South Africa re-opens rare earth mines


VANRHYNSDORP, South Africa — The detritus of South Africa’s mining past rises like a ghost town from the arid expanses of the Namaqualand region: the apartheid-era hostels for black workers, and a distance away, the houses for white managers. Razor wire and warning signs block the mine shaft entrance, and rusty old equipment is heaped nearby.

South Africa re-opens rare earth mines

The ruins of old buildings at Steenkampskraal mine, abandoned in 1963 and now being turned into a rare earths mine. PHOTO BY: Erin Conway-Smith

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But a half-century after the Steenkampskraal mine was abandoned, it is returning to life.

The old buildings are being torn down, and buried beneath impermeable clay because of their radioactivity. The mine shaft is being restored, and the entire site brought up to environmental code.

Steenkampskraal, abandoned in 1963 when demand for thorium went bust, is being refurbished because of the modern need for rare earth minerals — the minute particles used in smartphones, high-tech weaponry, electric cars and a host of other electronics.

Crucially, rare earths are being mined here to challenge China’s dominance of the supply of these strategically important yet obscure elements.

China controls about 95 percent of the world’s available supply of rare earth minerals, driving the interest in remote mine sites such as this one in South Africa. Mining companies are seeking new supplies that can quickly enter the market, and effectively dilute China’s ability to control rare earth minerals for political gain.

Last year China halted its rare earth exports to Japan in a spat over disputed islands in the East China Sea — a move that also made the United States nervous, and determined to reduce its reliance on Chinese rare earths.

Great Western Minerals Group Ltd., a small company based in Saskatoon, Canada, is one of the many firms vying to provide an option to China — and is betting that it is faster to refurbish an old mine like Steenkampskraal than to start from scratch.

The Canadian company bought the mine from the South African company Rare Earth Extraction Co. Ltd. (Rareco), and is aiming to begin production by January 1, 2013, with an expected 5,000 tons of rare earth oxide a year. Currently, about 120,000 tons annually enter the world market.

“The site is cleared and mine refurbishment is well under way, with completion of the shaft refurbishment by year end,” said Jim Engdahl, president and chief officer of Great Western, in an email.

Another company, Luxemburg-based Frontier Rare Earths, is also building a mine in the Namaqualand, a semi-desert region stretching up South Africa’s West Coast that is famous for bursting into flowers every spring. Frontier’s Zandkopsdrift mine is located 60 miles north of Steenkampskraal.

Experts point out that rare earth minerals aren’t actually rare — it is just the processing of them that can be costly and difficult.

To that end, Great Western has announced a tentative agreement to develop a rare earth separation plant in the nearby town of Vrendendal, in a joint venture with Chinese company Ganzhou Qiandong Rare Earth Group Ltd., which has 20 years of operational experience in processing rare earth oxides and metals.

At Steenkampskraal, another problem is dealing with the past: the highly radioactive waste left behind when the mine was abandoned by an Anglo American subsidiary in the 1960s.

Steenkampskraal is among the most radioactive contaminated sites in the world – approaching the levels of Chernobyl and Fukushima, according to Robbie Louw, former managing director of Rareco and now a consultant to Great Western.

Staff and visitors to the site must wear blue plastic booties over their shoes, and clip dosimeters to their clothing, to measure radiation exposure.

Steenkampskraal is being brought up to current environmental standards — and, Louw said, the site is even being “overdesigned” in case environmental regulations are tightened in future.

But despite the difficulty of processing rare earth oxides, and challenges such as the radiation at Steenkampskraal, analysts have warned of the danger of a glut of the minerals eventually hitting the market because of the many international projects currently under development.

Vincent Mora, project director at Steenkampskraal, said speed is essential: companies that are in first, fast track and open first will have a significant advantage.

South Africa re-opens rare earth mines – November 27, 2011

New Dimensions in Agricultural Extension Management


I am honored to join you today to help launch the first U.S-India-Africa triangular training program on “New Dimensions in Agricultural Extension Management.” It is a true privilege to celebrate our new collaboration with the prestigious National Institute of Agricultural Extension Management (MANAGE). The occasion marks an important moment in the long history of food security collaboration between the United States and India. This event represents another important step in our ever broadening strategic partnership on global food security and nutrition.

English: Map of the world showing the location...

English: Map of the world showing the location of India and the United States of America. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

For more than half a century, scientists, engineers, and social innovators from India and the United States have worked side-by-side to address critical development challenges in food production, health, education, and energy. The best-known outcome of our collaboration is the “Green Revolution,” which swept across India and Southeast Asia between the 1940s and late 1970s. Together, India and the United States improved agricultural technologies, agricultural education, and agricultural research capacities and saved millions of lives here and around the world. I can think of few such powerful success stories in the history of development cooperation.

