Service delivery protest in Milnerton

Cape Town - Residents of the Joe Slovo informal settlement in Milnerton blocked roads in a service delivery protest on Friday, Western Cape police said.

Captain Frederick van Wyk said people had burned tyres on Freedom Way from 7am.

At least 100 people planned to march from Joe Slovo to the municipal office behind Racecourse road to hand over a memorandum.

Van Wyk said the City of Cape Town had granted them permission to march.

“Currently everything is under control,” he said.

Roads were cleared and the public order police were on the scene with local police officers to monitor the situation.

No arrests had been made. 

- Sapa

Moladi Showcases at World Design Capital Cape Town 2014

Design Indaba will feature moladi in a large exhibition called "Africa is Now", which will take place at the Design Indaba Expo to be hosted in Cape Town from the 28 Feb-2 March 2014. 

The Design Indaba is the largest design/innovation event in the Southern Hemisphere and attracts close to 50 000 local and international visitors. This includes 500 buyers from South Africa, Africa and around the world, major media partners such as the Sunday Times, Mail & Guardian, eTV, Wallpaper magazine and dezeen.com, as well as government officials and dignitaries from South Africa, Africa and beyond, and entrepreneurs and creative small-business owners.

It is a curated show that Design Indaba has initiated. This is a prestigious exhibition to be part of and a rare opportunity to showcase our product at the expo. Fifty five products from across Africa have been chosen, of which only fifteen are from South Africa and moladi being one.

The "Africa Is Now" exhibition: It is a specially curated area within the expo and will occupy a central position on the expo floor. It is expect to attract a lot of interest from the media, design community and public. It covers the latest developments in craft, technology, fashion, furniture, architecture, and social impact projects from all over Africa.

More info about moladi is available here - moladi

More info about - World Design Capital Cape Town 2014

TEAM moladi

www.moladi.net

“Train the unemployed to build for the homeless”

EFF Nkandla house recipient ‘not destitute’

A woman who received a house from the EFF near President Jacob Zuma's controversial Nkandla homestead is far from destitute, the Sunday Times reported.

On January 11, Economic Freedom Fighters leader Julius Malema attended a ceremony in Nkandla to hand over a house his party built to S'thandiwe Hlongwane and her children.

The newspaper reported that Hlongwane is married to a senior archivist at the KwaZulu-Natal department of arts and culture, who earns around R250 000 a year.

Hlongwane and her husband, Lucky Nene, own at least two other properties and a VW Polo and a Toyota Hilux.

Last year Hlongwane reportedly took Malema to the ramshackle home where she was brought up.

Malema said that, as far as he knew, Hlongwane was an unmarried mother of two.

Asked why she had accepted the house from the EFF, Hlongwane said: “They just wanted to help a poor family”.

Nene said he tried to seek advice from Zuma, his wife Sizakele Khumalo, a local chief and the local ANC councillor, before his wife accepted the house. 

- Sapa

Sanitation part of Khayelitsha crime problem

Cape Town - Better sanitation for informal settlement dwellers could reduce Khayelitsha's crime problems, a local activist told the Khayelitsha commission of inquiry on Friday.

Social Justice Coalition (SJC) activist Phumeza Mlungwana was the last person to take the stand in week one of the commission's hearings on claims of police inefficiency in the area, in Cape Town.

“People would be less vulnerable to crime... if sanitation is sorted and the relationship between sanitation and crime is addressed,” Mlungwana said.

Many people were robbed while walking to communal toilets or to the bushes at night to relieve themselves, she told the commissioners, retired judge Kate O'Regan and advocate Vusi Pikoli.

Mlungwana told the packed hall in Khayelitsha, where the hearings are being held, about her own experiences with crime.

“I've been robbed a couple of time going to school... to the Sanlam Centre,” she said.

Reporting the robberies was futile, as she did not expect the criminals to be arrested or her belongings to be recovered.

Earlier, the commission heard from the relatives of two men killed by vigilantes.

Nomakhuma Bontshi, the aunt of 30-year-old Andile Ntsholo, who was necklaced in May 2012, broke down and dabbed away tears with a blue handkerchief after telling commissioners her story. Necklacing involves placing a car tyre over someone's head and setting it alight.

The night before her nephew was found dead in B-section, residents gathered at her sister's house and told them they would be packing his bags and forcing him out of the area because he was accused of stealing cellphones from residents, Bontshi said. His charred body was found in Khayelitsha the next morning.

“The police arrived at our house the next morning and asked us who could have done this and we said we don't know.”

She said it was the first and last time they heard from police.

“We never got around to find out everything from the police. All I know is God will reveal who did this.”

Norman Arendse, for the police, asked her why she had not contacted the police when her nephew's neighbours threatened to evict him.

“Because the residents were so angry.... We thought even the police wouldn't be able to do anything about it,” she answered.

Harare resident Mzoxolo Tame was the next to take the stand. Tame's cousin Xolisile was killed in January last year after allegedly being caught breaking into a house.

Tame told the commission of his encounter with the investigating officer, shortly before his cousin's body was identified. He described the officer as rude, dismissive and disrespectful.

When asked what the detective told him, he quoted the officer.

“He said, I quote: 'The laaitie (youth) was caught with his body halfway through the window of a house and he was moered (beaten up)',” said Tame.

