Friday, April 7 March is a Trap. It's White propaganda. Middle class nonsense

Why do you wanna March?

Why don't you march when innocent children get killed daily in the coloured townships or when your boss fires people at your work unjustly.... 

Why don't you March because white people at your work get paid 6 times more for the same job and you taught them when they first came to work at your company..... 

Now you wanna march for what? 

You must be sick!

Why don't you march for your relative that is struggling financially and give them some groceries and financial support but Jy wil March????? 

This March is a Trap. It's White propaganda...... Middle class nonsense......


Your March is gonna disenfranchise the poor tomorrow. It's not gonna pay you tomorrow.... 

Because the boss is gonna say come fetch your pay Monday and family has to go hungry this weekend........

By Emmanual Plachez from Cape Town

FRIDAY, APRIL 7, 2017 IS NORMAL WORKING DAY

Government warns anti-Zuma protesters

TMG Digital | 04 April, 2017 09:01 

 

 President Jacob Zuma.

The government has warned protesters demonstrating against President Jacob Zuma that police will crack down on illegal actions.

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“Government assures all South Africans that Friday‚ 7th April‚ is a normal working day. We have noted social media messages which call for a shutdown of the country on Friday‚” the government communications unit GCIS tweeted on Monday night.
“The call made in these messages can have unexpected consequences especially for our fragile economy‚ business and communities. Whilst the public has a democratic right to embark on protest action‚ government does not support acts of civil disobedience.”

The GCIS warning comes after a social media campaign called on South Africans to take to the streets on Friday to urge Zuma to step down. Anti-Zuma sentiment has been growing since the president’s cabinet reshuffle last week‚ which booted out respected finance minister Pravin Gordhan and his deputy Mcebisi Jonas.
“When citizens take to the streets illegally‚ we often witness violence‚ destruction of property and lawlessness. These illegal protests do not possess the characteristics of strengthening democracy‚” GCIS tweeted.


“Those found guilty of any form of violence will face the might of the law. Government is of the view that SAns can engage each other on differences through meaningful dialogue and through appropriate platforms.”

CivilSociety organizations, business & society at large are encouraged to work with Gov in strengthening our democracy to create a better SA

— South African Gov (@GovernmentZA) 3 April 2017

The social media messages are sent to disturb the economy and to create the impression of disorder and fear in communities.

— South African Gov (@GovernmentZA) 3 April 2017

The social media messages are sent to bring the image of SA into disrepute

— South African Gov (@GovernmentZA) 3 April 2017

Those found guilty of any form of violence will face the might of the law.

— South African Gov (@GovernmentZA) 3 April 2017

Global Research

Standard and Poor’s Credit Rating Agency Charged With Fraud in Sub-Prime Mortgage Ratings

