Latest news with #JohnMcCann
Mail & Guardian
a day ago
- Business
- Mail & Guardian
The privatisation agenda will not save South Africa
For the many who rightly feel abandoned by the government, and are sick of the state's failures, the private sector stepping in to solve problems with energy, water and logistics might appear rational and necessary. (John McCann/MG) The World Bank has approved a $1.5 billion loan to South Africa. The Does this new loan not contradict and undermine the government's stated efforts to practice fiscal responsibility and restrained government spending? For the past several years, the treasury has nourished Since 2010, the government has taken on As irrational as treasury's loan agreements with the World Bank might seem to the public, it operates within a logic that justifies the broader agenda being pursued by the government of national unity (GNU). Behind the curtain of political theatre surrounding debates on education, land reform and black economic empowerment (BEE), the GNU is united by an unwavering commitment to a series of structural reforms that will extend an exploitative, undemocratic and costly dependence on private investment for public infrastructure development and operation. For the many who rightly feel abandoned by the government, and are sick of the state's failures, the private sector stepping in to solve problems with energy, water and logistics might appear rational and necessary. The idea that private sector firms, and the capitalists who run them, are inherently more efficient, less corrupt and unburdened by political ideology is so pervasive an assumption that it barely receives any interrogation. Perhaps the most potent illusion this unexamined assumption instills is that what is best for big business is best for people. In reality, maintaining profitability, cutting operational costs, minimising risk to investors, maximising shareholder value, ensuring returns on investment, remaining competitive and being exposed to the fluctuation of markets means that private sector firms — as an unavoidable imperative of surviving in a capitalist economy — will always put their prosperity over the welfare of the public. This is evidenced by international experiences in both developed and developing countries. In the The adoption of the Rather than capacitating municipalities to deliver services on the basis of human need, national budget transfers to municipalities were reduced, non-core functions were outsourced to expensive private contractors and municipalities were compelled to pursue A central component of placing public utilities and services into the hands of private operators is fiscal consolidation, that is, austerity. Austerity then shrinks the role of the state, weakening its ability to service the public and enforces reliance on private firms, clearing space for market competition. Austerity measures in nations such as Private companies also need to reduce the cost of labour, requiring workers who are easy to hire and easy to fire, unprotected by collective bargaining and often compelled to work without the lifeline of a minimum wage. Around the world, creating The set of reforms being proposed, and gradually implemented, by the GNU are not novel inventions but belong to a tradition of economic practice that has dominated macroeconomic policymaking in South Africa and around the world since the 1980s. This economic practice has come to be known as neoliberalism. Although a term often casually tossed around, a concrete definition of neoliberalism recognises that it is both an economic The theory proposes that 'human well-being can be best advanced by liberating individual entrepreneurial freedom and skills within a framework characterised by strong property rights, free markets and free trade'. As a political project, neoliberalism aims to 're-establish the conditions for capital accumulation and to restore the power of economic elites'. To achieve the aims of neoliberalism, the role of the state is to create and preserve the institutional framework appropriate to the practice of capital accumulation. The coalition government is advancing a surrender of public infrastructure development, basic service provision and equitable economic growth to the profit-maximising interests of domestic private companies, multinational corporations and international financial institutions. As an example, the World Bank's use of the term 'modernisation' is merely a euphemism for the continued liberalisation of the energy and logistics sector, further commercialising state-owned enterprises and eventually leading to their privatisation. Liberalisation — which is the removal of government regulations, the breaking down of monopolies and facilitation of competition — precedes or coincides with