August 14 to 20 2009

Woe unto the Pharisee

A new irritating voice has been added to the cacophony of political voices determined to make noise into Nehawu’s ears that Dr Ayanda Ntsaluba, the Director General of DICO [the Department of International Relations and Cooperation], is a man of integrity. It is not about worker rights, it is always about Ntsaluba’s integrity. The new ugly voice is that of Deputy Minister Sue van der Merwe.

By rushing into the media to express your blind loyalty to the DG, you have formally changed your role as a neutral person to that of a union basher. Deputy Minister, you have compromised yourself by betraying a principle of respect and trust between yourself and Nehawu.

We as Nehawu wonder if the Deputy Minister understands that the proletariat is oppressed in DICO and enslaved by the ‘man of integrity”. Under Dr Ntsaluba, Nehawu is restricted, cramped, curtailed, mutilated by all the conditions of wage slavery and the poverty and misery of the people. The Deputy Minister does not understand the material conditions of the general workers who have been on the same level for 20 years and are still earning R2 000 per month — compare it to the R57 000 of the lowest-paid DDG in DICO. This is the reason Nehawu will forever regard you as a 1996 Class Project — the Deputy Minister is a privileged person divorced from the people who knows nothing about going to bed with an empty stomach. Woe unto you the Pharisee!!!!

We do not want sophistry with R100 000 Masters Degree in Diplomacy and Negotiations — we just want to address simple bread and butter issues and improve the conditions of the poor.

Could it be possible that the Deputy Minister finds herself ostracised and marginalised in DICO and therefore she is in a hurry to be loved, praised and hugged by the DG? The Deputy Minister is completely saturated with philistinism and, at bottom, does not believe in the transformation of DICO and in the creative power of the workers, but lives in mortal dread of it. Consequently, her rush to the media in defence of the DG is a desperate tactic of despair.

Under no circumstances can and will Nehawu question the integrity of Dr Ntsaluba. In fact we are encouraged by his admission that he has made countless mistakes and that the renewal of his contract provides him an opportunity to redeem himself. Just like Saul, who used to persecute Christians, on his way to Damascus was given a second chance.

This can lead if he is genuine to a shifting of the balance of forces within the department. The aim of Nehawu’s existence in DICO is not to question whether Ntsaluba is a man of integrity. Our struggle remains the recognition of Nehawu as a stakeholder in DICO, the improvement of the working and living condition of the poorest of the poor.

In the eyes of Nehawu, Deputy Minister Sue van der Merwe, you remain part and parcel of problems because you failed to transform DICO and resisted change — for the past ten years you never made any attempt to call or meet Nehawu or at least send us a ‘please call me”. That is why Nehawu requested Deputy Minister Ebrahim Ebrahim to intervene, because indirectly we were expressing our vote of no confidence in you. You are a typical Mbeki disciple who acts outside the collective by thinking that you are more intelligent than others.

Indeed, our forefathers were correct when they say a leopard does not change its spots and that a prostitute in a new long dress is still a prostitute. In view of the aforesaid, we do not blame your hyper-activeness but your upbringing.

On the other hand, the Deputy Minister, Ebrahim Ebrahim, has been with DICO for four months and has met Nehawu at least thrice since assuming his office.

Indeed, last Friday we were vindicated by your letter to the Mail & Guardian and boldly we say that we are very vigilant against your obvious trick and that you are fishing in a dry pond.

We remain your comrades. — Nehawu branch executive committee, department of international relations and cooperation

Fat or not so fat?

Mandy Rossouw’s article ‘The Fat of the Land” (July 31), insinuating that South African politicians do not deserve their perks, cannot go unchallenged.

The expenditure she noted in her article is standard practice in South Africa and many democracies around the world.

The perks received by our political leaders are more or less the same as the benefits many managers receive in the private sector. Our leaders’ perks come nowhere near what corporate executives in this country receive. (I hope in the near future Rossouw will undress corporate executives as she did our political leaders).

