3f5110 No.19636057 [View All]
Welcome To Q Research South Africa
While the world is waking up, we are more divided than ever before, while watching them burn our country to the ground.
Time we dig our own country.
Enough is enough.
Let's be more active.
The world is waking up.
The world is watching.
PEOPLE ARE PAWNS IN THEIR SICK GAME OF GLOBAL DOMINATION.
PEOPLE ARE DIVIDED TO PREVENT A RISING OF THE PEOPLE.
PEOPLE ARE DIVIDED AND TAUGHT TO FIGHT THEMSELVES INSTEAD OF THE RULING CLASS.
RACE VS RACE
RELIGION VS RELIGION
POLITICAL VS POLITICAL
CLASS VS CLASS
SEX VS SEX
WHEN YOU ARE DIVIDED, YOU ARE WEAK
WHEN YOU ARE WEAK, YOU HAVE NO POWER.
WHEN YOU HAVE NO POWER, YOU HAVE NO CONTROL.
STAY STRONG, PATRIOTS.
STAY UNITED, NOT DIVIDED.
YOU ARE WHAT MATTERS.
YOU, AWAKE, IS THEIR GREATEST FEAR.
Q
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45b4db No.20833641
>>20833601
>Sol Kerzner
“Sol Kerzner, pugnacious businessman who developed the controversial gambling resort Sun City – obituary”
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/obituaries/2020/03/22/sol-kerzner-hard-nosed-businessman-developed-controversial-gambling/
22 March 2020 • 4:12pm
His tropical version of Las Vegas came to be known as ‘Sin City’ thanks to all the white politicians spotted there with their mistresses
Sol Kerzner, who has died of cancer aged 84, was for many years reckoned Africa’s richest and perhaps most controversial businessman; his hotels, gambling and leisure empire eventually embraced luxury resorts all over the world, but he was always associated with the creation in his native South Africa of one of the most conspicuous symbols of the apartheid era, Sun City.
In the late 1970s South Africa was a rigidly conservative place that prohibited even such mild diversions as betting or the opening of cinemas on Sundays.
His solution, which had about it a touch of unscrupulous genius, was to create a den of relatively harmless iniquity in one of the semi-autonomous black homelands north of the Cape, Bophuthatswana, which had no laws against gambling. In its desert landscape he built a sort of tropical version of Las Vegas, albeit one marked by his own brand of excess and remarkable architectural vulgarity.
The hotels, slot machines and Gary Player-designed golf course of Sun City, as he named it, proved irresistible to well-heeled South Africans. Soon, each year one and a half million of them were making the two-hour trip from Johannesburg and Pretoria, many on the coaches that Kerzner provided, often drawn by the rare opportunity to see entertainers such as Frank Sinatra (to whom Kerzner paid $2 million for a week’s engagement in 1981).
Other singers felt less able to connive at this subversion of the principle that they would not perform in apartheid South Africa and recorded a hit single entitled Sun City (1985), with its chorus of “I Ain’t Gonna Play Sun City”.
The resort’s attractions also included pornographic films on the hotel televisions, topless chorus lines and the opportunity for races to mix and socialise; the frequency with which white politicians were seen there with black mistresses was just one reason it was dubbed “Sin City”.
Such witticisms did not prevent SunBop, the company that ran the development, from increasing in value from £40 million in 1985 to £600 million by 1992, nor did they deter Kerzner from building another 13 casinos elsewhere in the homelands.
In 1992 Kerzner opened a £150 million-extension to this cash cow, the Lost City.
At precisely half past eight every evening, the whole complex was gently rocked by a mock earthquake. Kerzner publicised the new venture by hosting that year’s Miss World competition there.
In 1989 he admitted having paid a bribe of two million rand (worth nearly £770,000 today) to Chief George Matanzima, the prime minister of Transkei, in return for acquiring exclusive gaming rights in the homeland. He was briefly forced to resign from the board of his company, but the scandal soon seemed to have been brushed under the carpet, and he quickly managed to establish good relations with the ANC when it took power in the early 1990s.
An explanation for both these things emerged in 1996, when Nelson Mandela admitted that Kerzner had given his party another two million rand just before the 1994 election, but he denied allegations that it had played any part in the earlier charges against Kerzner having been dropped. Most observers felt, however, that Kerzner had once again proved himself a masterful judge of human weakness.
Solomon Kerzner was born in Troyeville, a suburb of Johannesburg, on 23 August 1935. His parents were Jews from Ukraine who had emigrated to South Africa at the end of the 1920s. There they opened a café, and later ran a boarding house.
https://travelindustrytoday.com/sol-kerzner-1935-2020-hotelier-left-indelible-mark-on-global-hospitality-industry/
In 1994, following the first democratic elections in South Africa, Kerzner – now a celebrity in South Africa – was asked by newly elected President Nelson Mandela to arrange the VIP function for the Presidential inauguration, which was attended by most of the world’s leaders and heads of state. It was a special occasion that cemented Kerzner’s close relationship with the iconic world statesman, who said of Sol: “He makes a difference everywhere he goes. Sol, thank you for changing our world!” Kerzner enjoyed a friendship with Mandela until his passing in 2013.
More can be read at;
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8144647/As-Sol-Kerzner-dies-aged-84-RICHARD-KAY-looks-riotously-louche-life.html
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45b4db No.20833677
YouTube embed. Click thumbnail to play.
>>20833641
>Other singers felt less able to connive at this subversion of the principle that they would not perform in apartheid South Africa and recorded a hit single entitled Sun City (1985), with its chorus of “I Ain’t Gonna Play Sun City”.
“Artists United Against Apartheid - Sun City”
https://youtu.be/aopKk56jM-I
Jan 26, 2009
Not long after Band Aid and We Are The World focused musical attention on poverty and famine, a collection of artists took a similar approach in the struggle against apartheid. The initiator was Steven van Zandt - erstwhile guitarist in Bruce Springsteen's E Street Band - who whipped up dozens of musicians to work on the project. They included Peter Gabriel, members of U2, Springsteen himself, Hall and Oates, Bob Dylan, Ringo Starr, Run DMC, Lou Reed, Jackson Browne and Keith Richards. Van Zandt wrote and produced the song and it reached the top 40 in several European nations, though not in the US.
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45b4db No.20833701
>>20833677
>The initiator was Steven van Zandt
“Stevie Van Zandt: 'You're going to see violence in my country that you haven't seen since the Civil War'”
https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/music/features/stevie-van-zandt-interview-b1930844.html
Saturday 02 October 2021 08:51 BST
Excerpts
Legendary rock star, Stevie Van Zandt has released a memoir exploring a lifetime in rock ‘n’ roll. He talks to Sam Moore about Bruce Springsteen, ‘The Sopranos’ and busting Nelson Mandela out of prison
“The Republican Party no longer believe in democracy, equality, science, and are quite brazenly bragging about being white supremacists.” Stevie Van Zandt, sideman to Bruce Springsteen on stage and to Tony Soprano on screen, is angry, sad and scared for the future. The vocal opponent of Donald Trump is not letting the Democrats off the hook, either. “They are pathetic and weak and it’s just sad because they’re not warriors in a war.”
Politics has taken up a lot of Van Zandt’s life since he infamously left the E Street Band in 1984, both to pursue a solo career and to try and get Nelson Mandela out of jail and end apartheid in South Africa. He also accidentally found his way onto revolutionary TV show The Sopranos, playing Mafia consigliere, Silvio Dante, and leading Netflix’s first foray into original programming with Lilyhammer. It’s been a ride, and the charming and charismatic guitarist has explained it all his newly released autobiography, Unrequited Infatuations.
He remains immensely proud of cultivating his music and platform to free Mandela, and putting pressure on the South African government and the Western banks and politicians that backed apartheid. “We went up against the unholy trinity of Ronald Reagan, Margaret Thatcher and Hermut Kohl,” he says, before passionately reliving the struggle to make the world a better, more human place. “We drew up a strategy to take down the South African government and point by point, stage by stage, we did it.” He leans closer to the camera. His brown eyes are alight, a rebellious smirk on his face. All these years later, he still takes delight in sticking it to the man.
“We strategised how to get economic sanctions, which was the home run,” he continues. “The sports boycott was already in place thanks to [tennis legend and the only Black man to win Wimbledon] Arthur Ashe, so we bridged that gap with the cultural boycott and were able to raise enough consciousness to protect that sanctions bill when it went to President Reagan – who we knew was going to veto it because he supported apartheid. We raised the consciousness enough that congress overrode Reagan’s veto, which was a big, big, big deal and the first time that ever happened. Then we knew we had a victory and the banks cut them off and they had to release Mandela. [The movement] was amazingly successful which is rare when you’re engaged in international liberation politics.”
Where Van Zandt looks back with pride on the triumphs of ending apartheid in the 1980s, he’s nervous about the current political climate in America. The last 18 months have seen race riots, voter suppression and supporters of Donald Trump storm the US Capitol Building in an attempt to overturn his loss in the 2020 election. Van Zandt shakes his head. “At this point in America, we are somewhere you wouldn’t believe. We’re being thrown back to the 1950s. It’s embarrassing. They’re passing laws in states that say democracy no longer matters. They’re trying to suppress the Black vote, the Latino vote.” Apartheid is two years older than Van Zandt, and he was born before Black people could vote. This lived experience of injustice is perhaps why his language becomes apocalyptic: “You’re going to see violence in my country that you haven’t seen since the Civil War. It’s looking like a really dangerous moment, so I am nervous if we break out into violence, I don’t know where that’s going to stop.”
Van Zandt also found similarities between working for Springsteen and his later TV boss, Sopranos creator, David Chase. “They are both tough – very, very tough”, he says, breaking into a grin. But though he took on Reagan and Thatcher and won, Van Zandt is afraid to commit when I ask who is tougher. “I’ll call it a tie,” he says. “They’re not complete dictators, more benevolent dictators. They both have very specific things in mind and are absolute perfectionists.”
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45b4db No.20833708
>>20833677
>The initiator was Steven van Zandt
“Stevie Van Zandt: 'You're going to see violence in my country that you haven't seen since the Civil War'”
https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/music/features/stevie-van-zandt-interview-b1930844.html
Saturday 02 October 2021 08:51 BST
Excerpts
Legendary rock star, Stevie Van Zandt has released a memoir exploring a lifetime in rock ‘n’ roll. He talks to Sam Moore about Bruce Springsteen, ‘The Sopranos’ and busting Nelson Mandela out of prison
“The Republican Party no longer believe in democracy, equality, science, and are quite brazenly bragging about being white supremacists.” Stevie Van Zandt, sideman to Bruce Springsteen on stage and to Tony Soprano on screen, is angry, sad and scared for the future. The vocal opponent of Donald Trump is not letting the Democrats off the hook, either. “They are pathetic and weak and it’s just sad because they’re not warriors in a war.”
Politics has taken up a lot of Van Zandt’s life since he infamously left the E Street Band in 1984, both to pursue a solo career and to try and get Nelson Mandela out of jail and end apartheid in South Africa. He also accidentally found his way onto revolutionary TV show The Sopranos, playing Mafia consigliere, Silvio Dante, and leading Netflix’s first foray into original programming with Lilyhammer. It’s been a ride, and the charming and charismatic guitarist has explained it all his newly released autobiography, Unrequited Infatuations.
He remains immensely proud of cultivating his music and platform to free Mandela, and putting pressure on the South African government and the Western banks and politicians that backed apartheid. “We went up against the unholy trinity of Ronald Reagan, Margaret Thatcher and Hermut Kohl,” he says, before passionately reliving the struggle to make the world a better, more human place. “We drew up a strategy to take down the South African government and point by point, stage by stage, we did it.” He leans closer to the camera. His brown eyes are alight, a rebellious smirk on his face. All these years later, he still takes delight in sticking it to the man.
“We strategised how to get economic sanctions, which was the home run,” he continues. “The sports boycott was already in place thanks to [tennis legend and the only Black man to win Wimbledon] Arthur Ashe, so we bridged that gap with the cultural boycott and were able to raise enough consciousness to protect that sanctions bill when it went to President Reagan – who we knew was going to veto it because he supported apartheid. We raised the consciousness enough that congress overrode Reagan’s veto, which was a big, big, big deal and the first time that ever happened. Then we knew we had a victory and the banks cut them off and they had to release Mandela. [The movement] was amazingly successful which is rare when you’re engaged in international liberation politics.”
Where Van Zandt looks back with pride on the triumphs of ending apartheid in the 1980s, he’s nervous about the current political climate in America. The last 18 months have seen race riots, voter suppression and supporters of Donald Trump storm the US Capitol Building in an attempt to overturn his loss in the 2020 election. Van Zandt shakes his head. “At this point in America, we are somewhere you wouldn’t believe. We’re being thrown back to the 1950s. It’s embarrassing. They’re passing laws in states that say democracy no longer matters. They’re trying to suppress the Black vote, the Latino vote.” Apartheid is two years older than Van Zandt, and he was born before Black people could vote. This lived experience of injustice is perhaps why his language becomes apocalyptic: “You’re going to see violence in my country that you haven’t seen since the Civil War. It’s looking like a really dangerous moment, so I am nervous if we break out into violence, I don’t know where that’s going to stop.”
Van Zandt also found similarities between working for Springsteen and his later TV boss, Sopranos creator, David Chase. “They are both tough – very, very tough”, he says, breaking into a grin. But though he took on Reagan and Thatcher and won, Van Zandt is afraid to commit when I ask who is tougher. “I’ll call it a tie,” he says. “They’re not complete dictators, more benevolent dictators. They both have very specific things in mind and are absolute perfectionists.”
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3f5110 No.20833820
>>20833168
First of all, screw all those companies. Generic versions of a great many of those medications can be obtained from companies in Belize
Second, who would want anything Moderna makes after their participation is experimental gene therapy rebranded as a "vaccine" for Covid?