The Green Revolution relied upon a shared vision and shared goals. Food-deficient nations became more food secure after India and the United States worked together to sustain international collaborative engagements, increase investment in science and technology, and scale-up research breakthroughs. As the quality and quantity of food have significantly improved, hunger has declined. As farmers’ incomes have increased, women, children, and the most vulnerable have better access to the food necessary for their survival, and they can also invest in their children’s education. Targeted investments in food and nutrition security have helped bring millions out of poverty and hunger, and agriculture continues to be a key driver of growth and development today.

Now, India and the United States have another critical opportunity to work together. Despite the progress made since the Green Revolution, 870 million people still go to bed hungry every day, most of whom live in developing countries in Africa and Asia. Women, children, and the most vulnerable members of society are still the most adversely affected by hunger and poverty. Climate change is a growing global challenge, as are the related issues of shrinking natural resources, a decline in per capita cultivable land, and rising demands for food. Global partnerships, investments in research, and “game-changing” innovative solutions are needed to address these and similar challenges. Our joint collaboration over the last fifty years proves that solutions to address hunger and undernutrition are not beyond our reach.

The time to focus on food security and nutrition is now.

In the words of President Obama, “History teaches us that one of the most effective ways to pull people and entire nations out of poverty is to invest in their agriculture.” At the L’Aquila G8 Summit in 2009, President Obama focused the world’s attention to revive global investment in agricultural development to reduce global poverty. Stemming from that 2009 pledge, Feed the Future, the U.S. government’s global hunger and food security initiative, represents our contribution to the global commitment to address food and nutrition security and re-defines the way we work to address those issues around the world today. Feed the Future efforts are driven by country-led priorities and rooted in partnership with donor organizations, the private sector, and civil society to enable long-term success.

To reach the most vulnerable communities, the initiative focuses on smallholder farmers, particularly women, and supports partner countries in developing their agriculture sectors to spur economic growth, increase incomes, and reduce hunger and undernutrition. The initiative also aligns resources behind science, technology, and innovations that improve the access, availability, and use of food.

We are proud to work with India a strong partner related to Feed the Future initiative for at least three reasons. The first is history. India’s own trajectory of development is even more widely known than our historical collaboration in the Green Revolution. Indeed, India’s economic growth over the past few decades should be highlighted for helping lift tens of millions out of poverty. A second reason pertains to innovation. India is becoming a hub for low-cost, effective local innovations that can address complex development challenges, not just within the country, but also in developing countries around the world. The third reason is the future of development cooperation. Now more than ever before, India plays an important role as a development partner, as highlighted by the Millennium Alliance for global development inaugurated in 2011 by USAID, India’s Technology Development Board, and the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry. Significant government and private sector investments from India can help promote economic growth in neighboring and African countries. India and the United States, as partners, are in a strong position to leverage our combined experience, expertise, and resources to reduce global hunger.

Building on the historic legacy of cooperation between India and the United States during the Green Revolution, we are now working together to develop, test, and replicate transformative technologies as part of what President Obama has described as the “Evergreen Revolution.” In close collaboration with host country governments, both our countries have agreed to adapt and share innovations, technologies, and expertise to build capacity and extend food and nutrition security, initially in three countries: Kenya, Liberia, and Malawi.

Today, we celebrate another milestone in our strategic partnership with India with the triangular partnership here at MANAGE, which aims to improve agricultural productivity, strengthen agricultural value chains, and support market institutions in Kenya, Liberia, and Malawi. Through the training provided by MANAGE, 180 agriculture professionals from these three countries will be trained in India over the next two years. After their training, these professionals will go home with new networks, questions, and potential innovations to address their domestic challenges in food and nutrition security.

Other Feed the Future programs are designed to complement and scale-up the knowledge-sharing and technical capacity-building integral to the MANAGE training highlighted here today. For example, U.S. collaboration with the Rural Hubs of the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) seeks to overcome specific bottlenecks in agricultural value chains in the most difficult and underdeveloped areas of India. Together, the U.S. and CII will share “lessons learned” on modern technologies and methods of production with African farmers, who still struggle to access markets. Also, just last month, the U.S. and India launched another innovative program, called the “India-Africa Agriculture Innovations Bridge Program.” By sharing agricultural innovations, this “Bridge” aims to increase agricultural productivity in priority value chains, increase access to diverse and quality foods, and enhance climate resilience in agricultural production. All these programs have a common goal, namely: to share proven agriculture innovations from India’s private and public sector to address food insecurity, undernutrition, and poverty in the target African countries.

We have reason to anticipate promising results from our triangular engagement.

As landmark initiatives, the MANAGE training program, CII partnership, and the India-Africa Agriculture Innovations Bridge will at once pave the way for future partnerships between our two countries, and also serve as a model for strategic engagement on global food and nutrition security. Working together, we are determined to make significant progress toward ending hunger and poverty in our lifetimes, one step at a time.

Thank you for your attention.