Why does she treat political leaders as if they do not work for these perks? Being a politician comes with many responsibilities and sacrifices. It means that your life and that of your family are always at risk — anyone who doubts this can look at the Truth and Reconciliation Commission files.

South Africa’s human rights record, economic performance and crime statistics are often compared with those of Western countries.

May I ask this righteous lady a favour? Compare our politicians’ perks with those of Western countries. She will be surprised to find out how much our politicians lag behind! — Siyabonga Seme, Cape Town

Better data needed

‘Falling through the cracks” by Mara Kardas-Nelson (July 31) describes lack of progress in the prevention of mother-to-child transmission of HIV (PMTCT) programme in South Africa, using data from the recently released District Health Barometer. As authors of this report we feel that the data presented in this article does not provide a fair assessment of the performance of the programme.

Over the past six years the programme has seen rapid increases in the proportion of pregnant women receiving an HIV test, from 22% in 2003-04 to 80% in 2007-08. If this continues the country will be likely to meet the National Strategic Plan target of 95% coverage by 2011. We therefore disagree with the statement in the article that there have been ‘no changes in South Africa’s programme”.

A second assertion in the article is that access to the PMTCT programme is declining, based on data of nevirapine coverage. On the contrary, we have seen a steady increase in the coverage of nevirapine for mothers from 40% in 2003-04 to 76% in 2007-08.

The nevirapine indicator is particularly prone to data-quality issues, because the drug is dispensed in both antenatal clinics and labour wards and aggregation of these data to create a coverage indicator is difficult.

Therefore, while the report shows fluctuating coverage levels within districts (with some, especially in the Free State, appearing to decline), this is because of data-quality issues such as missing data — and not real declines in coverage. What this suggests is that there is a need for better management of information so that the data can be more effectively used to determine programme performance.

In 2008 the Department of Health released a new PMTCT protocol which included short-course AZT from 28 weeks of pregnancy, with the addition of single-dose nevirapine in labour. This improved regimen should reduce perinatal transmission to around 5% to 8%. The Department of Health is committed to the rapid roll-out of this new regimen and has initiated an accelerated plan for PMTCT which focuses on a number of priority districts. This has also been given prominence by the new minister of health.

So, although the PMTCT programme has much scope for improvement, the picture is not nearly as bleak as presented in the article. There have been steady improvements in the coverage of the programme in the past several years and there is hope that, with the new protocol, levels of transmission will decrease even further. — Tanya Doherty, Candy Day, Peter Barron Fiorenza Monticelli and Elliott Sello

Criticise and face ANC rage

ANC spokesperson Jesse Duarte, in a rage, has attacked Professor Jonathan Jansen, the new vice-chancellor of the Free State University (August 7), demanding an apology for remarking that Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga is ‘incompetent and lazy”.

The hostility, threats, insults and name-calling directed at Jansen are outrageous and are blatant intimidation of academics and other South Africans. The embedded message is that you dare criticise any minister and you will face the wrath of the spokesperson of the ANC.

What Duarte does not seem to comprehend is that, by being a spokesperson for the minister she is confirming the remarks made by Jansen. The comments were not directed at the party or government, but were directed at the minister as an individual. Therefore it was for the minister to rise to the occasion and defend herself.

Surely the minister is capable of responding to this challenge without the assistance and patronage of Duarte?

It should be remembered that in October last year Motshekga referred to those leaving the ANC for other political parties as ‘dogs”. There was no demand from Duarte for Motshekga to apologise for such a remark. – Professor Tuntufye S Mwamwenda, Durban

Just the tip of the iceberg—

The conflict of interest created by senior civil servants having businesses that win state contracts goes far beyond what is usually recognised (‘DGs who do business with govt on the side”, August 7).