commercialisation, setting the scene for private participation and market competition. Through commercialisation, public utilities and services that should have a mandate to serve the public good are turned into enterprises that prioritise revenue and profitability. Their services are brought into a competitive market consisting of private firms with a mandate to make profits. Privatisation, the process of transferring ownership and control of public assets and services to private entities to be run on a commercial basis, is often preceded by the liberalisation of public sector utilities and the commercialisation of public services. The logic behind the GNU's agenda is for the government, using its authority to create legislation and enforce policy, to forge the most hospitable conditions for capital accumulation by cultivating a business friendly environment that will attract private investment in infrastructure, increase the efficiency of key economic sectors and grow our economy, producing jobs and reducing poverty. Weaving sermons in the editorial rooms of the corporate-sponsored media and evangelising in the offices of the treasury, the priests of this trickle-down gospel portray private investment as South Africa's sole salvation. The policy plans of government are not a rhetorical wishlist, but are clearly laid out in The unbundling of Eskom and creation of a competitive electricity market to introduce private sector participation in generation, distribution and private The Continued fiscal consolidation — that is, austerity measures (budget cuts or limits on social welfare, public employment stimulation, tight monetary policy and regressive taxation to achieve a budget-surplus); Mobilising up to R1 trillion in financing from the private sector for infrastructure development through Increased reliance on The gradual imposing of labour-market flexibility, that is, deregulating the labour market to decrease the cost of labour for employers (weaken collective bargaining, lower minimum wage requirements and reduce employment benefits). What we are witnessing is the exploitation of crises — specifically the crises of unemployment, economic stagnation and state incapacity — to justify the enforcement of policies that have failed to deliver desired outcomes in both developed and developing countries across the world for the past 50 years. The most important element of the GNU's structural reform agenda is the drive for private financing of public infrastructure development through public-private partnerships. Global institutional investors — be it the World Bank or multinational investment banks — are using the burden of sovereign debt (which limits fiscal space for domestic resource mobilisation and state-driven investment), alongside the justification of meeting In the past several years this has largely occurred through Because infrastructure projects, especially for natural monopolies such as electricity or water provision, require immense capital investment and come with a series of risks (design defects, project delays, foreign exchange volatility, land acquisition, labour protections and so forth), governments have to ensure infrastructure development is This is done to make infrastructure projects investable and profitable. The state takes on risk through providing private investors credit guarantees, enforcing cost-reflective tariffs, providing subsidies or tax breaks. Through these de-risking mechanisms, risk is transferred onto the government's balance sheet, coming at the cost of public investment, which a country like South Africa needs to eradicate unemployment, poverty and inequality. In countries such as Spain, Mexico, India, Peru, Nepal, Scotland and Liberia the commercialisation or partial privatisation of public utility and services through public-private partnerships Moreover, democratic accountability and the need for transparency in the provision of public goods has been undermined when crucial infrastructure is handed over to private hands. In developing countries such as South Africa, the growing reliance on private companies to deliver public services and build public infrastructure The government has retained a commitment to neoliberalism for decades, whether through the Growth, Employment and Redistribution, the Accelerated and Shared Growth Initiatives for South Africa, the National Development Plan or the Reconstruction and Recovery Plan. We keep trying the same things while expecting different results. About 12.7 million are unemployed and half the population of the country lives in poverty. Such conditions are unsustainable and explosive. New, politically imaginative and effective policy solutions are needed. Andile Zulu is with the Alternative Information and Development Centre in Cape Town.
