Protesters to be sued for R6m

The City of Cape Town intends suing the organisers of yesterday's protest march for R6-million because it degenerated into violence and looting.

Several businesses were looted, people were assaulted and shop windows were smashed as some protesters ran amok. Informal traders along the route of the march suffered huge losses.

Cape Town mayoral committee member for safety and security JP Smith said images of the protesters were captured on CCTV and would be studied to identify those responsible for the violence.

"We've sought legal opinion, which stated that we could sue protesters in their individual capacities, as well as those who organised the protest," said Smith.

Smith said the initial estimate of the damage was R6-million.

He said the city would demand the money from the ANC, and from ANC councillor Loyiso Nkohla and former ANC councillor Andile Lili.

The ANC has distanced itself from the protest.

The city claimed Nkohla and Lili led the protest during which residents of informal settlements demanded improved municipal services.

The two are still facing charges in connection with their alleged role in the toilet protests during which faeces were hurled at public buildings in the city.

Neither Lili nor Nkohla was available for comment.

DA Western Cape leader Ivan Meyer last night said that Nkohla had reportedly, at a public meeting at the weekend, encouraged residents of informal settlements to loot businesses in the city centre.

The protesters looted stalls on Greenmarket Square, tried to loot a liquor store in Adderley Street and set fire to trees in Wale Street.

Meyer said the march was "pure political grandstanding".

Police spokesman Frederick van Wyk said no arrests had been made.

- Timeslive

Ministers condemn Cape Town looting

Parliament - Two Cabinet ministers on Thursday condemned the looting during a violent service delivery protest in central Cape Town.

“I want to join (with those) who condemn the behaviour of the thugs who looted shops and especially the stalls of informal traders in... Cape Town yesterday,” Minister in the Presidency Trevor Manuel told MPs in the National Assembly.

Responding to earlier opposition party statements on the matter, he said nobody could support such behaviour, and he called on all parliamentarians to speak out against it.

State Security Minister Siyabonga Cwele denied the protest was organised by the African National Congress.

“As the ANC government, we condemn violence during service delivery protests. (Also, I want to) state categorically, that the protest was not organised by the ANC.”

Those taking part were from Cape Town's neglected and “suffering communities”.

“Our analysis... informs us that most of these protests start peacefully, but they soon degenerate to violence... if complaints are ignored,” he said.

Shop windows were smashed, cars damaged and stall owners robbed when a group broke away from the main body of protesters, gathered outside the provincial legislature building on Wednesday afternoon, and went on the rampage through central Cape Town.

- Sapa

R52m cut from Cape Town stadium bill

Cape Town - An “amicable” settlement has been reached between the City of Cape Town and the professional team appointed to design and build Cape Town Stadium, with the city paying R52 million less on the contracted amount of R637m.

But mayor Patricia de Lille may have to explain why she released a statement about the agreement, just hours after the matter was discussed confidentially during a closed session of Wednesday’s council meeting.

The details of the settlement agreement were placed on the “green” agenda, meaning that it was a confidential matter that could not be discussed with the media or the public present.

Speaker Dirk Smit moved the item to the start of the meeting and the public and media galleries were asked to leave the chamber for almost half an hour so that councillors could deal with the matter.

However, just a few hours later, the mayor’s spokesperson released a media statement with details of the settlement agreement.

ANC councillor Tony Ehrenreich, speaking from the council chamber, said the mayor had violated council rules by putting a confidential matter into the public domain, via the media.

“This is an official complaint in terms of the rules of the House. The mayor is out of order.”

He said later in a statement that the mayor had pushed the item through council to hide something.

“This supposed confidential agreement between the city and the professional services hides many irregularities, which includes a real danger that the professional services company had also been guilty of collusion - and this must be investigated.

“By releasing confidential information to the media, the mayor’s conduct is also in violation of the rules of council. The extent of her public statement is clearly an attempt at damage control for inappropriate behaviour of the City of Cape Town, with professional services.”

Smit said he could not decide if the mayor was out of order or not, as he had not seen the media release. But he did confirm that he had made an earlier ruling that the document was confidential. “I can give you my assurance that I will investigate the matter.”

According to the statement, the completion of the stadium had to meet a “pressing deadline and severe cost escalation”. The city entered into individual contracts with the professional team, which would have amounted to almost R640m.

De Lille said it was agreed that the city would pay a professional fee of R585m including disbursements for the stadium and its surrounds. This fee was 16 percent less than originally negotiated between the parties.

“The city is pleased that the dispute has been settled with the various disciplines constituting the professional team. The settlement is in the city’s interests and avoided the long, costly and risky process which would have confronted both parties through the arbitration appeal and the courts.”

She said the final construction cost of the stadium, as determined by the professional team’s quantity surveyor, was R3.64 billion.

The team also agreed to support the city and its legal team in quantifying the cost of the bid rigging by construction companies involved in the construction of the stadium.

The Competition Commission found that 15 construction companies were involved in price fixing and tender collusion for the World Cup stadium tenders. Two of these companies, Group Five and Wilson Bayly Holmes-Ovcon (WBHO), were responsible for building the Cape Town Stadium. Although the companies involved paid a combined R1.5bn in fines, the city is lodging a civil claim to recoup some of its costs.

“The city is determined to claw back damages... from the construction companies and is currently preparing a claim against the construction companies involved,” said De Lille.

She added that the agreement did not prevent the city from pursuing additional claims in terms of its professional indemnity insurance policy.

