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IOL News
6 days ago
- Business
- IOL News
Cosatu warns One Stop Border Bill's silence on illegal migration and exports threatens jobs
The Oshoek border post. In a Time Release Study (TRS) conducted jointly by the South African Revenue Service and the Eswatini Revenue Service last year, the turnaround time for trucks exporting cargo to Eswatini at the Oshoek/Ngwenya port of entry in Mpumalanga had been reduced from 1 hour 42 minutes to just 10 minutes. Image: Timothy Bernard/Independent Newspapers Cosatu has said the proposed One Stop Border Bill's silence on the uncontrolled explosion of illegal migration and exports flooding into South Africa threatens local jobs, businesses, value chains, and revenue needed to fund public services. This is as the federation also criticised the Department of Home Affairs' reneging on an agreement to table the Bill at Nedlac for engagement with social partners. In submissions to the Portfolio Committee on Home Affairs on the One Stop Border Bill on Tuesday, Cosatu, along with the Catholic Parliamentary Liaison Office, raised concerns about the rampant corruption at various border posts. Cosatu Parliamentary spokesperson Matthew Parks said administrative areas of concern included the silence on specific roles of the Border Management Agency (BMA), South African Revenue Service (Sars), the South African Police Service, and the SA National Defence Force. Parks said the respective legislative mandates need to be affirmed, upheld, and stated clearly in the Bill to ensure attempts by the BMA to usurp the constitutional role of Sars or any other separate state institution are not allowed to happen, even by default, as well as to control corruption at the border posts. "We are worried by the impression created by the Bill that it seeks to fast-track the movement of goods at border posts. This may have the unintended consequence of telling Border Management Authority and Sars officials at the border posts to waive collecting customs due to the state. Collection of customs duties is not merely to ensure the state receives taxes due to it, but also to ensure tariffs put in place to protect fragile local industries, businesses, value chains, and jobs are enforced," Parks said. Parks warned that the government should not be in the business of undermining Nedlac, as it makes the life of stakeholders and parliamentarians easier when issues are presented with already agreed-upon resolutions. "There is real value in Nedlac. As Business and as Labour, we share many values about fixing the state capacity to provide quality public services that labour and businesses require, and economic growth is linked to this. We are having engagement at Nedlac to build that cohesive state and social partners to build those social compacts," Parks said. Cosatu also warned against expediting the process of opening up the country to goods and people without proper safeguards, citing the 1990s when the country opened its borders too quickly for goods, and hence a flood of Chinese T-shirts, goods, and clothes caused 100 000 job losses overnight. "If we struggle as a country to enforce controls at our borders, be it land, sea, or air, how much more the other countries? We had issues under the Southern African Customs Union that T-shirts are allegedly produced in Malawi, Eswatini, etc. We know, relatively or not, they are produced in China, but some local supplier within this country just sold a label that says 'Made in Eswatini,'" Parks said. In a Time Release Study (TRS) conducted jointly by Sars and the Eswatini Revenue Service last year, the turnaround time for trucks exporting cargo to Eswatini at the Oshoek/Ngwenya port of entry in Mpumalanga had been reduced from 1 hour 42 minutes to just 10 minutes, and the import of similar cargo has seen the time spent at the border slashed from 42 minutes to 10 minutes. The study helped identify bottlenecks that led to long delays at the border crossing, as plans were afoot to have a one-window experience for truck drivers processing freight. BUSINESS REPORT Visit:
Daily Maverick
25-05-2025
- Politics
- Daily Maverick
Violent crime – South Africa's long-running sore exposed in Trump meeting
The Oval Office mugging of President Cyril Ramaphosa by US President Donald Trump brought many issues in our society to light. Chief among them is crime. While it is right to decry Trump's lies and the use of our problems for his purposes, it still exposes the complete lack of urgency in dealing with them. Many people would have felt several emotions watching Trump berate President Cyril Ramaphosa on Wednesday evening. Frustration might well have been the first and overwhelming response. Also, there would been anger at someone lying about us, literally to our face, and Trump's refusal to accept that he was lying. But underneath that, perhaps for many people, was a sense of deep unease. The stuff about our society that we prefer to forget, that we prefer to hide, was being aired on international TV for all to see. Crime and violence have been such big elements in our society for so long that it is easy to forget