THE National Union of Metalworkers of SA (Numsa) called for a raft of radical policy shifts yesterday to transform the local economy, proposing nationalising the banks, mines and the telecommunication sector, without compensation.
Critics say the union has stepped firmly into the vacant domain left by the African National Congress (ANC) Youth League, which re-ignited the debate on nationalisation and placed it firmly on the ANC’s agenda.
Numsa, the Congress of South African Trade Unions’ second-largest affiliate, is adamant that the present economic trajectory would not stem the growing tide of inequality, poverty and unemployment in SA.
"If nationalisation is not the way to go, we must accept that the Freedom Charter must be dumped," said Numsa general secretary Irvin Jim, releasing the union’s draft policy documents ahead of its conference next month.
In the draft document, Numsa argues that should the ANC "dump" the Freedom Charter — which it uses to justify nationalisation — it would risk losing Cosatu’s support during elections.
"Once the Freedom Charter and its basic tenets have been dumped, we … shall be left with no option but to ask a secondary question: ‘Why must Cosatu call on workers to continue to vote for the ANC if it has taken a decision not to implement the Freedom Charter’," the document reads.
Numsa also wants to ensure that the ANC leadership elected in December at the party’s national conference is "equal to the task of implementing the Freedom Charter".
The union further wants the state to take control of the Reserve Bank, a complete overhaul of the country’s monetary and financial policies, for an industrial strategy focusing on creating jobs and for the ANC to initiate a process of review of the constitution.
"We are convinced that the time has come to end the sunset clauses and to do a thorough review of the performance of the 1996 constitution with a view to exposing the extent to which it has helped SA undo its apartheid capitalist features in the economy and society," said Mr Jim, referring to the property clause.
Mr Jim rejected the ANC’s report on nationalisation — the study advised against "asset grabs" and buying stakes in mines — saying the team that produced the report had failed in its task.
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What Constitutes A Healthy Diet In 2012?
Developed countries must deliver on their promises to Africa
As the G8 leaders meet in the United States this week, agriculture and food security must be at the forefront of the discussions, and ways to prevent price volatility, including halting grain-based biofuels production, establishing grain reserves for emergency use, eliminating food export bans and increasing the transparency of food and agricultural market information, should be addressed.
Most importantly, the G8 leaders should fulfill their commitments on global food security.
In 2009, G8 leaders made considerable financial commitments to global agriculture and food security, pledging to mobilize $22 billion over three years through a coordinated, comprehensive strategy focused on sustainable agriculture development. But as of May 2011, it was estimated that only 22 percent of these commitments had been disbursed.
In addition to the G8 leaders, the heads of states from Ethiopia, Ghana, Benin and Tanzania will take part in the summit discussions. The direct participation by these African leaders underscores the seriousness of the food security situation on the continent, where more than 220 million people are undernourished. Millions suffer from micronutrient deficiencies, a total of 100 million women and children are iron deficient, and 33 million children have Vitamin A deficiencies. The 2011 Global Hunger Index, a combined measure of the proportion of undernourishment, child malnutrition, and child mortality, shows that Sub-Saharan Africa is home to all the countries with "extremely alarming" scores and many of the countries with "alarming" scores.
In addition, it is projected that smallholder farmers, particularly those living in the highland areas and semi-arid savannahs in Sub-Saharan Africa, face increasing natural resource scarcity risks, including land degradation, which can cost as much as 10 percent of national GDP. Many parts of the region are extremely vulnerable to both man-made and natural shocks. Last year, more than 13 million people were affected by the drought in the Horn of Africa. This year more than 15 million people across seven countries in the Sahel region are already suffering from severe food insecurity or at risk.
It is crucial that developed countries take action to fight starvation in Africa. The cost of hunger is high, and the damage is irreversible.
