Syria calls for SA help in Middle East

Mail & Guardian: 31 January 2007
Syria is hoping that South Africa can help it with key problems in the Middle East, its Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, Faisal Mikdad, said on Wednesday.

Mikdad has been sent to South Africa as a special envoy of Syrian President Bashar al-Asad to deliver a letter to President Thabo Mbeki highlighting problems in the Middle East.

"The message looks at possibilities where we can work together to solve these problems," Mikdad said.

He met with South African Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Aziz Pahad in Pretoria on Wednesday to discuss tensions in Iraq, Lebanon and between Israel and Palestine.

Pahad said South Africa believes that dialogue is necessary to solve the problems and will do anything possible to assist.

Mikdad arrived in South Africa on Tuesday and has already met Education Minister Naledi Pandor. He was also scheduled to meet Intelligence Minister Ronnie Kasrils and Minister in the Presidency, Essop Pahad.

Tell Bush to go to hell

Saturday January 27
“Tell the Bush government to go to hell.”

This was the response of the SA Communist Party (SACP) to allegations by the US that two South African men, Junaid Docrat and his cousin Farhad Ahmed Docra, are financing al-Qaeda activities.
The SACP said the US had no right to “arbitrarily” label the Docrats as terrorists, and in so doing undermine the sovereignty of South Africa.

The SA government was more diplomatic in their much-anticipated response to the saga.
Reacting to the US’s call that the men should be listed by the UN as terror suspects, Foreign Affairs Minister Nkosazana Dlamini- Zuma ordered yesterday that the process be put on hold by SA’s representatives to the UN.

She said: “The matter needs to be discussed further in bilaterals with the US authorities.”
Deputy Foreign Affairs Minister Aziz Pahad explained: “We want to make sure that anybody that goes on the list is on there for a good reason, because the consequences are so very serious.”
A listing on the UN’s list of terror suspects could lead to the Docrats’ assets being frozen, and prevent them from doing business or travelling overseas.

The SACP said yesterday: “It is the same Republican government that labelled the ANC as a terrorist organisation, and fully supported the apartheid regime.”

Unless the US can provide “credible evidence” to back up the terror allegations, the SACP calls on the SA government “and the millions of peace-loving South Africans to tell the Bush government to go to hell”.

The Docrats have maintained they are innocent, and emphasise that “our legal system is based upon the principle that a person is innocent until proven guilty”.

In the absence of details from the US on the reasons they are requesting the terror listing, the Docrats did not want to comment.

SA pair ready to speak out over terror claims

January 24 2007
The two South Africans accused of having links to Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda network will release a statement on Wednesday, their lawyer said on Tuesday night.

This follows an evening meeting between the two and lawyer Shaheed Dollie.

"We want to do this instead of causing a media frenzy," said Dollie.

Junaid Dockrat, a dentist from Mayfair, Johannesburg, and his cousin, Farhad Ahmed Dockrat, have been named by the United States
government as terror suspects with links to Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda and the deposed Taliban in Afghanistan.

"They are not on the list at the moment... the request to include them (by the US government to the UN Security Council) was only made on January 18," said Dollie.

On Tuesday evening, Foreign Affairs Minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma was still "applying her mind on how to deal with the issue" of the two.

Dollie said he asked foreign affairs to clarify reports of plans to name them on the United Nations' list of suspected terrorists.

In an urgent letter to the department of foreign affairs, he said his clients were "confident that there is no factual basis whatsoever, which would justify their being listed on the so-called
'United Nations list of persons associated with al-Qaeda'".

However, as far as foreign affairs is concerned, no official correspondence has been forthcoming.

"The office of the minister has not received any official communique from the lawyers of the two South Africans listed by the UN Security Council for alleged links to al-Qaeda," foreign affairs
spokesperson Ronnie Mamoepa said on Tuesday.

Under UN guidelines, they face the freezing of their assets and bank accounts, and prohibitions on worldwide trade and travel.