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3f5110 No.20833831
ANC Bun Part One
>>20242815 ANC sponsored violence in South Africa (video)
>>20362830 ANC suspends former President Jacob Zuma
>>20379836, >>20379966, >>20379849 Ronnie Kasrils addresses the III International Dilemmas of Humanity Conference (video)
>>20395076 Research Paper 2022: Elites and economic policy in South Africa’s transition and beyond
>>20418277 Does the ANC want to declare a state of emergency to prevent elections in South Africa? (video)
>>20457780 Schreiber: Concrete proof ANC forced ‘all-top-jobs-for-useless-cadres’ onto SA, collapsing economy (video)
>>20483993 The WhatsApp Group That Controls South Africa (video)
>>20484050 ANC Manifesto Launch: Spear and Lightning at the end of Cyril Ramaphosa speech (video)
>>20484878, >>20484891 Government invests R2.7bn in development near Waterfall City, WEF influence (video)
>>20492903 Mafia Government - Exposing the 2024 Elections Masterplan (video)
>>20494573, >>20494579, >>20494594, >>20494605, >>20494642 RW Johnson: The New South Africa’s original sin – Chris Hani assassination (Parts 1-5)
>>20494685 No, Anti-Apartheid Activist Chris Hani Wasn’t Killed by ANC Leaders”: Posted on the Jacobin website, written by Ronnie Kasrils
>>20516751, >>20525958 Violence, chaos erupts in Ekurhuleni council between EFF and ANC (video)
>>20516854 South Africa’s liberation war veterans are angry: here’s why
>>20516903 Only useful until democracy? Reintegrating ex-combatants in post-apartheid South Africa with lessons from Kosovo & Zimbabwe
>>20530361 Ekurhuleni downgraded to junk status, Tshwane placed on review (Video)
>>20530368 MK Party Threatens Civil War and Anarchy if Denied 2024 elections Rights, Warns Visvin Reddy (video)
>>20530661 A pissed off south African: ANC has destroyed South Africa; Julius Malema border policy; Taxi violence and Crime (video)
>>20556785 How the ANC went about compiling its [2024] election candidate list (video)
>>20556813 Calibre of ANC candidates close to that of 1994 – Motlanthe (video)
>>20562675 ANC under fire for changing funding model for parties ahead of elections in May
>>20571002 From Low Intensity War to Mafia War: Taxi violence in South Africa 1987 - 2000 (video)
>>20585580 Who’s going to Parliament? A peek at the ANC’s [and MK’s] nomination list
>>20585639 Fallism’s Faultlines: The Paradoxes of “Fees Must Fall
>>20585663 MK Party appoints Bonginkosi Khanyile as new youth leader (video)
>>20600883 ANC, IFP tensions spark fears of renewed violence in KZN (video)
>>20601502, >>20601506 Spy [Maritz Spaarwater] comes in from the cold (Parts 1&2)
>>20601552 Nelson Mandela and the ANC never renounced violence
>>20636664 ANC loses bid to deregister Zuma’s MK party
>>20636668 Disgruntled community on the abandoned million-rand projects in Madibeng (video)
>>20666291, >>20666303, >>20666552 The St James Church Massacre in South Africa, 25 July 1993
>>20666337 Archbishop Desmond Tutu became Chairman of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission
>>20666348, >>20666367, >>20666377, >>20666395 The Real Legacy of Desmond Tutu (Parts 1-4)
>>20666419 Desmond Tutu quits as Oxfam ambassador over aid agency's sex scandal (video)
>>20666492 Significant Attacks Prior to the “Free and Fair” Elections of 1994
>>20666582 Theo Mabusela Involvement in Operations Before the 1994 Elections
>>20682047 The historic Palestine and Pan-Africanist alliance with Letlapa Mphahlele: “APLA cadres trained by Palestinians” (video)
>>20682050, >>20682129 Unpack the past: Mandela, the keffiyeh and South Africa’s Palestine embrace
>>20687109, >>20687116 Announcement of the disbandment of SADF: 32 Battalion on SABC News (26 March 1993)
>>20687870 The PLO at 58 and the ANC at 110: how they evolved and where do they stand today?
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3f5110 No.20833835
ANC Bun Part Two
>>20697140, >>20697146, >>20697149 SCA ruling exposes State Security Agency's dubious secrecy tactics and ANC vulnerability to foreign interests (Parts 1-3)
>>20697153 Leaked SSA report reveals US gathered intelligence on DA, EFF, IFP and the ANC (video)
>>20701318, >>20701321 ANC officials in cahoots with US Intelligence (Parts 1&2)
>>20711880 “The Enemy Within: How the ANC lost the Battle against Corruption” (video)
>>20716126 “South Africa’s Labor Unions Imperil Billionaire’s Port Takeover”; “Many labor unions, including Satawu, are closely aligned to the ruling African National Congress”
>>20781553 Archive of Anthony Sampson: ANC’s rule was planned in advance
>>20799568 The truth about NHI exposed (video)
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3f5110 No.20833836
Initial Brenthurst Foundation Bun
>>20728955, >>20728959, >>20728978 The Gdańsk Declaration: Solidarity for Democracy (Parts 1-3)
>>20732371 Brenthurst Foundation: About Us
>>20833493, >>20833513 Ray Hartley, Greg Mills [Brenthurst Foundation]: “Opinion: A Russian victory in Ukraine would be bad for Africans
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3f5110 No.20833837
Updated Commodities Bun
>>19660255 Two Top Execs at South Africa's Port and Rail Operator Resign
>>19952053 Chronic congestion building along the east coast of South Africa
>>19692449 Africa Might Emerge As A Major Supplier Of Halal Food
>>20114651 (Canada #50) Oil Tumbles After Angola Announces It Is Leaving OPEC
>>20115757 Red Sea Ripples: Prolonged Voyages, Soaring Fuel Costs, and Escalating Carbon Emissions Concerns
>>20114680 (Canada #50) Beijing Imposes Export Controls On Rare-Earth Processing Tech As Mineral War With US Heats Up
>>20230322 South Africa seeks emergency external help to remedy dire situation across the nation’s ports
>>20279240 The Oil Market Is Making Plans For Red Sea Chaos To Last Weeks
>>20452927, >>20452931 South Africa: AfDB boosts Ramaphosa’s investment drive, eyes $27bn Just Transition fundraising (Parts 1&2)
>>20484870 Oil discovered in South Africa (video)
>>20489038, >>20489042 Kinetiko: The Joint Venture
>>20489047, >>20489051 Dr. Mbendeni Humphrey Mathe
>>20489064, >>20489069, >>20489072 Africa Energy Corporation/Africa Oil Corporation/Canmex
>>20489101 Africa Oil announces the passing of Lukas H. Lundin
>>20489120 Sweden charges Lundin Energy executives with complicity in Sudan war crimes
>>20489520 Anglo American Completes 10-Ship Fleet Expansion
>>20521808, >>20521817, >>20521823, >>20521829 Black Economic Empowerment Transactions in South Africa after 1994 (Part 1-4)
>>20521841 The role of multinational corporations in South Africa: a political-economic perspective
>>20525965 The Real Reason TotalEnergies Sponsors AFCON Football Tournament (video)
>>20526583 Carte Blanche: Water shedding: Paying for air
>>20526594, >>20526597 NDB Spotlight: The Lesotho Highlands Water Project – Who Benefits? (Parts 1&2)
>>20571627 SA, Zimbabwe sign MOU on water supply (video)
>>20656616 Toxic Treasures: Unmasking The Gold Mafia of Penhalonga (video)
>>20676091 Inefficient African Ports See Diverted Red Sea Traffic Slipping Away
>>20677235, >>20677244 Eskom’s new tariff: Here’s how your monthly electricity bill will change
>>20687416 South Africa gets rules for up to stage 16 load-shedding
>>20743116 Rand Refinery: “South Africa’s century-old gold refiner runs at 75% as mines dim”
>>20794421 De Beers Moving Auctions Head Office to Botswana
>>20794429, >>20794464, >>20794466, >>20794470 De Beers Moving Auctions Head Office to Botswana (Parts 1-4)
>>20794479, >>20794495 Indian diamond industry in a tizzy — Jatin Mehta files a $ 5 bn suit against De Beers, Stanchart and Kroll
>>20794504 Anglo American Reportedly Mulling Sale of De Beers
>>20799315 Activist-led Elliott builds $1bn stake in Anglo American amid BHP takeover bid
>>20833168 Big Pharma's Africa exit a tough pill to swallow (video)
>>20833325 Shell LEAVES South Africa After 122 Years
>>20833334 South African unions urge Anglo holders to reject BHP bid
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3f5110 No.20833841
Updated Oppenheimer Bun
>>20242629 Harry Oppenheimer; did business with the Soviet Union (who trained and supported the ANC) during the Cold War and used Hollywood and the Royal Family to promote diamonds (video)
>>20434931 The "Old Money" Family That Controls Africa: The Oppenheimers (video)
>>20445854 Oppenheimer’s granddaughter backs RISE Mzansi with R15m
>>20484269 The Oppenheimer Family-The Richest Family in South Africa(Short Documentary) – Patrice Lamumba, DRC discussed (video)
>>20729087, >>20729092, >>20729097, >>20729112, >>2079142, >>20729159 The Oppenheimers’ Regime Change Conference (Parts 1-6)
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3f5110 No.20833844
Updated André Pienaar Bun
>>20500680 André Pienaar
>>20500683 The ‘CIA agent’ [André Pienaar] who never was, plus five talking points from ‘Vrye Weekblad’
>>20500696 Loyal to the Max – how the billionaire [André Pienaar] who was once in Jacob Zuma’s crosshairs saved ‘Vrye Weekblad’
>>20500713 South African [André Pienaar] at centre of bid for Pentagon data cloud linked to Kremlin insider
>>20500816, >>20500822, >>20500826, >>20500835, >>20500846 “Jacob Zuma, the MK Party, and the Kremlin’s GRU”; written by Andre Pienaar (Parts 1-5)
>>20743195 Welcome to the murky world of Kroll Inc - the private CIA
>>20743213 Jules Kroll: “The World’s Most Famous Private Detective Makes No Apologies”
>>20766568 André Pienaar: “Pentagon audit found connection between Mattis-era Defense Department and Amazon-linked Britisj consultant
>>20766601 “Andre Pienaar: International Man of Intelligence” – He established the Scorpions while working for Kroll
>>20766607 MK party: Kremlin’s Spear; Ramaphosa’s “unlawful” Putin deal freed Zuma - André Pienaar – FBI, Scotland Yard and UK trained the Scorpions (video)
>>20766676 Inside the secretive business of geopolitical advice
>>20766886 André Pienaar: Founder, CEO and Head of Investor Relations, C5 Capital
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3f5110 No.20833845
Updated Rwanda Bun
>>20445882 Red flags in SA DRC deployment: R2B, operational constraints, strategy, Rwanda - Prof Esterhuyse (video)
>>20446076 Rwanda Just Warned & Blocked UN Support For South Africa-led Force in Congo (video)
>>20446222 Rwandan government tried to silence opponents, Human rights watch report claims (video)
>>20446234, >>20446240 Rwanda's disappearing dissidents (Parts 1&2)
>>20446459 Paul Kagame
>>20446488 Rwanda's Kagame says he will run for fourth term • FRANCE 24 English (video)
>>20451268, >>20451271 The Dark Side of Rwanda’s Rebirth (Parts 1&2)
>>20451276 Rwandan President Kagame 'sparked 1994 genocide
>>20451301 Can Museveni [Uganda] and Kagame’s [Rwanda] renewed bromance inspire regional peace? (video)
>>20451317 Explainer-Why fighting is flaring in eastern Congo and threatening regional stability
>>20451326 Anti-Rwanda protests spread throughout eastern DRC
>>20451329 UN Security Council sanctions rebels in DR Congo as violence escalates
>>20451331 Rwanda and Uganda Commence Power Trade Through the 220kV 172 km Shango – Mbarara Power Interconnection
>>20451343 Nile Equatorial Lakes Subsidiary Action Program Coordination Unit (NELSAP-CU) headquartered in Kigali, Rwanda
>>20463933 The surging violence in the eastern DRC (video)
>>20463991 Paul Kagame's Powerful Declaration: We Will Fight Like We Have Nothing to Lose! (video)
>>20522188 Lords pass five amendments to Rwanda bill in heavy defeat for Rishi Sunak
>>20522195 M23 Rebellion: Rwanda Protests AU Support for SADC Forces in DRC
>>20782654 Asylum seekers fearful after Britain approves Rwanda deportation bill
>>20782662 Britain looks to add Botswana to list of destinations to deport illegal migrants
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3f5110 No.20833846
Violence and Crime Bun Part One
>>19692458, >>19692463, >>19692470 ‘Open hunting ground’: South Africa in spotlight again over [Jihadist] terror funding (Parts 1-3)
>>20340605 “Open hunting ground: South Africa in spotlight again over [Islamic] terror funding”
>>19692232 Property developer Shafiq Naser killed by assassins on superbikes in Cape Town
>>20362713 8 things you need to know about farm murders in South Africa (video)
>>20395068 1989 Corruption Scandals, just prior to South Africa’s “transformation’ – Sol Kerzner, politicians, etc
>>20397875, >>20406078 South Africa’s Racist EFF Leader Vows to Take the Farmlands and Redistribute to “Our People” (video)
>>20407598 Political Assassination Rocks South African Province: A Call for Justice
>>20407726 Resilient voices - Farm attack survivors tell their stories: Ep 2 (video)
>>20410783 (Canada #53) South Africa: White Farmers Arrested for Protesting, Which is “Inciting Violence”
>>20418196 We Read The EFF Manifesto (260 pages) (video)
>>20423259 South Africa a growing conduit for Islamic State funds, says new UN report
>>20442095 KZN SALGA decries increase in political killings (video)
>>20445849 Explosive claims against some of South Africa's magistrates (video)
>>20451446 Revealed: A total of 86 people are KILLED every day in SA (video)
>>20452972 DA lays criminal charges against Paul Mashatile – John Steenhuisen
>>20457755 South Africa Sees 11% Rise in Kidnapping Cases, Posing Challenges for Law Enforcement
>>20464138 250 Ekurhuleni metro police workers have criminal records (video)
>>20494555 El Salvador President Nayib Bukele Warns Of 'Dark Forces' In Anti-Crime Speech At CPAC (video)
>>20494559 Hits or contract killings becoming a common occurrence in South Africa (video)