A woman, her son, and another man were arrested and later released on bail. Tame said he had yet to hear from Harare police how far the case had progressed.

He told O'Regan and Pikoli how he felt about the attitude of police officers in Harare in general.

“They don't understand their fundamental responsibility... They think they are doing the community a favour,” Tame said.

“Their attitude is not that of public servants.”

The commission was set up to probe allegations of police inefficiency in Khayelitsha following several mob justice killings, allegedly as a result of residents' frustrations with police inaction.

- Sapa

SAFM Podcast: Should South Africa legalise Cannabis?

Listen to the SAFM podcast click here:

Poo protest leaders threaten chaos

Cape Town - Andile Lili and Loyiso Nkohla have again threatened to bring chaos and “ungovernability” to the city centre, apparently because Premier Helen Zille would not meet with them in person.

The duo pioneered Cape Town’s poo protests last year and led a march of informal settlement dwellers on the city centre. The march descended into chaos when a group of marchers broke away from a picket in front of the provincial parliament and looted traders’ stalls in the city centre.

After this, a group of religious and community leaders formed the Concerned Citizens Group (CCG) to mediate with the informal settlement leaders. Yesterday, Lili and Nkohla met with a CCG delegation to discuss the agenda for a planned meeting with city and provincial officials to discuss grievances over poor sanitation services in many of the city’s informal settlements.

“Our engagements are always cordial, but there was obvious frustration from their side because we could not give a guarantee that the premier would be present at the meeting,” said the Rev Gordon Oliver, a CCG representative.

Oliver was however, shocked to see statements, published in the media this morning, in which Lili and Nkohla threatened violence and another march on the CBD. He then issued a call for calm and a continuation of “peaceful discussion”.

Meanwhile, the group have approached Zille’s office to inquire about the possibility of her attending the meeting, on February 5, in person. However, Zille’s spokesman Zak Mbhele this morning said that the premier would not attend the meeting.

“Lili and Nkohla’s statements reveal very clearly the political nature of their agenda,” he said.

“Minister Bonginkosi Madikizela already met with them in a lengthy meeting on November 27 where he explained what the Western Cape Government was doing to deliver on all the programmes of the provincial Department of Human Settlements.

“That they ignore this and continue to threaten ungovernability simply shows bad faith.”

The cellphones of Lili and Nkohla were switched off this morning.

- Cape Argus

A heavy-handed bid to deter leaks

Government has revealed its intention to deter leaks by deploying the State Security Agency and police to find out who leaked Nkandla to the M&G.

A City Press report that the combined might of the State Security Agency (SSA) and the police has been deployed to find out who leaked details of the public protector's preliminary report on President Jacob Zuma's Nkandla homestead to the Mail & Guardian will send a chill down the collective spine of South African journalism.

Public protector Thuli Madonsela has made it clear that her office did not request the investigation and that, because of its constitutional independence, it could not become involved in such an exercise. In other words, the authorities have taken it on themselves to meddle – and, in a pointed departure from normal practice, have confirmed what they are up to.

That prompts the suspicion that this is a heavy-handed attempt to deter leaks and whistle-blowing by state officials. The obvious risk and, presumably, purpose – is that it will drive the sources used by amaBhungane into the open and scare off anyone else who may be planning to leak information about the R200-million Nkandla home improvement scheme that will further hurt Number One.

It is also clearly calculated to bolster the fiction that the government's various attempts to put a lid on the Nkandla scandal have been driven by concerns for the president's security. This is how the public works department played the issue during its initial stonewalling of media requests for information on Nkandla, and it was also cited to justify the elaborate secrecy that, at the outset, shrouded the ministerial task team's report.

Madonsela's preliminary findings contained security-sensitive information, the SSA and police investigation is clearly intended to suggest, so whoever leaked its contents may be guilty of a major security breach.

Click here for Irony

Two imposing pieces of evidence have given the lie to this version of events. After being confronted with a high court application under the Promotion of Access to Information Act, the public works department abandoned the pretext that it was constrained by considerations for Zuma's safety and released 12 000 pages of documents relating to Nkandla, almost unredacted, to amaBhungane.

A similar double game was visible over the task team report, which the government first clutched to its breast in a frenzy of protectiveness and then released in its entirety, after the M&G's disclosures, to limit the damage.

If the spooks and the police are indeed on a mission to flush out our anony­mous informants, that is deeply worrying. There is a strong body of legal opinion, supported by jurisprudence, that the Constitution upholds the rights of media practitioners to protect their sources.

- M&G

For more Irony read here:

In 2010, the Lawals’ holding company signed a memorandum with Zuma’s charity, the Jacob G Zuma RDP Education Trust, pledging R1-million annually for five years. The following year, Lawal accompanied Zuma to his alma mater, the Texas Southern University, to get an honorary doctorate.

- M&G

Cape cleaners pelted with faeces

Cape Town - City of Cape Town employees and contract cleaning staff were pelted with stones and faeces by angry Barcelona informal settlement residents on Wednesday.

No injuries were reported.

The city council workers and contracted cleaning services staff had returned to the area, in Gugulethu, to commence their normal cleaning schedule, after months of violent disruptions had prohibited them from doing so.

On Tuesday, residents had had a go at a community leader, throwing faeces at the leader’s home.

Mayoral committee member for utility services Ernest Sonnenberg said an agreement for the city employees and cleaning staff to work in the area on Wednesday followed a meeting he had had with Sannicare CC, the ward councillor and Barcelona leaders.