By Barry Grey Global Research, February 06, 2013

The US Department of Justice on Monday filed a civil suit in Los Angeles charging Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services, the world’s biggest credit rating agency, with defrauding investors and the public by inflating the credit ratings it gave to subprime mortgage-backed securities in the run-up to the 2008 financial crisis. The suit was announced Tuesday at a Washington press conference presided over by Attorney General Eric Holder. He indicated that the government would seek damages of at least $5 billion from S&P, a subsidiary of McGraw-Hill. Sixteen states and the District of Columbia have joined the federal suit. Coming nearly four-and-a-half years after the Wall Street crash, the suit is the first federal action against a credit rating firm. S&P and its main competitor, Moody’s Investors Service, played a critical role in the vast edifice of financial speculation and fraud that came crashing down following the bursting of the housing bubble in 2007. S&P, Moody’s and Fitch Ratings are all private, for-profit companies. As previous US government investigations have documented, S&P and Moody’s made huge profits between 2004 and 2008 by landing contracts from Wall Street banks to rate residential mortgage-backed securities (RMBS) and collateralized debt obligations (CDOs), which were assembled by the banks from home loans and sold to other financial institutions and investors around the world. Wall Street drove mortgage lenders to sell high-risk, high-interest subprime home loans to people who could not afford them, bought up the loans from the mortgage companies, bundled them into RMBS and CDOs, and sold off these toxic investments, making massive profits in the process. The entire US and global financial system was infected as a result by what was, in essence, a vast Ponzi scheme. While US bank regulators looked the other way, the credit rating firms facilitated the fraud by giving triple-A ratings to RMBS and CDOs backed by mortgages they knew were headed for default. The credit rating firms had a financial interest in inflating the ratings on RMBS and CDOs, since they were paid by the banks whose securities they were rating. Under the inherently corrupt, deregulated system for rating securities—a system that serves the interests, in the first instance, of Wall Street—banks shop around for the credit rating firm most likely to give their products the highest rating. Consequently, the credit rating firms compete for a share in the lucrative financial derivatives market, which includes mortgage-backed securities, by proving to their bank paymasters that they will deliver the top ratings the banks need to maximize their profits. At the Justice Department press conference, Holder and other officials painted a picture of pervasive and deliberate fraud, costing investors and taxpayers hundreds of billions of dollars. Between 2004 and 2007, Holder said, “S&P executives made false representations to investors and financial institutions, and took other steps to manipulate ratings criteria and credit models to increase revenue and market share.” “Put simply,” he declared, “this alleged conduct is egregious—and it goes to the very heart of the recent financial crisis.” Acting Associate Attorney General Tony West described how the major banks, beginning in 2007, worked furiously to package their failing subprime home loans into CDOs and offload the CDOs to investors, in order to get the bad loans off of their books. “And we have evidence,” he said, “that S&P not only knew this is what the banks were doing; S&P helped them to do it. “As our complaint explains, through the spring and summer of 2007, S&P moved at a record pace, rating hundreds of billions of dollars worth of CDOs packed with subprime mortgage bonds… S&P gave triple-A ratings to nearly all of the CDOs it rated during this time—and they did this despite their own internal reports which showed that the ratings on the mortgage bonds on which the financial quality of these CDOs depended would not hold.” Despite this narrative of outright criminality, amply documented in the 119-page complaint filed by the Justice Department in US District Court, the government does not name a single individual in its legal brief, nor has it pressed criminal charges. The Obama administration is thus maintaining its record of refusing to criminally prosecute a single leading figure on Wall Street for illegal actions that brought the US and world economy to the brink of collapse and triggered the deepest slump and highest unemployment since the Great Depression. The government spent four months in talks with S&P in an attempt to reach a settlement and avoid going to court, as it has done in dozens of previous financial fraud cases. Talks reportedly broke down in the last two weeks when S&P rejected any deal requiring it to admit wrongdoing and objected to a cash payment above $100 million. The Justice Department’s legal complaint cites internal emails, messages and reports demonstrating that the company was well aware it was violating its own standards and giving securities inflated ratings. The legal brief focuses on 40 CDOs S&P rated between March and October of 2007. The document cites one S&P analyst who wrote in 2006 that the company had loosened its criteria for CDOs to create “a loophole big enough to drive a Mack truck through.” In December of 2006, an S&P employee wrote in an internal email: “Rating agencies continue to create an even bigger monster—the CDO market. Let’s hope we are all wealthy and retired by the time this house of cards falters.” In April 2007, one S&P analyst told another, “We rate every deal. It could be structured by cows and we would rate it.” In a July 2007 exchange between an S&P analyst and an investment banking colleague, the banker wrote: “I mean, come on, we pay you to rate our deals, and the better the rating the more money we make?! What’s up with that? How are you possibly supposed to be impartial?” The complicity of the credit rating agencies was previously documented in extensive government reports on the financial crisis. “The Financial Crisis Inquiry Report,” issued in January of 2011 by a commission established by Congress in 2009, wrote: “The three credit rating agencies were key enablers of the financial meltdown. The mortgage-related securities at the heart of the crisis could not have been marketed and sold without their seal of approval.” The Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations devoted 75 pages of its 639-page report on the Wall Street crash, released in April of 2011, to the role of S&P and Moody’s in facilitating the subprime mortgage swindle. It wrote: “It was not in the short-term economic interest of either Moody’s or S&P, however, to provide accurate credit ratings for high-risk RMBS and CDO securities, because doing so would have hurt their own revenues.” The Senate report found that more than 90 percent of triple-A ratings given to mortgage-backed securities in 2006 and 2007 were eventually downgraded to junk status. Whatever the outcome of the suit filed on Monday, the Obama administration has systematically worked, and will continue to work, to shield the banks and their accomplices from any accountability for their crimes, and create conditions for Wall Street to make more money than ever. The same credit rating system—unregulated and dominated by the banks—remains in place today. The same credit rating companies continue to make millions by giving top ratings to high-risk bonds and derivatives and helping conceal violations of securities laws by the banks, creating the conditions for another, even more catastrophic financial crisis. Url of this article: http://www.globalresearch.ca/sp-charged-with-fraud-in-mortgage-ratings/5322037