Jonathan Shrier
Acting Special Representative, Office of Global Food Security
National Institute of Agricultural Extension Management (MANAGE)
Hyderabad, India
January 16, 2013

New Dimensions in Agricultural Extension Management Triangular Training Program

South Africa in ‘State of Anarchy’


South Africans should by now realize that the game is on…

South Africa in 'State of Anarchy'

Mines closing down, retrenchments are at the order of the day, the new CEO of Anglo-American being pushed to withdraw from SA, even Fitch now having downgraded the country and all the major banks, murders are increasing sharply. Huge industrial projects halted due to violent strike actions and even nursing colleges shutting down as a result of the the same. Strikes, riots, crime, murder, rape, corruption, are now all out of control and SA is in a state of anarchy. When a country’s police force is as corrupt and involved in murders and armed robberies as the criminals they are supposed to be fighting that country is in a state of anarchy.

Mining taxes will be driving mining companies from SA at an increased rate. More and more global companies are withdrawing, while most already have. In short SA is collapsing faster than ever before and we are now experiencing the prodromal effects of total collapse.

There is no doubt that Nelson Mandela‘s death is imminent, which is now known to be a serious concern at all levels as the trigger for revolution. It is the opportunity someone like Malema is waiting for. While Malema has been temporarily silenced by way of court actions, political marginalisation and financial strangulation it is an accepted fact that he still retains huge influence over the youth. The death of Mandela will see him rising to the fore in full force and we all know the consequences of the 1976 youth riots.

This country was stolen bankrupt five years ago already, the SA banks have been virtually bankrupt for the past four years plus. The inflation rate is at least ten times the “official” inflation rate. The Rand is under serious pressure, which is increasing by the day.

The PC game of the economists, called the JSE, would come crushing down like a stack of dominoes and we’ll see economists and brokers trying their hand at sky diving without parachutes from every skyscraper in every major centre.

Eskom is no longer able to keep up with the electricity demands of this country and once Eskom collapses African history will repeat itself in SA. The consequences being complete collapse of the currency followed by anarchy and that would be the end of SA for the next 30 to 40 years. If Eskom’s grid is to collapse both fuel and water supplies would be directly affected forcing transport to a halt.

While the actual violence would probably escalate to leak within the first six months, it should last no more than about two years before things simmer down, but the after effects of it would last decades as we have seen throughout Africa and South America over the years.

When this happens the first to close their doors are assurance and insurance companies and banks.

Armed gangs would pose a serious threat and people would be executed in public by the numbers. No street or suburb would be safe. It would be a fight for survival and a free for all. Hunger would drive the masses to the towns and cities and people would be killed for food and water.

The already collapsed health services would no longer exist. Medical supplies would grind to a halt. This is Africa, which means that churches and medical services would be prime targets. Gang rapes followed by ruthless death by torture would be the norm. The cities, and security complexes in particular, would be death traps.

The police and army would be useless and they would most probably partake rather than suppress the violence.

South Africa would turn into a blood bath making Syria and Iraq seem like a children’s playgrounds.

There is a good chance that Zuma maybe ousted in the very near future, but should Mandela die he would be toppled within days to a few weeks thereafter. No one would be able to stop this train from running away until it loses momentum and grinds to a halt by itself.

Doesn’t matter how we look at it and what who is trying to convince us otherwise, SA is heading this way and nothing and no one will stop or prevent it from happening.

South Africa has already stepped unto a pressure release landmine, someone just needs to lift their foot from the detonator.

Good luck, be safe, and be alert at all times.

South Africa in ‘State of Anarchy’

Anglo American pushed to quit South Africa


INTERNATIONAL investors have wasted no time putting pressure on new Anglo American CEO Mark Cutifani to cut the multinational miner’s exposure to South Africa.

Anglo American pushed to quit South Africa

Anglo American CEO Mark Cutifani. Picture: REUTERS

Anglo will this week announce its long-awaited platinum review, which could indicate what the group plans for its South African business. The results of a larger review of the entire group will be made public in June.

Anglo trades at a significant discount to the sum of its parts.

Many analysts believe the company could be worth 20% more if it broke off the South African side of the business.

Cutifani is said to have good relations with the government, nurtured during his five years as head of AngloGold Ashanti.

While the government and unions would have preferred a local CEO for Anglo, they praised Australian-born Cutifani’s ability as a mining leader.

Cutifani is also president of the SA Chamber of Mines.

As AngloGold CEO, Cutifani indicated his willingness to consider all options to unlock value for shareholders. He said recently that the option for AngloGold to spin off its South African options remained open.

About 37% of Anglo’s assets are based in SA, and generate roughly 50% of the group’s operating profit. Any asset closures or cuts from Anglo in SA would almost certainly see Cutifani lose favour with South African stakeholders, including its biggest shareholder, the Public Investment Corporation.

About 15% of Anglo American Platinum (Amplats) mines are unprofitable. All its mines in Rustenburg and some in Limpopo were hit by illegal, violent strikes in recent months. Anglo owns 77.3% of Amplats, which has about 55,000 workers.

