South Africa

JOHANNESBURG – There has been a slow uptake from municipalities for the incentive-based Phase 2 of the Expanded Public Works Programme (EPWP), Public Works Portfolio Committee chairperson Manana Mabuza says. An incentive grant was introduced in the second phase to encourage entities not only to make more use of labour-intensive methods, but also to create longer, or more permanent, work opportunities, and would be paid out quarterly, provided that quarterly reports were received. About R3.1-billion has been allocated to the Department of Public Works in the 2011 Medium-Term Expenditure Framework to pay out the incentive to provincial departments and municipalities. In the last financial year, R185-million of the R330-million allocation was paid out to provinces, and R273-million of R622-million was paid to municipalities. In total, EPWP expenditure was R458-million out of the R952-million allocation. Ninety-one out of 126 eligible municipalities accessed their incentive, an increase on the previous year. However, public bodies are under-reporting and using low-labour-intensive projects, and are therefore not accessing their full incentives, Mabuza says at the second EPWP Municipal Summit, in Johannesburg. She says there are certain challenges common to municipalities, including a lack of control systems. The South African Local Government Association's Xolile George also found the lack of reporting from municipalities “concerning”, indicating that the EPWP is not fully “institutionalised” in municipalities.

JOHANNESBURG – The United Nations (UN) climate change negotiations, set to take place in Durban at the end of November, are going to be difficult, President Jacob Zuma warns. “We go to Durban with no illusion at all that it will be a walk in the park,” he says at a meeting of the Socialist International Commission for a Sustainable World Society, in Johannesburg. As to what South Africa, which is hosting the giant event, expects from the seventeenth Conference of the Parties (COP 17), he says outcomes should be “balanced, fair, and credible, and one that preserves and strengthens the multilateral rules-based response to climate change”. Further, they should be informed by the principles that have formed the basis of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change negotiations. “These principles include multilateralism, environmental integrity, fairness . . . and the honouring of all international commitments and undertakings made in the climate change process.” The Cancun Agreements also have to be “operationalised”, including the establishment of key mechanisms and institutional arrangements agreed to at COP 16.

PRETORIA – Two judges have been replaced on the board of inquiry into allegations of misconduct by National Police Commissioner Bheki Cele and on the commission of inquiry into the arms deal, the Presidency says. Retired Constitutional Court Judge Yvonne Mokgoro, who was going to chair the inquiry into the allegations of misconduct in relation to the procurement of office accommodation in Pretoria and Durban for the South African Police Service, has been replaced by Judge Jake Moloi, President Jacob Zuma’s spokesperson, Mac Maharaj, says. Justice department spokesperson Tlali Tlali was not immediately available to explain why she had been replaced. There are also two additional members on the board of inquiry – advocates Terry Motau SC and Anthea Platt. Deputy Judge President of the High Court North Gauteng, Justice Willem van der Merwe, who was set to sit on the commission of inquiry into the arms deal, asked Zuma to release him from the arms probe, says Maharaj.

Africa & the world

CANNES – Job creation must be at the centre of governments' macroeconomic policies, Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) general secretary Zwelinzima Vavi says. "We are arguing that another bout of recession must not be at the expense of the working class and the poor," Vavi says at a meeting with French President Nicholas Sarkozy in Cannes ahead of the G20 Summit. He says – according to a Cosatu statement – the working class is worried that many countries have adopted austerity measures that only deepened inequalities, poverty and unemployment. The G20 Summit is simply used by governments to justify why they are not shifting policies. "They [emerging markets and developing countries] continue to refuse to change. We appeal that government must target employment creation, poverty reduction and elimination of inequalities within and between nations of the world." Vavi urges the G20 to consider promoting job creation in the manufacturing and agriculture sectors. "Without promoting active industrial development . . . we do not see any prospects of fighting unemployment and defeating poverty and inequalities in these [developing] countries." Vavi also proposes that financial market transactions should be taxed. This will discourage excessive speculation and limit disruptions on the productive economy brought by the financial markets.