Deputy city manager Mike Marsden has said design changes to the stadium made the construction more costly. The city had been advised it could claim on insurance for design changes made during construction.

anel.lewis@inl.co.za

- Cape Argus

Nkandla report should be submitted to parliament

Public Protector Thuli Madonsela's provisional report on President Jacob Zuma's Nkandla homestead should be submitted to Parliament, ANC Chief Whip Stone Sizani said on Wednesday.

"Both the president and the Public Protector are appointed by, and are accountable to, Parliament in terms of the Constitution," Sizani's spokesman Moloto Mothapo said in a statement.

Madonsela's report would be submitted to concerned parties this week.

On October 23, Madonsela questioned the government's delay in changing the law determining to whom she should hand reports concerning the presidency.

At a Black Management Forum conference at the time, she said she had advised the government about the problem three years ago and asked it to change the law.

She said when it came to investigating members of the executive, the report was normally given to the president, but now it was tricky as the report was about him.

On Friday, Madonsela's spokesman Oupa Segalwe said Madonsela was awaiting feedback from the presidency after she enquired about the law reform process to "clarify the competent authority to receive the report".

Mothapo said there were sufficient oversight mechanisms available to the Public Protector to deal with any eventuality in her scope of operation.

"In an event that the Public Protector may not issue findings of an investigation to the president due to lack of clarity in the act governing the conduct of the executive, Parliament should be the competent oversight authority to deal with such a report.

"...[Madonsela's] inferences in the media regarding lack of an oversight mechanism over the president and regarding her predicament have unfairly projected the president and his executive as law unto themselves who do not want to be held accountable."

- Sapa

Cape Town chaos: Where were the cops?

• Gallery - Looting in Cape Town’s CBD       

Cape Town - They descended on his stall in St George’s Mall and started tearing it apart. As vendor Mohamad Farah and his brother tried to fend off the countless looters around their stall, they were pelted with their own goods - including full cooldrink cans and lumps of ice.

Vendors on St George’s Mall are in shock after they were left to fend for themselves when a group of breakaway protesters tore through the mall on Wednesday afternoon. They are now asking where police and security guards were when they were being robbed.

Sitting breathless and traumatised in the foyer of Newspaper House, where he had taken sanctuary with some of his salvaged inventory, Farah clutched his back as water dripped from his brow where a hard lump of ice had hit him.

Moments earlier he had been in the middle of an angry mob.

“Why are you still open?” they shouted at Farah and his brother, while throwing packets of Nik Naks, chocolates and torn cartons of cigarettes. He said for every item they threw, the mob snatched and fled with three times as much.

“When we tried to fight them off, they were throwing cans at us. They hit me in the back, the neck, legs… all over,” he said, wincing.

Thousands of protesters in Wale street during a housing protest. Photo: Henk Kruger

Cape Argus

Farah’s first attempts to escape from the looters were difficult. The 33-year-old Somalian is an amputee, who makes do with a rigid prosthetic leg. He slipped and fell twice among the pushing crowds.

“We asked the police before, should we pack up the stall, but they told us ‘no, no, it’s fine’,” said Farah. “Then when (the protesters) started running down here it was too late.”

He was not the only vendor who questioned how police had managed the protest. Frank Masina, who sells wooden sculptures and novelty chessboards from his stall, said there was no one to help him when the mob began destroying his goods.

“They were throwing my stuff around, smashing my chessboards and chess pieces.”

Brandishing a carved wooden cane, he described how he had desperately swung it at the looters.

“My shop is still standing but I have lost R3 500. I don’t understand. I pay to be here, but nobody looks after us.”

Other vendors said all they could do was stand by as their stalls were plundered. One vendor, who did not want to be named, said a group of looters grabbed handfuls of cigarettes, with some even lighting up as they casually walked away.

As protesters continued to rush through the mall, some shopkeepers picked up the steel poles that held up their stalls and brandished them as makeshift weapons.

Abdisalani Samatar, a South African citizen from Somalia, said his stall was raided three times in the space of one hour by running mobs.

Police officers stepped in the first time he was being looted, dispersing the angry crowd around his stall. But as soon as the police left, his stall was looted again.

According to the vendor, a police vehicle even passed his stall as it was being plundered, and the officers inside chose to ignore it.

“I lost R25 000 in merchandise,” he said.

He questioned why police seemed powerless to stop the looters, and why they had not anticipated the breakaway protest and warned vendors to pack up shop.

Police spokesman captain FC van Wyk said he was not going to comment on claims by vendors that they were left to fend for themselves.

“I will say this, I’m going to ask those shopkeepers to go to the nearest police station and lay charges so we can start investigating.”

The city’s mayoral committee member for safety and security, JP Smith, said the police were unable to handle the situation alone, and metro police and Law Enforcement were dispatched to help contain the breakaway protests.

“The breakaway march was illegal. Therefore police did not have enough staff to deal with it.”

kieran.legg@inl.co.za

- Cape Argus

DA slams ‘thuggery’ during Cape march

The ANC must dismiss councillor Loyiso Nkohla for inciting the violence in the Cape Town CBD on Wednesday, the DA said.

“The actions by members and supporters of the ANC Youth League, led by ANC councillor Loyiso Nkohla and expelled ANC councillor Andile Lili, today (Wednesday) are pure vandalism and thuggery,” DA Western Cape leader Ivan Meyer said in a statement.

“The DA condemns this in the strongest terms.”