Global bank HSBC said that due to political and social tension in SA Anglo shares traded at a discount greater than the value of its platinum holdings. The bank suggested a spin-out of Amplats to existing shareholders.

London-based Bernstein Research told investors: “We would like to see Anglo’s Achilles heel, platinum, divested either on its own or as part of a total divestment of South Africa.

“This would improve the group’s overall country risk exposure, and allow it to focus on more profitable metals and regions. The resultant ‘core’ Anglo American would be an attractive merger target for either Rio Tinto or ‘Glenstrata’ [a reference to the proposed merger between Glencore and Xstrata].”

Bernstein suggested Anglo cut at least 25% of its platinum supply portfolio to provide support for prices of platinum-group metals.

Bank of America Merrill Lynch said: “We think a break-up of Anglo American into a South African and non-South African vehicle could release value by removing the South African overhang from the group’s international assets.”

However, given Cutifani’s turnaround track record and his operational experience in SA, he seems more likely to opt to “right-size” and fix the platinum business while working to get the most from investments in Kumba Iron Ore and De Beers in coming years. Total divestment from SA would halve group free cash flow.

JP Morgan does not expect Cutifani to accept the likely political and labour fall-out from deep production cuts at Amplats before first trying to deliver operational improvement.

Cutifani said his focus would be on returns and margins, capital allocation and delivery.

“He is not a radical deal maker,” said UBS, noting that a South African divestment is unlikely in the near term.

It is not only Anglo’s South African assets that will keep Cutifani awake at night – there is also Minas-Rio to worry about.

According to Anglo, the estimated cost for the iron-ore project in Brazil has been raised at least five times from an initial $5.8bn to $8bn, owing to licensing delays and high cost inflation across the construction industry in Brazil. The group is busy with a detailed cost review of the Minas-Rio project.

Bank of America Merrill Lynch analyst Jason Fairclough has said that selling part of the project could unlock value for Anglo shareholders.

HSBC disagrees, noting that the market places very little value on this asset.

“Mining assets do tend to rise in value once uncertainties are removed,” the bank said.

“This operation has always held some promising aspects (low operating cost due to slurry pipeline for transport and relatively easy expandability once land access issues are resolved). Whilst it might be tempting to cut and run, fixing Minas-Rio is probably much easier than fixing Angloplats,” said HSBC.

Cutifani is also expected to deliver value from the De Beers, Los Bronces and Barro Alto investments.

Deutsche Bank said it expects a reshuffle of management early in Cutifani’s tenure.

“Anglo generally has a group and board strategy session in June; we would anticipate that this session and the interim results will be the timing for new announcements.”

HSBC recommended that Cutifani hold on to Amplats CEO Chris Griffith even if Amplats is cut from the larger Anglo fold.

BY LONI PRINSLOO, JANUARY 13 2013

Anglo American pushed to quit South Africa

Three reasons South Africa will fail


Ex British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher once said anybody who thought the ANC could govern country was living in cloud-cuckoo-land. Could anybody, at the time she said it, have imagined that nobody would deliver a more vivid demonstration of her claim, than the ANC itself.

In fact, delivering an account of the ANC’s failures, in as little as seventeen years, will likely take as many years – for not a day passes that South Africans are not bombarded with reams of inanities, clearly depicting the state-of-disaster South Africa has become, under the ANC’s governance.

Indeed, I herewith challenge anybody to name anything-, even if it is just one item of success that can be directly contributed to the ANC government – for if you can actually find something, you will be presented with thousands of failures in return. Where else, in the known universe, would such an entity remain in government..? Oops, I forgot.., Zimbabwe…

In passing: let me remind you, the ANC had little to do with the 2010 Soccer World Cup – it was managed from Europe; Sepp Blatter (a Swiss national) simply seized South Africa for a month. The Gautrain was conceived and designed in Europe. The SKA is simply foreign technology in a remote place and so on.

Sport in South Africa survives, not because of the ANC, but despite the ANC. Since 1994, South Africa has only performed in a sustainable manner, in water-sports, golf and rugby.

The ANC stuck its middle-finger down the throat of South African Soccer and demanded the 2010 SWC present an almost exclusively non-white team – the result was the greatest embarrassment in the history of the sport: i.e. the host being eliminated in the first round. In a bender of divine justice, similar to Jesse Owen’s achievements at the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin, was delivered the clearest signal conceivable to the fascism of South Africa’s current black-nationalist regime – this time, a crushing defeat at the “hands” of a near lily-white team…

Kindly do not quote, as a ‘post ‘94 ANC achievement’, anything to do with SARS and/or tax. The ANC does NOT generate tax money – it consumes it, seemingly in a glutinous destructive rage.

