There’s no such thing as free land and there is no such place as Republic of KZN

When the South African president Cyril Ramaphosa assured the Zulu leader King Goodwill Zwelithini last week that the national government had no intention of grabbing land held by or interfering with the Ingonyama Trust, he tugged the tail of a sleeping dragon.

It is a dragon that might well return to devour him.

Not one to neither take a sideways step and bypass the slumbering serpent nor take a lesson from St George the Martyr, Mr Ramaphosa sheathed his sword. Instead, he should have ripped out his blade; challenged the beast and moved in for the kill.

It was an opportunity that he will come to rue someday soon as discussions about land ownership and repatriation heats up before a decision in late August. That there needs to be some form of land reform is not in question. Ever since the Native Lands Act of 1913 and through various bits of legislation including the Group Areas Act of 1950, the vast majority of South Africans were deprived of and excluded from owing land.

Land reform may lead to a redistribution of wealth and a level playing field in a country where the overwhelming rate of poverty is high.

The Ingonyama Trust holds large parcels of land for Zulus in the KZN region. King Goodwill controls the Trust.

On its website the Ingonyama Trust states it “was established in 1994 by the erstwhile KwaZulu Government in terms of the KwaZulu Ingonyama Trust Act, (Act No 3KZ of 1994) to hold all the land that was hitherto owned or belonged to the KwaZulu Government. The mandate of the Trust was to hold land for the benefit, material welfare and social well-being of the members of the tribes and communities living on the land.”

When the democratic government came into existence initially in terms of the Interim Constitution of 1993 the original enabling Act creating Ingonyama Trust was reviewed comprehensively such that the final product was a new Act albeit called the Amendment Act. This Amendment Act had to meet all the constitutional requirements both in terms of the Interim Constitution and the final Constitution of 1996.

Under the current law, King Goodwill is the sole trustee. And in the fall out over repatriation of land, a panel led by the former president Kgalema Motlanthe recommended that the Ingonyama Trust Act be repealed and that the Ingonyama Trust be dissolved. The panel found that the trust’s current practices were inconsistent with the government’s land policy and it did not secure land tenure for residents.

This is a view shared by the Economic Freedom Front who broke ranks with the ANC to call for the dissolution of the trust.

When Mr Ramaphosa met with King Goodwill it was a great opportunity to spell this out very clearly to the Zulu king no matter the spear rattling and chants of bloodletting by aggrieved Zulus. But the president clearly did not want to upset the Zulu leader.

There is no democratic republic of KZN. The Ingonyama Trust debacle is an anachronism that has to be fixed before there is any meaningful way forward as the government leans heavily towards land reform without compensation. The focus seems to be mainly on farm land while metropolitan land has escaped attention. This does not matter as unhoused poor and squatter camp residents eye off the leafy suburbs with desire.

But when it comes to deceiving the millions of impoverished South Africans living in squatter camps and locations dotted across the country there seems to be little enthusiasm to set the record straight. Poor South Africans who live in appalling conditions have this crazy notion that sometime soon they will get free housing.

 Some even believe they may benefit from property that will be removed from previously advantaged people. Well to put it bluntly, there are some who believe whites will be kicked out of their homes and the homes will be made freely available to the poor or needy.

Of course this will never happen. Land reform without payment is theft whichever way you look at it.

 South Africa is a signatory to many international treaties for a start and even if the government wished to reclaim land without compensation by tweaking Constitutional guarantees, the international reverberations will be nothing short of cataclysmic. The economy will suffer, the rand will crash. South Africa will again be an international pariah just like it was during the apartheid era.

This sad state of affairs already has given cold comfort to individuals and groups who have staked out parcels of land in Mitchells Plain and other areas of Cape Town believing they have an entitlement to free property. It will never happen.

It has also given rise to splinter groups feasting on appalling racism to secure special privileges and land claims for coloureds in Cape Town. One particular group has been lobbying to have black people returned to the Eastern Cape from where they came.

So why does the national government not intervene and boldly advise that no one ever gets a free house and land package anywhere on this earth. Houses and land are bought. You must work and work and work and save and save until you have the deposit. Then you have to go to your bank and lend the rest. Only then can you buy your house – and probably pay it off for nearly the rest of your life.

If there is anything that can be learned from this land reform exercise then surely it is the need for a great improvement in basic education and a proper work ethic that enables people to strive towards attainable goals. The government must focus on job creation programs that will empower the people and set them on the road to self-sufficiency and home ownership.