ANCYL Western Cape spokesman Muhammad Khalid Sayed said there was no justification for the criminal activity in the CBD.

“Those responsible should be held accountable for their actions,” he said.

“No amount of frustration can be used as an excuse to harbour and protect thieves and looters.”

It was sad that the legitimate plight of people demanding quality service delivery and access to land was vulgarised by thugs hiding among people with legitimate concerns.

Some protesters looted shops and vendors, and damaged property during a protest in the CBD, said Captain Frederick van Wyk.

He said it appeared that around 3,500 people took part in the protest. No arrests had been made.

According to a newspaper report, Meyer said Nkohla had urged residents in a number of informal settlements to loot the CBD and start erecting illegal structures in and around the city.

“He was quoted saying, ‘You will not have to go hungry because there are so many places that you can loot in the CBD. The police can't arrest us all because there will be too many of us', at a public meeting held in Nyanga over the weekend,” Meyer said.

The DA said it would lay a charge of incitement to commit a crime against Nkohla in light of his statements and the violence and looting in the CBD.

Meyer said that, given the Constitutional Court ruling that the organisers of a march or gathering could be held liable for damage caused, the organisers of Wednesday's march should also be held responsible for the damage caused.

“Today's protest march to the (provincial) legislature in itself was purely political grandstanding,” he said.

The FW de Klerk Foundation's Centre for Constitutional Rights (CFCR) said in a statement that constitutionally enshrined rights to protest did not extend to criminal behaviour such as theft, destruction of property, intimidation and assault.

“Regardless of the grievances people may have, such criminal behaviour by protesters is unacceptable and should be condemned by all South Africans, including the ANC,” it said.

The CFCR noted that the ANCYL had reportedly called for governance in Cape Town and the Western Cape to be disrupted in the past.

“However, the ANC's previous failures to reprimand the ANCYL for its calls to destabilise the Western Cape inevitably raise the question of whether the ANC tacitly supports such statements and threats.”

The CFCR also condemned the statements attributed to Nkohla.

“Statements inciting violent and criminal behaviour, or calling for any legitimately and democratically elected government within South Africa to be made “ungovernable”, are irreconcilable with our Constitution and should not be tolerated as acceptable social or political discourse.” - Sapa

Cape Town protest turns violent

Cape Town - A protest in the Cape Town CBD on Wednesday turned violent as shops and vendors were looted by protesters, Western Cape police said.

Captain Frederick van Wyk said the police had been present throughout the afternoon and were still on the scene, after earlier problems of looting and property being damaged.

“The protesters are still singing and protesting. There were some people running around the streets looting some of the shops and vendors,” he said.

While the police recognised people's right to protest, those who did so were expected to act within the confines of the law.

“It also includes respecting other people's rights and refraining from looting and damaging property,” Van Wyk said.

He said it appeared around 3500 people were taking part in the protest.

No arrests had been made.

- Sapa

Chaos in Cape Town as protesters run amok

Cape Town - There was chaos in the Cape Town CBD on Wednesday as protesters against the provincial government ran amok and looted stores and stalls. 

News24 reporter Nielen de Klerk said she was hiding in a food store as protesters looted stores and stalls in St George’s Mall.  A shop owner had also been hurt by the protesters, De Klerk said.

A loud bang was also heard which De Klerk said was a police water cannon. Cape Times reporter Caryn Dolley said the bangs might have been stun grenades. Police sirens could be heard in the city.

People in the CBD have been advised to not venture onto the streets. 

 

The protesters appear to be protesting the provincial government. 

- News 24

Nkandla report to be issued this week

Public Protector Thuli Madonsela's provisional report on President Jacob Zuma's Nkandla homestead will be issued to concerned parties this week, her office said.

"After sharing the report, the public protector gives the parties a return date on which she expects comments," spokesman Oupa Segalwe said.

"Upon receipt of comments she considers them and, to an extent possible, factors them into the report. It is at that stage that the report will be ready for public release."

Segalwe said it was unclear when the final report would be ready. This would also depend on how soon Madonsela received comments from affected parties.

He said parties sometimes asked for an extension of the deadline.

On October 23, Madonsela questioned the delay by government in changing the law dealing with whom she should hand reports to when a matter concerned the presidency.

At a Black Management Forum conference at the time, she said she advised government about the problem three years ago and asked it to change the law.

She said when it came to investigating members of the executive, the report was normally given to the president, but now it was tricky as the report was about him.

Madonsela previously said she had encountered "unusual challenges" while compiling the report into the upgrade of Zuma's Nkandla homestead in KwaZulu-Natal.

On Friday, Segalwe said Madonsela was awaiting feedback from the presidency after she enquired about the law reform process to "clarify the competent authority to receive the report".

Last year, the Democratic Alliance asked Madonsela to investigate whether Zuma's family improperly benefited from the upgrade to his home.

Shortly before this, Zuma told Parliament government was paying to upgrade the security at his home, but that he had taken out a bond to pay for the rest of the upgrade. - SAPA

Former Minister of Human Settlements Sexwale arrested in New York

Prominent South African businessman and anti-apartheid stalwart Tokyo Sexwale was arrested in New York after his name was on a list of people banned from entering the United States, the SABC said on Sunday, citing his lawyer.

Sexwale, a rival of President Jacob Zuma who was ousted as housing minister in a Cabinet reshuffle in July, was arrested at John F Kennedy International Airport while on a business trip, the SABC said, citing Lesley Mkhabela.