Dollie added that media hype and negative publicity surrounding the two men had affected their personal lives, traumatised their children and negatively impacted on their businesses.

He also confirmed reports that both Junaid, Farhad and their businesses had been under surveillance.

"They've been under surveillance for quite a while now," he said, adding that they were not sure who was monitoring them.

According to a legal expert, South Africa - as a member of the UN - will have no choice but to act against the pair.

South Africa had to comply with the UN's guidelines, said University of the Witwatersrand law school senior lecturer Mia Swart.

"It is difficult to apply the construct of diplomatic protection to these men... South Africa has to comply with United Nations guidelines as a member state," she said.

The SABC reported that South Africa has until Friday to give the US government reasons why the two should not be on the Security Council's list.

We'll fight on

Maite Nkoana-Mashabane, the wife of sex-pest former diplomat Norman Mashabane, will stand by her man despite a High Court ruling that said he should have been fired on allegations of sexual harassment.

Nkoana-Mashabane, the MEC in charge of local government and housing in Limpopo, said the family would challenge the department of foreign affairs through the labour court: "Elements in the media continue to pursue the unsubstantiated and disputed allegations that featured in internal proceeding in the department of foreign affairs more than three years ago, with an unexplained frenzy," she said this week.

"The family has experienced a testing and traumatic period in regard to the disputes and publicity surrounding our husband and father, Norman. Legal proceedings have been instituted against the department," she said.

"The false and defamatory allegations of our family's adversaries will be tested fully in court."

Earlier this month, Judge Jerry Shongwe, the deputy judge president of the high court in Pretoria, ruled in favour of an application by Lara Swart to review the decision by Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, the foreign affairs minister, in April 2004, to let Mashabane off the hook on sexual harassment claims, after he had been found guilty by a departmental disciplinary hearing.

Shongwe said Mashabane's appeal against his dismissal for sexual harassment had been set aside, adding that the minister's decision would be replaced with the following: "The appeal is dismissed. The finding of guilt on three charges of sexual harassment and the sanction of dismissal are confirmed."

Dlamini-Zuma was ordered to pay Swart's legal costs, estimated to be around R500 000.

Nkoana-Mashabane told SAFM earlier that she loved her husband and nobody knew him as well as she did, adding the family would be spending "a private and nurturing time" together during the holidays.

Despite requests for interviews, Mashabane has refused to to speak.

"Why should I chat with you? You have repeatedly called me a sex pest."

SADC Action Group on Zim mired in controversy

CONTROVERSY surrounds a SADC Ministerial Action Group (MAG) reportedly appointed by the regional body’s chair, Lesotho, to compile a report on the ‘Zimbabwe crisis’, with sources saying Harare would not accommodate the body as it was commissioned outside the organisation’s Summit.

The South African media have in the past weeks reported that SADC chair, Prime Minister Pakalitha Mosisili of Lesotho, after consultations with South African President Thabo Mbeki, commissioned a three-country group to report on the situation in Zimbabwe.

However, the sources said it increasingly looked as if the MAG might never visit Zimbabwe, as there was no consensus among various SADC member States over how to proceed, adding that there was a "media blackout on what was now taking place behind the scenes".

According to Foreign Affairs and diplomatic sources, a rift was emerging in SADC over how to engage Zimbabwe, with some members like "Namibia, Mozambique and Tanzania emphasising non-interference while others were pushing for a tougher line" including the commissioning of an MAG.

"SADC is not agreed on the mandate of the MAG and whether or not to accept any of its findings. At the same time the Zimbabwe government has told the SADC secretariat it will not allow the MAG into Harare as it does not have legal standing within the regional body. At present, no one seems to want to own up to being behind the setting up of the group. It has been difficult getting confirmation from Lesotho and South Africa on what is taking place. It is not even clear who is in this MAG but the general belief is that the three countries are Lesotho, South Africa and Botswana," The Sunday Mirror was informed.