Meanwhile, parliament is continuing to hold land reform hearing up until the end of this month. The Constitutional Review Committee has undertaken a nationwide tour of public hearings on the possible review of Section 25 of the Constitution to make it possible for the state to expropriate land without compensation.

All this has scared off a group of about 15,000 Boer farmers who have considered plans of moving to Russia which remains relatively underpopulated for its size. The Russians are believed to have offered a welcoming hand to thousands of white South African farmers into its borders to boost its agricultural industry.

According to a Russian news channel Rossiya 1 TV, the plan is for the first 30 families to first establish themselves before more follow. Each family is said to be willing to bring at least R1.4 million ($100,000) with them to lease land in Russia and kick-start their farming efforts.

The views expressed on this blog are entirely my own. Feel free to use this material with suitable accreditation. Research material is included.

Dr Hilton Kolbe is a writer and journalist.

 #southafrica #landreform @JusticeMalala

#LandExpropriationWithoutCompensation

 #DA #ANC #TimesLive

Independent Newspapers look like losing its independence

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The sombre confirmation by South Africa’s Finance Minister Nhlanhla Nene that he has quietly started calling in the nearly R1.3 billion invested in the national media giant Independent Newspapers should trigger alarm bells ringing from national newsrooms right up to the floor of parliament and way beyond into the marketplace of popular discussion.

It is pretty serious stuff. Political ramifications abound, freedom of the press can be compromised and free speech could be at risk. What if this is a sinister ploy by the ruling ANC government to bring down the country’s most influential and biggest newspaper group for their own selfish ends to dilute criticism as South Africa heads towards a potentially critical election in 2019. What better way of silencing a critical press than by ripping out its heart?

After months of speculation about the future direction and viability of Independent Media, this latest episode of unfolding drama has potentially serious ramifications for press freedom in the evolution of the Rainbow Nation. It could well spell disaster for Dr Iqbal Surve, the charismatic leader who barely five years ago wrested control of arguably South Africa’s most profitable and respectable newspaper group out of Irish hands.

In confirming the deal, Surve was quoted as saying: “I am delighted that I have the opportunity to bring these newspapers, this national asset, back to South Africa. I am bringing Independent back home.” But, sadly, the age of the media baron is long dead and buried. And any resemblance that Surve may have had of being another Lord Beaverbrook, William Randall Hearst or even, God forbid, Rupert Murdoch, in the making has the odds now heavily stacked against him.

In a reply to a question on notice by Democratic Alliance MP Alf Lees, Mr Nene confirmed the Public Investment Corporation (PIC), the country's biggest asset management firm that controls the pension savings of government employees through the Government Employees Pension Fund (GEPF) had invested nearly R1.3 billion in the Independent Media Group.

The PIC’s exposure to Independent Media is as follows:

· R166 333 000 – direct equity (25 per cent)

· R579 683 083 – debt loan

· R183 000 000 – debt loan

· R346 096 192 – debt converted to bridge finance

According to reports, the PIC acquired a 25 per cent stake in Independent Media, while Sekunjalo’s majority share had been largely funded by the PIC.

In the unfortunate situation where Independent Media falters or is unable to meet its debt to the PIC, thousands of government workers will be baying for blood if they should lose their pension money. This will translate into yet another disaster for the African National Congress government that is already under siege with claims of rampant corruption, graft, theft and nepotism. It spells more bad news for the ANC as an election looms. Already there have been demands made of the national broadcaster SABC to consider allocating increased coverage to the ANC come election time.

In 2013 the Irish publishing group Independent News & Media (INM) agreed to sell its South African business, the country’s largest English-language newspaper group, for R2 billion to a consortium led by Dr Survé.

From his bunker in Dublin, owner Tony O’Reilly could see the writing on the wall. Digitalization coupled with the complex transformation in post-apartheid South Africa – as much in the national news rooms as in society in general – was a recipe for disaster. There were no rivers of gold in the advertising columns.

Here was a struggling newspaper group that had fallen from its pinnacle of grace and glory. It was a newspaper group that was hindered on all sides by sharply falling advertising revenue, a drop in readership and a drop in sales.

Factor in the effect of new technology and the need to transform the newsrooms into a modern and competitive working model was costly. Even more damaging was the ever rising cost of newsprint, a staffing conundrum that saw an exodus of senior staff to more lucrative employment opportunities and a general turnaround in the fortunes of newspapers around the globe.

But along came Surve and his cronies in the form of Sekunjalo Media Consortium as a majority shareholder backed up with the deep pockets of the Public Investment Corporation (PIC).