While there are places elsewhere in Africa nearing double percentage-point growth-rates, the South African economy is staggering along at less than 2% growth – a figure vehemently disputed by some, saying that in real terms, the South African economy is currently shrinking; e.g. all the signs point at it, citing time-on-time unemployment figures and -other key economic determinants.

The post-Polokwane-‘07 regime has managed to chase away 70% of the Foreign Direct Investment in less than two-and-a-half years (the effects now catching up with the economy). The crippling effects of near insane increases in energy costs – while the country is tiptoeing on the edge of the abyss of rolling black-outs (likely a struggling economy’s death knell), Escom is partying up a (lightning)-storm and giving its executives record salaries and increases.

In summary – the ANC’s modus operandi is simple: take from the white minority and pay the black majority to keep them in power. I am not the first one to raise this actuality, great minds like Moeletsi Mbeki, have done it before. While the aforementioned mores is justified by a near demonic entitlement – viz, as Adolf Hitler presented a “biblical promise” of a thousand-year rule, the ANC delivered the same psychotic delusions, with their “we will rule till Jesus comes” lunacy – a folly that has crippled South Africa at every level of functionality, yet in a rage of overwhelming delusion the ANC continues to celebrate “victory” (even presenting a fictional “battle” that never even happened).

A delusional rage that is slurped up by the largely illiterate- and/or unemployed masses who firmly believe it is their birthright to “take from white people” – spurred on by their spear-dangling DIC-tator, who earlier this year pledged to [verbatim quote] “aggressively” [unquote] remove white South African’s share of the economy, a share that is current less than 20% (of the economy). But as history will attest, the parasitic rage of the communist-vampire will not stop, until its host is sucked bone dry – that is before the monster turns on itself…

As one of the most obese governments on earth, the relevant ANC officials live in a TAX-(funded) HEAVEN, consisting of high-speed convoys-of-destruction featuring Europe’s finest vehicles, private airliners flying in fuel-gulping dual formations to convey a single person to the other side of the earth, seven-course-meals on demand, even an entire private town to be built in honour of the functionally Illiterate Spear-of-the-Nation and his King-Solomon-like bevy of “traditional” wives (one can only image, in horrid trepidation, what the gate-pillars will resemble) and so on.

All of this, while the vast majority of the people who keep the ANC in government, live on less than what one of them splurge out on a suit (often while on a tax-sponsored frenzy in 5th Avenue New York; also known as the land of the “evil imperialist”) – paid for by tax-payers who largely do not even vote for them. A situation so desperate, the USA (in turn) has to rush over to the country (e.g. led by Hillary Clinton’s current visit), to rescue South Africa’s education system and to deliver the critical commonsense (currently lacking) to create real jobs in South Africa, while “The Spear” is frolicking around exotic islands.

Kindly note: the USA has a GDP/capita that is nearly five times (5 x) greater than that of South Africa. Yet the despotic nationalist (ANC) regime, keeps ululating to the whims of the little yellow-and-red flagged critters (i.e. China) – with a GDP/capita that is (more than) 30% LESS than even that of South Africa. Frightening is it not..?

Very few people in South Africa understand the fundamental concept of “TAX”. Tax is not simply an unconditional payment. The only “unconditional” payments are THEFT.

Tax money is handed to a government in good faith – by-and-large, if not exclusively, to deliver collective services that cannot-, or cannot efficiently be achieved by individual entities.

A simple example is street light – one person cannot put up street lights, as everybody uses the street, so money is placed in a ‘pool’ and it is used for collective services. Anything else is THEFT – tax money belongs to the PUBLIC, notably the de facto tax-paying public (e.g. NOT those “tax-payers” who work for the state, the government, municipalities, state-owned-, or semi-state-owned companies, BEE-companies surviving on state-tenders, etc – they simply regurgitate tax-money). The tax-regime conceptually functions/exists in exactly the same manner as that of the body-corporate of a sectional title community/building.

The inconvenient reality is: should the tax-paying community of a country decide to stop paying tax, there is fundamentally nothing the government can do – largely as the ‘government’ needs the very same income to acquire its wherewithal. I.o.w. basically a self-perpetuating incongruity.

Governments will naturally NEVER admit this absolute vulnerability and will use a plethora of methods to intimidate-, indoctrinate (etc) people to continue to pay tax. Imagine a government jailing all its tax-payers – it can NEVER happen.

The South African case must be a tax-base that is one of the most unique in the world. I do not have the exact figures, but South Africa must be the only place on earth, where MORE THAN 80% of the bona fide tax-paying public (refer to the exclusions in brackets in the relevant paragraph above) do not vote for the ruling party. While the vast majority, who vote for the ruling party, contribute little (if not essentially nothing) to the tax-income of the country – viz. one relevant figure I do have: around 70% of the people who vote for the ANC are unemployed.

Shall I remind you that the most prolific country that the world has ever seen – the USA (a place that is younger than South Africa and one that has travelled further than any known being), was built on the ethos – ‘NO TAXATION WITHOUT REPRESENTATION’.