Fuelling the controversy and confusion, officials at the SADC secretariat in Botswana are apparently unaware of the composition of the group, its mandate and to whom it will report its determinations, though suggestions in the South African media are that the MAG will present a report to an emergency Summit. There has also been speculation that the MAG’s report will result in a referral of Zimbabwe to the SADC Organ on Politics, Defence and Security, which is currently chaired by Tanzania, a close ally of Harare.


Contacted for comment, Leefa Martin, the SADC head of communications said she had no information on the MAG adding "it seems no one has concrete information" on the status of the group. She said she had been unable to get any details on the matter from her colleagues in the secretariat and referred further inquiries to a ZK Masanja who is the SADC national contact point in Tanzania’s ministry of Foreign Affairs.

At the time of going to press, Masanja had not responded to questions sent to him by The Sunday Mirror some three weeks ago. Deputy Information and Publicity minister Bright Matonga said: "We have not had any official communication on the matter and so as far as we are concerned there is no issue." Efforts to get a comment from Lesotho’s principal secretary for Foreign Affairs Motlatsi Ramafole through the department’s contact person Mamoliehi Moetetsi were fruitless, as he too did not respond to questions sent to his office some three weeks ago. South Africa’s Foreign Affairs minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma also did not respond to questions forwarded to her on the issue.


Our Foreign Affairs insiders said it was highly unlikely that the MAG would in actual fact visit the country as such commissions and their agendas were decided on at Summit. "There appears to be nothing official vis-à-vis the MAG’s mandate and its proposed visit to Zimbabwe. It is not that we are against anyone coming into the country and seeing things for themselves but it is just that these things have to be done procedurally so that they can be respected," said an insider. The Foreign Affairs insider said it was consequently surprising that Lesotho had then decided to go ahead and create an MAG "against the wishes of the Summit". Two weeks ago in his address to the Zanu PF People’s Conference held in Goromonzi, President Mugabe said: "Even our neighbours have no power to change the government in Zimbabwe. In the same way that we will never go to Zambia, Malawi, South Africa and Mozambique telling them who should rule there, no one can tell us who should rule here."


At the most recent Summit in Maseru, Lesotho, SADC Heads of State said they did not feel compelled to interfere in Zimbabwe, preferring to give the Benjamin Mkapa mediation between Harare and London a chance to work, something that did not go down well with opposition forces in this country. Since the onset of the Fast Track Land Reform Programme six years ago, there have been a number of calls for SADC and the African Union to take a leading role in criticising Zimbabwe with American President George W. Bush once calling President Mbeki his "point man" on Zimbabwe. However, this pressure has largely been resisted with the two bodies often pointing out they would not meddle in the internal affairs of a fellow Member State. At the African-Caribbean-Pacific and EU Joint Parliamentary Assembly in Barbados in November, SADC delegates once more rebuffed calls for the regional grouping to attack Zimbabwe.

Mashabane takes foreign affairs dept to court

Norman Mashabane, the former ambassador to Indonesia, is taking the foreign affairs department to court. Mashabane, who has been convicted of sexual harassment, accuses his former employer of unfair dismissal.

Last month, the Pretoria High Court re-instated a departmental guilty verdict against the former ambassador on 22 charges of sexual harassment. This comes after Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, the foreign affairs minister, overturned an initial guilty verdict.

Mashabane's family says they will stand behind him. “As a family we went through a difficult time regard the saga and decided we need to support Norman as he takes the department to court regarding ill treatment through the whole thing. We believe he is innocent and needs to get a day in court so he can clear his name,” says Maite Nkoana-Mashabane, the family spokesperson.

Diplomats demand protection

The diplomatic corps in South Africa has sent a strong letter to the South African government complaining about its continued failure to take any action to protect diplomats from crime.

This includes a complaint that the government has three times postponed scheduled meetings with the diplomats to address the crime problem and how to increase their protection.

The third meeting scheduled for December 11 between diplomats and Foreign Minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma was postponed indefinitely this week.