>>20516743 MK party member fatally shot in Umlazi (video)
>>20520797 How Haiti’s ‘Aid State’ Has Fueled Organized Crime
>>20520821 Kenya Agrees to Police Haiti’s Criminal Hurricane
>>20526083 Man killed, another injured in vigilante incident
>>20526578 Tackling child kidnappings in South Africa: Chad Thomas (video)
>>20565908 From Low Intensity War to Mafia War: Taxi violence in South Africa 1987 - 2000 (video)
>>20565918 South African police battle looters after days of taxi driver protests (video)
>>20565928 Taxi violence: SA's never-ending war (video)
>>20571002 Construction Mafia: Delft Housing Project halted (video)
>>20571163 M-NET Carte Blanche: Construction Mafia, Delft Housing Project halted (video)
>>20571203 Gerrie Nel; founding head of Gauteng Scorpions and received an International Association of Prosecutors award in 2014
>>20571247, >>20571250, >>20571259 Private Prosecutions, Inc: Gerrie Nel [“Pit Bull”] leaves a deeply compromised NPA behind (Parts 1-3)
>>20571290 Four of Gerrie Nel’s most famous cases”: Clive Derby-Lewis and Janusz Walus, Jackie Selebi, Brett Kebble, Oscar Pistorius (video)
>>20571440 Pravin Gordhan Deserves Prison” and not retirement (video)
>>20571475 Jacob Zuma: Johann Rupert threatened to shutdown the economy of South Africa if Pravin Gordhan was removed (video)
>>20585215 SA, Zimbabwe sign MOU on water supply
>>20585674 #FeesMustFall's Bonginkosi Khanyile speaks out following his sentencing (video)
>>20595578 How This Ekurhuleni Metro Police Officer Turned Into A Ruthless Hitman
>>20601460, >>20601464 DR Congo’s reinstatement of death penalty faces fierce Church opposition (Parts 1&2)
>>20606537 ‘Don’t let them arrest me’: Speaker Mapisa-Nqakula files urgent High Court bid to interdict Minister Bheki Cele, NPA from arresting her
>>20656626 Race obsession is breaking the justice system
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3f5110 No.20833849
Violence and Crime Bun Part Two
>>20673087 MK Party’s Visvin Reddy charged for inciting violence by NPA
>>20673100 Julius Malema vs Riotous Assemblies Act: Where the case has been won and lost
>>20706042 UK warns its citizens in SA about terror attack (video)
>>20782667 Anarchy is brewing - be prepared!: General Roland de Vries (video)
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3f5110 No.20833850
Updated Jacob Zuma Bun
>>20361546 Corruption in South Africa now worse than under Zuma (video)
>>20362731 Umkhonto Wesizwe's real Founders turning in their graves: SACP on Zuma, MK Party (video)
>>20484031 He took the spear and stabbed himself with it’: Mbalula on Zuma and MK party
>>20501022 “Zuma’s uMkhonto we Sizwe party threatens ANC dominance ahead of elections: Katzenellenbogen” (video)
>>20537502 “Audio revealed the hatred, rejection & smear campaign Zuma suffered just before he became president”: Discussion with Vusi Mavimbela (video)
>>20585630 Zuma right about van Rooyen’s academic qualifications: report”: Master’s Degree in Finance - Pravin Gordhan qualification: Bachelor of Science in Pharmacy (video)
>>20585725 EXPLAINER — what we know about Jacob Zuma’s new party
>>20601479, >>20601482 Louis Liebenberg || Former President Jacob Zuma [addressing Afrikaans white South Africans] || Leadership Summit 2024 (video)
>>20601620 Former president Jacob Zuma addresses MK supporters (video)
>>20656636 Zuma barred from MK party candidacy by IEC due to criminal record
>>20706038 Electoral court clears Zuma to run for parliament
>>20777806 South African Ex-President Zuma & Thales' Arms Deal Corruption Case Explained
>>20777830, >>20777841 Zuma back in court today for corruption trial (2023)
>>20777854 Former President Jacob Zuma's corruption trial - 26 October 2023 (video)
>>20777868 “ExaminIng Jacob Zuma's private prosecution case”: Case was removed from the roll, arms deal pre-trial scheduled for May 17, 2024 (video)
>>20777881 Jacob Zuma v ANC: MK Party triumphs in high-stakes trademark & logo court case (video)
>>20777886 Zuma betrayed us – Makgoale (video)
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3f5110 No.20833872
Notables are NOT Endorsements
coming up on 600
#12-A
>>19692232 Property developer Shafiq Naser killed by assassins on superbikes in Cape Town
>>19692436 Africarare Ubuntuland Partners with HAQQ to Innovate Sharia Law Education and Ethical Community Engagement in Mixed Reality
>>19692443, >>19692449 South Africa: The Halal Kingdom, Although it holds the world’s smallest percentage of Muslims
>>19731387 (General Research #24226) Eight UN peacekeepers detained over sex abuse claims in DR Congo
>>19782011 Patrisse Cullors, Co-Founder Black Lives Matters: “Palestine is our generation in South Africa”
>>19782021 ANCYL President Collen Malatji has told President Cyril Ramaphosa to close the Israeli embassy
>>19782035 Ramaphosa Rules Out South Africa Abandoning Neutral Stance on War in Ukraine
>>19821993 Tankers Line Up Off South Africa to Ensure Diesel Power
>>20027327 (General Research #24583) Harvard’s Shocking Admission: Affirmative Action and Critical Race Theory Killed South Africa
>>20362707 ‘Fake’ UN official allegedly received briefings from SA’s top security cluster
>>20242709, >>20242774 ony Hollingsworth got Bishop Trevor Huddleston’s ‘blessing’ to hold a concert in 1988 for the release of Nelson Mandela to influence the world (Parts 1 &2 video)
>>20407571 How liberators turn into oppressors: a study of southern African states
>>20445866, >>20445869 Spraying of controversial herbicide on Vaal River water lettuce begins – critics urge caution (Parts 1&2)
>>20452953, >>20452962 The European House - Ambrosetti - Who we are (video)
>>20457742 SA unfazed by US Bill threat
>>20462673 Initial Covid & Other Pestilence Bun | Initial Cyril Ramaphosa Bun | Initial ICJ Suit Bun
>>20462676 Initial Maldives Bun | Initial Rwanda Bun
>>20510793, >>20510794 UNFPA staff concerned over headquarters' relocation from New York to Nairobi (Parts 1&2, video)
>>20510840 CIA Director Secretly Visits Kenya And Somalia To Discuss Regional Security (video)
>>20511103 Africacheck: “Coalition to fight misinformation”: South African elections (video)
>>20511116 Google’s true origin partly lies in CIA and NSA research grants for mass surveillance
>>20516774 South African intelligence and De Beers worked with the CIA in the early 60s
>>20516804 “South Africa: The Growing Influence of the Military”: CIA Document 1982
>>20516812 South Africa's 'paedophile' minister [General Magnus Malan] and a mysterious death (video)
>>20520896 US imposes new sanctions on Zimbabwe's President and other senior leaders
>>20525976 “Global Cooling is on the way! Give up your freedom NOW!” – Or is it global warming?
>>20537617 (Canada #54) Alliance of Sahel States: Military Juntas of Niger, Burkina Faso and Mali Create Joint Task Force Against Islamic Jihadists
>>20552292 Viral Minister Naledi Pandor Speech on Israel Shocks the World (video)
>>20558069 Updated ANC Bun | Updated BRICS Bun
>>20558078 Updated Cyril Ramaphosa Bun | Updated Rwanda Bun
>>20558081 Initial SSA/NIA Bun
>>20586389 Niger Junta Severs US Military Cooperation Agreement, Orders Troops and Civilian Personnel Out of the Country
>>20606606 Bill that calls for full review of US relations with SA crosses first hurdle in US Congress
>>20682073 United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO)
>>20697117 A Few Bad Apples: 8,000 UNRWA Teachers Rallied for Hamas Terrorist (video)
>>20701775, >>20701789 Louis Armstrong and the spy: how the CIA used him as a ‘trojan horse’ in Congo
>>20729192, >>20777598 Daily Maverick: QAnon and Shut down for 15 April 2024
>>20729208 The Pan-African Institute for Socialism (PAIS)
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3f5110 No.20833875
#12-B
>>20743038, 20743047, >>20743054 Time to pull the plug on SACU (Parts 1-3)
>>20743308, >>20743312 Mayor sends police to ban and shut down NatCon Brussels conference as Antifa gathers outside (video)
>>20777614, >>20777617, >>20777619 “The South African Arms Deal” – Thales (Parts 1-3)
>>20777708 Thales sets up new SA subsidiary - 2009
>>20833831 ANC Bun Part One
>>20833835 ANC Bun Part Two
>>20833836 Initial Brenthurst Foundation Bun
>>20833837 Updated Commodities Bun
>>20833841 Updated Oppenheimer Bun
>>20833844 Updated André Pienaar Bun
>>20833845 Updated Rwanda Bun
>>20833846 Violence and Crime Bun Part One
>>20833849 Violence and Crime Bun Part Two
>>20833850 Updated Jacob Zuma Bun
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3f5110 No.20844882
Peru Port Dispute Escalates as COSCO Insists on Original Terms
Reporting by Marco Aquino; Writing by David Alire Garcia; Editing by Richard Chang Reuters May 7, 2024
LIMA, May 7 (Reuters) – The Chinese state-owned company at the center of a dispute over operations of a megaport it is building on Peru’s Pacific coast insisted on Tuesday on terms agreed with the government, as some local officials have sought to backtrack on the deal.
Hong Kong-based Cosco Shipping Ports will defend its legal rights to provide services as the exclusive operator of the deepwater Chancay Port Terminal under “terms that were agreed at the beginning of this investment,” the firm said in a statement.
Cosco added that the legal controversy has harmed the project and cautioned against imposing new rules on ports that some regulators have said they might consider.
Peru’s government did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Cosco began developing Chancay port in 2019 as a hub in the South American Pacific and key growth driver for Peru. In 2021, Peru’s National Port Authority (APN) awarded Cosco the exclusive right to run Chancay, but said in March that it never had the legal authority to grant it. It blamed an “administrative error” and requested that a judge void the terms.
Cosco responded at the time that it was evaluating the impact of the decision. Since then, Peruvian lawmakers have pushed to allow for the exclusive provision of port services by private companies and Economy Minister Jose Arista has said the original port deal should be respected.
Cosco, which provides marine transportation services, is expected to invest some $1.3 billion on the first stage of the $3.5 billion project, with more than 70% of construction completed.
Last month, Cosco sent a letter to Peru’s economy ministry requesting a six-month negotiation to amicably resolve the dispute without resorting to international arbitration, which Arista said had been received.
At the time, he said he expected to reach a deal and avoid arbitration.
In its statement on Tuesday, Cosco noted that the ministry had yet to respond to its letter, proposing an “institutional channel” for talks. But it also said it has taken a first step toward invoking an arbitration process allowed for by a Chinese-Peruvian trade pact.
https://gcaptain.com/peru-port-dispute-escalates-as-cosco-insists-on-original-terms/
things like this are why I warned of letting China have a hand in the Port of Durban
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b9f483 No.20847902
>>20833436
>>20833449
>Johnny Copelyn
>>20833601
Johhny Copelyn: “Union maverick’s road to ‘BEE’ riches” – Part 1
https://mg.co.za/article/2016-06-03-00-union-mavericks-road-to-bee-riches/
3 JUNE 2016
Johnny Copelyn is a walking contradiction.
A labour movement stalwart with a history entangled with that of a socialist-oriented trade union, he now heads a JSE-listed investment company and is, by his own account, “embarrassingly” rich, with net wealth of just under R1-billion.
That company, seeded with union member money, has successful investments in casinos and media – whereas the clothing and textiles industry, where its roots lie, is in severe distress. Copelyn is criticised for being a white person who has built up a vast personal fortune on the foundations laid down for black economic empowerment (BEE).
Copelyn, as the chief executive of investment holding company Hosken Consolidated Investments (HCI), manages a range of investments including a large stake in casino group Tsogo Sun, Seardel (which owns e.tv and OpenView HD) and Golden Arrow Bus Services.
Reconciling the contradictions and complexities of these matters is no easy task. And it’s perhaps for this reason that, in his recently launched book Maverick Insider, Copelyn cuts his personal memoir 20 years short and avoids tackling much of the controversy he has faced since. Even so, one thing his book does show is that Copelyn does not shy away from confrontation.
It details through his eyes the transformation of the labour movement in South Africa between 1970 and 1996, in which he was instrumental.
It takes you from his early days as the national organiser for the Textile Workers’ Industrial Union and as general secretary of the South African Clothing and Textile Workers’ Union (Sactwu) to becoming the chief executive officer of the Sactwu Investment Company, while also being an MP between 1994 and 1997.
Copelyn then took up his position as chief executive officer of empowerment investment holding company HCI, controlled by union investment companies. This is where the story ends – at least as far as the book is concerned.
the new government ushered in economic empowerment opportunities for black South Africans. And, while deciding whether the union should take up such opportunities, which was an “idea that appeared to contradict the very purpose of the trade union movement”, it was not the first difficult idea Copelyn had presented to Sactwu and convinced it to accept.