Some anti-apartheid activists were banned from visiting the United States during apartheid, which ended in 1994. The ban has been lifted, but not all the names have been removed from the list, Mkhabela told the SABC.

“He has instructed us to take the matter up with the authorities of the US so we will address the letter to the US Embassy in South Africa,” Mkhabela was quoted as saying on the broadcaster's website.

No one was immediately available for comment at Mkhabela's law firm. The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which runs the airport, did not immediately respond to a request for a comment.

Alongside former president Nelson Mandela, Sexwale spent years in prison on Robben Island for his opposition to white-minority rule.

A charismatic politician, Sexwale later became a leading member of the ruling African National Congress and an influential businessman, founding the investment firm Mvelaphanda Group. - Reuters

Tokyo Sexwale promised houses that would Rock for his people; but only delivered corruption and crumbling RDP houses in his terrorism trial said:

Charge: ...Terrorism & 'Selling-out' black national liberation.. Treason.

Defendants response:

(...) We lived in poverty and we were all subjected to the humiliation which the whites imposed upon the blacks.

We lived in the same typical 'matchbox' houses; we were continually aware that there was not enough money available to meet our needs for food, clothing and education; and when we went into town and saw the relative luxury in which white people lived, this made an indelible impression on our young minds...

It is true that I was trained in the use of weapons and explosives. The basis of my training was in sabotage, which was to be aimed at institutions and not people...

We believe, and I believe, that the black people cannot be passive onlookers in their own country. We want to be active participants in shaping the face and course of direction of South Africa.

My Lord, these are the reasons why I find myself in the dock today... I realised that the struggle for freedom would be difficult and would involve sacrifices. I was and am willing to make those sacrifices... - The Cold War: A history in documents

Sold out black housing struggle... AGAIN; how many corruptly sold crumbling RDP houses while Tokyo was Minister of Human Settlements...? Did the Toilet Report Tokyo Commissioned with Winnie provide any shitty solution?

Two die in Cape town fire

A mother and her five-year-old daughter have died in a fire in Manenberg, Cape Town, the city’s disaster risk management centre said.

Samantha Oliver, 26, and daughter Shakira succumbed to burn wounds after the fire destroyed two backyard dwellings on Nyosiyabo Street in Tambo Village, Manenberg, spokesman Wilfred Solomons-Johannes said in a statement.

The fire took place on Saturday around 9.30pm. Police were investigating.

Two other fires also took place in the municipality over the weekend.

The first was in Westlake where a backyard dwelling caught alight around 2.45pm on Sunday on Suikerbossie Avenue.

One person was left homeless but no one was injured.

The second was in Samora Machel informal settlement in Phillipi around 12.15am, where four shacks were destroyed and 17 people were left homeless, said Solomans-Johannes.

- Sapa

Nkandla residents hurt by the Presidents homestead splurge

Nkandla: Untangling that rather sticky web

The Public Protector has indicated that the report regarding the upgrade of President Jacob Zuma’s private home at Nkandla with the use of public funds is almost completed. However, she also indicated that the government has not yet indicated “how far they are with deciding where these kind of reports should go to”. Here is some unsolicited advice on the matter.

The government has been steadfast in its refusal to make public the internal report of the Department of Public Works into the spending of more than R200 million of public funds to upgrade President Jacob Zuma’s private home at Nkandla.

Citing “national security” concerns (foreign agents may be interested to know just exactly where that rumoured bunker at Nkandla is situated) the Department argues that the publication of its report would threaten the personal safety of the president. This argument is not plausible, in so far as the particular aspects of the report describing the security measures in place at Nkandla could be redacted from the report before it is made available to the public.

The reluctance to make the report public (sans the specific detailed descriptions of security measures at Nkandla) may therefore have more to do with a fear of embarrassing the president and the government, than with a concern for “national security”.

It is therefore not far-fetched to assume that the government would not be eager for a similar (but independent) report by the Public Protector to be made public. But legally, its ability to suppress the report is currently limited. This may change once the Protection of State Information Bill becomes law, but until then the Apartheid-era Protection of Information Act 84 of 1982 remains the applicable legislation and this piece of legislation does not entitle the government to prohibit the publication of the Nkandla Report.

The Constitution allows the Public Protector to investigate any conduct in state affairs, or in the public administration and to “report on that conduct”. Section 182(5) of the Constitution further states that:

“Any report issued by the Public Protector must be open to the public unless exceptional circumstances, to be determined in terms of national legislation, require that a report be kept confidential.”

As the Protection of Information Act of 1982 does not contain any provision that could be read as requiring that the report be kept confidential, it means that the Public Protector will have to publish the report. The National Key Points Act does not contain any provisions requiring a censoring of the report either. In the absence of national legislation that requires a censoring of parts of the Public Protectors Nkandla Report, there is a constitutional duty on the Public Protector to make the entire report public.

Section 8 of the Public Protector Act confirms this constitutional power of the Public Protector to publish any report relating to one of her investigations. Section 8(2) also requires the Public Protector to submit to Parliament half-yearly reports on the findings in respect of investigations of a serious nature if she deems it necessary; or in the public interest; or if it requires the urgent attention of, or an intervention by Parliament.

Furthermore section 8(3) of the Act states that the findings of an investigation by the Public Protector must “be made available to the complainant and to any person implicated thereby”.

This means that, until such time as the Secrecy Bill comes into effect, the full report must be handed to those who requested the Public Protector to investigate the matter and the report must also be made available to the public at large.

Two questions arise in this regard.