Prior meetings with her or with Safety and Security Minister Charles Nqakula were supposed to happen in November and early December but did not. Several ambassadors and other diplomats and their staff have become victims of crime recently.

On Tuesday, the dean of the diplomatic corps, Libyan ambassador Dr Abdullah Alzubeidi, wrote to Dlamini-Zuma and other senior foreign affairs officials on behalf of all embassies and international organisations represented in South Africa to "express their grave concern about the high level of violent crime".

The letter expressed "deep regret and profound disappointment" that various meetings between the diplomats and the South African government had been postponed three times "despite the urgency of the situation and the radical multiplication of crime against diplomatic and consular representatives.

"It may be noted that in spite of past and continuing official dialogues with the South African authorities, there are no visible signs that effective steps have been taken to ensure the security of the diplomatic and consular communities."

The letter said the diplomats expected the South African government to fulfil its responsibilities to protect diplomats, as spelt out in the Vienna Convention governing diplomatic relations.

The letter asked the government to respond to the letter, stating the "specific and immediate measures" that it would take "to protect the lives and property" of diplomats.

The department of foreign affairs could not be reached for comment on Wednesday night.

Sex pest Mashabane quits Limpopo post

Sex pest Norman Mashabane has resigned with immediate effect from his post as political adviser to Limpopo premier Sello Moloto.

This followed a Pretoria High Court judgment last week which reinstated a guilty verdict on several sexual harassment charges against Mashabane.

The court’s decision also turned the spotlight on Foreign Affairs Minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, who overturned a disciplinary court decision implicating Mashabane in sexual harassment of embassy staff.

Moloto made the announcement yesterday, saying Mashabane had asked to be relieved of his duties. “He has asked to be relieved of his duties to focus on the problems he is currently experiencing,” said the premier’s spokesman, Mogale Nchabeleng.

The sexual harassment incidents took place when he was SA’s ambassador to Indonesia. Mashabane was found guilty by a disciplinary committee in 2001 of 22 counts of sexual harassment that included stroking the buttocks of an employee, molesting a staff member in a lift and making suggestive motions with his tongue to another.

The panel recommended he be fired, but he appealed against the judgment and was allowed to continue in his post pending the outcome.

However, Dlamini-Zuma, acting as the appeal authority, reversed the findings, suggesting that Mashabane’s name was being dragged through the mud for exposing motor vehicle fraud at the embassy.

The Public Servants Association welcomed the high court decision, saying it cleared the name of member Lara Swart, one of those who laid a complaint of sexual harassment against Mashabane.

Mashabane started working as the premier’s political adviser in November. Opposition parties and unions have called on Dlamini-Zuma to apologise to the victims and women who might have been dissuaded from pursuing a claim of harassment for fear of being accused of inventing the incident.

Sex pest victim tells of years of hell

Having enduring three-and-a-half years of hell after she laid a complaint of sexual harassment against diplomat "sex pest" Norman Mashabane, feisty Lara Swart says she now just wants to get on with her life.

"It's unbelievable, I'm so relieved the case has finally come to and end," Swart told Weekend Argus shortly after the Pretoria High Court on Friday ruled Mashabane should have been fired for sexual harassment.

"It's been a nightmare. Now I just want to get on with my life and concentrate on my career in the department (of foreign affairs). This incident has been extremely painful... it's been hanging over me and my family for so long," she said, adding that she could not have got through the ordeal with the support of her husband and family.

"As a woman, there are certain things we can and must do when we are wronged, many times we ask ourselves whether it was all worth it," she said. "Today, I say yes because I am very pleased with the outcome," said the Pretoria-born diplomat. "I feel like a new person," she said.

The trauma of the sexual harassment and her subsequent complaint led to Swart accepting a posting to South Korea, while the Public Servants Association fought to take the matter - which was characterised by lengthy delays - to a conclusion.