The ANC has left in its wake a plethora of ventures that could only be messed-up by the absolute hopeless – e.g. Telkom (how do you mess up an unmitigated monopoly that is near unconditionally guaranteed? Telkom is now such a desperate mess it wants to withdraw from the stock exchange), SAA (once the greatest airline in the world), Universities (once amongst the most revered academic institutions in the world – now manage little more than ILLITERATE GRADUATES, just ask the Law Society of South Africa), Hospitals (epic institutions that saw some the world’s greatest medical achievements – e.g. the first heart-transplant in history, now little more than macabre medieval slaughterhouses, crawling with Cuban hand-me-downs), etcetera, etcetera, etcetera…

THIS IS THE FIRST REASON SOUTH AFRICA WILL FAIL – the ANC takes money from hard-working people and have nothing to show for it.

It is however the latest governmental inanity, of grand proportions, that now warrants ‘special’ mention.

The South African Local Government Association (Salga) is an idiosyncratic oddity that is probably unique to South Africa. Few hard-working South Africans who make a bona fide contribution to the country’s economy have ever heard of this peculiar public entity. An entity created under Section 21 of the Companies Act (1973) – it is the Minister of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs’s [GOVSA] “Court Jester” and was formed in terms of the Organised Local Government Act 52 of 1997.

Salga represents local government on numerous intergovernmental forums such as the President’s Coordinating Council, Minister and MEC’s forum, the Budget Forum, the National Council of Provinces and the Financial and Fiscal Commission. However, nobody really understands why Salga is necessary or what its value-adding mandate is – this however has not stopped its tax-leeching existence (either directly from a national government grant or indirectly from e.g. membership fees). It appears to be, in some ways, the ANC government’s own union – as bizarre as it sounds (not that peculiarities has ever stopped the ANC regime).

It is worth noting here that the Department of GOVSA is comfortably one of the greatest disasters in an already disastrous ANC government. It presides over rampant non-compliance, corruption of endemic proportions, collapsing- to non-existent infrastructure (including structures that collapsed almost upon completion, by virtue of entities like SGL Engineering, On-Point Engineers and such – distinguished by a certain “director” who took twenty-one years to fail Woodwork), absenteeism so vast it is impossible to quantify, incompetence beyond even the worst nightmare – often openly admitted with flagrant “so what” entitlement, fiscal losses of epic proportions, etc, etc, etc.

E.g. GOVSA (in March 2011) regarded 8 out of 32 unqualified audits as “…an improvement…” – i.e. one quarter – where else in the world would a three-quarters failure-rate be regarded as good enough..? Except naturally a place starting with “Z”…

GOVSA’s rampant disconnection from reality is eagerly led by another one of the ANC regime’s big spender – Richard Baloyi. He who spent R360 000 on car rentals, on 21 occasions, for “unavoidable” reasons – obviously a good enough reason, certainly at more than R17000 a shot. Following his impeccable example, his deputy Ayanda Dlodlo did the same on 18 occasions, at a cost of R205 000 – at more than R11000 a shot, she made sure she did not threaten her bosses score per ‘shot’…

Another (rare in this case) oddity in the ANC is auditor-general Terence Nombembe. Recently Nombembe delivered a report to parliament that estimated 70% of municipal officials were not qualified to perform their duties.

At this point, it worth pointing at Act no 12 of 2004 – The Prevention and Combating of Corrupt Actions – believe it or not, assented to, by a president of an ANC government, in April 2004 (not on the 1st, smart-****).

In CHAPTER 2 – named “OFFENCES IN RESPECT OF CORRUPT ACTIVITIES”, Part 2: “Offences in respect of corrupt activities relating to specific persons”, under the heading “Offences in respect of corrupt activities relating to public officers”, it states,
[verbatim – from line no 50] – “4. (1) Any – (a) public officer, who directly or indirectly, accepts or agrees or offers to accept any gratification from any other person, whether for the benefit of himself or herself or for the benefit of ANOTHER PERSON…”

Then,
“…in order to act, personally or by influencing another person so to act, in a manner…
(ii) that amounts to
(aa) the abuse of a position of authority;
(bb) a breach of trust; or
(cc) the violation of … a set of rules;
(iii) designed to achieve an unjustified result…
is guilty of the offence of corrupt activities relating to public officers.
(2) … “to act” in subsection (1) Includes –
(b) performing or not adequately performing any official functions…”

Not only is 70% incompetence an overwhelmingly unbelievable figure – in any ‘book’, anywhere on earth (bar perhaps Z…) – appointing- and/or allowing such a person to continue- and/or aiding- and/or assisting such a person, is by definition a corrupt activity (i.o.w. corruption).
Act no 12, 2004, gives the prosecuting authority the power to imprison somebody for life (take note Woodwork students – start practicing your ‘Boeremag’ anthems, you could be sharing a close proximity with some unlikely friends – till Jesus comes…).

