16 comment
TheNewAgeNewspaper
@The_New_Age
Tuesday, 5 January 2016
EDITORIAL
THE
HORSE’S
MOUTH
Leading Africa
in human rights
OUR much admired and loved Nobel
laureate Desmond Tutu has long been a
supporter of LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual
and transgender) rights, so he would have
been delighted at the recent marriage of his
daughter to a woman.
Needless to say, the world-renowned
human rights activist and former Anglican archbishop is also a faithful fan of the
institution of marriage (he and his wife
Nomalizo celebrated their 60th wedding
anniversary last year).
In a low-key ceremony in the Netherlands, Mpho Tutu married her partner,
Marceline van Furth, in a civil ceremony
last week.
Same-sex marriage has been legal in this
country since November 2006 following
a ruling of the Constitutional Court that
broadened the common-law definition of
marriage to include same-sex spouses.
Our Constitution guarantees equal protection before the law to all citizens regardless of sexual orientation and was the first
in the world to safeguard sexual orientation
as a human right.
As only the fifth country to legalise
same-sex marriage (and still the only one in
Africa) South Africa can stand proud as a
leader in human rights and for pushing the
boundaries of freedom of choice.
South Africa continues to redefine the
legal and sociological boundaries for samesex couples in areas such as inheritance,
immigration benefits, medical aid, roadaccident insurance, adoption and other
aspects of life that seem rather banal to
“conventional” male-female couples who
are married or cohabit.
Long may our country continue to lead
the way on the African continent that is
well behind in the field of promoting and
safeguarding sexual equality and equal
rights for all.
Don’t be conned
by fly-by-nights
this time of the year we see great numbers of people explore ways and means to
further their education. Limited spaces at
tertiary institutions force many to seek out
the unconventional offerings of a diploma or
degree course.
Unfortunately, the unsuspecting and
gullible easily fall prey to fly-by-night operations which, sometimes for a hefty fee, offer
courses and qualifications at the end of it
that are useless.
In our news columns yesterday we
exposed yet another online college offering theological courses that are in essence
bogus and issue certificates that are not
worth the paper they are written on.
While there is an onus on the state to
ensure that all educational institutions are
properly accredited, there is a responsibility on prospective students to ensure, before
parting with their money, that these socalled colleges are legitimate.
The Department of Higher Education provides databases of accredited institutions
and details of those under investigation.
A cursory check will prevent people from
being taken for a ride.
WISE WORDS
“Change is the law of life. And those who look
only to the past or present are certain to miss
the future.” – John F Kennedy
Joe Slovo
played an
important
role in the struggle
for liberation in South
Africa. He was an intellectual giant who theorised on the conditions
of oppression and liberation,” – SACP spokesperson Alex Mashilo
Fitting tribute: Fans dressed as late Australian cricket player and commentator Richie Benaud wear suits, grey wigs and prop
microphones to pay tribute to the Australian legend during the third Test between Australia and the West Indies at the SCG in Sydney
on Monday. Picture: REUTERS
Mandela’s legacy
spawned flaws
Strategic thinking needed to correct crucial compromises affecting SA’s economy
Addressing the Oxford Union recently,
Julius Malema, leader of South Africa’s opposition party Economic Freedom Fighters, did
something few South Africans have dared, he
challenged Nelson Mandela’s post-apartheid
legacy.
Malema accused Mandela of “turning
against himself” in abandoning elements of
the Freedom Charter during the democratic
transition in the early 1990s.
The charter was drawn up by a coalition led
by the ANC in the 1950s and is still viewed
as the blueprint for an equal, non-racial and
democratic society.
Mandela, Malema noted, was hosted by a
rich white man after his release and attended
the club meetings of those white men who
owned the South African economy.
Malema touched a nerve.
The ANC’s promised economic transformation has been disappointing in several ways.
Poverty hasn’t reduced quickly enough,
inequality remains at world-beating levels,
and the pace of growth has, on average, been
pedestrian. It is glacial.
It is quite likely that decisions made during
the transition, before and after 1994, contributed to this outcome.
In a recent paper, colleagues and I showed
that growth in South Africa since 1990 has
been very slow compared with other middleincome developing countries such as Malaysia,
Turkey and Brazil.
In per capita terms, South Africa is clearly
the poorest performer.
The country has performed poorly on other
measures too.
Exports over this period have been the
weakest, investment levels have been the
lowest, domestic levels of competition are very
weak, and performance on innovation indices
is steadily declining.
More importantly, poverty remains persistently and unconscionably high at over 40%.
This is despite the fact that the reduction of
poverty accelerated in the 2000s with faster
growth and the extension of social grants.
