Publication: Mail and Guardian Issued: Date: 2008-01-18 Reporter: Michael Hamlyn

Zuma Gives Up Mbeki's Weekly Online Column

 

Publication 

Mail and Guardian
Date

2008-01-18

Reporter

Michael Hamlyn

Web Link

www.mg.co.za


Having taken it over last week from his predecessor, Thabo Mbeki, newly elected leader of the African National Congress (ANC) Jacob Zuma is giving up his weekly pulpit *1 in the ANC's online newsletter, ANC Today.

The weekly sermon was an opportunity, much prized by Mbeki, to deliver often literary admonishments to individuals or organisations that had crossed him in the previous week *2.

He laced his lectures with long quotations from sources evidently gleaned from his late-night internet surfing sessions. People who smarted under this online barrage included Archbishop Tutu and rape-survivor-turned-campaigner Charlene Smith.

Zuma plainly does not have the same literary instincts and announced on Friday in what was only his second online column that he was giving it up in favour of weekly contributions from ANC officials and national executive committee members.

"The letter from the president will now be published on special occasions only, dealing with important themes and events during the course of the year," he explained. "The intention is to open up the journal to a diversity of voices articulating ANC positions."

Zuma's last weekly offering is essentially a long assault on the country's media. He repeated what was said in the very first edition of ANC Today: "We are faced with the virtually unique situation that, among the democracies, the overwhelmingly dominant tendency in South African politics, represented by the ANC, has no representation whatsoever in the mass media.

"We therefore have to contend with the situation that what masquerades as 'public opinion', as reflected in the bulk of our media, is in fact minority opinion informed by the historic social and political position occupied by this minority."

Zuma himself comments: "Every day brings fresh instances of a media that, in general terms, is politically and ideologically out of synch with the society in which it exists. This is one of the reasons why, though there may be plenty of newspapers and magazines on our newsstands, and a multitude of radio and TV stations occupying our airwaves, the overall orientation of South African media is politically conservative.

"There are few, if any, mainstream media outlets that articulate a progressive left perspective -- which is endorsed at each election by the majority of South Africans and represented by the ANC, its allies and the broader democratic movement."

Zuma promises that over the next five years this will change. "It was to answer this deficiency that the 52nd national conference called for the movement to develop its own media platforms, making use of available technology, to articulate its positions and perspectives directly to the people," Zuma said.

"This needs to take place alongside the effort to transform the South African media environment so that it becomes more representative of the diversity of views and interests in society, more accessible to the majority of the people and less beholden to commercial interests."

During the course of the next five years, he said, "as has been mandated by the conference, we will pursue the development of these media platforms. We will also continue to develop ANC Today as a credible, popular and vibrant expression of the views and perspectives of the African National Congress. The journal will remain at the heart of the ANC's contribution to the battle of ideas."

With acknowledgements to Michael Hamlyn and Mail and Guardian.


*1       I called it the online digital soapbox.


*2      Never forget the Fishers of Corrupt Men, who now have a Big fish thrashing about in their net (with a little help from the "enemy's enemy".

Here's a classic example of Mbeki's out and out lying to the country "
"The fishers have focused especially on the Thomson (Thales) element *3 of the prime contract entered into by the government with the suppliers of the corvettes, the German Frigate Consortium (GFC) *4. The government has explained this very clearly before, that it entered into a contract with the GFC to supply the required number of corvettes, meeting all the stipulated specifications *5.

 
The government has no contracts with the companies retained by the GFC to supply the various component parts of the corvettes *6. Similarly, it never had occasion or need to determine who the partners of the GFC should or should not be, including Thomson (Thales) *7.
 
Our Country Needs Facts, Not Groundless Allegations
http://www.armsdeal-vpo.co.za/special_items/correspondence/mbeki/mbeki_facts.htm
 
*3      Precisely. This is because this is the most obviously corrupt aspect of the Arms Deal and where Mbeki himself was unlawfully involved with the process of awarding the corvette combat management system and the combat suite sensors to Thoimson-CSF.

Now, eventually, Thomson-CSF finds itself in court for bribery, corruption, money laundering and racketeering.

Now is the time is ask Thabo how much Thomson-CSF paid him and the ANC for guaranteeing them the contract two years before it was signed.

