AFRICAN Leaders must, despite the troubled political economies, turn Africa into its rightful position within the global markets,argue eminent African leaders .
Delivering a speech during the Africa Day celebrations by the African Union in Addis Ababa recently, the Chairperson of De Beers Nicky Oppenheimer called upon Africa to strengthen and impose its competitiveness in the global markets.
Oppenheimer implored the continent's leaders to use the global recesion crisis to its advantage, and argued that in order to catch up with the rest of the developing world, Africa needs much higher levels of growth.
"Greater flows of trade, capital and technology have lifted billions out of poverty since the end of the Cold War. A workable solution to the current crisis demands acting selflesly in global terms.
In order to survive the current world economic crisis, Africa needs to embrace globalisation and reduce its own protectionsim, to reduce our economic vulnerbility to crises and increase growth" says Oppenheimer.
Accordingly, he aserts, Africa has a vital role to play in global efforts to improve weakneses and imbalances.
"Africa has choices. Rather than riverting to greater protectionsim we have to continue to press ahead for greater openness.
Developed markets of Europe and North America should not be denied the possibility of benefiting from the potential inherent in the younger populations of Africa, 'and Asia' " he advises.
Openheimer's speech dovetails former Republic of South Africa President Thabo Mbeki's Guardian lecture he delivered to the Nigerian Institute of International Affairs in Lagos in 2003.
Mbeki had argued that self-reliance in the form of its own governing structures will enable Africa to confound its critics and prove their predictions wrong.
"Despite the harsh realities befalling the global political economies, as fellow compatriots we have a moral duty to turn Africa into a gift to humanity.
At a glance our post-independence period has seen the devaluation of our African unity and pan-ASfricanism, the devaluation of intellect and intellectual achievement and worst of all, the devaluation of African lives" noted Mbeki.
It must be highlighted that Mbeki alluded to these serious concerns some five years prior to the global economic meltdown.
He, even, made a famous qoute from Henry Kissinger's book 'Does America need a Foreign Policy'.
"Without the moral commitment of the American people and the international community, Africa's tragedy will turn into the festering disaster of our age. The African continent is a tragedy; it is also a challenge. Africa's variety inhibits concerted action; the scope of its crises nevertheless demands a significant response.
African countries have a high propensity for civil war. And if the tribal and ethnic loyalties extend across national frontiers, these civil wars will turn into international wars" writes Kissinger.
Mbeki counterposed Kissinger and pronounced that we have made a mockery of the gift of Africa's independence.
'What shall Africa hand over to the future? What gift shall we-the living- bequeath to the unborn?
We must together take the decision that we shall determine our future. The struggle for democracy is a struggle to enable every African to play a pivotal role in deciding the future of our countries and continent" said Mbeki.
Adds Oppenheimer, we need to assume a constructive role in global negotiations at multilateral forums such as the G20, and for Africa to make a greater contribution rather them asking for more aid.
Africa must not rely heavily on donor support as that will be bad news over the long term because the lack of liquidity in global markets will hit cash-strapped African markets, especially where private equity is needed for infrastructure investment.
"One big change about how we think differently about the future is that we should no longer assume a commodity super-cycle. Africa's future depends not only on how well we use commodity inflows, look at Botswana, which is a remarkable example of how to invest a commodity windfall wisely" warns Oppenheimer.
In the imediate term, he adds, African governments will have to manage the economic and political fallout of lower revenues from natural resources, trade and tax as well as smaller aid transferes.
Africa, he says, must renew efforts to build a domestic consensus on the necessity of economic reform, the importance of high growth rates and nation's integration into the global economy" argues eminent scholars in Africa.
In order to survive the current economic quagmire, Oppenheimer says Africa needs to strengthen and improve its competitiveness through lowering the costs of doing business which will simultenously reduce its economic vulnerability to crisis and increase her growth potential.
Mbeki concludes by arguing that the relationship of donor and recipient must become a thing of the past, and must be replaced by a partnership which must both respect our right to determine our future and impose a common obligation on our global partners what was mutually-accountable to each other.
And no better placed African nationalist than Ngugi wa Thiogo sums it better and so eloquently in his book 'Writers in Politics';
"And really we cannot expect that those who benefit from our crippled positions will come and say unto us 'Throw off those crutches and walk. But surely, it is unto us to have the will to say 'Away with all crutches of whatever make or model' " writes wa Thiogo.
African people, it is your time to turn Africa into a self-reliance as your integrate to global economy!
Saturday, May 30, 2009
Wednesday, May 27, 2009
THE WORLD & FUTURE DEMANDS WE NURTURE CONFIDENT CHILDREN
"Every caring and responsible parent wants their children to be confident" writes Gael Lindenfield.
Her book; 'Confident Children A Parent's Guide to Helping Children feel good about themselves' is highly recommended to every parent that would like to see their kids making a mark in life.
'Nurturing self-esteem in children from a young age will give them a greater chance of developing self-assurance and fulfilling their personal potential in later life' advises Lindenfield.
NB. The critical & central question is 'how is this achieved without them (children) becoming precocious or arrogant'?
Gael Lindenfield explains how to go about in developing 'Confident Children' ;
(i) How language and actions can be used to build and boost confidence.
(ii) How to help your child learn social skills
(iii) How to teach your children to like themselves the way they are
(iv) How your children can become assertive and cope with bullying.
NB. Whether your child is a toodler or a teenager, this sensitive and perceptive book is invaulable reading for every parent and offers real scope for positive change in your family life!
BAZALI ABAQOTHO HAMBANI NIYOZIBHEKELA BESE NIFUNDE LENCWADI!
Her book; 'Confident Children A Parent's Guide to Helping Children feel good about themselves' is highly recommended to every parent that would like to see their kids making a mark in life.
'Nurturing self-esteem in children from a young age will give them a greater chance of developing self-assurance and fulfilling their personal potential in later life' advises Lindenfield.
NB. The critical & central question is 'how is this achieved without them (children) becoming precocious or arrogant'?
Gael Lindenfield explains how to go about in developing 'Confident Children' ;
(i) How language and actions can be used to build and boost confidence.
(ii) How to help your child learn social skills
(iii) How to teach your children to like themselves the way they are
(iv) How your children can become assertive and cope with bullying.
NB. Whether your child is a toodler or a teenager, this sensitive and perceptive book is invaulable reading for every parent and offers real scope for positive change in your family life!
BAZALI ABAQOTHO HAMBANI NIYOZIBHEKELA BESE NIFUNDE LENCWADI!
Thursday, May 21, 2009
MINISTER NDEBELE'S "MERC S-500" :SOCIALISM AT ITS BEST
RETURNING Or TURNING the Mercedes S-500 donation by the Republic of South Africa's Minister of Transport Dr Sbusiso Joel Ndebele to fund a 'Training Programme' to capacitate and empower emerging Vukuzakhe contractors in KwaZulu-Natal is literally practising socialism at its best.
Put it differently, Manzankosi, it is like establishing a library within your immediate communities whereby you stock computers, books and manuscripts of every discipline and allow citizens across religious,colour,creed and ideology to access knowledge free of charge.
Long Live! Past immediate KZN Premier, Past immediate KZN ANC Chairperson!
Where else in the Republic of South Africa have we seen/witnessed one individual pledging over one-million in a 'Social Responsibility Investment programme like what Ndebele has done?
NB. Subject to the google search proving me otherwise, Cde Sbu Ndebele's personal gesture towards the creation of a better life for all is record-breaking.
Long Live for your Revolutionary Social Consciousness Vanande!
Put it differently, Manzankosi, it is like establishing a library within your immediate communities whereby you stock computers, books and manuscripts of every discipline and allow citizens across religious,colour,creed and ideology to access knowledge free of charge.
Long Live! Past immediate KZN Premier, Past immediate KZN ANC Chairperson!
Where else in the Republic of South Africa have we seen/witnessed one individual pledging over one-million in a 'Social Responsibility Investment programme like what Ndebele has done?
NB. Subject to the google search proving me otherwise, Cde Sbu Ndebele's personal gesture towards the creation of a better life for all is record-breaking.
Long Live for your Revolutionary Social Consciousness Vanande!
BEYOND EGO: YOUR TRUE IDENTITY
Nkonzwenhle Mqadi Presently reading "A New Earth 'Awakening to your Life's perpose' " by Eckhart Tolle "We each have the power to make a difference. A New Earth begins with you .... " says Tolle
Nkonzwenhle Mqadi "Acceptance 'of Yourself' is such an important commodity, some have called it the 'First Law of Personal Growth' " says Peter McWilliams
Eckhart Tolee provides the spiritual background for anyone to make their own life -and therefore the world - better and more meaningful.
Tolle exposes the fears that hAng over all of US and shows how eachof US can find happiness and health through the series of simple, life-affirming steps.
A 'New Earth' is a stunning journey of self-enlightenment as it strips away the illusions we live-0by and provides a new basis for personal spirituality and self-improvement.
My Favourite Chapter is titled; "Beyond Ego: Your True Identity'
"When the ego is at war, know that it is no more than an illusion that is fighting to survive.
All that is required to become free of the ego is to be aware of it, since Awareness and Ego are incompatible.
Awareness is the power that is concelead withinthe present moment.
We may also call it "Presence" 'make my presence felt'.
NB. Only Presence can free you of the Ego, and you can only be present Now, not Yesterday or Tomorrow.
Only Presence can undo the (You) past and transform your state of consciousness.
Nkonzwenhle Mqadi "Acceptance 'of Yourself' is such an important commodity, some have called it the 'First Law of Personal Growth' " says Peter McWilliams
Eckhart Tolee provides the spiritual background for anyone to make their own life -and therefore the world - better and more meaningful.
Tolle exposes the fears that hAng over all of US and shows how eachof US can find happiness and health through the series of simple, life-affirming steps.
A 'New Earth' is a stunning journey of self-enlightenment as it strips away the illusions we live-0by and provides a new basis for personal spirituality and self-improvement.
My Favourite Chapter is titled; "Beyond Ego: Your True Identity'
"When the ego is at war, know that it is no more than an illusion that is fighting to survive.
All that is required to become free of the ego is to be aware of it, since Awareness and Ego are incompatible.
Awareness is the power that is concelead withinthe present moment.
We may also call it "Presence" 'make my presence felt'.
NB. Only Presence can free you of the Ego, and you can only be present Now, not Yesterday or Tomorrow.
Only Presence can undo the (You) past and transform your state of consciousness.
Tuesday, May 19, 2009
RSA NATIONAL PLANNING COMMISSION: WILL IT DELIVER TO CITIZENS?
DESPITE the rumblings from certain quarters over tha 're-organised and better aligned' President Jacob Zuma's Cabinet that was announced on Mother's Day (10 May 2009), there have emerged genteel murmurs and strong debate about the National Planning Commission and the person entrusted to lead it.
Was the honourable Trevor Manuel the RIGHT person to drive the NPC, and if so, will the majority South Africas-poorest of the poor- ever realise the beter life for all under the country's leadership by Msholozi and beyond?
Will the renowned 'anti-poor programmes Manuel' ever be biased towards the upliftment of the downtrodden people?
Will the central planning commission have statutory powers to recommend policy formulations that aim to benefit the majority South Africans?
Surely, as Minister of Finance over the past 10-years, Manuel became the darling of the captains of industry and also became the envy of the citizens that were still trapped under the so-called Second Economy.
Permit me to remind to hasten to remind you that the ANC's 50th Conference held in Mafeking (December 1997) had adopted a definitive resolution on economic policy.
One fundamental clause reads; "Conference re-affirms that our macro-economic framework policies must be directed to advancing the RDP. We are not pursuing macro balances for their own sake, but to create conditions for sustainable growth, development and reconstruction.
The strategy for Growth, Employment and Redistribution (GEAR) is aimed at giving effect to the realisation of the RDP through the maintainance of macro balances and elaborates a set of mutually-reinforcing instruments".
However, it must be noted that immediately thereafter some eminent scholars, including the former RSA President Thabo Mbeki, then Deputy President of the Republic, and his fellow cronies including then, Minister of Finance Trevor Manuel, were captured on the mass-media networks stating that GEAR and RDP haved a totally different objective but 'its implemantation was necessary to ensure the sustainability of the RDP'.
From such utterances by ANC heavyweights and to the tabling of Gear in Parliament on June 14,1996, all talk and mention of RDP to drive the government policy formulation evaporated into thin air.
The then Deputy President of labour federation Zwelinzima Vavi was qouted in Cosatu's economic policy debate 'Social Equity' lamenting Manuel's conservative fiscal policy and the dire effects it was to have to the working class.
Before dwelling deeper on Manuel's shortcomings as a people-centred leader, lets reflect on Zuma's announcement of his Cabinet make-up, and he boldly pronounced that ' we created a structure that would enable us to achieve visible and tangible socio-economic development in the country over the next five years'.
Accordingly, he said, the structure of the Cabinet and national departments has therefore been re-organised to achieve better alignment between the structure, our electoral mandate as per our (ANC) election manifesto, and the developmental challenges that need to receive immediate attention from government.
And the very same Head of the National Planning Commission is on record defying resolutions expoused by his party, ANC, a decade earlier as the rumsacked over GEAR to South African citizens as an influential team player to that notorious " '96 Class Project".
"No matter what the misguided critics may argue, it is no use merely making a long list of promises. Making promises is easy--especially during election campaigns-- but carrying them out as government is very much more difficult.
Gear calls for a period of fiscal consolidation and Gear does not deal with black economic empowerment at all" argued Manuel (Sunday Times 13/8/06).
Does these sentiments run contrary to the multitudes that cast their votes next to Msholozi hoping that the ANC shall be true to their election promises in creating 'A Better Life for All' ? One is tempted not to believe that Trevor Manuel can at his whims behave as a loose canon.
Words uttered by the President himself when he announced his Cabinet are reassuring.
"Following extensive research on international models on how governments in other parts of the world plan and monitor perfomance, we have decided to establish a National Planning Commission and the Ministry for Perfomance Monitoring and Evaluation. Both ministries will be located and administered in the Presidency" Zuma said.
Coming from a socialistic background, one is but tempted to take stock of the blatant failures by the central government to fasttrack developmental programmes to benefit the previously-disadvantaged communities at a time when the incumbent Head of NPC was playing a critical role in the state budget allocation be it Gear, Asgisa, Jipsa, and you name them.
Under his stewardship as minister of finance, South Africa's rating plummented and the country is still battling to achieve the average 6% growth rate becausethe macroeconomic policy framework runs counter to the creation of an improved standard of living to the residents of Orange Farm, Cato Manor, Lindelani or Phillipi informal settlements.
IDASA Executive Director Paul Graham is on record stating that citizens have an amenable right to question how they were represented in their democratically-elected government.
"On March9, 2009 we presented to the Executive the findings of 4th Afrobarometer survey that we had conducted in 19-African which measures public attitudes on democracy and its alternatives, evaluations of the quality of governanance and economic performance.
The "South Africans' views of government perfomance and possible implications for policy making" can be used as a way of describing the political situation that faces the new government at the beginning of its term" says Graham.
Paradoxically, the critical challenge for a fresh start post Mbeki era, is to take a more comprehensive view of the socio-economic development for all South African citizens.
Synergy and corporate governance, surely, will be fasttracked after the creation of the perfomance monitoring and evaluation competency desk in the Presidency.
Even KwaZulu-Natal Premier Dr Zweli Mkhize announced during his inauguration, the two ministries housed in the Presidency will also be duplicated in provincial legislatures.
Therefore, across board there's a mandate to constantly monitor, appraise elected government officials and evaluate their perfomance in service delivery which must be commended.
However, will the NPC under the stewardship of Trevor Manuel, play any significant role in transforming the South African society and the economy to benefit the majority people in South Africa, in particular, the srious challenges of unemployment, poverty, transformation in the judiciary as seen in the Judicial Services Commission versus Cape Town Judge President legal quagmire, government open policy on HIV-Aids treatment facilities and the ever-increasing social inequalities prevalent in South African society?
Was the NPC armed with a blueprint that was aimed to usher in a mixed economy, a sustainable economy, or an economy that is fully integrated (connected) to the global political economy imperatives?
Will the new Department of Economic Development focus on economic planning, and promote or sustain small emerging contractors, small-scale farmers in rural areas and provide seed money to the co-operative societies?
Doest the NPC have the capacity to accelerate growth and the economy in the definition of a common national agenda?
Why must the National Planning Commission under the astute leadership of M,inister Trevor Manuel fail on this constitutional democracy mandate because the above form the basis of the paromount resolutions adopted by the ruling-party cadres during its 52nd Polokwane conference in December 2007.
Was the honourable Trevor Manuel the RIGHT person to drive the NPC, and if so, will the majority South Africas-poorest of the poor- ever realise the beter life for all under the country's leadership by Msholozi and beyond?
Will the renowned 'anti-poor programmes Manuel' ever be biased towards the upliftment of the downtrodden people?
Will the central planning commission have statutory powers to recommend policy formulations that aim to benefit the majority South Africans?
Surely, as Minister of Finance over the past 10-years, Manuel became the darling of the captains of industry and also became the envy of the citizens that were still trapped under the so-called Second Economy.
Permit me to remind to hasten to remind you that the ANC's 50th Conference held in Mafeking (December 1997) had adopted a definitive resolution on economic policy.
One fundamental clause reads; "Conference re-affirms that our macro-economic framework policies must be directed to advancing the RDP. We are not pursuing macro balances for their own sake, but to create conditions for sustainable growth, development and reconstruction.
The strategy for Growth, Employment and Redistribution (GEAR) is aimed at giving effect to the realisation of the RDP through the maintainance of macro balances and elaborates a set of mutually-reinforcing instruments".
However, it must be noted that immediately thereafter some eminent scholars, including the former RSA President Thabo Mbeki, then Deputy President of the Republic, and his fellow cronies including then, Minister of Finance Trevor Manuel, were captured on the mass-media networks stating that GEAR and RDP haved a totally different objective but 'its implemantation was necessary to ensure the sustainability of the RDP'.
From such utterances by ANC heavyweights and to the tabling of Gear in Parliament on June 14,1996, all talk and mention of RDP to drive the government policy formulation evaporated into thin air.
The then Deputy President of labour federation Zwelinzima Vavi was qouted in Cosatu's economic policy debate 'Social Equity' lamenting Manuel's conservative fiscal policy and the dire effects it was to have to the working class.
Before dwelling deeper on Manuel's shortcomings as a people-centred leader, lets reflect on Zuma's announcement of his Cabinet make-up, and he boldly pronounced that ' we created a structure that would enable us to achieve visible and tangible socio-economic development in the country over the next five years'.
Accordingly, he said, the structure of the Cabinet and national departments has therefore been re-organised to achieve better alignment between the structure, our electoral mandate as per our (ANC) election manifesto, and the developmental challenges that need to receive immediate attention from government.
And the very same Head of the National Planning Commission is on record defying resolutions expoused by his party, ANC, a decade earlier as the rumsacked over GEAR to South African citizens as an influential team player to that notorious " '96 Class Project".
"No matter what the misguided critics may argue, it is no use merely making a long list of promises. Making promises is easy--especially during election campaigns-- but carrying them out as government is very much more difficult.
Gear calls for a period of fiscal consolidation and Gear does not deal with black economic empowerment at all" argued Manuel (Sunday Times 13/8/06).
Does these sentiments run contrary to the multitudes that cast their votes next to Msholozi hoping that the ANC shall be true to their election promises in creating 'A Better Life for All' ? One is tempted not to believe that Trevor Manuel can at his whims behave as a loose canon.
Words uttered by the President himself when he announced his Cabinet are reassuring.
"Following extensive research on international models on how governments in other parts of the world plan and monitor perfomance, we have decided to establish a National Planning Commission and the Ministry for Perfomance Monitoring and Evaluation. Both ministries will be located and administered in the Presidency" Zuma said.
Coming from a socialistic background, one is but tempted to take stock of the blatant failures by the central government to fasttrack developmental programmes to benefit the previously-disadvantaged communities at a time when the incumbent Head of NPC was playing a critical role in the state budget allocation be it Gear, Asgisa, Jipsa, and you name them.
Under his stewardship as minister of finance, South Africa's rating plummented and the country is still battling to achieve the average 6% growth rate becausethe macroeconomic policy framework runs counter to the creation of an improved standard of living to the residents of Orange Farm, Cato Manor, Lindelani or Phillipi informal settlements.
IDASA Executive Director Paul Graham is on record stating that citizens have an amenable right to question how they were represented in their democratically-elected government.