And inequality remains extremely high in
an era when even countries in the notoriously
unequal region of Latin America have shown
that inequality can be reduced.
Analysis
Alan Hirsch
Compared with similar middle-income countries, the gap between the richest 20% and the
rest is considerably greater in South Africa.
Of the 50 richest Africans in the Forbes
Africa’s 50 richest list, 16 are South Africans,
and only two of the South Africans are black.
Three of the four richest Africans are white
South Africans.
Economic transformation is slow indeed.
It is certainly possible to trace some of the
country’s relatively poor performance since
1994 to compromises of that era.
Established business mounted a concerted
campaign to maintain the existing structures
of the economy.
This was a key item on the agenda of a
series of meetings with ANC and other opposition leaders in the 1980s and early 1990s.
This demonstrated short-termist defensiveness and a lack of imagination about South
Africa’s future.
It is important to remember that the era
was characterised by the poor economic performance of most other African countries.
And Latin America was absorbed in a seemingly unending series of debt crises.
In this context, reassuring investors on
whom the country was believed to depend
was a high priority for the ANC and the new
government.
Attempts to build a mechanism to drive
economic transformation failed as the level of
trust between business, labour and the government deteriorated through the late 1990s
and early 2000s.
Had the ANC not been constantly looking
over its shoulder, what might have been different? Some examples:
• Assets such as wealth and land could have
been more radically redistributed;
• The Reserve Bank could have been given a
full-employment mandate (like the Fed in the
US);
• Competition policy could have attacked oli-
gopolistic structures, not only anti-competitive
behaviour;
• A more vigorous industrial policy might
have been introduced;
• Small businesses could have had more
committed support; and
• The apartheid structure of cities could
have been more urgently addressed.
Such interventions were constrained by
concerns for economic stability.
There were poor policies too.
South Africa’s capacity to transform the
economy was also undermined by accidents of
poor thinking, or the by-products of political
horse trading. Examples of these include:
• The excessively radical liberalisation of
agricultural markets and structures;
• Some very poorly conceived reforms in
basic education in the first two post-1994
governments;
• The very poor design of privatisation of
some state-owned enterprises; and
• The constrained and complex designs for
the liberalisation of some key network industries, especially in the sectors of information,
communication, technology and energy.
And what could be done?
An interesting thought experiment would
be to separate the missed opportunities and
policy accidents into two categories.
The first category would be those that could
have been avoided.
The second category is those that were
really difficult to avoid in the political climate
of a peaceful transition through negotiation.
This separation would not necessarily indicate which of the mistakes is reversible today.
But reviewing compromises and mistakes
made during the transition would be a very
fruitful exercise if accompanied by strategic
thinking about what to do about these policies
today.
Strategic thinking means thinking about
what political bargains are possible and how
to build an environment of trust that would
encourage short-term sacrifices for long-term
gain.
Alan Hirsch is director of the Graduate School
of Development Policy, University of Cape Town.
This article first appeared on the website of The
Conversation
Students
can’t pay for
their registration fees,
which serve as a barrier
to entry for most students. The issue of students’ outstanding debts
will also be addressed,”
– Sasco secretary general
Tembani Makata commenting on the funding of
free higher education
Our goal is to
increase economic opportunities for all residents
and reduce inequality,
poverty and unemployment,” – Mangaung
mayor Thabo Manyoni
THIS DAY
IN
HISTORY
January 5, 1965
four members of the ANC, sentenced for
their political convictions, Mac Maharaj,
Laloo Chiba, Raymond Nyanda and Andrew
Masondo, arrived on Robben Island on January 5, 1965, to serve out their sentences after
their conviction.
They were all taken to B section where ANC
stalwarts such as Nelson Mandela, Elias Motsoaledi and Walter Sisulu among others were
being held after the Rivonia Trial.
There were suspicions by Maharaj and the
leadership of the ANC that Raymond Nyanda
was sent to prison as a planted spy of the
apartheid government.
Robben Island was used as a prison to house
political prisoners and common law prisoners
in the 1960s.
Over the course of time, several hundred
political prisoners from all political stripes and
organisations fighting against apartheid and
colonialism passed though its prison doors.
Many others imprisoned on the island died
before their release.
After undergoing scrutiny by political
prisoners, Nyanda received news that he had
“won” his case against his conviction on appeal
and that his sentence was shortened.