All the pointers are to the princely sum of R300 million.


*4      Lies again.
The government did not enter into a prime contract with the German Frigate Consortium (GFC).
 
The government entered into a prime contract the European South African Corvette Consortium (ESACC).
 
ESACC consisted of Blohm+Voss, Thyssen Reinstahl Techniek, HDW, Thomson-CSF Naval Combat Systems and African Defence Systems (Pty Ltd.
 
It's clear, it's in black and white, it's got all the signatures on it including those of January Masilela and Chippy Shaik.
 
*5      Lies again.
The contract diverged in many respects from the stipulated SA Navy specifications.
 
*6      Lies again.
The Umbrella Agreement for the Corvette is directly between the SA Government and Thomson-CSF Naval Combat Systems and African Defence Systems (Pty Ltd in respect of the supply of Part B (the Thomson-CSF and ADS supplied part of the corvette combat suite) and Part C.(the South African Defence Industry supplied part of the corvette combat suite plus the anti-ship missile).
 
*7      Lies again.
Armscor's Request for Information dated September 1997 and Request for Offer dated March 1998 specifically recorded ADS as being responsible for the combat suite and supplying inter alia the combat management system.
 
The Project Control Board (PCB) sat on 6 June 1999 and formalised its equipment selections (including these ones) and a letter  just a few days later (I think 21 June 1999) to ESACC from the Chief Executive Officer of Armscor, Llew Swan, the SA Government statutorily-stipulated defence materiel acquisition agency formally recorded these selections.
So Mbeki manages to propagate at least four serous lies in just two paragraphs.

But it gets better.

Dweezil goes on to say :
The proposition that the government influenced the choice of Thomson by the GFC as one of its sub-contractors is both a blatant falsity concocted by the fishers, and a logical absurdity *8. In its statement of 15 September 2000, the government announced those with whom it had entered into contracts. These are British Aerospace/SAAB, the German Frigate Consortium and Augusta. It had no primary contract with Thomson (Thales), as the supplier of the electronic combat suite of the corvettes, which matter, of the supplier of this suite, remained in the exclusive domain of the GFC *9.
 
*8*9    This requires no further explanation.

But it still after over four years takes my breath away when I read it.

But Dingbat continues :
The gentleman concerned makes the false allegation that during the life of the Government of National Unity, formed in 1994, a contract for four corvettes to be built by Bazan of Spain "was cancelled after being awarded". This is not true. The preceding apartheid Cabinet had not approved this contract. The GNU Cabinet decided not to enter into this contract.
 
Bazan entered the later competition to supply the four corvettes, and lost to the GFC. This issue is of relevance and interest only because of the controversy that some have brought into the current defence procurement. It is an interesting coincidence that this controversy has focused so intensely on the corvettes *10.
 
In time the details of the truth will come out about how the controversy concerning the 2000 defence procurement emerged and persisted. The gentleman litigant, who has raised the matter of Bazan of Spain, may be proved to have been justified in raising this issue, even if he made false claims about a Bazan contract that never was.
 
This detailed truthful account would tell our country interesting things *11 about such matters as defence procurement during the apartheid years *12, and the promotion of political careers and fortunes in contemporary South Africa. It would tell a story about the political uses of the racist stereotypes that are part of our daily menu of information and perception, and the formation of popular consciousness.
 
*10      There is no co-incidence at all.

The corvette features at the top of the corruption pile because Mbeki and Chippy Shaik intervened directly to get the corvette platform awarded to GFC and the combat suite to Thomson-CSF.


*11     Well out with it.

Whose got anything to hide?


*12     Another lie.

Project Sitron was registered in 1993 and during 1994 and 1995 completed all the stipulated SA Navy, DoD and Armscor requirement to place a contact worth some R2,4 billion (1995 Rands) on Bazan of Spain for four 590N medium frigates including a full combat suite .
Mbeki and cronies failed to give final cabinet approval to this contract because they wanted to give it to the Germans who wanted to give them something in return - like money to, inter alia, fight the next national election.

Well, hereinabove are some allegations - nice and particularly plump and juicy ones, let's see how groundless they are.

Something on which the ANC/NEC/NWC's own private Arms Deal Investigation committee might try a nibble.