The South African Students Congress met (or conspired?) to elect new leaders at the end of last year and shit went down. Really bad. Comrades fought with the cops, cars were smashed. After the election the cops had to usher out winning faction. During the count, 30 votes were missing. So obviously the other delegates accused the new leadership of rigging the poll. Since then, things haven’t been the same.
But this is not about that.
The same leadership successfully presided over a policy conference held in Durban in a few weeks ago to, among other things, chart the way forward for the #FEESMUSTFALL revolution. Interesting to note the resolution to go after the national treasury. And the one about balancing the “contradictory and complimentary approach to both government and the ANC.” What the fuck is that? Does it mean you’re signing up for the gravy train or a full on revolution?? SMH.
Below is an extract of some of the resolutions.
The NPC resolved that in the mean time the NSFAS must be moved from DHET to the national treasury to expedite allocations and prioritisation
We resolved that the 2nd semester will be marked by heightened political activism in demand for free quality educatio
There will be a complete shutdown and the whole society will be mobilizedshould the government not introduce free education.
We will introduce a national student charter
SASCO will close ranks on all opposition parties and opportunistic“student organisations “ in our campus to preserve the rich history of struggles
Some of those student movements’ are GRASSROOTS. Can’t close ranks on nature, homie.
Looks like South Africa’s storm category listing is about to go up. Another major tornado captured on video this weekend. Terrifying weather patterns!
This tornado like storm captured on cellphone video between Vryheid and Dundee in KZN, is the 2nd of its kind in less than 10 days.
Below, a distant tornado is making its way through farm land used to grow export product. Unfortunately, it had an adverse effect on the crops. On the highveld, farmers have become accustomed to irregular losses and unpredicted setbacks due to the changing weather. A decade ago, scientists were able to predict the weather changes with relative certainty, though there aren’t any foolproof ways to shelter the crops.
The weather doesn’t always mean mayhem and destruction though, just one day before the Mpumalanga tornado, these storm clouds brought much needed relief farmers in East London.
It’s not all about the wet weather. Cold fronts in the middle of spring, earthquakes in Orkney and even this sand storm from Bloemfontein through to Johannesburg are all part of the recent irregular weather patterns.
The change has definitely caught the attention of South Africa’s insurance companies. At the beginning of this year, after one helluva hail storm, a majority of them operating in the country met to analyse and find better ways to predict when damage will occur.
Subsequently, insurance companies have started issuing warnings about pending hailstorms, while others have made it a marketing issue, as if getting a payout is privilege.
Weather scientists, reinsurance experts and an international agricultural insurance specialist met with the South African Insurance Association and the Insurance Institute of South Africa, in Sandton “due to recent extreme weather events that have caused massive damage and that had led to insurance claims of more than R1 billion in the past year,” they said in a joint statement.
The association’s chief executive, Barry Scott, says in 2012 and 2013, the industry experienced a dramatic increase in hail insurance claims in motor and property sectors…[Read more]
Who knows, in a few years, the weather could be the most interesting and important subject in global social discourse.
A make-shift toilet in SA. This picture originally appeared in the City Press newspaper.
Earlier this year the Mothutlung township in the North West province of South Africa nearly went up in flames over prolonged water cuts. Though short-lived, the protests brought the importance of access to fresh water into sharp focus for communities around the country. The National Development Plan, (Government’s 30 year plan for eradicating poverty and stimulating economic and employment growth) describes the situation as water-stressed and precarious. Our dependence on water from the Lesotho Highlands Project couldn’t have been illustrated more clearly than President Jacob Zuma’s rush intervention to prevent the mountain kingdom from slipping into political turmoil over the past few weeks.
Water is irrefutably linked to sanitation. Another point of outrage during 2014 has been so-called poo-protests. This term was coined by journalists after residents of the Khayelitsha township in Cape Town started dumping their shit (literally) at the International Airport and on the steps of the provincial legislature. The shit they were dumping had not been removed from so called bucket toilets that are in thousands of homes across the country.
Below you will find three maps illustrating South Africa’s sanitation profiles in each province, using the 2011 SA census data.
So remember, the next time you plonk your ass down for a release, pull the flush lever and last night’s supper disappears into the unknown, spare a thought for the people who don’t have that basic right, who wake up to the foul smells of broken service delivery promises, and who still think that nobody really gives a shit.
WHAT THE UNITED NATIONS SAYS ABOUT TOILETS
*World Toilet Day is a day to take action. It is a day to raise awareness about all people who do not have access to a toilet – despite the human right to water and sanitation.
It is a day to do something about it.
Of the world’s seven billion people, 2.5 billion people do not have improved sanitation. 1 billion people still defecate in the open. Women and girls risk rape and abuse because they have no toilet that offers privacy.
We cannot accept this situation. Sanitation is a global development priority. This is why the United Nations General Assembly in 2013 designated 19 November as World Toilet Day. This day had previously been marked by international and civil society organizations all over the world but was was not formally recognized as an official UN day until 2013. World Toilet Day is coordinated by UN-Water in collaboration with Governments and relevant stakeholders.* – http://www.unwater.org/worldtoiletday
The very public scrap between former trade union leaders John Copelyn and Marcel Golding, both now billionaire business people, has raised a crucial question for the labour movement: the role of union investment companies.