First, the Report may contain details of the security arrangements at Nkandla. It would obviously be inappropriate to publish details of these security arrangements. However, in the absence of legislation that would require the Public Protector to black out these details in her report before making it public, it is unclear on what legal grounds the full report could be withheld from the public and from those who requested the Public Protector to investigate the matter.

The Public Protector may therefore be in the invidious situation of having a constitutional duty to publish the entire report while not wanting to reveal any details of the security measures currently in place at Nkandla.

Second, the Public Protector must also refer the report to the appropriate bodies tasked with instituting remedial action, if any, recommended by the report. Part of the report will deal with the question of whether the president’s statement to Parliament that he and his family paid for all non-security related upgrades at Nkandla was accurate. If this statement were not accurate, this would constitute a breach of the Executive Members Ethics Code.

The Executive Members Ethics Act states that the Public Protector must investigate any alleged breach of the code of ethics and must submit a report about the alleged breach of the code to the President if the complaint is against a Cabinet member. Constitutionally, the President is a cabinet member as well.

But as the Public Protector indicated in a previous report about the failure of President Zuma to declare his financial interests, this section of the Act fails to consider the situation where the president happens to be the Cabinet member who has breached the code of ethics. She recommended at the time that the Act be amended, but this has not been done. There seems to be no legal escape from this constitutional demand.

I would not wish to pre-empt the findings of the Public Protector. However, as the legislation stands now, in the event that the report contains a finding that the president had misled Parliament, she would have to report this fact to the president who would then be required to address a breach of the code of ethics by himself. This would obviously not be a desirable situation.

If this were indeed to be the case, it would probably be appropriate for the Public Protector to refer the report both to the president and to Parliament, with a request that Parliament deal with any alleged breaches of the code of ethics by the President. Parliament chooses the President who is constitutionally accountable to Parliament and can also be removed from office by the National Assembly for either political reasons or because of a serious violation of the Constitution or the law or serious misconduct by the President.

No matter what is contained in the report, it is highly unlikely – for reasons relating to the internal politics of the governing party – that the National Assembly will even consider such drastic steps against the president. But I would contend that these provisions suggests that the National Assembly is permitted to consider and deal with any alleged breaches of the code of ethics by the president that falls short of impeachment.

Of course, it might be that the Public Protector’s report exonerate the president, in which case the difficulty pointed out here will not arise. What is clear is that the there is a constitutional duty on the Public Protector to make public her report (or at the very least to make public those aspects of the report that do not reveal the security arrangements at Nkandla). 

- DM

163 die in WC shack fires

CAPE TOWN - More than 160 people lost their lives in shack fires across the Western Cape over the past financial year.

This figure was revealed in a response to a question posed by the ANC in the provincial legislature.

There were more than 1,800 shack fires in the Western Cape last year, resulting in around 163 deaths.

Most of the deaths were reported in informal settlements in Cape Town.

Nearly 3,800 other fires, like vegetation blazes, claimed the lives of 33 people.

Local Government MEC Anton Bredell says disaster management is prepared as best as possible for the looming Cape fire season.

“We put huge effort in getting better aircraft which can carry more water. We also put a huge effort into training and getting the right equipment.”

Bredell says the fire season stretches between November and March, peaking in mid-January. 

- EWN

‘600 000 whites driven to live in shacks’

Cape Town - The Freedom Front (FF) Plus claims that 600 000 white people have been forced to relocate to 460 informal settlements countrywide because of the ANC’s board-based black economic empowerment.

FF Plus parliamentary spokesman Anton Alberts has blamed the ANC, saying that its decision to push ahead with BBBEE had deprived white South Africans of employment and business opportunities.

“Young people don’t get work either and cannot start their own business due to BBBEE, as most business in the country, even if small enough to be exempted from BBBEE, get pulled into the orbit of transformation as the large businesses require strict adherence to this racial policy,” said Alberts.

He said a study by former University of Pretoria vice-chancellor Flip Smit had confirmed this.

But in his reply to Alberts’s parliamentary question, Trade and Industry Minister Rob Davies denied that any white person was suffering economically as a result of BBBEE.

“There has never been any research to reflect the unintended consequences of the BBBEE policy with regards to the impoverishment of white people; in this regard the department will welcome such study from the honourable member,” Davies said.

Alberts claimed that 90 of the 460 “white informal settlements” were in Pretoria, Cape Town, Joburg and Bloemfontein.

He said that many of the affected were former government employees retrenched to open opportunities for blacks.

“Many of these previous government employees are now too old to find other work. They end up in informal settlements or just die due to the stress of living in poverty,” Alberts said.

He threatened legal action and to mobilise whites and coloureds to revolt.

“And the world will know that apartheid has returned. I can add that Constitutional Court action will also be considered,” he said.

ANC spokesman Jackson Mthembu said the ANC was committed to BBBEE policy because it had benefited blacks who were removed from the economy during apartheid.

“If others are only discovering imikhukhu (shacks) its bad for them.

“We know imikhukhu as we have lived in imikhukhu. If statistics are now showing that poverty has become colourless, that is something good we did as the ruling party,” Mthembu said.

He denied that BBBEE had mostly benefited those who were politically connected.

“Those who have become millionaires through BBBEE out of their own hard work would feel insulted if they hear people saying that their success was because of political connection.” Alberts’s complaint against BBBEE comes a year after the 12th Commission for Employment Equity (CEE) annual report revealed that white men continued to enjoy preference in the workplace over their African, coloured and Indian and women counterparts.

