Thuli Nhlapo
The Doornkuil Farm south of Johannesburg that the African National Congress leased to the Umkhonto weSizwe (MK) Military Veterans’ Association is neglected.
Except for few lean cows chewing long grass inside an electrified fence, there was little sign of life.
A face-brick mansion on the property was empty. Peeping through the windows, we could see a portrait of former president Nelson Mandela. Blankets and pillows were lying on the carpet in one of the bedrooms.
The jacuzzi inside the glass atrium was still filled to the brim with water. There was no sign of training facilities for veterans or residential units for their families.
At one of a number of houses owned by former defence minister Joe Modise in Leondale on the East Rand, the ANC’s best-kept secret was discovered.
About seven children who identified themselves as orphans of MK combatants showed the way inside. When asked if there was an adult in the house, the children said a woman looking after them had gone out.
“I am happy that someone from the media is here to listen to what these people at Luthuli House [the ANC’s headquarters] are doing to me,” said Sibongile Mpofu (17)*, who was born in Tanzania.
Mpofu said before her mother and MK cadre father died of Aids, she begged a woman to bring her and her sister to South Africa.
She blinked tears away as she recalled how they risked their lives during the political violence in KwaZulu-Natal before finding their way to Luthuli House.
“We slept in a cemetery. We hid our papers, our passports and everything about our parents under the stones of people’s graves,” she said.
Mpofu said the ANC told her guardian to take them back to Tanzania because they were going to send money every month. They went back to Tanzania, never received a cent from the ANC and then their guardian said she was “tired of the lies from these people” and brought them back to South Africa. They were left at the ANC’s guest house in Yeoville, where they stayed for six weeks before being moved to the house owned by Modise.
Mpofu’s sister is enrolled at a boarding school with 17 other MK orphans.
Mpofu, who said she was born HIV-positive, was told by the ANC she could not go “far in life” because she is sick. She was promised funding to attend school this year, but nothing has materialised even though she took the initiative of finding a school.
“I know when I am about to become very sick. My chest burns and then I prepare myself to go to hospital. I could attend school, but Luthuli House wants me to wait to die in this house. Why are they not giving me medicine so that I could at least be stronger? If I am that sick, why does maNhlapho come to fetch me to clean her windows?” asked Mpofu.
Elizabeth Nhlapho is an ANC welfare officer at Luthuli House. The children at Modise’s home claim she abuses them verbally and regularly sends them to clean her house that is not far from where they live.
Ntokoza Dlamini (19)*, from Kenya, has an 18-month-old boy. Because of the baby, “the ANC said I could not continue with school. I was in standard nine. They say they cannot take care of the baby, who is not born of MK.”
Dlamini, who is also HIV-positive, said she was not getting treatment. Like Mpofu, she is waiting to die. They say they live like “caged animals” in Modise’s house. They have no entertainment there there is no radio or television for them.
An elderly man wearing tattered clothes walked in. Simon Mokgoloboto is a former MK combatant who only managed to come home from Angola last year. Mokgoloboto cannot see properly because his eyes were damaged in combat. He says he still has two bullets in his left leg.
“When you ask me about the ANC my heart beats very fast because I think it is better to die than live this kind of life. I do not have a cent in my pocket because the ANC takes forever to pay my money,” he said.
“I do not have a pot, blanket or anything. I am just a nothing who fought to liberate this country. MaNhlapho expelled me three times in this house. I do not have a ration [food] here. These kids are the ones who give me something out of their good hearts,” he said before pointing to his only pair of shoes, riddled with holes.
The residents at Modise’s house say the ANC only provides enough money to buy food for four people every month, even though 10 people live there. Their staple diet is pap and bones and on special occasions they eat brown bread.
ANC social worker Lydia Maoba said she thought there were only four children in the house.
“I will wait for my guardian to come back from Tanzania. She loves me and I know she would take me back with her. I would go back to school there,” said Mpofu.
Dlamini just shrugged, staring at her 18-month-old, who is not catered for in the house.
“I cannot sleep. I toss and turn when I think about the sacrifice I made for this country,” said Mokgoloboto.
* Not their real names.
@Critics can be patriots Madiba
Former president Nelson Mandela calls for tolerance of political differences
Mail & Guardian reporter
Nelson Mandela has called for open debate and tolerance of political differences within the ruling African National Congress and the country as a whole.
The former president has also said he accepts the patriotic commitment to South Africa of the opposition parties, including the Democratic Alliance, the main opposition group.
In an interview with the Mail & Guardian at his Houghton office on Wednesday, Mandela also said he held the orthodox view that HIV causes Aids.
He came out strongly against corruption and issued a particular rebuff to those one-time anti-apartheid activists who stole from the state or public.
He told M&G editor Howard Barrell and associate editor Sipho Seepe that the ANC’s decision that the party’s president, Thabo Mbeki, would appoint premiers and executive mayors in ANC-controlled provinces should not be a “permanent feature”. Rather, the centralisation of power involved should be seen as a “phase”. It was a response to factionalism and corruption within the ruling party.