Their official positions do indeed give them an advantage over competing businesses, but this is only a small part of the problem. Much bigger — and neglected — aspects of the problem include such political, policy and practice issues as:

• Outsourcing and privatisation: their vested interests in private business predispose them to favour privatisation and outsourcing activities that could be done in-house.
• Loss of public revenue: municipalities that outsource lucrative functions such as parking, for instance, not only lose the revenue (it is striking that outsourced functions are invariably described as ‘lucrative”) but often bear further costs because of the failures of the outsourced business.
• Loss of capacity: the state continues to haemorrhage skilled staff to the private sector because the outsourced functions are ‘lucrative”.
• Consultants: the lost capacity makes the state the prisoner of consultants, whose outrageous fees reflect their market power, which then becomes yet another drain on the public purse.
• Public-sector ethos: the fact that so many senior civil servants abuse their position for personal gain corrupts the public sector. Not only does public-sector work become just like every other job, it is seen as an ideal setting for the get-rich brigade. Public-sector trade unions that champion a public-sector ethos are laughed at in this environment.
• Nationalisation: this vexed issue needs the sober counsel of senior public servants, whose positions make them well placed to advise. Yet society is denied this expected counsel if the public servants have their fingers firmly in the honey pot, feeding private business.

And all the above apply, whether or not the civil servants declare their business interests or have a ‘cooling off” period before openly joining the private sector. — Jeff Rudin

Delusional about Africom

One has to wonder what and whose agenda the Mail & Guardian is pushing with its blatant disinformation peddled by Mandy Rossouw that ‘Hillary [Clinton] pushes for US bases in Africa” (August 7). This ‘news” is a clear example of irresponsible coverage.

In this case, the article is intended to pander to anti-Americanism in some sectors of South African society, members of which would like to believe that we’re still in the age of former United States president George Bush’s imperialist designs.

That fact that Africom has nothing to do with establishing US military bases on the continent, something well established and documented by now, is conveniently ignored by the M&G.

Not that Africom is without controversy — it is an even hotter topic of policy debate in Washington, where there are concerns over the institutional and resource-allocation balance between the Pentagon and state department and other civilian agencies. Nevertheless, Africom is here to stay as a reality of US military-assistance programming in Africa.

But none of this is of any serious concern to the M&G, which simply wants to sell newspapers by disseminating sensationalist dis­information. Hopefully, at some point the M&G will get serious about US-South African relations instead of spreading paranoid delusional nonsense. — Francis Kornegay, Johannesburg

It makes for scary readingl

Your masthead carries the words ‘Africa’s Best Read”. I disagree. The M&G is South Africa’s most scary read. Government employees do not see their culpability in having business interests while holding government posts. A judge president refuses to shake a ‘white man’s” hand — his own greedy hand having accepted R10 000 a month from a company as a ‘retainer”.

A South African NGO wants to prosecute people who have links (repeat: links) to Israel’s actions in Gaza. And I am only on page seven. Crime, rape and assault are old news. Not so old is the depth to which the newly liberated have sunk. I wish you more ink to your pen. — Fredmax Levy, Cape Town

In brief

The insolence that the South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) has shown to Parliament (‘SAHRC defies Parly call for inquiry”, August 7) cannot go without comment. To state that its refusal to be transparent and accountable is an attempt to reinforce the SAHRC is so preposterous that an inquiry has to be carried out. — Billy Mayaya, human rights activist, Malawi

In ‘Beauty and the bucks” (August 7), Andile Nsibande wrote that ‘Swaziland’s HIV/Aids prevalence rate is 42%”. This is incorrect. The 42% he is referring to is the alarming 2008 estimated HIV prevalence among pregnant women through a sentinel surveillance system at selected antenatal clinics. The actual HIV prevalence among the Swazi adult population (15 to 49 years), as estimated by the 2007 to 2008 Demographic Health Survey, is 26%, the highest adult HIV prevalence in Southern Africa and in the world. — Aymeric Peguillan, Medecins Sans Frontières, Mbabane, Swaziland

With the 2010 World Cup occupying most minds it is easy to forget that on May 31 next year South Africa will turn 100 years old — that’s in fewer than 365 days from now! I wonder if the government has thought to mark this occasion? South Africans should celebrate this centenary with pride. — David Allen