KMMR is proud to announce Cosatu in Crisis: The Fragmentation of an African Trade Union Federation edited by Vishwas Satgar and Roger Southall – coming soon:

Cosatu has played a crucial role in championing democratisation, and it has been a critical voice for workers. But today, the future of Cosatu is uncertain.

While having to face the challenges to formal employment posed by a rapidly informalising labour market, it is bitterly divided between those who support and those who oppose the alliance with the ruling ANC. Formerly one of the most advanced and respected trade union federations in the world, some see Cosatu as undergoing the degeneration and marginalisation that has characterised the fate of many postcolonial labour movements in Africa.

So what are the implications for South Africa of the threatened disintegration of Cosatu and more importantly – what’s next for Cosatu?

Through the work of leading labour scholars and political analysts, Cosatu in Crisis: The Fragmentation of an African Trade Union Federation provides an extraordinarily engaged analysis of the underlying causes of the federation’s demise, and provides crucial perspectives on why organised labour is key to understanding the future of alliance politics, industrial relations and democracy.

Cosatu in Crisis is a must-read for unionists, business leaders, policy makers, and academics – and for anyone interested in knowing how labour will continue to shape the future of South Africa.

Chapters and themes covered in the book include:

• Cosatu in crisis: analysis and prospects by Vishwas Satgar and Roger Southall;
• Lessons from the political strategies of post-independence African trade unions by Ben Scully;
• Cosatu and the Alliance: falling apart at the seams by Devan Pillay;
• The changing social characteristics of Cosatu shop stewards by Roger Southall;
• Cosatu’s organisational decline and the erosion of the industrial order by Christine Bischoff;
• An afterword presenting possible scenarios for the labour movement by Vishwas Satgar and Roger Southall.

Book details

• Cosatu in Crisis: The Fragmentation of an African Trade Union Federation edited by Vishwas Satgar and Roger Southall
  EAN: 9780992232948
  Find this book with BOOK Finder!

In an article for UJUH, financial journalist Sibonelo Radebe outlines the lessons he believes can be learnt from Sam Motsuenyane’s biography A Testament of Hope: The Autobiography of Dr Sam Motsuenyane on how to create a new people’s bank in South Africa.

Motsuenyane is the founding chairman of African Bank and former president of the National African Federated Chamber of Commerce (Nafcoc). Radebe relates his description of how organised black business realised their dream of creating a bank for black people in the 1960s.

On the day of the first NACOC conference in 1964, about R70 was put on the table to advance the development of the bank. The target was R1 million which, Radebe says, was the minimum equity required to establish a bank.

Read the article:

From the R70 base of 1964 NACOC traversed all corners of the country to secure a broad based buy-in that came via the R100 per participant. The momentum was boosted by some Bantustan leaders. The contribution of the Zululand government under the leadership of Chief Mangosuthu Buthelezi is highlighted. The ‘cantankerous’ Chief is said to have been highly enthusiastic and put up R25 000 from KwaZulu. The R1million target was hit and African Bank launched its first branch in 1975 in Ga-Rankua with Dr Motsuenyane as chairperson.

Dr Motsuenyane states that the day African Bank was launched it was blessed by “a tremendous downpour of rain”.

“Just after we said ‘Amen’, the rain came down in torrents,” says Dr Motsuenyane. “The streets in the township were flowing with water and people shouting, Pula (rain)… We sang ‘Glory Hallelujah’ when our long-cherished dream was transformed into reality.”

• Complete article: UJUH

Book details

• A Testament of Hope: The Autobiography of Dr Sam Motsuenyane by Sam Motsuenyane
  EAN: 9780620512602
  Find this book with BOOK Finder!

Muzi Kuzwayo, one of the contributors to How to Fix South Africa: The country’s leading thinkers on what must be done to create jobs, edited by Ray Hartley, recently wrote an article for Fin24 about the rhino crisis in South Africa.

Kuzwayo begins the article by remembering anecdotes about animals that made an impression on him as a child. He thought that mistreating them was “cruelty of the worst kind”, until he witnessed unfairness against a person. He says: “That’s the problem animal rights activists will always face. Their cause will always be eclipsed by some bigger human cause”.

He suggest that in order to give animals such as rhinos proper care, humans need to be treated well, and vice versa.

Read the article:

South Africa would be best served if we didn’t get involved in this cultural warfare, which is hypocritical, unscientific and sentimental. Our country must quickly develop a viable and sustainable ­rhino horn industry that will help grow our ­economy and create employment.

Don’t listen to “Save the Rhino” organisations, because most are nothing but parasitic marketing groups that live in a symbiotic relationship with ignoble corporations prepared to pay a small fee to green-launder their questionable cash. They have the energy to fight, thanks to their full ­stomachs and Viagra.

• Complete article: Fin24

Book details

• How to Fix South Africa: The country’s leading thinkers on what must be done to create jobs edited by Ray Hartley
  EAN: 9780620549882
  Find this book with BOOK Finder!