“It is clear that this group does not represent the broader community, but rather some individuals with illegal interests who are prepared to jeopardise the wider community’s access to services,” he said.

Ward councillor Mzwakhe Nqavashe was to meet residents on Wednesday night to discuss the matter. Thereafter a decision would be made on when the city staff and cleaners would return to the area.

Sonnenberg said the city was committed to finding the best solution for all parties involved.

“The city will continue to do all that it can to resolve this matter so that the whole community can receive the best level of services. As part of this commitment (to residents) we have already agreed to provide additional janitorial services in Barcelona.”

- Cape Argus

Zille: Alcohol linked to shack fires

CAPE TOWN - Western Cape Premier Helen Zille says it is going to take a long time before everyone gets a house so they are looking at ways to prevent shack fires in informal settlements.

Over the weekend, an 18-month-old boy with disabilities died in a shack fire in Grassy Park.

The child was home alone when the fire started.

Several people have been killed in shack fires in the last few months.

Professor Andy Dawes has since written to Zille and Cape Town Mayor Patricia de Lille asking them to prevent deadly shack fires in Masiphumelele.

Speaking to 567 CapeTalk, Zille said she replied to the letter on the same day.

She also said alcohol abuse was one of the contributors of shack fires.

“Many fires can be tracked down to the fact that people either to cook something or to light something and then they go to sleep because they aren’t sober. The candle falls over or the flame spreads and their shack burn down. They are in a drunken stupor so they don’t wake up and they die.”

However, she says that is not always the case.

“Far too often children are left alone by people who’ve gone to the shebeens and that kind of tragedy also happens there.”

Zille says the City of Cape Town has several programmes to deal with illegal shebeens while others are aimed at introducing extramural activities to keep children away from shebeens.

“The shebeens are also the source of income for tens of thousands of people and so we have to introduce zoning that give people the right to sell alcohol in decent, safe places. And then we have to remove the shebeens from the residential areas.”

She also admitted that it will take a while before shacks can be properly eradicated.

“The fact is with the rate of urbanisation and the housing backlog is going to be a long time before most people gets a house. So in the meantime we may as well get people safe.”

-EWN 

Nkandla: media not hostile says prof

There is no evidence of media hostility towards the ANC in reporting on security upgrades to President Jacob Zuma's homestead at Nkandla, in KwaZulu-Natal, a researcher said on Tuesday.

“The questions relating to the alleged hostility of the news media towards the ANC, their lack of respect for the dignity of public figures, and their not acting in the interests of the public were found to be unfounded in this coverage,” said Prof Jeanne Prinsloo.

“The analysis of the editorials in particular, but also the reporting in general, shows that the investigation takes a position of moral indignation both at the expenditure on the... homestead and at the cavalier way that information was obscured.”

Prinsloo is the author of the Media Policy and Democracy Project's (MPDP) critical textual analysis of press coverage of the R206 million upgrades.

The MPDP is a collaborative research initiative between the University of SA's department of communication and science and Rhodes University's school of journalism and media studies.

Prinsloo analysed the City Press and Mail&Guardian's coverage of what she called “Nkandlagate”.

The study was focused on investigative journalism and not routine reporting.

She said her study covered a calendar year from September 2012, and made reference to 84 of the 300 news articles and editorials sampled online.

Prinsloo said that while the two newspapers had been highly critical, they had not attacked the African National Congress, the office of the president or that of public officials. Rather, they were critical of particular forms of conduct.

“To argue that the media have attacked the dignity of the ANC politicians involved would require that the politicians have been wrongfully accused, or that the journalist made ad hominem attacks.”

Prinsloo said the ANC's public officials felt no obligation to provide access to the information about public spending that was requested, and Zuma at no stage saw it fit to address the issue or reassure the public.

Zuma's defence remained one of ignorance, as did that of several other ANC politicians.

“The impatience with requests for information on the part of these ANC officials, their reluctance to provide information and a frequently hectoring tone, point to their attitude toward the news media and indirectly to the public,” she said.

“President Zuma's supporters similarly responded aggressively, at times resorting to accusations of racism.”

There was a dismissive attitude on the part of the ANC's public officials, who on several occasions guaranteed the media and public access to the public works report on the upgrades and then denied this access.

Their conduct was disrespectful, not only to journalists but to the public as well, Prinsloo found.

She said it was ironic that the ANC had endorsed the Nkandla expenditure when, in its 2010 document entitled “Media Transformation ownership and diversity”, it had lamented the role the media played in encouraging greed.

Prinsloo quoted from the document: “Our souls are being poisoned by the spirit of conspicuous consumption in a socio-economic formation that encourages greed”.

She said it was important to point out that the research did not represent a whitewash of the news media.

- Sapa

Mom held after toddler dies in blaze

Cape Town - Police have arrested a 29-year-old woman for child neglect after her 18-month-old disabled son burnt to death in Lotus River on Sunday night.

A fire engulfed five dwellings in the Phumlani Village informal settlement at about 9.30pm. Seven people were displaced and a baby boy, who was blind and disabled, died.

The mother of the boy is in custody at Grassy Park police station, police spokesman Captain FC van Wyk said.

“It is believed the mother of the child was not at home, at the time of the fatal incident,” he said.

