I really do not understand why everyone is making such a fuss about the murder of a completely irrelevant, right wing, racists, megalomaniac like Eugene Terreblanche. Of course, it is always tragic when someone is killed, and Mr Terreblanche’s family and friends must feel much sadness at his passing – something we must try and respect.
But although the killing of yet another South African does remind us of the extremely violent and polarised nature of the society we live in, Terreblanche was politically a spent force and his murder – no matter how sad and senseless – was therefore irrelevant from a political perspective and his death should not have been as politically noteworthy as it has become. After all, the AWB consists of no more than a few bearded grey men who seem to have an inability to stay on top of their horses after drinking one brandy and coke too many.
There are far more sinister and politically relevant events to worry about. Our democracy is facing a fundamental threat from the Kebbelists, the tenderpreneurs, the facists and the Stalinists, but we are all so busy getting hysterical about a silly song and about the sad killing of a lonely old man, that we hardly seem to notice.
News that Mr. Kebby Maphatsoe, national chairperson of the MK-veterans association, launched a vicious attack on the judiciary by saying that judges who ban struggle songs like “Kill the Boer” “wants to bring back apartheid” poses far more of a danger to our democracy than the killing of Terreblanche or even the singing of the “Kill the Boer” song. The fact that Julius Malema and the MK veterans are on the same page and are both undermining the judiciary because of the “Kill the Boer” ruling is really scary.
Julius reinforced the view that he has utter contempt for our constitutional democracy on Saturday when he said the following to the SABC from Zimbabwe (where he was making friends with his fellow anti-democratic kleptocrats):
That court interdict does not apply here [in Zimbabwe]. The order was granted by an untransformed judiciary system, which is the same one that was operating during the apartheid system. It [judiciary] was defeated by the struggle.
Meanwhile the MK veterans association said yesterday they refused to accept the interim interdict. “There is no way we would stop singing this song. The judge (Bertelsmann) is uninformed. It is people schooled in apartheid laws who have been sitting there for 40 years and do not realise that things have changed” which hand down such judgments, Maphatsoe said. According to the MK veterans, judges who do not understand the history of the ANC and the armed struggle is not entitled to pronounce on issues that touch on the heritage of the ANC.
This kind of talk is far more dangerous and irresponsible than the singing of the actual “Kill the Boer” song. It is also uninformed and idiotic and suggests that Mr Maphatsoe is not the sharpest tool in the shed and does not have a firm grip on reality.
The thing is, Bertelsmann granted the interim interdict on the basis that a case had been made out that it infringed on section 10 of the Promotion of Equality and Prevention of Unfair Discrimination Act. Mr Maphatsoe and Julius Malema seem not to understand that this act was passed by the democratically elected Parliament and contains a sweeping hate speech provision that will almost certainly be found to prohibit the “Kill the Boer” song when it is sung in a political context. Judge Bertelsmann did not apply apartheid law but the law tabled in Parliament by the ANC Minister of Justice and voted for by the ANC dominated legislature.
It is scandalous that these enemies of democracy now want to argue that because they do not like the law which they themselves passed, they will ignore the interpretation of that law by a judge (who happened to have been appointed after 1994 by the democratically elected President) and will ignore the order by the court. Such statements fundamentally undermine respect for the independence and integrity of our courts and are seditious. This is the kind of fascist talk that poses a grave danger to our democracy.
The statement that only judges who understand and agree with the ANC version of history will be respected and that those judges who choose to apply the law rather than obey the whims of the ANC MK veterans and Youth League cannot enforce the law against the ANC, is so fundamentally at odds with any tenet of democracy that one suspects Stalin himself might have come to Mr Maphatsoe in a dream to give him this startling insight. These people are dangerous. They will destroy our democracy if they are not stopped.
President Zuma rightly received some praise for his statesmanlike remarks in the wake of the killing of Terreblanche. But statements are not enough. ANC leaders need to reign in these dangerous anti-democratic forces in their midst. Talk is cheap, but what is really required is action. Julius should be disciplined for his shocking disrespect for our democratic order and for his behaviour which fundamentally undermines one of the three branches of our government. If he is not disciplined it will suggest the ANC tacitly supports this little fascist kleptocrat (or at least, are too scared of him to do anything about his actions).
Speaking of Malema’s kleptocratic tendencies, City Press reported on Sunday that Julius Malema has now officially asked the Companies and Intellectual Properties Registration Office (Cipro) to de-register him as one of the directors of SGL Engineering Projects. This means, first, that Julius has been lying all this time about not being a director of SGL Engineering and about having asked for his membership as a director to be removed from the register months ago. If he is only now asking to have his name as a director removed, he was obviously lying when he stated previously that he was no longer a director.
Being caught out in such a blatant lie should have embarrassed Julius and the ANC. Brazenly telling lies like this and then implicitly admitting that you had lied, brings one’s organisation into disrepute and perpetuates the view that one’s organisation is stuffed chock a block with dishonest thieves. Surely any organisation with any pride and self-respect, with a moral compass of sorts, would have instituted disciplinary action against a member caught out telling such blatant and self-serving lies?
Second the fact that Little Julie is now giving up his directorship means nothing, because whether he is a director of SGL Engineering is really neither here nor there. The question is whether he owns shares in the company and is entitled to share in its profits. One can give up one’s directorship but still hold a 70% share in the company and take 70% of the profits made by that company. One need not be a director of a company to profit from the illegally obtained tenders given to that company.
So, even if Malema gave up his directorship, chances are that he is still raking in the money as the majority shareholder in the company. No wonder Julius went to Zimbabwe this weekend. He obviously wanted to get some tips from ZanuPF about how they had managed to stay in power for so long while mercilessly looting state coffers and stealing from the poor.
These issues are the issues that will destroy our democracy and will ruin the lives of ordinary South Africans who vote en masse for the ANC - not the singing of a “Kill the Boer” song or the murder of a has been racist. Wake up people and make a noise about the things that matter!
De La Rey blasts outside court April 06 2010 at 10:02AM
By Baldwin Ndaba and Shain Germaner
The little town of Ventersdorp has been literally divided along racial lines with black and white people standing on either side of the Ventersdorp Magistrate’s Court.
Several members of the AWB were against the presence of black people clad in SACP t-shirts and caps. The tensions were so serious between the two groups that a few of them started exchanging inflamatory remarks.
AWB members were holding placards expressing their disgust at the murder. Some of the placards read: “The pig in this story is FW de Klerk”; “Hunting farmers – free licences issued by ANC”; and “2010 – 65 days to chaos”.
As the crowds continued swelling before the arrival of the suspects at 11am, the Afrikaans song De La Rey boomed from a car parked outside court.
It may be true what Pierre is saying but if you want to sway an electorate you must talk on their level … like Malema.
At present the ANC is flaunting the Freedom Charter, they can therefore no longer be seen as the custodians of the Freedom Charter and many more people will understand this than the complexity of the judiciary.
This time Prof. I agree fully… enough said! Both the ANCYL and AWB are childish to say the least, and both profited from a corrupt government system….
@ Prof
Prof Gutto and BMF have been vocal lately about the failure of our constitution or the intepretation by the govt in dealing with land reform which should be at the centre of the reconcilliatory efforts of this country. They argue that “Willing Seller, willing buyer” should be intepreted in a limited way against an overwhelming national interest of transformation. Latest survey on City Press suggest that Blacks only own 2% of the jse and are in less than 5% of CEO/Chairmen positions.
Are these not the two biggest threats to our democracy? The failure of our govt to deal with these issues plus corruption should be our focus.
Sounds like your hate for the man, has clouded your judgement about what he means, and what his death and the manner of his death means to many, many others (far far more than you are willing to recognize), and it appears as if anyone who does care about his death, is also in your eyes, nothing less than someone who deserves your bigotry, nothing less than cockroaches to you.
What if the song Julius had been singing had been “Kill Faggots”; or “Kill Constituional Professors” or “Killl All Professors”; what then Prof. de Vos?
The problems here lie far far deeper than many wish to acknowledge, because that would require them to confront how they participated in the lie of ‘the creation of the democracy’. The ‘democracy’ is founded upon a lie, which incorporates many other lies.