HARARE – Political violence is on the increase in Zimbabwe and supporters of President Robert Mugabe and State security agents are to blame, Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai says. "It appears the demons of violence are back, a siege mood seems to be slowly gripping the country," Tsvangirai says. On Tuesday, antiriot police sealed the offices of Tsvangirai's Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), firing tear gas into the building and at bystanders in central Harare. "The State security agents have instituted a coup over the civilian authority and they are now above the law, to the extent of disrupting government programmes and assaulting civilians with impunity," Tsvangiri adds. Incidents of political violence decreased after Mugabe and Tsvangirai formed a unity government more than two years ago following a disputed election in 2008, but talk of a possible election next year has reignited tensions. Police have, in the past few weeks, disrupted Tsvangirai's rallies in the western Matabeleland region, where the MDC won the majority of parliamentary seats in 2008. Militants from Mugabe's Zanu-PF party disrupted an MDC rally organised by a minister jointly responsible for police affairs. Zanu-PF denies engaging in violence and, instead, accuses MDC supporters of provoking its supporters. "The violence we are witnessing is State-sponsored and State-driven. It is being championed by a few fascist leaders who want to reverse the little progress we have made," Tsvangirai says. "The country is at a high risk of imploding if some in the leadership continue to be privately abetting lawlessness while publicly preaching nonviolence." Tsvangirai says Mugabe has assured him that the issue of violence will be dealt with.

BERLIN – Companies from South Africa are seen as the fifteenth most likely to use bribery to secure foreign contracts, a new report released by Transparency International says. Countries were scored on a scale of 0 to 10, where a maximum score of 10 corresponds with the view that companies in that sector never bribe and a 0 corresponds with the view that they always do. South Africa scored 7.6 out of 10. Bribing public officials when doing business abroad is a regular occurrence, the survey of 3 000 business executives from developed and developing countries shows. Transparency International’s '2011 Bribe Payers Index' ranks 28 leading international and regional exporting countries by the likelihood of their firms to bribe abroad. Companies from Russia and China, who invested $120-billion overseas in 2010, are seen as most likely to pay bribes abroad. Companies from the Netherlands and Switzerland are seen as least likely to bribe. The 2011 report examines different types of bribery across sectors – including, for the first time, bribery among companies. Addressing foreign bribery is a priority issue for the international community. A year ago, the group of 20 leading economies (G20) committed to tackling foreign bribery by launching an anticorruption action plan. The progress report of the working group monitoring the action plan, which G20 leaders are expected to approve at the Cannes summit, will recognise steps taken by G20 countries China, Russia, Indonesia and India in criminalising foreign bribery.

NEW YORK – Unemployment looks set to grow around the globe well into the present decade, sparking increasing public protest especially in Europe and the Middle East, the International Labour Organisation (ILO) says. In its annual ‘World of Work Report’, the United Nations (UN) agency says the global economy is on the verge of a new and deeper jobs recession and warns that austerity policies adopted by many countries will only make the situation worse. “The next few months will be crucial for avoiding a dramatic downturn in employment and a further significant aggravation of social unrest,” says principal author Raymond Torres in an editorial comment in the report. Torres, a top ILO analyst, argues that pursuing tight fiscal policies that not only restrict job growth but actually undermine present employment levels could only deepen economic woes and dampen prospects for recovery.

LONDON – Food security concerns as the world’s population surpasses seven-billion have prompted global companies to become more actively involved in ensuring future supplies, participants at an agricultural conference say. The increased role has come at a time when government involvement is hampered by the global financial crisis and has led to fears a private-sector-led expansion may focus on products with profit potential and neglect more effective alternatives. “Corporates are getting worried about supply issues they are seeing and are now going upstream. They are working with farmers, working with trading companies,” Cyrille Filott, who heads European food and agribusiness research for Rabobank, says. “They want to increase productivity . . . You see Nestlé planting cocoa trees – there are many examples we are seeing where corporates are actively playing a role,” he says at the CropWorld 2011 conference. Filott says that many food companies in 2008 and also this year were hit by a spike in prices and had started to think about how to get more control over increasingly scarce commodities. “Unilever, as an example, is interested in soybeans and is setting up its own supply chain and having control over production, crushing . . . the whole thing,” he says.