Mail & Guardian
20-06-2025
- General
- Mail & Guardian
Living in the darkness of a broken city
(Graphic: John McCann/M&G) The electricity cable to my house has broken. I know this because four weeks after the power switched off in the last week of April, a truck visited and assessed the cable. They came on the day that my partner called a radio station to complain about living in prolonged darkness. We were told that the cable had broken at the base of the street pole. Fortunately for everyone, they would not need to dig up the road even as they warned that the cable to the house is old and will need to be replaced at some point. They repaired the break in the cable, but the lights stayed off because there was something wrong with the meter. They temporarily bypassed the meter and left us with a caution; the power was now on the neutral cable and posed some risk. Instead of darkness, we chose the power we were given. It lasted a week. I write this piece five days into the darkness, on the coldest week of the year so far. Another call was logged with City Power. Over the past six weeks many calls have been made. The call centre agents eventually respond by picking up the phone and then ignoring us while they continue their conversations. On their system, they count the number of calls received but to them, this is a game. In a landscape of so much unemployment, for them, work is a plaything. When we eventually escalate to a supervisor, promises are made. But we languish in the dark. Our municipal account has arrived. It is just over R11 000. While the bill has arrived, the power has not. Before the power switched off in the week of Freedom Day, for several weeks, the electricity voltage had been low and only some appliances and lights worked. Touching some taps and shower knobs sent a jolt of shock through the body. And then everything went dark. We are firmly middle class in my household. We have it better than most residents of this city. We shower at the gym, we cook on a gas plate stove, and we charge our computers and devices at work. We live. But the middle-class trappings and security systems that we need to protect ourselves from the inequality of this city are gone. We cannot use the electrical security system, the gate battery has died, and there are no outside perimeter lights. In the darkness of this broken city, we are sitting ducks. We are black and we are not suffering from a native nostalgia for the apartheid city of the past. But it was not always like this. We would know because we have lived in our house for 15 years. Like everyone, we experienced the blackouts of load-shedding. Then, our suffering was shared. Now, as the lone house without power, no one knows our fate. We cannot log it with EskomSePush or the city's X account. Without the pressure of an entire neighbourhood, our calls can be ignored. The City Power trucks that drive by the neighbourhood know us. We sometimes stop them and direct them to the house. We are prepared to entertain their requests for cold drinks — code to compensate them for their paid work. Corruption is in the marrow of this city. In previous years, when technicians have come for repairs on the problematic electric pole, they have asked us for money to buy electrical parts because these have supposedly run out at the warehouse. Waiting for stock means there may be delays which could take weeks or months. So, we give them what they ask for. They buy the parts and fix the problem. But because this is generally only patchwork, the problem often reemerges. The next person criticises the work of the previous technician. We pay again. This is the illicit economy of a failing city of ageing infrastructure and city officials that have lost their hold over the city they supposedly manage. As residents that know nothing about electrical parts, we are at the mercy of officials who may or may not be corrupt. One thing is apparent though; the city's residents are rendered vulnerable by a city that pretends to know what it is doing but is failing spectacularly. When I call my mother in Lusikisiki, she is empathetic. We share notes about when to cook all the meat in the fridge before it spoils. She often has no electricity because the wind is sometimes too strong for the lightweight Eskom infrastructure in the village. Or a donkey might have rubbed itself against the electric pole. In the villages, power outages can take weeks to resolve. We wrongly expect this because we have come to accept that rural life is cheap and unimportant. But it is jarring when this becomes the norm in the economic heart of the country where we pay inflated municipal rates. The collapse of Johannesburg is in full swing. The ruin of the central business district has been self-evident for a while now. The gas explosion of Lilian Ngoyi Street might be read as the final confirmation of a known truth. The lethargic repairs tell us all we need to know about the city's capabilities. Townships have been held in place by the sheer ingenuity of their residents. They navigate sink holes and sewage leaks. They no longer bother with City Power. They climb the poles and connect themselves. To fix a common problem, they conduct a collection and pay the cold drink fee of a rogue city employee. The middle-class suburbs have been the last line of defence to a decent life. But in the tree-lined streets, the ominous signs of decay are here too. Potholes poke holes into the middle-class bubble. If residents do not fix pavements, kerbs and street walks, they degenerate because the city will not repair anything now. All this at our own cost. I know this from firsthand experience. When flood waters washed away the pavement outside my yard, I repaired it at the cost of R20 000 after a year of reporting it to the councillor. Long lines periodically emerge when water runs out of many areas of the city. At the same time, water and sewage pipe bursts release water and faecal matter which run down Louis Botha Avenue unchecked. Shit splatters in the wake of the roaring traffic. Breathe in the droplets at your risk, dear resident. The story is the same: ageing city infrastructure, but there is no end date given for when it will be changed. Water tanks poke over people's walls as residents take on the role of municipalities. Those who can't afford private water wait for water tankers. Solar panels are everywhere. The cost of living here has ballooned in the last decade. The city is not just fraying at the edges. It is broken. What is to be done? Our mayoral office has been a revolving door of failures. I don't believe a change in those who don mayoral chains is the solution. The recycling of a former mayor of Cape Town with colonial longings does not excite me. Sitting in this dark place, I don't know what is to be done. There are people that are paid to vision and implement plans. Chief executive officers, city managers and committees with dizzying salaries. My immediate need is simpler than a vision or solution. All I really want is reliable electricity. I pay the bills, now could I have some power please? Hugo ka Canham is a writer and professor at Unisa and the author of Riotous Deathscapes . He writes in his personal capacity.