 City of Cape Town Disaster Management spokesman Wilfred Solomons-Johannes said teams had been deployed to assist those who lost their homes by providing food parcels, clothing, blankets, baby packs, toiletries and building materials.

City fire chief Theo Layne said, on initial investigation, the fire appeared to have been caused by a candle which had fallen over in a shack.

- Cape Argus

Living with horrific reality of shack fires

Cape Town - Blessing Chingore was woken at 4am on Tuesday by the screams of his friend in a neighbouring shack in Masiphumelele. When he got outside the flames were licking through the roof. The single door was chained shut with the lock on the inside.

He started kicking at the door, broke open a section and saw his friend on fire. “He was alive, but he was burning, his hair was burning because he had dreadlocks. Then he fell down. People were running for their lives because the fire was spreading. Then the roof fell in. It was painful to watch.”

His name was Johanne Farirepi, he was from Zimbabwe and he was just 22 when he died. He was so badly burnt that the authorities said they would have to take DNA samples from his brother to identify him.

Fires in the shackland areas of Masiphumelele are one of the hardships people live with. They happen often, fuelled by the fact that many have no electricity so cook on open flames and use candles, while the plastic, timber and cardboard materials used in building them turn the shacks into tinder boxes. Some are so close together that if you put your hands on your hips in the alleys between them, your elbows touch the walls of the shacks on either side.

No fire trucks or ambulances can get between them.

Nelisa Jange-Dondolo is a community development worker in Masiphumelele, employed by the city council.

On Christmas Day there was a fire in Masiphumelele in the backyard shacks of the settlement’s formal housing area, not far from her own house. The area has tarred roads and the fire engines were there fighting the blaze. While they were working, a youngster sat on the side of the road sobbing. His mother was in one of the shacks that had burnt.

“Some people brought him to me and said please keep him until the fire brigade is finished,” Jange-Dondolo said.

When the flames were doused, the firemen found his mother’s body.

Thulani Mandlantse, 13, is from Sebokeng and was visiting his aunt with his mother, Lobuhle Mandlantse. He was not there when the fire started, but came home to see his aunt’s shack in flames. Thulani has relatives up country and one in Khayelitsha, but until it can be decided where he will go, Jange-Dondolo has taken him in.

On Thursday, she got him registered in the local school. It is another mouth to feed, she says, but what else can she do.

Shaun Jonas was coming home from his job as a chef at the Brass Bell on Christmas Day when he saw the smoke and flames over Masiphumelele.

He had had his 4mx2.5m shack since 2004. It was destroyed.

On Thursday, Jonas was putting the finishing touches to his new shack, built with materials the city council has given those whose shacks were destroyed. It is just wide enough to take his double bed. He is in a backyard of a formal house and an electric cord runs from there to his shack. It ends in an adapter with six items plugged in, including a new TV given by someone who heard of his plight.

His shack abuts that of the one where the woman died. “She was with another man and he woke up when bits of a burning sail on the roof started falling on him. The shack was locked with a big lock on the inside, but it was full of smoke and he could not find the key. Luckily he could lift up part of the door and escape.”

Earlier last month there was a fire in the part of Masiphumelele built in a seasonal wetland. Four people died.

Brian Sityebi says the residents know how it started. “A woman came home from the shebeen and she was drunk but she started cooking. Then she fell asleep and the stove was still on.”

She died in the fire with three others.

melanie.gosling@inl.co.za

- Cape Times

Plea to top officials on Masiphumelele fires

Cape Town - Prominent residents have written to Cape Town mayor Patricia de Lille and Western Cape Premier Helen Zille asking them to urgently address the issue of fires in Masiphumelele and to prevent “the escalating disparities between rich and poor”.

Professor Andy Dawes from the UCT faculty of humanities and Dr Lutz van Dijk, co-founder of the Hokisa Children’s Home, have written to the city following several fires in Masiphumelele which have left seven dead since December.

Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu has endorsed the letter, while Rivonia trialist Professor Denis Goldberg, who lives in Hout Bay, has also signed it.

The letter has been received by the premier and mayor’s offices and has been signed by 80 people from organisations and areas in the south Peninsula.

On December 1, Masiphumelele was gutted by a fire in which five people died and 200 homes were destroyed. Another fire broke out in the wetlands informal settlement days later on December 7.

On Christmas Day, a woman died in a fire which destroyed 20 homes.

In the latest fire, on Tuesday, one man died and 27 shacks were destroyed.

The city said 600 people had been displaced, and it provided residents with building materials and food parcels.

The letter writers say food parcels and starter kits are not enough to ensure social justice and appealed to the city to take urgent steps to eradicate poverty and improve conditions in Masiphumelele, which is near Kommetjie.

In the letter, Van Dijk and Dawes said the situation was worsening each year.

Van Dijk and Dawes, with the support of the other signatories, are urging the city to take three key steps to prevent the “escalating disparities between rich and poor exploding in our faces, be it with growing crime or political extremism”.

“It is unacceptable that a community of more than 40 000 residents (is) locked in by walls on two sides with just one access road. The chaos when emergency vehicles attempt to access Kommetjie Road means risking lives,” the letter said.

The writers called on the city to implement “reblocking” in Masiphumelele, a new city initiative where informal settlements are redesigned, making the pathways between shacks big enough to allow emergency vehicles through. The city also supplies fire-resistant material to rebuild shacks.