It showed that white men occupied 55.2 percent of top management positions nationally across all employment spheres, African men 13 percent, followed by Indian men at 5.9 percent and coloured men at 3.3 percent.

In the private sector, whites’ share of top management positions had dropped only from 68.1 percent in 2007 to 65.4 percent in 2012, while African representation was 18.5 percent. For Indians, it was 7.5 percent and coloureds 4.8 percent.

Western Cape Shack Dwellers - Sourced from Census 2011

Number of households excluding backyard dwellers:

Black/African Coloured Indian/Asian White

West Coast 5145 1 021 19 29

CapeWinelands 16639 2855 32 71

Overberg 6541 794 12 34

Eden 10140 3685 17 86

Central Karoo 26 151 - 6

City of Cape Town 134914 7531 141 387

- Cape Times

R800-billion needed to solve housing woes by 2020

Tasked with advising government on its spending habits, the Financial and Fiscal Commission (FFC) has called the current housing model “unsustainable”.

In the nineteen years since democracy, government has delivered over three-million fully subsidised houses. 

Yet it is still falling well short of the growing demand in South Africa.

The current housing deficit is estimated to be over two-million housing units, and is growing year-on-year.

Now the financial and fiscal commission has spoken up and said it is time for drastic changes to the country’s housing model.

In its report, called "Exploring Alternative Finance and Policy Options or Effective and Sustainable Delivery of Housing in South Africa", the commission said the backlog is due to an inability to deliver.

Financial and Fiscal Chairperson Bongani Khumalo said: “By 2020 if we have to actually be on par, so that everybody that needs a house actually has a house that is what it would cost, it would cost R800-odd billion.”

According to the report 40% of the available rental units are regarded as being in a state of slum condition. The FFC could not put a number on what this was costing the government.

Khumalo explained, that “the key challenge around the quality issues is that there is no adherence to the norms and standards, and where those have not been adhered to, the places or settlements that have been created have been found not to be safe for living or habitation, so they have had to be destroyed.”

The report offered a number of interventions including stimulating additional funding from the private sector and revising annual performance targets.

The committee says it has presented its report and recommendations to the department of human settlements, who will decide on whether to implement them.

- eNCA

Housing backlog will cost R800bn

 South Africa needs at least R800 billion - and a “miracle” - to clear its housing backlog of 2.1 million houses within the next seven years.

This is according to the Finance and Fiscal Commission (FFC) which released its report on “alternative finance and policy options for effective and sustainable delivery of housing in SA” on Monday.

It also believes the present approach to housing provision won’t be sustainable.

The FFC’s main responsibility is to make recommendations on the “equitable” division of revenue between the three spheres of government and provide advice to organs of state on financial matters.

The head of the commission, Bongani Khumalo, said the housing sector faced many challenges. This included increasing housing backlogs and a decreasing number of low-cost houses being provided by the government.

Some of the reported 3 000 service protests in the country since 2009 have been blamed on unfulfilled promises of RDP houses. Khumalo said the backlogs had increased from 1.5 million housing units in 1996 to 1.8 million units in 2001 and then 2.1 million in February this year.

“If we were to look at the demands or backlogs that we currently have, and we have to eliminate those by 2020, the total amount required for that period is about R800bn to actually eliminate in the next seven or eight years,” said Khumalo.

He said this would translate to more than R120bn a year.

The government allocates about R30bn to provide housing. “So the sustainability is really an issue, unless a miracle happens… And also it’s important that when look at sustainability, we also look at the track record,” said Khumalo.

He said the housing sector was also affected by the “unique phenomenon” of an increasing gap market.

The gap market is made up of households earning too much to qualify for subsidised housing, just above R3 500 a month, and too low to qualify for mortgage bonds, earning about R15 000.

Khumalo said overall, the commission concluded that different households in different housing circumstances required specific interventions and a different approach. He said one solution would be to encourage additional funding from the private sector as well as household contributions towards housing provision.

However, he stressed that “the choice remains the government’s”.

The FFC’s warning comes a month after researchers reportedly said that the housing waiting list, used by the government to allocate RDP houses on a first-come-first-served basis, was a “myth”.

A report by the Socio-Economic Rights Institute and the Community Law Centre at the University of the Western Cape apparently found that there were multiple mechanisms and systems to allocate housing, some of which were out of sync with one another.

The report scrutinised the provision of housing in Gauteng and the Western Cape.

It said that beneficiaries were often forced to rely on luck to get houses. “Other… idiosyncratic and often community-based methods are adapted to local situations.”

- The Mercury

Public protector launches National Good Governance Week

Nkandla report cannot be delayed: DA

Cape Town - Public Protector Thuli Madonsela's preliminary report on the upgrade to President Jacob Zuma's Nkandla homestead cannot be delayed because she does not know who to hand it over to, the DA said on Monday.

“While we appreciate... Madonsela’s dilemma in this regard, this report cannot be delayed by the government’s disregard of accountability measures,” Democratic Alliance parliamentary leader Lindiwe Mazibuko said in a statement.

“It is both in the public interest and in the interest of accountability and transparency to ensure that the full and unexpurgated report is made public.”

She said she would write to Madonsela for clarity on whether the full report would be made public.

The SABC reported on Monday that the report was “virtually finalised”.

“We have now asked government to indicate how far they are with deciding where these kind of reports should go to. We haven't had an answer yet,” Madonsela told the public broadcaster.