Mail & Guardian
20-06-2025
- Health
- Mail & Guardian
Act now to deal with the masculinity and mental health crisis in South Africa
suicide as the fourth Death by suicide is the fourth highest cause of death among men aged 15 to 24 in South Africa. Graphic: John McCann/M&G June is men's mental health month in South Africa. The purpose is to encourage men to seek health services by promoting physical and psychological wellbeing. A report by the World Health Organisation (WHO) reported suicide as the fourth highest cause of death among men aged 15 to 24 in South Africa. Further, suicide rates are significantly higher among men than women, with 10 861 of the 13 774 suicides reported in 2023 being by men. A number of parasuicides is unrecorded. Research and practice demonstrate a correlational and causal relationship between the persistence of social ills and the prevalence of mental health conditions, compounded by poor services. Research also shows that young men are more at risk of substance use disorders, post-traumatic stress disorder, and other externalising mental health conditions. There is no evidence to prove there is a link between young people who have died by suicide and are not at institutions of higher learning and training or employed. But there is evidence that proves a close and causal relationship between social ills and mental health. One would assume this is also the case with suicide as a symptom of mental illness such as depression and substance abuse for example. This takes us to the intersection of these issues, the state of young men in our society, masculinity and mental health. In May, we learnt of the increase in youth unemployment for the first quarter of 2025. According to Statistics South Africa, 62.4% of young people aged 15 to 24 are unemployed. Further, the University of Cape Town's Southern Africa Labour and Development Research Unit reported that 30% of young people have not been in education, employment or training for the past decade. These are not just statistics, these are people with dreams and aspirations. They are our family, friends, neighbours, and we see them every day. They are each and everyone of us. They are the antithesis to President Ramaphosa's Tintswalo. I wish we had more Tintswalos, Mr President. I wish it was the rule and not the exception. The other aspect of this calamity of unemployment are the psychological ramifications. Social issues such as gender-based violence, intimate partner violence, mass murder and the pervasive violence in our society are to an extent a reflection of our society. While we call for the criminal justice system to act in persecuting offenders, we must equally ask ourselves critical questions about men and masculinity in our society. We have to do serious introspection and reflection on the society we are building, and the kind of men and manhood it produces. Something is fundamentally wrong in our society. As a psychologist, I have seen this in the gender disparity in the patients I work with on a daily basis. The people who should be in the room are often not there. The feminist scholar, bell hooks, teaches that regressive forms of masculinity require that men suppress the emotional aspect of themselves, and if they do not do so, other men will. This is evident in state approaches to substance use, violence and crime. Understanding the family as the basic unit of society, questions are to be asked about the home circumstances under which children grow up in. What conversations are had in our homes about mental health, health seeking behaviour, emotional wellness, consent, sexuality and masculinity? Further, we must also ask about fathering and fathers in our society. Where do boys learn to be men? The State of South African Fathers report would be an important point of departure. What role does social media and technology play in shaping manhood and masculinity? In a period of pervasive manosphere, how do we influence what our children, young men and men in general see as expressions of manhood and masculinity? What are the hegemonic narratives on manhood and masculinity? One may ask: why focus on men when they cause so much harm and pain in our society? South Africa has one of the highest femicide rates globally, with about seven women to have been murdered daily. We also have one of the highest gender-based violence rates and other forms of violence against women and children. Equally, our country has one of the highest murder rates, with men being the victim in about 70% of the cases — and it is usually men who are the perpetrators. Clearly, we have a masculinity problem in our society, and we cannot continue to treat it only as a legal and policing problem. It requires all of us to act, to play a role in shaping the lives of young men. In our homes, neighbourhood, schools, sports fields, churches and all other facets of life. The Argentine social psychologist, Isaacs Prilleltensky, challenges us to build conducive social conditions of justice as a prerequisite for wellness, without which wellness becomes impossible. As mental health practitioners, we carry a social responsibility to respond to social issues. In collaboration with communities, organisations and other institutions. We all ought to collectively labour towards a just and free society, and this includes our different professions being rooted at the core of our communities and being agents of change. Siphelele Nguse is a clinical psychologist, scholar activist, and PhD candidate at Stellenbosch University.