how bad it really is. Last week, days before National Police Commissioner Fannie Masemola announced that the murder rate had declined in the first three months of this year, the home of Eastern Cape Premier Oscar Mabuyane was burgled. Among the goods stolen was sound equipment, including a soundbar. Reports suggest that police officers were on the property at the time, as you would expect at the private home of a premier. Somehow, someone was able to smuggle what is usually a long and heavy piece of equipment past the front gate. What is most amazing about this is that the news report was hardly discussed. While it was a busy news week, you would expect a robbery like this to incite massive discussion. Instead, the reaction of many people, if they heard about it at all, was not to even shrug their shoulders. While violent crime has become so normalised that township residents organise their own 'walking buses' to taxi ranks in the cold of our winter mornings, and community groups arrange their own patrols at night, we still expect our economy to grow. How can anyone expect our economy to grow and create jobs when business owners are literally under siege from violence? Would you, after watching the President, Cosatu leader Zingiswa Losi and Johann Rupert explaining our violent crime to the US, invest in South Africa? Would it be the place where you put someone else's pension money? Lacking legitimacy Of course, the roots of this run deep. Because the police were used first by colonial authorities, then the apartheid government, to enforce unjust rules, we have never had a police service with proper legitimacy. Over the years, senior police officers have both been used by politicians, and used politicians, to the point that it is almost accepted (who can forget how Richard Mdluli once wrote a letter to then president Jacob Zuma saying that he would help him win the ANC's Mangaung conference). In KwaZulu-Natal, a province with both a very high murder rate and high levels of political contestation, the violence monitor Mary de Haas has consistently explained how the police are politicised. In her view, this has been the case since long before 1994. While President Cyril Ramaphosa and others in his national coalition claim that their first priority is to grow the economy and create jobs, they appear to forget how important dealing with crime is to this. Of course, one underpins the other. A lack of jobs leads to more violence, more violence leads to fewer jobs. While our society will be difficult to police for several generations to come, it is important to notice that not a single ANC leader has made crime the priority it should be. While Thabo Mbeki consistently underplayed its importance (he and his ministers at the time appeared to suggest white people were complaining too much about crime), others, such as Zuma and Ramaphosa, have made promises at various times. But none has spoken consistently about crime or made it a focal point of a campaign. Considering how many millions of voters live under the threat of a violent death for themselves and their children, this is an oddity. It suggests that perhaps these leaders believe that they have no control over the problem, that nothing they do could make a difference. Politics and patronage In the minds of some voters, there may also be the perception that some politicians are linked to crime in some ways … or that our politicians are simply too scared to act. Consider the case of Zuma. His lawyers once said in court that if he were jailed again, the violence that followed his arrest in 2021 would be repeated. It was a clear indication that there was a link between him and the violence that killed more than 300 people. Despite big promises, there have been virtually no consequences for those who were responsible for what happened. Worse, it was clear even as the orchestrated violence was happening that there would be no consequences. Zuma did it because he knew he would get away with it. This leads to the suspicion that among the reasons for this is that Ramaphosa, or some around him, feel it would be politically dangerous to prosecute Zuma … or even investigate him. Of course, the fact that our criminal justice system has been unable to win convictions against those accused, so publicly, of corruption during the State Capture era also adds to the culture of impunity. The problems may go even deeper. In 2023, Masemola suspended the Mpumalanga Police Commissioner Daphney Manamela, after it emerged she had received gifts from police officers. From legal papers (she challenged his intention to suspend her), it emerged she had encouraged personnel at police stations to give her gifts (of up to R60,000 in one case) because she was the first woman police commissioner in the province. If you were a police officer, putting your life on the line daily to help people, and then asked to contribute from your meagre salary to give a Smeg toaster to someone who is paid more than you, how would you react? This is an astonishing illustration of how some senior officers treat other police officers. Cultural shift required All of this suggests that to get