Comments on: About

By: John Parkerwood

John Parkerwood — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 21:40:43 +0000

Hi Professor. You commented in one of your recent posts that as white South Africans, we should denounce racism in our social circles, at braais, social events etc, and basically whenever we are in the company of fellow whites and they make racist comments or racist jokes. Well, not in those exact words, but that was the basic message I feel you were conveying. I could not agree more. I have long held the view that the fight against racism starts right here, with me. It is up to me to challenge it wherever I experience it or observe it. I regularly challenge colleagues and family members when they pass blatantly racist comments. As for friends, well, I get to choose my friends, therefore nobody who I regard as a friend generally would make themselves guilty of uttering racial slurs…well, not in my company at least. I wish to take this concept one step further. I hope that South Africans of all races would also be progressive and bold enough to embrace a similar mindset and denounce all forms or acts of racism that they encounter, not only when it is committed against their own people, but also when committed BY people of their own race. I often overhear my mixed race or “coloured” colleagues being blatantly racist towards black people for example, sometimes behind their backs and sometimes directly. This is not acceptable, and I tell them exactly that. Also, as a police officer, I often experience blatant racism from members of the public. Somehow, people think it is acceptable to treat police officers with disdain, to address us in the most disgusting language, to assault us and to subject us to their racist tirades. In some extreme cases, they will even later lie, and twist the whole story around, because hey, as white police officers, I suppose we are always the racist, brutes that people like to think we are. Be that as it may, I digress. The point I wish to make is simply this: we all have a responsibility to end racism in our time, to denounce it, to reject it and regardless of whether or not we constantly experience racism from “the other side”, to simply suck it up and decide that we will be bigger than that, and stick to our principles. Eventually, I hope, most people will adopt a similar attitude. We must not pass this social evil on to our children. It must end here and now. Oh yes, I enjoyed your talk today at campus (I’m one of your new students).

By: Sam van den Berg

Sam van den Berg — Tue, 13 Dec 2011 10:11:31 +0000

Regarding the Humphries judgment and the JubJub case, I have a question. I am mostly ignorant of the law, but is there not such a thing as mens rea meaning, I think, a clear and conscious intention to do harm — in these cases, an intention to kill? Does the Humphries case not risk being overturned by the SCA? Or will the SCA accept an extension of the principle of mens rea to mean something like an intentional action involving awareness that harm or death is likely to result?

By: shhyman

shhyman — Sat, 03 Dec 2011 13:46:07 +0000

Your wish has been granted today Oswald Piro street is no longer !

By: Riyaaz Ismail

Riyaaz Ismail — Thu, 17 Nov 2011 05:44:52 +0000

Stochos,i do realise that your concern was addressed to the good Professor,but allow me to respond.
Every right has a reciprocal obligation,and no or very few(i think)rights are absolute.
In other words a right can be curtailed,so if in the daily functioning of a particular religion where it uses a public address system to conduct its activity,then a duty exists for this place of worship to tone it down or find some other way of addressing its congregants.

By: Stochos

Stochos — Sun, 06 Nov 2011 23:08:02 +0000

Dear Professor

My issues here are noise pollution vs Freedom of Religion and would like your thoughts on this matter with regards to our constitution.

What are the constitutional limitations to the Freedom of Religion?

Can a mosque (or any other church) use amplified loudspeakers and cause a disturbance to the residents surrounding the mosque?

By: Xhasikhaya Tyokwana

Xhasikhaya Tyokwana — Sun, 09 Oct 2011 15:59:03 +0000

I recently requested results of previous tender from South African Airways procurement office .I had asked them to cover the following variables in their response (The name of the companies that won the bids ,the price at which the companies won the tenders, as well as procurement points the comanies scored ).Initially, The procurement personel at SAA said it was against thheir policy to reveal such information .I then chalenged them citing the promotion of access to information act .Only then ,they refered my request to their legal department ,which sent me Promotion Of Access To Information Form .
I then filled the form citing the reasons for me to want the information was for educational and research purpose .
SAA’s response was ,it was against their policy to reveal the information .
I still question the constitutionality of such policies ,if state owned enterprises have polices that block transparency .Policies like these are anti competitive ,in market place ,variables such as price are everything .
I have all the exchanges I had with SAA’s personnel which I am more than willing to forward .I would ask for your legal advise on this matter