"On March9, 2009 we presented to the Executive the findings of 4th Afrobarometer survey that we had conducted in 19-African which measures public attitudes on democracy and its alternatives, evaluations of the quality of governanance and economic performance.
The "South Africans' views of government perfomance and possible implications for policy making" can be used as a way of describing the political situation that faces the new government at the beginning of its term" says Graham.
Paradoxically, the critical challenge for a fresh start post Mbeki era, is to take a more comprehensive view of the socio-economic development for all South African citizens.
Synergy and corporate governance, surely, will be fasttracked after the creation of the perfomance monitoring and evaluation competency desk in the Presidency.
Even KwaZulu-Natal Premier Dr Zweli Mkhize announced during his inauguration, the two ministries housed in the Presidency will also be duplicated in provincial legislatures.
Therefore, across board there's a mandate to constantly monitor, appraise elected government officials and evaluate their perfomance in service delivery which must be commended.
However, will the NPC under the stewardship of Trevor Manuel, play any significant role in transforming the South African society and the economy to benefit the majority people in South Africa, in particular, the srious challenges of unemployment, poverty, transformation in the judiciary as seen in the Judicial Services Commission versus Cape Town Judge President legal quagmire, government open policy on HIV-Aids treatment facilities and the ever-increasing social inequalities prevalent in South African society?
Was the NPC armed with a blueprint that was aimed to usher in a mixed economy, a sustainable economy, or an economy that is fully integrated (connected) to the global political economy imperatives?
Will the new Department of Economic Development focus on economic planning, and promote or sustain small emerging contractors, small-scale farmers in rural areas and provide seed money to the co-operative societies?
Doest the NPC have the capacity to accelerate growth and the economy in the definition of a common national agenda?
Why must the National Planning Commission under the astute leadership of M,inister Trevor Manuel fail on this constitutional democracy mandate because the above form the basis of the paromount resolutions adopted by the ruling-party cadres during its 52nd Polokwane conference in December 2007.
Friday, May 15, 2009
XENOPHOBIA & WOMEN ABUSE STILL RAMPANT
XENOPHOBIC tendencies and its attendant heinous and shameful violence against the most vulnerable (women & children) remain a critical challenge to the wider civil society, not just in the Republic of South Africa but all over the African continent.
Over the Africa Day month, in South Africa May 11, 2009 is regarded as the 'Anniversary of Shame' because it is the day our country witnessed the most shameful and barbaric violence meted to a fellow African by his ilk since the demise of aparheid.
Statistics reveal that some 62 people were killed in a wave of xenophobic attackes that started from the Alexander Township's (north of Johannesburg) Ramaphosa informal settlements and spread throughout the country.
Who can ever dare forget that gruesome image of that Mozambique/an national Ernesto Alfabeto Nhamuave engulfed in flames that was beamed live around the world on television sets?
Nhamuave's burning body and the SAPS policewoman dousing the flames consuming the corpse with a fire extinguisher became the 'scene that shocked the world' about barbarism perpetrated by fellow African people against their own ilk.
However, the South African xenophobic orgy could not be worst than the ongoing internecine violence that was presently being perpetrated by rebel groups and was ravaging the Eastern Congo.
What had started as Tutsi versus Hutu tribal groups in 1994 over political control in Kigali, Burundi has decimated the enite civil society into a ghost country.
This week Al Jazeera previewed (flighted) the film 'Witness:Fighting for Survival' which showed horryifying images about xenophobia and blatant women abuse in the district of Baraka, Fiz region in the Eastern Congo.
Filmmaker Ilse van Velzen said she had decided to create what she calls "mobile cinema as an education facility to empower, capacitate and uplift the vulnerable people about the dangers and long-term psychological effects of xenophobic violence throughot the world".
"The survivors and perpetrators reminds us of the civil war era in the Democratic Republic of Congo in which more than 80 000 women were sexually abused after being abondoned by their husbands and fathers fleeing from the killer rival mobs" outlined van Velzen.
According to her, the film depicts the violence, conflict and human disaster in its 'realist or truest form' as the Congolese rape victims tell their stories about the trauma, pain, dissullionment and hopelessness they were going through in their homeland while the First civilised world kept quite.
"We're making this films in order to educate communities about how paramount xenophobia can be in a country's wellbeing. We want to send a strong warning whereby other tribal groups raped fellow counterparts and those of foreign descent with impunity.
Many women we attempted to interview decided to keep quite (not tell their experiences) because rapein broad daylight.
Congolose women find it difficult to tell their story to their communities because it is taboo.
Kids as young as 3-years were being raped by different rebel groups whereby they were (rightly or wrongly) accussed for committing petty offences, such as stealing 'palm nuts' and were sexually abused as punishment.
What lesson can our own South African authorities learn from these xenophobic tendencies reported from the Gulf Lakes?
Recently, the Consortium for Refugees and Migrants in South Africa was qouted as saying 'very little had been done by the government to address the causes of xenophobic violence as vigilantism remains common with individuals taking law into their hands'.
And the Human Rights Commission spokesperson Vincent Moaga argues that the country still faces serious challenges related to xenophobia such as countering unfounded perceptions that foreign nationals were largely to blame for a variety of social ills, including crime and unemployment (The Mercury May 12,2009).
Quite newsworthy, people must be informed that Westrn Cape High Court has set down 26 May 2009 to hear an 'Eviction Order application made by the Cape Town City authorities against last-year's xenophoia violence '461 displaced foreigners' that were housed at Blue Waters temporary camp, near Youngsfield military base in Wynberg.
The central question posed to the wider South African civil society is how do we address the animosity to our fellow African sisters and brothers that were flocking south to our 'Rainbow Nation' in search of employment, shelter and food since records show that both indigenous and assylum-seekers were vulnerable both in their countries and also in the neighbouring South Africa?
ENDS
Over the Africa Day month, in South Africa May 11, 2009 is regarded as the 'Anniversary of Shame' because it is the day our country witnessed the most shameful and barbaric violence meted to a fellow African by his ilk since the demise of aparheid.
Statistics reveal that some 62 people were killed in a wave of xenophobic attackes that started from the Alexander Township's (north of Johannesburg) Ramaphosa informal settlements and spread throughout the country.
Who can ever dare forget that gruesome image of that Mozambique/an national Ernesto Alfabeto Nhamuave engulfed in flames that was beamed live around the world on television sets?
Nhamuave's burning body and the SAPS policewoman dousing the flames consuming the corpse with a fire extinguisher became the 'scene that shocked the world' about barbarism perpetrated by fellow African people against their own ilk.
However, the South African xenophobic orgy could not be worst than the ongoing internecine violence that was presently being perpetrated by rebel groups and was ravaging the Eastern Congo.
What had started as Tutsi versus Hutu tribal groups in 1994 over political control in Kigali, Burundi has decimated the enite civil society into a ghost country.
This week Al Jazeera previewed (flighted) the film 'Witness:Fighting for Survival' which showed horryifying images about xenophobia and blatant women abuse in the district of Baraka, Fiz region in the Eastern Congo.
Filmmaker Ilse van Velzen said she had decided to create what she calls "mobile cinema as an education facility to empower, capacitate and uplift the vulnerable people about the dangers and long-term psychological effects of xenophobic violence throughot the world".
"The survivors and perpetrators reminds us of the civil war era in the Democratic Republic of Congo in which more than 80 000 women were sexually abused after being abondoned by their husbands and fathers fleeing from the killer rival mobs" outlined van Velzen.
According to her, the film depicts the violence, conflict and human disaster in its 'realist or truest form' as the Congolese rape victims tell their stories about the trauma, pain, dissullionment and hopelessness they were going through in their homeland while the First civilised world kept quite.
"We're making this films in order to educate communities about how paramount xenophobia can be in a country's wellbeing. We want to send a strong warning whereby other tribal groups raped fellow counterparts and those of foreign descent with impunity.
Many women we attempted to interview decided to keep quite (not tell their experiences) because rapein broad daylight.
Congolose women find it difficult to tell their story to their communities because it is taboo.
Kids as young as 3-years were being raped by different rebel groups whereby they were (rightly or wrongly) accussed for committing petty offences, such as stealing 'palm nuts' and were sexually abused as punishment.
What lesson can our own South African authorities learn from these xenophobic tendencies reported from the Gulf Lakes?
Recently, the Consortium for Refugees and Migrants in South Africa was qouted as saying 'very little had been done by the government to address the causes of xenophobic violence as vigilantism remains common with individuals taking law into their hands'.
And the Human Rights Commission spokesperson Vincent Moaga argues that the country still faces serious challenges related to xenophobia such as countering unfounded perceptions that foreign nationals were largely to blame for a variety of social ills, including crime and unemployment (The Mercury May 12,2009).
Quite newsworthy, people must be informed that Westrn Cape High Court has set down 26 May 2009 to hear an 'Eviction Order application made by the Cape Town City authorities against last-year's xenophoia violence '461 displaced foreigners' that were housed at Blue Waters temporary camp, near Youngsfield military base in Wynberg.
The central question posed to the wider South African civil society is how do we address the animosity to our fellow African sisters and brothers that were flocking south to our 'Rainbow Nation' in search of employment, shelter and food since records show that both indigenous and assylum-seekers were vulnerable both in their countries and also in the neighbouring South Africa?
ENDS
Thursday, May 14, 2009
ZUMA WAS RIGHT TO DISMISS SCORPIONS PLEA-BARGAIN
ZUMA'S RIGHT TO REJECT PLEA
Jacob Zuma’s defence team was right to dismiss a plea bargain, writes NKONZWENHLE MQADI, of Durban
MEDIA speculation over the possibility of ANC Deputy President Jacob Zuma entering into a plea and sentence bargain with the National Prosecuting Authority, to have a “non-custodial sentence” in his two criminal charges of corruption, is immoral and unprincipled.
What journalists should have done was to unpack in full this criminal justice “short cut”, and educate their uninformed readership on the pros and cons of the Criminal Procedure Act Section 105.
Only common-law criminals, such as Mark Thatcher, who had committed offences beyond any reasonable doubt, normally opt for this legal settlement.
For some observers to construe plea-bargaining to mean in this case that Zuma was prepared to buy the Scorpions out of the “mess” they had created and plunged the whole country into, is totally off the mark.
Rather, true to the principles of natural justice, Msholozi has re-assured South Africans that he’s itching for his day to prove his innocence in an open court of law.
What is this so-called “plea and bargaining agreement” all of a sudden mooted as a viable option for the former Deputy President?
It is Section 105 A (i.e Plea & Sentence Agreements) of the CPA 51 of 1977 as amended, substituted by Section 1 of Act 62 of 2001, which came into operation on 14 December 2001 (see Government Gazette 22933).
Several experts criticized the informal plea-bargaining “system” when it was passed into law.
Argument was that plea-bargaining is inherently destructive of the values of the trial process, as it is designed to prevent proper trials.
Therefore,the question begs as to whom exactly should this approach dispense criminal justice?
Ordinarily, hardcore criminals capitalize on this legal settlement.
Legal authorities do confirm that even the South African Law Commission was initially skeptical of plea-bargaining until it concluded plea negotiations or agreements were legal.
This nullification of constitutional values (S 105A) provides the necessary statutory framework for dealing with plea and sentence agreements between the prosecutor and the accussed’s legal representative.
The court may not participate in the negotiations as contemplated in S 105A (1), but judicial approval of the plea and sentence agreement is required.
But it should be emphasized that after the parties reach a plea agreement, and should for whatever reason seek an indication from the presiding officer as to what an appropriate sentence would be, such an indication would also amount to impermissible judicial participation as contemplated in S 105A (1).
In a nutshell, S 105A is as non-prescriptive as possible. It was left to the prosecutor and the accussed’s legal representative to initiate the process and find “common ground”.
Notably, the prosecutor retains his discretion that may ultimately be decisive in the settlement. There’s no guarantee that the agreement reached by parties and approved by the Bench would not trample or be at the expense of the accussed’s constitutional and common law rights.
In a constitutional democracy such as ours, the package (i.e terms of the agreement, including any admission made by the accussed) is at a specific stage disclosed.
Although judicial participation is not permitted, the court’s function in questioning the accussed to assess his or her guilt makes it the final arbiter of what an appropriate (“just”) sentence is.
And the National Director of Public Prosecutions, after consultation with the Minister of Justice, may issue directives regarding certain matters that bind the prosecution – see “Directives issued by NDPP on 14 March 2002”.
What does the plea bargain mean to the Jacob Zuma criminal charges? “A plea bargain means entering a plea of guilty and my client won’t and is not prepared to plead guilty,” Zuma’s attorney Michael Hulley said in setting the record straight.
The plea tendered in response to a charge serves an important dual purpose in that it determines first the ambit of the dispute and, second the procedure to be adopted.
The constitutionality of a plea bargain depends in part on the burden the state may place on the defendant’s exercise of his fifth amendment privilege against self-incrimination, which in the context of plea-bargaining takes the form of a right not to plead guilty.
The legislature had attempted to ensure that a plea and sentence agreement as provided in Section 105A (1) (a) is not attained at the expense of the constitutional rights of the accussed.
Therefore, the Zuma defence team should be commended for dismissing the plae bargain.
PUBLISHED ON 15 November 2005 by The CITIZEN
Jacob Zuma’s defence team was right to dismiss a plea bargain, writes NKONZWENHLE MQADI, of Durban
MEDIA speculation over the possibility of ANC Deputy President Jacob Zuma entering into a plea and sentence bargain with the National Prosecuting Authority, to have a “non-custodial sentence” in his two criminal charges of corruption, is immoral and unprincipled.
What journalists should have done was to unpack in full this criminal justice “short cut”, and educate their uninformed readership on the pros and cons of the Criminal Procedure Act Section 105.
Only common-law criminals, such as Mark Thatcher, who had committed offences beyond any reasonable doubt, normally opt for this legal settlement.
For some observers to construe plea-bargaining to mean in this case that Zuma was prepared to buy the Scorpions out of the “mess” they had created and plunged the whole country into, is totally off the mark.
Rather, true to the principles of natural justice, Msholozi has re-assured South Africans that he’s itching for his day to prove his innocence in an open court of law.
What is this so-called “plea and bargaining agreement” all of a sudden mooted as a viable option for the former Deputy President?
It is Section 105 A (i.e Plea & Sentence Agreements) of the CPA 51 of 1977 as amended, substituted by Section 1 of Act 62 of 2001, which came into operation on 14 December 2001 (see Government Gazette 22933).
Several experts criticized the informal plea-bargaining “system” when it was passed into law.
Argument was that plea-bargaining is inherently destructive of the values of the trial process, as it is designed to prevent proper trials.
Therefore,the question begs as to whom exactly should this approach dispense criminal justice?
Ordinarily, hardcore criminals capitalize on this legal settlement.
Legal authorities do confirm that even the South African Law Commission was initially skeptical of plea-bargaining until it concluded plea negotiations or agreements were legal.
This nullification of constitutional values (S 105A) provides the necessary statutory framework for dealing with plea and sentence agreements between the prosecutor and the accussed’s legal representative.
The court may not participate in the negotiations as contemplated in S 105A (1), but judicial approval of the plea and sentence agreement is required.
But it should be emphasized that after the parties reach a plea agreement, and should for whatever reason seek an indication from the presiding officer as to what an appropriate sentence would be, such an indication would also amount to impermissible judicial participation as contemplated in S 105A (1).
In a nutshell, S 105A is as non-prescriptive as possible. It was left to the prosecutor and the accussed’s legal representative to initiate the process and find “common ground”.
Notably, the prosecutor retains his discretion that may ultimately be decisive in the settlement. There’s no guarantee that the agreement reached by parties and approved by the Bench would not trample or be at the expense of the accussed’s constitutional and common law rights.
In a constitutional democracy such as ours, the package (i.e terms of the agreement, including any admission made by the accussed) is at a specific stage disclosed.
Although judicial participation is not permitted, the court’s function in questioning the accussed to assess his or her guilt makes it the final arbiter of what an appropriate (“just”) sentence is.
And the National Director of Public Prosecutions, after consultation with the Minister of Justice, may issue directives regarding certain matters that bind the prosecution – see “Directives issued by NDPP on 14 March 2002”.
What does the plea bargain mean to the Jacob Zuma criminal charges? “A plea bargain means entering a plea of guilty and my client won’t and is not prepared to plead guilty,” Zuma’s attorney Michael Hulley said in setting the record straight.
The plea tendered in response to a charge serves an important dual purpose in that it determines first the ambit of the dispute and, second the procedure to be adopted.
The constitutionality of a plea bargain depends in part on the burden the state may place on the defendant’s exercise of his fifth amendment privilege against self-incrimination, which in the context of plea-bargaining takes the form of a right not to plead guilty.
The legislature had attempted to ensure that a plea and sentence agreement as provided in Section 105A (1) (a) is not attained at the expense of the constitutional rights of the accussed.
Therefore, the Zuma defence team should be commended for dismissing the plae bargain.
PUBLISHED ON 15 November 2005 by The CITIZEN
REQUEST HELP TO EXPOSE RACISM!
Mr Nkonzwenhle Mqadi
c/o Media Consultant & Political Correspondent
Z 484
Umlazi Township
Durban
4031
12 January 2009
Tel/Fax: 031-9096457
Cell: 0825816323
0762557826
0790550536
Email: emaqadinimedia@webmail.co.za
Sir/Madam
re: EXPOSE THIS UNPROFESSIONAL CONDUCT
Herewith, find the detailed complaint that was submitted to the KZN Law Society in 2006 lodging a complaint about harrassment meted to me as Indian lawyers started ganging up against my civil action.
Regards
From: nkonzo mqadi
Subject: LAWYER ACTED UNPROFESSIONALLY
To: complaints@lawsoc.co.za
Cc: thuli@lawsoc.co.za, roshinig@lawsoc.co.za
Date: Wednesday, May 16, 2007, 1:56 PM
Your Ref: ACR/NN/C6/S1321/06
Mr Nkonzwenhle Mqadi
{Writer,Researcher & Commentator}
Z 484
UMlazi Township
Durban
4031
Cell: 0825816323
0762557826
Att: EC Rees
Manager: Regulatory Affairs
KZN Law Society
Sir/Madam
re:INVESTIGATE UNPROFESSIONAL CONDUCT AGAINST SHA SINGH & ASSOCIATES
I hereby request the KZN Law Society to undertake an extensive investigation by the Sha Singh & Associates firm of attorneys about the delay in instituting summons on behalf of a client they were presenting on behalf of Durban Justice Centre Judicare basis.
In 2004 the complainant laid a civil claim against three state departments through the Durban Justice Centre, after Legal Aid Board attorney Yusuf Mohamed had messed up the 'notice to institute civil proccedings' dated 17 July 2005, client had lodged a formal complaint with the Public Protector-KZN, whereby the matter was then handed over to Sha Singh & Associates.
KZN Law Society was served with an extensive correspondence in 2006 complaining about the conduct of Sha Singh & Associates, which included a merit report prepared by Sha Singh & Associates to Durban Justice Centre's Mr Metha, "Amended Notice to Institute Action" prepared by Sha Singh & Associates that was faxed to three state departments dated 20 December 2005, and correspodence exchanged between myself and Durban Equality Court over "Racism, Misrepresntation & Unreasonable Delay" charges I'd laid against the attorney.
My instructions to her practise was to demand R 10 million damages { copy of an affidavitt served to a consultation with Sha Singh & Associates is in my possession}
NB. Worst conduct to be seen by this racist firm of attorneys was the information given to me by Durban Justice Centres, Ms Vasie Govender that all my records in the client file were destroyed by Sha Singh & Associates.
As an experienced lawyer, I aver that during a "one-on-one consultation" with the client Sha Singh had intimated that the matter was to prescribe in July 2006, and I have telephonic transcripts in my possession of audience she held with Mr Metha (Durban Justice Centre Head) private assistant, known as Shamla, whereby Sha Singh repeated her concerns about the urgency of the mater before it prescribed.
Further, take notice that Sha Singh & Associates had misrepresented facts to the KZN Law Society by alleging that the client (myself) had terminated representation from/by their practise.This assertion by Sha Singh & Associates is devoid of truth.
It state categorically that Sha Singh & Associates Office Manager, known as Viveck, started to gang up in a racial manner and compelled his wife Sha Singh not to proceed with my matter as in Viveck's words to me at their practise
"You Mr Mqadi think you're clever by laying false allegations against Adv Shiren Lakhi at the Durban Equality Court.