The lie is, among others, this: That the ANC’s ‘struggle’ was a ‘just war’, in accordance with just war principles. It was not, it was anything but a ‘just war’. A few examples, how many of Gandhi or MLK’s followers sang ‘Kill the Pommies’ or ‘Kill the KKK’? How many of Gandi/MLK’s followers used necklaces in their townships to force the thousands and thousands of individuals who did not wish to be part of this illegal and violent organisaton known as the ANC, to particiipate out of fear, in this alleged ‘liberation struggle’.
Then we haven’t even touched on Quatro, and the ‘Population production’: where young women were forced to be raped to bear children, they did not want, and could not afford, to be future cannon fodder.
As it says in Constitutional Court Amici to The Citizen vs McBride:
(a) only a sincere and serious specific, clear and unambiguous Truth and Forgiveness Social Contract , unequivocally understood and practiced by the common man can ever contribute to sincere and serious reconciliation and the reconstruction of South Africa’s violent ridden society; and
(b) any legislation or jurisprudence which professes to advocate on behalf of human rights, peace and social justice, while ignoring their ecological basis – a stable human population at slightly less than the eco-systems carrying capacity – is endorsing and practicing legal dishonesty and hypocrisy. It is legislation and jurisprudence that is deliberately indifferent to the laws of sustainability . It is legislation written by politicians and lawyers who ‘know the truth about the irresponsible planting of semen seeds in women’s wombs, and the resource war consequences of overpopulation colliding with scarce resources; but who cover up such information’, in their legislation.
What we are seeing is simply the symptoms of the disease of a fake two-faced hypocrisy lie called ‘democracy’ who had no interest in building it on a house of rock, of real impartial truth, of real impartail truthtelling and real commitment to reconciliation and sincere forgiveness.
Prof. your ‘democracy’ is a figment of your imagination, it does not exist; it is a lie… a wetdream fantasy…. it allows people you, and your ANC don’t like who have committed no crime, to be arrested without valid arrest warrants, and detained without bail hearings, and shunted through kangaroo courts the apartheid democracy would have been ashamed of.
@ Henry
There were parts of your argument that were intriguing – and then in typical fashion you went and said something that is factually incorrect:
“the apartheid democracy”
There was “apartheid” but it never was a “democracy”.
Henry Thoreau says:
April 6, 2010 at 11:44 am
“A few examples, how many of Gandhi or MLK’s followers sang ‘Kill the Pommies’ or ‘Kill the KKK’? How many of Gandi/MLK’s followers used necklaces in their townships to force the thousands and thousands of individuals who did not wish to be part of this illegal and violent organisaton known as the ANC, to particiipate out of fear, in this alleged ‘liberation struggle’. ”
Here’s something worth pondering :
“The Quit India Movement, inaugurated at the call of the Mahatma, unfolded in four phases. In the first phase there were strikes, processions, demonstrations and processions. This phase lasted for a period of three to four days and commenced from the day of Gandhi’s arrest on August 9th , 1942. The factory and mill workers rose to the cause and displayed maximum vigor and enthusiasm. The government took recourse to repressive measures to subdue the movement. In an incident of open fire in Bombay, the casualties included large number of women and children.
“Raids of municipal and government buildings characterized the second phase of the movement. Police stations, post offices and railway stations were attacked and set ablaze. Attempts were made by the agitated mobs to capture court buildings. Troops fired to control mob fury. September 1942, marks the beginning of the third phase of the movement. It is said that during this phase of the movement, the mob threw bombs on the police in Madhya Pradesh, Bombay and Uttar Pradesh. With the emergence of the movement into the fourth phase, it gained back its peaceful character and extended till Mahatma Gandhi was released from prison in May, 1944.”
http://www.mapsofindia.com/personalities/gandhi/quit-india-movement.html
@ Gwebecimele
A few Quotes from Concourt Amici: The Citizen vs McBride (because McBride was never forgiven; he and many others remain ‘unforgiven’ by two-faced hypocrit liberals flat earth policies of promising free houses, free water, free education, as if resources are infinite, and people can just breed and breed and breed and houses, and water and education falls out of trees…. It is one of your ‘democracy lies’):
——————-
Imagine if blacks had chosen to adopt a cultural trait of personal responsibility and concern for their children, whereby they refrained from procreation until they could provide for a stable and loving environment for their offspring in a small committed family environment. If so, South Africa would currently be populated by 10 million predominantly educated citizens, 50% white & 50% black and coloured, most of whom had grown up in loving small family homes, with responsible parents
……
Is Martin Luther King Jnr. the only black leader to have ever expressed a sincere concern for the plague of overpopulation, and the need to Educated to Liberate the poor from their cultural prison of ignorant poverty production procreation?
“Unlike plagues of the dark ages or contemporary diseases we do not understand, the modern plague of overpopulation is soluble by means we have discovered and with resources we possess. What is lacking is not sufficient knowledge of the solution but universal consciousness of the gravity of the problem and education of the billions who are its victim.” – Martin Luther King Jnr.
————————–
@ Maggs Naidu,
Thanks for that info, I shall do more research on it, soon as I got some time. I appreciate you for informing me of it. As for ‘Quite Africa’: FYI. I have started a group to advise white South Africans, not to participate in any violence, but to research the information about their European progenitors, to get the relevant passport, and to emigrate their family out of AFrica, so that Africa can be for the Africans, as soon as possible. In light of there being no serious commitment to a serious truth and forgiveness social contract.
I suspect those whites who refuse to leave with be exterminated, many similarly to how the 3,000 plus farmers have been murdered and exterminated; because I have not come across any blacks who are sincerely even interested in a sincere conversation about truth telling and sincere forgiveness; they just want all white people out of Africa. I don’t have a problem with that.
In fact, i wrote to the British Guardian and suggested they write a story about SA holding a referendum: Do blacks want whites out of South Africa, do blacks want “Africa for the Africans”? (or what Julis refers to as “Indiginization”) If the referendum found that to be true, would blacks honourably make an official request to EU Nations, and say “Please give your former citizens passports so they can return to their Forefathers homes.”
I think only once blacks have lived under Julius Mugabe, who will make Gabriel Mugabe look like a saint, and they have experienced Julius’s hate no longer directed to ‘boere’, but to zulus’ or sotho’s or coloureds, only then will they have experientially learnt the lesson, to demand that the rule-of-law be upheld for everyone, not only those you like or agree with. But by that time I intend to be far away in Europe.
So, I don’t have a problem with any black person saying to me to my face: I want you whitey to leave Africa, cause I want africa for africans. If so, I say thanks for your honesty, I am doing my best to get my passport and hope to be out of South Africa within 12 months. If you want me out sooner, I’d appreciate your help, if you would write a letter in support of asking me to leave, which I can submit to a Foreign Embassy, as a request for White Refugee status. If so, I can probably be out within less than 6 months.
Joey,
You are probably correct about apartheid not having been a democracy. I withdraw ‘apartheid democracy’. Sorry.
I fail to understand how someone, disagreeing with a particular judgement, for whatever reasons, evolves into a threat, or enemy, or fascist. I don’t.
Is it perhaps a testament to the impotence of the judiciary in enforcing some of its judgements?
Is it right to encourage freedom of speech and then taint people who express same with such strong language?
Inadvertently, this is the mentally that continues to show the hysteria some people have. A wish for all of society to conform to some preconcieved notions of decency.
Witness how the media has shaped, rather than inform society about Terreblanchs’ murder. There is a blatant refusal to cover the child labour aspect, salary dispute and the meagre wage. a tenous link with a song, is being churned out repeatedly. What about the farmer who recieved bail for shooting a black person last week. Nada
What is really happening is a manefestation of the despondency sectors of our population (Predominently black) feel. The ‘things can’t change overnight’defense statement has been seen for what it is. A myth.
Prof those “debates” and “discussions” are in actual fact what we need right now. Point is, Julius Malema represents a large constituency of largely black youth hence you cant just call for him to be shut up. He says things that many are afraid to say because they make certain pockets of our societies uncomfortable.
The truth is the overwhelming majority of black people are still living below the poverty line and the economic power remains in the hands of the whites – this is a fact. The whites (well – most of them) have not come to the party as far as nation building and reconciliation is concerned – this is a fact.
Unless and until we have had robust, and I mean very very robust ” discussions” and “debates”, not the TRC-like talkshop, we will always be a polarised and racialised nation pretending to be a democratic state. What is reportedly happening in Ventersdop Magistrate Court today ( blacks = this side, whites = that side ) represents the genuine and real situation on the ground, again – this is a fact.