For over three decades now, the International Food Policy Research Institute has been engaged in promoting the transformation of smallholder agriculture across Africa through evidence-based research and support to country-driven development initiatives. Priority areas include: building capacity for agricultural and food policy analysis and supporting country-led development strategies; improving nutrition along value chains to increase poor people's access to nutritious foods and increasing the availability, access, and intake of nutrient-rich, biofortified staple foods for the poor; resilience-enhancing schemes such as productive social safety nets, weather insurance index, and other risk management tools that help reduce vulnerability and enhance resilience to shocks and contribute to overall long-term growth and prosperity.
Technological innovations such as biotechnology, nanotechnology, and biofortification are crucial to increasing agricultural productivity, building resilience to weather-related shocks, enhancing the nutritional value of food crops, and ensuring food safety. Biotechnology has great potential to improve crop yield, nutrition and resilience to weather shocks, which will be even more frequent in the future due to climate change.
As the world's population increases, there is enormous pressure on the planet's ecosystems. The most reasonable solution to feeding the ever-growing population is sustainably producing more food on the existing land. Scaled-up investments in science and technology and support for improved country capacities are essential to accelerate progress and achieve development objectives.While the governments of developing countries have taken important steps to boost food security-related investments, support from the G8 countries remains critical.
(ChinaDaily.com)
SA eyes solution to Iran oil ban.
Government remains committed to e-tolling and will appeal the High Court in Pretoria's interim order halting the implementation of the system in Gauteng, spokesman Jimmy Manyi said on Thursday.
"Cabinet has taken a decision to appeal the interim order to stop the e-tolling," Manyi told a fortnightly post-Cabinet briefing.
He said the government only received a written copy of Judge Bill Prinsloo's April 28 judgment late on Wednesday.
"As we are sitting here, our lawyers are studying the judgment and will advise the executive in due course."
He added: "Cabinet reiterated its commitment to the user pays principle and its decision on e-tolling as an efficient mechanism of collection."
Manyi said Cabinet also made plain it would not allow the embattled SA National Roads Agency Ltd to default on the debt it incurred to complete the Gauteng Freeway Improvement Project (GFIP).
"As a country we need to demonstrate unequivocal commitment to meet all our contractual obligations, including repaying the debt incurred in the construction of GFIP. Defaulting on our debt is simply not an option." - Sapa
Minister backs pre-1913 claims.
The Energy Ministry came out with all guns firing for hydraulic fracturing – referred to cautiously as the “f-word” yesterday – as it could help turn around Africa’s energy fortunes, reduce dependence on dirty fuels like coal and create masses of jobs in the Karoo.
It is the strongest signal yet that the government is about to end the moratorium on exploration for shale gas. Last week, Mineral Resources Minister Susan Shabangu promised that the cabinet would decide on fracking by next month.
At an oil and gas conference hosted by Ostrac, an empowerment group involved in gas and oil industry training, Energy Minister Dipuo Peters entered the fray and spoke of the untapped wonders of hydraulic fracturing, which Western Cape Finance, Economic Development and Tourism MEC Alan Winde would only refer to as “the f-word”.
Noting that the International Energy Agency had declared that the world was entering “the golden age of gas” and it was necessary to “enter a conversation… including (about) the f-word”, Peters said she was a member of the cabinet which had decided to place a moratorium on exploration for shale gas but she “wished at the same time” that when the report emerged there was a “safe way of going ahead with this”.
While the report by a multi-departmental task team was still secret, Peters was optimistic it would deal properly with the concerns of water contamination and environmental “considerations” while tapping into the Karoo’s potential, including that relating to tourism.
Exploration work has been halted for nearly 18 months in the Karoo but the minister’s remarks indicate that the government is poised to give the industry a green light with the Science and Technology Department helping to ensure that the controversial procedure uses technology that limits environmental damage.
Fracking involves injecting vast amounts of water deep underground – with various chemicals – to extract natural gas from shale rock. Environmentalist groups such as Treasure the Karoo, headed by Jonathan Deal, have long argued that the process could severely damage underground aquifers in the semi-desert area.