There's no Indian Firm of lawyers that must represents you because you're anti-Indian people" Viveck said.
This information was submitted in an affidavitt form to Mr Rees-KZN Law Society- but was never investigated. This information is also before Durban Equality Court whereby lawyer Sha Singh simply ignore by not attending, ask Presiding Officer/s Ngubane and Luthuli Esq.
The Durban Justice Centre Head (Mr Metha) should also be held accountable for having failed to addrees this matter with Sha Singh & Associates as they are the ones who had referred my civil claim matter on Judicare.
My instructions to Sha Singh & Associates was to serve summons to the ff:
1. Minister of Safety & Security
2.Minister of Justice & Constitutional Development, and
3. Minister of Correctional Services
timeously, but to no avail.
This is the cause for action.
NB. I bring to your attention that Sha Singh & Associates had served an 'Amended Notice To Institute Action' to the three state departments dated 20 December 2006 (copies in Sha Singh & Associates in their LetterHeads are my possession) BUT that was never acted/followed up ever since.
Sincerely
N.Mqadi
{0825816323 / 0762557826}
c/o Media Consultant & Political Correspondent
Z 484
Umlazi Township
Durban
4031
12 January 2009
Tel/Fax: 031-9096457
Cell: 0825816323
0762557826
0790550536
Email: emaqadinimedia@webmail.co.za
Sir/Madam
re: EXPOSE THIS UNPROFESSIONAL CONDUCT
Herewith, find the detailed complaint that was submitted to the KZN Law Society in 2006 lodging a complaint about harrassment meted to me as Indian lawyers started ganging up against my civil action.
Regards
From: nkonzo mqadi
Subject: LAWYER ACTED UNPROFESSIONALLY
To: complaints@lawsoc.co.za
Cc: thuli@lawsoc.co.za, roshinig@lawsoc.co.za
Date: Wednesday, May 16, 2007, 1:56 PM
Your Ref: ACR/NN/C6/S1321/06
Mr Nkonzwenhle Mqadi
{Writer,Researcher & Commentator}
Z 484
UMlazi Township
Durban
4031
Cell: 0825816323
0762557826
Att: EC Rees
Manager: Regulatory Affairs
KZN Law Society
Sir/Madam
re:INVESTIGATE UNPROFESSIONAL CONDUCT AGAINST SHA SINGH & ASSOCIATES
I hereby request the KZN Law Society to undertake an extensive investigation by the Sha Singh & Associates firm of attorneys about the delay in instituting summons on behalf of a client they were presenting on behalf of Durban Justice Centre Judicare basis.
In 2004 the complainant laid a civil claim against three state departments through the Durban Justice Centre, after Legal Aid Board attorney Yusuf Mohamed had messed up the 'notice to institute civil proccedings' dated 17 July 2005, client had lodged a formal complaint with the Public Protector-KZN, whereby the matter was then handed over to Sha Singh & Associates.
KZN Law Society was served with an extensive correspondence in 2006 complaining about the conduct of Sha Singh & Associates, which included a merit report prepared by Sha Singh & Associates to Durban Justice Centre's Mr Metha, "Amended Notice to Institute Action" prepared by Sha Singh & Associates that was faxed to three state departments dated 20 December 2005, and correspodence exchanged between myself and Durban Equality Court over "Racism, Misrepresntation & Unreasonable Delay" charges I'd laid against the attorney.
My instructions to her practise was to demand R 10 million damages { copy of an affidavitt served to a consultation with Sha Singh & Associates is in my possession}
NB. Worst conduct to be seen by this racist firm of attorneys was the information given to me by Durban Justice Centres, Ms Vasie Govender that all my records in the client file were destroyed by Sha Singh & Associates.
As an experienced lawyer, I aver that during a "one-on-one consultation" with the client Sha Singh had intimated that the matter was to prescribe in July 2006, and I have telephonic transcripts in my possession of audience she held with Mr Metha (Durban Justice Centre Head) private assistant, known as Shamla, whereby Sha Singh repeated her concerns about the urgency of the mater before it prescribed.
Further, take notice that Sha Singh & Associates had misrepresented facts to the KZN Law Society by alleging that the client (myself) had terminated representation from/by their practise.This assertion by Sha Singh & Associates is devoid of truth.
It state categorically that Sha Singh & Associates Office Manager, known as Viveck, started to gang up in a racial manner and compelled his wife Sha Singh not to proceed with my matter as in Viveck's words to me at their practise
"You Mr Mqadi think you're clever by laying false allegations against Adv Shiren Lakhi at the Durban Equality Court.
There's no Indian Firm of lawyers that must represents you because you're anti-Indian people" Viveck said.
This information was submitted in an affidavitt form to Mr Rees-KZN Law Society- but was never investigated. This information is also before Durban Equality Court whereby lawyer Sha Singh simply ignore by not attending, ask Presiding Officer/s Ngubane and Luthuli Esq.
The Durban Justice Centre Head (Mr Metha) should also be held accountable for having failed to addrees this matter with Sha Singh & Associates as they are the ones who had referred my civil claim matter on Judicare.
My instructions to Sha Singh & Associates was to serve summons to the ff:
1. Minister of Safety & Security
2.Minister of Justice & Constitutional Development, and
3. Minister of Correctional Services
timeously, but to no avail.
This is the cause for action.
NB. I bring to your attention that Sha Singh & Associates had served an 'Amended Notice To Institute Action' to the three state departments dated 20 December 2006 (copies in Sha Singh & Associates in their LetterHeads are my possession) BUT that was never acted/followed up ever since.
Sincerely
N.Mqadi
{0825816323 / 0762557826}
Analysis - The Citizen - Tuesday 04 April 2006
By NKONZWENHLE MQADI
Will the black business or middle class grow, and have a positive effect on the growth and transformation of the national economy? Is the black business or middle class aligned to the country's transformation mandate?
These are the most frequently asked questions, and the groundswell of disillusionment is brewing among the African masses, as people make this concern our national discourse.
The South African emerging business or middle class and its social responsiveness has left the wider civil society questioning whether or not the black elite's new-found purchasing power is really fuelling a broader consumer boom.
Some observers argue these nouveau-riche or elites, located in the most affluent surburbs, lack the class consciousness to create sustainable investment and empower their communities.
Eminent scholars such as KwaZulu-Natal Premier Sbusiso Ndebele go out of their way to challenge and address the social conscience of the province's more affluent citizens.
"Where are the black business and intelligentsia located in the South African economy, and are they contributing to the much-vaunted 6% economic growth and the development of our own communities" has become Ndebele's daily mantra.
This new phenomenon-whereby more and more upwardly mobile black people are getting richer while the majority of their compatriots get left behind-is considered as one of the outstanding characteristics of the political, social and economic transformation of the post-1994 era.
And this begs the central question: how do we use this new black economic power to fast-track the gap between the so-called first and second economies?
Figures from a South African Advertising & Research Foundation survey released last year provided a clear picture of the strong growth in the number of blacks in the top LSM (Living Standard Measure) indicating that black people were taking huge strides into the higher categories, wealth-wise.
However, Empowerdex CEO Vuyo Jack criticises the new black buying power because, he argues, it is being spent on consumerism rather than investments.
People are doing what they were previously unable to do-such as going on holidays or buying a nice brand-new car.
"Without a focus on investments the massive spending boom may not be sustainable.
The real middle class are those with income enabling them to build assets, and this income should also be used to support their extended families," according to Jack.
On the other hand, world-renowned Nigerian-born writer Chika Onyeani has warned the South African black middle class that once they go into business arena they should take cognisance of the insidious 'spider web" of economic dependence.
Onyeani sounds a warning about the dangers of economic dependency, that could simply perpetuate the formerly one-sided power relations between haves and have-nots, a decade after the advent of democracy.
Onyeani sees our BBE (Black Economic Empowerment) deals as a good policy that gives Africans first-hand insight into how multi-nationals listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange operate.
However, he urges the black middle class to encourage the growth of a manufacturing class- either by providing access to reasonably=priced money or by buying goods and services that have been produced by their own people.
Merril Lynch economist Nazmeera Moola concurs. He states that " generally there has been an increase in purchasing power, mostly in the sales of consumer goods, financial services, motor cars and tourism".
Moola, though, adds that it is difficult to pinpoint what does constitute the " black middle class".
Interestingly, an ideological debate about the black middle class in the global economy is proving quite contentious.
Strong arguments are that surely it was a good thing that the aspirant black business or middle class had come out of the so-called second economy and have overcome the hardships that the majority of African people are still confronted with.
A pertinent question is whether this so-called class of elites is socially responsible-whether they will empower their close relatives and friends still trapped in the second economy.
What measures have they put in place, working in partnership with the three tiers of governance, to help their communities gain access to basic services?
And is the black business or middle class able to reconcile the huge disparities so prevalent among South African communities' living standards?
Former Black Management Forum MD Jerry Vilakazi argues that it is high time for the black business or middle class to forget about investing in golf estates found in the most affluent surburbs. They need to start investing back into their communities-those still residing in the townships and rural areas, as he warned during the BMF conference last year.
Our black business or middle class faces a critical, fundamental challenge. It is their responsibility, their social imperative, to reverse capital flow back into the townships and rural areas.
Grassroots communities have been asking whether black middle class is using its position and influence to advance the transformation objectives of our democracy.
Seen within the context of revisionist sociology, or in the Marxist idiom, the South African business or middle class lacks the class consciousness and characteristics to become a fully-fledged class in itself.
The pragmatic understanding of the black business or middle class needs to be build more on more than just generating income and immediate profit. It should, instead, start building wealth via assett classes, such as property, manufacturing and securities.
Our black business or middle class has a social duty, the masses argue, to help inculcate entrepreneurial skills to the huge numbers of our unemployed school graduates. And they should also be able to inculcate middle class status to the younger generation.
Simply put, through people development and education programmes our emerging black business or middle class occupying strategic positions should form, shape and influence government policies towards the total economic liberation of the African people.
This assumes a black middle class exists. Suprisingly, renowned black businessman StanLib chairman Saki Macozoma denies the existence of this class: stating the social category we call the black middle class in South Africa is a conceptual construct rather than an objective reality.
"A black bourgeoisie in South Africa" according to Macozoma,"is pure fiction".
# Mqadi is a Durban-based writer.
By NKONZWENHLE MQADI
Will the black business or middle class grow, and have a positive effect on the growth and transformation of the national economy? Is the black business or middle class aligned to the country's transformation mandate?
These are the most frequently asked questions, and the groundswell of disillusionment is brewing among the African masses, as people make this concern our national discourse.
The South African emerging business or middle class and its social responsiveness has left the wider civil society questioning whether or not the black elite's new-found purchasing power is really fuelling a broader consumer boom.
Some observers argue these nouveau-riche or elites, located in the most affluent surburbs, lack the class consciousness to create sustainable investment and empower their communities.
Eminent scholars such as KwaZulu-Natal Premier Sbusiso Ndebele go out of their way to challenge and address the social conscience of the province's more affluent citizens.
"Where are the black business and intelligentsia located in the South African economy, and are they contributing to the much-vaunted 6% economic growth and the development of our own communities" has become Ndebele's daily mantra.
This new phenomenon-whereby more and more upwardly mobile black people are getting richer while the majority of their compatriots get left behind-is considered as one of the outstanding characteristics of the political, social and economic transformation of the post-1994 era.
And this begs the central question: how do we use this new black economic power to fast-track the gap between the so-called first and second economies?
Figures from a South African Advertising & Research Foundation survey released last year provided a clear picture of the strong growth in the number of blacks in the top LSM (Living Standard Measure) indicating that black people were taking huge strides into the higher categories, wealth-wise.
However, Empowerdex CEO Vuyo Jack criticises the new black buying power because, he argues, it is being spent on consumerism rather than investments.
People are doing what they were previously unable to do-such as going on holidays or buying a nice brand-new car.
"Without a focus on investments the massive spending boom may not be sustainable.
The real middle class are those with income enabling them to build assets, and this income should also be used to support their extended families," according to Jack.
On the other hand, world-renowned Nigerian-born writer Chika Onyeani has warned the South African black middle class that once they go into business arena they should take cognisance of the insidious 'spider web" of economic dependence.
Onyeani sounds a warning about the dangers of economic dependency, that could simply perpetuate the formerly one-sided power relations between haves and have-nots, a decade after the advent of democracy.
Onyeani sees our BBE (Black Economic Empowerment) deals as a good policy that gives Africans first-hand insight into how multi-nationals listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange operate.
However, he urges the black middle class to encourage the growth of a manufacturing class- either by providing access to reasonably=priced money or by buying goods and services that have been produced by their own people.
Merril Lynch economist Nazmeera Moola concurs. He states that " generally there has been an increase in purchasing power, mostly in the sales of consumer goods, financial services, motor cars and tourism".
Moola, though, adds that it is difficult to pinpoint what does constitute the " black middle class".
Interestingly, an ideological debate about the black middle class in the global economy is proving quite contentious.
Strong arguments are that surely it was a good thing that the aspirant black business or middle class had come out of the so-called second economy and have overcome the hardships that the majority of African people are still confronted with.
A pertinent question is whether this so-called class of elites is socially responsible-whether they will empower their close relatives and friends still trapped in the second economy.
What measures have they put in place, working in partnership with the three tiers of governance, to help their communities gain access to basic services?
And is the black business or middle class able to reconcile the huge disparities so prevalent among South African communities' living standards?
Former Black Management Forum MD Jerry Vilakazi argues that it is high time for the black business or middle class to forget about investing in golf estates found in the most affluent surburbs. They need to start investing back into their communities-those still residing in the townships and rural areas, as he warned during the BMF conference last year.
Our black business or middle class faces a critical, fundamental challenge. It is their responsibility, their social imperative, to reverse capital flow back into the townships and rural areas.
Grassroots communities have been asking whether black middle class is using its position and influence to advance the transformation objectives of our democracy.
Seen within the context of revisionist sociology, or in the Marxist idiom, the South African business or middle class lacks the class consciousness and characteristics to become a fully-fledged class in itself.
The pragmatic understanding of the black business or middle class needs to be build more on more than just generating income and immediate profit. It should, instead, start building wealth via assett classes, such as property, manufacturing and securities.
Our black business or middle class has a social duty, the masses argue, to help inculcate entrepreneurial skills to the huge numbers of our unemployed school graduates. And they should also be able to inculcate middle class status to the younger generation.
Simply put, through people development and education programmes our emerging black business or middle class occupying strategic positions should form, shape and influence government policies towards the total economic liberation of the African people.
This assumes a black middle class exists. Suprisingly, renowned black businessman StanLib chairman Saki Macozoma denies the existence of this class: stating the social category we call the black middle class in South Africa is a conceptual construct rather than an objective reality.
"A black bourgeoisie in South Africa" according to Macozoma,"is pure fiction".
# Mqadi is a Durban-based writer.
BLACK MIDDLE CLASS & SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITIES
Analysis - The Citizen - Tuesday 04 April 2006
By NKONZWENHLE MQADI
Will the black business or middle class grow, and have a positive effect on the growth and transformation of the national economy? Is the black business or middle class aligned to the country's transformation mandate?
These are the most frequently asked questions, and the groundswell of disillusionment is brewing among the African masses, as people make this concern our national discourse.
The South African emerging business or middle class and its social responsiveness has left the wider civil society questioning whether or not the black elite's new-found purchasing power is really fuelling a broader consumer boom.
Some observers argue these nouveau-riche or elites, located in the most affluent surburbs, lack the class consciousness to create sustainable investment and empower their communities.
Eminent scholars such as KwaZulu-Natal Premier Sbusiso Ndebele go out of their way to challenge and address the social conscience of the province's more affluent citizens.
"Where are the black business and intelligentsia located in the South African economy, and are they contributing to the much-vaunted 6% economic growth and the development of our own communities" has become Ndebele's daily mantra.
This new phenomenon-whereby more and more upwardly mobile black people are getting richer while the majority of their compatriots get left behind-is considered as one of the outstanding characteristics of the political, social and economic transformation of the post-1994 era.
And this begs the central question: how do we use this new black economic power to fast-track the gap between the so-called first and second economies?
Figures from a South African Advertising & Research Foundation survey released last year provided a clear picture of the strong growth in the number of blacks in the top LSM (Living Standard Measure) indicating that black people were taking huge strides into the higher categories, wealth-wise.
However, Empowerdex CEO Vuyo Jack criticises the new black buying power because, he argues, it is being spent on consumerism rather than investments.
People are doing what they were previously unable to do-such as going on holidays or buying a nice brand-new car.
"Without a focus on investments the massive spending boom may not be sustainable.
The real middle class are those with income enabling them to build assets, and this income should also be used to support their extended families," according to Jack.
On the other hand, world-renowned Nigerian-born writer Chika Onyeani has warned the South African black middle class that once they go into business arena they should take cognisance of the insidious 'spider web" of economic dependence.
Onyeani sounds a warning about the dangers of economic dependency, that could simply perpetuate the formerly one-sided power relations between haves and have-nots, a decade after the advent of democracy.
Onyeani sees our BBE (Black Economic Empowerment) deals as a good policy that gives Africans first-hand insight into how multi-nationals listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange operate.
However, he urges the black middle class to encourage the growth of a manufacturing class- either by providing access to reasonably=priced money or by buying goods and services that have been produced by their own people.
Merril Lynch economist Nazmeera Moola concurs. He states that " generally there has been an increase in purchasing power, mostly in the sales of consumer goods, financial services, motor cars and tourism".
Moola, though, adds that it is difficult to pinpoint what does constitute the " black middle class".
Interestingly, an ideological debate about the black middle class in the global economy is proving quite contentious.
Strong arguments are that surely it was a good thing that the aspirant black business or middle class had come out of the so-called second economy and have overcome the hardships that the majority of African people are still confronted with.
A pertinent question is whether this so-called class of elites is socially responsible-whether they will empower their close relatives and friends still trapped in the second economy.
What measures have they put in place, working in partnership with the three tiers of governance, to help their communities gain access to basic services?
And is the black business or middle class able to reconcile the huge disparities so prevalent among South African communities' living standards?
Former Black Management Forum MD Jerry Vilakazi argues that it is high time for the black business or middle class to forget about investing in golf estates found in the most affluent surburbs. They need to start investing back into their communities-those still residing in the townships and rural areas, as he warned during the BMF conference last year.
Our black business or middle class faces a critical, fundamental challenge. It is their responsibility, their social imperative, to reverse capital flow back into the townships and rural areas.
Grassroots communities have been asking whether black middle class is using its position and influence to advance the transformation objectives of our democracy.
Seen within the context of revisionist sociology, or in the Marxist idiom, the South African business or middle class lacks the class consciousness and characteristics to become a fully-fledged class in itself.
The pragmatic understanding of the black business or middle class needs to be build more on more than just generating income and immediate profit. It should, instead, start building wealth via assett classes, such as property, manufacturing and securities.
Our black business or middle class has a social duty, the masses argue, to help inculcate entrepreneurial skills to the huge numbers of our unemployed school graduates. And they should also be able to inculcate middle class status to the younger generation.
Simply put, through people development and education programmes our emerging black business or middle class occupying strategic positions should form, shape and influence government policies towards the total economic liberation of the African people.
This assumes a black middle class exists. Suprisingly, renowned black businessman StanLib chairman Saki Macozoma denies the existence of this class: stating the social category we call the black middle class in South Africa is a conceptual construct rather than an objective reality.
"A black bourgeoisie in South Africa" according to Macozoma,"is pure fiction".
# Mqadi is a Durban-based writer.
By NKONZWENHLE MQADI
Will the black business or middle class grow, and have a positive effect on the growth and transformation of the national economy? Is the black business or middle class aligned to the country's transformation mandate?
These are the most frequently asked questions, and the groundswell of disillusionment is brewing among the African masses, as people make this concern our national discourse.
The South African emerging business or middle class and its social responsiveness has left the wider civil society questioning whether or not the black elite's new-found purchasing power is really fuelling a broader consumer boom.
Some observers argue these nouveau-riche or elites, located in the most affluent surburbs, lack the class consciousness to create sustainable investment and empower their communities.
Eminent scholars such as KwaZulu-Natal Premier Sbusiso Ndebele go out of their way to challenge and address the social conscience of the province's more affluent citizens.
"Where are the black business and intelligentsia located in the South African economy, and are they contributing to the much-vaunted 6% economic growth and the development of our own communities" has become Ndebele's daily mantra.
This new phenomenon-whereby more and more upwardly mobile black people are getting richer while the majority of their compatriots get left behind-is considered as one of the outstanding characteristics of the political, social and economic transformation of the post-1994 era.