Dumisani, your statement is really misguided and not thought through. It is absolutely fine to criticise a judgment and to say why the legal reasoning in a judgment is faulty. I have done so often on this Blog. One can do so in robust language I believe and no one should be alarmed by that. However, when one says that one will REFUSE to obey a court order or when one attacks the personal integrity of a judge and calls into question the honesty of a judge (and when one does so without ANY reference to the legal arguments made in the case and the reasoning of the judge) one is attacking the very essence of what constitutes an independent judiciary. If you and other South Africans cannot see this diifference then God help us. What Malema and the Veterans have done here would be a bit like me wanting to take issue with something President Zuma did (say his appointment of Qwelane as High Commissioner to Uganda) and then, instead of making an argument about why the actions of our President is wrong, I attack the President personally by calling him a rapist, a crook and a thief from whom we cannot expect any better seeing that he is just a black man whom we really would expect to act in such a crooked manner. However, it is far worse to attack judges in the manner shown above as unlike politicians like our President the independence of judges is guaranteed in the Constitution which also requires us all to respect the judges and the judgiciary. This is not about free speech. It is about a fundamental respect for our constitutional democracy.
There is no reason whatsoever to belief that the RSA, in time, will be any different from the states north of the border. African philosophy is fundamentally different from Western (and Eastern) value systems and therefore the Republic will revert to an African state of mind. The Constitution cannot stop the process because of the fundamental differences between the concept of ubuntu (being black and African, the other) and the essential western values enshrined in the Constitution. Not that being African is meant to be derogotory, it is simply different. I am sure that the ANC and the ANCYL believe in what they preach. It is completely logical to them. To white people it seems completely illogical on the other hand. The idea of true democracy is foreign to Africa. It follows that the Constitution is foreign to Africa.
Henry, Henry, Henry. Your whole argument is based on democracy being about majority rule, and the problem of the over-reproductive ‘nature’ of Black people. What a load of bollocks! Lets be serious if all the people of European origin had to go back to Europe where would they fit? You cannot wish away democracy just because it does not provide you with a guarantee that people of what you consider to be civilised enough to be able to rule. You must at the very least believe in democracy. Every person who has settled or born in South Africa has a right to exist and flourish in South Africa. That does not remove our collective responsibility to ensure that the wrongs committed in the past are redressed and corrected. That is not bleeding heart liberal claptrap, it is about sustainability. You make not like the ANC, and you may laud Gandhi or Martin Luther King Jnr, but please accept that the ANC debated for over four decades whether to take up arms, and in the end when they did decide to take up arms they made sure that the armed struggle was under complete control of the political struggle. This is noble. You may not like it but its fact. You may even hate the ANC, but you cannot hate its principles of non-racialism and non-sexism. Because those principles can never ever only belong to the ANC, but what you must recognise that the ANC without being forced adopted these principles when it would have just been easier to say that this is about liberation of the Black people and driving the whites into the sea. Hate injustice, hate exploitation, hate manipulation, but hating a whole people, whole organisations and discarding noble principles could never be what you are about Henry. This is not about just logic and rationale, but also about your own humanity.
Take it easy Henry, please do not hate or you may just about end up hating yourself your children, your family and friends.
Cindy, chess comes from India, most of the Chess Grand Masters I know are from Russia and the United States. Coffee originally comes from Ethiopia, most of the coffee sold is in Europe and the United States. I could go on. Democracy does not need to come from a place for it to be accepted and committed to. Judeo-Christian civlisation is not any more inherently democratic than African culture or Arabic culture for that matter. Commitment to principles is not limited to whether the principle is from your country or not. No human being is NATURALLY more inclined to fascism than another. There is not one set of rules for Africans and another for the world. This does not mean that the context of history cannot be conveniently forgotten, no there must be redress and corrective measures, but that does not dilute basic democratic principles. Cindy please pull the other finger.
Go read the Soviet Constitution …
Oh and Communism was written in Germany, and the majority of Karl Marx’s work was written in London…..not the Soviet Union. Do not try to hide your racist views, because that is what they are, behind the veneer of only the European can be democratic or you are just fighting against communism. If you are racist at least have the guts to own up to it that you are a little evil person who hates a lot of the world who you do not believe are human beings as well. Make that you starting point. Go and read the UN Declaration on Human Rights, the Freedom Charter, African Claims, and a myriad of other documents!
Racism?
Chaos at Ventersdorp:http://www.thedailymaverick.co.za/article/2010-04-06-video-the-ventersdorp-skirmish-that-nearly-became-a-battle
The problem lies with the ANC that wants the country to host a world cup – and then, about 60 days before the start, turns up, via Malema, the racial inflammatory rethoric – and absolutely insists to continue with it.
I predict the Malema-inflamed chaos to really start around the Opening. The most worried man must be Blatter – for bringing his world cup to Malema’s country.
Pierre De Vos says:
April 6, 2010 at 12:38 pm
“However, when one says that one will REFUSE to obey a court order or when one attacks the personal integrity of a judge and calls into question the honesty of a judge (and when one does so without ANY reference to the legal arguments made in the case and the reasoning of the judge) one is attacking the very essence of what constitutes an independent judiciary.”
Court orders are regularly disobeyed.
What’s so different about this?
I was born in the early 1980s and grew up largely ignorant of what REALLY happened in this country. I knew of a guy called Eugene Terreblanche – and that he lead an Afrikaner group – which i always imagined was something similar to the KKK, in the USA.
Over the weekend I learnt of what happened and what Eugene’s AWB was doing in the country. It shocked me, to say the least. I was most shocked to see the footage of how the AWB raided the negotiations between the ANC and the then gov.
I was even more shocked by the realisation that this group still exists and still has followers (correct me if I’m wrong)! I was angered by hearing what Eugene did to that man that he shot and that he was released from prison.
My point – is that i understand that this event should not take our eyes off other relevant issues in SA, but, to me, personally, this event made me realise that while we are generally still a violent country – there is still alot lot of racism out there – there are still an extreme race group like the AWB operating in this country. While I would be persuaded that they are a vast minority in this country – i am concerned, as I have always been.
Yes, there are race groups all over the world – not just SA – but i am not concerned with the rest of the world now.
I read the earlier comment by Thomas and I sit and wonder – how would it be to live in a place like Ventersdorp?
I’m sorry, but even my experiences have shown me that ALOT has not changed.
FYI – I live in Cape Town.
Spuy at:
April 6, 2010 at 12:32 pm
I totally agree. We have serious problems that has not been properly taken care of. Its like a ticking bomb waiting to burst.
Cindy, No, not racism, so let me be clear based on the views you have expressed, you are racist.
[...] Pierre discusses the murder of the South African white supremacist, Eugene Tereblanche: “I really do not understand why everyone is making such a fuss about the murder of a completely irrelevant, right wing, racists, megalomaniac like Eugene Terreblanche.” Cancel this reply [...]
Maggs, you are correct that court orders are not always obeyed. This is always of grave concern. When leading figures in a governing party do not only fail to adhere to court orders because of tardiness or incompetence, but actually willfully flout court orders and launch personal attacks on the judge who handed down the order, it is a far more serious matter. Such individuals, because of the power they wield through the governing party, has a particular duty to obey court orders and not to make statements which suggests they do not respect the authority of the court. Our courts do not have an army or police force to help them to enforce their orders. Such orders are enforced because of the authority of the court which is backed up by the support of the state institutions such as the police and the NPA. When a belief takes hold in the governing party which controls these institutions that it need not obey court orders, then the authority, legitimacy and independence of the courts are destroyed. I hope this answers your question.
I agree with Professor De Vos indeed. A road to a Banana Republic ( not that I know what the banana republic is – I guess it “boers” with bananas) begins with totally disregarding the judgements – I mean I was shocked yesterday when Comrade Julius Malema said he will continue to sing the song. It would indeed be a sad day if he meant what he said in that television interview.
Being a member of the youth league in my province (FS), I would mobilise day and night for his removal as president. I should think that Comrade Julius knows that he is not above the law. What stops your Thabo’s, Pule’s, Johan’s, Gerry’s, Pierre’s, Disebo’s, Marna’s, Chatherines’ on the street from saying there is Julius Malema above the law, let me also ignore the laws of the country (and judgements thereof) !
It would indeed mean that we have become a lawless society!!!