on top of crime, much needs to change. Current police minister Senzo Mchunu has given every indication that he is determined to make this change happen. However, his powers are limited – he has no day-to-day control of the police and can only provide some form of oversight. What is needed is a comprehensive and determined effort. It would need to involve all politicians, all community leaders, virtually everyone. It would also have to include a comprehensive change in the police, not just in terms of management, but culture. Unfortunately, despite the very real political gain (among so many other goods to our society) that could come from this, it appears almost certain that no political party will lead this effort. Thus, we are doomed to bring up yet more generations under the threat of the most ghastly violence. DM
Daily Maverick
25-05-2025
- Politics
- Daily Maverick
‘Diplomatic doors were opened again,' says Cosatu president after ‘nerve-racking' meeting with Trump
When President Cyril Ramaphosa gave Zingiswa Losi an opportunity to speak, she delivered a firm rebuttal to Trump's lies about land expropriation in South Africa and violence against white farmers, making the point that South Africa did not have a race but a crime issue. Zingiswa Losi, the president of the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) was roped in at the eleventh hour to be a part of the South African delegation that met US President Donald Trump in Washington last week. After a flight that took nearly 20 hours, she was informed by the Presidency that only seven SA officials could attend the meeting in the White House, which meant she and Adrian Gore, the Discovery CEO and deputy president of Business Unity South Africa, would be excluded. 'I fought and I said, 'Never, I am not accepting it. Money has been spent for me to come and be a part of a meeting; I did not come here to sit at a hotel; I did not come for a Washington jol.' I said, 'Whether I go in as part of the security or what, make a plan,'' Losi told Daily Maverick. After some negotiating, Losi was able to attend the meeting. She said she cringed when Trump called for a video to be played and made unfounded claims of a genocide of white farmers in South Africa. 'It was nerve-racking. But also, for me, there was that irritation of the lies being repeated, and I was wondering if we would ever get an opportunity to state our side of the story, the real story of South Africa. I was eager for us to get to that point.' When President Cyril Ramaphosa gave Losi an opportunity to speak, she delivered a firm rebuttal to Trump's lies about land expropriation in South Africa and violence against white farmers, making the point that South Africa did not have a race but a crime issue. 'For me, it was two things [that needed to be done]: to speak about trade and to demystify this white genocide. I said to myself, 'If I can illustrate that there is no white genocide and paint a picture of what was happening in South Africa… 'I felt we were not having that conversation, and I needed to remind ourselves of why we are here.' Although Trump often interjected and was dismissive of what was being said, Losi said that Ramaphosa 'helped us in his demeanour of managing the situation very well. He was very calm about it.' After the media briefing concluded, Losi said the delegation went on to a closed meeting, which proceeded smoothly. Objectives achieved 'We achieved the objectives of the meeting. When we went to the lunch meeting, the issue of genocide, the issue of [South Africa's case against Israel at the International Court of Justice] never arose. The only issue at the table was the resetting of the relationship between the two nations.' In April 2025, the Trump administration introduced a 10% baseline tariff on all imports, with South African goods facing a rate of 30%. The decision was expected to have a negative impact on South African exports to the US, such as vehicles, precious metals, machinery and citrus fruit. 'It was us going back on the trade issues, and also President Trump even conceded that you can't ignore South Africa; he conceded that we must continue now engaging, even on the issue of Agoa [African Growth and Opportunity Act], on the issue of tariffs.' Losi said relations between South Africa and the US had soured, pointing to various incidents, including the expulsion of South African ambassador Ebrahim Rasool. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio declared Rasool 'persona non grata' in a post on X. He called Rasool a 'race-baiting politician who hates Trump and hates America' because of remarks Rasool made in a webinar. Losi said the issue had not been managed through diplomatic channels. She pointed to challenges experienced by her sector in trying to meet with policy officials. 'That team had difficulty even in meeting policy people in Washington. They tried, they managed, but it could not be in the offices, it had to be in restaurants — that's how hostile it was.' Previously, Trump and senior officials in his administration stated they would not attend the G20 summit in Johannesburg from 22-23 November. However, during the talks, Ramaphosa urged him to reconsider his decision. 'I want to hand over the presidency of the G20 to President Trump in November, and I said he needs to be there. I don't want to hand over the presidency of the G20 to an empty chair. He is going to give serious consideration to it. In fact, I expect him to be coming to South Africa,' said Ramaphosa. Losi said that during the closed meeting, Trump said he would attend the meeting. 'So, the diplomatic doors were opened again.' DM