EYEWITNESS NEWS

ZUMA LAUNCHES BIGGEST SOCIAL HOUSING PROJECT IN KZN

The 952 units are rental housing for middle income earners, in the R1,500 and R7,500 monthly income bracket.

President Zuma shakes hands and hands over the home of one of the beneficiaries Nomkhosi Msimang. Picture: Ziyanda Ngcobo/EWN

• President Jacob Zuma
 
• KwaZulu Natal
 
• Rdp houses

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Ziyanda Ngcobo | 4 days ago

PIETERMARITZBURG – President Jacob Zuma has used the launch of South Africa's biggest social housing project to encourage citizens to make use of government programmes aimed at providing homes for the middle income group.

Zuma was speaking at the Imbalo township near Pietermaritzburg where 952 houses have been built.

The units are rental housing for middle income earners, in the R1,500 and R7,500 monthly income bracket.

The president was accompanied by acting premier Sihle Zikalala and African National Congress treasurer general Dr Zweli Mkhize.

Zuma says the new accommodation has bridged the gap for those who do not qualify for government subsidies or RDP housing.

“It provides an opportunity to our working youth to live in decent and well located accommodation while promoting social integration and deconstructing the apartheid spatial master plan.”

(Edited by Masechaba Sefularo)

ANC Today

ENHANCING ORGANIZATIONAL INTEGRITY THROUGH POLICY REFORM

Posted on 24th March 2017 by Staff Reporter Posted in Viewpoints.

Nathi Mthethwa
Every five years the African National Congress (ANC) conducts a strategic review of its policies across a range of broad thematic areas. As the governing party of South Africa, it is essential that our policies remain relevant and responsive to the needs of the nation and prevalent local as well as global circumstances and conditions.

As the ANC limbers up for its 5^th National Policy Conference in June, as well as the 54^th National Conference slated for December, the organization has released a set of discussion documents.

These nine discussion documents are always released publically and within good time in order to facilitate an effective participatory process involving not just from our branches, but the public at large – in line with the ANC’s longstanding commitment to participatory democracy.

Amongst them is the ANC’s Strategy and Tactics document, that broadly outlines, analyses and charts a future course for the movement within what we call the Balance of Forces, both domestically and globally. It is testimony to the vibrancy of the movement’s intellectual tradition that the Strategy and Tactics, first adopted at the Morogoro Conference in Tanzania in 1969, are regularly reviewed and updated by our movement in response to prevailing conditions.

Assessment of the balance of forces helps us to clarify opportunities and constraints in the process of discharging our responsibilities towards deepening social transformation.
The Strategy and Tactics document analyzes the global and domestic Balance of Forces, and how this facilitates or hinders the attainment of the ANC’s ultimate objectives.
Arising from this are the medium- and long-term tasks facing both the organisation and society at large.