Spuy, I agree with you that without economic transformation the fragile achievement of 1994 would remain in danger (apart from the fact that the status quo is ethically untenable). The problem is that instead of grappling seriously with the huge gap between rich and poor, white and black elites are often acting in a very short-sighted and destructive manner in which the immediate pursuit of riches (through fraudulent or inflated tenders that harm the poor, paying and taking of bribes, opposition to corrective measures, failure to implement and support the transfer of skills etc) trumps concerns about the long-term health of our country and our democracy.Sadly, not only white capitalists are to blame. See http://www.mg.co.za/article/2010-03-26-zumas-nephew-and-the-mine-meltdown
But Prof, I want us to properly diagnose these threats. They are actually informed by deep-seated race relations problems. Such attacks on the judiciary a normally made when a white judge has find against a black popular leader or sentiment. To me, it says we have to seriously, robustly ingage in a national dialogue about how we relate to each other as blacks and whites – enough with the pretending already – we know we simply just hate each other (or rather, we simply dont trust each other!) as a result of our diverse hisotories. Remember that: he who is a hero to Thabo, is an enemy to Gert and until such time we have forged a common history (which will take some time), the pretending will have to be managed by ongoing robust debates and discussions on race relations.
I call upon all white progressives (De Vos; Steven Friedman; David Unterhalter; Susan Booysen; Davie Roodt; the list is endless) to encourage the debate in the white community about their fears, prejudices, concerns etc as far as black people are concerned. While at it: Tell them to come to the party on nation building – enough with their withdrawal already!
Again, I call upon all black progressives ( almost all of us) to distance ourselves; condemn and alienate all forms of hate speech; “hate songs” – even if meant well; race-based mobilisations and incitements and all forms of pulling of race card to defend corruption and crime. We have to fight side by side to alienate those (black or white) who want to derail the National Democratic Revolution which seeks to achieve a non-racial, non-sexist, prosperous and democratic South Africa.
Spuy
Fact; the present government (about 500 in all) is misappropriating money as fast as the tax is collected, into cronies pockets … count the new found billionaires, for things we don’t need …. arms deal and fancy stadiums, pay to people who cant do the work …. deployment to municipalities and provinces. Then they blame less than 10% of the population for failing the people!! This small minority has done a sterling job over the past 15 years providing a steady flow of money (taxes) to the government where it is mismanaged.
You should have a look around and you will find many white people willing (without compensation) to join hands with their local communities to improve and uplift. This is where the battle will be won. Open your eyes and join the real people of our country.
Pierre De Vos says:
April 6, 2010 at 15:19 pm
Agreed.
I raised that because I think Malema has been over rated.
If he disregards a court order then he is no more than a thug, not a leader of stature who deserves respect – we, society in general, should treat him as such.
I would be interesting to see how our President handles this, it is his administration after all, that is being treated with such contempt.
Spuy says:
April 6, 2010 at 15:25 pm
“Being a member of the youth league in my province (FS), I would mobilise day and night for his removal as president. I should think that Comrade Julius knows that he is not above the law. What stops your Thabo’s, Pule’s, Johan’s, Gerry’s, Pierre’s, Disebo’s, Marna’s, Chatherines’ on the street from saying there is Julius Malema above the law, let me also ignore the laws of the country (and judgements thereof) !”
Well said!
There was a time when I and many ANC supporters that I know felt that Malema was on the right track by raising issues that needed to be raised although the way he said some things left much to be desired.
Now there is no one whom I know that has any respect left for him – young people are totally embarrassed that they can be represented by the ANCYL led by this young man.
His behaviour, combined by those who support his behaviour by commission or omission, has the potential to severely hamper the NDR and retard, if not reverse, the gains post 1994.
The question that is top most in the minds of many people I am close to, also inferred in your comment is “what kind of South Africa are we going to leave for future generations?”.
“While SA laughs, Malema spreads his tentacles
“JACOB DLAMINI
“Published: 2009/11/19 06:20:25 AM
“JULIUS Malema is easy to caricature. There is the borderline criminal conduct from his time as head of the Congress of South African Students; his certainly fraudulent election as president of the African National Congress Youth League (ANCYL); his public nuisance value as Blackman-in-chief and, of course, his less than stellar “academic” record.
“It is, in fact, a caricature that has seized hold of the public imagination. South Africans, Malema included, thrive on the cartoon of this buffoon.
“We love the silliness of it all, the crassness and the crudity. We marvel at how someone so ill-equipped to lead can become such a national figure. Ja nee, we say; only in SA could a man who could not saw his way out of a woodwork workshop become a leader worthy of editorial pages. …
“Strip away that caricature, kill the cartoon, and what you are left with is a cunning thug who is the nexus of a patronage network based in Limpopo but that cuts across provincial borders. Try cutting through the fog and you will find one of the biggest proponents of the National Tender Revolution in this country. Take a few steps away from the Malema sketch and you will discover a true political don and one of the biggest influence-peddlers in SA.
“As I write, a group of (white) businessmen with interests in mining in Zimbabwe has been lobbying Malema and the youth league for political protection. The businessmen are afraid Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe might move against their interests and so are appealing to the league to use its connections with Zanu (PF)’s youth brigade to protect them. …
“Malema can afford the jokes we tell about him. They have made him rich and stopped us from asking the kinds of questions we should be asking. How indeed has Malema got so rich, and does he even pay his taxes? We are not likely to ask these questions so long as we are focused on the caricature, the cartoon, the buffoon. Begin to ask those questions and you start to realise that behind Malema’s call for the nationalisation of mines lies something far more serious, far more dangerous than the jokes we love to tell about him.
“Meanwhile, we laugh ourselves silly. The joke is on us, SA.”
http://www.businessday.co.za/articles/Content.aspx?id=87495
Good stuff Maggs. Bravo!
Pierre, I couldn’t agree more.
Professor, while I agree with your argument to the effect that the communications made by Jules and his bed-mates over at the MK veterans present serious threats, I wonder whether we can infer some positives from all of this. That is, I agree that the statements by JuJu, that Maphatsoe muppet and, more generally, the veterans serve as grave threats. But that being said, can we not reasonably deduce that Jules is starting to feel the pinch? That may be so and if it is, well then it could be that the various investigative journalists that are probing Julie just need to keep on digging to come up with some dirt on this guy that will resonate with the right people. I mean, Jules has always been stupid – we know this in part because even the drop-outs from the school for crooks over at Luthuli House learn that it is best to try to conceal the evidence of wrong doing whereas Julie actually wears and drives that evidence. The material change in Jules’s typically misguided behaviour is that in addition to being stupid, he is now also desperate. So my guess is that whoever the keenest journalists are, they may be very close to exposing Julius in such away that even his usual brand of idiocy won’t save his bacon.
I would also add that while I’ll join the chorus in condemning the veterans for threatening to flout the court’s ruling, it could be that the real test would arise if they actually did so.
I am personally convinced that Zuma has now told Julius to shut up.
Whether he will listen is another matter.
It’s quite fashionable and pc to dismiss the views of Henry Thoreau but how many of you know the story about the six million optimistic Jews ……
@ Leigh: I agree, Julius is beginning to feel the pinch, and I might add, this is so important, for all his ignorant and misguided bravado; important for SA, thus important for all the people.
I still feel that all this nonsense points to a miracle, having pushed many SFricans to realize what is really important to them, to our country, that a rainbow nation is far more efficient, internationally accepted and safe than this racist garbage which the child and his parents promote for their personal interest, and personal gain.
We cannot allow ourselves to be fooled. I would suggest that the answer to all these difficulties is to insist on the rule of law, repeatedly, tirelessly, to put our money behind that, not just talk, regardless of how we feel about lawyers and their billable hours. We must support those bodies who fight on behalf of all the people.
There is an answer, and its within the law of the land and our Constitution. We just have to insist on it, repeatedly without hesitation or relapse, regardless of the monetary or personal price. Never let up on the pressure. The law of the Constitution must reign supreme. And if our CC judges don’t support this, we must shame them.
This soccer worldcup may fail because of security concerns.
Anyone who thinks Julius Malema is stupid is making a very big mistake indeed. He is anything but that.
CD says:
April 6, 2010 at 21:36 pm
“Anyone who thinks Julius Malema is stupid is making a very big mistake indeed. He is anything but that.”
I reckon that he is more than stupid.
Anyone that squanders the opportunity to lead the ANC, given especially the support from Mandela, Zuma and many other top personalities has to be really, really stupid.
No sensible leader will want to make enemies of friends, divide the organisation, split the alliance, sow hatred and disunity – he represents everything that the ANC is not.