The city has piloted the project in a Milnerton informal settlement, resulting in fewer fires and flooding incidents, and plans to roll out the project in a number of informal settlements this year.

Van Dijk said: “Proactive planning to ‘reblock’ shacks so as to create access roads for emergency vehicles and basic services is essential.

“Access to basic services will reduce the risk of disease from waste and polluted water. We offer to assist with fund-raising to rebuild shacks with fire-resisting material. We believe this can be achieved before the next winter in 2014.”

They are also calling for a second access road to be built in the area, saying this had been promised for years and was meant to be constructed last year.

Their third call is for the city to conduct a land audit to assess how much land in and around Masiphumelele is city-owned and suitable for housing.

“There has not been enough political will to identify land in our area suitable for housing for lower income groups. There has also not been enough political will to invest in infrastructure,” Van Dijk said.

Ward councillor for the area Felicity Purchase said while she understood the residents’ plea, the city had been trying to do what they were suggesting.

“The city agrees that re-blocking has to be done and we have made two attempts to do so but the community did not co-operate. On one occasion we came in with the equipment and were ready to clear the site and then people invaded the land.

“I understand people’s desperation to get to the land before anyone else, but community buy-in is key to re-blocking,” Purchase said.

She said a tender would soon be advertised for construction of 350 houses and a new crèche, while the application for a second access road had been turned down by the provincial government a few years ago over environmental concerns.

The city has since reapplied to build a second access road as part of an upcoming housing project in the area.

The executive director for city human settlements, Seth Maqetuka, said the city had a number of interventions that could address access and services, and reblocking may not be the only option.

He said interventions were dependent on factors such as land availability and suitability, densities, environmental issues and availability of funding.

“The city also has to consider that… there may be other informal settlements which have a greater need for immediate interventions to address flooding, fires, and access problems.”

zara.nicholson@inl.co.za

- Cape Times

Cape to get tough on rent payers

 Cape Town - The Western Cape provincial government is to take a hard line with tenants who don’t pay their rent for state social housing and will consider getting social housing institutions and companies to help manage its housing units.

The province is also contemplating handing units over to municipalities.

Human Settlements MEC Bonginkosi Madikizela told the legislature on Thursday it was unacceptable that the administration’s rent collection rate was between 30 and 40 percent, whereas social housing institutions were able to collect 90 percent.

“I am not comfortable to spend money (on maintenance) if the collection rate is (almost) non-existent.”

The Western Cape would spend R33m over six years on maintenance. The province owns 785 rental units in Cape Town, Stellenbosch, Paarl and Worcester, but intends selling 246.

Madikizela said the province would look at two possible solutions – a partnership with social housing institutions or companies, or handing rental units over to municipalities.

The province is also working with municipalities to have more social housing homes built.

The areas administered by municipalities include Knysna, Plettenberg Bay, George, Oudtshoorn, Mossel Bay, Paarl, Wellington, Vredenburg, Saldanha, Worcester and Hermanus.

The Department of Human Settlements’ director for affordable housing, Kahmiela August, said there was a need for social housing, especially in towns like Plettenberg Bay, where there was a big demand for cheaper rental units.

“It is essentially about restructuring, looking where the poor live and where in advantaged areas we can build social units to give people better access to work and transport.”

August said only Cape Town and Oudtshoorn had plans to build new social housing units.

The City of Cape Town manages 43 000 units.

Norah Walker, the city’s director for strategic development, said the major challenge was maintenance. The city was refurbishing 7 665 flats and the work would be complete by mid-2015.

“It is very difficult to estimate the cost of these projects because you don’t know what is wrong in the flats,” she said.

The city was building new rental units in Scottsdene, near Kraaifontein, and would start doing so this year in Hangberg, Hout Bay, said Walker. In Hangberg it would cost about R400 000 to build a unit.

cobus.coetzee@inl.co.za

- Cape Times

Nkandla critics generate security myths

A MINISTERIAL task-team report recently exonerated President Jacob Zuma of having used state resources for security upgrades to his private estate at Nkandla in KwaZulu-Natal. The team refused to give in to the calls of those who seek to exploit the issues around Nkandla’s security upgrades to score cheap political points against Zuma and the African National Congress.

Judging by the hysterical reaction to the report, it seems some politicians, journalists and so-called independent analysts are impervious to reason when it comes to anything relating to Zuma.

But the misuse of the Nkandla security issue for political reasons is emblematic of a larger problem among South Africa’s journalists and intelligentsia. They readily jettison professional ethics and reinvent facts to suit their fancy as long as that suits their agenda of targeting and lynching a politician or leader they dislike.

They actively invent and perpetuate myths about Nkandla in pursuit of their partisan political agenda.

First, the critics have reflexively used terms such as "security upgrades" as mere slogans without any meaningful attempt to decipher their meaning. The unintended consequences of using the beguilingly simplistic phrase "security upgrades" in relation to Nkandla is that it falsely implies that these upgrades were expected to be modest improvements and not the wholesale redesign of the security system at the estate. Viewed in this way, Zuma’s critics have arrogated to themselves the right to determine what proper security upgrades should have entailed. People with no expertise in security base their jeremiad about excessive costs on nothing more than subjective lay opinion.

