South Africa P.I.G.

Nice party, pity about the poor

ANC Youth League president Julius Malema's R440 000 birthday bash continued until early yesterday at Limpopo Premier Cassel Mathale's Mokete Lodge. <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEij0KbEO06kkCcAlXdy6HEyBih0o2hk-J8Llmg-3uEu2X7_OrayBCbZv4ARApeuKkEUotow5mztak9OMW0ctkXmn5Yp-DF425raffpiqgVgz4ky3DvGeVXZ1-g-dmxo0O-WAanoPKZYqtKf/s1600-h/malema-29thBirthday.bmp"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5446000113191478850" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEij0KbEO06kkCcAlXdy6HEyBih0o2hk-J8Llmg-3uEu2X7_OrayBCbZv4ARApeuKkEUotow5mztak9OMW0ctkXmn5Yp-DF425raffpiqgVgz4ky3DvGeVXZ1-g-dmxo0O-WAanoPKZYqtKf/s400/malema-29thBirthday.bmp" style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 250px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 275px" /></a>Lavish bash: ANCYL President Julius Malema forked out more than R400 000 on his 29th birthday party which he celebrated not with the young but the oldBut the Pan Africanist Youth Congress of Azania (Payco) was not impressed. It lambasted him for his "bourgeois and opportunistic tendencies". Payco spokesman Sello Tladi said the organisation was tired of his "unprincipled" tendencies. "It is high time that the youth of this country must rise and teach Malema a lesson of life. "He cannot talk Left and at the same time walk Right. He is not different from his allies who he calls yellow communists. "His bourgeois and opportunistic tendencies have been exposed by his expensive birthday party held on Wednesday," Tladi said. There was no shortage of drinks at the lavish party, and by 1.30am the large estate was littered with empty bottles and boxes of liquor - including the expensive Johnnie Walker Gold and Chivas Regal. Guests included provincial politicians and top DJs. They were served a variety of expensive wines, whiskies and beers, and the DJ Pepsi kept the guests on the dance floor. Some of the guests were entertained in a white marquee where they reclined on black leather couches smoking cigars and quaffing fine liquor. There were containers filled with ice and all types of ciders. When they ran out, more were brought from the main house. There was spontaneous sing-ing of struggle songs, including President Jacob Zuma's uMshini Wam'. Malema joined in and at one stage called Mathale to address the crowd. "We will not backtrack from supporting Malema. An attack on Malema is an attack on the Limpopo province," he said. Malema then told the guests: "Whatever you say about me and Premier Mathale will never bring us down." The guests responded: "Bua" (talk). Outside the lodge, there were flashy cars such as BMW X5s and Range Rovers. Tladi said: "Malema and the ANCYL must be ashamed of cutting an expensive birthday cake while the majority of poor African masses that they claim to be representing in Seshego have no bread to cut; busy drinking expensive French wine while Seshego residents have no access to clean water; driving top-of-the-range Land Rovers while the people of Seshego have no roads and bridges to cross. "The falling bridges that were constructed by his company is a clear consequence of cheap labour, exploitation of workers and nepotism," Tladi said. "Anton Muziwakhe Lembede must be turning in his grave when an organisation he served, suffered and sacrificed for is being used as a springboard to a petty African bourgeois life at the expense of poor African youth who make up more than 40 percent of the unemployed population in this country," Tladi said. Malema has come under fire in recent weeks for his involvement with a company that won lucrative government contracts in Limpopo. Several newspapers reported that he bankrolled his lavish lifestyle with government contracts. <a href="http://www.star.co.za/" target="_blank">The Star</a> 05/03/10

Nice party, pity about the poor

ANC Youth League president Julius Malema's R440 000 birthday bash continued until early yesterday at Limpopo Premier Cassel Mathale'...