By: Peter

Peter — Fri, 23 Sep 2011 08:38:26 +0000

Blacks should compensate Whites for giving them South Africa ??
Emeritus Arch Bishop of Cape Town is at it again and in the news for asking whites to pay a reparation tax or wealth tax because they all apparently benefitted from Apartheid.
Along came his cheerleading constitutional expert and praise singer Piere de Vos from UCT and said, “The problem is, of course, that some white people – out of shame or ignorance or maybe a bit of both – do not want to admit that white South Africans almost all benefited from apartheid vis-�-vis black South Africans.”
As I have proved in Opening Pandora’s Apartheid Box.everyone in South Africa benefitted form Apartheid, Black and White. Blacks had the highest literary standards and the highest life standard of all the blacks in Africa.
Self hating liberal idiot, De Vos reckons, “If I had been born black and poor, I almost certainly would not have gone to University and I would almost certainly never have been a Law Professor at UCT (University of Cape Town), earning quite a nice salary, thank you.”
I love the way he chooses his words. “Almost All”.”Almost Certainly”.As always both De Vos and The Arch fails to explain how it was at all possible for Tutu to study and become a teacher just like his father was. They also fail to explain how Nelson Mandela and countless other blacks
managed to become lawyers during Apartheid South Africa a lawyer just like De Vos.
They further failed to explain how the Apartheid government built ten Universities for blacks including Medunsa which is a unique medical university that turned out 200 highly qualified black doctors every year all at state costs, paid for by the white taxpayers. It also trained paramedics and nurses.
Since 1970 the budget for black education was raised by about 30% per year every year. More than any other government department.
In the period 1955 -1984 the amount of black school students increased 31 times from 35,000 to 1,096 000.
65% of black South African children were at school compared to Egypt 64%, Nigeria 57%, Ghana 52%, Tanzania 50% and Ethiopia 29%.
Amongst the adults of South Africa, 71% could read and write (80% between the ages 12 and 22). Compare this to Kenya 47%, Egypt 38%, Nigeria 34% and Mozambique at 26%.
In South Africa, the whites built 15 new classrooms for blacks every working day, every year. At 40 children per class it meant space for an additional 600 black students every day.
In 1985 there were 42,000 Blacks at 5 universities in South Africa, about the same amount at the universities of the homelands.
In an article called “Die Afrikaner” 11 Feb 1987, the quarterly magazine called “Vox Africana Nr 29 4/87 stated that South Africa had 4,8 million whites and 18,2 million blacks in 1987. The
whites paid 77% of the taxes and the blacks only 15%…despite this…56% of
the government budget was spent on blacks.
During the time of Dr. Verwoerd, the living standards of Blacks were rising at 5,4% per year against that of the whites at 3,9% per year. In 1965 the economic growth of South Africa was the second highest in the world at 7,9%. The rate of inflation was a mere 2% per annum and the prime interest rate only 3% per annum. Domestic savings were so great that South Africa needed no foreign loans for normal economic expansion.
Even Lord Deedes admitted, “White South Africa grew to become the economic giant of the continent, the other members of the Commonwealth virtually sank into poverty.”
At the hight of Apartheid in 1978 Soweto had 115 football fields, 3 Rugby fields, 4 athletic tracks, 11 Cricket fields, 2 Golf courses, 47 Tennis courts, 7 swimming pools built to Olympic standards, 5 Bowling alleys, 81 Netball fields, 39 children play parks, and countless civic halls, movie houses and clubhouses.
In addition to this, Soweto had 300 churches, 365 schools, 2 Technical Colleges, 8 clinics, 63 child day care centres, 11 Post Offices, and its own fruit and vegetable market.
There were 2300 registered companies that belonged to black businessmen, about 1000 private taxi companies. 3% of the 50,000 vehicle owners in 1978 were Mercedes Benz owners. Soweto alone had more cars, taxis, schools, churches and sport facilities than most independent countries in Africa. The Blacks of South Africa had more private vehicles than the entire white
population of the USSR at the time.
Today Soweto has modern shopping malls like, Dobsonville Shopping Centre. In 2005 the Protea Gardens Mall opened. This was followed by the Baramall Shopping Centre and the Jabulani Shopping complex and the Maponya Mall. Experts say that Soweto has as much as 25% oversupply of retail space.
The Canadian Medical Doctor, Dr Kenneth Walker wrote about Soweto, (I freely translate from “Verrat an S�dafrika”, Klaus Vaque, 1987,pg 41): “In Soweto I saw many homes that costs about $100,000 (1978) and that had a BMW in the driveway. All houses are single storey. Many are recently painted. Many had flowerpots in the windows and lawn in the front. Only 2% were shacks. If I had the choice to live in Soweto or in the apartment dwellings or “Projects” of New York, Chicago, or Detroit where there is so much crime, then I would not hesitate for one moment and choose Soweto.”
The biggest hospital in the world, Baragwanath with 3200 beds and at its peak almost 8000 staff had 23 operation theatres fitted out with the most modern medical equipment that existed in the world. Blacks were treated here, operated on…at full state costs to the white-taxpayers for unlimited periods. The budget of this hospital was and is higher than the yearly budget of most small member states of the United Nations.
Next door to Baragwanath is the St. John’s Eye Clinic. The clinic is world famous for the treatment of Glaucoma, Cataracts, traumatic eye injuries and rare tropical diseases. All built and maintained by white taxpayer’s money for blacks.
Baragwanath in 1978 employed 450 medical doctors in full-time service. It treated 112 000 in-patients and 1.62 million out-patients per year. The children and infant death rate with 34.8 per 1000 was lower than Harlem in New York.
In 1982 alone, this hospital performed 898 heart operations of world quality.
Ironically…90% of the blood donors for this hospital were whites, who donated blood free of charge, totally voluntarily…to save black lives. (Quoted from The Citizen, 2 April 1987).
Whites have already given blacks their blood. What more do they want?
De Vos calls for a “ones off reconstruction tax”..did he forget that 20,000 “Victims of Apartheid” were compensated R30,000 each back in the days of the TRC?
Personally I think that Prof Pierre De Vos and Bishop Tutu should go get an education about the truth about Apartheid. They can start by reading my Pandora Series.
Whites have given blacks the entire country for free. In fact, there is nothing more to give. Today blacks are destroying all the infrastructure that we paid for and built. Then still has the audacity to tell whites they should leave.
What I want to know is who are going to compensate whites for all the schools, hospitals, dams, airports, harbours, railroads, etc that they have built? It is high time for blacks to start paying whites. Nothing is for free.
Bishop Tutu and De Vos can start by selling their mansions and BMW’s and
give it to the poor white fund of Solidarity “Helpende Hand”.