The Sactwu Investment Company, with Copelyn at the helm, started with R2-million in union savings and a R13.6-million loan from the Industrial Development Corporation to invest as empowerment shareholders in Real Africa Investments Limited, a JSE-listed company.
The next investment was an empowerment opportunity in MTN. Third was the company’s participation in broad-based black-owned companies (the idea of now-billionaire mining magnate Patrice Motsepe) that would go on to bid successfully for casino licences.
“Our successes soon resulted in the union investment company being worth several hundred million rands,” Copelyn writes, adding that he and the chief financial officer, Mohamed Ahmed, soon “were earning money we found embarrassing”.
In 1997, Copelyn and Marcel Golding, who headed the National Union of Mineworkers’ investment arm, took up executive roles in HCI. Each had reversed a number of assets acquired for Sactwu and the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) and exchanged this for shares in HCI, which gave the union investment companies control of it.
Copelyn’s high net worth has seen him being accused more than once of being among a handful of white South Africans who have gained a large personal fortune thanks to BEE.
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b9f483 No.20847905
>>20847902
Johhny Copelyn: “Union maverick’s road to ‘BEE’ riches” – Part 2
https://mg.co.za/article/2016-06-03-00-union-mavericks-road-to-bee-riches/
3 JUNE 2016
One of his critics, political economy professor Patrick Bond, has described him as “another white man nicely empowered by BEE”. In the past Bond has said that Golding and Copelyn, as the heads of HCI, were getting involved in “easy-money casinos, cellphone and television deals”.
He has also argued that trade union investment arms bring no additional value other than to front for large mineworker and clothing worker pension funds, “for which they paid themselves generous individual finder fees, quickly becoming multimillionaires”.
Bond’s comments, although written some years ago, still seem to get Copelyn’s goat. In his book, he describes Bond as “exceptionally self-righteous” and someone whose criticisms are not particularly well developed. He notes that many unions have investment arms but none has operated as openly as HCI.
Nicoli Nattrass and Jeremy Seekings say in a recent paper, Trade Unions: The State and “Casino Capitalism” in South Africa’s Clothing Industry, that “the focus of union investment on high-end property, media, hotels and especially casinos indicates that there was not much ‘social’ about the form of capitalism it typically engaged in”.
Sactwu has 85 000 members, down from more than 180 000 in 1991, but unionisation among workers has been on the decline generally.
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b9f483 No.20847912
>>20847905
>Nicoli Nattrass and Jeremy Seekings say in a recent paper, Trade Unions: The State and “Casino Capitalism” in South Africa’s Clothing Industry
“Trade unions, the state and ‘casino capitalism’ in South Africa's clothing industry”
https://www.scienceopen.com/hosted-document?doi=10.1080/03056244.2015.1085379
March 2016
Relationships between trade unions, the state and capital in South Africa have changed dramatically, especially in the clothing sector. The clothing workers’ union became heavily dependent on its political alliances with the governing party, not only for the regulation of wages and industrial policies, but also for Black Economic Empowerment policies that helped it to acquire massive shareholdings, including in the largest clothing manufacturer. In terms of both its exposure to capitalist risk and its investments in the casino industry specifically, the union acquired a stake in ‘casino capitalism’, whilst relying on government to stack the odds in its favour.
Introduction
In the 1980s and early 1990s, South Africa's trade unions mobilised for political change, challenged managerial despotism on the shop floor and secured improved working conditions and higher wages (Baskin 1991; von Holdt 2003). After the transition to democracy, unions’ political influence expanded, both through the participation of the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) in the Tripartite Alliance with the governing African National Congress (ANC) and the South African Communist Party (SACP), and through the participation of union members, shop stewards and officials in ANC and SACP structures. Trade unions expanded their institutional power through corporatist institutions, especially the sectoral bargaining councils established under the 1995 Labour Relations Act (LRA). Unions’ organisational capacity also expanded. By the early 2000s, COSATU and its affiliates had more than 1800 full-time officials, a dedicated parliamentary office and a research wing (Webster and Buhlungu 2004). At the same time, critics charged, workplace organisation weakened and unions’ officials with their many perks became more and more distanced from the unions’ members, resulting in wildcat strikes and exacerbating challenges of ‘ungovernability’ in the workplace (Bramble and Barchiesi 2003; Buhlungu 2010; Buhlungu and Tshoaedi 2012). COSATU itself disputed such analyses (COSATU 2010), but events in the mining sector in 2012–2014 gave these criticisms renewed credence. Disaffected platinum mineworkers defected from the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM), hitherto the largest union in COSATU, and joined the rival Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union (AMCU). This led to the Marikana Massacre in August 2012 (Alexander 2013) and a long and bitter strike in the first half of 2014.
In late 2014, simmering ideological tensions within COSATU came to the boil, resulting in the expulsion of the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (NUMSA) and, in early 2015, COSATU's general secretary, Zwelinzima Vavi. NUMSA, the largest manufacturing union, had declined to support the ANC during the 2014 elections. It was also recruiting members in other sectors, challenging other unions. As of April 2015, NUMSA was in discussions with AMCU and other non-COSATU aligned unions over the formation of a rival federation and political party. But the other large union in the manufacturing sector, the Southern African Clothing and Textile Workers Union (SACTWU), opted to stay in COSATU.
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b9f483 No.20847925
>>20847902
>>20847905
“Dirk Hartford: Reviewing Johnny Copelyn’s autobiography – Maverick Insider” – Part 1
https://www.biznews.com/undictated/2016/05/13/dirk-hartford-reviewing-jonny-cpelyns-autobiography
13th May 2016
HCI co-founder Johnny Copelyn has packed a lot into his 65 years. From trade unionist to one of the most successful of the New South Africa’s entrepreneurial stories, his was an unusual path now documented in an aptly named autobiography. Dirk Hartford, who penned this excellent review, is also an “insider” having observed Copelyn from close up during his own activist, journalist and entrepreneurial endeavours. – Alec Hogg
By Dirk Hartford
No-one else but Johnny Copelyn, the billionaire boss of HCI, could launch his memoir in front of several hundred trade unionists at the head-office of Cosatu’s key industrial affiliate SACTWU with the Minister of Economic Development Ebrahim Patel introducing him.
For Copelyn has been central to so many critical and cutting edge developments in the past 45 years that its hard to imagine our history in several important respects without him. He was in the thick of things in the workers struggle after its reemergence in the Durban strikes of 1973 till he left trade unionism to go to Parliament in 1994 as one of 20 people on Cosatu’s slate with the ANC.
He was the first to see the opportunity for a trade union investment company in the new non-racial capitalist environment and the Sactwu Investment company/HCI which resulted has far and away been the most successful of the trade union investment vehicles and of BEE in general. The unionists at the launch came not to bury him but to praise him.
His memoir, “Maverick Insider – a struggle for union independence in a time of national liberation” – covers his trade union and political life till he embarked on the business path in his mid forties. Its a story of a third generation Lithuanian Jew from Joburg, politicised by the jewish socialist youth organisation Habonim, who turned to left wing ideas at Wits University and then to the emerging workers movement in Durban.
His was a key voice in Fosatu and then Cosatu in the 80’s who argued for utilising every gap, especially legal and institutional, that the repressive situation offered to advance workers rights and organisation as opposed to those who sort to boycott official structures and struggle outside of these parameters. Effectively using the law and precedent to stake out new rights for workers, many of the new unions registered with the state and participated in existing industrial councils while others opposed this as a matter of principle.
Perhaps his crowning achievement was the central role Copelyn played, through two major and complex merger processes, in finally getting the disparate racially based unions organising in the clothing and textile industries mainly among indians in KZN and coloureds in the western Cape to unite in one national industrial union known today as the SA Clothing and Textile Workers Union. By the late 80’s Sactwu was the third biggest union in Cosatu after the Num and Numsa.
Sactwu was the union which initiated the Workers Charter campaign in Cosatu to ensure workers rights would be respected in a future democratic South Africa and many of its core demands were incorporated into the RDP and the Bill of Rights.
An enthusiastic chess player, Copelyn played union and later business politics like a chess game – strategically and decisively, often thinking10 steps ahead of the next move his opponents were concentrating on.
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b9f483 No.20847931
>>20847925
“Dirk Hartford: Reviewing Johnny Copelyn’s autobiography – Maverick Insider” – Part 2
https://www.biznews.com/undictated/2016/05/13/dirk-hartford-reviewing-jonny-cpelyns-autobiography
13th May 2016
In 1994 he was also among the 20 Cosatu leaders who went into our first democratic parliament under Mandela as part of the ANC slate. It was during this time that Copelyn, ever the pragmatist and knowing full well that there was no intention on the part of the ANC to challenge the capitalist system, birthed the trade union investment vehicle idea with R2 million loaned by the union. Today HCI alone is worth R12.5 billion and the empire he created spans sectors cross the board including gambling, hotels, media, mining, gaming, property and wine, as well as several other listed vehicles.
Many of his former union comrades, like Yunus Shaik, the late Virginia Engel, Jabu Ngcobo, Freddie Magugu, Rachel Watson, Elias Mphande and Les Maasdorp, are still actively involved with him in HCI. Others, like Ebrahim Patel and Lionel October, are leaders in government. Others, like Andre Kriel and Ronald Bernikow, are still in the union or the CCMA. All can be relied on to have his back, as he has watched out for theirs over the years. And that is why he alone of all the comrades turned capitalists can still confidently go back to his old stomping ground at Sactwu to launch his memoir.
It is a pity that Copelyn’s memoir stops at the point where his business dealings took off twenty years ago for it is in the business sphere that his formidable strategic and negotiating skills really took off enabling him to make not only himself and his close comrades unbelievably rich, but also his old union. But that story, with all its intrigues, lessons and controversies, will have to await his sequel.
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b9f483 No.20847952
YouTube embed. Click thumbnail to play.
>>20833468
>Marcel Golding
>>20847902
>In 1997, Copelyn and Marcel Golding, who headed the National Union of Mineworkers’ investment arm, took up executive roles in HCI.
>>20847925
>Johnny Copelyn, the billionaire boss of HCI, could launch his memoir in front of several hundred trade unionists at the head-office of Cosatu’s key industrial affiliate SACTWU with the Minister of Economic Development Ebrahim Patel introducing him.
“Boardroom emotions run high as Golding resigns as HCI chair”
https://youtu.be/Jq2A-GQNVj4
Oct 31, 2014
“'Greed, power and ignorance - why Copelyn tried to nail me': Golding” – Part 1
https://www.timeslive.co.za/sunday-times/business/2014-11-02-greed-power-and-ignorance-why-copelyn-tried-to-nail-me-golding/
02 November 2014 - 02:08
Marcel Golding, who resigned as chairman of e.tv parent company Hosken Consolidated Investments (HCI) this week rather than face a disciplinary hearing, says he has been "the bulwark" against attempts by the Southern African Clothing and Textile Workers' Union (Sactwu) to interfere in the editorial direction of the "no fear, no favour" broadcaster.
Sactwu is a 30% shareholder of HCI, which Golding launched in 1997 alongside his great friend Johnny Copelyn - a relationship that has gone spectacularly sour in recent weeks.
On Thursday, a fragile truce between Copelyn and Golding appeared to have been struck as both appeared at HCI's AGM, and jointly pledged that neither would "make further statements about the sad decline in our partnership". Copelyn, often depicted as stone-hearted, broke down at the AGM, resting his head on his hands, overcome by emotion.
But the damage, it seems, had already been done, with perhaps the most devastating claim being that Sactwu tried to secretly direct coverage on e.tv to please politicians rather than provide "independent" news.
Asked why Copelyn was apparently so keen to trash him, Golding cited a "whole range of reasons". "People want control, they want power. It's a lethal cocktail. Greed, power and ignorance."
Golding, who as deputy to National Union of Mineworkers boss Cyril Ramaphosa in the 1980s was a stalwart of the trade union movement, responded that there was "no need" to raise his concerns with Sactwu because he'd been highlighting these concerns for months. Sactwu, he said, knew all about them.
"I'd been dealing with them all the time on this, telling them, 'I'm not prepared to do this, I'm not prepared to do that'".
One of the things he was not prepared to do was obey an "instruction" by Kriel that e.tv cover a speech by Economic Development Minister Ebrahim Patel. Kriel sent him an SMS saying, "We require e.tv to cover it live."
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b9f483 No.20847954
>>20847952
“'Greed, power and ignorance - why Copelyn tried to nail me': Golding” – Part 2
https://www.timeslive.co.za/sunday-times/business/2014-11-02-greed-power-and-ignorance-why-copelyn-tried-to-nail-me-golding/
02 November 2014 - 02:08
Golding said the fact that he still wanted to offer this alleged "enemy of media freedom" a juicy commercial proposition did not mean he was ignoring its attempts to dictate e.tv's coverage .
"Kriel's text telling us to cover Patel's lecture - did we do it? No," said Golding.
But why would he want people who do not understand media freedom as partners in a media venture?
"There are two issues here. One is a commercial issue. The other is the actual day-to-day operation where I've been the bulwark against their attempts to interfere," he said.
The point of his meeting with Sactwu was "to look at a commercial transaction that made sense to everyone" - namely, the purchase of HCI's media business. Given that Sactwu owns 30% of HCI and 30% of the underlying media business, this could not have been done without them, said Golding.
This week, in a letter to e.tv and eNCA staff, Copelyn said the union would have agreed to Golding's partnership proposal if it had not been for its "disillusionment" when it became aware of his "secret" purchase of R24-million worth of shares in the TV set-top box maker Ellies.
What makes this drama so alarming is that for many, Copelyn and Golding were an indestructible partnership.
Copelyn's view was that Golding was suspended from HCI because he "concealed" the Ellies share transaction from the company and its board.