12:55 PM

Malema got four deals in one month

ANC Youth League president Julius Malema's company, SGL Engineering Projects, was handed at least four multimillion-rand contracts in just one month in his home town of Polokwane, Limpopo. <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxFLVwUZBimuQgUYcZYJhZDEA4j-pyCoRVa2iEPXgDMSFcYAw46OO4HcQS_g88m3ViL2nCaqLA3jJdVQbM9XHFr0bSyJDs_G5E3IbT5pEoQb3BTjMdSKYpnzMiegayqF5hwPjUqzIFc4Qs/s1600-h/malemaclown.gif"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5445878533337658322" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxFLVwUZBimuQgUYcZYJhZDEA4j-pyCoRVa2iEPXgDMSFcYAw46OO4HcQS_g88m3ViL2nCaqLA3jJdVQbM9XHFr0bSyJDs_G5E3IbT5pEoQb3BTjMdSKYpnzMiegayqF5hwPjUqzIFc4Qs/s320/malemaclown.gif" style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 320px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 320px" /></a>City Press can exclusively disclose how SGL was awarded tenders worth more than R6m last year by the Polokwane municipality. Malema, who owns a R1m home in the city, grew up in nearby Seshego. A document from the municipality's tender database, a copy of which is in possession of City Press, shows how SGL was awarded the contracts in October. The document was compiled as a response to parliamentary questions last year by the Congress of the People about contracts awarded to companies by the province's 31 municipalities. The answers from Polokwane were, however, inexplicably omitted from the official response presented to the legislature by the provincial local government and housing department. A senior municipal official said this was because the answers highlighted the extent to which Malema's company dominated tenders in the province. While the document provided the value of other contracts awarded by the municipality, there were no amounts reflected in the column where SGL was listed as being a contractor. According to the document, the contracts included vital development work including: <ul><li>Consulting engineering on roads and sanitation projects; </li><li>Water and sewer reticulation; </li><li>Dam safety and pump stations; </li><li>Sewer purification and project management; and </li><li>Rural sanitation in the form of ventilated improved pit latrines. </li></ul>The document was also silent on the exact location and period when the contracts started and their expected completion time. The company scored 21 additional contracts from eight other municipalities to the value of R140m between 2007 and 2009. Polokwane municipality spokesperson Simon Mokoatedi claimed that SGL received only two tenders worth R3.2m. When we put it to him that sources said SGL had also been awarded another contract worth more than R3m, Mokoatedi replied: "There are processes to award the tender, but we cannot say much because the council still has to ratify the decision." According to Mokoatedi, two of the contracts were worth R3 million while the third, where an appointment letter still had to be given to the successful bidder, was worth an additional R3m. Several other municipalities which awarded contracts to SGL yesterday defended their decisions, insisting that the company was appointed through normal tender processes and submitted all relevant documentation. From Mopani Municipality, SGL received R66.4m in contracts. Municipal manager Timothy Maake said "no exception" (on documentation) was made. Tzaneen municipal manager Mabakane Mangena said: "SGL went through normal processes that required documentation. There is no way we can award a company a tender without tax clearance." SGL was awarded R28m in tenders. The Greater Letaba municipality also handed Malema tenders worth R28m. "Yes, they submitted a tax clearance certificate," said Mayor Godfrey Modjadji. "As you know, that is a basic requirement and you cannot process any contract without that information for tax reasons." - City PressSee also - <a href="http://www.timeslive.co.za/local/article354032.ece">Investigate Limpopo tender irregularities</a> ANCYL leaders, their girlfriends and relatives are exploiting all opportunities and becoming fly-by-night millionaires

Malema got four deals in one month

ANC Youth League president Julius Malema's company, SGL Engineering Projects, was handed at least four multimillion-rand contracts in ju...

