Charles Nupen=20
Appearance: New mannish. The kind of guy to have=20 around the house — he’d never complain when it was=20 his turn to take out the garbage.=20
Present occupation: In between mediating the=20 municipal strike he hopefully did his bit to ferry=20 the family’s uncollected rotting rubbish down to=20 the dump like the rest of us.=20
Excuse my ignorance, but what precisely does a=20 mediator do? Before being a labour lawyer became=20 big business, mediation was merely a national hobby=20 called “cutting a deal”. In this case Labour=20 Minister Tito Mboweni called Nupen in to broker a=20 settlement after wage talks deadlocked and workers=20 exercised their democratic right to trash towns=20 instead of cleaning them up.=20
Sounds hard going? Not really, discussions took=20 place in cool offices away from the pong of=20 Jo’burg’s streets. And mediation has become a local=20 speciality along with boerewors, the Kreepy Krauly,=20 and the Venter trailer.=20
Don’t we sell the trailers abroad? And since we all=20 got the vote and demonstrated our deal-making=20 knack, it’s also become a flourishing export. South=20 African brokers have been to Bosnia, Rwanda and=20 Haiti. Nupen recently completed a project on=20 mediation for the International Labour=20
What makes him right for the job? Membership of the=20 elite Nusas Old Boys’ Club, Seventies student=20 leaders turned Nineties mainstream movers. As=20 Independent Mediation Service of South Africa=20 director he solved disputes more often than Cosatu=20 has threatened to bring the country to its knees.=20
Is that it? There is his Pollyanna optimism. While=20 others contemplated uncorking their last bottle of=20 Allesverloren, he’d unpack a case of Goede Hoep=20 Vintage Rouge.=20
A traditional toast? It dates back to those student=20 days as one of the influential Durban Five (or=20 Durban Mafia) with Fink Haysom, Paul Pretorius,=20 Karel Tip, and Halton Cheadle which needed=20 idealism, a jock love of sport, and a second liver.=20
But that was years ago? Not really. They still get=20 together to watch sport and crack a few bottles.=20 Not so long ago one of the group said they hadn’t=20 changed — except they now drink a better quality=20
Most likely to say? “I’m merely a conduit in a=20 process which enables both sides to get out of a=20 deadlock with dignity.”=20
Least likely to say? “If another toyi-toying throng=20 blocks my way into the city I’m moving to Geneva.”=20
And what do the ratepayers say? “I don’t care how=20 much rubbish they talk as long as they remove=20