SOUTH AFRICA
In a case that strikes at the heart of the land question, Petse began by quoting Franz Fanon’s The Wretched of the Earth: “For a colonised people the most essential value, because the most concrete, is first and foremost the land: the land which will bring them bread, and above all, dignity.” news24.com/
Since Monday 22 October, the residents of Jama community in inland Amadiba area have been blocking the works for the building of the Mtentu giant bridge. In June, the community also blocked the works for one week for the same reason. The protests were repressed by “Zero Tolerance” from Durban. People were finally convinced to stop when there were new promises and threats against leaders. wwmp.org.za/
The community will get back its 700ha of ocean-facing land, and will be shareholders of, and receive rent for, the land the Wild Coast Sun resort was built on. businesslive.co.za/
The Mail & Guardian political editor, Matuma Letsoalo, has been suspended by the newspaper for his conflict of interest with respect to the Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa. A forensic investigation into Prasa tenders had flagged his business interest in a travel agency contracted by the state-owned enterprise. Letsoalo has denied any wrongdoing. dailymaverick.co.za/
When the Financial Services Board cancelled dormant retirement funds, it transferred beneficiaries’ money into ‘unclaimed benefit funds’. However, beneficiaries say it’s not unclaimed but unpaid. Alexander Forbes is one fund administrator implicated in creaming off profits from the funds that are not theirs. businesslive.co.za/
President Cyril Ramphosa at the Investment Conference on 26 October 2018 said that “it is time for South Africa to do away with vilifying business people and that the label ‘white monopoly capital’ should be discarded once and for all. We should treat our entrepreneurs as heroes.” SAFTU takes exception. saftu.org.za/
When I heard the announcement that government, through Cabinet, had decided to stop the procurement of state-funded set-top boxes, I froze. What I could not understand was why – Mamodupi Mohlala. city-press.news24.com/
This article is an investigation into the political interference that has already occurred on South African Twitter between 2014 and 2018. Looking at how many accounts Twitter has suspended across 28 datasets relating to politics, social unrest and race relations in South Africa, the analysis generates some hypotheses around who might be involved in social media misinformation campaigns and what their agendas are. superlinear.co.za/
The VBS heist, argues Jeff Rudin, offers an understanding of the extent to which a black identity is mainly driven and sustained by a racialised access to scarce resources. Making race the road to riches is legitimised by a racism normalised to render all white people inescapably and permanently guilty of the crimes of apartheid. The fortuitous and recent arrival of the ideology of decolonisation further fuels this legitimisation. dailymaverick.co.za/
Workers On Wednesday 31 October
GUESTS Tendai Bhiza (People Against Suffering Oppression and Poverty) and Loren Landau (African Centre for Migration and Society at Wits University)
Over the past few years, refugees and migrants have been in the spotlight all over the world. Since the end of Apartheid, millions of migrants and refugees have settled in South Africa – most coming from African and Asian countries. Those who are poor have encountered many problems here including bad treatment and corruption by state officials, xenophobic attacks in townships and discrimination in social life. At the same time our government has promoted an African renaissance and lately under President Cyril Ramaphosa, closer political unity similar to the European Union. What will this mean for us, should we still have national borders? wwmp.org.za/
From 1 December 2018, all former employees of two labour brokers will be insourced and employed directly by Spar, and the grievances of these former Temporary Employment Service employees will be referred directly to Spar. wwmp.org.za/
Workers from a labour broker hired by Heineken held a one-day strike at the company’s Sedibeng brewery. They demanded better working conditions and direct employment by Heineken. The strike was unprotected, and the Labour Court interdicted it. Then workers went to the Heineken offices in Sandton last week, in what Imperial has described as an “illegal protest”. The workers deny it was illegal. But Sididli and other strike leaders were suspended and now await a disciplinary hearing. groundup.org.za/
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