Eish, if he is going to inherit the ANC then it will not be the organisation I thought it is.
Maggs Naidu says:
April 6, 2010 at 21:55 pm
Problem is that Julius Malema has become the face of the ANC.
To reverse that will be very difficult if not impossible. It will take at least something like kicking him out of the ANC.
Chris says:
April 6, 2010 at 21:59 pm
Not so sure of that Chris.
As I said elsewhere, no one who I know personally, is willing to regard this guy as anything but an embarrassment to everything that the ANC is as we know it.
The only people who are openly supporting him are a diminishing body of political and other opportunists.
A close friend who, like me, had initially though that this fellow had potential recently sat his young sons down and explained to them that his earlier views were incorrect, that Malema represents all that is wrong.
Another friend who was a vocal supporter now says that he dreads the thought of his young daughters growing up in a South Africa that is in any way influenced by crap that Malema spews.
And so it goes.
As the body of opinion against Malema grows so too does his prospects of a future in the ANC.
@all
and so we talk and nothing gets done, debate is intellectually very stimulating but in the meantime the monster keeps rolling forward. people are still killed (albeit for political, economical, hatred) and we keep blogging etc!!
malema & co is only above the law because they keep getting away with it. let’s face it the judiciary has become a joke..no more separation of powers, only the executive rules..sounds kinda familiar.
i know most of you will jump up and down about constitutional this and bill of rights that..face it: IT STILL ONLY APPLIES TO THE FORTUNATE FEW..THE COLOUR MIGHT HAVE CHANGED A BIT (still doesn’t help the squatters, impoverished etc)!!!
some conspiracy theory ??? maybe /not
http://www.africancrisis.co.za/Article.php?ID=73544&%3ES.Africa:%20EXTREMELY
obelix says:
April 6, 2010 at 22:51 pm
“some conspiracy theory ??? maybe /not”
It’s not some conspiracy theory.
It’s just a load of crap!
@maggs
wow, what a revelatory statement..based on..your own opinion? seeing that all not agreeing with you are (dare i say it) racist. anyway good night
Maggs, the problem is that in many senses Malema is what the ANC has become. He represents (and exploits) the divisions within the organisation and the self-serving, corrupt nature of it. Malema is only a symptom (albeit a highly visible one), not a cause, of the problems within our governing party. It is only because the ANC see is what it is that Malema is able to be who he is. Also, there are many Malemas out there; this particular one is just the most vocal. Julius Malema understands power politics and how to play the various groups off against each other. It also seems to me that he represents the frustrations of millions of marginalised young people in this country. In all, he may be frighteningly more representative than we want to believe.
This is a good first step. Pity there is no word from gwede Matashe and President Zuma about Malema’s contempt of court. http://www.news24.com/Content/SouthAfrica/Politics/1057/1d3cd46fea084c738c5ef7543dcba5b9/06-04-2010-11-55/Zuma,_Mantashe_muzzle_Malema
CD says:
April 7, 2010 at 5:39 am
“It also seems to me that he represents the frustrations of millions of marginalised young people in this country. In all, he may be frighteningly more representative than we want to believe.”
Indeed.
Of course many people, including me, look to having national leaders who are vocal about things that matter, preferably in a way that is robust, fearless, in-your-face.
Pussyfooting about serious national issues, cotton wooling the rhetoric does not advance important national agendas.
Having grown into the voice that is needed, Malema has misinterpreted and misused the mood behind the support.
And he missed a basic lesson that in politics you make friends of enemies, not ememies of friends.
As Pierre pointed out, the bigwigs have told him to zip it.
I am willing to wager that he will tell them to bugger off and do whatever he wants to.
This guy is really dof!
http://www.businessday.co.za/articles/Content.aspx?id=105482
Maggs Naidu says:
April 6, 2010 at 22:24 pm
Perhaps inside the ANC. For the rest of the country and the world Malema is the face of the ANC.
75% of the private sector is not complying with the B-BBEE act.
The Minister of Trade and Industry Dr Rob Davies says more than 75% of the private sector is not complying with the Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment Codes of Good Practice in terms of the baseline study that was conducted in 2008/09. Minister Davies was briefing the media on the sidelines of the orientation session of the B-BBEE Advisory Council that took place at the dti Campus in Pretoria today.
“The research conducted in July 2008 shows the overall impact of BEE remains modest. Less than 5% of Johannesburg Stock Exchange is owned by Black people. More than 75% of companies in the private sector are not BEE compliant. The level of compliance is eve worse when it came to the indirect elements of empowerment such as skills development and enterprise development procurement. The figure does not mean that companies have not made any effort in an attempt to be BEE compliant.” said Davies
Minister Davies said the government was looking at getting the advice of the council on how to address the BEE challenges highlighted by the research.
“We are all of the view that empowerment has got to play a significant role in the transformation of this country. In particular, we need to ensure that those elements that link empowerment to enterprise development are actually more effective than they appear to have been up to now.” added Davies
He added that the under the B-BBEE Act the council was empowered to conduct its own research, monitoring and evaluation of BEE implementation.
Executive vs Judiciary
07 April 2010
Pertunia Ratsatsi
——————————————————————————–
Premier Nomvula Mokonyane
GAUTENG Premier Nomvula Mokonyane and a group of people yesterday defied a court order and chanted struggle song Dubul’ iBhunu (shoot the Boer) in Mamelodi, Pretoria.
Mokonyane, Arts and Culture Minister Lulu Xingwana and Tshwane mayor Gwen Ramokgopa sang the song at the 31st commemoration of the hanging of struggle hero Solomon Mahlangu.
Gwebecimele says:
April 7, 2010 at 10:31 am
Maybe Min Davies should start with those companies that are owned, partially owned or influenced by ANC members first.
The Zakumi fiasco will be a good place to start.
In any event established business will continue to outsmart the law and the system (as was done during the time of the Sullivan Code) while those in power continue to scramble around the crumbs.
Min Nzimande’s efforts will go a long way in resolving the impasse in the longer term, until then the pretend B-BBEE will continue to be not much more than a harness over real economic transformation.
Gwebecimele, Maggs, what do you suggest then?
CD says:
April 7, 2010 at 10:54 am
Well, grassroots activism is the only solution.
Interestingly here’s a extract verbatim from an email I got this morning regarding the Eskom loan (minus the full text from HZ’s “An ignoble and corrupt parasite”). The sender is a dedicated ANC and transformation activist :
“Hey – what do you think of this? Read it – interesting and very worrying.
“I don’t want a morally corrupt ANC running my country even if you say other Western democracies are also corrupt. Are they like this? I suppose the Nationalist Party did this for all those years – so they’ve learned from the best. May even be an ex-Nat who gave them advice on what to do!!!”
@ CD
Ban anything that does not reflect the demographics of the country in 2020
Maggs, sorry – I was referring to the empowerment issue.
Gwebecimele, are you serious? How would that work in practice?
CD says:
April 7, 2010 at 12:12 pm
“Maggs, sorry – I was referring to the empowerment issue.”
Grassroots activism!
@ CD
It means we have 10 yrs to get things right and police it the way apartheid did.
2010-04-07 12:48
Johannesburg – A North West farmer has been arrested for allegedly assaulting seven workers at his farm near Lichtenburg, police said on Wednesday.
The farmer allegedly assaulted the workers on Tuesday, Lieutenant Colonel Lesego Metsi said.
“They alleged he assaulted them with a blunt object,” he said.
The farmer was arrested on Tuesday on seven charges of assault with the intention to cause grievous bodily harm.
He was expected to appear in the Lichtenburg Magistrate’s Court on Wednesday.
How does 1 person beat 7 in an equal society?
CD, you make out earlier in this discussion that anyone who believes Julie is stupid is making a big mistake. I think, with all respect, that this stance of yours is probably wrong and I say so because the apparent basis thereof is founded on a misguided assumption.
I can only presume that your post dated 6 April at 21:36pm was written with me in mind given that I asserted, in pretty much so many words, that Julie is stupid.
In another of your posts (dated 7 April at 5:39am) you make out that Jules has a fair grasp of so-called power-politics and how to play groups off against each other. And it seems to follow that you base your view that Julie is hardly stupid on the ground that he understands this particular brand of politics. But implicit in this view is the assumption that it requires even a moderately praiseworthy intellect to practice power-politics and play people against each other. It does not. We can generally define power politics as the use of strong arm tactics with a view to securing compliance. And playing groups off against each other is just a sort of deflection. Even your average school yard bully – a kind of person with whom Julie has much in common – gets power-politics. All one needs its gall and leverage. And playing parties off against each other, well it’s hardly unheard-of for kids do that with their parents. So in sum, its quite possible that one could at once (a) do what Julie does and (b) be a little stupid.