On its website, Independent Media is described one of South Africa’s leading multi-platform content companies. Its stable of fine, quality publications include 20 of the country’s most prominent newspapers with The Star in Johannesburg, Cape Times and Cape Argus in Cape Town and The Mercury in Durban firmly entrenched in millions of households throughout South Africans. African Independent is the only title which serves the African continent and I'solezwe lesiXhosa provides daily news to the 3.5 million literate Xhosas in the Eastern Cape. Business Report is South Africa's largest business newspaper with 1.2 million readers.

Independent Online, popularly known as IOL, is Independent’s current digital offering, and brings millions of readers breaking news as events happen in the country and around the world. With a growing daily unique online audience it is one of the largest news and information websites in South Africa.

So it begs the question why would the PIC as an administrator of pension money that belongs to working class government employees place so much trust in Independent and gamble on the success of a struggling media group.

But there is no need to search far. The PIC is not averse to losing money. The funds that invest money with the Public Investment Corporation lost more than R100 billion when former President Jacob Zuma fired Finance Minister Nene on 9 December 2015. According to Daniel Matjila, CEO of the PIC, the Government Employees Pension Fund lost R95 billion, the UIF lost R7 billion, the Compensation Fund lost R3 billion, while other funds saw R1.2 billion slide away.

 Dr Kolbe is a writer and media commentator.

@southafricanpress

@TimesLive @IndependentNewspapers

@southafrica @capetimes

@capeargus @IOLnews


@MailGuardian

Learning the error of my ways

'It's very provoking,' Humpty Dumpty said after a long silence, looking away from Alice as he spoke, 'to be called an egg — very!'

'I said you looked like an egg, Sir,' Alice gently explained. 'And some eggs are very pretty, you know,' she added, hoping to turn her remark into a sort of compliment.

Through the Looking Glass by Lewis Carroll

So yesterday the Acting Director, acting on advice from the Assistant Director ambled over to my neck of the sump pool where I toil at one of Australia’s almost universally despised federal agencies and said rather sharply: “The Acting Assistant Secretary will meet with us shortly”.

Acting Director had a curious look on her face that suggested brooding trouble. We must meet. We have something to discuss. You may bring someone along as witness. Gallows?

 Of course, my usual buoyancy was temporarily punctured by this triple decker onslaught from the doyens of authority. It was a bit like getting smacked with a Triple Decker when you distinctly ordered a Quarter Pounder at the drive through. 

What the fuck is going on? I ask myself quietly as I ponder the landscape of public servants busily furrowing away in purgatory, paying attention only with their ears as the devil played merrily on the merry-go-round.

The eternal optimist within advises that my humble work station may soon be elevated to some assistant shit-carrier elsewhere in this vast empire where push is to shove like toilet is to you know what.

Or so I think. At last my talents have been recognized no less; rewarded. Perhaps a stint as a baton carrying officer at the airport or a tazer wielding malingerer on maritime patrol. The options are endless. What about an island sojourn in a distant land far from prying eyes, Glock 17 packed for safety purposes only.

This self-congratulatory homage is but temporary. Quickly smashed when I ask for a heads-up. So what’s the fuss all about?

Well, old trooper you have been reported for language unbecoming in modern society, I am advised.

Some not-so-nubile young thing with cat-like claws on the greasy pole of job promotion opportunity has reported that you, yes you old 62-year-old savage and Jedi Master to Princess Ruby, Princess Ari, Princess Charlie and Princess Abbi -- you have used disgustingly offensive and inappropriate language. Unfunny! Disgusting!

You have caused offence. Not-so-nubile young thing’s thin-skinned veil of hypocrisy has been shattered by your oafish indifference to genteel sophistry. Shylock is almost mortally offended. Bleeding from the lip and busting at the muffin.  Bring out the sugar water. Calm the nerves. Batten down the hatches, the cavalry is coming.

OK so let’s recap. Just before I left my place of toil for greener pastures some nights ago, not-so-nubile inquired whether there were important matters on the agenda.

Not at all, I ventured, I watch Foxtel most nights and if it’s not Barcelona, MSN (meaning in other words Messi, Suarez and Neymar) doing magic then I remain vaguely disinterested. Otherwise it’s reality shows. Jerry Springer where are you now that I need you most of all?

No need to tell this little dark dork that my prostate is squeezing the crap out of my piss, and even less need to share the secrets of intimate personal dysfunction so irate to every man over 60 and some, more sadly, just a touch over 40. So, for as bit of amusement I advised smartly: “Aw, I’m just going home and maybe I’ll smack the wife in the head”.