“The one issue, though, that will arise, which we have raised with the presidency... is who do we give the report to.”

The presidency was expected to comment on the matter later.

Madonsela said she encountered “unusual challenges” while compiling the report into the security upgrade of President Jacob Zuma's private homestead in Nkandla, KwaZulu-Natal.

Mazibuko said she would recommend to Madonsela that the report be tabled before Parliament's public works portfolio committee.

“I will also query whether I will be receiving a provisional report, as has been the protocol followed in the past,” she said.

“Indeed in other public protector investigations requested by the DA, a provisional copy is sent to the requesting party.”

Last year, the DA said it would ask Madonsela to investigate whether Zuma's family improperly benefited from the upgrade to his home.

Shortly before that, Zuma told Parliament that government was paying to upgrade the security at his home, but that he had taken out a bond to pay for the rest of the upgrade.

- Sapa

City, UCT look to sue price-fixers

Cape Town - FOUR months after the Competition Commission exposed major construction firms for tender collusion and price fixing, the city, UCT and the Construction Industry Development Board have yet to take action against the companies concerned.

In June the commission concluded a two-year process in which construction firms were invited to disclose corrupt activities which flouted competition law in exchange for leniency.

The commission fined 15 companies including Group Five, Aveng and WBHO a total of R1.5 billion.

Among other things, the companies admitted that a cartel of seven firms – Grinaker LTA, WBHO, Murray & Roberts, Group Five, Concor, Basil Read and Stefanutti – had agreed in 2006 to allocate tenders for World Cup stadium projects.

WBHO admitted to making an agreement with Group Five in 2006 over the R4.5bn Cape Town Stadium contract which was awarded to WBHO in a joint venture with Murray & Roberts.

The City of Cape Town has said it will lodge a civil claim against the companies and has spent R4 million appointing a law firm and construction industry experts to calculate how much the city was overcharged in the construction of the stadium.

Last week deputy city manager Mike Marsden said the city’s legal team and construction industry experts were still in the process of quantifying the damages. He said it was a “very complex task”.

“The process has to be thorough as the findings have to stand up in a court of law.”

The University of Cape Town may also lodge a damages claim against Group Five over the R87m Graça Machel women’s residence contract.

Stefanutti Stocks has admitted to helping Group Five win the contract and has said Group Five also paid other firms a losing fee of R500 000.

UCT spokeswoman Riana Geldenhuys said the university was waiting for the Competition Commission to complete its investigation into four projects in which Group Five disputed wrongdoing.

Meanwhile the Construction Industry Development Board (CIDB), which is compelled to investigate the construction companies, has not yet started.

If the CIDB investigation finds the companies guilty of prohibited practices, the board may fine the companies, deregister them or disqualify them from state tenders for a certain period.

Spokeswoman Kotli Molise said the board was still studying the consent agreements the commission had reached with the 15 companies involved.

zara.nicholson@inl.co.za

- Cape Times

W Cape fires leave 120 people homeless

One hundred and twenty two people have been displaced in the Western Cape by several unrelated shack fires over the course of the weekend.

Disaster Risk Management Spokesperson, Wilfred Solomons-Johannes says 48 fires were reported in Ruyterwacht, Phillipi, Kraaifontein, Khayelitsha, Gugulethu and Du Noon.

Solomons-Johannes says the worst reported fire destroyed 25 shacks, displacing about 100 people in the Brown's Farm Informal Settlement in Phillipi.

He says the city is assisting those affected.

“The city’s disaster risk response teams were activated to assist with food parcels, blankets, baby packs as well as clothing and building material. We have also sent out the rapid assessment teams to assist with the recovery of identity documents that were destroyed as a result,” he says.  

He says that no persons sustained any injuries and the circumstances surrounding the occurrence will be investigated by the local authority.

- SABC

Another Browns Farm blaze razes 27 homes

Cape Town - Embattled residents of Browns Farm in Philippi, still reeling from two fires in as many weeks, were hit by further tragedy on Saturday when another fire in the early hours of the morning razed 27 homes.

Nokuphula Njonga, a mother of two, said she had lost everything in the fire, apparently caused by a candle which had been left unattended. Njonga stood watching on Saturday as her husband and other men started to rebuild.

She had to start all over again, the devastated woman said, adding that all her children’s Christmas clothing and presents which she had been buying over the past months had been lost in the fire.

“Before this fire I had very little,” she said.

“But the very little I’ve lost meant a lot, considering the circumstances. I also had money in my wardrobe, but there was no time to save it.”

Njonga said the man believed to have been responsible for the blaze had fled the area, fearing mob justice.

She said he had been using candles in his shack after his electricity box was stolen.

“People are obviously cross with him,” she said.

Residents told Weekend Argus there had been another fire in the area last week, and another on Monday.

The community had helped douse the flames on Monday, which had affected about 20 other homes.

Dumisane Maketha, who hosts the local Zion Church which is also his home, was working against the clock to have the venue ready for the next service. They were supposed to meet this morning.

“It affects me very badly because I also sleep here and the church gear was also destroyed in the fire,” he said. Residents were helping one another out, he said.

A city fire spokesman said 60 people had been left homeless by Saturday’s blaze.

He said the cause remained unknown at this stage. He could not provide details about the other two fires reported by residents.

soyiso.maliti@inl.co.za

- Weekend Argus

Protector’s Nkandla probe ‘a fast one’

The investigation into the R200 million security upgrade to President Jacob Zuma’s Nkandla residence has emerged as one of Public Protector Thuli Madonsela’s speediest investigations to date.