All the other documents are rooted in the ANC’s Strategy and Tactics – for it is in essence presents the theoretical perspective of the organization.

The Strategy and Tactics opens with a historical overview of our society; underlining the point that the 1996 Constitution, whilst containing transitional clauses, was on the whole an expression of untrammelled majority rule, with profound socio-economic provisions.

In this sense, the ideals the Constitution articulates are not a compromise; but wholly consistent with the objective of creating a society underpinned by a profound humanism.

That said, it has become worrying common that a number of sectors within our society, especially in the political arena, have turned our courts into the terrain for contesting political squabbles and settling scores, when such could possibly have been better managed through more relevant channels. From quarrels with satirical puppets, to the lyrics of controversial songs, to the seemingly endless legal challenges to Constitutionally-valid administrative actions of the Executive.

This low-intensity ‘law-fare’ has steadily been ratcheted up over the years, and are sucking up the judiciary into the maelstrom of day-to-day societal management.

Repeated attempts of this kind, involving significant resources (even from non-governmental organization’s who traditionally have limited sources of funding and income) leads one to question whether there is an attempt by the privileged elements of society to undermine the ANC’s popular electoral mandate through the courts.

Another chapter outlines the ANC’s vision for a National Democratic Society founded on unity, non-racism, non-sexism, democracy and prosperity. A subsequent chapter of the Strategy and Tactics deals with the motive forces of the National Democratic Revolution (NDR), and further outlines that the fact they stand to benefit from the process of revolutionary change does not necessarily impel them to act in a corrective measure. Here the point is reinforced that Black workers – employed and unemployed, urban and rural – remain the main motive force of the process of change.

The chapter on Political Leadership and the Process of Change deals with our organisational challenges and what the movement has to do to remain relevant.

The analysis of the global Balance of Forces in the Strategy and Tactics is instructive for all who seek to understand modern political dynamics, as well as the influence that global capitalism continues to wield in society, despite the slow rise of progressive forces.

At the centre of humanity’s challenges is economic inequality. It is well known that more wealth is owned by the richest one-percent than the rest of humanity; and ‘eight men now own the same amount of wealth as the poorest half of the world’ (Oxfam: 2017).

In many developed countries, large swathes of the population have in the recent period actually experienced stagnant incomes and a declining quality of life.

No where is this more acutely manifested than in South Africa. As the Strategy and Tactics notes, we “represent the most acute manifestation of most of the social fault-lines that define humanity’s current challenges: race, class, gender and geographic location. Income inequality and inequitable distribution of assets are at their most intense. Poverty and unparalleled opulence live cheek by jowl. “

What is clearly demonstrated in the assertions made by the document is a deep seated relationship between political oppression and the apartheid capitalist system that, if decisive action is not taken to deal with economic subjugation and exclusion, the essence of apartheid will remain, with a few black men and women incorporated into the courtyard of privilege.

The old fault-lines will persist, and social stability will be threatened.

Unfortunately, but perhaps predictably, the crisis of capitalism also finds expression in the collapse of ethics, or greater public exposure of such deplorable practices.

From ‘cooking of the books’, wilful violation of financial regulations, vehicle defeat devices to circumvent environmental regulations, to massive and undeserved packages to many executives and, in some instances, actual looting of the fiscus – all these developments have undermined the legitimacy of many polities in the eyes of the majority of citizens.

The ANC’s policies are informed by the need for the revival of local and African economies; driven by a new corps of continental leaders with peoples’ interests at heart. This sets the stage for improving the quality of life of our people.

The ANC seeks to harness the Africa Rising narrative. By some estimates, by the turn of the century, seven of the fastest growing economies in the world were located in Africa.

Africa’s trade with the rest of the world has grown massively; foreign debt has declined; and labour productivity has improved. Critically, these advances have found expression in such social indicators as improved income, lower rates of unemployment, reduction in poverty, higher rates of enrolment in primary education, and lower rates of under-five mortality.