Wrong move funny guy!

Anyway to celebrate 40 years of marriage we are on our way in a couple of weeks to Spain, Portugal, Morocco and Dubai and Abu Dhabi and a brief flit through Jordan and check out Petra for a bit of R&R. On the way through we will pop in at Cape Town before heading back home. Not a smack in the head in sight.

So folks no more shit talk in the new year. Always be politically correct. 

Happy New Year 2018 to all my friends and readers and stuff those who can’t handle a joke.

Some old fashioned pearls of wisdom

Before I even realized it, I was old.

Not that I ever spent much time worrying about it. After all this was a work in progress.

But when all those job applications started returning with soppy messages of thanks but no thanks, a little bell went off in the back of my head.

And,  it was just a few months later when the messages of hope dried up completely, only to be replaced by a more sinister experience, that I sat up and took real notice. The emails of hope were all sliding off an imaginary cliff, never to be seen or heard of again.

Something odd was happening here, I told myself.

Never mind here was a strapping ball of energy that could bench press 120kg without raising a drop of sweat. Run 10km in just over 40 minutes and walk a treadmill slyly perched at an acute angle while carrying sixteen kilograms of lead in an ex-army adjustable weight pack. Surely, at 62 this sounds impressive.

And you should hear what shit this bloke can talk. A mercurial mind that ticks over faster than a 22-year-old. OK that might be a bit of exaggeration but still.

Fit as a fiddle and sharp as a proverbial tack. With two Masters degrees tucked away and a doctorate thrown in for good measure, decades of international experience and a shiny Qatar Airlines Gold frequent flyer membership to prove the status of worldly travel, why wouldn’t prospective employers give him a second glance?

Good question.

You are holding up the queue of talented young minds coming through, old boy. You are blocking the pipes of production.

On the scale of economics you are a burden on the wage bill. Move over and out fuddy duddy. There’s a blockage up ahead and you’re causing it. Get out of the way. That’s the general idea.

Never mind that you still have a few good years before hitting the formal retirement age. No matter that the government is moving full speed ahead to increase the age of retirement. No matter that the talented young minds coming through can benefit from your wealth of experience.

That’s all dog shit. The talented young minds have talons. When they pat your back, you can feel the scratches as it tempers the epiblast right through to the dermis. And you get the message. This is a friendly pat with a difference.

It was Jonathan Swift who so wisely reminded us that everybody wants to live forever, but nobody wants to grow old. It’s almost too long ago now to remember when I first heard this but still true to this day. Take it a step further.  Everybody wants to go to heaven, but nobody wants to die. And nobody seems to realize that in our life's journey, no one has ever reached the finish line alive.

So why should I be surprised by this sudden onset of unwelcome knowledge? And why did I not notice it when just a few years ago I was probably also doing the scratching?

It has been a wonderful road of bumps and bruises, trial and tribulations and there’s still a hell of a fight left in this old tiger.

So, young guns sit up and take notice.  How old would you be if you didn’t know how old you were?

@agebarrier @agedworker @fitness @ageism @seniors @pensioner @jobsearch

Freedom isn’t free is a lesson for protesting South African students

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By Hilton Kolbe *

Student protests currently gripping capital cities in South Africa have been a catalyst for change since the mid 1970s. Cape Town and the University of the Western Cape have been no strangers to political unrest, campus shut downs and police brutality.

In 1973, students were boycotting classes and taking to the streets to protest against the Afrikaner government and its insistence on mandatory teaching of Afrikaans. Twenty years later monumental changes occurred and the student uprisings could be seen as the beginning of the end for apartheid.

Now in 2015, students are again taking to the streets in protest.

They are not boycotting classes because universities have shut the doors in a growing climate of violence and hostility. This time the protests are against the Zuma government and free university education for all. Will these events also signal the start of the end for the current political structures just as it did in 1973? That is hard to say. Probably unlikely given the current state of the Opposition parties, but the seeds of dissent have been scattered.

The national push for no fee increases for university education has been a thorn in the side for the government. Already President Jacob Zuma has backed down with angry students clamouring at the doors of Parliament in Cape Town. It was a time for strong men to stand erect but they all went limp.  Government should impose higher taxes on the rich to fund free higher education for the poor, Higher Education Minister Blade Nzimande said. “My own considered view is that government must have the political will to tax the rich and the wealthy to fund higher education. None of us must develop cold feet about the necessity of taxing the rich to fund our children.”