Swart said she was surprised that her long nightmarish legal battle to ensure Mashabane was punished, was eventually over in less than five minutes. Judge Jerry Shongwe, the deputy judge president of the High Court in Pretoria ruled in favour of an application by Swart to review the decision by Foreign Affairs Minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma in April 2004 to let Mashabane off the hook on sexual harassment charges after he had been found guilty of by a departmental disciplinary hearing.

Shongwe said Mashabane's appeal against his dismissal for sexual harassment of Swart has been set aside, adding that the minister's decision would be replaced with the following: "The appeal is dismissed. The finding of guilt on three charges of sexual harassment and the sanction of dismissal are confirmed."

Dlamini-Zuma was ordered to pay Swart's legal costs, estimated to be as high as R500 000.

"I'm so glad it is finally over, it's been three long years of ups and downs, but we did not give up," said a relieved Swart shortly after the announcement at the verdict on Friday.

Swart told Weekend Argus that the court's ruling, coming in the middle of the government's 16 Days of Activism Against Women and Child Abuse, would serve as encouragement to many.

"It gives women hope that our system is working. Many victims of sexual harassment wonder whether it is worth pursuing charges against their perpetrators," she said.

"But they may now say: 'See what Lara Swart has done', and follow my example. If we don't speak out, things will continue," she warned.

Mashabane, who forcibly kissed and groped Swart during a function at his residence in May 2003, was found guilty after a disciplinary hearing that recommended he be dismissed. This was the second sexual harassment case against the former diplomat.

In 2001, at least six Indonesian women laid several cases of sexual harassment against the diplomat. In the charge sheet before the disciplinary hearing, Mashabane was alleged to have had sex with a government employee in the back seat of a chauffeur-driven car; patted a domestic worker on the behind while she was doing the dishes; and showed embassy staff members pornographic pictures.

Gender activists monitoring the case said at the time that it was ironic that the disgraced ambassador was being protected by a woman.

Although Mashabane - whose wife Maite Nkoana-Mashabane was the former high commissioner to India and is MEC for local government and housing in Limpopo - was found guilty on 21 counts of sexual harassment, he remained in his post pending an appeal.

It was during the appeal that the incident involving Swart took place.

In November 2003, Mxolisi Nkosi, the presiding officer of the disciplinary inquiry, informed Mashabane of his dismissal after being found guilty of acts of sexual harassment against Swart.

In papers before the court, Mashabane boasted to staff within the embassy that nobody could take action him because he had been appointed by President Thabo Mbeki, and that he would never have sex with a white woman. "It's disgusting," he is alleged to have said.

In April 2004, the minister said she would uphold an appeal brought by Mashabane against his dismissal for misconduct.

Swart said she was glad the long-running saga had ended. "It shows if you believe in putting right an injustice, one could only do so through pursuing the matter by using the right channels, no matter how long it takes."

She said she was pleased with the support of her employers, the department of foreign affairs.

Mbeki is not respecting international law

The African Christian Democratic Party has called on President Thabo Mbeki to respond to claims he is breaking international law by allowing deposed Haitian leader Jean-Bertrand Aristide to incite violence, from South Africa, among his followers in his homeland.

"These are serious charges that warrant an immediate response, and we call on the South African president to clear his name," ACDP leader Kenneth Meshoe said in a statement on Monday.

Aristide has been in exile in South Africa since May 31 this year. He and his family are living, at taxpayers’ expense, in Pretoria.

According to media reports earlier on Monday, Haitian Prime Minister Gerard Latortue has accused Mbeki of allowing Aristide to incite violence from South Africa.

At least 50 people have died in Haiti in recent weeks in violence blamed on Aristide supporters.

The BBC quoted Latortue as saying "no respectable president would allow a person in his territory to organise violence in another ... Mr Mbeki is not respecting international law."

Meshoe said the ACDP is shocked at the South African government’s silence over the matter.

"Our government has always said that it will not allow South Africa to be used as a springboard for destabilising other countries.

"Why is ... [it] so quiet when there are such serious allegations emerging against a former head of state ?" he said.