And this begs the central question: how do we use this new black economic power to fast-track the gap between the so-called first and second economies?
Figures from a South African Advertising & Research Foundation survey released last year provided a clear picture of the strong growth in the number of blacks in the top LSM (Living Standard Measure) indicating that black people were taking huge strides into the higher categories, wealth-wise.
However, Empowerdex CEO Vuyo Jack criticises the new black buying power because, he argues, it is being spent on consumerism rather than investments.
People are doing what they were previously unable to do-such as going on holidays or buying a nice brand-new car.
"Without a focus on investments the massive spending boom may not be sustainable.
The real middle class are those with income enabling them to build assets, and this income should also be used to support their extended families," according to Jack.
On the other hand, world-renowned Nigerian-born writer Chika Onyeani has warned the South African black middle class that once they go into business arena they should take cognisance of the insidious 'spider web" of economic dependence.
Onyeani sounds a warning about the dangers of economic dependency, that could simply perpetuate the formerly one-sided power relations between haves and have-nots, a decade after the advent of democracy.
Onyeani sees our BBE (Black Economic Empowerment) deals as a good policy that gives Africans first-hand insight into how multi-nationals listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange operate.
However, he urges the black middle class to encourage the growth of a manufacturing class- either by providing access to reasonably=priced money or by buying goods and services that have been produced by their own people.
Merril Lynch economist Nazmeera Moola concurs. He states that " generally there has been an increase in purchasing power, mostly in the sales of consumer goods, financial services, motor cars and tourism".
Moola, though, adds that it is difficult to pinpoint what does constitute the " black middle class".
Interestingly, an ideological debate about the black middle class in the global economy is proving quite contentious.
Strong arguments are that surely it was a good thing that the aspirant black business or middle class had come out of the so-called second economy and have overcome the hardships that the majority of African people are still confronted with.
A pertinent question is whether this so-called class of elites is socially responsible-whether they will empower their close relatives and friends still trapped in the second economy.
What measures have they put in place, working in partnership with the three tiers of governance, to help their communities gain access to basic services?
And is the black business or middle class able to reconcile the huge disparities so prevalent among South African communities' living standards?
Former Black Management Forum MD Jerry Vilakazi argues that it is high time for the black business or middle class to forget about investing in golf estates found in the most affluent surburbs. They need to start investing back into their communities-those still residing in the townships and rural areas, as he warned during the BMF conference last year.
Our black business or middle class faces a critical, fundamental challenge. It is their responsibility, their social imperative, to reverse capital flow back into the townships and rural areas.
Grassroots communities have been asking whether black middle class is using its position and influence to advance the transformation objectives of our democracy.
Seen within the context of revisionist sociology, or in the Marxist idiom, the South African business or middle class lacks the class consciousness and characteristics to become a fully-fledged class in itself.
The pragmatic understanding of the black business or middle class needs to be build more on more than just generating income and immediate profit. It should, instead, start building wealth via assett classes, such as property, manufacturing and securities.
Our black business or middle class has a social duty, the masses argue, to help inculcate entrepreneurial skills to the huge numbers of our unemployed school graduates. And they should also be able to inculcate middle class status to the younger generation.
Simply put, through people development and education programmes our emerging black business or middle class occupying strategic positions should form, shape and influence government policies towards the total economic liberation of the African people.
This assumes a black middle class exists. Suprisingly, renowned black businessman StanLib chairman Saki Macozoma denies the existence of this class: stating the social category we call the black middle class in South Africa is a conceptual construct rather than an objective reality.
"A black bourgeoisie in South Africa" according to Macozoma,"is pure fiction".
# Mqadi is a Durban-based writer.
DISCUSSION DOCUMENT DELIVERED TO SADC
Nkonzwenhle Mqadi writings available on website:
http://www.safcei.org.za/wildcoast/education/htm ;search/surf Google website for emaqadinimedia@webmail.co.za
SADC REGIONAL ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATION FELLOWSHIP PROGRAMME
(06 October 2005)
DISCUSSION DOCUMENT ON THE SOCIAL, ENVIRONMENTAL & ECONOMIC IMPACT ON THE CONSTRUCTION OF N2 WILD COAST TOLL-FREE ROAD TO THE LOCAL COMMUNITIES
Submitted by: NKONZWENHLE MQADI
(Independent Media Practitioner)
Contact: 0825816323 / 0762557826
E-mail :emaqadinimedia@webmail.co.za
nmqadi@yahoo.com
DURBAN SOUTH AFRICA
INTRODUCTION
The profound changes to the environment during the last decade have resulted in a strong focus on resource materials development, use and dissemination with a participatory orientation to local communities. The development of environmental educational awareness support material should play an advocacy role for environmental sustainability, global partnership development, peace, human rights and the eradication of extreme poverty among communities.
The local communities should be empowered through education and training that involves environmental education methodologies and development programmes to enhance the achievement of the UN Declaration on Sustainable Development.
Lack of a sound consultative process with local communities has resulted in many environmentalists questioning the rationale employed to justify the construction of a toll free road across two provinces as the project will sacrifice one of the most spectacular coastlines in the name of development.
BRIEF HISTORY OF THE PROJECT
Research shows that some time in October 2002 a group of consultants hired by a major road-building consortium to investigate the ramifications of creating a new 550 kilometre toll road between Durban in KwaZulu-Natal and East London in the Eastern Cape presented the Draft Impact Report for public submissions.
The Consultants report had stated that there were no significant social or environmental hurdles preventing the construction of a new N2 Wild Coast Toll Free Road. The consultants report pointed to a wide range of potentially positive long-term spin offs, such as better access and better prospects for economic, tourist and industrial development.
The environmental issues such as that the road would carve a completely new section of almost 100 kilometres through the steep river valleys of the Transkei to create a new coastal route between the Wild Coast Casino scenery and Port St John’s were overlooked or ignored.
The numerous village residents along the length of the road who will be forced to resettle or lose grazing or farming rights to make way for new road interchanges, re-alignment or creation of road reserves and biodiversity interests were never considered in the report.
The consultants’ finding stated that the Wild Coast Spatial Development Initiative would create better road networks that would also increase the prospects for cash economy, jobs and economic development. However, the Consultants’ report made no mention of any comprehensive consultation process with all the interested stakeholders.
The Draft Impact Report listed five major companies outsourced for the Toll Road construction. They are namely; Group Five Construction, Grinaker-LTA, Hawkins Hawkins and Osborn, Steward Scott, and WBHO Consortium.
Members of the public were thereon given until 1 November 2002 to make submissions about the Draft Impact Report.
THE ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUE
The environmental issue under discussion here is the impact of the construction of the N2 Wild Coast Toll-Free Road and the link between people
and nature that was deliberately broken by the private developers.
The proposed road construction reveals a bitter struggle in which the rural communities’ desire to hold onto the lands of their ancestors is pitted against the private developers who are projected as forces that do not value the environmental, cultural and historical allegiance of the local inhabitants but are more concerned with economic motives.
Several spokespersons for environmentalists, community representatives, church leaders and civil society formations opposed to the Draft Impact Report and are questioning the environmental impact assessment findings. The majority of Non Governmental Organisations are challenging the proposed construction of the N2 Wild Coast Toll Free Road.
VIEWS OF ENVIRONMENTALISTS
Vance Martin, President of the WILD Foundation and Executive Editor of the International Journal of Wilderness advocates that the South African National Roads Agency Limited (SANRAL) should suspend any final decision on the proposed Toll Road construction until all the local communities who were never involved in the development of a comprehensive land-use plan are consulted.
Interviewed by the SABC 2 on 26 January 2003, John Costello of the Wild Coast Conservation Forum dismissed the N2 Toll Road by saying it will destroy the area where karoid sediments support extremely rare plant endemics of great antiquity which have no relatives on distant islands and continents of Gondwana origin. Costello also emphasised that the N2 Toll Road would be cutting a swathe along the cultural and scenic offerings that affects the Pondoland Coast that was recently granted World Heritage Status. “How can you justify blasting a highway through one of South Africa’s
most pristine areas? ” asks Costello.
Well-known local botanist Tony Abbot argues that there are many endemics in the Wild Coast that have just been discovered and there are countless plants in the grasslands still unnamed and waiting to be discovered. Abbot says the Wild Coast is one of South Africa’s magical areas. It is not only plants that will be disturbed by development but also the local rural communities that will suffer from the noise of the Toll Road traffic passing through their area.
THE POSITION OF CHURCH LEADERS
Bishop Geoff Davies of the Anglican Diocese of Umzimvubu, which extends from the Pondoland Wild Coast to the Drakensberg Mountains describes the go ahead for the proposed N2 Wild Coast Toll Road as illogical. He warns that there will be disastrous consequences, and he proposes that a commission should be appointed immediately to ensure the implementation of sustainable development and democratic decision-making.
“We should turn the existing R61 main road into the N2 Wild Coast Highway and establish and protect the eco-tourist potential of this area. Wild Coast is one of the 25 botanical hotspots and most incredible coastlines in the world,” says Bishop Davies.
South African Council of Churches (SACC) General Secretary, Dr Melefe Tsele, noted that their Biblical and historic mandate to be good stewards of God’s resources and to deal justly in the face of human, social and ecological challenges. This forces them to respond with deep concern to the suggestions contained in the Record of Decision.
In the letter which SACC addressed to the Minister of Environmental Affairs and Tourism dated 17 December 2003, it is illegal that the construction of the N2 Wild Coast Toll Road will not address adequately concerns on poverty eradication, sustainable ecological development or due civil empowerment.
Therefore, the SACC said they were obligated to urge the Minister to withhold approval for the road construction and appealed on behalf of affected communities that the provincial governments and local government authorities be given adequate time to consult and discuss the Draft Impact Assessment Report proposals with the affected communities.
FEARS OF COMMUNITY REPRESENTATIVES
Local people are up in arms and they accuse the government and private developers of doing things unilaterally as was the case during the building of the Wild Coast Resort when they were never consulted but were forcefully uprooted and displaced from their ancestral lands because of other people development motives.
According to Rev N M Gable of Lusikisiki, they fear that the toll road will divide communities and create numerous social problems. Further, he complains that the suggested wide range of potentially positive spinoffs, including employment opportunities to the local people were a pipedream because such promises were made when the casino was built on the banks of Umzamba River but to date very few locals have been gainfully employed.
STANCE OF CIVIL SOCIETY ORGANISATIONS
The Save Wild Coast Campaign (SWC), which is a loose coalition of over 200 organisations and individuals, have voiced opposition to the current route of the proposed N2 Toll Road too. SWC states it was environmentally insensitive for South African National Roads Agency Limited to obtain financial gains at the expense of the rural communities. They cited a 1996 Indaba called and attended by the then Minister of Water Affairs and Forestry, Prof Kader Asmal, in the area.
They allege it was resolved to establish a broadly acceptable decision-making framework for forestry planning, with a strategy aimed at meeting the needs and demands of community by establishing procedures that will empower the rural people.
Several other member organisations have voiced concerns that the government dealings have shown no insight into environmental ethics, bio-diversity protection or economic justice.
According to SWC, the consultation, if any, was so minimal that even the Pondoland King, Mpondompini Sigcawu, was excluded from the process. Wild Coast communities have concluded that the project was forced upon them without the due consultation process. Because the mining of iron ore and titanium of the sand dunes was proposed on the Wild Coast, fast, reliable and efficient transportation mode was needed to ferry the resources to East London industries.
In a letter dated August 2004, the SWC calls for the South African National Roads Agency Limited to offer a public apology to the people of South Africa for false impressions arising from the ambiguous full-page advertising on the proposed N2 toll road placed in various newspapers, including “The Mercury”, “Daily Dispatch”, and “ Sunday Tribune” in February and March 2004.
The Save Wild Coast campaign have also proposed that South African National Roads Agency Limited transfers the two billion rands earmarked to construct the two Msikaba and Mtentu bridges to be spent on developing and upgrading the infrastructure of Pondoland for the benefit of her communities.
They say 90% of the area is made of plantations; therefore, the money should develop agriculture and train and equip the Pondoland people with skills for sustainable development.
Rehema White, the Acting Dean of Research at the University of Transkei says relocating and finding alternative land for uprooted communities caused by building the proposed N2 Wild Coast Toll Road would be complex under the communal land ownership structure, and the local communities should start preparing themselves for new transport strategies.
The Wild Coast local communities’ anger has fostered the creation of a community-based empowerment initiative called the Wild Coast Empowerment and Monitoring Project (WEMP).
Accordingly, the Wild Coast Empowerment and Monitoring Project aims to help the rural communities develop the capacities and strategies as well as skills for both the sustainable utilization and equitable distribution of the land and other national resources along the Wild Coast.
Wild Coast Empowerment and Monitoring Project says there should be a institutional capacity building of local community structures to ensure co-ordinated and effective local structures such as participation and active involvement in the local government process. WEMP argues that having well-informed communities will help influence the government policy on land tenure legislation on the simultaneous movements towards both traditional forms and elected institutions.
WEMP’s argument is that there is a lack of viable institutions to champion and take custody of communal land rights because there are still unaddressed complaints about the Wild Coast Spatial Development Initiative (WCSDI) that were launched in 1996 to attract investment in the area. The Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism has championed eco-tourism as its flagship for economic development since 1994 but there is nothing tangible in this direction, says WEMP.
Development Bank of Southern Africa analyst Julie Clarke says there is no convincing evidence to prove that the Wild Coast proposal is in the interest of the local communities. Clarke challenges the notion that big bridges and fast roads automatically bring development and warns that the days of getting away with poor development proposals before selling them on the grounds of “job creation” are over. She argues that there are several questions that investors have to answer to and that these questions have not been answered in the existing documentation presented by developers to date. “Building a freeway through the global hotspot of bio-diversity will not only have an impact on the endemic ecology but will also deflate the opportunities to uplift local communities through promoting the region as an eco-tourism destination,” warns Clarke.
SOUTH AFRICAN NATIONAL ROADS AGENCY LTD
Writing in the “Business Report” dated 16 October 2003 SANRAL Chief Executive Nazir Alli dismissed all the various stakeholders’ concerns and media statements about the Environmental Impact Assessment Report as ill-informed and baseless. “There is a general misrepresentation with no foundation to remark that the proposed highway is being planned by an almost secret community of road engineering contractors, planners and the South African National Roads Agency Limited. The process of planning, financing, designing, constructing and maintaining is subject to extensive legislation that requires comprehensive public participation, open to public tender scrutiny and adjudication of more senior tribunals, including our courts of law” explained Alli.
In addition, according to South African National Roads Agency Limited Marketing Manager, Connie Nel, the N2 Wild Coast Toll Free Road should be viewed within its proper context of furthering sustainable development and improving the quality of life of our citizens. Therefore, added Nel, it as for the above reasons that the Wild Coast Toll Free Road was identified as one of the areas for strategic development in accordance with the Government’s Spatial Development Initiative (SDI) strategy. “The inefficiencies of the transport sector and the lack of a proper road network in many pars of South Africa have been identified as major impediments to economic growth and development, as well as to national and international trade.
The construction of the highway was to fast-track the delivery of goods and services, access to employment opportunities and household access to consumer goods since all the above depended on transport, and more particularly roads” said Nel.
The Hibiscus Coast Municipality website, where the Wild Coast area falls, insists that all the environmental planning frameworks were followed properly before the construction tender was awarded to the five toll road constructing companies.
East London Buffalo City and Umthatha Chamber of business fully supported the toll road but opinion was divided among the smaller Eastern Cape municipalities.
Mbashe municipality criticised the location of the toll plaza next to poor communities while the Kei municipality and Nyandeni municipality were non-committal over the proposed toll free road.
The eThekwini Municipality’s Transportation Advisory Board dismissed new toll roads driven by private sector interests. Its website reads “The eThekwini Metro is planning to restructure its public transport system and has not taken into account the proposed toll road”.
BUSINESS GROUP
Businesses trading from the Joyner Road Interchange (Isiphingo-Durban) felt the location of a major toll plaza on their front doors could push up costs by at least R 750 000 00 a year, says South African Breweries District Manager Greg Foreman. Foreman added that 50% of their staff lived south of the toll plaza; therefore, their transport costs would escalate and the value of the company’s business would decline because of its proximity to a toll plaza.
The Chairperson of the Ogwini Taxi Association, M E Mkhize, says taxi operators would have no option but to increase fares. Durban Chamber of Commerce representative Colin Butler said the building of toll roads in remote rural areas was likely to yield little revenue and said proponents of the proposed highway should be aware of the dire consequences which can be attributed to a lack of extensive consultative processes.
SOCIO-HISTORICAL CONTEXT OF THE AREA
People that reside along the stretch of Umzimvubu River, Umtamvuma River and the Umzamba River regard the Wild Coast area as part of their cultural heritage. Even when many rural households were forced to re-settle at the nearby villages of Bizana, Port St John’s and Lusikisiki when large tracts of land were turned into the Wild Coast Resort and Casino, they have always related to it as the resting lands of their ancestors.
The Wild Coast area is situated on the Lower South Coast and falls under the Hibiscus Coast District Municipality under the Ugu Regional Council in KwaZulu-Natal and it stretches into Port St John’s and beyond to the Eastern Cape.
According to the 2001 national census, Statistics South Africa and the Independent Electoral Commission records, the area known as Umzamba to the local African inhabitants, covers approximately two hundred and fifty (250) kilometres of coastline, two (2) district municipalities, seven (7) local municipalities, twenty (20) wall-to-wall municipal wards, four (4) regional authorities, about thirty (30) tribal authorities and their respective administrative areas total about 12 000 households.
The local community is a mix of IsiZulu-speaking and IsiXhosa-speaking people as the area was on the edge of a cross-border region between the provinces of KwaZulu-Natal and Eastern Cape.
Since the Municipal Demarcation Board delimitation of ward boundaries in 2000 and the subsequent local government elections, KwaZulu-Natal governs the area.
BIOPHYSICAL CONTEXT
The Wild Coast has pristine vegetation which have been identified by the South African National Parks (San Parks) and the Wildlife and Environmental Society of South Africa (WESSA). The Wild Coast area is seen as the last remaining habitant of its kind on the continent.
Despite its critical challenges the area faces regarding the proposed N2 Wild Coast Toll Free Road, her scenery remains untapped in terms of economic, social and sustainable environmental development.
Local people link the proposed development of the N2 road in the Wild Coast area to plans by Trans-World Energy and Minerals to extract titanium and iron ore resources from the Xholobeni sand dunes in the not too distant future.
CONCLUSION
When Minister Marthinus van Schalkwyk decided to uphold appeals against the construction of the N2 Wild Coast Toll Free Road, he cited ‘extensive and inappropriate links between the consultants, Bohlweki Environmental company that had compiled the EIA, the Group Five Developers, and the Wild Coast Consortium’ for breaches that had been highlighted by the environmentalists and civil society institutions the previous year (The Mercury 14 December 2004). Therefore, the critical challenge facing all stakeholders and the wider South African public is to-re-visit the country’s supreme legislation, the S.A Constitution Act 108 of 1996.
The Constitution establishes that negative impacts on the environment and on the people’s environmental rights should be anticipated and prevented, and where they cannot be altogether prevented, at least should be minimised and remedied. Weighing and balancing the pro’s and con’s of the obligations and rights of both the environment and the welfare of the people, it becomes imperative that the democratic government principles of EAT (i.e ethical, accountability and transparency) should be followed at all times. Failure to uphold these cardinal principles of our Constitution remain critical aspects as we deepen the pillars of a democratic culture in South Africa. SANRAL, as the government representative, should take the blame because finding the wider civil society institutions challenging the proposed N2 Wild Coast Toll Free Road in unison proves that the due processes as enshrined in the Constitution was never followed.
We should address the dilemma posed by the need for economic development dictates on the one hand and the need to preserve and conserve environmental imperatives on the other by using the ideal approach of transparent consultative processes.
Engaging communities at all levels or across the board in their respective contexts would help to enhance the achievements of the Millenium Development Goals, the 2002 World Summit on Sustainable Development resolutions and the principles of the UN Declaration on Sustainable Development.
Writing in Caring for the Earth-South Africa. A Guide to Sustainable Living (WWF, 1997: 41) John Yeld warns readers that “We must not burden later generations with an ecological debt that will condemn most of them to an even more precarious poverty stricken existence than that endured by millions of people today”.