One potentially useful question is to consider whether there is any possible value in insulting Julie. There could be. That is, our press could, in a word, ‘press’ Julie in two respects: one, come up with better proofs regarding his finances and two, make him out to be a desperate, bubbling figure of fun who is more of a liability to the ANC than he is a boon. You may not agree, but it strikes me that there’s an element of desperation in Julie’s freshest public communications. If that’s true, then the question is whether he feels sufficiently vulnerable to make an even bigger arse of himself and his party than he generally does.
Brett, I agree with you that the Geffen study is flawed — as they acknowledge, data is hard to confirm. Nevertheless, unless you can come up with a competing study that is more methodologically satisfactory, it is all we have to go on.
Nevertheless, we agree that blacks are much more subject to violent crime than whites.
This is not surprising. In the US also, the same pattern emerges. That is so for at least three reasons. First, police tend to be more solicitious to crime reports from more prosperous people. Second, poorer people (viz blacks), are less able to afford private security, alarms, etc. Third, black males, who are more likely to be offenders, tend to prey on their immediate neighbours.
The misguided hatred for Malema by the media, DA and others has just given Juju a new lease of life. All he needs to do now is sit back and watch as the best minds(Progressive Analysts eg Mckaiser, Matshiqi, Ndletyana etc) in our society argue in his favour. Juju will come out of this smelling like roses and his critics will again come second to him.
When the DA and others tried to get a sitting President charged, I warned that their efforts might just achieve the opposite. Forward since then , Radebe in Justice, Simelane in NPA, Shaik in Intelligence, Cele in Police and the list goes on and may be courts are next. I doubt that the respect for the constitution was achieved.
Well only a fool that uses the same tactics and expect different results.
The ANC is accusing the opposition party of racism, while the DA accuses the ruling party of launching a smear campaign.
At a press conference, Labour minister Membathisi Mdladlana and former Western Cape premier Lynne Brown, produced a copy of an “e-mail” that was allegedly sent to Local Government MEC Anton Bredell a month ago.
The letter written in Afrikaan, allegedly authored by Marthinus Du Plessis, the acting municipal manager of Stellenbosch in the winelands, refers to coloured people as “h*tnots” and black people as “k*ffers”.
Mdladlana and Brown are baying for Bredell and Du Plessis’ heads – accusing them of being part an “old-style apartheid verkrampte faction” within the DA.
Du Plessis denied sending the letter. “This is a hoax and a smear campaign, Stellenbosch’s local goverment is characterised by power struggles,” he said.
Gwebecimele is right.
The only way the DA could really hurt JM would be to enthusiastically defend him. (The DA and JM really are on the same page in one very important respect: both are naturally hostile to the SACP and the unions.)
It is absurd that many in the ANC, to the extent they are wavering or uncertain on any issue or personality, make themselves puppets of the DA — by taking the cue to support anyone by virtue, and in proportion, to the DA’s disaffection.
And the plot thickens…
Mulder has threatened to resign his position as deputy minister of agriculture, forestry and fisheries if Zuma fails to condemn Malema’s singing of “Kill the Boer”, while Zille, who is premier of the Western Cape, yesterday suggested that Zuma’s failure to take a stand against the ANC Youth League leader made him appear a “follower, rather than a leader”.
Michael Osborne says:
April 7, 2010 at 15:16 pm
“The only way the DA could really hurt JM would be to enthusiastically defend him.”
Gwebe makes a sensible contribution which is consistent with the nub of Pierre’s piece i.e. “(w)ake up and worry about the real threats to our democracy”.
The real issues affecting the youth for example is not the silly rendering of songs that some may find offensive or arguing that which is not government policy.
If South Africa ignores the puerile distractions and begins to embrace real issues, we will all be better off for it – education, training and skills development; enterprise development; job creation; mentoring; housing; health and and and.
Opposition parties seems to have no strategies except attack the ANC or anyone associated with the ANC in ever which way – that’s as dull as it gets.
When last did any of the opposition parties start a national conversation around anything constructive around serious national issues????
http://www.businessday.co.za/articles/Content.aspx?id=105378
Gwebecimele, it seems that one can reduce your post dated 7 April at 15:02pm to two core assertions: one, the media’s hatred of Julie is misguided and two, the efforts of those who are dissatisfied with Julie – much of the media and the DA – are destined to be counter-productive.
With all respect, I don’t think you’ve thought your submissions through thoroughly enough. For a start, many of the media-driven indictments against Julie set out that he (a) came by wealth in dubious ways (b) speaks recklessly and (c) serves as a generally divisive force in a country which desperately needs the opposite. Leaving aside the question of whether any of those eminently tenable indictments suggest hatred, what’s misguided about any of it? I mean, one could well argue that the press, by collecting the dirt on Julie, is properly discharging a core democratic function of the press – which is to promote accountability. Secondly, I think that the second of your submissions is guilty of an important oversight. That oversight is that the nature of an indictment can be materially important.
Let’s take a brief look at that tragedy that happened a few weeks back involving that idiotic rapper who may well have contributed to the deaths of some high school kids and the injuries sustained by others. Before the tragedy, that dirt-ball was an icon. But after the fact, many of his former fans bunked school to assert outside the court house no less that the former star would do well to watch his back. The question is: what can that dirt-ball’s speedy and well-merited fall from grace teach us about the perils of public life? One thing is that even an adoring public can prove to be fickle. Much turns on the nature of the transgression. Had that rapper dropped his pants and mooned Helen Zille, he might have been lauded by many people. And dare I say, had he and his equally stupid buddy run over some white kids, he may (and I do mean ‘may’) not have received such a hot reception at the court house. But he did not do those things did he? He ran over some black youngsters. And we all saw the reception he got. So the question becomes: what might happen if it is shown, sufficiently clearly and evocatively, that Julie got rich at the expense of blacks?
Thank you for your valuable contributions, Maggs!
Not withstanding, I happen to regard the safety and survival of family members as a ‘real issue’.
No-one has explained yet: Why is it irrational to take the ANC at their viva voce but not irrational to project wishful thinking and our denial onto its leaders?
Leigh says:
April 7, 2010 at 18:29 pm
“So the question becomes: what might happen if it is shown, sufficiently clearly and evocatively, that Julie got rich at the expense of blacks?”
Nothing will happen!
Leigh is absolutely right, of course. Is it not referred to as the ‘tipping point’?
Brett Nortje says:
April 7, 2010 at 18:33 pm
“I happen to regard the safety and survival of family members as a ‘real issue’.”
Everybody does.
It’s curious that political parties chose to remain ineffective in this regard, rather they continue to wallow in the mud over relatively worthless rhetoric.
Maggs
@ Maggs
“When last did any of the opposition parties start a national conversation around anything constructive around serious national issues?”
What about COPE’s no confidence motion in the President? That was ridiculed by the ruling party on the floor of the NA, but debated in the press.
What about the controversy last year over the dissolution of the DSO? The DA’s campaign sparked many debates, conferences, papers, etc. (In fact, some of the DA’s criticisms were taken on board in the final version of the Bill.)
What about the debate over labour-broking? Again, beyond the potshots – of which there have been some — there has been an interesting and quite well-informed debate about the nature of labour markets, and the alleged need for the reform of labour law, which continues today.
Michael Osborne says:
April 7, 2010 at 19:01 pm
There’s nothing “constructive” around a motion of no confidence in our President who, as it is widely known, is enormously popular
DSO/no DSO are nice coffee time topics in the middle class suburbs.
I have not followed the “interesting and quite well-informed debate about the nature of labour markets”, but if the outcomes are likely to diminish either the quality or quantity of jobs then it’s a dead duck.
http://davekopel.org/2A/Foreign/South-Africas-Deadly-Disaster.htm
Maggs, are you sitting?
OK, Maggs, I know you relish challenges, so try this:
List three (just three), “constructive” contributions to a national debate that you think the opposition could, or should, have raised recently.
There are a few conditions, though. The proposals you come up with cannot be:
(i) Hopeless (as you say the no-confidence motion in JZ was).
(ii) “Middle class” – as you say the campaign to save the Scorpions was.