“Little did we suspect that our own people, when they got a chance, would be as corrupt as the apartheid regime … In the provinces, our work can stand still because of infighting, especially for the premiership. The organisation has to respond to that sort of crisis. It must make sure that the people in power are those who have credibility, who are clean.”
Mandela also said he personally agreed with the orthodoxy that HIV caused Aids. “But,” he said, “at the same time, I know some of the scientific explanations that have prevailed for centuries have, as a result of research, been changed.”
He agreed that changes in best science had come from scientists themselves, not from politicians.
In response to a question about the closing down of debate within the ANC, and in a clear reference to the sensitivity to criticism of Mbeki and some of his advisers, Mandela said: “We must welcome differences of opinion. They will always be there. One of the most effective weapons in dealing with different opinions is tolerance and the ability to take criticism and not to personalise it, even if a prominent individual is specifically identified and becomes a target for criticism.”
He said: “I can speak with authority of when I led the ANC, because one of the things I stressed was that members must not be lapdogs. The proper thing to do is to have free and vigorous debate on every issue and to criticise everybody, including the president, because then, when you have the consensus, we can go out and speak with one voice.”
On the DA, led by Tony Leon, Mandela said: “I dare to say that even the opposition, the DA, is proud of South Africa. They may not express that pride in the way in which it is easy to accept, but I am convinced in my own mind that these people are proud of their country.”
The criticisms the DA and other opposition groups voiced were often motivated by patriotism. “They are [criticising] because they regard this as their country. They are not prepared just to leave the country and go abroad. That is pride. We have succeeded as a liberation movement to promote the spirit of South Africanism, in which most people are proud to be South Africans,” he said.
On corruption, he said: “Nothing in our struggle for liberation entitles an individual to think that he has a right to rob the public because he has reached old age. We fought in the struggle because we believed it was necessary for us to do so. Corruption cannot be excused because someone is poor.”
@Top DA spin doctor resigns
But Ryan Coetzee will still be advising both the Democractic Alliance and the Cape Town unicity on communications strategy
Marianne Merten
Ryan Coetzee, the Democratic Alliance’s spin doctor who was integral to the party’s municipal election victory in Cape Town, has resigned as DA director of strategy and established his own consultancy advising both the unicity and the party.
But the DA has asked Coetzee to discuss new clients to avoid potential compromises, according to its national management committee chair, James Selfe, who said Coetzee had “a seamless transition” from employee to consultant at the beginning of the year.
He added Coetzee “basically still does the same as usual” for the party with an understanding he would spend most of his time in the DA-dominated city of Cape Town to deal with challenges there.
Coetzee denied any agreement.
“Obviously I would not work for the African National Congress or the United Democratic Movement. I don’t have to have a chat with anyone to come to that conclusion. I am a DA supporter.”
He said was employed by the unicity to develop a communications strategy and advise it on communications structures and other issues. He would continue to advise the DA on strategy, marketing and organisation.
It is understood the first draft of this communications strategy has already been submitted.
Several council sources say Ryan Coetzee Consulting was appointed without a tender.
Unicity head of legal services Ben Kieser said tenders are not necessarily needed to appoint consultants, according to the council procurement policy. Instead, they are chosen from an established database which was created by inviting people and companies to submit their names and fields of expertise.
Kieser added that in cases of expensive and long-term consultancy contracts, the council had the option of putting out a tender. He said it would be “inappropriate” to discuss the terms of Coetzee’s contract.
Ryan Coetzee Consulting was registered in terms of the Companies Act on December 12.
This development comes in the wake of what many have described as a purge of seven senior officials, predominantly from the previous Cape Town administration, which are regarded as pro-ANC. They include former city manager Andrew Boraine, financial manager Philip van Ryneveld, communications head Leonora de Souza-Zilwa, transformation manager Judy Sibisi and housing head Ahmedi Vawda.
In recent weeks Coetzee has vigorously defended the DA’s right to appoint its own top officials into politically sensitive posts like communications.
Such posts have been described as “strategic” to implement the DA election manifesto promises to establish a caring, smart, tolerant, safe Cape Town free of corruption with a focus on access to housing.
Politically sensitive posts include those involving policy development to ensure party policies and council programmes are in line; and any post that allows access to confidential party political information through, for example, attending caucus meetings, and the issuing of official communications at political level.
Following the departure of the seven officials there is a sense of uncertainty over job security and the direction of the unicity and its approximately 280 000 employees. One council employee described the atmosphere as one of “dramatic change” where “they [the DA] can do anything they want” as the party is taking control.
A team of 16 interim managers is in charge of the day-to-day administration. The approximately 40 applications for the post of city manager are being vetted. Once the position is filled other senior management appointments will be made.
By the end of March each of the 10 unicity executive committee members (excluding the mayor and speaker) is expected to present finalised plans how to deliver to their constituencies.
Speculation is rife that decision-making powers will move away from council and its committees to individual officials and executive committee members.
And it appears that last year’s agreements on how to run the council reached at the Unicity Commission a multi-political party planning body established to prepare for the smooth merger of the seven previous municipalities into one are now under review.
“The DA council, having received a mandate from the people to run the city on the basis on their manifesto, will have to do the best so they can deliver,” said unicity representative Johan Smit.