Second, there is the fallacy propagated by these critics that state money cannot be spent on "security upgrades" at private residences of presidents, sitting or former. Contrary to that naive assumption, mature democracies such as the US have enshrined in their laws that protection and ensuring the safety of present and former national leaders and their families is the non-delegable responsibility of the government. South Africa also accepts that security needs are catered for by the state’s security cluster.

The third myth in the controversy is the assertion that the issue is simply the spending of public money on inexplicable luxuries and is not bound up with a constitutional duty on the part of the security cluster. Pivotal questions are who is responsible for the president’s security and does the president have any veto power over the arrangements deemed necessary for his safety? If the security experts have exclusive power to make the determination, on what basis does one blame Zuma for the decisions they made on the security upgrades or configurations?

The experience of mature democracies provides the answer. Under US law, no president has veto power over arrangements deemed necessary for his safety.

The fourth myth is the assertion by some politicians that the public and the public protector are qualified to second-guess the judgment of qualified security experts on the necessity of the security upgrades. Debate must be welcomed, but it must involve an awareness of all applicable statutory and regulatory frameworks, the national executive’s appreciation of the same, as well as all surrounding circumstances.

The responsibility for state security is constitutionally committed to the executive. Against this background, we should ask whether the public protector has the constitutional authority to second-guess judgments by government ministers about the complex and subtle factors that may be considered in determining whether a kraal in a rural homestead may be considered a security feature.

And finally, it seems likely that any adverse finding by the public protector will be challenged successfully in the courts. As we debate these issues, it is important to remember the admonition of the US Supreme Court that the "judiciary is in an extremely poor position to second-guess the executive’s judgment in (the) area of national security."

The courts will be asked to determine whether the public protector has transgressed her jurisdictional boundaries under the constitution. In light of section 198 of the constitution, neither the public protector nor the courts have the constitutional authority to second-guess judgments by government ministers about the variety of complex and subtle factors that are part of the decisional calculus on national security matters.

• Buthelezi is secretary-general of the Progressive Professionals Forum.

- BDLive

Police break up Valhalla demo

Cape Town - Police used a water canon and fired stun grenades to disperse angry Valhalla Park residents who shut down a busy main road on Wednesday to protest against poor service delivery.

Demonstrations broke out along Robert Sobukwe Drive, formerly Modderdam Road, around lunchtime as some pupils were heading home from their first day of school.

Residents burnt tyres and several of the wooden fences protecting trees along the road.

They hauled rocks into the road and hurled stones at officers, who in turn fired rubber bullets and stun grenades to disperse the crowd.

Some residents scolded police for firing the grenades, saying they were traumatising children.

It is understood the demonstration developed spontaneously after five shacks were burnt down. People said one shack had been deliberately set on fire and the it spread.

 

Police upset residents when they ordered them to go back to their homes – homes that had burnt to the ground. They said: “But we’re standing in our houses!”

An angry Ralph Josephs, who lives with his daughters aged three months and five years, shouted at police: “Where must I go?

“This was my house – you say go to your house, now where must I go?”

All his family’s belongings were burnt in on Wednesday’s fire, including his camera equipment, from which he made a living.

“I was trying to save some of my stuff, but police started firing – you can’t save a shoe or a teaspoon here,” Joseph said.

The city will investigate allegations that the fire was deliberately started to get more names on its property rights lists.

The Agstelaan settlement was devastated by a fire that destroyed hundreds of shacks two days before Christmas, displacing 1 500 people. New structures have since gone up for the homeless. But tensions have risen in the community since the fire and there have been a number of protests.

After Wednesday’s fire, resident Adrian Lawrence said a city Disaster Risk Management official had visited. Residents gathered and decided to protest. “We’ve seen other people protest and they get what they want so we wanted to protest.”

City Disaster Risk Management’s Wilfred Solomons-Johannes said they would not provide relief to residents of the houses destroyed in Wednesday’s fire because they did not want to put staff at risk.

natasha.prince@inl.co.za

- Cape Argus

Zuma not exempt from tax on Nkandla

Exemption for national key points doesn’t apply, but work-related expenses exempt.

An exemption in the Income Tax Act for security expenditure at national key points is not going to help President Jacob Zuma to avoid paying taxes on expenditure at his Nkandla residence.

There are however other arguments he can put forward to avoid paying more than R80million fringe benefit tax on the upgrades said to total R206 million.

On the face of it Zuma can invoke section 24D of the Income Tax Act. It allows a taxpayer to deduct security related costs at national key points for tax purposes.  Nkandla has reportedly been declared a national key point. The expenditure was however done by government and not by Zuma himself.

A tax practitioner who asked not to be named says even though an employee did not incur the costs himself, costs incurred by an employer that the employee is being taxed on, are in some instances considered as costs incurred by the employee.

He says that in terms of section 23(m) a natural person can however not make a deduction against remuneration income in respect of certain expenses such as those relating to national key points.

He says to avoid tax liability on fringe benefits a person will have to prove that the benefits are work-related. “If your employer sends you to London for work, it does include an element of personal benefit, but you won’t be taxed on it, because it is primarily for work.”

If Zuma cannot prove that the benefit, or elements of it, is work-related he will however be liable for tax like any other taxpayer receiving personal benefits from his employer. “It was under the leadership of former, late President Nelson Mandela that the tax legislation was changed in 1994 to ensure that state presidents and their deputies are taxed just like any other taxpayer in South Africa,” he says. “It is only the pension of retired state presidents and deputy state presidents that [is] still exempt.”