REFERENCES
1. The Mercury, 17 October 2002; The Mercury, 17 June 2003
2. SABC 2 Interview, Sandra Herrington, 26 January 2003
3. Business Report, 16 October 2003
4. The Mercury, 14 December 2004
5. SACC Public Policy Liaison Unit, 17 December 2003
6. SANRAL presentation (undated)
7. WEMP presentation (undated)
8. The Herald, 16 January 2004 (http.www.epherald.co.za)
9. Caring for the Earth-South Africa. A Guide to Sustainable Living, Yeld.J, Stellenbosch: WWF,1997,41
http://www.safcei.org.za/wildcoast/education/htm ;search/surf Google website for emaqadinimedia@webmail.co.za
SADC REGIONAL ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATION FELLOWSHIP PROGRAMME
(06 October 2005)
DISCUSSION DOCUMENT ON THE SOCIAL, ENVIRONMENTAL & ECONOMIC IMPACT ON THE CONSTRUCTION OF N2 WILD COAST TOLL-FREE ROAD TO THE LOCAL COMMUNITIES
Submitted by: NKONZWENHLE MQADI
(Independent Media Practitioner)
Contact: 0825816323 / 0762557826
E-mail :emaqadinimedia@webmail.co.za
nmqadi@yahoo.com
DURBAN SOUTH AFRICA
INTRODUCTION
The profound changes to the environment during the last decade have resulted in a strong focus on resource materials development, use and dissemination with a participatory orientation to local communities. The development of environmental educational awareness support material should play an advocacy role for environmental sustainability, global partnership development, peace, human rights and the eradication of extreme poverty among communities.
The local communities should be empowered through education and training that involves environmental education methodologies and development programmes to enhance the achievement of the UN Declaration on Sustainable Development.
Lack of a sound consultative process with local communities has resulted in many environmentalists questioning the rationale employed to justify the construction of a toll free road across two provinces as the project will sacrifice one of the most spectacular coastlines in the name of development.
BRIEF HISTORY OF THE PROJECT
Research shows that some time in October 2002 a group of consultants hired by a major road-building consortium to investigate the ramifications of creating a new 550 kilometre toll road between Durban in KwaZulu-Natal and East London in the Eastern Cape presented the Draft Impact Report for public submissions.
The Consultants report had stated that there were no significant social or environmental hurdles preventing the construction of a new N2 Wild Coast Toll Free Road. The consultants report pointed to a wide range of potentially positive long-term spin offs, such as better access and better prospects for economic, tourist and industrial development.
The environmental issues such as that the road would carve a completely new section of almost 100 kilometres through the steep river valleys of the Transkei to create a new coastal route between the Wild Coast Casino scenery and Port St John’s were overlooked or ignored.
The numerous village residents along the length of the road who will be forced to resettle or lose grazing or farming rights to make way for new road interchanges, re-alignment or creation of road reserves and biodiversity interests were never considered in the report.
The consultants’ finding stated that the Wild Coast Spatial Development Initiative would create better road networks that would also increase the prospects for cash economy, jobs and economic development. However, the Consultants’ report made no mention of any comprehensive consultation process with all the interested stakeholders.
The Draft Impact Report listed five major companies outsourced for the Toll Road construction. They are namely; Group Five Construction, Grinaker-LTA, Hawkins Hawkins and Osborn, Steward Scott, and WBHO Consortium.
Members of the public were thereon given until 1 November 2002 to make submissions about the Draft Impact Report.
THE ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUE
The environmental issue under discussion here is the impact of the construction of the N2 Wild Coast Toll-Free Road and the link between people
and nature that was deliberately broken by the private developers.
The proposed road construction reveals a bitter struggle in which the rural communities’ desire to hold onto the lands of their ancestors is pitted against the private developers who are projected as forces that do not value the environmental, cultural and historical allegiance of the local inhabitants but are more concerned with economic motives.
Several spokespersons for environmentalists, community representatives, church leaders and civil society formations opposed to the Draft Impact Report and are questioning the environmental impact assessment findings. The majority of Non Governmental Organisations are challenging the proposed construction of the N2 Wild Coast Toll Free Road.
VIEWS OF ENVIRONMENTALISTS
Vance Martin, President of the WILD Foundation and Executive Editor of the International Journal of Wilderness advocates that the South African National Roads Agency Limited (SANRAL) should suspend any final decision on the proposed Toll Road construction until all the local communities who were never involved in the development of a comprehensive land-use plan are consulted.
Interviewed by the SABC 2 on 26 January 2003, John Costello of the Wild Coast Conservation Forum dismissed the N2 Toll Road by saying it will destroy the area where karoid sediments support extremely rare plant endemics of great antiquity which have no relatives on distant islands and continents of Gondwana origin. Costello also emphasised that the N2 Toll Road would be cutting a swathe along the cultural and scenic offerings that affects the Pondoland Coast that was recently granted World Heritage Status. “How can you justify blasting a highway through one of South Africa’s
most pristine areas? ” asks Costello.
Well-known local botanist Tony Abbot argues that there are many endemics in the Wild Coast that have just been discovered and there are countless plants in the grasslands still unnamed and waiting to be discovered. Abbot says the Wild Coast is one of South Africa’s magical areas. It is not only plants that will be disturbed by development but also the local rural communities that will suffer from the noise of the Toll Road traffic passing through their area.
THE POSITION OF CHURCH LEADERS
Bishop Geoff Davies of the Anglican Diocese of Umzimvubu, which extends from the Pondoland Wild Coast to the Drakensberg Mountains describes the go ahead for the proposed N2 Wild Coast Toll Road as illogical. He warns that there will be disastrous consequences, and he proposes that a commission should be appointed immediately to ensure the implementation of sustainable development and democratic decision-making.
“We should turn the existing R61 main road into the N2 Wild Coast Highway and establish and protect the eco-tourist potential of this area. Wild Coast is one of the 25 botanical hotspots and most incredible coastlines in the world,” says Bishop Davies.
South African Council of Churches (SACC) General Secretary, Dr Melefe Tsele, noted that their Biblical and historic mandate to be good stewards of God’s resources and to deal justly in the face of human, social and ecological challenges. This forces them to respond with deep concern to the suggestions contained in the Record of Decision.
In the letter which SACC addressed to the Minister of Environmental Affairs and Tourism dated 17 December 2003, it is illegal that the construction of the N2 Wild Coast Toll Road will not address adequately concerns on poverty eradication, sustainable ecological development or due civil empowerment.
Therefore, the SACC said they were obligated to urge the Minister to withhold approval for the road construction and appealed on behalf of affected communities that the provincial governments and local government authorities be given adequate time to consult and discuss the Draft Impact Assessment Report proposals with the affected communities.
FEARS OF COMMUNITY REPRESENTATIVES
Local people are up in arms and they accuse the government and private developers of doing things unilaterally as was the case during the building of the Wild Coast Resort when they were never consulted but were forcefully uprooted and displaced from their ancestral lands because of other people development motives.
According to Rev N M Gable of Lusikisiki, they fear that the toll road will divide communities and create numerous social problems. Further, he complains that the suggested wide range of potentially positive spinoffs, including employment opportunities to the local people were a pipedream because such promises were made when the casino was built on the banks of Umzamba River but to date very few locals have been gainfully employed.
STANCE OF CIVIL SOCIETY ORGANISATIONS
The Save Wild Coast Campaign (SWC), which is a loose coalition of over 200 organisations and individuals, have voiced opposition to the current route of the proposed N2 Toll Road too. SWC states it was environmentally insensitive for South African National Roads Agency Limited to obtain financial gains at the expense of the rural communities. They cited a 1996 Indaba called and attended by the then Minister of Water Affairs and Forestry, Prof Kader Asmal, in the area.
They allege it was resolved to establish a broadly acceptable decision-making framework for forestry planning, with a strategy aimed at meeting the needs and demands of community by establishing procedures that will empower the rural people.
Several other member organisations have voiced concerns that the government dealings have shown no insight into environmental ethics, bio-diversity protection or economic justice.
According to SWC, the consultation, if any, was so minimal that even the Pondoland King, Mpondompini Sigcawu, was excluded from the process. Wild Coast communities have concluded that the project was forced upon them without the due consultation process. Because the mining of iron ore and titanium of the sand dunes was proposed on the Wild Coast, fast, reliable and efficient transportation mode was needed to ferry the resources to East London industries.
In a letter dated August 2004, the SWC calls for the South African National Roads Agency Limited to offer a public apology to the people of South Africa for false impressions arising from the ambiguous full-page advertising on the proposed N2 toll road placed in various newspapers, including “The Mercury”, “Daily Dispatch”, and “ Sunday Tribune” in February and March 2004.
The Save Wild Coast campaign have also proposed that South African National Roads Agency Limited transfers the two billion rands earmarked to construct the two Msikaba and Mtentu bridges to be spent on developing and upgrading the infrastructure of Pondoland for the benefit of her communities.
They say 90% of the area is made of plantations; therefore, the money should develop agriculture and train and equip the Pondoland people with skills for sustainable development.
Rehema White, the Acting Dean of Research at the University of Transkei says relocating and finding alternative land for uprooted communities caused by building the proposed N2 Wild Coast Toll Road would be complex under the communal land ownership structure, and the local communities should start preparing themselves for new transport strategies.
The Wild Coast local communities’ anger has fostered the creation of a community-based empowerment initiative called the Wild Coast Empowerment and Monitoring Project (WEMP).
Accordingly, the Wild Coast Empowerment and Monitoring Project aims to help the rural communities develop the capacities and strategies as well as skills for both the sustainable utilization and equitable distribution of the land and other national resources along the Wild Coast.
Wild Coast Empowerment and Monitoring Project says there should be a institutional capacity building of local community structures to ensure co-ordinated and effective local structures such as participation and active involvement in the local government process. WEMP argues that having well-informed communities will help influence the government policy on land tenure legislation on the simultaneous movements towards both traditional forms and elected institutions.
WEMP’s argument is that there is a lack of viable institutions to champion and take custody of communal land rights because there are still unaddressed complaints about the Wild Coast Spatial Development Initiative (WCSDI) that were launched in 1996 to attract investment in the area. The Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism has championed eco-tourism as its flagship for economic development since 1994 but there is nothing tangible in this direction, says WEMP.
Development Bank of Southern Africa analyst Julie Clarke says there is no convincing evidence to prove that the Wild Coast proposal is in the interest of the local communities. Clarke challenges the notion that big bridges and fast roads automatically bring development and warns that the days of getting away with poor development proposals before selling them on the grounds of “job creation” are over. She argues that there are several questions that investors have to answer to and that these questions have not been answered in the existing documentation presented by developers to date. “Building a freeway through the global hotspot of bio-diversity will not only have an impact on the endemic ecology but will also deflate the opportunities to uplift local communities through promoting the region as an eco-tourism destination,” warns Clarke.
SOUTH AFRICAN NATIONAL ROADS AGENCY LTD
Writing in the “Business Report” dated 16 October 2003 SANRAL Chief Executive Nazir Alli dismissed all the various stakeholders’ concerns and media statements about the Environmental Impact Assessment Report as ill-informed and baseless. “There is a general misrepresentation with no foundation to remark that the proposed highway is being planned by an almost secret community of road engineering contractors, planners and the South African National Roads Agency Limited. The process of planning, financing, designing, constructing and maintaining is subject to extensive legislation that requires comprehensive public participation, open to public tender scrutiny and adjudication of more senior tribunals, including our courts of law” explained Alli.
In addition, according to South African National Roads Agency Limited Marketing Manager, Connie Nel, the N2 Wild Coast Toll Free Road should be viewed within its proper context of furthering sustainable development and improving the quality of life of our citizens. Therefore, added Nel, it as for the above reasons that the Wild Coast Toll Free Road was identified as one of the areas for strategic development in accordance with the Government’s Spatial Development Initiative (SDI) strategy. “The inefficiencies of the transport sector and the lack of a proper road network in many pars of South Africa have been identified as major impediments to economic growth and development, as well as to national and international trade.
The construction of the highway was to fast-track the delivery of goods and services, access to employment opportunities and household access to consumer goods since all the above depended on transport, and more particularly roads” said Nel.
The Hibiscus Coast Municipality website, where the Wild Coast area falls, insists that all the environmental planning frameworks were followed properly before the construction tender was awarded to the five toll road constructing companies.
East London Buffalo City and Umthatha Chamber of business fully supported the toll road but opinion was divided among the smaller Eastern Cape municipalities.
Mbashe municipality criticised the location of the toll plaza next to poor communities while the Kei municipality and Nyandeni municipality were non-committal over the proposed toll free road.
The eThekwini Municipality’s Transportation Advisory Board dismissed new toll roads driven by private sector interests. Its website reads “The eThekwini Metro is planning to restructure its public transport system and has not taken into account the proposed toll road”.
BUSINESS GROUP
Businesses trading from the Joyner Road Interchange (Isiphingo-Durban) felt the location of a major toll plaza on their front doors could push up costs by at least R 750 000 00 a year, says South African Breweries District Manager Greg Foreman. Foreman added that 50% of their staff lived south of the toll plaza; therefore, their transport costs would escalate and the value of the company’s business would decline because of its proximity to a toll plaza.
The Chairperson of the Ogwini Taxi Association, M E Mkhize, says taxi operators would have no option but to increase fares. Durban Chamber of Commerce representative Colin Butler said the building of toll roads in remote rural areas was likely to yield little revenue and said proponents of the proposed highway should be aware of the dire consequences which can be attributed to a lack of extensive consultative processes.
SOCIO-HISTORICAL CONTEXT OF THE AREA
People that reside along the stretch of Umzimvubu River, Umtamvuma River and the Umzamba River regard the Wild Coast area as part of their cultural heritage. Even when many rural households were forced to re-settle at the nearby villages of Bizana, Port St John’s and Lusikisiki when large tracts of land were turned into the Wild Coast Resort and Casino, they have always related to it as the resting lands of their ancestors.
The Wild Coast area is situated on the Lower South Coast and falls under the Hibiscus Coast District Municipality under the Ugu Regional Council in KwaZulu-Natal and it stretches into Port St John’s and beyond to the Eastern Cape.
According to the 2001 national census, Statistics South Africa and the Independent Electoral Commission records, the area known as Umzamba to the local African inhabitants, covers approximately two hundred and fifty (250) kilometres of coastline, two (2) district municipalities, seven (7) local municipalities, twenty (20) wall-to-wall municipal wards, four (4) regional authorities, about thirty (30) tribal authorities and their respective administrative areas total about 12 000 households.
The local community is a mix of IsiZulu-speaking and IsiXhosa-speaking people as the area was on the edge of a cross-border region between the provinces of KwaZulu-Natal and Eastern Cape.
Since the Municipal Demarcation Board delimitation of ward boundaries in 2000 and the subsequent local government elections, KwaZulu-Natal governs the area.
BIOPHYSICAL CONTEXT
The Wild Coast has pristine vegetation which have been identified by the South African National Parks (San Parks) and the Wildlife and Environmental Society of South Africa (WESSA). The Wild Coast area is seen as the last remaining habitant of its kind on the continent.
Despite its critical challenges the area faces regarding the proposed N2 Wild Coast Toll Free Road, her scenery remains untapped in terms of economic, social and sustainable environmental development.
Local people link the proposed development of the N2 road in the Wild Coast area to plans by Trans-World Energy and Minerals to extract titanium and iron ore resources from the Xholobeni sand dunes in the not too distant future.
CONCLUSION
When Minister Marthinus van Schalkwyk decided to uphold appeals against the construction of the N2 Wild Coast Toll Free Road, he cited ‘extensive and inappropriate links between the consultants, Bohlweki Environmental company that had compiled the EIA, the Group Five Developers, and the Wild Coast Consortium’ for breaches that had been highlighted by the environmentalists and civil society institutions the previous year (The Mercury 14 December 2004). Therefore, the critical challenge facing all stakeholders and the wider South African public is to-re-visit the country’s supreme legislation, the S.A Constitution Act 108 of 1996.
The Constitution establishes that negative impacts on the environment and on the people’s environmental rights should be anticipated and prevented, and where they cannot be altogether prevented, at least should be minimised and remedied. Weighing and balancing the pro’s and con’s of the obligations and rights of both the environment and the welfare of the people, it becomes imperative that the democratic government principles of EAT (i.e ethical, accountability and transparency) should be followed at all times. Failure to uphold these cardinal principles of our Constitution remain critical aspects as we deepen the pillars of a democratic culture in South Africa. SANRAL, as the government representative, should take the blame because finding the wider civil society institutions challenging the proposed N2 Wild Coast Toll Free Road in unison proves that the due processes as enshrined in the Constitution was never followed.
We should address the dilemma posed by the need for economic development dictates on the one hand and the need to preserve and conserve environmental imperatives on the other by using the ideal approach of transparent consultative processes.
Engaging communities at all levels or across the board in their respective contexts would help to enhance the achievements of the Millenium Development Goals, the 2002 World Summit on Sustainable Development resolutions and the principles of the UN Declaration on Sustainable Development.
Writing in Caring for the Earth-South Africa. A Guide to Sustainable Living (WWF, 1997: 41) John Yeld warns readers that “We must not burden later generations with an ecological debt that will condemn most of them to an even more precarious poverty stricken existence than that endured by millions of people today”.
REFERENCES
1. The Mercury, 17 October 2002; The Mercury, 17 June 2003
2. SABC 2 Interview, Sandra Herrington, 26 January 2003
3. Business Report, 16 October 2003
4. The Mercury, 14 December 2004
5. SACC Public Policy Liaison Unit, 17 December 2003
6. SANRAL presentation (undated)
7. WEMP presentation (undated)
8. The Herald, 16 January 2004 (http.www.epherald.co.za)
9. Caring for the Earth-South Africa. A Guide to Sustainable Living, Yeld.J, Stellenbosch: WWF,1997,41
Tuesday, May 12, 2009
HOW DO THE SOUTH AFRICAN PEOPLE VIEW THEIR GOVT PERFOMANCE?
The wider South African society has a moral duty and responsibility to monitor the government perfomance and possible implications for policy making as the new Cabinet, representative of heterogenous interests under the stewardship of President Jacob Zuma assumes office.
The Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung (KAS) in partnership with the Institute for Democracy in South Africa (IDASA) have organised a series of Afrobarometer Workshops for different target groups (i.e business, civil society and politicians) to engage over this recent development whereby they aim to provide relevant extracts of survey findings and trends conducted throughout the continent.
Facilitators of the debate,Executive Director of Democracy Development Programme Dr Rama Naidu,have announced that the Afrobarometer briefing will be held in Durban next week.
Naidu explained that the panelists will be presenting comparative research findings from research undertaken to public attitudes surveys in more that twenty (20) African countries.
"South African people carry an enormous responsibility to keep their duly-elected government under check at all times regarding its perfomance on deliverables.
We measured public attitudes on democracy and its alternatives, evaluations of the quality of governance and economic perfomance.
We conducted the survey by assessing the views of the electorate on critical political issues in the surveyed countries" explained Naidu
The presentation of the Afrobarometer survey, he added, will provide an insight into how the Africans people view the perfomance of the government and how can it be used as a way of describing the political situation that faces the newly-elected government at the beginning of its term.
Executive Director of IDASA Paul Graham highlighted that his keynote presentation was not aimed at influencing the policy direction taken or still to be taken by the South African government but instead, he said, theirs is a platform whereby the wider civil society can deliberate on 'views on government perfomance and possible implications for policy making'.
Ends
{Contact Writer for more details @ 0825816323 / 0762557826}
The Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung (KAS) in partnership with the Institute for Democracy in South Africa (IDASA) have organised a series of Afrobarometer Workshops for different target groups (i.e business, civil society and politicians) to engage over this recent development whereby they aim to provide relevant extracts of survey findings and trends conducted throughout the continent.
Facilitators of the debate,Executive Director of Democracy Development Programme Dr Rama Naidu,have announced that the Afrobarometer briefing will be held in Durban next week.
Naidu explained that the panelists will be presenting comparative research findings from research undertaken to public attitudes surveys in more that twenty (20) African countries.
"South African people carry an enormous responsibility to keep their duly-elected government under check at all times regarding its perfomance on deliverables.
We measured public attitudes on democracy and its alternatives, evaluations of the quality of governance and economic perfomance.
We conducted the survey by assessing the views of the electorate on critical political issues in the surveyed countries" explained Naidu
The presentation of the Afrobarometer survey, he added, will provide an insight into how the Africans people view the perfomance of the government and how can it be used as a way of describing the political situation that faces the newly-elected government at the beginning of its term.