Yahoo
16-06-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Voter registration deadline for District 1 supervisor runoff hours away
SAN DIEGO (FOX 5/KUSI) — Monday is the final day for South County residents to register to vote in the runoff for the vacant District 1 seat on the Board of Supervisors. The race between Chula Vista Mayor John McCann and Imperial Beach Mayor Paloma Aguirre will decide former Board of Supervisors Chair Nora Vargas' successor. Vargas abruptly resigned from office weeks after winning re-election for a second term. Whoever wins in the special election will serve out the remainder of the current term, which runs through January 2029. D1 Special Election: What to know | The Candidates | How to vote | More Stories Early voting in the special election began earlier this month with the Registrar of Voters' distribution of mail-in ballots to residents in District 1 whose voter registration is current. The registrar encourages anyone who wants to vote in the election but has not received a ballot yet to check their voter registration status on the county's website before the end of the day Monday, June 16. After Monday's registration deadline, South County residents not signed up to vote can participate by visiting a vote center to conditionally register and cast a provisional ballot. Below: FOX 5/KUSI video explaining conditional registration and provisional voting. The first seven polling centers will open in the district on Saturday, June 21. Until then, the only in-person option available for voters to participate or get help with casting a ballot is at the county Registrar of Voters' office in Kearny Mesa. The final day to vote in the runoff will be on Tuesday, July 1, when another dozen polling sites will open across the district. Maps of all the vote centers and drop box locations across South County available to collect completed ballots can be found on the Registrar of Voters' website. Since the race is at a district level, only residents who live within its boundaries will be eligible to cast a vote in the race. This includes neighborhoods in south San Diego, such as Barrio Logan, Chollas View, East Village and Golden Hill, as well as the whole of Chula Vista, Imperial Beach and National City. San Diegans can look up their supervisorial district on the Registrar of Voters website. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
10-06-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Meet the candidates in the runoff for the Board of Supervisors District 1 seat
SAN DIEGO (FOX 5/KUSI) — Two candidates remain in the special election race for the vacant seat on the San Diego County Board of Supervisors representing South County, and voting is already underway. The runoff for the empty District 1 seat, which was set after no candidate received enough votes to win outright earlier this year, pits two South Bay mayors against each other: Imperial Beach Mayor Paloma Aguirre and Chula Vista Mayor John McCann. Both are vying to serve the remainder of the term former Board of Supervisors Chair Nora Vargas abruptly vacated in the weeks after winning re-election. D1 Special Election: What to know | The Candidates | How to vote | More Stories Moreover, the race is going to be decisive in shaping majority control of the technically nonpartisan body the next few years. Republicans have the opportunity with McCann to take back the reins just four years after Democrats became the majority party at the county. Ballots were distributed to registered voters in District 1 last Monday, June 3 with early voting beginning via mail and drop-box shortly after. In-person vote centers will begin opening up on Saturday, June 21, ahead of the final day to vote on Tuesday, July 1. For those looking for more information on the race for a seat on the Board of Supervisors, here is an introduction to both remaining candidates. The Board of Supervisors has a wide array of responsibilities in presiding over the county, spanning executive, legislative and judicial powers. Its primary duty is to set policies for most county departments, which largely encompass public health and safety, and unincorporated areas. The board can also direct litigation on behalf of the county, appoint people to certain roles and commissions, and approve contracts for services. Similarly to other legislative offices, voting is based on districts, meaning residents are only able to vote for the candidate hoping to represent their area. To find out which district you live in, the county has a map showing the supervisorial district boundaries available on its website. Here are the candidates, listed in alphabetical order by last name: Paloma Aguirre is the current mayor of Imperial Beach. Since assuming the role in 2022, the Democrat's public profile as grown significantly, specifically for her stalwart