Madonsela confirmed this while briefing parliament’s justice and constitutional development committee on her annual report this week.

She had been quizzed again about the investigation and the time it had taken.

Earlier this month, Madonsela said she had received the outstanding information needed to wrap up her investigation into the government’s expenditure on Zuma’s private Nkandla home in KwaZulu-Natal.

Cope MP Luzelle Adams asked Madonsela this week when Parliament would get her provisional report.

“Because that has been outstanding, and every time we see you on television, you’re saying ‘soon, soon, soon’,” said Adams.

Madonsela told Adams her Nkandla investigation was “one of the fastest ones”.

“If you look at the original time it was reported and in terms of the actual time that we’ve started investigating, it has moved faster than others.

“Again, people out there complain that we’re moving faster where the media is watching us, or where the politicians are watching us and their own personal cases,” said Madonsela.

She said her team of investigators were always trying to “balance everything to make sure that everything is moving”.

“That means obviously the wider the brief of investigations per investigator, the more difficult it is to move fast,” she said.

The public protector also noted an increase in her workload and cases the institution finalised during the 2012/13 financial year.

She said each investigator was dealing with about 200 cases on average, whereas an ideal situation would be six to nine cases per investigator a year.

Madonsela is investigating allegations of improper conduct in connection with the Nkandla home.

She conducted an inspection at Zuma’s home on August 12.

- The Star

Only 1 Percent of Human Settlements Corruption Cases Resolved

Only 1% of the 268 cases of corruption referred to the Department of Human Settlements by the National Anti-Corruption Hotline (NACH) to date have been closed. Furthermore, only 4% of the cases reported resulted in some form of feedback from the relevant national and/or provincial department.

This information was revealed during a presentation to the Portfolio Committee on Human Settlements by the Public Services Commission this week.

I will forward this new information to the Public Protector, Adv. Thuli Madonsela, and request that she include it in her current investigation into housing corruption.

The Department's failure to adequately address these cases is nothing short of shameful complacency in the face of corruption and requires drastic action.

South Africans who have had their rights to housing infringed by unscrupulous officials and contractors deserve to see these cases resolved and those responsible held accountable. We simply can't allow this to continue.

Stevens Mokgalapa, Shadow Minister of Human Settlements

- allAfrica

Nkandla ruling angers DA

Parliament - A ruling by the chairwoman of Parliament's public works portfolio committee blocking discussion on President Jacob Zuma's Nkandla residence provoked an angry outburst from the DA on Wednesday.

Following a briefing by public works director general Mziwonke Dlabantu on his department's 2012/13 annual report, MPs started raising questions about the Public Protector's still ongoing investigation into controversial upgrades at Zuma's KwaZulu-Natal home.

Committee chairwoman Catherine Mabuza put a stop to this.

“I don't know why this issue is brought to this meeting because the investigation is still going on. Let us be in order, and let us not be impatient on the Nkandla issue.

“We will deal with it, (but)... not now. Let's allow the Public Protector to complete her investigation,” Mabuza ordered.

Democratic Alliance MP Anchen Dreyer lodged a strongly-worded objection to the ruling.

“There have been a series of attempts... over the past year, when I raise issues that are uncomfortable to the ANC, you attempt to shut me up. I won't shut up to please the ANC. I won't stop asking difficult or potentially embarrassing questions. I've got a right to ask any question I want to.

“I just want to make very clear an objection to your ruling about it. (This) has happened time and again.”

Dreyer had earlier asked if the security upgrades at Nkandla - one of public works' so-called prestige portfolio projects - had been completed and handed over.

MPs had also asked Dlabantu if he knew when Public Protector Thuli Madonsela would complete her investigation.

Responding to Dreyer's objection, Mabuza said: “I won't entertain issues that are under investigation; that's my ruling.”

She then instructed the department not to respond to questions about Nkandla.

“DG, you are not going to entertain an issue that is under investigation. I will not allow that,” she told Dlabantu.

The DA has taken legal action in an effort to compel the public works department to reveal its own report on the upgrades carried out at Zuma's Nkandla home.

- Sapa

Nxesi defends Nkandla renovations

Upgrades to President Jacob Zuma's home at Nkandla to the tune of R206 million were largely for the benefit of president's staff - according to Public Works Minister Thulas Nxesi.

Part of the expenditure was to save the presidential bodyguards having to drive 75km after work or having to sleep in their vehicles, he said in an interview with the Sunday Times.

"The president's security had to drop him off and then go and sleep in Eshowe... That not only posed a security risk, but what about those workers' rights?"

Nxesi defended the building of two helipads as "the president flies when he goes to Nkandla".

According to the report, he said the investigation into the upgrades indicated R71m was spent on security and R135m was for operational upgrades.

"Part of it were the facilities which were created for the departments [tasked with ensuring Zuma's security] and the personnel of defence and the police...

"Those are for that personnel, they are not for the president."

Nxesi has been under fire over the findings of the Nkandla task team, which found irregularities in the procurement process for the upgrade.

The team recommended further investigation by authorities such as the Special Investigating Unit and Auditor General.

Nxesi classified the report, under a 1996 cabinet directive. The report is being studied by the parliamentary joint standing committee on intelligence.

He said it was up to the committee to decide whether to release the report to the public.

On Tuesday, the Western Cape High Court ruled a Democratic Alliance application for the report on the upgrade was urgent and would be heard in February. - SAPA