Executive Director of IDASA Paul Graham highlighted that his keynote presentation was not aimed at influencing the policy direction taken or still to be taken by the South African government but instead, he said, theirs is a platform whereby the wider civil society can deliberate on 'views on government perfomance and possible implications for policy making'.
Ends
{Contact Writer for more details @ 0825816323 / 0762557826}
Monday, May 11, 2009
KZN PREMIER EXTENDS RECONCILIATION TO OPPOSITION
"RECONCILLIATION amongst the people of this province remains one outstanding matter that we will spare no effort to bring to finality ......." these words sums the sentiments echoed at Woodburn Staduim, Pietermaritzburg yesterday.
KwaZulu-Natal Premier Dr Zweli Mkhize said this as he implored for the cleansing and healing and called for the creation of pace way for open political contest and co-operation among competing parties in the province.
This was the main theme of the maiden/acceptance speech he delivered immediately after being sworn-in by KZN Deputy Judge President Philip Levinson,before he announced the make-up of his new 10-member Cabinet.
"We all have a responsibility to deliver a better life for all our people from both the ranks of the ruling party and the opposition benches.
Reconciliation amongst the people of this province, especially as it relates to the members of the African National Congress and the Inkatha Freedom Party must be cleansed and healed for good.
All parties in this House are a product of democracy and are the true representation of the will of our people.
It is for this reason that I call for reconciliation,open political contest and co-operation among all parties" said Mkhize.
Mkhize also made a clarion call to minority communities to come forward and interact with government and make the contributions that will shape policies to address issues pertinent to their concerns.
"we must not loose sign to the huge degree of enthusiasm generated by the recent elections. The passion is shared by all the members from our diverse communities. In the streets, churches, mosques, temples, as professionals, business, labour and different sectors of our civil society embrace one another in the spirit of a Rainbow Nation as embodied by our icon Nelson Mandela" added Mkhize.
He, further, announced that as in line with the NMational Planning Commission located in the Presidency, there will be a Provincial Planning Commission located in the Office of the Premier.
On announcing his cabinet make-up, there was a new female addition to the one of his predecessor Dr Sibusiso Ndebele as the former female minister Peggy Nkonyeni has taken over as the Speaker.
Ironically, the previous Speaker Willies Mchunu was named as Local Government and Traditional Affairs MEC, the new female candidate Magasvarie taking over as MEC for Human Settlement and Public Works.
Dr Sibongiseni Maaxwell Dlomo takes over as MEC for Health while the long-serving ANC provincial secretary Senzo Mchunu was sworn in as the Education Ministry MEC.
He also swapped the existing MEC's to varios positions to speed up service delivery proggrames, he noted
Ends
KwaZulu-Natal Premier Dr Zweli Mkhize said this as he implored for the cleansing and healing and called for the creation of pace way for open political contest and co-operation among competing parties in the province.
This was the main theme of the maiden/acceptance speech he delivered immediately after being sworn-in by KZN Deputy Judge President Philip Levinson,before he announced the make-up of his new 10-member Cabinet.
"We all have a responsibility to deliver a better life for all our people from both the ranks of the ruling party and the opposition benches.
Reconciliation amongst the people of this province, especially as it relates to the members of the African National Congress and the Inkatha Freedom Party must be cleansed and healed for good.
All parties in this House are a product of democracy and are the true representation of the will of our people.
It is for this reason that I call for reconciliation,open political contest and co-operation among all parties" said Mkhize.
Mkhize also made a clarion call to minority communities to come forward and interact with government and make the contributions that will shape policies to address issues pertinent to their concerns.
"we must not loose sign to the huge degree of enthusiasm generated by the recent elections. The passion is shared by all the members from our diverse communities. In the streets, churches, mosques, temples, as professionals, business, labour and different sectors of our civil society embrace one another in the spirit of a Rainbow Nation as embodied by our icon Nelson Mandela" added Mkhize.
He, further, announced that as in line with the NMational Planning Commission located in the Presidency, there will be a Provincial Planning Commission located in the Office of the Premier.
On announcing his cabinet make-up, there was a new female addition to the one of his predecessor Dr Sibusiso Ndebele as the former female minister Peggy Nkonyeni has taken over as the Speaker.
Ironically, the previous Speaker Willies Mchunu was named as Local Government and Traditional Affairs MEC, the new female candidate Magasvarie taking over as MEC for Human Settlement and Public Works.
Dr Sibongiseni Maaxwell Dlomo takes over as MEC for Health while the long-serving ANC provincial secretary Senzo Mchunu was sworn in as the Education Ministry MEC.
He also swapped the existing MEC's to varios positions to speed up service delivery proggrames, he noted
Ends
Sunday, May 10, 2009
INDABA 2009 LAUNCHES THE CRUISE INDIAN OCEAN ASSOCIATION
TOURISM INDABA 2009 was the launching pad for the African continent's first Cruise Indian Ocean Association (CIOA) at the Hilton Hotel,Durban on Sunday.
The CIOA is composed of the port authorities in the South African Development Community sub-region and their respective national tourism organisations.
The association aims to position, jointly promote and market the Eastern and Southern Africa region and the South West Indian Ocean Islands as an attractive destination for cruise liner iteneraries by creating an enabling environment for the sustainable development of the sub-Sahara as a viable destination for cruise liner iteneraries.
In line with international standards, CIOA maintains a close working relationship with the Port Management Association of Eastern and Southern Africa (PMAESA) and the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA), and CIOA maintains a research and knowledge management system to foster co-operation among the region's port networks, government and cruise operators.
Keynote speaker, James M Mulewa, Chairman of CIOA and the Managing Director of the Kenya Ports Authority, extended gratitude to the mamoth task undertaken by both the Tourism KZN and Transnet National Ports Authority for working tirellessly towards the launch as tentative steps were concieved during the Kenya Chapter held in Mombasa in 2004.
" During the Kenya Chapter in 2004 we had formed a standing committe on cruise tourism with the specific objective of projecting a united image in promoting the sub-region as a viable cruise destination area similar to the ones that exist in the Caribbean, Mediterranean and Europe, and the recently-established Hong Kong and Singapore cruise operations in Asia.
CIOA's principal objective is to promote the entire region in a concerted effort to achieve harmonization of procedures and formalities relating to the reception of cruise ships and passengers in our region" said Mulewa
We bank on our multi-faceted cultural richness, aded Mulewa, and the varied heritages including geographical and historical landmarks coupled with our friendly weather, wildlife and the diversity of our people.
eThekwini Municipality Deputy Mayor Logie Naidoo, who is also the UniCity's Chairperson of Economic Development Desk described tha CIOA unveiling as the 'first for Durban, South bAfrica and Africa' which gives an ideal leverage to fellow African compatriots to share in the 2010 World Cup Soccer Finals fiesta to be held in South Africa.
"Durban is fully supportive to Indaba 2009 being the birthplace of the CIOA because it is better located on the edge of the Indian Ocean Rim and is a major seaport economic hub which is the gateway into the Southern Africa region.
Collectively, the UniCity, country and the continent stands to benefit tremondously from the footprints of the cruise lines international association that was focused on the promotion and growth of the cruise industry" remarked Naidoo.
And Trasnet NPA Senior Manager Ricky Bhikraj said they were planning for a first-generation Durban port that takes cognisant to the growth of the city itself and the proposal of a worldclass cruise liner spatial development.
"Planing for 2010 and beyond, we have a co-ordinating committee that comprises the 2010 Local Organising Committee, eThekwini Municipality's Durban as Host City, Home Affairs and South African Police Services (SAPS) to formulate a business case, marketing research, participation of key stakeholders as we drive the agenda forwad" explained Bhikraj
Ends
The CIOA is composed of the port authorities in the South African Development Community sub-region and their respective national tourism organisations.
The association aims to position, jointly promote and market the Eastern and Southern Africa region and the South West Indian Ocean Islands as an attractive destination for cruise liner iteneraries by creating an enabling environment for the sustainable development of the sub-Sahara as a viable destination for cruise liner iteneraries.
In line with international standards, CIOA maintains a close working relationship with the Port Management Association of Eastern and Southern Africa (PMAESA) and the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA), and CIOA maintains a research and knowledge management system to foster co-operation among the region's port networks, government and cruise operators.
Keynote speaker, James M Mulewa, Chairman of CIOA and the Managing Director of the Kenya Ports Authority, extended gratitude to the mamoth task undertaken by both the Tourism KZN and Transnet National Ports Authority for working tirellessly towards the launch as tentative steps were concieved during the Kenya Chapter held in Mombasa in 2004.
" During the Kenya Chapter in 2004 we had formed a standing committe on cruise tourism with the specific objective of projecting a united image in promoting the sub-region as a viable cruise destination area similar to the ones that exist in the Caribbean, Mediterranean and Europe, and the recently-established Hong Kong and Singapore cruise operations in Asia.
CIOA's principal objective is to promote the entire region in a concerted effort to achieve harmonization of procedures and formalities relating to the reception of cruise ships and passengers in our region" said Mulewa
We bank on our multi-faceted cultural richness, aded Mulewa, and the varied heritages including geographical and historical landmarks coupled with our friendly weather, wildlife and the diversity of our people.
eThekwini Municipality Deputy Mayor Logie Naidoo, who is also the UniCity's Chairperson of Economic Development Desk described tha CIOA unveiling as the 'first for Durban, South bAfrica and Africa' which gives an ideal leverage to fellow African compatriots to share in the 2010 World Cup Soccer Finals fiesta to be held in South Africa.
"Durban is fully supportive to Indaba 2009 being the birthplace of the CIOA because it is better located on the edge of the Indian Ocean Rim and is a major seaport economic hub which is the gateway into the Southern Africa region.
Collectively, the UniCity, country and the continent stands to benefit tremondously from the footprints of the cruise lines international association that was focused on the promotion and growth of the cruise industry" remarked Naidoo.
And Trasnet NPA Senior Manager Ricky Bhikraj said they were planning for a first-generation Durban port that takes cognisant to the growth of the city itself and the proposal of a worldclass cruise liner spatial development.
"Planing for 2010 and beyond, we have a co-ordinating committee that comprises the 2010 Local Organising Committee, eThekwini Municipality's Durban as Host City, Home Affairs and South African Police Services (SAPS) to formulate a business case, marketing research, participation of key stakeholders as we drive the agenda forwad" explained Bhikraj
Ends
Saturday, May 9, 2009
HIGH COURT REPRESENTATIONS-BATHO PELE
In the High Court of South Africa
(Durban and Coast Local Division)
Case no:
In the Matter between:
N. Mqadi Complainant
And
Adv. S Lakhi Respondent
_____________________________
Complainant’s Submission for a Special Review in the High Court i.r.o of the Promotion of Equality and Prevention of Unfair Discrimination Act No. 4 of 2000
To: The Registrar of
The High Court
(Durban and Coast Local Division)
And To: Mr M Shezi
c/o State Attorney
KwaZulu-Natal
Sirs
Be pleased to take notice that the Complainant herein evenly files the following representations in support of his application for a Special Review in terms of the court order granted by the Equality Court sitting at the Durban Magistrate’s Court on the 13th day of October 2006, before the Presiding Officer Mr G. Abrahams Esq.
Under Case No: 76/2005
1.
The grounds for the complaint emanates from the following allegations:
1.1 Use of language loaded with racial overtones by a Senior Public servant
1.2 Breach of Batho Pele principles
1.3 Abuse and/or Humiliation of Dignity to a private citizen
2.
The complainant asks the High Court to overturn the ruling of the Equality Court with a finding that it was constitutionally invalid and unlawful.
3.
The complainant avers that the Equality Court failed to consider the potential prejudice to himself (Mqadi) which may affect the fairness of the trial, as complainant was not legally represented throughout the proceedings. Such decision by the Equality Court infringed on the complainant’s constitutional right to equality and compromised the complainant’s right to a fair trial.
4.
The complainant avers that it standard practice in the legal system and in a constitutional democracy that proceedings in a court of law were imperative for previously-disadvantaged persons to be legally-represented.
5.
The complainant avers that the Equality Court failed to discharge her responsibility as it failed to take into account the generally-established rule on practice.
6.
Complainant avers that the Equality Court failed to make a determination regarding the central role of public service administration employees that their professional conduct and ethics shall at all times not be illegal but be necessarily always ethical as they send strong messages which may encourage unethical behaviour to the wider citizenry.
7.
Complainant avers that Respondent breached the central government’s noble motives of Batho Pele principles. The Equality Court failed to make a determination that should inculcate and deepen a culture that strengthens a sound constitutional democracy work ethics.
8.
Complainant avers that the fundamental principle of our democracy--Human Dignity—was grossly violated during the 13 September 2006 visit at Independent Complaints Directorate (ICD), as Respondent failed to create a loving, tender and caring environment to a private citizen canvassing government services.
9.
Complainant avers that the treatment he endured at Independent Complaints Directorate offices on 13 September 2005 was grossly inhumane, unfair, unethical, abusive and humiliating. Respondent had a mens rea when she refused to consult with complaint on an appointment that was set down a month earlier after “learning from some nameless ICD personnel that Mqadi was a difficult complaint”.
10.
Complainant avers and respectfully submit that the refusal to consult with complaint was a dereliction of duty by Respondent as when called by the Equality Court to produce her personal diary, it depicted an entry-in the respondent’s handwriting- showing that Respondent had (personally) scheduled an appointment at 10H00 to consult with the Applicant.
11.
Complainant avers that the Respondent had breached the KwaZulu-Natal Citizen’s Charter as unveiled by Premier Sibusiso Ndebele which implores that public servants should ensure a responsive climate focused on people’s needs, and that the citizens are invited to participate in the monitoring of the efficiency and effectiveness with which delivery of services is effected.
12.
Complainant avers that the Respondent’s evidence-in-chief gave credence to the complainant’s version that he was abused, humiliated, severely prejudiced and constitutional rights grossly violated as the Respondent’s first line of defence re-iterated the blatant disrespect of the Constitution Act 108 of 1996 when,her legal counsel said,“There was nothing wrong in calling you African, even the country’s Constitution classifies people in terms of Whites, Coloureds, Indians and Africans”.
13.
Complainant avers that the crux of the complaint lodged with the Equality Court was very much informed by the blatant disrespect, shouting, tone and the context upon which racial language was uttered. I argue that such language was not necessarily illegal but was unethical to a citizen requesting government services.
14.
Complaint avers that the Presiding Officer failed to scrutinize and rule in a detailed manner whether such language and conduct by a senior public servant was justified during the “Age of Hope” and the creation of a caring, people-centred developmental democracy in the Republic of South Africa.
15.
Complaint avers that the Honourable Court must look in details at the Respondent’s base racism and her non-chalance about the provisions of the Bill of Rights by a public servant occupying her position. I implore the Court’s indulgence to scrutinize the Respondent’s views on 13 September 2005 about Africans that were re-iterated on the court record.
16.
Complainant avers that the Respondent’s language was not justified and is contrary to country’s constitutional provisions of a democatric, non –racial, multi-cultural and unified Republic of South Africa?
17.
Complainant avers that the Respondent had shown blatant disrespect, innuendo, deep-seated hatred and subjectivity to the complainant that was grossly prejudicial as Respondent had repeated her remarks “ I had learnt that complainant was a difficult person to deal with” before the Equality Court hearing.
18.
Complainant avers that the refusal of legal aid representation by the Head of Durban Justice Centre was a travesty to a fair and just litigation.
19.
Complainant avers that Durban Justice Centre refusal of legal representation to the complainant was a transgression that breached the corporate principles of good governance and transparency.
20.
Complainant avers that the refusal of legal aid representation to the complainant by the Durban Justice Centre further perpetuated the marginalisation of the complainant as a historically-disadvantaged individual in the democratic Republic of South Africa.
21.
Complainant avers that his constitutional right to a fair trial was violated as complaint was repeatedly denied access to justice by a senior public servant-Head of Durban Justice Centre- despite the recognition and development of a right to effective and affordable court structures, systems and management through the concept of fundamental Batho Pele principles.
22.
Complainant avers that the much-vaunted Legal Services Charter that seeks to restore dignity of all people before a court of law in the Republic of South Africa was violated by the Durban Justice Centre as refusal to grant legal aid representation to the complainant was prejudicial to opportunities of/to a fair trial.
23.
Complainant avers that Durban Justice Centre violated the country’s key focus in ensuring a more caring government peoples-centred environment whereby all citizens are equal and should be seen as equal before law.
24.
Complainant avers that the Head of Durban Justice Centre committed a serious crime which hindered the complainant’s chosen approach regarding the unique nature and the intricacies of a South Africa in transformation as the refusal grant violated the legislative framework issued under the Equality and Prevention of Unfair Discrimination Act No 4 of 2000 was disregarded by the Head, personally.
25.
Complainant avers that the adjudication of the Equality Court complaint should be declared a ‘mistrial’ as it failed to create an affirming environment as there were blatant disparities in the provision of legal services, that were compounded by the disparity in professional and economic opportunities of the two litigants as the Head of Durban Justice Centre violated and breached the Public Finance Management Act.
26.
Complainant avers that the socio-economic empowerment through unconditional access to legal justice opportunities to all citizens in the Republic of South Africa was denied for a fair and equitable trial as enshrined in the Constitution Act 108 of 1996 0f the Republic of South Africa.
27.
Complainant avers that the education of the judiciary service providers, such as the Presiding Officer, was critical about knowledge and understanding of the fundamental principles of Batho Pele as the Equality Court complaint was based on the unethical, and not illegal conduct of the Respondent.
28.
Complainant respectfully avers that there was a blatant abuse of state power and mal-administration that was committed by the Head of Durban Justice Centre and the Presiding Officer {Equality Court} to proceed with the hearing when legal aid was not granted/refused against the complainant without furnishing him with sound reasons.
RELIEF SOUGHT:
a. I pray that the Durban High Court reverse the findings of the Durban Equality Court, and rule in the Complainant’s favour.
b. I pray for the High Court to look critically and expose the flaws that were brought to the justice system through human failure, stupidity and small-mindedness by instituting a financial audit and forensic investigations on the corporate guidelines by the top Durban Justice Centre personnel.
c. I pray for the High Court to provide answers to the Presiding Officer’s question “whether the fact that complainant was unequally armed detracted from his right to fully participate in the proceedings and also whether he was given access to justice.”
d. I pray for the Hon. Court to order the Respondent to make an unconditional apology to the Complainant about the treatment he was made to endure at ICD offices on 13 September 2005.
14.
e. I pray for the Hon. Court to dismiss the Respondent’s defence and order the Respondent and the Durban Justice Centre to pay the Costs.
Dated in DURBAN on this 6th day of January 2007.
Nkonzwenhle H. Mqadi
COMPLAINANT
Address: Z 484
Umlazi Township
4031
Tel:031-9096457
Cell: 0825816323
0735370549
(Durban and Coast Local Division)
Case no:
In the Matter between:
N. Mqadi Complainant
And
Adv. S Lakhi Respondent
_____________________________
Complainant’s Submission for a Special Review in the High Court i.r.o of the Promotion of Equality and Prevention of Unfair Discrimination Act No. 4 of 2000
To: The Registrar of
The High Court
(Durban and Coast Local Division)
And To: Mr M Shezi
c/o State Attorney
KwaZulu-Natal
Sirs
Be pleased to take notice that the Complainant herein evenly files the following representations in support of his application for a Special Review in terms of the court order granted by the Equality Court sitting at the Durban Magistrate’s Court on the 13th day of October 2006, before the Presiding Officer Mr G. Abrahams Esq.
Under Case No: 76/2005
1.
The grounds for the complaint emanates from the following allegations:
1.1 Use of language loaded with racial overtones by a Senior Public servant
1.2 Breach of Batho Pele principles
1.3 Abuse and/or Humiliation of Dignity to a private citizen
2.
The complainant asks the High Court to overturn the ruling of the Equality Court with a finding that it was constitutionally invalid and unlawful.
3.
The complainant avers that the Equality Court failed to consider the potential prejudice to himself (Mqadi) which may affect the fairness of the trial, as complainant was not legally represented throughout the proceedings. Such decision by the Equality Court infringed on the complainant’s constitutional right to equality and compromised the complainant’s right to a fair trial.
4.
The complainant avers that it standard practice in the legal system and in a constitutional democracy that proceedings in a court of law were imperative for previously-disadvantaged persons to be legally-represented.
5.
The complainant avers that the Equality Court failed to discharge her responsibility as it failed to take into account the generally-established rule on practice.
6.