As the law stands, even security services to a state president and deputy state president after retirement are taxable, he says.

He agrees with Pretoria auditor Rudie van Zyl (see ‘Zuma’s Nkandla tax headache’) that Zuma will have to pay fringe benefit tax on any personal benefit derived from the upgrades.

According to a calculation by Mail & Guardian (M&G), based on a leaked preliminary report on Nkandla by Public Protector Thuli Madonsela, Zuma personally benefitted to the tune of R20 million, which would land him a tax bill of R8 million. See the original M&G article here.

Van Zyl added that improvements to Zuma’s immovable property, the value of movable property like furniture bought for his benefit and the value of obligations paid on his behalf like municipal accounts are taxable if he personally benefitted from it.

In terms of paragraph 16(1) of Schedule 7 of the Income Tax Act any benefit enjoyed by any other party on Zuma’s behalf, can be regarded as a taxable benefit to him, Van Zyl said. That may apply to a tuck shop that was allegedly build for one of his wives and the R90 million that was allegedly paid to his “team”, including the architect, quantity surveyor and builder.

Taxed at a rate of 40% this element might add R36 million to Zuma’s tax bill.

The tax expert says it is the obligation of the employer to do the tax deduction from the employee, but state employers seldom think about tax implications when they bestow benefits on employees.

An example outside of the state itself is that of Julius Malema. It was widely reported that he did not pay any income tax, but the question is seldom asked why the ANC Youth League (ANCYL) did not deduct the employees’ tax as was its obligation as an employer to do.

Van Zyl said the obligation for declaring Zuma’s tax benefit does not rest with Zuma alone. His employer has to declare the benefit within 30 days after the end of the tax year and show it on his IRP5. If the employer fails in this, the Commissioner has to determine the taxable benefit and instruct the employer to collect it.

South African Revenue Service (Sars) spokesperson Adrian Lackay earlier said to Moneyweb: “Once the facts around the expenditure on the matter have been finalised and published, Sars will be in a position to determine whether any tax consequences may arise. Sars will then apply its legal mandate.”

It seems if the argument that the Nkandla pool is indeed a fire pool is upheld, it may save Zuma from a hefty tax bill.

- Moneyweb

'EFF Nkandla house recipient living in fear'

Sthandiwe Hlongwane, who was given a house built by the EFF near to President Jacob Zuma's Nkandla homestead in KwaZulu-Natal, fears she and her family could be attacked, The Sowetan reported on Monday.

Thirty African National Congress supporters were arrested on Saturday after the Economic Freedom Fighters handed over the house they had built for Hlongwane, and were allegedly pelted with rocks by ANC protesters.

Hlongwane told The Sowetan: "I was glad when I was offered the house but I was not aware it would cause all of this [violence]".

"I now fear that myself and my family members could be attacked."

However, she did not intend moving from the area.

The 30 people arrested are expected to appear in the Nkandla Magistrate's Court later on Monday.

- Sowetan

Toilet repairs cost Cape Town R13m

Cape Town - The City of Cape Town has spent over R13 million repairing stolen or vandalised flush toilets and standpipes in the past six months, it said on Wednesday.

“The over R13 million spent has been on, among others, replacing and repairing stolen taps, broken taps, stolen handles, broken standpipes, stolen hand-basins, blocked toilets, and damaged toilet structures,” mayoral committee member for utility services Ernest Sonnenberg said in a statement.

The repairs were done between July 1 and December 31 last year. Sonnenberg said the money could have been used to improve the water and sanitation conditions in the city's informal settlements.

“When a few destructive individuals illegally and selfishly destroy city infrastructure, they not only place a huge demand on the department's budget which could be avoided, but most importantly, obstruct the provision of basic services to the broader community.”

The city planned to install 1300 flush toilets in this financial year to the Imizamo Yethu, France, RR Section, Dunoon, Rasta Camp, and Lansdowne Road informal settlements.

The number of toilets had risen from 14 591 in 2006 to more than 40 700, Sonnenberg said.

In May, the city approached the Western Cape High Court after groups of people disrupted the servicing of container and portable flush toilets (PFTs) in informal settlements.

At the time, former Sannicare janitors responsible for cleaning communal toilets blocked part of the N2 highway with burning tyres and dumped faeces on the road.

Some residents of Barcelona and Kanana informal settlements apparently removed some of the container toilets from the neighbouring informal settlement, Europe, to close down the highway.

An interim interdict was obtained against 89 former Sannicare employees and seven residents of Ward 40, associated with the ANC Youth League.

The interim order prohibited the named individuals from interfering with service delivery, city staff, and property. A second protest took place in the vicinity about a week after the interdict was granted.

In protests against rolling out the PFTs human waste was thrown on, among others, the steps of the Western Cape legislature and at provincial premier Helen Zille's convoy.

- SAPA 

Man dies in Cape Town shack fire

Cape Town - A man who was burnt in a shack fire in an informal settlement in Masiphumelele, near Fish Hoek, died on Tuesday, said the City of Cape Town.

The fire destroyed 27 shacks and displaced 100 people early on Tuesday morning, the city's mayoral committee member for safety and security Jean-Pierre Smith said in a statement.

A woman was treated for smoke inhalation.