He was removed from Robben Island by
the authorities, while Maharaj and Masondo
were released in 1976. Chiba was released in
December 1982. – www.sahistory.org.za
How to contact us:
Tel: 011 542 1222
Fax: 011 314 2986
NEWS: [email protected]
BUSINESS: [email protected]
SPORT: [email protected]
OPINION: [email protected]
LETTERS: [email protected]
LIFESTYLE: [email protected]
ONLINE
: [email protected]
ARTS & CULTURE : [email protected]
ETHICS AND PROFESSIONALISM:
The New Age subscribes to the South African Press
Code, which calls for excellence in journalistic
practice and ethics, and reporting that is truthful,
accurate, fair and balanced. If you feel The New
Age does not live up to the code, you may register
a complaint with our attorneys, Van der Merwe
and Associates. Please mark your complaint for
the attention of Martinus van der Merwe who will
ensure that your complaint receives the appropriate attention.
Fax: 086 733 0101
Email: [email protected]
The New Age is published by TNA Media Pty Ltd.,
52 Lechwe Avenue, Corporate Park South, Old Pretoria Main
Rd, Midrand, Gauteng, Telephone 011-5421222;
Printed by Caxton Printers, 14 Wright Street, Industria,
Johannesburg, Gauteng; Printed by CTP Newspapers Cape,
a division of CTP (Ltd), Boompies Street, Parow, Western
Cape; Printed by Caxton Highway Mail, 115 Escom Road,
New Germany, Pinetown, KwaZulu-Natal
Indres Naidoo, liberation struggle stalwart
Dominic Tweedie
Indres Naidoo, a hero of the South African
liberation struggle, passed away on Sunday
evening, January 3, 2016, aged 79.
What follows is a rough sketch, just to
indicate a little of what this extraordinary
man was in life. More polished and complete
tributes can follow later.
Indres was a stalwart of the stalwarts. All
sorts of comrades will tell you so – it’s what
you find when Indres is mentioned.
He was loved. He was a reference point.
People forget how long the freedom struggle
took. They forget that most of the time, and
for years at a time, supporters of “the movement” were isolated and burdened with the
need to make a living, attend to children, and
just generally get by in life.
Indres was not an ordinary comrade. He
burned like a fire. He warmed other comrades.
No matter how mundane life became, or
how arrogantly the apartheid regime taunted
us, there were a few comrades whom you
knew were relentless.
Obituary
INDRES naIDOO
Indres was one of them. These were the
kind that kept the struggle alive.
Indres was not the most brilliant “analyst”.
Others were better than him in that department.
Indres was not the most talented orator,
although you would not forget his sincerity in
a hurry.
He served the movement from the 1950s
onwards. Soon after his father Naran “Roy”
Naidoo died in 1953, Indres was drawn to the
Transvaal Indian Youth Congress. He became
the joint secretary of that body, together with
Issy Dinat, who became Indres’s brother-inlaw.
Issy married Indres’s sister Ramnie.
Sadly, Issy Dinat passed away less than a
month before Indres, on December 8, 2015.
When Umkhonto we Sizwe (MK) was
formed on December 16, 1961, these comrades
were among the first to
be recruited, forming
one of the first two active
units. Among others
involved were the late
Reggie Vandeyar, Shirish
Nanabhai, Laloo Chiba,
Paul Joseph and Abdulhay
Indres Naidoo
Jassat. Indres, Reggie and
Shirish were caught in April 1963, tried and
sentenced to 10 years on Robben Island.
Shortly afterwards, Jacob Zuma, sentenced
to 10 years in a different MK case, found them
there. They all served their sentence together
in the same large cell, with many others.
Indres, sometimes known as “Talker” to his
friends, suffered in imprisonment. Of course,
they all did and too little is said about it. The
punishment does not finish when incarceration finishes.
After he was released, Indres got a job and
worked for a while, but eventually he had to
leave the country.
He had married Saeeda Vally and they were
blessed with a son, Bram.
Saeeda and Bram followed Indres to
Mozambique where at a certain stage they
met up again with Jacob Zuma, among many
other now-illustrious and well-known comrades.
Indres’s daughter Djanine is an architect in
Maputo.
Indres was sent to the German Democratic
Republic (GDR) to work in the ANC office
there and made a new lot of devoted friends.
Indres was a communist, but like the all the
best communists, he worked as easily with
non-communists as he did with fellow party
members.
Indres loved people, and they responded.
In the GDR he met and later married Gabi
Blankenberg, who looked after him for many
years in Cape Town after he became ill.
Indres was a good friend of Joe Slovo’s and
after legalisation of the SACP in 1990, worked
in the SACP office in Rissik Street, Johannesburg, under new general secretary Chris
Hani.
After 1994 he moved to Cape Town, and
was in Parliament for a few years.
Dominic Tweedie is married to Indres’s sister,
Shanthie