Complainant avers that the Equality Court failed to make a determination regarding the central role of public service administration employees that their professional conduct and ethics shall at all times not be illegal but be necessarily always ethical as they send strong messages which may encourage unethical behaviour to the wider citizenry.
7.
Complainant avers that Respondent breached the central government’s noble motives of Batho Pele principles. The Equality Court failed to make a determination that should inculcate and deepen a culture that strengthens a sound constitutional democracy work ethics.
8.
Complainant avers that the fundamental principle of our democracy--Human Dignity—was grossly violated during the 13 September 2006 visit at Independent Complaints Directorate (ICD), as Respondent failed to create a loving, tender and caring environment to a private citizen canvassing government services.
9.
Complainant avers that the treatment he endured at Independent Complaints Directorate offices on 13 September 2005 was grossly inhumane, unfair, unethical, abusive and humiliating. Respondent had a mens rea when she refused to consult with complaint on an appointment that was set down a month earlier after “learning from some nameless ICD personnel that Mqadi was a difficult complaint”.
10.
Complainant avers and respectfully submit that the refusal to consult with complaint was a dereliction of duty by Respondent as when called by the Equality Court to produce her personal diary, it depicted an entry-in the respondent’s handwriting- showing that Respondent had (personally) scheduled an appointment at 10H00 to consult with the Applicant.
11.
Complainant avers that the Respondent had breached the KwaZulu-Natal Citizen’s Charter as unveiled by Premier Sibusiso Ndebele which implores that public servants should ensure a responsive climate focused on people’s needs, and that the citizens are invited to participate in the monitoring of the efficiency and effectiveness with which delivery of services is effected.
12.
Complainant avers that the Respondent’s evidence-in-chief gave credence to the complainant’s version that he was abused, humiliated, severely prejudiced and constitutional rights grossly violated as the Respondent’s first line of defence re-iterated the blatant disrespect of the Constitution Act 108 of 1996 when,her legal counsel said,“There was nothing wrong in calling you African, even the country’s Constitution classifies people in terms of Whites, Coloureds, Indians and Africans”.
13.
Complainant avers that the crux of the complaint lodged with the Equality Court was very much informed by the blatant disrespect, shouting, tone and the context upon which racial language was uttered. I argue that such language was not necessarily illegal but was unethical to a citizen requesting government services.
14.
Complaint avers that the Presiding Officer failed to scrutinize and rule in a detailed manner whether such language and conduct by a senior public servant was justified during the “Age of Hope” and the creation of a caring, people-centred developmental democracy in the Republic of South Africa.
15.
Complaint avers that the Honourable Court must look in details at the Respondent’s base racism and her non-chalance about the provisions of the Bill of Rights by a public servant occupying her position. I implore the Court’s indulgence to scrutinize the Respondent’s views on 13 September 2005 about Africans that were re-iterated on the court record.
16.
Complainant avers that the Respondent’s language was not justified and is contrary to country’s constitutional provisions of a democatric, non –racial, multi-cultural and unified Republic of South Africa?
17.
Complainant avers that the Respondent had shown blatant disrespect, innuendo, deep-seated hatred and subjectivity to the complainant that was grossly prejudicial as Respondent had repeated her remarks “ I had learnt that complainant was a difficult person to deal with” before the Equality Court hearing.
18.
Complainant avers that the refusal of legal aid representation by the Head of Durban Justice Centre was a travesty to a fair and just litigation.
19.
Complainant avers that Durban Justice Centre refusal of legal representation to the complainant was a transgression that breached the corporate principles of good governance and transparency.
20.
Complainant avers that the refusal of legal aid representation to the complainant by the Durban Justice Centre further perpetuated the marginalisation of the complainant as a historically-disadvantaged individual in the democratic Republic of South Africa.
21.
Complainant avers that his constitutional right to a fair trial was violated as complaint was repeatedly denied access to justice by a senior public servant-Head of Durban Justice Centre- despite the recognition and development of a right to effective and affordable court structures, systems and management through the concept of fundamental Batho Pele principles.
22.
Complainant avers that the much-vaunted Legal Services Charter that seeks to restore dignity of all people before a court of law in the Republic of South Africa was violated by the Durban Justice Centre as refusal to grant legal aid representation to the complainant was prejudicial to opportunities of/to a fair trial.
23.
Complainant avers that Durban Justice Centre violated the country’s key focus in ensuring a more caring government peoples-centred environment whereby all citizens are equal and should be seen as equal before law.
24.
Complainant avers that the Head of Durban Justice Centre committed a serious crime which hindered the complainant’s chosen approach regarding the unique nature and the intricacies of a South Africa in transformation as the refusal grant violated the legislative framework issued under the Equality and Prevention of Unfair Discrimination Act No 4 of 2000 was disregarded by the Head, personally.
25.
Complainant avers that the adjudication of the Equality Court complaint should be declared a ‘mistrial’ as it failed to create an affirming environment as there were blatant disparities in the provision of legal services, that were compounded by the disparity in professional and economic opportunities of the two litigants as the Head of Durban Justice Centre violated and breached the Public Finance Management Act.
26.
Complainant avers that the socio-economic empowerment through unconditional access to legal justice opportunities to all citizens in the Republic of South Africa was denied for a fair and equitable trial as enshrined in the Constitution Act 108 of 1996 0f the Republic of South Africa.
27.
Complainant avers that the education of the judiciary service providers, such as the Presiding Officer, was critical about knowledge and understanding of the fundamental principles of Batho Pele as the Equality Court complaint was based on the unethical, and not illegal conduct of the Respondent.
28.
Complainant respectfully avers that there was a blatant abuse of state power and mal-administration that was committed by the Head of Durban Justice Centre and the Presiding Officer {Equality Court} to proceed with the hearing when legal aid was not granted/refused against the complainant without furnishing him with sound reasons.
RELIEF SOUGHT:
a. I pray that the Durban High Court reverse the findings of the Durban Equality Court, and rule in the Complainant’s favour.
b. I pray for the High Court to look critically and expose the flaws that were brought to the justice system through human failure, stupidity and small-mindedness by instituting a financial audit and forensic investigations on the corporate guidelines by the top Durban Justice Centre personnel.
c. I pray for the High Court to provide answers to the Presiding Officer’s question “whether the fact that complainant was unequally armed detracted from his right to fully participate in the proceedings and also whether he was given access to justice.”
d. I pray for the Hon. Court to order the Respondent to make an unconditional apology to the Complainant about the treatment he was made to endure at ICD offices on 13 September 2005.
14.
e. I pray for the Hon. Court to dismiss the Respondent’s defence and order the Respondent and the Durban Justice Centre to pay the Costs.
Dated in DURBAN on this 6th day of January 2007.
Nkonzwenhle H. Mqadi
COMPLAINANT
Address: Z 484
Umlazi Township
4031
Tel:031-9096457
Cell: 0825816323
0735370549
N2 Wild Coast Toll-Free Road
SADC REGIONAL ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATION FELLOWSHIP PROGRAMME
(06 October 2005)
DISCUSSION DOCUMENT ON THE SOCIAL, ENVIRONMENTAL & ECONOMIC IMPACT ON THE CONSTRUCTION OF N2 WILD COAST TOLL-FREE ROAD TO THE LOCAL COMMUNITIES
Submitted by: NKONZWENHLE MQADI
(Independent Media Practitioner)
Contact: 0825816323 / 0762557826
E-mail :emaqadinimedia@webmail.co.za
nmqadi@yahoo.com
DURBAN SOUTH AFRICA
INTRODUCTION
The profound changes to the environment during the last decade have resulted in a strong focus on resource materials development, use and dissemination with a participatory orientation to local communities. The development of environmental educational awareness support material should play an advocacy role for environmental sustainability, global partnership development, peace, human rights and the eradication of extreme poverty among communities.
The local communities should be empowered through education and training that involves environmental education methodologies and development programmes to enhance the achievement of the UN Declaration on Sustainable Development.
Lack of a sound consultative process with local communities has resulted in many environmentalists questioning the rationale employed to justify the construction of a toll free road across two provinces as the project will sacrifice one of the most spectacular coastlines in the name of development.
BRIEF HISTORY OF THE PROJECT
Research shows that some time in October 2002 a group of consultants hired by a major road-building consortium to investigate the ramifications of creating a new 550 kilometre toll road between Durban in KwaZulu-Natal and East London in the Eastern Cape presented the Draft Impact Report for public submissions.
The Consultants report had stated that there were no significant social or environmental hurdles preventing the construction of a new N2 Wild Coast Toll Free Road. The consultants report pointed to a wide range of potentially positive long-term spin offs, such as better access and better prospects for economic, tourist and industrial development.
The environmental issues such as that the road would carve a completely new section of almost 100 kilometres through the steep river valleys of the Transkei to create a new coastal route between the Wild Coast Casino scenery and Port St John’s were overlooked or ignored.
The numerous village residents along the length of the road who will be forced to resettle or lose grazing or farming rights to make way for new road interchanges, re-alignment or creation of road reserves and biodiversity interests were never considered in the report.
The consultants’ finding stated that the Wild Coast Spatial Development Initiative would create better road networks that would also increase the prospects for cash economy, jobs and economic development. However, the Consultants’ report made no mention of any comprehensive consultation process with all the interested stakeholders.
The Draft Impact Report listed five major companies outsourced for the Toll Road construction. They are namely; Group Five Construction, Grinaker-LTA, Hawkins Hawkins and Osborn, Steward Scott, and WBHO Consortium.
Members of the public were thereon given until 1 November 2002 to make submissions about the Draft Impact Report.
THE ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUE
The environmental issue under discussion here is the impact of the construction of the N2 Wild Coast Toll-Free Road and the link between people
and nature that was deliberately broken by the private developers.
The proposed road construction reveals a bitter struggle in which the rural communities’ desire to hold onto the lands of their ancestors is pitted against the private developers who are projected as forces that do not value the environmental, cultural and historical allegiance of the local inhabitants but are more concerned with economic motives.
Several spokespersons for environmentalists, community representatives, church leaders and civil society formations opposed to the Draft Impact Report and are questioning the environmental impact assessment findings. The majority of Non Governmental Organisations are challenging the proposed construction of the N2 Wild Coast Toll Free Road.
VIEWS OF ENVIRONMENTALISTS
Vance Martin, President of the WILD Foundation and Executive Editor of the International Journal of Wilderness advocates that the South African National Roads Agency Limited (SANRAL) should suspend any final decision on the proposed Toll Road construction until all the local communities who were never involved in the development of a comprehensive land-use plan are consulted.
Interviewed by the SABC 2 on 26 January 2003, John Costello of the Wild Coast Conservation Forum dismissed the N2 Toll Road by saying it will destroy the area where karoid sediments support extremely rare plant endemics of great antiquity which have no relatives on distant islands and continents of Gondwana origin. Costello also emphasised that the N2 Toll Road would be cutting a swathe along the cultural and scenic offerings that affects the Pondoland Coast that was recently granted World Heritage Status. “How can you justify blasting a highway through one of South Africa’s
most pristine areas? ” asks Costello.
Well-known local botanist Tony Abbot argues that there are many endemics in the Wild Coast that have just been discovered and there are countless plants in the grasslands still unnamed and waiting to be discovered. Abbot says the Wild Coast is one of South Africa’s magical areas. It is not only plants that will be disturbed by development but also the local rural communities that will suffer from the noise of the Toll Road traffic passing through their area.
THE POSITION OF CHURCH LEADERS
Bishop Geoff Davies of the Anglican Diocese of Umzimvubu, which extends from the Pondoland Wild Coast to the Drakensberg Mountains describes the go ahead for the proposed N2 Wild Coast Toll Road as illogical. He warns that there will be disastrous consequences, and he proposes that a commission should be appointed immediately to ensure the implementation of sustainable development and democratic decision-making.
“We should turn the existing R61 main road into the N2 Wild Coast Highway and establish and protect the eco-tourist potential of this area. Wild Coast is one of the 25 botanical hotspots and most incredible coastlines in the world,” says Bishop Davies.
South African Council of Churches (SACC) General Secretary, Dr Melefe Tsele, noted that their Biblical and historic mandate to be good stewards of God’s resources and to deal justly in the face of human, social and ecological challenges. This forces them to respond with deep concern to the suggestions contained in the Record of Decision.
In the letter which SACC addressed to the Minister of Environmental Affairs and Tourism dated 17 December 2003, it is illegal that the construction of the N2 Wild Coast Toll Road will not address adequately concerns on poverty eradication, sustainable ecological development or due civil empowerment.
Therefore, the SACC said they were obligated to urge the Minister to withhold approval for the road construction and appealed on behalf of affected communities that the provincial governments and local government authorities be given adequate time to consult and discuss the Draft Impact Assessment Report proposals with the affected communities.
FEARS OF COMMUNITY REPRESENTATIVES
Local people are up in arms and they accuse the government and private developers of doing things unilaterally as was the case during the building of the Wild Coast Resort when they were never consulted but were forcefully uprooted and displaced from their ancestral lands because of other people development motives.
According to Rev N M Gable of Lusikisiki, they fear that the toll road will divide communities and create numerous social problems. Further, he complains that the suggested wide range of potentially positive spinoffs, including employment opportunities to the local people were a pipedream because such promises were made when the casino was built on the banks of Umzamba River but to date very few locals have been gainfully employed.
STANCE OF CIVIL SOCIETY ORGANISATIONS
The Save Wild Coast Campaign (SWC), which is a loose coalition of over 200 organisations and individuals, have voiced opposition to the current route of the proposed N2 Toll Road too. SWC states it was environmentally insensitive for South African National Roads Agency Limited to obtain financial gains at the expense of the rural communities. They cited a 1996 Indaba called and attended by the then Minister of Water Affairs and Forestry, Prof Kader Asmal, in the area.
They allege it was resolved to establish a broadly acceptable decision-making framework for forestry planning, with a strategy aimed at meeting the needs and demands of community by establishing procedures that will empower the rural people.
Several other member organisations have voiced concerns that the government dealings have shown no insight into environmental ethics, bio-diversity protection or economic justice.
According to SWC, the consultation, if any, was so minimal that even the Pondoland King, Mpondompini Sigcawu, was excluded from the process. Wild Coast communities have concluded that the project was forced upon them without the due consultation process. Because the mining of iron ore and titanium of the sand dunes was proposed on the Wild Coast, fast, reliable and efficient transportation mode was needed to ferry the resources to East London industries.
In a letter dated August 2004, the SWC calls for the South African National Roads Agency Limited to offer a public apology to the people of South Africa for false impressions arising from the ambiguous full-page advertising on the proposed N2 toll road placed in various newspapers, including “The Mercury”, “Daily Dispatch”, and “ Sunday Tribune” in February and March 2004.
The Save Wild Coast campaign have also proposed that South African National Roads Agency Limited transfers the two billion rands earmarked to construct the two Msikaba and Mtentu bridges to be spent on developing and upgrading the infrastructure of Pondoland for the benefit of her communities.
They say 90% of the area is made of plantations; therefore, the money should develop agriculture and train and equip the Pondoland people with skills for sustainable development.
Rehema White, the Acting Dean of Research at the University of Transkei says relocating and finding alternative land for uprooted communities caused by building the proposed N2 Wild Coast Toll Road would be complex under the communal land ownership structure, and the local communities should start preparing themselves for new transport strategies.
The Wild Coast local communities’ anger has fostered the creation of a community-based empowerment initiative called the Wild Coast Empowerment and Monitoring Project (WEMP).
Accordingly, the Wild Coast Empowerment and Monitoring Project aims to help the rural communities develop the capacities and strategies as well as skills for both the sustainable utilization and equitable distribution of the land and other national resources along the Wild Coast.
Wild Coast Empowerment and Monitoring Project says there should be a institutional capacity building of local community structures to ensure co-ordinated and effective local structures such as participation and active involvement in the local government process. WEMP argues that having well-informed communities will help influence the government policy on land tenure legislation on the simultaneous movements towards both traditional forms and elected institutions.
WEMP’s argument is that there is a lack of viable institutions to champion and take custody of communal land rights because there are still unaddressed complaints about the Wild Coast Spatial Development Initiative (WCSDI) that were launched in 1996 to attract investment in the area. The Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism has championed eco-tourism as its flagship for economic development since 1994 but there is nothing tangible in this direction, says WEMP.
Development Bank of Southern Africa analyst Julie Clarke says there is no convincing evidence to prove that the Wild Coast proposal is in the interest of the local communities. Clarke challenges the notion that big bridges and fast roads automatically bring development and warns that the days of getting away with poor development proposals before selling them on the grounds of “job creation” are over. She argues that there are several questions that investors have to answer to and that these questions have not been answered in the existing documentation presented by developers to date. “Building a freeway through the global hotspot of bio-diversity will not only have an impact on the endemic ecology but will also deflate the opportunities to uplift local communities through promoting the region as an eco-tourism destination,” warns Clarke.
SOUTH AFRICAN NATIONAL ROADS AGENCY LTD
Writing in the “Business Report” dated 16 October 2003 SANRAL Chief Executive Nazir Alli dismissed all the various stakeholders’ concerns and media statements about the Environmental Impact Assessment Report as ill-informed and baseless. “There is a general misrepresentation with no foundation to remark that the proposed highway is being planned by an almost secret community of road engineering contractors, planners and the South African National Roads Agency Limited. The process of planning, financing, designing, constructing and maintaining is subject to extensive legislation that requires comprehensive public participation, open to public tender scrutiny and adjudication of more senior tribunals, including our courts of law” explained Alli.
In addition, according to South African National Roads Agency Limited Marketing Manager, Connie Nel, the N2 Wild Coast Toll Free Road should be viewed within its proper context of furthering sustainable development and improving the quality of life of our citizens. Therefore, added Nel, it as for the above reasons that the Wild Coast Toll Free Road was identified as one of the areas for strategic development in accordance with the Government’s Spatial Development Initiative (SDI) strategy. “The inefficiencies of the transport sector and the lack of a proper road network in many pars of South Africa have been identified as major impediments to economic growth and development, as well as to national and international trade.
The construction of the highway was to fast-track the delivery of goods and services, access to employment opportunities and household access to consumer goods since all the above depended on transport, and more particularly roads” said Nel.
The Hibiscus Coast Municipality website, where the Wild Coast area falls, insists that all the environmental planning frameworks were followed properly before the construction tender was awarded to the five toll road constructing companies.
East London Buffalo City and Umthatha Chamber of business fully supported the toll road but opinion was divided among the smaller Eastern Cape municipalities.
Mbashe municipality criticised the location of the toll plaza next to poor communities while the Kei municipality and Nyandeni municipality were non-committal over the proposed toll free road.
The eThekwini Municipality’s Transportation Advisory Board dismissed new toll roads driven by private sector interests. Its website reads “The eThekwini Metro is planning to restructure its public transport system and has not taken into account the proposed toll road”.
BUSINESS GROUP
Businesses trading from the Joyner Road Interchange (Isiphingo-Durban) felt the location of a major toll plaza on their front doors could push up costs by at least R 750 000 00 a year, says South African Breweries District Manager Greg Foreman. Foreman added that 50% of their staff lived south of the toll plaza; therefore, their transport costs would escalate and the value of the company’s business would decline because of its proximity to a toll plaza.
The Chairperson of the Ogwini Taxi Association, M E Mkhize, says taxi operators would have no option but to increase fares. Durban Chamber of Commerce representative Colin Butler said the building of toll roads in remote rural areas was likely to yield little revenue and said proponents of the proposed highway should be aware of the dire consequences which can be attributed to a lack of extensive consultative processes.
SOCIO-HISTORICAL CONTEXT OF THE AREA
People that reside along the stretch of Umzimvubu River, Umtamvuma River and the Umzamba River regard the Wild Coast area as part of their cultural heritage. Even when many rural households were forced to re-settle at the nearby villages of Bizana, Port St John’s and Lusikisiki when large tracts of land were turned into the Wild Coast Resort and Casino, they have always related to it as the resting lands of their ancestors.
The Wild Coast area is situated on the Lower South Coast and falls under the Hibiscus Coast District Municipality under the Ugu Regional Council in KwaZulu-Natal and it stretches into Port St John’s and beyond to the Eastern Cape.
According to the 2001 national census, Statistics South Africa and the Independent Electoral Commission records, the area known as Umzamba to the local African inhabitants, covers approximately two hundred and fifty (250) kilometres of coastline, two (2) district municipalities, seven (7) local municipalities, twenty (20) wall-to-wall municipal wards, four (4) regional authorities, about thirty (30) tribal authorities and their respective administrative areas total about 12 000 households.
