"If you do not focus on the task at hand, then goodbye. 
Sexwale denied that the problem was that the ANC government had not delivered.
"This government has delivered a lot. In fact, the 2.5 million houses built since 1994 is only second to China. What is a challenge is the quality of houses that we build. Why do they crack only six months after we have built them? It is because we give tenders to our friends, families and girlfriends.
"This is the time for sober analysis. What are the social challenges and what are the real issues of the people?"
We need to find out why people are protesting.Proper councillors should find out why people are backing those leading these protests, who present themselves as representatives of people's concerns."
Sexwale denied that the problem was that the ANC government had not delivered.
"This government has delivered a lot. In fact, the 2.5 million houses built since 1994 is only second to China. What is a challenge is the quality of houses that we build. Why do they crack only six months after we have built them? It is because we give tenders to our friends, families and girlfriends.
"This is the time for sober analysis. What are the social challenges and what are the real issues of the people?"
4 comments:
2nd only to China...?
I really must bend over so you can talk to my ass - because then we are talking the same language at least
According to evidence disclosed, Gauteng pledged more than R600-million to bring foreign motor-sport events -- including Formula One and Superbike -- to Gauteng. A three-year, R150-million contract with the A1 Grand Prix tour, in which Tokyo Sexwale has an interest, was part of the package.
Sexwale has long been considered close to Mashatile and his so-called “Alex mafia”, which initially backed Sexwale’s presidential bid ahead of the ANC’s December 2007 national conference...
Freebies with A1 ...
But such lobbying does seem to have paid off for A1 Grand Prix -- the so-called “world cup of motorsport”. In early April and May 2008, Sexwale hosted Gauteng decision-makers -- including at one point Mashatile, Shilowa and Xaba -- at racing events in Shanghai and London...
Said Chris Vick, spokesperson for Sexwale: “Gauteng government delegations did attend the UK and China events, as well as the South African leg in Durban, so that they could assess for themselves the tourism and investment potential. These visits received extensive publicity and it would be inappropriate to attach any sinister motive to them.”
This assessment clearly did not include scrutiny of A1GP’s financial situation...
Perhaps the real A1 money was made elsewhere.
In 2007 controversial co-founder Tony Teixeira told the Wall Street Journal his $200-million investment in A1GP was worth every penny and that he had almost broken even -- thanks to A1GP’s VIP “Pangaea Club”.
He said: “The access to leaders in one room is huge to businessmen ... [it has] nothing to do with motor-racing. They want to meet so-and-so from China and Indonesia.”
- M&G
Tokyo Sexwale has emerged as the middle man who authorised the use of Nelson Mandela's words in the biography of the Congolese president.
However, as the controversy over Denis Sassou Nguesso's book deepened yesterday, the Minister of Human Settlements, who is also a member of the Nelson Mandela Foundation board, said he "explicitly stated that if remarks by president Mandela were to be used, they should not be presented as a 'foreword'," according to his spokesperson Chris Vick.
The Sunday Independent learnt of Sexwale's involvement late on Friday as the US law firm Trout Cacheris, which is acting for the long-standing Congolese president, began to dig in its heels in seeking an apology.
Earlier in the week, in an unprecedented manner and clearly unaware of Sexwale's involvement, the Mandela Foundation lashed out at Sassou Nguesso, president since 1997 and previously from 1979-92, for using the foreword without permission and condemning his alleged "brazen abuse" of Madiba's name...
Twenty-four hours later Sexwale emerged as the man who originally gave the Congolese president permission to use Mandela's words but, according to Vick, they were to be used neither as a foreword nor as a preface - a statement supported by foundation chief executive Achmat Dangor.
According to Dangor, Sexwale was approached many months ago by Sassou Nguesso's representatives asking Mandela to pen a foreword. Sexwale raised it with Dangor.
What transpired was a 129-word quote from a speech delivered by Madiba in 1996, presented in the book as a "preface by Nelson Mandela".
Though the book was published last month in English, the original French version was launched many months ago.
While it is still not clear when Sexwale gave permission for Mandela's speech to be included, the timeline suggests it may have been before he joined the government in May.
Shortly after he was appointed to President Jacob Zuma's cabinet, Sexwale resigned as executive chairman of Mvelaphanda, which has mining interests on the continent, including Congo-Brazzaville.
The group owns a substantial shareholding in the multinational group Ophir Energy, which says its links with Mvelaphanda give "a competitive advantage in securing and developing oil and gas projects within Africa".
It is through Mvelaphanda that Ophir "enjoys a depth of contacts and relationships with government and oil and gas industry participants throughout Africa and beyond", according to the company's website.
Ophir has oil interests in Congo-Brazzaville which are administered through its local company, Ophir Congo (Marine IX) Limited.
Asked if the foundation would apologise to the Congolese president, Dangor was vague.
"The Nelson Mandela Foundation is not calling into question President Sassou Nguesso's integrity or esteem," he said, in an about-turn from the foundation's harshly worded statement early last week.
Rather, it "appears to us that his emissaries did not convey to him the decision by the foundation to decline the request, as conveyed to them by Mr Sexwale".
- The Sunday Independent
The National Union of Metalworkers (Numsa) on Monday called for the nationalisation of the wealth of South Africa's richest man, Patrice Motsepe and ANC struggle hero, Tokyo Sexwale.
This comes after South Africa's Rich List was published by the Sunday Times on Sunday.
The list, compiled by Who Owns Whom, showed that Motsepe was the richest South African with R14.2bn.
Numsa said it was concerned that massive wealth, worth billions, was concentrated in the hands of private individuals.
"This obscene and massive wealth is being reported by the Sunday Times in the midst of the revelations that South Africa has apparently taken over Brazil as the most unequal country in the world ever," said spokesperson Castro Ngobese.
He said the fact that South Africa was the most "unequal" country in the world was confirmed by Cape Town University's Professor Haroon Bhorat.
"Why should such massive wealth be in the hands of private individuals?" asked Ngobese.
"We strongly believe that our National Democratic Revolution (NDR) as encapsulated in the Freedom Charter was never meant to reproduce or replace a white capitalist class with a black capitalist class or co-opt connected politicians to join exploiters."
He said the NDR has always been "anti-imperialist and anti-capitalist".
"This then calls for the radical and revolutionary agenda to be championed by the broad movement as led by the ANC to transfer the wealth of our country to the hands of the people as a whole, as opposed to a selected few."
He said failure by the ANC to transfer the wealth will lead to an upsurge of service delivery protests.
"As Numsa, we are calling for the nationalisation, and eventually the socialisation of the massive and privately owned wealth in the hands of Motsepes, Sexwales, Macozomas, Nhlekos, Mittals and Oppenheimers of this world," he said.
Ngobese said Bhorat confirmed that whilst inequalities had risen amongst black South Africans, the growth of white South Africans salaries between 1995 and 2008 surpasses by far the growth of salaries amongst black South Africans.
The salaries of white South Africans had grown by 83% from 1995 to 2008 while those of black South Africans only grew by 38%, he said.
He said Numsa would lobby other unions affiliated to the Congress of SA Trade Unions to mount a "radical and militant" campaign to put a stop to "excessive privately owned wealth and salaries which are reproducing racialised (class and gendered) apartheid inequalities and opulence". - SAPA
Post a Comment