4:43 AM

It's Not OK Mr Zuma

FOLLOWING the promulgation of the regulations around the Indigenisation Act, there can be no illusions about how the international community will respond. This is another own goal of far-reaching significance. <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_6y8DjAJByNBTyifj2okItxfvayUvstpUKpFjQOM0fXCkBOS9Tyx9EPQ9psSykeR0mAryYI2Yl3GM1y090bIYm-V_9Axf98XrwF9KfsBJ8IFvYwCqiuMAfGH-kwmDeapoz-AnU0LiqHhD/s1600-h/zuma-mugabe.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5445646575343217458" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_6y8DjAJByNBTyifj2okItxfvayUvstpUKpFjQOM0fXCkBOS9Tyx9EPQ9psSykeR0mAryYI2Yl3GM1y090bIYm-V_9Axf98XrwF9KfsBJ8IFvYwCqiuMAfGH-kwmDeapoz-AnU0LiqHhD/s400/zuma-mugabe.jpg" style="FLOAT: right; MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; WIDTH: 400px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 259px" /></a>President Mugabe and his followers appear to think they can pass this off as an attempt to promote an equitable business environment. In fact it will be seen as yet another self-serving move that empowers the already powerful and damages the economy as a whole. It is clientelism at its worst. Just like the so-called land reform programme, we shall see nationalisation of private assets by a greedy clique. Investors will want no part in this free-for-all. They will not want to be told that they must give up 51% of their ownership of a company they have worked hard to build over the years and be presented with a list of suitable "partners" who all turn out to be members of the same party. Prospective "partners" have reportedly already been descending on companies in Harare to check out new possibilities for plunder. Sadc's reaction will be instructive. Sadc's intervention was designed to rescue Zimbabwe from political havoc that would damage not only this country but prove contagious to the region. Sadc leaders gathered in Dar es Salaam were appalled by the pictures they saw of Morgan Tsvangirai after his "bashing", as President Mugabe suitably called it, threatening more. Zimbabwe was marching in the opposite direction from a region that was enjoying investment, stability and growth. Despite appearing to buy Zanu PF's phoney nationalist rhetoric, there was a clear understanding by regional leaders that Zimbabwe was scaring off investors and creating a zone of instability in their midst. The presidential run-off poll, they unanimously agreed in 2008, was anything but free and fair. That is why after the poll they persuaded Mugabe to enter into a political pact with Tsvangirai. That arrangement, the GNU, is now in trouble because Zanu PF leaders have undermined the whole basis of the exercise. By leaving hardliners in place and refusing to accept the need for root-and-branch reforms, Zimbabwe is doing exactly what its friends feared. But of all the clumsy attempts to block change, the promulgation of the regulations surrounding the Indigenisation and Empowerment Act are the most egregious. The former ruling party has by this move signalled its contempt for the GPA and for Tsvangirai as prime minister. Both the GPA and Constitutional Amendment 19 define the powers of the prime minister. Not only have Mugabe's supporters driven a coach and horses through these provisions and ridden roughshod over cabinet due-process, they have done precisely what Sadc sought to avoid -- threatened economic havoc and damaged the region's reputation. In the circumstances, getting Tsvangirai to lift sanctions is like sending him on a mission impossible. None of the countries imposing sanctions will be able to justify to their constituents a removal of measures when there has been no progress in the GNU talks. How else do we explain the ongoing land seizures; the torture of political prisoners; the arrest of journalists, one bearing a letter of introduction from Minister Walter Mzembi, the other doing his job as a cameraman; and the continuing abuse of the prime minister in the official press? US Congressional delegation leader Douglas Meeks described Mugabe as "a great man" after their meeting at State House last month. It is understood that compliments in diplomacy work better than brickbats. But he must be assuming that readers of the New York Times, which publishes in his constituency, are ignoring its stories on Zimbabwe. They are not. All the disgraceful details are there. Meeks and his fellow legislators will have difficulty securing a change of policy in the current situation. Barack Obama wasn't fooled into believing there has been progress. Tsvangirai's call for a relaxation of sanctions after Zanu PF unleashed youths into the city centre to threaten him will not have done much to sway opinion in the US and Europe! Tsvangirai, the bravest of the brave in 2007, is increasingly looking like a jelly that bears the impression of the last person to have sat on it. President Zuma in London this week will ask Gordon Brown to lift sanctions. But Brown is likely to ask what the GNU has achieved to warrant such a move? Does this include the hardliners at Zanu PF headquarters who mobilised the youths who threatened Tsvangirai last week? Media houses are still unable to launch new titles. The state media continues to be abused by 2008's losers to justify Mugabe's damaging policies. Meanwhile, Saviour Kasukuwere is threatening more damage. He evidently doesn't think he has done enough already. Like the AAG, he wants to reap where he did not sow elsewhere in the economy. And Jacob Zuma thinks all these things should be ignored; that the GNU negotiators should "park and proceed". How can he expect the MDC-T to park the glaring violations of Amendment 19 and the GPA where the PM's powers are unambiguously defined but now widely ignored by the old gang of ministers, permanent secretaries, and generals? If Zuma wants Zimbabweans to disregard the type of leadership that thinks it's OK to plunder productive farms and businesses, he might find the same disease spreading, like cholera, across the border.

It's Not OK Mr Zuma

FOLLOWING the promulgation of the regulations around the Indigenisation Act, there can be no illusions about how the international community...

1:27 PM

South Africa P.I.G.

Nice party, pity about the poor

Malema got four deals in one month

It's Not OK Mr Zuma

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