As articulated in Agenda 2063, the continent seeks to attain prosperity based on sustainable development, democracy and citizen activism, good and ethical governance, as well as multifaceted integration and peace.

The fate of South Africa is inextricably linked to the continent’s future, and the progress the continent has made in the past twenty years has been to South Africa’s advantage.
Despite the daunting challenges that our country continues to face, we have done well. The Strategy and Tactics captures the point very clearly.

At the core of the ANC’s tasks in the current period is the renewal of the organisation for it to exercise societal leadership in a changing environment, and the speeding up of programme of fundamental transformation.

It is the task of all the cadres to unpack the themes outlined in the discussion documents. The release of these documents presents us with an opportunity to take stock of our methods of struggle and their effectiveness or lack thereof. It also beckons that we look deeply into the new conditions as a result of our new position in the country, continentally and globally.

We call upon branches and broader members of society to read and engage with the documents.

By Nathi Mthethwa, Minister of Arts and Culture and a Member of the NEC, NWC and Chairperson of Political Education Sub-committee of the NEC.

SA News

SA should not be despondent: Minister Gigaba

Pretoria - While South Africa has its challenges, the country should not be desponded following announcements made by rating agencies, Finance Minister Malusi Gigaba said on Tuesday.

South Africa currently has R2.2 trillion in public debt, with approximately 10% of this debt being denominated and repaid in foreign currency.

On Monday, Standard & Poor’s lowered its credit rating for this portion of the country’s public debt to below investment grade.

“Our rand denominated debt, which constitutes 90% of the debt portfolio, remains investment grade rated. Moody’s, which continues to rate government debt two notches above sub-investment grade, has indicated their intention to review the rating,” the Minister said.

Addressing media at the National Treasury offices in Pretoria, Minister Gigaba -- who earlier in the day held a meeting with former Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan -- said while the decision is a setback for South Africa, he is confident in the South African economy.

“We acknowledge that yesterday’s announcement was a setback. Despite our current challenges, now is not the time for despondency. We have many strengths we can leverage to grow our economy inclusively. We will act decisively as government,” he told media following the meeting.

The main reasons given by S&P for the downgrade include the recent executive changes, which they say have put at risk fiscal and growth outcomes.

The Minister said the decision by Moody’s to initiate a review for a downgrade was prompted by the abrupt change in leadership at key government institutions.

“A country’s investment grading becomes junk status when two of the three ratings agencies actually downgrade it to that status. What this means is that it’s a setback but we have no reason to be despondent,” he said.

Commitment to fiscal consolidation

Minister Gigaba said while the executive leadership of the finance portfolio has changed, government’s overall policy orientation remains the same.

“Government has been and will remain committed to a measured fiscal consolidation that stabilises the rise in public debt. The fiscal trajectory that our country is pursuing will continue. Our fiscal objectives remain unchanged. We are committed vigorously to pursuing economic growth in an inclusive way,” he said.

He said South Africa, which recognises the concerns raised by the rating agencies, will address these concerns.

He said, however, the agencies have acknowledged South Africa’s strengths, which include a stable monetary framework, giving government confidence.

“Going forward, we will be dedicating energy to engage with business leaders, organised labour and rating agencies. We will act with urgency to accelerate inclusive growth and development so that we can reverse poverty, unemployment and inequality,” said Minister Gigaba.

Government has said there is a need to reignite South Africa’s growth engine.

Plans to meet rating agencies

Minister Gigaba said he intends in the near future to lead a delegation of stakeholders to meet with rating agencies, including Moody’s and Fitch, which will announce its rating decision on Friday.

“We need to address perceptions about political stability and reassure them of our intention to steer the course,” said the Minister, adding that government has not abandoned radical economic transformation, with a focus being set on industrialising the economy.