Muzi Kuzwayo – businessman, professor at the Graduate School of Business at UCT and contributor to How to Fix South Africa: The country’s leading thinkers on what must be done to create jobs – has written an article for City Press on the myriad ways in which each individual can bring about change in society.

Kuzwayo writes about the Kgetsi-Ya-Tsie Education and Skills Development Fund that was started by North West Premier Obakeng Mahumapelo. The term “Kgetsi-Ya-Tsie” translates to “bag of locusts”, he explains, “from the African saying that children in the same household will share whatever little food they may have, even if it consists of locust heads”.

“One thing is for sure. We now know that all of us are agents who can change the course of history,” he concludes.

Read the article:

Let us change the narrative and be known as a nation of givers rather than one of receivers. Let us unleash that generous spirit that made our nation survive the difficult times of the past.

Give less to the church – God doesn’t need all that money. He already lives in heaven. Spend less on caskets and funerals – the bodies of the dead have no purpose except to fatten the worms. Let us spend more on the living and extend the joys of life to include the destitute.

Let our children eat good food, not only because it prevents kwashiorkor, but to teach them a taste for appetising food along with a taste for life.

As a people, let us be reminded that we cannot claim to be civilised simply because we no longer wear animal skins, but because we take humanity to greater heights.

Do not just give money, but fill your bag with wisdom and let our children know that our people cannot be defined only through the frailties of humanity, like ­corruption and other ills.

• Complete article: City Press

Book details

• How to Fix South Africa: The country’s leading thinkers on what must be done to create jobs edited by Ray Hartley
  EAN: 9780620549882
  Find this book with BOOK Finder!

Muzi Kuzwayo, marketer, adman and author, recently gave a TEDxSoweto talk titled “The magic we need to change Africa is inside us”.

Kuzwayo is the founder of Ignitive, former CEO of leading advertising agency TBWAHuntLascaris and an executive director of Project Literacy, an organisation dedicated to promoting literacy in South Africa.

He is also the author of the best-selling books Marketing through Mud and Dust, There’s a Tsotsi in the Boardroom and Black Man’s Medicine, as well as a contributor to How to Fix South Africa: The country’s leading thinkers on what must be done to create jobs.

“I was born 50 kilometres east of Johannesburg in a place called Daggafontein,” Kuzwayo says. “So when I started working, I found white people buying dagga for R5 – so much money!”

He continues on a more serious note, explaining how poverty sparked his interest in marketing. Omo washing powder, for example, had the tagline “works even in cold water” – as there was no hot water available to its target marker – and the brand became the market leader.

Watch the video:

With a combination of humor and straight talk, author, marketer and adman Muzi Kuzwayo takes us through slices of his own life of poverty, resilience and inventiveness to show that his wish for a future when Africa produces the best quality in the world is a real possibility, despite the odds.

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Book details

• How to Fix South Africa: The country’s leading thinkers on what must be done to create jobs edited by Ray Hartley
  EAN: 9780620549882
  Find this book with BOOK Finder!

Muzi Kuzwayo recently wrote an article for City Press in which he laments the way that capitalism has crept into the heart of transformation: “Currently, we seem to be concerned with constructing mounds and mounds of stomachs while our souls are starving.”

Kuzwayo is one of the contributors to How to Fix South Africa: The country’s leading thinkers on what must be done to create jobs edited by Ray Hartley. In the article he highlights the duty of all Africans to rebuild the land: “Our work as contemporary Africans is to rebuild a continent ravaged and plundered by apartheid, colonialism and slavery; not with bricks and mortar alone, but with culture as well.”

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In effect, transformation has meant more skin-lighteners and weaves in the workplace. We are copying everything white, including racism and xenophobia. It’s embarrassing how black executives make jokes about blacks to their white colleagues.

They’re inadvertently perpetuating prejudice, as they mistake self-deprecation with self-defecation.

The best you can do is to be yourself. The people you do business with will have no respect for you if they suspect you are a fake.

Remember, it is not by fluke that you are where you are, but because you are good. So keep your head high, wear that Afro and those ethnic earrings. If they complain about your attitude or complexion, smile, because you’re doing something right.

• Complete article: City Press

Book details

• How to Fix South Africa: The country’s leading thinkers on what must be done to create jobs edited by Ray Hartley
  EAN: 9780620549882
  Find this book with BOOK Finder!

Head of the Centre for Development and Enterprise Ann Bernstein recently spoke to John Maytham about the lessons South Africa can learn from Mexico’s recent development plan.

The contributor to How to Fix South Africa: The country’s leading thinkers on what must be done to create jobs, edited by Ray Hartley, explains how the Mexican president worked with the opposition party in 2012 to establish a fundamental structural reform package to set the economy on a higher growth path.

