Xenophobia

Charles Modise is still not charged after more than five months in custody, following another fruitless bail hearing today in Kimberley. Scorpions spokesman Tlali Tlali said that the Scorpions welcomed the judgment. The unstated fact that Modise is regarded as a “foreigner” is no doubt a factor in the refusal of bail, as is the allegation that was made in Modise’s name in the form of an affidavit procured by the police and leaked by the police, about a fictitious R500,000 in black bin-bags placed in Willie Madisha’s car-boot. The Scorpions do not appear to have been asked why they have not been able to lay charges against Modise, or put under any kind of pressure to do so.

In another incident of horrifying xenophobia, “nearly 300 people were forced to flee for their lives when squatters from Itireleng informal settlement behind Laudium attacked them, torching their homes, belongings and a church.” See the first linked item below, containing two reports of the same case. Many of the victims were subsequently arrested and doubly victimised, by the police who were supposed to protect them [the picture is of a demonstration against persecution of immigrants, in the USA in December 2006].

COSATU’s Gauteng PEC has met and pronounced on xenophobia, including cases in Soshaguve and at the Central Methodist Church, Johannesburg, among other matters including education and transport, following its first meeting of the year. See the second item.

In similar agenda-setting meeting, the NUM NEC has laid down some priorities, including a detailed statement on electricity supply and the following quote from NUM GS Frans Baleni: “Those who don’t do their jobs should be fired. We cannot afford a situation in which people realize last-minute that they are having no stockpiles left.” See the third linked item below.

Barry Sergeant is the Moneyweb journalist whose “gonzo” style disguises an outstanding ability to obtain and marshal factual information in a pointed and accessible manner. He is unlike most bourgeois journalists in South Africa in that he harbours no illusions about our minister of finance.

“This is the same Trevor Manuel who found himself surrounded by a group of classy and heavily enthusiastic advisors back in 1995, asking him to sign off documentation for new Eskom power stations. Everything was ready, to the last dot. With his demented cabinet cronies in the background, it took Manuel 12 years before he signed on the dotted line,” writes Sergeant. See the fourth linked item.

Eskom is still milking the power shortage catastrophe that it has itself created, for even more advantages to itself. The front page lead article of the Business Day yesterday reported that Eskom is seeking another rise on top of the 14.2% already granted.

“Jara supporters” and an un-named “party activist” (who could be the same Mazibuko Jara) are the source of the fifth linked item, which is a confection from the Mail & Guardian made up of month-old stuff relating to COSATU, two-year-old material relating to the YCL, and other bits of tittle-tattle, but mainly of Jara’s fear of being suspended from the SACP, something that has not yet happened as far as we know.

Cde Jara has the great advantage of being a former spin-doctor for the Party. Thus he still has media contacts, and now chooses to use them to publicise all his personal difficulties with the Party. The SACP is a legal party and has no rules against members speaking in public, as such. It is Cde Jara’s choice.

Click on these links:

Attacks on foreigners organised, victims arrested, C Times, Citizen (522 words)

COSATU Gauteng, first 2008 Province Executive Committee (1320 words)

NUM NEC pronouncements, NUM Media Release (501 words)

Trevor in Wonderland, Barry Sergeant, Fear and Loathing, Moneyweb (888 words)

A new SACP purge, Rapule Tabane, Mail and Guardian (553 words)

Coming Events