Golding said this was just an excuse to get rid of him because he would not allow e.tv to be used for government propaganda. Copelyn was afraid that his obdurate stance on this issue would endanger HCI's relations with the government and affect its business interests.
"I was open and honest and disclosed everything," said Golding. And, importantly, two months later, Copelyn and HCI had not done anything about it.
"If they thought it was so serious, why didn't they act immediately? Instead they first tried to get me to leave, to do this, to do that. When I didn't, only then did they say, 'OK, listen, now we're going to bring the Ellies charge against you.'"
But surely the bottom line is that he committed a breach of governance by not getting board approval?
No, he said. This was the way entrepreneurs did things. If he and Copelyn had stuck religiously to the rule book on corporate governance and submitted every intended share transaction for board approval before doing anything, they would have lost opportunities and never have been able to build HCI into an R18-billion company.
Golding disclosed his share buying only when it reached a threshold that compelled him to do so, because he did not want to alert the market to the fact that Sabido (which owns e.tv) was interested in Ellies.
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b9f483 No.20847964
>>20847905
>One of his critics, political economy professor Patrick Bond, has described him as “another white man nicely empowered by BEE”. In the past Bond has said that Golding and Copelyn, as the heads of HCI, were getting involved in “easy-money casinos, cellphone and television deals”.
“etv: emails show who really runs the show” – Part 1
https://groundup.org.za/article/media-meltdown-emails-disclose-who-really-runs-south-african-show_2394/
28 October 2014 | Patrick Bond
A credibility crisis in South Africa’s independent media is unfolding this week, writes Patrick Bond.
There is a risk that fewer than a half-dozen managers will destroy the waning integrity – and at minimum, the ownership structure – of the country’s most popular tv news station, eNews, which had aspired to become Africa’s answer to Al-Jazeera.
Seven months ago, Marcel Golding, a former National Union of Mineworkers deputy general secretary who served under Cyril Ramaphosa 25 years ago, and until Monday ran eNews, received a string of emails from a behind-the-scenes fixer, Yunis Shaik. These astonishing emails were lodged in papers at the Cape Town Labour Court last Friday by Golding, in his failed last-gasp bid to save his eNews leadership.
The documents prove that six weeks before this year’s national election, Shaik told Golding and his wife, eNews executive Bronwyn Keene-Young, that their nightly national broadcast should give “lead story” coverage to President Jacob Zuma for the opening of the R3 billion De Hoop Dam in the country’s northeast, most minerals-rich region.
The intermediary between Zuma and Shaik was Minister of Economic Development Ebrahim Patel, former general secretary of the SA Clothing and Textile Workers Union (Sactwu). Within the eNews holding company, Shaik’s main protectors were the founding and current Sactwu general secretaries, Johnny Copelyn and Andre Kriel – all close pals of Golding until recently. Not anymore.
March 24 was a flashpoint moment, as Shaik wrote, “I got a call from Minister Patel today. He says President Zuma this day opened a new dam. The building of dams is a big issue and has big impact on our country for supply of water etc. He wants for us to cover it tonight.”
When after two days eNews had only mentioned the De Hoop Dam fleetingly on the morning show, Shaik emailed Keene-Young again, frustrated: “I received three sms[es] from Ebrahim and a phone call which gave rise to me sending an email to Marcel and yourself… after receiving another phone call from Ebrahim, and you and Marcel [are] still not available.”
This deal was not trivial, for eNews’s 2.5 million nightly viewers are an audience 2.5 times greater than the SA Broadcasting Corporation’s English-language news show.
During eNews’s 2012 London launch, Conroy reportedly said it would “become the Al Jazeera of Africa.” But now, Patel’s “ham-fisted attempt at Stasi-style propaganda” – as the Sunday Business Times described the abuse of power at eNews – makes transparent “just how wafer-thin the line really is between powerful people seeking propaganda and the information dished out to the public.”
Golding’s main ally on the board of directors of eNews’ holding company was former Minister of State Enterprises Barbara Hogan. When she resigned on Sunday, she confirmed the interference: “I am mindful of the briefing that Yunis Shaik gave me when he claimed that Sactwu … had lost patience with the editorial practices of eTV, citing the failure to give prominent coverage to Minister Ebrahim Patel’s economic pronouncements, as an instance of such dissatisfaction.”
As South Africa prepares for digital tv migration, the Set-Top Box ‘STB programme’ was Golding’s attempt to garner state support for a combined, fee-based cable news and internet access system in which he was simultaneously investing just over R24 million, in order to ensure eNews had control over rapid STB retail installation. However the share price of the local electronics firm he favoured, Ellies, soon tanked, resulting in sufficiently large losses that Copelyn and Shaik allegedly had a pretense for dismissing Golding this month, for dereliction of duty, gross negligence, dishonesty, and breaches of fiduciary duties and ethics policy.
(Whether true or not, media activists insist the STBs – costing around R1000 – be provided by the state as a free universal lifeline service so as to enhance information access.)
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b9f483 No.20847967
>>20847964
“etv: emails show who really runs the show” – Part 2
https://groundup.org.za/article/media-meltdown-emails-disclose-who-really-runs-south-african-show_2394/
28 October 2014 | Patrick Bond
Golding rebutted that in reality, the STB programme was trivial and the fall-out with other eNews owners occurred because of the Sactwu/Patel attempt to force the broadcaster to adopt a pro-ANC political agenda.
What kind of propaganda would Patel want dished out on national television? He certainly would not want eNews to mention the De Hoop Dam’s cost overruns (130 percent) or controversies surrounding its main beneficiaries, platinum mines, which get 60 percent of the new water supply. A year ago, such information catalyzed sell-out accusations against Zuma by the United Democratic Movement.
Other De Hoop Dam victims are downstream, in water-starved Mozambican communities and in the Kruger National Park. There, park officials joined by progressive environmentalists and water-sector NGOs firmly opposing De Hoop’s diversion of water to the mines.
Worst of all, though, would be a national news show providing rudimentary class analysis of infrastructure’s costs to ordinary people, judging from Patel’s diversionary arguments on SABC during the controversial passage of his fast-track infrastructure legislation earlier this year.
Early on, it was obvious that foreign mining houses will be the winners of Patel’s high-carbon, export-oriented Presidential Infrastructure Coordinating Commission, and that poor people would lose through much higher electricity, water and transport prices.
In Parliament, no one I encountered in a hearing could rebut concerns about Patel’s excessive haste, especially after a recent round of infrastructure white-elephant breeding that included World Cup soccer stadiums, Johannesburg e-toll system, luxury airport spending, the Gautrain, and many others.
The eNews team does have talented journalists, without question, and e.tv shows are often critical of government. But this particular series was sufficiently happy-faced that the broadcasts now feature prominently on Patel’s government website. The eNews overview report on infrastructure is one of the worst cases, celebrating two parastatal corporations’ most destructive mega-projects: Eskom’s two R120 billion coal-fired power plants and Transnet’s R350 billion rail, oil pipeline and shipping expansion.
Like Cyril Ramaphosa’s incriminating emails to Lonmin on 15 August 2012, Golding’s revelations and resignation force us into an awareness of just how closely the current ruling crew’s deracialised configuration of power across economy, politics and journalism resembles the elite’s pre-1994 structure.
And if so, then this media meltdown can only add fire to your belly, as you demand that the full crony-capitalist implications of the scandal be considered.
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b9f483 No.20847996
>>20847964
>their nightly national broadcast should give “lead story” coverage to President Jacob Zuma for the opening of the R3 billion De Hoop Dam in the country’s northeast, most minerals-rich region.
>>20847902
>Third was the company’s participation in broad-based black-owned companies (the idea of now-billionaire mining magnate Patrice Motsepe)
“De Hoop Dam; STEELPOORT, MPUMULANGA, SOUTH AFRICA”
https://arq.co.za/?p=2248
At 85 m in height and comprising approximately 1 million m3 of concrete, De Hoop Dam is the largest RCC dam in South Africa.
De Hoop Dam provides the bulk storage for Phase 2A of the Olifants River Water Resources Development Project (ORWRDP), which augments water supply in Limpopo Province. Water is to be supplied primarily to the mining industry in the Steelpoort area.
De Hoop Dam was constructed in high workability RCC and saw the first full implementation of IVRCC; RCC that can be compacted directly against the formwork using poker vibrators, without additional grout.
http://thenewage.co.za/22319-1024-53-Steelpoort_at_war_with_miners
https://web.archive.org/web/20110721034457/http://thenewage.co.za/22319-1024-53-Steelpoort_at_war_with_miners
Jul 6 2011 8:32AM
There are more than 100 mines operating from Lydenburg, Steelpoort, and Burgersfort up to Lebowakgomo. Steelpoort is home to Dwarsrivier chrome mine owned by Assmang, Tweefontein chrome mine owned by Samancor, Two Rivers and Modikwe platinum mines managed by Patrice Motsepe’s African Rainbow Minerals , as well as Mototolo platinum mine and the Lion Ferrochrome smelter, both owned by Xstrata.
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b9f483 No.20848003
>>20847996
>http://thenewage.co.za/22319-1024-53-Steelpoort_at_war_with_miners
>https://web.archive.org/web/20110721034457/http://thenewage.co.za/22319-1024-53-Steelpoort_at_war_with_miners
>Jul 6 2011 8:32AM
More info in the article
“Steelpoort at war with miners”
Steelpoort, a mining town on the borders of Limpopo and Mpumalanga provinces, is supposed to be a melodious story of development but it seem to be tense.
The tension – between mining houses and local communities over employment and business opportunities – has got to a point where mining managers are even scared to drive into the nearby villages, particularly at night.
When visiting the town last weekend, The New Age tried to arrange evening meetings with the managers but was told it would be impossible and extremely risky.
“I don’t think it will be advisable to do that because of the tension in the area. It will be hard for our employees to drive around,” warned Songezo Zibi, spokesperson of Xstrata Alloys, a day before the visit.
Xstrata is one of the big companies operating in the area. Some community representatives alleged that they felt the negative impact of the mining activities with no economic benefit.
Two months ago, more than 2000 community members from the surrounding villages of Ga-Malekane, Ga-Mampuru, Tukakgomo and Maandagshoek organised a march and barricaded roads outside the Two Rivers Mine at Maroke in the Sekhukhune area. They burnt cars and stoned several passing vehicles.
Another episode of violence erupted at Platinum Australia’s Smokey Hills near Maandagshoek. Kobus Jansen van Rensburg, who was employed by JIC Mining Services, was killed when the minibus he was travelling in on his way home was attacked by an angry mob.
There are more than 100 mines operating from Lydenburg, Steelpoort, and Burgersfort up to Lebowakgomo. Steelpoort is home to Dwarsrivier chrome mine owned by Assmang, Tweefontein chrome mine owned by Samancor, Two Rivers and Modikwe platinum mines managed by Patrice Motsepe’s African Rainbow Minerals , as well as Mototolo platinum mine and the Lion Ferrochrome smelter, both owned by Xstrata.
Mining activities around the area have been centred on chrome and platinum for a long time. Collections of mining dumps on nearby mountains bear testimony.
About 2 million people are said to be living in the villages that have no electricity, clean water or proper roads. About 90% of young people in the Steelpoort areas are said to be unemployed.
Most communities rely on the heavily polluted Tubatse River that cuts through villages, for water. The river runs up to the Lepelle River.
Explaining why it is important to meet them during daylight, Moffet Mabelane, a corporate social responsibility manager at Xstrata Alloys, said managers were being targeted by angry community leaders.
“They want to influence the recruitment process. They demand that all available posts should be allocated to the locals. They say we should make broad-based black economic empowerment a reality and also demand that magoshi (local chiefs) refrain from employment and tendering processes,” said Mabelane.
A senior mine manager who refused to be identified said he was attacked at some point only to be rescued by ex-employees who happened to know him.
Mabelane said Xstrata had adopted 18 communities and about 38 schools . He said the company was addressing most of the concerns through a tripartite forum, consisting of representatives from the company, communities and trade unions.
He said the total commitment from Xstrata for community projects in the Lydenburg, Burgersfort and Steelpoort areas stood at R35m over the next few years. This includes projects in progress and those that will soon start.
But for Jerry Tshehlakgolo, chairperson of the Sekhukhune Land and Mining Community Based Forum, the mines were reneging on their promises.
“They are so reluctant. They undermine black communities. They keep on promising us this and that. They are not delivering.
“And because of that, those killings won’t stop, we will fight them,” he said.
Another community leader, Teddy Thobakgale, said the same pressure was applied to local municipalities.
“There is a divide and rule kind of attitude from local government officials. “They are treating us like rebels and we are prepared to do anything to vent our frustrations,” he said.
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b9f483 No.20848011
YouTube embed. Click thumbnail to play.
>>20848003
And it continues…
“Tension brewing between mine company and local residents in North West”
https://youtu.be/a8zRajoEd_k
May 4, 2024
Non-governmental organization Mining Affected Communities United in Action - MACUA - says the Department of Mineral Resources and Energy is to be blamed for the tensions brewing in Mononono Village near Moruleng in North West. This follows Ikwezi Vanadium's alleged continued presence in the area. Ikwezi has refuted allegations of mining exploration activities in the community's grazing land. The community is demanding that the mining company rehabilitate all their grazing land that was excavated during the collection of samples and also remove all its equipment and security from the area. Tensions between the community and Ikwezi Vanadium have led violent clashes.
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b9f483 No.20848018
>>20848011
More…
“Glencore says Rhovan vanadium operations near Brits disrupted by community protests since 29 April”
https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2024-05-06-glencore-says-rhovan-mine-near-brits-hit-by-protests-since-29-april/
06 May 2024
Glencore has confirmed that its Rhovan vanadium mining and processing operations near Brits in North West have been disrupted by ‘community protesters’ since 29 April. It is the latest example of such unrest affecting the operations of a major global mining company in South Africa.