Cape Town residents were warned to be cautious over the next few days as the hot weather conditions could lead to runaway fires.

Smith also called on residents to be vigilant when making fires, especially in high-risk areas such as informal settlements, because they might spread.

The spread of fires was directly influenced by the materials used in the construction of the shacks and the distance between each shack, Smith said.

He urged residents to use cooking and heating devices responsibly and not to use illegal electricity connections.

- Sapa

Yay and nay for major Cape projects

Cape Town - The controversial proposal to develop the Philippi Horticultural Area – the rich agricultural area of the Cape Flats known as the city’s “bread-basket” – has been turned down by provincial Planning MEC Anton Bredell.

But Bredell has given the nod to a change in the city’s structure plan that could pave the way for development of the equally controversial Wescape multibillion-rand “self-sustaining mini-city” proposal north of Blaauwberg.

His decision on Philippi will probably stall a complaint by the Greater Cape Town Civic Alliance to Public Protector Thuli Madonsela, sent just last week, to investigate the alleged “irrational, illegal and unconstitu-tional behaviour” of mayor Patricia de Lille and her mayoral committee.

This was because the council agreed in November 2012 to shelve an application for the 6 000-unit, mixed-use development in Philippi until it had considered the findings of an independent food system study of the metro’s food networks.

But in May last year the mayoral committee had a change of heart and resolved that, given the “massive demand for housing and increased burden of delivery”, a review of the urban edge – a statutory planning tool designed to protect rural land from urban creep – needed to be undertaken “with great urgency”.

 

Both development proposals – the Philippi and Wescape – were supported by the city’s DA political leadership but drew major flak from residents, ratepayers and non-government groups.

They were cited as examples of how the DA administration was allegedly wooing development at the expense of the environment, and centralising land-use planning approvals while reducing the opportunity for public participation.

The Philippi decision was welcomed as “good news” by the Greater Cape Town Civic Alliance and as “fantastic” by the Save the Philippi Horticultural Area group.

The response to the Wescape decision was muted, with alliance chairman Len Swimmer saying they were not so concerned about it as it was opposed by all the city officials. They did not believe this proposal – which is only aimed at post-2020 – would become reality.

“While we don’t agree with the Wescape development, we’d rather accept this than have the Philippi Horticultural Area destroyed,” he said.

“We support the city’s officials and the UCT reports (by planning experts) that the Wescape development will be a burden to the Cape Town taxpayers. The enormous costs and strain in infrastructure make this development a pipe dream.

Nazeer Sonday, secretary of the Schaapkraal Civic and Environmental Association and spokesman for the Save the Philippi Horticultural Area, described Bredell’s decision as “a victory for the people of Cape Town who have spoken out against this development”.

He called for greater co-operation and a closer working relationship between the city and residents so that an overall management plan for the Philippi Horticultural Area could be put in place.

The two decisions, announced on Monday by Bredell, both involved applications to amend the city’s Spatial Development Framework and to change the defined urban edge.

The Philippi proposal was to change the designation of 281 hectares of land involving 38 privately-owned properties in the south-western sector of the agricultural area, from “agricultural land of significant value” to “urban development”.

Wescape is a proposal for a self-sustaining mini city and is set to be built between Melkbosstrand and Atlantis on the north-western edge of the metropole.

The city’s biggest urban development project to date, the 3 100-hectare proposal will be the first mega-housing development since Mitchells Plain was established in the early 1970s.

The R140 billion project involves 200 000 houses, 415 schools, 370 public service facilities and 15 sports complexes built over the next 10 to 15 years, and the population of this “mini city” is expected to reach 800,000 by 2036.

john.yeld@inl.co.za

- Cape Argus

ANC members arrested in Nkandla

Nkandla - A number of ANC supporters were arrested after they clashed with EFF members near President Jacob Zuma's Nkandla home on Saturday.

The Economic Freedom Fighters were handing over a house they had built, next to Zuma's homestead, to a woman and her grandchildren.

A heavy police presence monitored the situation since Saturday morning and had kept the two groups separate.

The African National Congress supporters were on a hill nearby when EFF members emerged from their meeting and began singing.

Some of the ANC group began throwing stones at them and police intervened using truncheons, a water canon and tear gas. Rubber bullets were fired and people ran and dived for cover.

A number of ANC supporters were then arrested and loaded into the back of a public order policing van. One stuck his middle finger out of the van before it drove off.

Captain Thulani Zwane said 30 people were arrested and would appear in the Nkandla Magistrate's Court on Monday to face charges of public violence.

ANC members earlier blocked the road leading to the house and prevented EFF leader Julius Malema's car from driving past. Malema then got out of the car and walked through the crowd to get to the house.

After he made it through, ANC supporters began throwing bottles of water and stones.

Malema was visiting the area to mark the EFF's handing over of a house its members had built for Sthandiwe Hlongwane and her grandchildren.

The house has two bedrooms, a kitchen, a shower room and a septic tank, and stands about 300 metres from Zuma's home. The party also provided furniture for the house.

Malema said that attempts to stop him visiting Hlongwane's house were unconstitutional.

“I am not Democratic Alliance leader (Helen Zille), I cannot be blocked,” he said.

Zuma's son Edward was among the ANC supporters who turned out, but was not one of those arrested.

“Not even Edward's father succeeded in stopping me,” he said. 

- Sapa