Deal said yesterday: “One doesn’t have to be a palm reader to know where they’re heading.” In 140 places around the world there were reservations about fracking. And in Romania and Germany, two-year moratoriums were being considered, he said.
Speaking at his farm in the Karoo, Deal said South Africans should not be seduced by promised economic benefits. “We’re not opposed to economic development. We want South Africa to flourish, but it has to be sustainable and sensible.”
Peters, meanwhile, made no bones about her focus on the gas part of the oil and gas equation. Picking up on Winde’s hope that an industrial development zone would be declared by year-end, she said the proposed zone at Saldanha Bay would be a suitable storage hub for liquid fuels.
Working with China, it was possible that Saldanha would become “a halfway storage point for the West (and) a pick-up point for the East”. Oil and gas could be exported to China and other emerging countries from the Western Cape.
Peters added that the government’s growing support for fracking was based on its job potential. She referred to the affect it would have on reducing the number of people on security grant, which is a particular problem in the vast Karoo. The money could be used instead “to support the economy”.
The value of gas exploitation in the US was being felt, said Peters. In Europe and the UK, the gas price had “gone south” at the very time there was upward pressure on the oil price.
(Donwald Pressly - BusinessReport)
Africa must stop begging for food - UN.
Once, not too long ago, teenage boys would collect cellphones with flat batteries from their village in Malolo, in Congo Brazzaville, and run 27km to Makabana - the nearest village with electricity.
There they would have the phones charged at the homes of sympathetic residents and run back to Malolo in the evening. Their payment? A banana or a paw-paw.
But this exhausting exercise came to an end when a group of South African farmers saw the youngsters' daily struggles.
"These farmers just laid an electric line to an old woman's house. They developed, in an hour or two, a cellphone charging bank with about 40 plugs at which the local community can charge their cellphones," said Theo de Jager, vice-president of AgriSA.
De Jager and Andre Botha, President of Congo Agriculture, have been in negotiations with the Congolese government since its invitation to South African farmers to bring their expertise to the country.
Thirty-nine farmers were lured to the Congo to bring food security to the country.
Everything has to be imported in to the Congo - a 6kg box of practically rotten tomatoes, for example, costs about R700, according to De Jager.
The state made 85000ha of farmland available to the farmers, of whom 13 have moved to the country on a "semi-permanent basis".
Thirteen others commute between South Africa and the Congo every two weeks. The 13 who are based in South Africa, do administrative work, including finances and logistics.
The first 13 farmers - known as the voorspan or advance team - arrived in the village of Malolo just before Christmas last year.
At first they cleared 1200ha for maize. They worked around the clock in shifts and within a few months they produced a "beautiful" crop and sold it to the government for R2400 a ton. The neighbouring American farmers sell their maize for R3000 a ton.
"The Americans next door got 20000ha in 1999 and they only managed to clear 300ha and plant on it," said De Jager.
In addition, the South Africans planted 80ha of soya.
They have also improved residents' lives. By fixing old pipes and pumps they gave the locals access to tap water for the first time, and they employ 200 people on the farm. The local baker no longer sells bread slices - he sells 200 loaves every day and has employed the local chief, his wife and son.
"The cost of electricity is much lower than in South Africa. Also, there are no trade unions on the farms so you don't have strikes the moment harvest time begins," said De Jager.
Farmers, including Neil Karg, whose wife and housekeeper were murdered on his dairy farm in KwaZulu-Natal in 2010, and former Angolan prisoner-of-war Wynand du Toit, joined the community in the Congo.
Pieter Mulder, Deputy Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries and Freedom Front Plus leader, said South African farmers are being forced to leave this country because they face an uncertain future.
"Maybe the two or three years listening to Mr [Julius] Malema wasn't a positive contribution either," said Mulder.
Now, he said, there is a government that "appreciates us".
Mulder visited the Congo earlier this month and said President Denis Sassou Nguesso and Agriculture Minister Rigobert Mabondou were impressed with the South Africans. He said their success is a "bitter-sweet" story because South Africa has lost valuable expertise.
(TimesLive)
