He had allowed Vavi to address a gathering in the Eastern Cape, so that he could explain himself.

There is a discussion in Cosatu whether or not they should support Zuma. As far as I understand Vavi is not a Zuma supporter. But isn't the Vavi story very similar to the Zuma-saga? Some also claim that there is a conspiracy here, just as others said when Zuma was accused for having raped a women.

I don’t understand much but I have to ask: Who cares about the woman who maybe was raped? Who cares about the mine workers in Marikana whose salaries still are too low?