Following Terence Nombembe revelation, the cabinet instructed COVSA’s Minister (Richard Baloyi) to ensure municipalities employ suitably qualified financial officers – a somewhat impotent response to what is potentially a very serious matter, nevertheless..,

Into the fray steps Salga’s CEO Xolile George, to quickly expose cabinet’s ‘response’ for what it really is – viz ineffectual lip-service.

Nobody (that matters) really knows who Xolile George is, but he quickly poured ice cold water (midst country-wide snowfalls for the first time in recorded history) on the instruction from cabinet, by saying that the inefficient workers were contractual obligations for the municipalities and cannot be let go. He then proceeded to say: “…Our appetite is not to fire people but to capacitate them…”

STAGGERING..!

I trust Xolile George can grasp that he is potentially an accessory to corruption. But I guess he does not grasp this verity and nor do the ANC. In fact the entire ANC regime is not only impervious to the extent- and de facto meaning of corruption, it is wholly oblivious. The examples are overwhelming – I have merely elaborated on one ‘interesting’ example.

THE SECOND REASON SOUTH AFRICA WILL FAIL under the ANC – it has “incapacitated” itself to address incompetence, corruption and alike.

The thrid reason is courtesy of one the greatest literary minds of our time – Ilana Mercer (a citizen of the USA, notably so, as the ANC’s destruction of South Africa is increasingly being recognised on the global stage).

As a classical liberal writer she has written one of the greatest- and probably most complete dissertations on post-Apartheid South Africa – in many ways, of Apartheid South Africa. Her book “Into the Cannibal’s Pot: Lessons For America From Post-Apartheid South Africa.” is a script that is a minimum requirement for ANYBODY who values a future in South Africa (and for that matter the USA) – notably for their children- and theirs. Read it – I urge you.

She has written a number of essays on South Africa (particularly post-1994 South Africa), but for the purposes here, I will refer to her article titled “Clueless in South Africa with Mrs. Obama”

It touches on the ANC’s obligatory sophism – viz “BLAME WHITES FOR EVERYTHING”, from sun-spots to old-age homes…

Ilana cites Jim Peron, a US expat, as she notes, “…idealism drove him to decamp to post-apartheid South Africa…”. Peron says: “Every time something goes wrong (and that happens constantly), the same litany of excuses is recited. ‘We inherited this problem from the corrupt apartheid regime.’…”

She follows by stating “…There’s one pesky problem with this particular blame-game: South Africa’s flourishing criminal class consists mainly of youngsters who’ve come of age and blossomed under black rule…”

Then she states another inconvenient verity: “…minority-ruled South Africa, with all its problems, offered Africans more than any other country on the Dark Continent…”.

As such she further notes another uncomfortable fact “…While black Africa and East Europe circled the drain due to communism, South Africa was experiencing an economic explosion, courtesy of the National Party’s relatively conservative economics. An oasis in the African desert, South Africa’s… …economy grew at an annual rate of six percent during the 1960s…”.

Presenting more substance not fitting well into the ANC’s “sheep-suit” that blames everything on WHITE APARTHEID, Ilana notes:
“…In his submission to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, F. W. de Klerk, who received a Nobel Peace prize for surrendering South Africa to the ANC, corrected the record.

Apartheid was not only about white privilege but also about development and redistribution of income from whites to blacks. The economy had grown by an average of 3.5 percent per year under apartheid, the black school population grew by 250 percent in the first twenty-five years of apartheid, and the black share of total personal income had nearly doubled from twenty percent in the mid-1970s to thirty seven percent in 1995, while that of whites declined from seventy one to forty nine percent.” As bad as the Bantu Education system was, it vastly improved black literacy.

Twelve years into the Nationalist government’s rule, the rate of literacy among the Bantu of South Africa was already higher than that of any other state in Africa, or that of India…”

It is worth noting that the gains in the literacy of black South Africans during almost five decades of apartheid, has been all but eradicated by the ANC regime, in as little as one-and-a-half decades.

Then she gives a brief overview of the vast improvements in health-care and life-expectancy of black South Africans under apartheid. A day will come when history will show that the apartheid government took better care of black people than the regime elected under (so-called) “democracy”.
She concludes by saying “…By staving off crime and communism, the apartheid regime, a vast repressive apparatus though it was, saved black South Africans from an even worse moral and material fate…”

THIS IS THE THIRD REASON SOUTH WILL FAIL under the ANC regime – viz the convenient proxy apartheid offers for reality…

By Claudia Meads

SourceThree reasons South Africa will fail

U.S. Support to Regional Efforts to Counter the Lord’s Resistance Army


U.S. Support to Regional Efforts to Counter the Lord’s Resistance Army.

