The Seed Is Mine

Why is Penuell Maduna, the former Minister of Minerals and Energy, described as a “revolving-door specialist”? Because “revolving door” is a British journalistic term used to describe people who move between top jobs in government and top jobs in business, and sometimes back and forth repeatedly, through what seems like a revolving door (i.e. they never even have to step outside into the cold British weather). In sunny South Africa, SACP General Secretary Dr Blade Nzimande has used a similar idea: the “javelin”. The high official throws a “javelin” outside the walls of government, then leaves to retrieve the javelin from where it has stuck in the upper levels of capitalist corporates. A good example of a “javelin” expert is Rams Ramashia, who not very long ago was head of the South African Non-Governmental Organisation Coalition (SANGOCO). From there he threw a javelin into government, and lo! He became Director-General of the Department of Labour. But that was only for practice. Next he threw the javelin into the corporate world, and hey presto! He is born again as Rams Ramashia, Chairman of BP Southern Africa (a huge oil company). So where to now, Rams? Comrade Ela Gandhi, a member of the SACP Central Committee, is calling for help organising events throughout 2006 to mark the centenary of the moment in his life when the commercial lawyer M.K.Gandhi became “Mahatma” (“Great Soul”). To be more precise, following his service organising stretcher-bearers for the British during the Bambata uprising, Gandhi gave up work and sex to become a full-time secular holy-man and mystic bourgeois-nationalist politician. See the linked article for details of this transformation and of the events planned. If you wish to get involved please e-mail Ela Gandhi. There is no thought-police in COSATU, or in the SACP. COSATU’s economist Neva Makgetla has her own strong views about the Jacob Zuma rape trial. See link. The Sunday Independent’s front page headline this morning is “Zuma letter was mine – Mbeki”. It means that President Mbeki kept quiet while a letter signed by Zuma (on Mbeki’s instructions) was used in evidence and in Judge Hilary Squires’ verdict, to convict Schabir Shaik, The conviction of Shaik was then used as a basis for the NPA/Scorpions to charge Zuma, and by President Mbeki as a basis to sack Zuma from the Deputy Presidency of the country. And all the time Mbeki kept quiet about the letter. Until now, when he says in an interview with the Sunday Independent that Shaik’s defence lawyers did not ask him about it, but if they had, he would have “explained”. There is more, but this is the basic story. Zuma is innocent of corruption, and Mbeki has known all along that Zuma is innocent of corruption. According to Mbeki, he is not at fault. It is the fault of others because they did not ask him. This is how I understand President Mbeki’s words as reported in the Sunday Independent. But it has come up on the Internet as I have been writing, so I shall link it and you can judge for yourself. No doubt there will be plenty more said and written about this. It seems that the Koeberg nuclear power station almost melted down last week. It could have turned Cape Town into the third in the series Three Mile Island – Chernobyl – ?. Eskom’s spin-doctors have chosen this moment to promote the idea of a second nuclear power station. It looks like some kind of “gonzo” marketing; instead of calming the population that you have almost annihilated, you offer them double! Maybe it will work. Who knows? Maybe both the advocates and the opponents of nuclear power inhabit a common world of post-modern irrationalism. A world that is foreign to the kind of humanist scientists who would be able to control this technology. Links: Gandhi 1906-2006 memorial year events and explanation (2224 words) Women, violence and economic challenges, Makgetla, B Day (733 words) Zuma letter was mine - Mbeki, interview, Sunday Independent (1061 words)