By: Information Bill and Mogoeng interview

Information Bill and Mogoeng interview — Thu, 22 Sep 2011 11:01:16 +0000

[...] South African Coalition for Transitional Justice (SACTJ). On his blog Constitutionally Speaking, Professor Pierre de Vos explained Mogoeng’s position as [...]

By: anti_non_siquitur

anti_non_siquitur — Thu, 15 Sep 2011 11:23:03 +0000

You are a very wise and open minded man Professor. Your inputs are enlightening. I think when God judges us after armageddon he will use people like you in His prosecution team. Every articel you pen is written from a clear vantage position not some damp, misty crany that some of your opponents are blabbering from. Ignore them…. I am sure you dont mind the title of being “THE MOST HATED CAUCASIAN IN THE COUNTRY” lol….

By: DAWN CORIN

DAWN CORIN — Thu, 01 Sep 2011 18:35:28 +0000

I first went onto your blog as I was irritated at your comments re taxing whites, as well as the fact that as a mother of a white student trying to get into UCT, I found the racial bias unfair – especially in light of the fact that you do not query as to WHERE the learner attended school – just what colour the student is. Therefore, two learners both attending a high fee paying government school – one white, one black – to get into engineering, the white would have to attain a pass rate of 80% for maths and 80% for science. The black student (attending the same school) would have to get 60% for maths and 60% for science. You would, therefore, prefer to take an underchieving black than an achieving white, even though both of them have had EXACTLY the same education. It does not make sense to me. However, having read your articles I find them extraordinarily enlightening and much as I do not agree with all your views – I do think that your articles are extremely well researched and that you are a voice of reason and look forward to reading your daily blog – every day!