Central, in this case, is the SA Clothing and Textile Workers’ Union (Sactwu), two of its former general secretaries and the present incumbent.
Copelyn was the long-serving Sactwu general secretary who went to parliament in 1994 as an ANC MP. He was joined by Golding, former deputy general secretary of the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM). But they soon deserted parliament to launch in 1997, an investment company, using union funds.
Sactwu remains the largest single shareholder in Hosken Consolidated Investments (HCI). This company has interests in many areas known for low-paid labour: hotels, casinos, coal mines and transport. And while the Sactwu investment arm has boomed, the clothing and textile industry has lost tens of thousands of jobs. A number of premises that once housed a thriving garment trade are now part of an HCI rental property portfolio.
Copelyn’s successor as Sactwu general secretary, Ebrahim Patel, is now economic development minister in the Zuma government and has been accused of trying to exert influence on the editorial content of free-to-air commercial station, eTV, owned by HCI. Current Sactwu general secretary, Andre Kriel has also been implicated.
And it was not for the first time that Kriel has stepped outside his union role to intervene in commercial matters. In December last year in the wake of the controversial takeover of Independent Newspapers by Sekunjalo Investments, Kriel initially demanded that all queries relating to the takeover and the subsequent sacking of Cape Times editor, Alide Dasnois, be referred to him.
Although Kriel would not confirm it, it is understood that Sactwu’s investment vehicle may have contributed some R200 million toward the Independent purchase. Whatever the details of the case, there is more than a hint here of how unions involved in big business and investment, may blur the lines between the interests of labour and capital.
In our economic system, it is in the interest of employers is to maximise profits while workers want to improve wages and conditions, a cost on profits. This leads to what supporters of the system sometimes refer to as “creative tension”, that is resolved by negotiation.
It is not in the interests of workers to weaken, cripple or destroy a business to which they sell their labour in order to survive. But it is certainly in the interests of capital to undermine the strength of labour and to ensure a regulatory environment that favours employers.But what happens when the representatives of labour, the unions, also become employers, relying on maximised profits in order to ensure higher dividends?
Supporters of this development maintain that the profits then go to benefit union members.
Critics point out that this is at the expense of other workers and amounts to “crumbs from the table of capital”.
It is a contradiction that, at the least, leads to confusion. Yet there is an understandable history of unions and their federations openly supporting — usually after debate and democratic decision-making — political parties and campaigns, both financially and in terms of volunteer labour.
In South Africa’s case, Cosatu, although not all of its affiliates, is part of the governing ANC-led alliance, a lingering legacy of a common battle against the apartheid system. By and large, this qualified as unadulterated rank and file support, at a particular time and for openly debated and supported policies that workers saw might strengthen their position. It is the antithesis of moves to increase the power of capital.
Unions crossing this boundary, brings to mind the opening line of a song from the 1931 miners’ strike in the US state of Kentucky: “Which side are you on?”
One of my mates served in Dafur, Sudan on a peacekeeping mission a while back. He once shared with me the tales of battle and described teenage rebels as thin as stickmen carrying AK47’s move past them silently under the cover of night, only to meet an ambush and fire-fight a few kilometers away.
News of the renewed fighting in South Sudan between the Dinka and Nuer tribes reminded me of the Lost Boys, who trekked through Ethiopa to Kenya, fleeing a civil war at the turn of the millenium.
The fighting rages on this week, as the two tribes meet in Juba to talk peace. More than a thousand have already died, and 200 thousand more have fled.
Pitched a tent on the roof of the yellow building, that’s the tourism center.A pink teddy bear and a bouquet of red roses placed in front of a home damaged by the typhoon.
Gift of the Givers team doctors and rescue workers treat a woman injured during typhoon.A doctor circumcises a young boy on an office table outside the Palompon general hospital. The building was badly damaged by the typhoon.The medical equipment the doctor’s using was supplied by international relief group UNESCO.Sharing a drink and a laugh with kids in the village of Liberty. Coconut milk is delicious.Gift of the Givers team about to cross the gulf of Leyte in Philippines with relief aid for typhoon victims.In villages, locals didn’t wait for govt to send material to rebuild their homes.A home in the village of Santiago, destroyed by typhoon Haiyan.Dr. Napoleon has a long queue of patients waiting at the Palompon general hospital.The Philippines Coast Guard with team leader Butch Hong (center red shirt) at the Cebu military airport.Cebu newspaper front page. Dunno WTF that says.A live crossing to the John Robbie show on Talk Radio 702 in Johannesburg.
A collection of photos taken while on a humanitarian mission to the Philippines with SA relief aid organisation Gift of the Givers. Thanks to Dr. Imtiaz Sooliman and Ahmed Bahm for generosity and a lesson in humility.
GRASSROOTS 