These radical changes include massive privatisation of the electricity sector, opening up the economy to foreign investors, encouraging competition in the telecommunications market and reforming key aspects of education. “South Africa is going to have to find political leaders that are truly committed to fundamental economic reform,” she says.

Listen to the podcast:

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Book details

• How to Fix South Africa: The country’s leading thinkers on what must be done to create jobs edited by Ray Hartley
  EAN: 9780620549882
  Find this book with BOOK Finder!

The leaders of Nafcoc, the organisation which is the subject of A Legacy of Perseverance: NAFCOC – 50 Years of Leadership in Business by Kwandiwe Kondlo, were part of the ANC’s 103rd birthday celebrations recently.

The Herald published a story about the ANC’s birthday celebration. In the article, Litemba Singapi, an adviser to Nafcoc, said that it is right that his organisation pay tribute to the ANC because of all the the political organisation has done for black business owners.

Read the article:

“Today, there are black millionaires and billionaires. We are not taking that for granted.

“I know the movement has its challenges, but I will always be an activist of the ANC. I’m where I am because of the ANC.” Singapi said some of the Nafcoc leaders would join door-to-door campaigns as well as a fundraising dinner.

• Complete article: The Herald

Book details

• A Legacy of Perseverance: NAFCOC – 50 Years of Leadership in Business by Kwandiwe Kondlo
  EAN: 9780992232917
  Find this book with BOOK Finder!

The Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA) has declared Reverend Joe Hlongwane’s claim to the presidency of the National African Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Nafcoc) as unlawful.

Hlongwane led a meeting by a parallel structure of the business chamber in December 2012, where he was elected as president of Nafcoc. However, Lawrence Mavundla was re-elected as president of Nafcoc on 22 September 2014 and he led a faction to declare Hlongwane’s appointment as illegitimate.

Kwandiwe Kondlo’s book on Nafcoc, A Legacy of Perseverance: NAFCOC – 50 Years of Leadership in Business, provides insight into the organisation’s history and structures.

News24 reported on SCA’s decision, saying that during the delivery of the judgement the SCA called Nafcoc “an organisation at war with itself… [whereby] its members have, not for the first time, split into two factions.”

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The Supreme Court of Appeal on Friday put an end to a long-running leadership battle in Nafcoc in a ruling discounting the legitimacy of a previous president’s appointment.

The judgement, from a panel of five appeal judges, in Bloemfontein, found that a meeting held in December 2012 during which Rev Joe Hlongwane was elected to the top position of the National African Federated Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Nafcoc) was “not lawfully convened…

“The resolutions taken at the meeting were invalid and of no force and effect.”

• Complete article: News24
  

The Sunday Independent reported that the rivalry is far from over. Journalist Thabo Leshilo interviewed Hlongwane’s lawyer, Dewald van den Berg, who said that the Hlongwane faction is “still studying the judgement” and denies the court decreed Mavundla the legitimate leader of Nafcoc, but rather that all resolutions adopted at the December 2012 meeting were invalid.

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The SCA decision, delivered on Friday, effectively reverses a decision by Judge Ramarumo Monama in the South Gauteng High Court on February 22, 2012, that had anointed the faction led by Reverend Joe Hlongwane, the organisation’s founder member.

Mavundla’s faction had applied to the court to declare null and void the resolutions of a meeting held on December 6, 2012, by a parallel structure of the business chamber, led by Hlongwane, in order to render Hlongwane’s executive unlawful.

The meeting had passed a vote of no-confidence in Mavundla and his executive. The South Gauteng High Court found, however, that the meeting had been legitimately convened and had been representative of Nafcoc’s affiliates.

• Complete article: Sunday Independent

Book details

• A Legacy of Perseverance: NAFCOC – 50 Years of Leadership in Business by Kwandiwe Kondlo
  EAN: 9780992232917
  Find this book with BOOK Finder!

Ashraf Garda recently invited former president and founding member of NAFCOC Sam Motsuenyane to share his story with SAfm listeners on Afternoon Talk.

Garda asks Motsuenyane about his early journey as an entrepreneur, the various projects he has been involved in, his leadership experience and the people he has worked with along the way.

Motsuenyane also voices his opinion of the status quo in South Africa, saying: “What disappoints me very much is that we are not altogether united, especially in our organisations. We keep on encountering problems that leads to disunity. In order to face problems before us in this country we have got to come closer together – black and white, and black and black. We have got to try and form formations that do not have the internal conflicts that characterises our organisations today.”

He resolves, however, saying that this is part the reality of being a nation: “No nation has ever gone forward without encountering ups and downs.”

Motsuenyane’s life story was published recently by KMM Review as A Testament of Hope: The Autobiography of Dr Sam Motsuenyane.

Listen to the podcast:

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Book details

• A Testament of Hope: The Autobiography of Dr Sam Motsuenyane by Sam Motsuenyane
  EAN: 9780620512602
  Find this book with BOOK Finder!