Eyewitness News
25-05-2025
- Politics
- Eyewitness News
Africa Day: Calls for unity and solidarity across continent grow louder
JOHANNESBURG - As we commemorate Africa Day, calls for unity and solidarity across the continent are growing louder. In Johannesburg, civil society groups and unions took to the streets to mark the occasion. Dozens of organisations, including Cosatu, Lawyers for Human Rights, and the Palestine Solidarity Alliance, marched from Mary Fitzgerald Square in Newtown to Constitution Hill in Braamfontein on Saturday. The demonstration called for stronger African cooperation and an end to growing xenophobia on the continent. Africa Day, celebrated annually on 25 May, marks the formation of the organisation of African Unity, later succeeded by the African Union, and the liberation of African nations from colonial rule. In South Africa, it also serves as a reminder of the country's fight against apartheid. Mining union leader Mametlwe Sebei says the day is a reminder of how far the continent has come, and how much more must still be done. "To emphasise the oneness of the continent and its people and that is much more important today than before in the context of a surge in rising populism and xenophobic scapegoating of African migrants and others who have been scapegoated of all the problems faced by the working class as a result of the crisis of capitalism and imperialism." More commemorative events are expected across the country today.
TimesLIVE
22-05-2025
- Politics
- TimesLIVE
Trump's lies rile SA: was Ramaphosa's rebuttal enough?
Political analyst Khaya Sithole sees progress after the meeting but noticed the gaps, saying, 'The response to the white genocide claims was the difficult part because it is not anchored on facts, but what was important about the conversation is that until now we had no idea what formed the basis for Trump's statements and utterances. There were speculations,' he said. 'What was really missing was a very clear denunciation of the genocide conversations by those that Trump takes more seriously than others; those would have been the golfers, John Steenhuisen and, as it turned out, Johann Rupert, but progress was made.' Sanusha Naidu, from the Institute for Global Dialogue, praises Ramaphosa's strategic restraint. 'I think they were as effective as they could be given the context in which these claims were being made and the mindset of the person making the claims. Obviously, what was very difficult to do, was try to get the US president to accept that he could be wrong and that is not what anybody could achieve ... once President Trump is set on an idea and view, he doesn't back down,' she said. 'The SA Presidency, the delegation in particular, the president, handled it very well. He handled it with maturity, it was measured, it was understood what they were going to do.' Business tycoon Rupert was part of the delegation. He told Trump crime in South Africa happened across the board — everyone is affected. 'It was a good playbook, the playbook was very critical because Ramaphosa knew you were never going to convince him [Trump] otherwise ... but you now created a doubt in his mind. President Ramaphosa knows how to play this game; it's the long waiting game and he can frustrate you because you're not getting a reaction out of him,' said Naidu. Human rights lawyer Yasmin Sooka is less optimistic. 'It was quite a shock that we needed three white men to save us, none of whom rebutted the claims of persecution and genocide and it reminded me so much of the late president [FW] De Klerk who never said apartheid was a crime against humanity,' she said. Sooka warns of global repercussions: 'I think we're being set up. Just as much as we've brought a case in the ICJ on genocide, don't be surprised if the American government doesn't file a case with the Israelis accusing South Africa of persecution, which is a crime against humanity, and genocide, because this is the narrative in the face of disinformation and falsehoods.' Sooka believes only Ramaphosa and Cosatu's Zingiswa Losi 'really tried hard to rebut the misinformation'. She cautioned about Trump's focus on EFF leader Julius Malema: 'They might find that the US uses global Magnitsky sanctions or 703C designations, which will mean travel bans for them and their families, so I am not sure if we've turned the tide.' Sooka adds: 'States have an obligation if there is a basis for genocide and a crime against humanity, and so Trump's question to the president is quite loaded when he asks him what he is doing about Malema. It then becomes South Africa's failure to act when it had knowledge of the so-called genocide.'
