Mungo Soggot
THE African National Congress is hiring out its Cabinet ministers as guest speakers and MCs in a drive to swell the party’s coffers.
Among the ministers available for such lucrative engagements are Minister of Finance Trevor Manuel and his colleague Minister of Trade and Industry Alec Erwin. Both are highly prized as guests at parties for businessmen.
Next week, a small group of entrepeneurs and businessmen will dine with Manuel at a private Johannesburg house, forking out a minimum R5 000 each for the opportunity to pass the port to the finance minister. The dinner has been organised by two directors from spicy chicken company, Nando’s.
Manuel’s office confirmed this week that he had been contacted about his availability for a “fund-raising” dinner.
The takings will come as a pleasant windfall for the party: neither the Shell House headquarters nor the president’s office knew of the planned feast.
Such extra-curricular activities have raised eyebrows overseas, where political parties have been accused of using ministerial positions and prestige for their own financial gains.
United States President Bill Clinton ran into flak during last year’s elections for selling White House “bed and breakfasts” to businessmen prepared to pump $100 000 into his party’s election kitty.
Manuel’s gathering is slightly lower key. It is being organised by businessmen Lawrie Brozin and Fred Robertson, both of whom are on the Nando’s board. Robertson is also a non-executive director of both the National Empowerment Corporation and the African Heritage Asset Management Company.
Brozin, who will host the dinner at his Johannesburg home, confirmed that it was a private initiative.
Each guest would be charged R5 000 to R8 000. He was still unsure how many people would attend the dinner, but said it would be a “small thing”.
Other Cabinet ministers are also known to lend their presence to fund-raising events. Erwin, according to Manuel’s office, has been the MC for a number of fund-raising bashes in Durban.
There are few rules governing political party funding – rules which could, for example, prohibit Manuel from driving to next week’s dinner in a ministry car at the taxpayer’s expense.
Questions have also been raised about ministers using official overseas trips to raise funds for the party.
ANC representative Ronnie Mamoepa shrugged off the possible conflicts of interest between a minister’s presence at a fund- raising event and his position in the government.
Mamoepa said there was no problem raising money in this way. He said ANC members attended such functions in their capacity as party members. “It might happen they are also Cabinet members,” he added.
The government is currently working on a Bill to provide clear guidelines on political party funding.
But the Promotion of Multi-Party Democracy Bill, due to be tabled this year, provides scant detail on disclosure and the contributions government is prepared to make.
Richard Calland, programme manager of the Institute for a Democratic South Africa, said there were “huge holes” in the draft legislation.
He said the legislation merely opened the door to the formation of a new electoral fund, but said nothing about how the money should be distributed among the parties. There was also no discussion about the disclosure of funders’ identities.
@Bushbuckridge gives notice to quit
The failure of a secret deal over Bushbuckridge has led to the frustration of residents, writes Stuart Hess
THE border rebellion in Bushbuckridge was fuelled by the breakdown of a secret deal to allow the Northern Province and Mpumalanga to share power in the troubled territory.
Political leaders in the region say a secret deal had been struck in late 1995 when the two provincial governments’ leaders agreed the disputed territory would be “politically managed” by Mpumalanga while the Northern Province would handle administration and the delivery of services.
But several local African National Congress leaders say the deal collapsed after Mpumalanga Finance MEC Jacques Modipane, who has his traditional power base in Bushbuckridge, began using activists in the area to agitate for its formal inclusion into Mpumalanga.
There is massive popular support for the area to be incorporated into Mpumalanga – support Modipane has jumped on.
An impromptu survey conducted by the Mail &Guardian this week indicated most residents firmly believe their lives would be better if Bushbuckridge fell under Mpumalanga. They believe the Northern Province is incapable of delivering the goods.
Thousands of people have in recent weeks embarked on violent protests, which have already claimed at least one life in the area. President Nelson Mandela’s announcement last week that the area would stay governed from Pietersburg prompted a new outburst of stone-throwing and torchings.
Community leaders and local ANC members, who want to remain anonymous, accuse Modipane of using the border dispute to strengthen his position in the Mpumalanga provincial government.
They say Modipane, who sometimes acts as deputy to premier Mathews Phosa, could not retain his post as the second-most powerful member of the provincial cabinet if Bushbuckridge remained in the Northern Province. They claim he is using his influence among militant groups in the region to whip up resistance to rule from Pietersburg.
Modipane was not available for comment this week, but Phosa said this week the allegations against him were “unfounded … We’ve heard these allegations before and we have investigated them and found nothing.”
There had been a deal to jointly run Bushbuckridge, he said – an agreement signed openly in 1995. He declined to comment on why the deal had soured. But it is likely the deal would have floundered without formal backing from the national government.
Constitutional Affairs Minister Valli Moosa, who has been negotiating in the border dispute for national government, was unavailable for comment.
Residents say they have good reasons for wanting to go across to Phosa’s government. Frank Mnisi, a standard ten teacher at Mchaka High School, believes the national leadership of the ANC did not understand the problems in Bushbuckridge.
“I doubt that they understand the issue or the geography of this area,” says Mnisi. “If you look at a map Bushbuckridge is in Mpumalanga, we belong there.”
He says Bushbuckridge was “excluded” from the Northern Province’s plans to deliver housing, health and other social services to rural areas of the province.
Others say the set-up perpetuates the situation that applied during the apartheid era when Bushbuckridge was ruled over by the Gazankulu and Lebowa homelands with capitals in the far north and hundreds of kilometres away from their homes.
The area has a long history of resisting apartheid rule. Labour tenants in the Bushbuckridge area waged massive struggles against exploitation by commercial farmers in the 1960s. The region was one of the strongest support bases for the ANC during the 1980s and early 1990s and this militant tradition is now feeding the border protests.
“The national government should not stand behind the argument that we are one country and borders are unimportant,” Mnisi says. “Why make provinces and borders if those provinces are not going to be responsible for delivery?”
Other residents share Mnisi’s sentiments. “We are not against Northern Province but against their deeds, since they took over they’ve done nothing valuable,” says Ben Mabuza, principal of Lucas High School in Mkhuhlu township, south of Bushbuckridge.
He expressed concern about the closure of schools. “Idle youngsters have reverted to stoning cars and crime will increase if this problem is not solved soon,” he adds.
“Mandela must come and see, we struggle, we have no work, he doesn’t care about us,” says vegetable seller Veronica Mnisi. “Mpumalanga is nearby, we do our shopping there but Pietersburg is so far away why must they be in charge.”
Bushbuckridge Border Committee, which wants the area moved, and community leaders, who oppose the shifting of the border, both blame the lack of service delivery and administration for resentment among residents.
But the two differ on the reasons for such failings. “We are so far away from Pietersburg that the Northern Province government forgets about us,” says Prince Ndlovu, a member of the border committee.
Local community leader Sam Mkhabela, however, says there is “nothing wrong” with the provincial government.
He says it is the transitional local council’s responsibility to “render services to the community” and that it “doesn’t matter which province they fall under, if the leadership on the ground doesn’t change Bushbuckridge will still experience the same problems”.
Mkhabela is the director of a local non- governmental organisation, the Nethworc Education Project which assists high school dropouts and young people who have failed matric.
Other local ANC members say the ANC must take overall responsibility for the trouble in the area. “We are fighting for one unitary state. If the Northern Province as an ANC-led government is failing to deliver then the ANC should deal with it,” he adds.
One local teacher came up with an innovative solution. He felt the government could solve the problem by creating a tenth province. “Bushbuckridge is such a big area, they must just make it into another province. “