Instead, they agreed to halt any fee increases for this year. Wits University agreed not to increase 2016 tuition and residence fees, with an undertaking that the upfront payment of R9 340 for 2016 would be discussed further. But this was a dark day for the government who capitulated to student demands. It was a cowardly gesture of a government in denial to concede and bow to pressure from those barging at the doors of the lawmakers.

No matter what the circumstances, never concede to thugs and protesters who come knocking at the doors of Parliament seeking gifts. The system does not work this way. It only encourages every other group with a gripe or demand to take similar disruptive action. And to add further insult to fiscal injury, the Finance Minister Nhlanhla Nene was forced to delay his mini Budget briefing and MPs had to wait as police struggled to keep an angry mob at bay.

In a country where one in four people are without jobs, the cost of free university education is expected to knock a R2.6 billion blowout in capital expenditure; it is not easy to see where the funds will come from. South Africa is beset by a multitude of developmental problems and embezzlement of public funds. And, what is it that makes these Born Free students feel it is their entitlement.

If there is something that sticks in the craw about the so-called Born Frees, and by extension the rabidly obtuse Gen Exers with their sense of entitlement and ability to transform the slightest bit of adversity into an opportunity for grand reward, then it is the bold self-righteous way in way in which these vociferous young people go about staking out their claims.

The student protests have been marred by ugly scenes, police clashes and more sinister in many cases the momentum has been driven by participants armed with clubs and weapons. At the University of Limpopo at least 13 students were arrested as police clamped down on students accused of burning and looting at the campus. Students went on rampage and vandalised six cafeterias and a national outlet restaurant after the institution said it could not commit to their demands for free education.

At Wits students and security guards pelted each other with stones and   burly men in black suits throttled and wrestled students to stop them from disrupting classes. A bookshop and two vehicles were also set on fire in the early hours and access control mechanisms on turnstiles were ripped off.


The University of the Western Cape was also shut down until further notice after a group of students started rallying support for ongoing protest action across campus buildings and offices and demanding that staff leave the campus. Students preparing for exams were also disrupted.

 A statement  from UWC said the intensity of the action led to many staff and students feeling vulnerable and intimidated as some in the protest group wore balaclavas and had sticks and crowbars.

Meanwhile on campus, hundreds of students occupied the university’s Life Science centre where some of the demands, read out by student Busiswa Ngqamani. Demands included that all student debts be scrapped, that no students be prevented from graduating because of outstanding fees and that students should not pay any registration fees. 

Other demands included that students be able to register for the entire year in January instead of every semester, and that the university starts a process of buying houses in the surrounding community and make them UWC communes.  (Quoting IoL news reports)

Student leader Kamva Rubulana said that the president’s announcement of the zero percent fee increment meant nothing to the students as they were not fighting for the zero percent increment but for the fall of all fees.  “The only way we can stop this shut down is if the debt problem of UWC students can be resolved, he added. 

 Ngqamani, included that all student debts be scrapped, that no students be prevented from graduating because of outstanding fees and that students should not pay any registration fees. (Quoting IoL news reports)

These demands come from a privileged few who in the main have had a solid private education in some of the best schools that have enabled them to obtain a matric exemption and to enter university with the poshest of English accents. There is nothing wrong about that. But to demand free university education from a system that you have not contributed a single cent in tax is very wrong. 

So who has to subsidize these free loaders? A father of four children who makes his way by taxi van to his labouring job some 50km away and who earns subsistence wages and pays taxes will not be feeling too happy about the prospective doctors, lawyers, teachers and engineers demanding free education.

There was a time when the student protest movement sang revolutionary songs about freedom isn’t free, it is about time the Gen Exers realised this. Tertiary education is a privilege, not a right. 

 A much fairer and more equitable system would be a user pays scheme perhaps based on the Australian model of the higher education contribution scheme. Students wishing to study can accept State funding and have to repay the money when they start working and paying tax. By using the student’s Identity Number, they are hooked into a system that will allow them to study and pass or fail at their own cost. 

By the time they start out on their career path, the taxman will collect what is owed. This would be a much fairer scheme for all concerned.

It is difficult to locate any country in the world that affords students the luxury of free tertiary studies. Tuition fees at universities in Cuba vary between $US20, 000 and $US40, 000 depending on the university and the course of study. The good news is that this is the tuition fee for the whole course, not just for one year.

 Dr Kolbe is a writer and media commentator.

#South Africa student unrest

#kolbeh

#south africa protest

#ShutdownUCT

#fees protest