(iii) Outside your zone of attention — as you say the debate about labour broking and amendments to the LRA was.
Michael Osborne says:
April 7, 2010 at 20:46 pm
“List three (just three), ‘constructive’ contributions to a national debate that you think the opposition could, or should, have raised recently.”
- beneficiation vs nationalisation
- community driven education
- victim centered criminal justice
Brett Nortje says:
April 7, 2010 at 19:34 pm
“Maggs, are you sitting?”
Yeah.
Why?
I need to speak to you about Father Christmas. The Easter Bunny. And the Tooth Fairy.
But first, I want to ask you to seriously consider the possibility that JZ was glad-handing you when he said he would contact you sometime about a consignment of ANC T-shirts. Our pPresident has, regrettably, developed somewhat of a reputation for telling people what he thinks they want to hear and then promptly forgetting about it. And them. To me, that screams ‘Lack of integrity’, but hey, some people are funny that way.
I would not want you to sit there waiting by the phone for a call that never comes…. Your continued cheerleading for our President is touching but may may prove futile.
Brett Nortje says:
April 7, 2010 at 21:35 pm
Aghhhh!
How is it possible that one person can write such kak!
Ok Sne, don’t rub it in. I was warned.
OP-ED COLUMNIST Postcard From Zimbabwe Fred R. Conrad/The New York TimesNicholas D. Kristof By NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF Published: April 08, 2010 HWANGE, Zimbabwe
Here’s a measure of how President Robert Mugabe is destroying this once lush nation of Zimbabwe:In a week of surreptitious reporting here (committing journalism can be a criminal offense in Zimbabwe), ordinary people said time and again that life had been better under the old, racist, white regime of what was then called Rhodesia.”When the country changed from Rhodesia to Zimbabwe, we were very excited,” one man, Kizita, told me in a village of mud-walled huts near this town in western Zimbabwe. “But we didn’t realize the ones we chased away were better and the ones we put in power would oppress us.”"It would have been better if whites had continued to rule because the money would have continued to come,” added a neighbor, a 58-year-old farmer named Isaac. “It was better under Rhodesia. Then we could get jobs. Things were cheaper in stores. Now we have no money, no food.”Over and over, I cringed as I heard Africans wax nostalgic about a nasty, oppressive regime run by a tiny white elite. Black Zimbabweans responded that at least that regime was more competent than today’s nasty, oppressive regime run by the tiny black elite that surrounds Mr. Mugabe.A Times colleague, Barry Bearak, was jailed here in 2008 for reporting, so I used a fresh passport to enter the country as a tourist. Partly for my own safety, I avoided interviewing people with ties to the government, so I can’t be sure that my glimpse of the public mood was representative.People I talked to were terrified for their personal safety if quoted – much more scared than in the past. That’s why I’m being vague about locations and agreed to omit full names.But what is clear is that Zimbabwe has come very far downhill over the last few decades (although it has risen a bit since its trough two years ago). An impressive health and education system is in tatters, and life expectancy has tumbled from about 60 years in 1990 to somewhere between 36 and 44, depending on which statistics you believe.Western countries have made the mistake of focusing their denunciations on the seizures of white farms by Mr. Mugabe’s cronies. That’s tribalism by whites; by far the greatest suffering has been endured by Zimbabwe’s blacks.In Kizita’s village, for example, I met a 29-year-old woman, seven months pregnant, who had malaria. She and her husband had walked more than four miles to the nearest clinic, where she tested positive for malaria. But the clinic refused to give her some life-saving antimalaria medicine unless she paid $2 – and she had no money at all in her house. So, dizzy and feverish, she stumbled home for another four miles, empty-handed.As it happened, the clinic that turned her down was one that I had already visited. Nurses there had complained that they were desperately short of bandages, antibiotics and beds. They said that to survive, they impose fees for seeing patients, for family planning, for safe childbirth – and the upshot is that impoverished villagers die because they can’t pay.I also spent time at an elementary school where the number of students had dropped sharply because so few parents today can afford $36 in annual school fees.”We don’t have desks. We don’t have chairs. We don’t have books,” explained the principal, who was terrified of being named. The school also lacks electricity and water, and the first grade doesn’t have a classroom and meets under a tree. This particular school had been founded by Rhodesians more than 70 years ago, and the principal mused that it must have served black pupils far better in Rhodesian days than today.At another school 100 miles away, the deputy headmaster lamented that students can’t even afford pens. “One child has to finish his work, and then he lends his pen to another child,” he explained.Zimbabwe is one of my favorite countries, blessed with friendly people, extraordinary wildlife and little crime. I took my family along with me on this trip (my kids accuse me of using them as camouflage), and they found the scenery, people and wild animals quite magical. At a couple of villages we visited, farmers were driving away elephants that were trampling their crops – and they were blaming Mr. Mugabe for the elephants. That struck even me as unfair.The tragedy that has unfolded here can be reversed if Mr. Mugabe is obliged by international pressure, particularly from South Africa, to hold free elections. Worldwide pressure forced the oppressive Rhodesian regime to give up power three decades ago. Now we need similar pressure, from African countries as well as Western powers, to pry Mr. Mugabe’s fingers from his chokehold on a lovely country.
That journalist should have investigated the state of Zimbabwe’s national parks before claiming it was unfair to blame Mugabe for the elephants.
@ Gwebecimele
http://www.timeslive.co.za/local/article387740.ece/Gardener-in-court-for-doctors-murder
@ Maggs
“Ok Sne, don’t rub it in. I was warned.”
LOL! I do not beat people who are down Maggs. Anyway, how are you? Do you have a condom?
@ CD
Between Robert Mugabe and the Western-originated economic sanctions, who has ravaged the country, or at least more?
@ Leigh
If you aim for the king, make sure you do not miss. The media did a brilliant job by exposing JM questionable business links and his controversial statements. To try and link him to ET’s death or get confessions from a mother of the 15 yr old was a blunder. Juju is a project of smart people who are able to turn these blunders against the media. In my opinion the best investigative journalists in this country are in noseweek. They tackle politicians, big business, white executives, black executives, hospital groups, other media houses, jews, farmers etc.
In our political system it is a waste of time to try and jail a sitting president or suggest a motion of no confidence rather focus on elections. Zille will gain more milage by running WC better than other provinces than happing on Malema. The attempt to finish off Hlophe, Mo Shaik or promote Moseneke did not yield any results either. Even pursuing Paul Ngobeni or Simelane will not yield results, they just need to move away from personalities.
Rather spend more time on issues that find resonance with the electorate.
Sine says:
April 8, 2010 at 10:41 am
“Anyway, how are you? Do you have a condom?”
Good thanks.
No – I lent mine to Dworky, hence he is MIA or is it M; IA.
@ Leigh
The idiotic rapper has never been an icon but a upcoming musician. His family had clashes with the community and the law until recently. His empty townhouse was on fire a week before his accident.
Yes, nature of indictment can be material. Juju’s tax affairs are a front page material but his visit to Zim or singing is a back page story.
@ Sine
No question, Western sanctions have ravaged Zimbabwe worse than Cmd Mugabe.
The NYT and other imperialists will say that there are in fact NO general sanctions against Zimbabwe trade, and that, in fact, the sanctions restrict only the personal investments and transactions of Mugabe himself, and a few ZANU PF individuals.
That may be true. What the western apologists forget is that, by limiting these leaders’ opportunities access to foreign bank accounts, the sanctions damage their morale, this making them miserable, and less able to provide the strong leadership Zimbabwe really needs!
Gwebecimele says:
April 8, 2010 at 11:04 am
“Juju’s tax affairs are a front page material”
Do you really think that?
I dunno if that matters at all – it’s pretty much between him and SARS, especially since he is not a public servant.
It may be far more important to relate his influence to service delivery, rather lack of service delivery, than issues that do not impact directly on communities.
Can we all show the leader of the ANCYL a little respect? His name is not “JuJu.” It is Mr (or Cmd.) Malema.
We may not agree with everything said (or sung), by Cmd Malema. But please bear in mind that President Zuma has said he is worthy of inheriting the ANC.
Thanks.
Let them eat recession.
http://www.moneyweb.co.za/mw/view/mw/en/page292673?oid=479242&sn=2009+Detail&pid=287226
@ Maggs
Put differently. Suspicion of failure to pay tax or declare income after winning tenders should make a front page story. If he is in good tax standing then yes that should be between him and sars.
