I think the Dalai Lama Affair brings the tragic consequences of the Mbeki years into sharp focus. I hope the NPA thinks very carefully indeed before dropping charges against Z (I can no longer bring myself to utter the name). They are teetering on the brink of a cesspool. They should perhaps rather think of adding some charges relating to the tapes they claim to have — for example charges under national security legislation.

Incidentally you made a typo — it’s “c’est la vie” — but the French usually say “c’est la guerre” — which, God forbid, could eventually be the case. Wars and civil wars are usually started by buffoons — and the buffoons are usually the ones to survive.

Welcome to Zumbabwe.

Ozoneblue i think u need to go back to apartheid and see what oppression feels like or having over 80 000 people slaughted in one month.

Nicholson was also an ‘activist’ during the anti-apartheid struggle and his comrades were now in power and he couldnt let go the opportunity to enter into the political discourse. The Deputy Chief Justice had to meet Gwede to iron out issues. Sometimes they have to recuse themselves because of family connections to poloticians. Others end up buying shares from investment schemes run by ABSA/Tokyo Sexwale, and he had to publicly claim that he returned the money/shares. I will not go into Hlophe.

The two women have made all of us to sit and ponder, however I am waiting for an official ANC comment on this matter. It is testing times and much will depend how the ANC responds.

Events do shape societies and the man from Tibet has left us with a very hot political potato.

Our judiciary is coming of age, I guess.

Correction:

“and China is a repressive PREVIOUSLY communist state”

They should put you in a rooi-gevaar time machine and send you back to the seventies.

In any event, the man is a Nobel Peace Prize Laureate, and China is a repressive communist state who blocks YouTube when people say bad things about them. Who’s side do you think we should be on?

And that’s not all: I’ve heard that he (He?) wants to reintroduce in a ‘free’ Tibet a system where there was no advancement or education for a country of serfs, and no employment except to serve as slaves for a self-elevated priest class. But then again, if that’s what the Tibetans want, fine.

Second point: cabinet government means that when the cabinet makes a collective decision the members of the cabinet should abide by it. If they feel they cannot, they should reside. But if a policy was not adopted by CABINET, but made in smoke-filled rooms at Luthuli House a Minister does not have the same responsibility to abide by that decision. So far evidence suggest that this was not a cabinet decision, so Hogan was within her rights to criticise.

Oh, I have a third point as well. Why are journalists not asking government spokespeople or the ANC whether the ANC had received any money from the CHinese government or anyone associated with that government like the Chinese Communist Party? If they decline to categorically state that the ANC has not received money we would know the decision was not taken in the national interest but in the interest of the ANC. It will also underline the absolute imperative for legislation delaing with party political funding. How do we know our foreign policy is not up for sale? Well, we do not, because the ANC will not reveal the sources of their funding.

I see the relevant spokesman – his name eludes me – commented that the media attention generated was precisely the reason thay the DL’s visa was not granted. If ever there was a definition for irony that has to be it.

As far as I’m aware, we are the only democratic country in the world who has ever refused a Nobel Peace Laureate entry. That alone is mind-boggling. When you consider the flimsy and contradictory excuses, it gets almost laughable, if it wasn’t so antithetical to everything the Constitution is built on.

Based on the government’s reasoning, I suppose it would be logical to deny the British and Irish Lions visas, in case the attention is drawn away from soccer to rugby during their 2009 tour?

It is good to see who has principles and values in government, and who doesn’t though. Because that way, when the majority who vote this government back into power end up getting screwed over for another 5 years, they won’t have anybody to blame but themselves.

http://www.michaelparenti.org/Tibet.html