The local community is a mix of IsiZulu-speaking and IsiXhosa-speaking people as the area was on the edge of a cross-border region between the provinces of KwaZulu-Natal and Eastern Cape.
Since the Municipal Demarcation Board delimitation of ward boundaries in 2000 and the subsequent local government elections, KwaZulu-Natal governs the area.
BIOPHYSICAL CONTEXT
The Wild Coast has pristine vegetation which have been identified by the South African National Parks (San Parks) and the Wildlife and Environmental Society of South Africa (WESSA). The Wild Coast area is seen as the last remaining habitant of its kind on the continent.
Despite its critical challenges the area faces regarding the proposed N2 Wild Coast Toll Free Road, her scenery remains untapped in terms of economic, social and sustainable environmental development.
Local people link the proposed development of the N2 road in the Wild Coast area to plans by Trans-World Energy and Minerals to extract titanium and iron ore resources from the Xholobeni sand dunes in the not too distant future.
CONCLUSION
When Minister Marthinus van Schalkwyk decided to uphold appeals against the construction of the N2 Wild Coast Toll Free Road, he cited ‘extensive and inappropriate links between the consultants, Bohlweki Environmental company that had compiled the EIA, the Group Five Developers, and the Wild Coast Consortium’ for breaches that had been highlighted by the environmentalists and civil society institutions the previous year (The Mercury 14 December 2004). Therefore, the critical challenge facing all stakeholders and the wider South African public is to-re-visit the country’s supreme legislation, the S.A Constitution Act 108 of 1996.
The Constitution establishes that negative impacts on the environment and on the people’s environmental rights should be anticipated and prevented, and where they cannot be altogether prevented, at least should be minimised and remedied. Weighing and balancing the pro’s and con’s of the obligations and rights of both the environment and the welfare of the people, it becomes imperative that the democratic government principles of EAT (i.e ethical, accountability and transparency) should be followed at all times. Failure to uphold these cardinal principles of our Constitution remain critical aspects as we deepen the pillars of a democratic culture in South Africa. SANRAL, as the government representative, should take the blame because finding the wider civil society institutions challenging the proposed N2 Wild Coast Toll Free Road in unison proves that the due processes as enshrined in the Constitution was never followed.
We should address the dilemma posed by the need for economic development dictates on the one hand and the need to preserve and conserve environmental imperatives on the other by using the ideal approach of transparent consultative processes.
Engaging communities at all levels or across the board in their respective contexts would help to enhance the achievements of the Millenium Development Goals, the 2002 World Summit on Sustainable Development resolutions and the principles of the UN Declaration on Sustainable Development.
Writing in Caring for the Earth-South Africa. A Guide to Sustainable Living (WWF, 1997: 41) John Yeld warns readers that “We must not burden later generations with an ecological debt that will condemn most of them to an even more precarious poverty stricken existence than that endured by millions of people today”.
REFERENCES
1. The Mercury, 17 October 2002; The Mercury, 17 June 2003
2. SABC 2 Interview, Sandra Herrington, 26 January 2003
3. Business Report, 16 October 2003
4. The Mercury, 14 December 2004
5. SACC Public Policy Liaison Unit, 17 December 2003
6. SANRAL presentation (undated)
7. WEMP presentation (undated)
8. The Herald, 16 January 2004 (http.www.epherald.co.za)
9. Caring for the Earth-South Africa. A Guide to Sustainable Living, Yeld.J, Stellenbosch: WWF,1997,41
(06 October 2005)
DISCUSSION DOCUMENT ON THE SOCIAL, ENVIRONMENTAL & ECONOMIC IMPACT ON THE CONSTRUCTION OF N2 WILD COAST TOLL-FREE ROAD TO THE LOCAL COMMUNITIES
Submitted by: NKONZWENHLE MQADI
(Independent Media Practitioner)
Contact: 0825816323 / 0762557826
E-mail :emaqadinimedia@webmail.co.za
nmqadi@yahoo.com
DURBAN SOUTH AFRICA
INTRODUCTION
The profound changes to the environment during the last decade have resulted in a strong focus on resource materials development, use and dissemination with a participatory orientation to local communities. The development of environmental educational awareness support material should play an advocacy role for environmental sustainability, global partnership development, peace, human rights and the eradication of extreme poverty among communities.
The local communities should be empowered through education and training that involves environmental education methodologies and development programmes to enhance the achievement of the UN Declaration on Sustainable Development.
Lack of a sound consultative process with local communities has resulted in many environmentalists questioning the rationale employed to justify the construction of a toll free road across two provinces as the project will sacrifice one of the most spectacular coastlines in the name of development.
BRIEF HISTORY OF THE PROJECT
Research shows that some time in October 2002 a group of consultants hired by a major road-building consortium to investigate the ramifications of creating a new 550 kilometre toll road between Durban in KwaZulu-Natal and East London in the Eastern Cape presented the Draft Impact Report for public submissions.
The Consultants report had stated that there were no significant social or environmental hurdles preventing the construction of a new N2 Wild Coast Toll Free Road. The consultants report pointed to a wide range of potentially positive long-term spin offs, such as better access and better prospects for economic, tourist and industrial development.
The environmental issues such as that the road would carve a completely new section of almost 100 kilometres through the steep river valleys of the Transkei to create a new coastal route between the Wild Coast Casino scenery and Port St John’s were overlooked or ignored.
The numerous village residents along the length of the road who will be forced to resettle or lose grazing or farming rights to make way for new road interchanges, re-alignment or creation of road reserves and biodiversity interests were never considered in the report.
The consultants’ finding stated that the Wild Coast Spatial Development Initiative would create better road networks that would also increase the prospects for cash economy, jobs and economic development. However, the Consultants’ report made no mention of any comprehensive consultation process with all the interested stakeholders.
The Draft Impact Report listed five major companies outsourced for the Toll Road construction. They are namely; Group Five Construction, Grinaker-LTA, Hawkins Hawkins and Osborn, Steward Scott, and WBHO Consortium.
Members of the public were thereon given until 1 November 2002 to make submissions about the Draft Impact Report.
THE ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUE
The environmental issue under discussion here is the impact of the construction of the N2 Wild Coast Toll-Free Road and the link between people
and nature that was deliberately broken by the private developers.
The proposed road construction reveals a bitter struggle in which the rural communities’ desire to hold onto the lands of their ancestors is pitted against the private developers who are projected as forces that do not value the environmental, cultural and historical allegiance of the local inhabitants but are more concerned with economic motives.
Several spokespersons for environmentalists, community representatives, church leaders and civil society formations opposed to the Draft Impact Report and are questioning the environmental impact assessment findings. The majority of Non Governmental Organisations are challenging the proposed construction of the N2 Wild Coast Toll Free Road.
VIEWS OF ENVIRONMENTALISTS
Vance Martin, President of the WILD Foundation and Executive Editor of the International Journal of Wilderness advocates that the South African National Roads Agency Limited (SANRAL) should suspend any final decision on the proposed Toll Road construction until all the local communities who were never involved in the development of a comprehensive land-use plan are consulted.
Interviewed by the SABC 2 on 26 January 2003, John Costello of the Wild Coast Conservation Forum dismissed the N2 Toll Road by saying it will destroy the area where karoid sediments support extremely rare plant endemics of great antiquity which have no relatives on distant islands and continents of Gondwana origin. Costello also emphasised that the N2 Toll Road would be cutting a swathe along the cultural and scenic offerings that affects the Pondoland Coast that was recently granted World Heritage Status. “How can you justify blasting a highway through one of South Africa’s
most pristine areas? ” asks Costello.
Well-known local botanist Tony Abbot argues that there are many endemics in the Wild Coast that have just been discovered and there are countless plants in the grasslands still unnamed and waiting to be discovered. Abbot says the Wild Coast is one of South Africa’s magical areas. It is not only plants that will be disturbed by development but also the local rural communities that will suffer from the noise of the Toll Road traffic passing through their area.
THE POSITION OF CHURCH LEADERS
Bishop Geoff Davies of the Anglican Diocese of Umzimvubu, which extends from the Pondoland Wild Coast to the Drakensberg Mountains describes the go ahead for the proposed N2 Wild Coast Toll Road as illogical. He warns that there will be disastrous consequences, and he proposes that a commission should be appointed immediately to ensure the implementation of sustainable development and democratic decision-making.
“We should turn the existing R61 main road into the N2 Wild Coast Highway and establish and protect the eco-tourist potential of this area. Wild Coast is one of the 25 botanical hotspots and most incredible coastlines in the world,” says Bishop Davies.
South African Council of Churches (SACC) General Secretary, Dr Melefe Tsele, noted that their Biblical and historic mandate to be good stewards of God’s resources and to deal justly in the face of human, social and ecological challenges. This forces them to respond with deep concern to the suggestions contained in the Record of Decision.
In the letter which SACC addressed to the Minister of Environmental Affairs and Tourism dated 17 December 2003, it is illegal that the construction of the N2 Wild Coast Toll Road will not address adequately concerns on poverty eradication, sustainable ecological development or due civil empowerment.
Therefore, the SACC said they were obligated to urge the Minister to withhold approval for the road construction and appealed on behalf of affected communities that the provincial governments and local government authorities be given adequate time to consult and discuss the Draft Impact Assessment Report proposals with the affected communities.
FEARS OF COMMUNITY REPRESENTATIVES
Local people are up in arms and they accuse the government and private developers of doing things unilaterally as was the case during the building of the Wild Coast Resort when they were never consulted but were forcefully uprooted and displaced from their ancestral lands because of other people development motives.
According to Rev N M Gable of Lusikisiki, they fear that the toll road will divide communities and create numerous social problems. Further, he complains that the suggested wide range of potentially positive spinoffs, including employment opportunities to the local people were a pipedream because such promises were made when the casino was built on the banks of Umzamba River but to date very few locals have been gainfully employed.
STANCE OF CIVIL SOCIETY ORGANISATIONS
The Save Wild Coast Campaign (SWC), which is a loose coalition of over 200 organisations and individuals, have voiced opposition to the current route of the proposed N2 Toll Road too. SWC states it was environmentally insensitive for South African National Roads Agency Limited to obtain financial gains at the expense of the rural communities. They cited a 1996 Indaba called and attended by the then Minister of Water Affairs and Forestry, Prof Kader Asmal, in the area.
They allege it was resolved to establish a broadly acceptable decision-making framework for forestry planning, with a strategy aimed at meeting the needs and demands of community by establishing procedures that will empower the rural people.
Several other member organisations have voiced concerns that the government dealings have shown no insight into environmental ethics, bio-diversity protection or economic justice.
According to SWC, the consultation, if any, was so minimal that even the Pondoland King, Mpondompini Sigcawu, was excluded from the process. Wild Coast communities have concluded that the project was forced upon them without the due consultation process. Because the mining of iron ore and titanium of the sand dunes was proposed on the Wild Coast, fast, reliable and efficient transportation mode was needed to ferry the resources to East London industries.
In a letter dated August 2004, the SWC calls for the South African National Roads Agency Limited to offer a public apology to the people of South Africa for false impressions arising from the ambiguous full-page advertising on the proposed N2 toll road placed in various newspapers, including “The Mercury”, “Daily Dispatch”, and “ Sunday Tribune” in February and March 2004.
The Save Wild Coast campaign have also proposed that South African National Roads Agency Limited transfers the two billion rands earmarked to construct the two Msikaba and Mtentu bridges to be spent on developing and upgrading the infrastructure of Pondoland for the benefit of her communities.
They say 90% of the area is made of plantations; therefore, the money should develop agriculture and train and equip the Pondoland people with skills for sustainable development.
Rehema White, the Acting Dean of Research at the University of Transkei says relocating and finding alternative land for uprooted communities caused by building the proposed N2 Wild Coast Toll Road would be complex under the communal land ownership structure, and the local communities should start preparing themselves for new transport strategies.
The Wild Coast local communities’ anger has fostered the creation of a community-based empowerment initiative called the Wild Coast Empowerment and Monitoring Project (WEMP).
Accordingly, the Wild Coast Empowerment and Monitoring Project aims to help the rural communities develop the capacities and strategies as well as skills for both the sustainable utilization and equitable distribution of the land and other national resources along the Wild Coast.
Wild Coast Empowerment and Monitoring Project says there should be a institutional capacity building of local community structures to ensure co-ordinated and effective local structures such as participation and active involvement in the local government process. WEMP argues that having well-informed communities will help influence the government policy on land tenure legislation on the simultaneous movements towards both traditional forms and elected institutions.
WEMP’s argument is that there is a lack of viable institutions to champion and take custody of communal land rights because there are still unaddressed complaints about the Wild Coast Spatial Development Initiative (WCSDI) that were launched in 1996 to attract investment in the area. The Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism has championed eco-tourism as its flagship for economic development since 1994 but there is nothing tangible in this direction, says WEMP.
Development Bank of Southern Africa analyst Julie Clarke says there is no convincing evidence to prove that the Wild Coast proposal is in the interest of the local communities. Clarke challenges the notion that big bridges and fast roads automatically bring development and warns that the days of getting away with poor development proposals before selling them on the grounds of “job creation” are over. She argues that there are several questions that investors have to answer to and that these questions have not been answered in the existing documentation presented by developers to date. “Building a freeway through the global hotspot of bio-diversity will not only have an impact on the endemic ecology but will also deflate the opportunities to uplift local communities through promoting the region as an eco-tourism destination,” warns Clarke.
SOUTH AFRICAN NATIONAL ROADS AGENCY LTD
Writing in the “Business Report” dated 16 October 2003 SANRAL Chief Executive Nazir Alli dismissed all the various stakeholders’ concerns and media statements about the Environmental Impact Assessment Report as ill-informed and baseless. “There is a general misrepresentation with no foundation to remark that the proposed highway is being planned by an almost secret community of road engineering contractors, planners and the South African National Roads Agency Limited. The process of planning, financing, designing, constructing and maintaining is subject to extensive legislation that requires comprehensive public participation, open to public tender scrutiny and adjudication of more senior tribunals, including our courts of law” explained Alli.
In addition, according to South African National Roads Agency Limited Marketing Manager, Connie Nel, the N2 Wild Coast Toll Free Road should be viewed within its proper context of furthering sustainable development and improving the quality of life of our citizens. Therefore, added Nel, it as for the above reasons that the Wild Coast Toll Free Road was identified as one of the areas for strategic development in accordance with the Government’s Spatial Development Initiative (SDI) strategy. “The inefficiencies of the transport sector and the lack of a proper road network in many pars of South Africa have been identified as major impediments to economic growth and development, as well as to national and international trade.
The construction of the highway was to fast-track the delivery of goods and services, access to employment opportunities and household access to consumer goods since all the above depended on transport, and more particularly roads” said Nel.
The Hibiscus Coast Municipality website, where the Wild Coast area falls, insists that all the environmental planning frameworks were followed properly before the construction tender was awarded to the five toll road constructing companies.
East London Buffalo City and Umthatha Chamber of business fully supported the toll road but opinion was divided among the smaller Eastern Cape municipalities.
Mbashe municipality criticised the location of the toll plaza next to poor communities while the Kei municipality and Nyandeni municipality were non-committal over the proposed toll free road.
The eThekwini Municipality’s Transportation Advisory Board dismissed new toll roads driven by private sector interests. Its website reads “The eThekwini Metro is planning to restructure its public transport system and has not taken into account the proposed toll road”.
BUSINESS GROUP
Businesses trading from the Joyner Road Interchange (Isiphingo-Durban) felt the location of a major toll plaza on their front doors could push up costs by at least R 750 000 00 a year, says South African Breweries District Manager Greg Foreman. Foreman added that 50% of their staff lived south of the toll plaza; therefore, their transport costs would escalate and the value of the company’s business would decline because of its proximity to a toll plaza.
The Chairperson of the Ogwini Taxi Association, M E Mkhize, says taxi operators would have no option but to increase fares. Durban Chamber of Commerce representative Colin Butler said the building of toll roads in remote rural areas was likely to yield little revenue and said proponents of the proposed highway should be aware of the dire consequences which can be attributed to a lack of extensive consultative processes.
SOCIO-HISTORICAL CONTEXT OF THE AREA
People that reside along the stretch of Umzimvubu River, Umtamvuma River and the Umzamba River regard the Wild Coast area as part of their cultural heritage. Even when many rural households were forced to re-settle at the nearby villages of Bizana, Port St John’s and Lusikisiki when large tracts of land were turned into the Wild Coast Resort and Casino, they have always related to it as the resting lands of their ancestors.
The Wild Coast area is situated on the Lower South Coast and falls under the Hibiscus Coast District Municipality under the Ugu Regional Council in KwaZulu-Natal and it stretches into Port St John’s and beyond to the Eastern Cape.
According to the 2001 national census, Statistics South Africa and the Independent Electoral Commission records, the area known as Umzamba to the local African inhabitants, covers approximately two hundred and fifty (250) kilometres of coastline, two (2) district municipalities, seven (7) local municipalities, twenty (20) wall-to-wall municipal wards, four (4) regional authorities, about thirty (30) tribal authorities and their respective administrative areas total about 12 000 households.
The local community is a mix of IsiZulu-speaking and IsiXhosa-speaking people as the area was on the edge of a cross-border region between the provinces of KwaZulu-Natal and Eastern Cape.
Since the Municipal Demarcation Board delimitation of ward boundaries in 2000 and the subsequent local government elections, KwaZulu-Natal governs the area.
BIOPHYSICAL CONTEXT
The Wild Coast has pristine vegetation which have been identified by the South African National Parks (San Parks) and the Wildlife and Environmental Society of South Africa (WESSA). The Wild Coast area is seen as the last remaining habitant of its kind on the continent.
Despite its critical challenges the area faces regarding the proposed N2 Wild Coast Toll Free Road, her scenery remains untapped in terms of economic, social and sustainable environmental development.
Local people link the proposed development of the N2 road in the Wild Coast area to plans by Trans-World Energy and Minerals to extract titanium and iron ore resources from the Xholobeni sand dunes in the not too distant future.
CONCLUSION
When Minister Marthinus van Schalkwyk decided to uphold appeals against the construction of the N2 Wild Coast Toll Free Road, he cited ‘extensive and inappropriate links between the consultants, Bohlweki Environmental company that had compiled the EIA, the Group Five Developers, and the Wild Coast Consortium’ for breaches that had been highlighted by the environmentalists and civil society institutions the previous year (The Mercury 14 December 2004). Therefore, the critical challenge facing all stakeholders and the wider South African public is to-re-visit the country’s supreme legislation, the S.A Constitution Act 108 of 1996.
The Constitution establishes that negative impacts on the environment and on the people’s environmental rights should be anticipated and prevented, and where they cannot be altogether prevented, at least should be minimised and remedied. Weighing and balancing the pro’s and con’s of the obligations and rights of both the environment and the welfare of the people, it becomes imperative that the democratic government principles of EAT (i.e ethical, accountability and transparency) should be followed at all times. Failure to uphold these cardinal principles of our Constitution remain critical aspects as we deepen the pillars of a democratic culture in South Africa. SANRAL, as the government representative, should take the blame because finding the wider civil society institutions challenging the proposed N2 Wild Coast Toll Free Road in unison proves that the due processes as enshrined in the Constitution was never followed.
We should address the dilemma posed by the need for economic development dictates on the one hand and the need to preserve and conserve environmental imperatives on the other by using the ideal approach of transparent consultative processes.
Engaging communities at all levels or across the board in their respective contexts would help to enhance the achievements of the Millenium Development Goals, the 2002 World Summit on Sustainable Development resolutions and the principles of the UN Declaration on Sustainable Development.
Writing in Caring for the Earth-South Africa. A Guide to Sustainable Living (WWF, 1997: 41) John Yeld warns readers that “We must not burden later generations with an ecological debt that will condemn most of them to an even more precarious poverty stricken existence than that endured by millions of people today”.
REFERENCES
1. The Mercury, 17 October 2002; The Mercury, 17 June 2003
2. SABC 2 Interview, Sandra Herrington, 26 January 2003
3. Business Report, 16 October 2003
4. The Mercury, 14 December 2004
5. SACC Public Policy Liaison Unit, 17 December 2003
6. SANRAL presentation (undated)
7. WEMP presentation (undated)
8. The Herald, 16 January 2004 (http.www.epherald.co.za)
9. Caring for the Earth-South Africa. A Guide to Sustainable Living, Yeld.J, Stellenbosch: WWF,1997,41
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