Manto the Drunk

Posted by Lebogang'Havok'Hoveka | 18 Aug, 2007

The publicising Health Minsters’ health records by the Sunday Times has far reaching implication for the ethical conduct we behove the media in SA to uphold. I have tried at length to fathom out what justifiable reasons there could have been to publish these, except to maliciously and wilfully impair her character, dignity and to tarnish her reputation and stir up sensationalism.

While it is principled that a free media ought to hold nothing sanctified for all, including Journalists and Politicians in its duty to inform the public; I fail to see how this principle holds true in the case of the minister. Surely what is in the public’s right to know, is the exposition of corruption, prevention deliberate misinformation, misuse of state power, violation of human and so on; not how many drinks ministers have when off-duty.

In a feeble attempt to justify public interest the Sunday Times claimed that it saw it "appropriate as the nation weighs up the merits of the leader who was dismissed and the one who has kept her job." One wonders what about the minister having a few glasses of wine with meals demerits her as a capable leader.

Even a more ludicrous is the assertion that it was clear the minister "[…] knew she had power and misused it". Given the high cost of private medical care; as a customer the minister had every right to make demands for premium services; in fact far from misusing her powers as a consumer, she was generous enough to tip the staff for their troubles.

IT is claimed that on one night the Minister demanded a bottle of Whiskey and later 6 bottles of wine, surely the medical records in Sunday Times’ possession must be incomplete for they say nothing about the stomach pump the Minister would have needed the next morning. There was no detail about how many guests the minister had at the time? Wouldn’t this information have helped the reader formulate an informed opinion? In fact the medical records suggest that the Ministers’ alcohol intake was meticulously recorded to ensure proper care and treatment, indicating rather that excessive drinking would have also been monitored and recorded.

As South Africans, we are left with no choice but to judge the Sunday Times as unethical and ought to be petrified that nothing for the Media is sacred in anymore, not even ones personal medical records.

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I would have fired Madlala-Routledge myself!

Posted by Lebogang'Havok'Hoveka | 18 Aug, 2007

Below is a veiw I shared via e-mail (on the 16th of Aug after the TAC) with a friend on the dimissal of the Deputy Health Minister.........

Thanks for your response to the SASCO National Statement on the firing of Madlala-Routledge. The issue is indeed a complex one. I personally found myself advocating a tale of two cities. Wearing my SASCO hat I had to speak the consensus to support the President and under the NEHAWU hat (my part-time job) who supported the minister.

I am humbled by your respect for my person and bafflement that a person you hold in such high regard would advocate the SASCO view- perhaps its an honour you have been too charitable to bestow, certainly I am not infallible. In mutual revere, I should hope that nothing I say here will diminish that mutual respect.

My view is that this matter can be viewed both morally and politically. As I will argue, I will have no conclusion on the conflict between the two. But nonetheless would express that the 2 ought not always to be treated as mutually exclusive (if at all possible), because we should rightfully expect that our politics should remain morally grounded.

I do not here want to express a view on whether the former deputy minister's views on AIDS, Testing and Academic Hospitals were correct or not. But will dwell on the manner in which she expressed them and the moral or political questions that arise from that.

Politically:

It would have been fool hardy for Mbeki not to fire her. While the custodian of the country's Health policies is the Minister; the ANC to a large extent has not ferociously disagreed with the policies. It then means the Deputy-Minister might have failed to convince the collective of her views. To the extent that she still held them after debate, it would have been a matter of principle that majority rules. Of course with the caveat that the majority is not always right. But politically, because of democratic centralism, she failed the principles of the ANC.

In toto, no political party thrives on having a member of the opposition in its ranks, if she held opposing views she should have joined an opposition party.

E.g. If in your role as the Deputy Chairperson you differed with the views of the majority in committee, it would be wrong of you to use the name of the committee to advance that view. Your expression of that view, not matter how correct ought to be done in your personal capacity, because you no longer speak for the collective. This is one of the costs to democracy.

I do accept, that in this case the difficulty was her membership of the SACP an ally critical of the ANC at times.

The moral question is slightly more difficult:

1) There is the matter of Insubordination. The former deputy-minister did not show respect for authority or respect for the ethos of collective leadership.

E.g It is one thing to hold the view that all murders must get the death penalty, but to take the law into your hands and to perform acts of vigilantism is nonetheless wrong. My point is that where we allow for a depletion of authority we invite anarchy.

Perhaps, I am a Plato Philosopher and believe that people are inherently irresponsible and must therefore (for their own good) be lead by a benevolent dictator. Authority is there to safeguard the continued existence of our society.

1) The minister is strongly seen to be pushing the "SACP Agenda", that being the case, could she have been advocating those views merely for political point scoring? Was it a political point scoring exercise rather than about the policies.

Can one do something that is morally right for morally wrong reasons? Do the ends justify the means? Certainly not!

The weighting of the moral considerations is difficult because we are debating a scenario where lives may be at risk, but holding that equal, I would have fired the minister myself.

Lets debate this further, maybe we can come to a common view?

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School Recovery plan in jeopardy

Posted by Lebogang'Havok'Hoveka | 13 Aug, 2007

SASCO Provincial Press Statement SASCO concerned about Western Cape Recovery Plan.

The SA Students’ Congress in the Western Cape wishes to express concern over delays in the implementation of the School Recovery Programme following the month long public workers’ strike.

The nonchalant manner with which the plan has been approached remains disconcerting. We remain confident that (with or without the stipends) our teachers will continue as history has shown, to be committed to ensuring that all learners are appropriately prepared for their exams.

We support the COSATU, NEHAWU and SADTU in their call that the Education Department must pay a reasonable stipend for services provided by teachers outside their normal hours. We do not question the unwavering commitment of teachers to their work and insist that the Department has set precedent in their religious application of the no-work-no-pay principle. Therefore, in the same, the Department cannot expect that teachers should provide services without adequate payment.

We urge the Department of Education to leave no cent sparred, in ensuring that our matriculants get the adequate support, and must treat this matter with the urgency and humility it deserves.

We also call upon University Registrars to ignore the June and September results in assessing the admissibility of students for the 2008 Academic year. We also believe that University aptitude test written should be written early in January 2008 as test written now will only produce skewed results.

Meanwhile we call on all civil organisation, parents and members of the community to support Matric Learners in their catch-up programmes and examination. Our branches throughout the provinces will be rolling-out support teams, as part of our adopt-a-school programme, to assist with tutorship programmes.

Issued by: Office of the Provincial Secretary; South African Students Congress Western Cape, 10 Aug 07.

For any queries please contact Lebogang Hoveka on 082 490 0499 or

hvkleb001@uct.ac.za

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