Glencore Ferroalloys confirms that without any prior notice, and without permission in terms of the Gatherings Act, No. 205 of 1993 (Gatherings Act), community members of the Bakwena Ba Mogopa community in Bethanie unlawfully blocked the R556 road leading to its Rhovan Operations,” the global mining and trading giant said in response to Daily Maverick’s queries.
“The roads leading to the Rhovan operations have been blocked by the group of protesters since Monday, 29 April 2024. This blockade has had the effect of preventing both access to and exit out of the Rhovan Operations by staff and contractors. This unlawful restriction has had a negative effect on the ability of the Rhovan Operations to continue with its normal operations.”
Glencore said no grievances or demands have been formally made and it was not clear who was speaking for the “community”.
This fits a pattern of such outbreaks of social unrest in mining communities which periodically disrupt the industry. Often shadowy elements and “procurement mafias” gin up “community protests” in a bid to shake down mining companies. It is also the case that communities have legitimate grievances which are exploited for such purposes.
But this incident seems to stand out for its duration – it has been rumbling on for more than a week – and the apparent lack of clarity around the demands.
Daily Maverick was alerted to the saga by an email sent by a source.
“Tensions are running high. No talks are happening. Police presence is worrying. We don’t want another Marikana,” the source said.
Attempts to follow up with the source have been unsuccessful.
“Despite this unlawful conduct, Rhovan management has reasonably indicated to the leaders of the protest, as with any stakeholders, that they are prepared to engage with all aggrieved parties through existing and recognised structures,” Glencore said.
“However, no such engagements can take place in the face of hostile and unlawful behaviour. To date, Glencore has not received any formal correspondence tabling the grievances or demands of the protesters or explaining exactly who are the bodies (if any) they represent.”
The SABC has reported that the protesters want mine management to prioritise local jobs.
It is also the latest such incident to rock a major global mining company in South Africa, raising the “investment risk” profile of the country in unflattering ways.
Richards Bay Minerals, a unit of global mining group Rio Tinto, has faced such unrest in the past – unrest that put a $463-million expansion project on hold.
Such protests seem to have ebbed over the past year in flashpoint regions in North West and Limpopo, but industry executives have warned that they expect them to possibly flare up in the run-up to the 29 May elections.
Sibanye-Stillwater CEO Neal Froneman said last month that “community members” were even extorting the industry to sponsor golf days.
The incident unfolding at Glencore may be a one-off, or it could be a sign that things are heating up.
“Glencore Ferroalloys will continue to work with all affected stakeholders and authorities to come to a peaceful solution, and affirms its commitment to uphold human rights, by dealing with the community safely and transparently,” Glencore said. DM
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b9f483 No.20848040
>>20847902
>>20847905
>>20847925
>>20847931
>>20847952
>>20847954
>>20847912
>After the transition to democracy, unions’ political influence expanded
“Johnny Copelyn: After “disastrous Zuma years” HCI intends playing role in SA’s resurrection”
https://www.biznews.com/leadership/2019/08/12/johnny-copelyn-zuma-years-hci
12th August 2019
Excerpts
Annual reports tell us everything about a company. They are the single document where boards of directors report to the owners of the company. Given its relevance, it still amazes me how some company leaders outsource the writing of their letters to shareholders, the most important part of any annual report. Because investing in the shares of a company is entrusting savings to those leading the business. And to trust someone, we need to understand what makes them tick. One of the better examples of authenticity you’ll find is the latest shareholder letter by HCI’s chief executive Johnny Copelyn, the key portion of which is republished below. Copelyn was named among those business leaders who donated money, in a personal capacity, to Cyril Ramaphosa’s ANC presidential campaign. After reading what he shared with his shareholders, the HCI faithful may well be asking him at the forthcoming AGM why the company, too, did not make a donation. – Alec Hogg
By John Copelyn
Efforts by factions of the ruling party to undermine their own president, and suggest he is failing to uphold the party line on such policies, will force us all to be more assertive to avoid the retreat of government from doing what has to be done.
Lawlessness across our businesses has meant endless disruptions of our coal business by various community-based groups seeking to force us to employ people chosen by such protesters (even though there are no vacancies to fill); and demands by traditional authorities to pay tributes and benefits on the basis that we are exploiting their “traditional domain”.
The lawlessness has resulted in an endless stream of armed robberies on our buses where passengers are relieved of their possessions at gun point; strikes demanding double digit increases which turn violent; burning of buses and the like.
This is definitely not a place for sissies.
Nevertheless, we absolutely must prevail against these forces. This is a moment where good people need to heed the call to action. We can rebuild what has been destroyed by opportunists and the scars on our backs can make us more determined, rather than naively trusting, as we may once have been.
HCI fully intends to play a role in this resurrection. We are a product of the post-apartheid dispensation in our country. We do not want to pretend otherwise.
It is our special responsibility to demonstrate ourselves as an exemplary BEE entity. And we are that. We have built new businesses rather than just being carried along in other people’s enterprise; we create new jobs, build new hotels, office blocks, shopping centres, warehousing, studios, and convert dilapidated and often vandalised buildings into refurbished inner-city residences.
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b9f483 No.20848043
“HCI’s Johnny Copelyn and Impact strike ‘smart oil deal’” in Namibia
https://www.hci.co.za/2024/01/14/hcis-johnny-copelyn-and-impact-strike-smart-oil-deal/
January 14, 2024
The transaction with TotalEnergies allows exploration company to keep half its stake in two Namibian fields.
Exploration company Impact Oil and Gas, half-owned by JSE-listed Hosken Consolidated Investments (HCI), has struck a deal with giant TotalEnergies, allowing it to keep half its stake in two Namibian deep-sea fields and benefit from oil flow in a number of years’ time.
The deal, probably struck partly by SA’s Johnny Copelyn, CEO of HCI, was “very smart”, said Piet Viljoen, executive director of Merchant West Investments.
It allows HCI to own about 4% in the oilfields and one day make money when the oil is pumped.
Copelyn, who declined to speak to the media as Impact is doing so, is known as a world-class negotiator.
HCI, a BEE investment holding company, owns a 49.2% stake in Impact, which until last week held a 20% stake in the oilfield off the coast of Namibia, Venus, or Block 2193B, and an almost 19% stake in a nearby field, Block 2192. Both are about 8,000km².
Due to its shareholding in Impact, HCI had about a 10% stake in the two offshore fields in a country far more committed to developing the fossil fuels than SA is.
In 2022, oil publication Upstream reported that Venus was very oil rich, and cited a confidential report by consultancy Wood Mackenzie that it could have more than 3-billion barrels of recoverable oil.
HCI’s share price rose to more than R240 in the past year on speculation the Venus field held enormous amounts of oil, with some reports reading the field was one of the biggest finds of its kind.
Impact, a London-based firm committed to exploring the coasts of Africa for oil and gas, lacked the hundreds of billions of dollars to invest in developing Venus and the neighbouring oil block.
TotalEnergies holds the highest stake in the fields, followed by QatarEnergy, leaving Namibian state-owned oil company Namcor holding minority stakes of 10% and 15% respectively.
But Copelyn and Impact managed to sell half of their stakes in the two blocks in a deal that will allow them to now own 9.5% per field, without putting up upfront cash in to develop them.
In terms of the deal, TotalEnergies, which bought half the Impact stake, will provide Impact with a loan for all the costs of exploring and developing their stakes until oil is pumped. Impact will then repay the French company an interest-free loan from proceeds of the oil.
Impact will also be reimbursed for its share of the past costs incurred in appraising the blocks, which is estimated to be about $99m (R1.8bn).
The share price of the other major shareholder of Impact, Canadian listed Africa Oil Corp, rose on the deal.
Venus is expected to only start pumping oil by 2028, according to Upstream.
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b9f483 No.20848053
>>20848003
>>20847996
>Samancor
Ehlobo Resources/Samancor Chrome: “BEE partner 'just a front' for UK firm”
https://www.timeslive.co.za/sunday-times/lifestyle/2009-09-01-bee-partner-just-a-front-for-uk-firm/
01 September 2009 - 20:28
INVESTMENT holding company Ehlobo Resources is again embroiled in controversy around the equity ownership of mining giant Samancor Chrome.
The department of minerals and energy has confirmed that it is probing allegations of fronting in the empowerment component of Samancor - one of the world's largest ferrochrome producers.
Ehlobo Resources, which holds half the shares in empowerment consortium Batho Barena, was a key player in securing the consortium a 28percent stake in Samancor.
Questions have been raised as details of the government's investigation into Samancor's shareholding were revealed in court papers filed at the Johannesburg High Court.
The deal between Samancor's holding company, Kermas SA, and Batho Barena, which was one of the country's biggest empowerment deals when it was concluded in 2006, has been fraught with difficulties for several months. The latest wrangle involves a court bid by Ehlobo Resources to get rid of its shares in Batho Barena.
The court papers include a notice from the department to cancel Samancor's mining rights after it received information that the company "misrepresented" its BEE shareholding in its application to convert old-order mining rights to new ones.
"The basis for this notice is that Samancor Mining Company has knowingly and intentionally furnished false, misleading and unlawful information regarding its equity ownership," the notice, dated September 12, reads.
On Friday, two of the department's officials confirmed that an investigation into Samancor's shareholding was ongoing, but that its mining rights had not yet been cancelled.
In earlier correspondence from the department, director-general Advocate Sandile Nogxina claims to have information indicating that Ehlobo Resources has been fronting five percent of its stake - indirectly held through Batho Barena - in Samancor for British Virgin Islands company Kermas BVI and not BEE shareholders, which was required to get new mining rights and to convert old rights.
Samancor is owned by Kermas SA, which has three major shareholders, the empowerment consortium which holds 28percent, as well as foreign companies Kermas BVI and International Minerals Resources (IMR), which each hold 32.5percent.
But Samancor chief executive Jürgen Schalamon denied that the company was involved in any fronting.
"We, as Samancor Chrome, definitely didn't do any fronting or fraud," he said.
He said Samancor is merely the daughter company of Kermas SA, and did not have "anything to do with the location of the shares in Batho Barena or in Kermas SA".
One of Ehlobo Resources's founders, Alistair Ruiters, also denied the allegations.
"There's never been any fronting. We've held five percent of the shares for allocation to other BEE groups and for the last 12 months we've been in discussions with the unions to increase the workers's share," he said.
Ruiters, who said he was unaware of the department's investigation, confirmed that the shares were held on behalf of Kermis BVI.
But Rafique Bagus, a co-founder of Ehlobo Resources, who is spearheading the current court action, said all of the relevant board members were aware of the investigation by the department.
"We've all been asked to make representations to the department of minerals and energy in respect of the allegations and have done so."
"In respect of any misconduct with respect to BEE, where I became aware of any arrangements that were contrary to what the intent of the [Mineral and Petroleum Resources Development] Act was, I acted immediately," Bagus said.
Earlier this year, Business Times reported on another scandal in the deal when Ruiters was accused by smaller stakeholders in the empowerment consortium of trying to short-change impoverished communities of their fair share in the BEE deal after he offered them reduced prices for their shares.
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b9f483 No.20848060
>>20848053
>>20848003
>>20847996
“The great Samancor ‘heist’” – Part 1
https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2019-10-02-the-great-samancor-heist/
02 Oct 2019
A profit-shifting scheme and other dodgy deals orchestrated by the ‘world’s richest Croatian’ have allegedly been used to siphon hundreds of millions of dollars offshore out of Samancor Chrome. Now the Johannesburg High Court is being asked to pry open the privately-owned mining company’s books as a first step towards a massive damages claim from its workers.
Theft and corruption totalling over $500-million (about R7.5-billion now) is being alleged in court proceedings pitting workers against Samancor Chrome, one of South Africa’s major privately-owned mining and minerals processing companies, and its previous owner and chair, Croatian billionaire Danko Končar.
It is alleged that Končar and his associates spirited billions of rand abroad in a transfer pricing scheme, sold assets while secretly pocketing most of the proceeds, got paid secret management fees, and anonymously earned facilitation fees as ostensibly independent middlemen between Samancor and an Australian mining company.
Končar, Samancor executives and a number of alleged co-conspirators are yet to respond to allegations in court – and may throw a different light on the evidence presented so far.
The case is being brought by the Association of Mining and Construction Union (Amcu) and rests on testimony from a whistle-blower, former Samancor director Miodrag Kon, who is supporting the court challenge with a treasure trove of internal documents and emails.
Kon has asked the court to keep his whereabouts secret “due to concerns regarding my personal safety”.
He alleges in a court affidavit that Končar, through his company Kermas, extracted as much as $500-million in only five years between 2005 and 2010.
Amcu general secretary Jeff Mphahlele claims in a separate affidavit that the damage may ultimately have been as much as $1.9-billion. He does not state the basis for the estimate, but it appears he also took into account what happened after 2010.
Mphahlele charges that had the money been paid out as dividends instead, a Samacor employee share ownership scheme would have received $100-million.
Končar bought Samancor with the assistance of International Mineral Resources (IMR), a company owned by three controversial Kazakh oligarchs, Alexander Machkevitch, Patokh Chodiev and Alijan Ibragimov. IMR partially paid for Končar’s acquisition of Samancor in 2005 and subsequently bought out his entire interest to own 77% by 2010.
Despite their support for him in 2005, evidence before the court shows that Končar allegedly even ripped off the Kazakhs before getting bought out.
He went on to secretly control a Finnish multinational partially built on Samancor-related assets and run by ex-Samancor executives. Shenanigans there recently saw Finnish authorities slam Končar with a mind-boggling fine of €110-million (about R1.8-billion).