advocacy on the Tijuana River sewage crisis. A first-generation Mexican American, Aguirre was born in San Francisco before her family returned to Mexico. In 2001, she moved back to the U.S. to attend University of San Diego, receiving a B.A. in Psychology. She also holds a Master of Advanced Studies in Marine Biodiversity and Conservation from Scripps Institution of Oceanography. After graduating, she worked as a community organizer in south San Diego, focusing on issues tied to immigration, foreclosure and predatory lending. She also worked with the marine conservation nonprofit, WILDCOAST, before her election to Imperial Beach City Council. These issues that defined her pre-politics career are at the center of her campaign for higher office on the Board of Supervisors. Her priorities include addressing the sewage crisis, preventing rent gouging, bringing down homelessness, and 'holding the line on utility costs.' During a community forum earlier this year, Aguirre says she wants to work to ensure the county is carrying its weight on these issues, especially as it relates to the Tijuana River sewage crisis and homelessness. 'It's time we get our fair share from the county,' she said. According to her campaign, Aguirre has been endorsed by a number of major actors in local politics like the San Diego County Democratic Party, San Diego and Imperial Counties Labor Council, the Sierra Club, Equality California and a number of local union chapters. A coalition of several of these unions — like SEIU and the California Labor Federation AFL-CIO —have set up an independent political action committee in support of her campaign. County records show more than $590,000 has been raised by the PAC for outside spending, largely on mailers. Aguirre has also received a number of endorsements from elected officials, including: Senator Adam Schiff, Reps. Juan Vargas and Sara Jacobs, State Senator Steve Padilla, National City Mayor Ron Morrison, and San Diego County Supervisors Monica Montgomery Steppe and Terra Lawson Remer. Chula Vista City Councilmember Carolina Chavez, one of the other Democrats who ran for the District 1 seat, similarly endorsed her. John McCann is the current mayor of Chula Vista. The self-identified moderate Republican has been a fixture of Chula Vista local politics for more than two decades, having held various roles over the years since he first became an elected official in 2002. Born and raised in Chula Vista, McCann holds a bachelor's and master's in economics from San Diego State University. Prior to entering politics, McCann served in the U.S. Navy, deploying during the Iraq War. He also worked for the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office. In a conversation with KUSI earlier this year, McCann touted his record throughout his tenure in Chula Vista city governance, describing his approach to issues like public safety, neighborhood improvements, traffic decongestion and small business growth as 'common sense.' Specifically, he points to the city's reduction in crime under changes to the police department like its new drone system and doubling of officer patrols, successes of its Homeless Outreach Team, and work to eventually remove the toll on State Route 125. Should be be elected to the District 1 seat, McCann says he would bring this pragmatic approach to the county, pursuing policies that expand wraparound services for unhoused people, tackle immigration, accelerate construction of for-sale, market-rate homes in unincorporated areas and steward its resources in a fiscally responsible way. 'We need to be able to look at what are important to us, preserve those, and look at other things that are 'nice to haves' and look at how we can cut those instead,' McCann said. McCann has been endorsed by a number of groups like the San Diego County Republican Party, Deputy Sheriffs' Association of San Diego, San Diego Regional Chamber of Commerce, Lincoln Club of San Diego and the San Diego Association of Realtors, according to his campaign. He has also received the endorsement of a number of former and current elected officials, including Greg Cox, who held District 1 seat before Vargas; Supervisors Jim Desmond and Joel Anderson; County Assessor Jordan Marks; and State Senator Brian Jones, among others. As far as outside spending goes, two independent political action committees have been set up to expressly support McCann's candidacy, county campaign finance records show. Collectively, these committees have raised over $456,500 with donations mostly coming from organizations in and around real estate spaces, like the Southern California Housing Association and Building Industry Association of San Diego County, as well as the San Diego Regional Chamber of Commerce and California Alliance of Family Owned Businesses. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
