Media+reaction+to+SACP+CC,+B+Day,+Star

Business Day, Johannesburg, 20 February 2006
=Nationalise Sasol for growth, says SACP=


 * Vukani Mde,Political Correspondent**

GOVERNMENT should re-nationalise synthetic fuels company Sasol and other “strategic national assets” if the development goals set out in the Accelerated and Shared Growth Initiative for SA (Asgi-SA) were to be met, the South African Communist Party (SACP) said yesterday.

“Currently some 35% of our fuel is now synthetic, the bulk of it coming from Sasol. This is a very important achievement, with strategic implications for our sovereign national capacity with global oil reserves running dry,” said SACP general secretary Blade Nzimande yesterday.

“In the light of this, the SACP calls on government to re-nationalise Sasol,” he said.

The call came amid growing tensions between the oil company and government over Finance Minister Trevor Manuel’s plan to impose a “windfall tax” on Sasol.

Manuel announced the possible tax in his budget speech.

The plan was greeted by protest from the company and Sasol CE Pat Davies said the tax would cause the company to “rethink its local investment plans”. The remark was widely seen as a disinvestment threat and led to a row with the treasury.

Nzimande said his party supported the imposition of a windfall tax on synthetic fuels, but government should go further and re-nationalise the company to reduce fuel prices in the long term.

“The pump price of our locally produced fuel is the same as imported fuel, notwithstanding the fact that the production costs of the local product are now considerably less,” he said.

Nzimande said government would be hard pressed to meet some of the economic and social development goals of Asgi-SA, if Sasol and other strategic national assets remained in private hands. The current clash between the company and government proved “how dangerous it was to leave such a key asset in the hands of a profit-maximising capitalist sector totally lacking empathy for the economic and developmental challenges of our society,” he said.

Steel monopoly Iscor, now Mittal Steel SA, is in a similar position to Sasol. Owned by Indian magnate Lakshmi Mittal, Mittal has been accused of selling local steel at import parity prices and driving up production costs in steel-dependant industries.

Government last week approved measures to curb import-parity pricing to lower the costs of doing business in SA. It currently holds 20% of Sasol through the Public Investment Corporation and the Industrial Development Corporation.


 * From:** [|**http://www.businessday.co.za/articles/topstories.aspx?ID=BD4A157777**]



Business Day, Johannesburg, 20 February 2006
=SACP lashes out at media over ‘bias’ against Zuma=


 * Vukani Mde, Political Correspondent**

THE media had “massacred” axed former South African deputy president Jacob Zuma and prejudged his guilt on the rape charges he is facing in the Johannesburg High Court, South African Communist Party (SACP) leader Blade Nzimande said yesterday.

Nzimande was addressing the media in Johannesburg following a meeting of the party’s central committee this weekend.

“The media has massacred comrade Jacob Zuma by trying him in public and finding him guilty before he even appeared in court,” he said.

Nzimande said the media’s bias against Zuma threatened the rule of law in SA as reporters ignored the principle that Zuma was presumed innocent until proven guilty.

Some newspapers had even broken the law in their reporting on Zuma’s rape trial, he said. Nzimande did not specify names, but the Sunday Independent and Beeld newspapers were both cited by the Centre for the Study of Violence and Reconciliation in a criminal complaint, following the two papers’ naming of Zuma’s accuser.

Zuma’s rape trial threatens to split the African National Congress-led tripartite alliance down the middle. The SACP and its labour ally, the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu), have had to walk a tightrope over the Zuma rape trial.

Both organisations are staunch supporters of Zuma and have stood by the embattled politician after he was fired and later charged with two counts of corruption last year.

Both have characterised Zuma’s corruption trial as “political” and Cosatu’s central committee last year called for the corruption charges against him to be dropped. However the rape charges against Zuma have made him a political liability for his allies and support from Cosatu and the party has been muted. Nzimande said the rape charges placed both Zuma and his accuser in an “extremely vulnerable position”.

“It is in the interests of both parties, and indeed of our liberation movement and our country, that a dignified process is allowed to proceed and that justice is done. We must not allow the reckless abuse of the rights of either comrade Zuma or the complainant.”

This followed media reports that sections of the crowd which gathered outside the court when Zuma appeared last week had hurled abuse at his accuser and pelted another woman, thought to be the accuser, with objects. But Nzimande said some of the “reckless rights abuse” came from “sections” of the media that had already pronounced Zuma guilty.

Zuma’s rape trial resumes on March 6.


 * From: http://www.businessday.co.za/articles/national.aspx?ID=BD4A157746**



=SACP to back ANC, but no 'blank cheque'=

The Star, Johannesburg, February 20, 2006

 * By Lee Rondganger**

The South African Communist Party will back the ANC in the coming local government elections - despite some fallouts.

The SACP central committee, which took the decision at the weekend, also discussed the "fallouts" - from the drawing up of ANC candidate lists to the re-demarcation of cross-border municipalities.

"We as the SACP are saying that we support the ANC, but we are not giving them a blank cheque," said SACP secretary-general Blade Nzimande.

Hundreds of ANC party members broke ranks recently after they were excluded from the candidate list and are contesting the election as independents.

In addition, the tripartite alliance is facing an uphill battle in municipalities such as Khutsong on the West Rand, where people have threatened to boycott the elections over the decision to incorporate the town into North West.

Residents have vowed to close down all voting station on March 1 and have closed the area to electioneering.

"The central committee believes there are some cases of legitimate concern. However, whatever the problems, we have made it very clear that we are not supporting any independent candidates. We also do not sanction any interference with the election process," Nzimande said.

Regarding the candidate list, he said it was clear there was manipulation, and he described the Khutsong cross-border dispute as being "clumsily handled" by officials

Nzimande said the party would be taking up the matters with its tripartite partners - the ANC and the Congress of SA Trade Unions (Cosatu) - saying despite their anger, people should still vote for the ruling ANC.

The SACP has slammed the media on how it has been handling the Jacob Zuma rape allegations, saying it had created a "dangerous precedent".

Nzimande said the media has violated Zuma's constitutional rights by trying him in the court of public opinion before he had "even appeared in a court of law".

The trial of the former deputy president, who is accused of raping a 31-year-old family friend, was just one of the issues raised at the SACPs central committee meeting at the weekend.

"The media assassinated Comrade Zuma. The principal of innocence until proven guilty has been violated and it undermines the rule of the law," he said.

Nzimande also lambasted the media for linking Zuma to the rape allegation and publishing his and the complainants name even before they appeared in court.

"Charges of this nature place both parties in an extremely vulnerable situation.

"We must not allow the reckless abuse of the rights of either Comrade Zuma or the complainant," Nzimande said.


 * From: http://www.thestar.co.za/index.php?fSectionId=129&fArticleId=3120896**

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