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b9f483 No.20848066
>>20848060
“The great Samancor ‘heist’” – Part 2
https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2019-10-02-the-great-samancor-heist/
02 Oct 2019
Selling assets on the cheap
The crudest and most brazen alleged scheme to extract money from Samancor was the sale of 50% of a subsidiary, Tubatse Chrome, to Chinese state-owned conglomerate Sinosteel in 2007.
Sinosteel paid $225-million, but a staggering $125-million (R1.9-billion now) of that did not go to Samancor at all. Instead it ended up in the London bank account of Kermas, Končar’s company registered in the British Virgin Islands.
Kon has provided Samancor’s annual report for the 2008 financial year where the proceeds from the sale are recorded as R683-million. At the most favourable exchange rate recorded in May 2007, the month of the deal, this came to $100-million.
More damning is an email chain confirming receipt of payment which makes it clear that Samancor’s banker, Nedbank, and the company’s management were well aware of the money being diverted.
In the email chain a Nedbank manager alerts Wessel Erasmus, a Samancor veteran who became chief financial officer when Kermas took over, that $100-million has been received in Samancor’s account.
A few minutes later the Nedbank manager sends another email: “I can also confirm that Nedbank London has received USD 125-million on the account for Kermas.”
Samancor’s Erasmus then forwards the good news to Končar.
Jürgen Schalamon, the German Samancor chief executive installed by Kermas in 2005, was also copied into this discussion. He at the time had a 1% interest in Kermas in the British Virgin Islands, according to other documents in the court file.
The Sinosteel deal was accompanied by a confidential distribution agreement whereby Kermas became the sole marketing agent for Tubatse products and was guaranteed a steep 9% commission margin. This right, which got sold to a Sinosteel subsidiary for a 50/50 profit share, was just a smaller version of what was happening at Samancor itself.
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b9f483 No.20848073
>>20848060
>>20848066
“The great Samancor ‘heist’” – Part 3
https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2019-10-02-the-great-samancor-heist/
02 Oct 2019
The big profit shift
A more complex and audacious transfer pricing scheme accounts for most of the alleged damage at Samancor. It was also allegedly kept in place after Končar sold the company to IMR – and allegedly remains in place to this day.
The scheme is a form of profit shifting where a company pays a related party far too much for services based in another jurisdiction, usually a tax haven.
Sometimes the service is even fictitious.
It is a form of tax evasion, but in the case of Samancor it was also allegedly a way for Končar to steal millions from Samancor and its minority shareholders – with the complicity of at least two directors.
The alleged transfer pricing scheme started after Končar’s Kermas bought Samancor from BHP Billiton and Anglo American for $469-million in 2005.
In the same year, Končar registered a company called Samchrome in Malta and made it the sole international distributor of Samancor products with a huge guaranteed commission of 9%.
The evidence indicates that Samchrome was owned by another Maltese company, Chrome Holdings, which was in turn owned by Kermas. This is according to an email that Končar sent his accountant.
Kermas technically belongs to Danica Zagmester, Končar’s cousin, but it is effectively his investment vehicle for a variety of holdings across the world. When Kermas set up a secret agreement with IMR in 2005 to back the purchase of Samancor, Končar was the sole signatory on behalf of Kermas.
Another director of Samancor, Branislav Lazovic, owned a 5% share in Kermas while Schalamon, the Samancor chief executive installed by Kermas, owned 1%.
Končar’s cousin apparently later bought out Lazovic to own 99% by 2010. Kermas was at this point already a player in the Russian and Turkish chrome mining sectors as well as refining in Germany.
According to Kon’s affidavit in the court application, “Samchrome Malta had no employees. They performed no actual marketing services and gave little if any value. It sold almost all or all material through sub-agents.”
Kon’s claim that Samchrome had no employees is backed up by the complete absence of any employment-related expenses in Samchrome’s accounts. Even telephone costs were zero – strange for a company that is meant to be managing global trade for a major mining group.
Financial statements for Samchrome now contained in the court record show that the Maltese office was nonetheless making a killing.
In the 2006 financial year, its first year of operation, it had profits of $29.9-million and it paid out a dividend – to Končar, Lazovic and Schalamon – of $19.4-million. In the 2007 financial year its profits were $73.2-million.
To understand how effective this profit shifting was, Samchrome profits have to be compared to Samancor in South Africa.
According to Samancor’s annual financial statements from 2008, also in the court file, the company had profit of R1.4-billion in the 18 months ending December 2007. The Samchrome Malta profit for just part of this period (the 12 months up to the end of June 2017) was roughly R500-million.
In other words, the Malta marketing company was sucking up more than a third of Samancor’s profits – allegedly in exchange for nothing.
The outsized nature of the 9% commission being paid to Malta by Samancor is illustrated by the fact that, back in 2005, BHP Billiton initially acted as the marketing agent for a 2.5% commission after selling its share of Samancor to Kermas.
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b9f483 No.20848080
>>20848060
>>20848066
>>20848073
“The great Samancor ‘heist’” – Part 4
https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2019-10-02-the-great-samancor-heist/
02 Oct 2019
The Samchrome Malta setup would have evaded taxes in South Africa, but also robbed the minority shareholders of Samancor, including an employee share ownership scheme and other BEE partners brought onboard in 2006.
If the allegation holds up, the company in which the workers own shares (Samancor) is effectively ceding profits to another company in Malta they have no stake in, allegedly in exchange for nothing.
This, and other dealings that profited Kermas to the detriment of other shareholders, is the basis for Amcu’s case.
The Johannesburg High Court is now being asked to make a precedent-setting order: for Samancor, a private company, to open its books and prove, if it can, that these allegations against Končar and others are false.
This would be the first step towards a potential damages claim on behalf of workers for the $100-million calculated by economist Dick Forslund, who is working with Amcu, on behalf of the Alternative Information and Development Centre, a Cape Town-based NGO and Richard Spoor attorneys, as the dividends workers were deprived of.
Cut us in
The transfer pricing arrangement would not be unique. The difference with Samacor is that it was not the company itself benefitting from tax evasion, but largely a single individual sucking out millions to the detriment of Samancor itself as well as other shareholders.
The alleged scam dawned on the other shareholders along the way. IMR (the oligarchs) bought 32.5% of Samancor from Kermas in 2017 and were involved in Kermas’ acquisition of Samancor from the beginning. They nonetheless seemed to be in the dark about how 9% of the company’s revenues were being given to their partner Končar.
In February 2009 IMR seemingly realised that they were being fleeced. They directed a letter Samancor asking for a signed copy of the Malta agreement.
“Would you also please let us have copies of all and any of the board resolutions by Samancor in which the marketing agreement was discussed prior to its conclusion as well as the enabling resolution (which we assume exists).”
IMR continued: “Would you also please advise whether any person (and more particularly Dr Danko Konchar) gave notice in terms of Section 234 of the Companies Act No 61 of 1973 (as amended) of his interest in Samchrome Limited, Malta?”
Emails also show how the largest member of Samancor’s BEE consortium was incensed by being constantly cut out of the Malta largesse.
The BEE consortium called Batho Barena was put together in 2006 and the major BEE shareholder was Ehlobo Resources which had a 14% share in Samancor.
–Ehlobo was created by Alistair Ruiters, formerly director general in the department of trade and industry. His partner in Ehlobo was Mohammed Bagus, also a veteran of the department.
In June 2008 Bagus emailed Ruiters to complain.–
“We have been promised some cash from Malta since December 2006,” wrote Bagus.
“We learnt… at the last board meeting that Malta has issued a dividend. You confirmed to me that Danko has taken $70m for himself. I asked the question to our entitlement to 4% of the economic interest in Malta and you indicated that this won’t happen.”
Bagus was at the time parting ways with Ruiters and Ehlobo. Ruiters would, however, stay on as a Samancor director and participate extensively in Končar’s other endeavours, ultimately becoming chief executive of the Finnish company Ruukki (subsequently renamed Afarak), which Končar would build after leaving Samancor.
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b9f483 No.20848091
>>20848060
>>20848066
>>20848073
>>20848080
“The great Samancor ‘heist’” – Part 5
https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2019-10-02-the-great-samancor-heist/
02 Oct 2019
According to Kon’s affidavit, and supporting documentation, even the 9% being siphoned off by Samchrome in Malta was not enough for Končar and co.
A further email in the court record shows Samancor chief executive Schalamon negotiating a chrome ore sale with Mogale Alloys in 2007 where another Končar marketing company called RCS sells the ore.
He wrote to Kurt Maske, then a BHP Billiton employee working at Mogale: “It is important NOT to mention RCS with anybody in Samancor ‘cause as you know the parent company of Samancor also has other shareholders and in this case we are using not Samchrome as the agent for the [ferrochrome].”
Maske would later join Samancor and from there also join the Finnish Ruukki group alongside Končar and his associates. Both RCS and Mogale were later acquired by Ruukki as well.
Enter the oligarchs
IMR, belonging to the three oligarchs, first bought 32.5% of Samancor from Kermas in 2007 and then bought out Končar’s stake entirely in November 2009 after demanding an explanation for the Maltese arrangement.
Their involvement predates this as they initially gave Končar a loan to help pay for Samancor in 2005.
Their initial loan agreement, however, shows that it was always IMR that would control Samancor in the end.
A memorandum of agreement between Samancor and IMR stated that they would be “equal partners” in Samancor and that IMR would be treated as if it was a 45% shareholder despite not officially owning any shares. The reason for IMR not simply buying Samancor itself is unclear, but a source close to the lawsuit speculates it might have been to ensure Competition Commission approval.
In 2007 IMR not only bought out Kermas, but also Ehlobo’s 14%.
It sold half of the 14% to Holgoun, a local BEE outfit belonging to husband-and-wife team Sivi and Vanessa Gounden. The other half was “warehoused”, but it is unclear for whose benefit.
What followed IMR’s buyout of Končar and Ehlobo was not the end of the transfer pricing scheme, but a reconstitution of it to cut IMR into the action.
A new Samchrome was created in Dubai and took over the 9% commission.
A letter from Končar to both Samchromes states: “To the extent necessary, SamChrome Dubai hereby agrees to abide by the existing transfer pricing rulings relating to the Distribution Agreement.”
IMR, via Dubai, ultimately took over Kermas’ role as the exclusive marketer of Samancor products. Malta has a 4% corporate tax rate while Dubai’s rate is 0%.
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b9f483 No.20848101
>>20848060
>>20848066
>>20848073
>>20848080
>>20848091
“The great Samancor ‘heist’” – Part 6
https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2019-10-02-the-great-samancor-heist/
02 Oct 2019
The ‘king of chrome’
Končar has had a storied career, owning and managing major mining and metals companies from Russia to Germany, South Africa and, most recently, Finland. He has been dubbed the “king of chrome” in his native Croatia and is reportedly the richest Croatian in the world.
He has evidently taken the kind of corporate manoeuvring he carried out in South Africa to a whole new level.
In 2019 he was slapped with the €110-million fine by Finnish authorities for secretly taking control of Afarak, a listed Finnish mining and alloys group previously known as Ruukki.
This audacious scheme was first unveiled by the Panama Papers and involved Končar exercising 70% of Afarak’s voting rights through a network of ostensibly unrelated shareholders despite directly owning only 28% of the company.
Maintaining his known ownership below 30% was crucial since stock exchange rules force a shareholder to make a mandatory offer to buy out all other shareholders if they cross the 30% shareholding threshold. His fine stems from evading this requirement.
Končar’s time in South Africa is inextricably linked to Ruukki/Afarak. The Finnish company’s major assets come from South Africa, mostly relate to Samancor and were brought to the table by Končar immediately after he left Samancor behind.
Some of his colleagues in South Africa also joined him in packing their bags for Finland.
Back at Samancor there is also a slew of other serious allegations against Končar following the same alleged pattern of self-dealing to the detriment of Samancor and its minority shareholders. At least one ultimately leads back to Finland – via Australia.
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b9f483 No.20848109
>>20848060
>>20848066
>>20848073
>>20848080
>>20848091
>>20848101
“The great Samancor ‘heist’” – Part 7
https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2019-10-02-the-great-samancor-heist/
02 Oct 2019
Sylvania
One of the suspect deals that allegedly enriched Končar and other Samancor insiders was a series of dump reprocessing agreements with Australian mining company Sylvania.
In 2006 and 2008 Sylvania was awarded the rights to extract residual chrome (which would be sold to Samancor at prearranged prices) as well as platinum from Samancor’s mine tailing dams. These deals were, according to Kon, improper in a way that not only implicates Končar and Lazovic, but also Samancor executives and Ehlobo, the BEE partner.
With each new deal, Sylvania issued shares to a mysterious facilitator called Portpatrick for “securing the rights”. This was openly recorded in its annual reports without any clarification about who Portpatrick is or what it did. According to Kon, Portpatrick is in fact a front for Končar and Lazovic.
He claims they ultimately got 14 million Sylvania shares via companies in Liechtenstein for giving the Australian outfit very generous access to Samancor’s tailings – without telling the other shareholders about it.
The Sylvania deals appear also to have benefitted Ehlobo because the company simultaneously became the 26% BEE shareholder in Sylvania’s South African operations. Its founder, Ruiters, was on the Samancor board as the deals were negotiated and was then a shareholder on the other end of the table.
Ruiters went on to become chief executive of Afarak, Končar’s Finnish company.
The case brought by Amcu for Samancor to open its books is in terms of section 163 of the Companies Act dealing with “relief from oppressive or prejudicial conduct or from abuse of separate juristic personality of company”.
This section permits a shareholder, in this case Ndizani Workers’ Trust, the employee share ownership scheme of Samancor, to take a company to court for a variety of actions against shareholders’ interests.
Amcu specifically wants an accounting for all transactions related to the Malta and Dubai marketing companies as well as Sylvania and Sinosteel.
If the court grants that and the information confirms its suspicions, the union will use it both to sue for damages and seek an order for the replacement of Samancor directors.