Meanwhile, the Minister said he intends to meet with stakeholders such as Chief Executive Officers of banks as well as labour. – SAnews.gov.za

The Southern Times

Mineral beneficiation – Without political will, SADC will fall short

Aug 29, 2016

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By Ranga Mberi

THOUSANDS of years after the first miners dug up ore on the continent, Africans are yet to figure out just how best to benefit from their minerals.

Conventional thinking would have us believe mining only started when columns of colonials rolled in on their wagons, bargaining with locals, “discovering” gold and setting up the roots of the multinationals we see today.However, mining in Africa is in fact as old as time itself.

The Ngwenya Mines of Swaziland, according to UNESCO, were mined an astonishing 40 000 years ago. In Zimbabwe, as across Africa, there are heritage sites – many of which we have not protected well – that show pre-colonial African expertise in mining.

While they traded much of their minerals, a lot of what they dug up ended up on their necks and wrists as ornaments, or as tools for farming and hunting. They were practising what today, centuries later, is being debated in boardrooms, convention centres and in all sorts of scholarly articles – mineral beneficiation.

Across Africa, next to resource nationalism, governments are talking up beneficiation, or value addition, as the next frontier in making sure Africa benefits more than it has, for centuries, from its vast mineral wealth.

It is not a new debate. The AU Mining Vision, published in 2009, sought to find ways of driving this agenda. That document came at the crest of the commodities boom, which had seen many mineral-rich African countries boost their economies.

There was just one problem with all that. Mineral prices move in cycles. African countries that have depended on resources such as oil and metals know this all too well; you rely too much on resources, and you are setting yourself up for trouble when prices suddenly go through the floor.

The AU then came up with a plan. African countries, it said, needed to ensure its minerals turned its economies into diversified industrial hubs. No more should they just export minerals in raw form, but they should use those minerals to drive industrial growth at home.

It was a vision proposed in many plans at national and regional levels. Among these were the Lagos Plan of Action, SADC Mineral Sector Programme, Mining Chapter of NEPAD, and the Africa Mining Partnership.

However, beneficiation takes more hard work than it appears.

Mining is capital intensive. Projects are funded decades in advance, and by funders that demand assurances on resources and guarantees on markets.

It will not only be the mines that will need a culture shift. Governments too will have to change their approach.

A good place to start is South Africa, the continent’s mining powerhouse.

A paper by South Africa’s Department of Mineral Resources (DMR) found that it could not force beneficiation on mining companies without first ensuring “intensive co-ordination” across a range of its departments. The DMR found it needed to build new links between dozens of departments; mineral resources, economic development, trade and industry, science and technology, public enterprises, energy and treasury, as well as business and labour.

Secondly, does Africa have the necessary infrastructure? Beneficiation is an energy-intensive industry. It means the smelting and re-smelting of production. Can our African power plants, already struggling to cope with existing industries, meet the demand? Can we supply power to these plants at competitive tariffs?

Thirdly, once we have produced all those value added products, do we have the markets? Are we able to sell them at competitive prices? Can we compete with the skills of jewelers in Italy or the low labour costs of India?

How much have our African governments invested into research and development? 

Zimbabwe has recently sent diamond cutters for training in China. It is a good step, but do we have enough skills training plans to sustain all this going forward?

An idea would be to integrate regionally, and build, for example, regional jewelry hubs. However, given the lethargy of regions such as SADC on integration, is there much hope for this?

One can imagine governments developing special economic zones that are exempt from duty and VAT for manufacturers. Factories would need access to inputs at competitive prices. They would need good incentives to invest in R&D.

The solution lies in our governments’ ability to make it attractive for manufacturers to add value to our resources. They must be able to do that at low cost, with good skills, using clean, affordable energy. Only then would our products compete.

So, while beneficiation sounds nice in the bid boardrooms and conference centers, the reality is somewhat tougher. Achieving it will take huge political will, the likes of which many African governments still find hard to muster – even after 40 000 years of mining.