Fact Sheet
Office of the Spokesperson
Washington, DC

March 23, 2012


In May 2010, President Obama signed into law the Lord’s Resistance (LRA) Disarmament and Northern Uganda Recovery Act, which reaffirmed the U.S. commitment to support regional partners’ efforts to end the atrocities of the LRA in central Africa. For more than two decades, the LRA has murdered, raped and kidnapped tens of thousands of innocent men, women and children. In 2011, the LRA reportedly committed over 250 attacks. The United Nations estimates that over 465,000 people were displaced or living as refugees across Central African Republic (CAR), the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), and South Sudan as a result of LRA activity in 2011.

The United States’ comprehensive, multi-year strategy seeks to help the governments of Uganda, CAR, the DRC, and South Sudan as well as the African Union and United Nations to mitigate and end the threat posed to civilians and regional stability by the LRA. The strategy outlines four key objectives for U.S. support: (1) the increased protection of civilians, (2) the apprehension or removal of Joseph Kony and senior LRA commanders from the battlefield, (3) the promotion of defections and support of disarmament, demobilization, and reintegration of remaining LRA fighters, and (4) the provision of continued humanitarian relief to affected communities.

The national militaries in the region have made progress in reducing the LRA’s numbers and in keeping them from regrouping. However, there are significant challenges in pursuing small groups of LRA and protecting local populations across this vast, densely-forested area that lacks basic road and telecommunications infrastructure. The United States has sent a small number of military advisers to the LRA-affected region to enhance the capacity of the national militaries to pursue senior LRA commanders and to protect civilians. The U.S. embassies in the region are also working closely with bilateral and multilateral partners to advance the overall strategy, and the Department of State has deployed a field representative to augment this engagement.

The lines of effort in which the United States is engaged include:

Increasing Civilian Protection

The protection of civilians is a priority for the U.S. strategy. National governments bear responsibility for civilian protection, and the United States is working to enhance their capacity to fulfill this responsibility. The United States also strongly supports the United Nations peacekeeping missions in the DRC and South Sudan and the United Nations Integrated Peacebuilding Office in the CAR. We continue to work with the United Nations to help augment its efforts in the LRA-affected region. At the same time, we are working with other partners on projects to help reduce the vulnerability of LRA-affected communities and increase their capacity to make decisions related to their own safety. To promote the protection of civilians, the Department of State and USAID are funding communication networks, including high-frequency radios and cell phone towers, to enhance community-based protection in Bas- and Haut-Uélé districts in the DRC. USAID is also funding a Community Radio Correspondents Network in CAR to increase the availability of accurate information on LRA activities and general livelihoods for citizens.

Enhancing Regional Efforts to Apprehend LRA Top Commanders

On November 14, 2011, the United Nations Security Council commended ongoing efforts by national militaries in the region to address the threat posed by the LRA, and welcomed international efforts to enhance their capacity in this respect. The Council noted the efforts of the United States, which, since 2008, has provided nearly $50 million in critical logistical support, equipment and training to enhance counter-LRA operations by regional militaries. On October 14, 2011, President Obama reported to Congress that he had authorized a small number of U.S. advisors to deploy to the LRA-affected region, in consultation with national governments, to act as advisors to the militaries that are pursuing the LRA. The U.S. military advisors are working to help strengthen cooperation and information-sharing among regional forces, and to enhance the capacity of the militaries to fuse intelligence with effective operational planning.

Encouraging and Facilitating LRA Defections

Over the course of this conflict, more than 12,000 former LRA fighters and abductees have been reintegrated and reunited with their families through Uganda’s Amnesty Commission. The United States continues to support efforts across the affected countries to demobilize and reintegrate former LRA fighters and all those victimized by this conflict back into normal life. In Fiscal Year 2011, USAID provided nearly $2 million to support the rehabilitation of former abducted youth in CAR and the DRC and their reunification with their families. The United States is working with the United Nations, the African Union, and national governments in the region to enhance processes across the region to facilitate the safe return, repatriation, and reintegration of those who defect or escape from the LRA’s ranks.

Providing Humanitarian Assistance

The United States is the largest bilateral donor of humanitarian assistance to LRA-affected populations in CAR, the DRC, and South Sudan. In Fiscal Year 2011, the United States provided more than $18 million to support the provision of food assistance and implementation of food security, humanitarian protection, health, livelihoods initiatives, and other relief activities for internally displaced persons, host community members, and other populations affected by the LRA. The United States also continues to provide assistance to support the return of displaced people, reconstruction, and recovery in northern Uganda, where the LRA carried out its brutal campaign for nearly two decades until it fled Uganda in 2006. In Fiscal Year 2011, the United States provided approximately $102 million to support programming in health, education, water and sanitation, infrastructure, local governance and peace and reconciliation in northern Uganda. With the LRA’s departure and Ugandan and international recovery and development efforts, northern Uganda has undergone a significant post-conflict reconstruction and recovery in just a few years.

PRN: 2012/447

Source – U.S. Support to Regional Efforts to Counter the Lord’s Resistance Army