The president’s office declined to comment and referred the South African Press Association to the Department of Foreign Affairs, which was expected to issue a statement later on Monday.

Meanwhile, the Democratic Alliance has added its voice to the call for Mbeki to respond to Latortue’s allegations.

DA leader Tony Leon said in a statement on Monday that the charge of not respecting international law is serious and needs immediate investigation.

"The president must provide a full account of Mr Aristide’s activities since his arrival in South Africa. If he can show that there is no substance to Mr Latortue’s allegations, then our government should respond to what would amount to a slur against the president.

"If, however, there is evidence that Mr Aristide ... is indeed inciting violence in Haiti, then the government must revoke Mr Aristide’s guest status, and President Mbeki should apologise to the United Nations and to its peacekeeping forces," Leon said.

Don't kill Saddam

Deposed Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein and his cronies deserve severe punishment and should spend the rest of their lives behind bars, but he should not have received the death sentence, the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) said.

Spokesperson Patrick Craven said: "The Congress of South African Trade Unions condemns Saddam Hussein as a brutal dictator. He cruelly oppressed, tortured and murdered thousands of people in order to maintain their ruling elites in power."

Saddam persecuted anyone who opposed his rule, and ruthlessly suppressed the aspirations of the Shia and Kurdish peoples, the federation said.

Craven said the death penalty is "a barbaric form of punishment" that is rightly outlawed by the South African Constitution. "It does not serve as a deterrent and dehumanises all those involved in its implementation."

Cosatu also has serious reservations about whether the trial of Hussein had been free and fair. "He fully deserves to be put on trial, but the process has seemed to be more of a public-relations exercise than a judicial process."

There is "even a suspicion about the fact" that the announcement of the verdict came a few days before crucial United States congressional elections.

Craven said: "Turning the media spotlight on the crimes of the man used by [US President] George Bush and [British Prime Minister] Tony Blair as a hate figure to justify their invasion of Iraq could divert attention away from the fact that he is now known not to have possessed weapons of mass destruction.

"It might thus help Bush's Republicans get a few more votes, at a time when opinion polls categorically show that most American people disapprove of the Iraq war.

"A death sentence will also do nothing to advance the cause of democracy in Iraq. The trade unions, banned by Saddam, are still outlawed in 'democratic' Iraq.

"The invasion by the imperialist powers has ensured that the interests of the Iraqi people remain secondary to those of the multinational oil companies and all the other international business interests who are exploiting the country's natural resources and labour, in order to extract the maximum profits
and impose their hegemony on society," said Craven.

Cosatu remains "resolutely opposed to the invasion of Iraq, demands the immediate withdrawal of all foreign troops and calls for a genuine democracy that allows free trade unions, protects human rights and defends the national interests of all the peoples".

Sex pest case delayed yet again

AN APPEAL to uphold sexual harassment findings against former ambassador Norman Mashabane was again delayed in the Pretoria High Court.

Mashabane was to have appeared in the court but the case was put down for December 1, Public Servants’ Association (PSA) deputy general manager Manie de Clercq said. He said the delay was to give the judge a change to read documents filed in the case.

The case has been delayed several times since it was brought to court in January last year.

The PSA and foreign affairs department employee Lara Swart have asked the Pretoria High Court to overturn Foreign Affairs Minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma’s decision to uphold Mashabane’s appeal after disciplinary hearings found him guilty on 22 sex harassment charges.

At the time he was ambassador to Indonesia, where Swart, one of several complainants, was stationed.

Mashabane was found guilty at an initial hearing in 2001 on a battery of charges that included stroking the buttocks of an employee, molesting a staff member in a lift and making suggestive motions with his tongue to another.

The panel recommended he be fired, but he appealed the judgment and was allowed to continue in his post pending the outcome. In June 2003 another charge was laid against him, and he was again found guilty.

The findings were reversed by Dlamini-Zuma, acting as the appeal authority, who suggested that Mashabane was being dragged through the mud for exposing motor vehicle fraud at the embassy.