However, the court papers were filed only on Wednesday, meaning Samancor, Končar and company have yet to provide their version. Kon’s damaging claims are likely to be fiercely contested. DM
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b9f483 No.20848150
>>20848053
>One of Ehlobo Resources's founders, Alistair Ruiters
>>20848060
>>20848066
>>20848073
>>20848080
> Ruiters would, however, stay on as a Samancor director and participate extensively in Končar’s other endeavours
>>20848091
>>20848101
>>20848109
>>20847912
>After the transition to democracy, unions’ political influence expanded, both through the participation of the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) in the Tripartite Alliance with the governing African National Congress (ANC) and the South African Communist Party (SACP)
>the Southern African Clothing and Textile Workers Union (SACTWU), opted to stay in COSATU.
Unions = gangs
Alistair Ruiters has ties to South African Clothing and Textile Workers’ Union (Sactwu)
https://www.iol.co.za/weekend-argus/news/rex-trueform-building-declared-a-provincial-heritage-site-19423759
Published Feb 21, 2019
Now based at the South African Clothing and Textile Workers’ Union (Sactwu) Worker Health Programme, around the corner, [Greg] Hoedemaker cut his teeth in the union movement as a shop steward.
He was born in Grassy Park and finished Standard 5 at EC Primary School. His life nearly took a wrong turn as he fell in with a gang. It’s when he became friends with the Ruiters brothers that his life changed and his political activism grew.
Dr Alistair Ruiters later became director general of the Department of Trade and Industry.
https://za.linkedin.com/in/gregory-hoedemaker-a4702ab9
[Gregory Hoedemaker] I work as the training manager at the SACTWU Worker Health Program. This is an NGO that is trade union based and serves members of the trade union Southern African Clothing and Textile Workers Union.
https://www.marketscreener.com/insider/ALISTAIR-PAUL-RUITERS-A0GOBX/
Alistair Paul Ruiters is currently the Chief Executive Officer at Ruukki South Africa Pty Ltd., Chairman at Mogale Alloys Pty Ltd., Chairman at Ehlobo Holdings Pty Ltd., Director at Ehlobo Capital Pty Ltd., Director at Accor Services South Africa, and Director at Karibo Coal Pty Ltd.
He was previously the Chief Executive Officer & Director at Afarak Group SE, Chairman at National Empowerment Fund, and Director at Chromex Mining Ltd.
He also held various non-executive director positions at Traxys Africa Holdings Ltd.
and Sylvania Platinum Ltd.
He was the Director General at South Africa Ministry of Trade & Industry from 2000 to 2005.
He holds a doctorate degree from the University of Oxford and an undergraduate degree from the University of Cape Town.
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7b3fb8 No.20848716
>>20848150 https://www.textchan.com/txt/cp/res/166.php#179
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3f5110 No.20848933
>>20848716
Why does that link have /cp/ in it?
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7b3fb8 No.20849719
YouTube embed. Click thumbnail to play.
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3f5110 No.20852640
Canada #58 >>20852532
Asia Embraces Coal As The U.S. Rejects It
Authored by Vijay Jayaraj via RealClear Wire Saturday, May 11, 2024
Vietnam and other Asian countries are on a coal spree! Given the dynamics of energy use in the rapidly developing industrial sector there, it is no surprise that these nations have backpedaled on big promises made at international climate conferences to reduce emissions of carbon dioxide from fossil fuels.
Vietnam's projected 2024 growth rate for Gross Domestic Product (GDP) stands at 5.8%, the sixth highest in Asia. Among the biggest contributors to GDP is the industrial sector (38 percent), especially manufacturing. S&P Global has noted a considerable improvement in Vietnam’s manufacturing sector in the fourth quarter of 2023 and is expecting Vietnam to perform well this year.
Electricity is a cornerstone of manufacturing operations in Vietnam. In 2023, coal produced more than 40% of all electricity in the country, while the country’s abundant hydro reserves contributed around 30%. Natural gas accounted for about 10%.
However, 2024 is expected to see a shortfall in hydroelectric generation because of less rainfall. Simultaneously, electricity production with natural gas is being complicated by forecasts of higher gas prices. Bloomberg reports that state-run PetroVietnam Gas “recently decided not to purchase a cargo for June due to high offer prices.”
So, the heavy lifting to meet power demand must now come from coal. The country is urging coal miners to maximize production before demand reaches peak in the summer months. The country’s prime minister has asked for an increase in coal exploration as well, signaling a sustained interest in the medium to long-time reliance on coal.
Vietnam’s move to increase coal use was inevitable. It cannot continually risk a huge demand-supply gap whenever dams go dry or gas prices skyrocket. The growth rate of power demand from expanding industries is increasing at a fair pace, and energy security is critical in ensuring manufacturing’s positive trend.
Similar patterns across Asia
Across Asia, a similar phenomenon is unfolding. The regional coal resurgence can be attributed to the rapid economic growth in these countries. China, the world's largest coal consumer, witnessed a rise in consumption in 2024. Earlier this year, reports showed the construction of dozens of new coal plants in China. In 2023, the country accounted for 95% of the construction of the world's new coal power plants. There are a total of 1,142 operating coal-fired plants in China, which is five times more than in the U.S.
India, another major player in the Asian energy market, also saw an increase in coal imports and production. India has increased its spending on infrastructure, with an expected rebound in demand for coal-based steel and raw material manufacturing. Indonesia has 254 operational coal-fired power plants and 40 new plants under construction. Japan, too, is a big consumer of coal, being the top importer of Australian coal in recent years.
Like Australia, the U.S. has been a top source of coal imports for these Asian countries. S&P Global says, “U.S. metallurgical coal exports have seen growth fueled by Asian demand over the past few years. The potential for seaborne volumes to grow hinge on expansions in blast furnace steelmaking and met coke production in India, China, and Southeast Asia.” New mines such as Arch Resource's Leer South and the AMCI, POSCO, and Itochu-led Allegheny Met's Longview mine will play a role in meeting this demand from Asia.
Ironically, U.S. miners can meet Asian needs while their government rejects them as a fuel source for cheap electricity!
The advancement of recent emission-reduction targets for U.S. industry, as well as restrictions on the export capacity of natural gas by the Biden administration, is quite astonishing in light of the ongoing expansions in fossil fuel capacity by various Asian nations.
The quality of life for millions of Americans could very well decline in return for zero environmental benefits as that of Asians improves.
https://www.zerohedge.com/energy/asia-embraces-coal-us-rejects-it
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3f5110 No.20853945
UK Supreme Court Decides Case Over $43M of Silver from WWII Shipwreck
Published May 10, 2024 5:44 PM by The Maritime Executive
South Africa has won a long-running legal battle against a United Kingdom company over a silver treasure valued at $43 million that was salvaged from the wreck of a commercial ship sunk by the Japanese during World War II. The ss Tilawa is said to be the only cargo-passenger liner attacked in the Indian Ocean during World War II and has become known as the “Indian Titanic” due to the loss of 280 people.
The UK Supreme Court issued the verdict on the case after a British company Argentum Exploration laid claim to the silver that was recovered from the seabed in 2017. The company sought to be recognized as the voluntary salvor meaning that it could seek compensation for the recovery.
The silver bullion was part of the cargo that sank to the bottom of the ocean when the merchant ship Tilawa was hit by two torpedoes from a Japanese submarine on November 23, 1942. The silver was sold by the government of India and being transported to the South African mint to be used for coinage.
Built in England in 1924, the 137-meter (450-foot) vessel was owned by the British India Steam Navigation Company. The passenger/cargo liner was sailing from Bombay (Mumbai) India to Durban, South Africa carrying 732 passengers, 222 crew, and 6,472 tons of cargo, including 2,364 bars of silver bullion when it was hit.
A total of 280 passengers and crew died while 687 passengers were rescued by two ships nearby. The incident has been described as one of the deadliest in history, resulting in the ship frequently being called the “Indian Titanic.”
Argentum, a company owned by hedge fund boss Paul Marshall, organized the salvage operation after the wreck was located in 2017. It deployed the salvage vessel the MV Seabed Worker to lift the bullion at a depth of approximately 2.5 kilometers (1.5 miles) from the seabed. The silver was transferred onto another vessel, MV Pacific Askari, and transported to the UK, as Argentum believed the silver belonged to the UK government. The company went ahead to declare the find to the Receiver of Wreck as required by the Merchant Shipping Act.
A legal battle ensued after it was determined that the silver was the property of the South African government. Argentum sought compensation for the recovery. Under maritime law, it is possible to make a claim for voluntary salvage, which means a salvor can make a claim regardless of whether the owner of the property requested or consented to the salvage operation.
Initially, the High Court and Court of Appeal in the UK ruled in favor of Argentum, which argued that the silver was “in use or intended for use for commercial purposes” when it was being carried at sea in November 1942. South Africa as a foreign state sought sovereign immunity.
In its ruling, the UK Supreme Court held that the silver was not in use nor intended for use for commercial purposes. “Therefore, South Africa is entitled to immunity from Argentum’s claim against the silver,” said the judges in the 45-page ruling.
The judges held that the silver was procured for the production of coin for both the Union of South Africa and Egypt and that it was likely that the greater part of the consignment on board the vessel would be used for Union coinage. The intended use of the silver was therefore for a predominantly sovereign purpose. Last month, the two sides however reached a confidential, out-of-court settlement.
The case also helped to renew attention on the tragic plight of the Tilawa. Two organizations, the S.S.Tilawa Foundation and Tilawa 1942 seek to preserve and tell the story.
https://maritime-executive.com/article/uk-supreme-court-decides-case-over-43m-silver-from-wwii-shipwreck
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353a01 No.20854591
The whole problem w sirius was xm sats getting jammed by 2 oersians dabbing in a white car gg
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da3957 No.20856427
YouTube embed. Click thumbnail to play.
Corporations are the protected ‘citizens’ as it is easily controlled and can be in every country. In the end, corporations benefit from activism… It is not about the people but companies.
“Prof. Mervyn King | Virtual Address | The Conscious Leadership & Ethics Summit 2023”: THE KING REPORTS: KING I, II, II AND IV - “The company… is the most important citizen in every country in the world”
https://youtu.be/WNV_DNM3s9E
Jun 18, 2023
Prof. Mervyn King welcomes delegates of the 2023 Summit. He is the founder and Patron of the Good Governance Academy as we as the former judge of South Africa.
0:39 – “From the middle of the 19th century until today, we followed the dictum of the primacy of the shareholder on the false premise that the shareholders were the owners of the company. It was a myth because you cannot own the assets of the company. It’s the company’s own assets.”
1:36 – “By 1987, we knew that planet earth had become degraded and in fact the profit of majority of companies was being subsidized by society and the environment. That’s the difference between right and wrong.”
2:06 – “The company, the limited liability company, is a person in law but it is incapacitated as a 3 years child… He or she cannot think and the guardian of that child has to think for it.”
7:04 – “The company… is the most important citizen in every country in the world.”
https://caribbeangovernance.org/blog/10680356
21 Jun 2021 2:40 PM
Long before the western world adopted ESG as a buzzword in corporate Governance, Professor Mervyn King and his counterparts in South Africa had embraced and develop principles and frameworks for embracing practices that went beyond the financial bottom line.
The King I report, produced in 1994, a mere two years after the publication of the seminal work by Sir Adrian Cadbury and his team in 1992, highlighted effective and ethical leadership, sustainability in terms of economic, social and environmental performance; and good corporate citizenship as the key elements which should guide directors in fulfilling their oversight role. Like other Codes of Corporate Governance, the King Reports are not mandatory by law, but are principles which are adopted by the Johannesburg Stock Exchange for all companies on an ‘apply and explain’ basis.
The first Code was produced for South Africa at a historic point in the country’s development as it was transitioning out of the apartheid system. Prof King, Senior Council and retired Judge of South Africa’s Supreme Court was asked to lead this task, and so his leadership saw his team develop a Code which has since seen three revisions deemed King II, King III and King IV.
The King III report also embraced emerging global governance trends such as: Alternative dispute resolution; Risk-based internal audit; Shareholder approval of non-executive directors’ remuneration; and Evaluation of board and directors’ performance.
Foresight can also be found in the King III report, which long before the pandemic and the focus on business continuity, the King Committee had incorporated a number of new principles relating to: IT governance; Business Rescue; and also, the Fundamental and affected transactions in terms of director’s responsibilities during mergers, acquisitions and amalgamations.
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da3957 No.20856431
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History repeats when no one learns from it… The ANC was regarded as a terrorist organisation but later the narrative changed to ‘freedom fighters’.
Candace Owens: “This Is HUGE. Putin Exposes The CIA.”
https://youtu.be/5BdtMv-vyn0
Premiered Feb 9, 2024 Candace Owens Podcast
In his interview with Tucker Carlon, Vladimir Putin alleges that the CIA controls our Presidents. We already knew that due to the deep state's reaction to Trump, who they didn’t expect. But now, Putin is confirming it. They are dumbing down and drugging Americans en masse while overthrowing governments worldwide. But to what end?
9:59 – “They got behind the Azov battalion. They said we don’t consider them a far right group anymore, people that are wearing Nazi symbols. We don’t consider them a far-right group anymore, we consider them freedom fighters. What does that tell you about the ADL? That they are part of a propagandist arm that they work for the state and at their core they are Marxists… They want to censor speech and control speech. They are all fraudulent groups.”
24:22 – “We are dumb, diluted and drugged. In fact… they’re creating slave colonies all throughout Europe and the United States. We have become slaves to our government because they have pushed through Marxist principle and that’s what Marxism is all about… constantly keep us angry about something; the proletariat, the working class, white vs black, short vs tall, women vs men.”
Disclaimer: this post and the subject matter and contents thereof - text, media, or otherwise - do not necessarily reflect the views of the 8kun administration.