Mikhail Dworkin Fassbinder says:
April 8, 2010 at 11:10 am
It seems that you are finally being heard!
http://www.busrep.co.za/index.php?fArticleId=5421408
Gwebecimele says:
April 8, 2010 at 11:35 am
The government tender process requires a tax clearance with the submission of tenders.
If tenders were awarded without that then the question ought to be around how that was allowed, not to my mind whether or not the individual is tax compliant.
It would be wrong for the any state institution to be used to settle political scores or advance political agendas, whether or not we like the parties concerned.
08 April 2010
Luzuko Pongoma
——————————————————————————–
IN SHOCK: Farmworkers Andries Sithole, Mapule Ndaba and Lebo Senwelo say their boss assaulted them after accusing them of murdering his ‘uncle’, AWB leader Eugene Terre’Blanche. PHOTO: VATHISWA RUSELO
Related Content
Farmer on assault rap gets R7000 bail
Our boss hit us, say trio now in hiding
THREE farm workers are in hiding after they say their boss shocked them with an electric prod and shot at them for “killing his uncle, Eugene Terre’Blanche”.
The attack took place at Rand Ridge in Randfontein, while Lebo Senwelo, a domestic worker, and her cousin Mapule Ndaba, were in their room on Monday night.
Senwelo, who has worked at the farm for six years, said her employer, Johannes du Toit, entered her room and accused them of murdering Terre’Blanche.
“He said, ‘you kaffirs with stinking vaginas, you have killed my uncle,” she said.
Amazed at the outburst, Senwelo said she asked Du Toit which uncle he was talking about as they had not killed anyone.
“He later said ‘my president Eugene Terre’Blanche’. Then he attacked us.”
She said Du Toit, who was accompanied by his son-in-law, slapped them and used a cattle prod to shock them.
“We escaped through the window and he shot at us while we were running away,” she said.
Senwelo said they hid in the grass at a nearby house.
Andries Sithole, a gardener, said he heard a gunshot and dived under a table in his room.
Du Toit came to the room and locked the door.
“They found me and I told them I did not know uncle Terre’Blanche. I have never seen him.
“But they assaulted me anyway,” said Sithole, who was nursing a swelling on his head yesterday.
Sithole said that he was dragged outside where he was also shocked with a cattle prod and struck on his head with the blunt side of the panga.
“He was threatening to shoot me if I fought or ran away.”
Sithole said when he told the farmer he would not return to work his life was threatened.
“He said he was going to kill me, so I agreed to return but after they released me, I fled.”
Police spokesperson Captain Appel Ernst confirmed to Sowetan that Du Toit was arrested and charged with attempted murder and discharging a firearm.
Ernst said the farmer briefly appeared in court yesterday.
Du Toit denied the allegations made by his workers and referred Sowetan to his lawyers, but then refused to give the lawyer’s name and contact details
Watch Malema calling a BBC journalist a “bloody agent,” and chase him out of his news conference. He’s becoming little Mugabe now: http://www.thedailymaverick.co.za/article/2010-04-08-malema-doesnt-sing-but-does-get-militant-on-bbc-journalist
Gwebecimele, this is exactly what worries me. Unhinged idiots (on all ends of the spectrum) blaming completely innocent people for things that have absolutely nothing to do with them. This is how ethnic wars start.
Incidentally (and this is not meant to be a dig) but I also happen to think that some of the views and suggestions expressed by you in the BEE context would also have the effect of targeting innocent people. But that is another debate I suppose.
Everyone should watch the video:
(http://www.thedailymaverick.co.za/article/2010-04-08-malema-doesnt-sing-but-does-get-militant-on-bbc-journalist)
Cmd Malema rightly insists that a BBC journalist show him and the ANC the appropriate respect.
Why does the BBC and the rest of the liberal press not ask “Madam” Zille to explain why she is demolishing hundreds of black churches in Langa?
Chris says:
April 7, 2010 at 10:28 am
Perhaps inside the ANC. For the rest of the country and the world Malema is the face of the ANC.
——————————————————————————————————
It’s getting to be an ugly face indeed!
Yesterday it was AWB, today it’s ANC.
Kinda like “Spot the difference”.
The competition for who can do more stupid things intensifies!
“Asked about the ANCYL’s outright support for Zanu PF, and the fact that it did not meet opposition parties in Zimbabwe, Malema criticised ‘popcorn’ parties popping up in the country, contrasting them with the longevity of Zanu PF and disparaging them for “talking from air-conditioned offices in Sandton.”
“Upon which the white male journalist from BBC piped up to point out that Malema himself lives in Sandton. Then it rapidly turned ugly.
“‘This is a building of a revolutionary party,’ Malema told the journalist. ‘Here you behave or else you jump.’ Then he called to the back of the room for security to remove the man.”
http://www.thedailymaverick.co.za/article/2010-04-08-malema-doesnt-sing-but-does-get-militant-on-bbc-journalist
http://constitutionallyspeaking.co.za
Thank you for your role to help all of us South Africans come to terms with oursleves as a Nation hoping to live together in Peace,Health and Prospertity were we have very little prejudice as possible and deal with ourselves and our long history from colonial times were not only whites and blacks were fightign but most afifcan nations The Mfecane caused by Chaka and occurences as a result,later, of Dingaan also refers.
Only souht Africans can solve this mess and much like we do our ablutions in the morning maybe we should consider washing out our minds a little bit every now and again
At the death of Eugene Ney Terreblanche we made this official statement :
THE TRUTH AND RECONCILATION PARTY OF SOUTH AFRICA
The result of the death of Eugene Terreblanche leaves the TRPSA stunned and shocked and it is indeed an unfortunate and unnecessary occurrence.
The TRPSA expresses its condolences to the family of Eugene Terreblanche and wishes his family God’s Speed.
We are mindful of how it can occur that a wage disagreement in a normal society would end in a murder, where channels, including courts, exist to resolve labor disputes.
It is with deep regret that the radical elements of South Africa are unable to reach reconciliation and that war and hate mongers continue to incite violence and hatred and threaten violence and use opportune slogans, political rhetoric and simple mindedness to return to the earlier and maybe darker times in South African history.
It is high time people started to do co-operative and constructive work in order to rebuild the country and improve their lives instead of indulging in short term destructive activities, mindlessness and idle chatter of the “lunatic fringe “, mindless and ignorant masses.
The objectives of our country should not be mudslinging but rather education, job creation, industrialization, academic research and development of a constitutional democracy in order to create a South Africa where all persons born therein can live in peace if not also in harmony.
And hopefully where reconciliation after centuries of apparently exploited lifestyles, which may require evolution and refinement, can be completed if not in very least conducted in a fashion.
The TRPSA endorses rule of law and prevailing of accurate justice and full consideration of all relevant facts and circumstances.
Indeed it seems it is time for all South Africans to have a serious and honest internal and inter racial, inter party politico debate.
If Janusz Walos and Clive Derby-Lewis remain imprisoned, after serving nearly 20 years and are both elderly, it remains doubtful that the ANC can be seen as a dealing transparently and honestly if Nelson Mandela, in the TRC and his biography: “Long Walk to Freedom”, has admitted to Church Street Massacre (in which 19 innocent people were murdered)- questions thus arise: is Chris Hani’s death equal score for Eugene Terreblenche’s, and is keeping Janusz Walos and Clive Derby-Lewis imprisoned is in the best interest of reconciliation in Southern Africa, and how does that amount to reconciliation at all?
Is racial slander expressed and implied, political rhetoric about Nationalization and farm occupations by Malema any good or necessary in RSA, other than to create chaos and incitement, is the cart being put before the horse, is Robert Mugabe’s land reform program successful if Zimbabwe is a net food importer and mines are dysfunctional?
One needs to ask exacting questions: Would Mandela have approved, had he still been in power?
How would he have managed the trumoil?
And what is Zuma’s actual position in this regard?
Is Malema’s objective rather more accurately one of non -cooperation and destruction?
How it that, recently in vicinity of De Doorns in the Western Cape a black indigent Zimbabwean,was murdered by “liberation techniques” of burning to death, apparently over a issue to do with county boundaries, which were agreed by British and Boers nearly two centuries ago, perhaps it reflects the mindset of certain individuals who are indeed the “cattle” who vote for certain liberation organizations & movements with no plan except destruction as a venting mechanism for their frustrations.
Does this seething hatred have a solution?
The objectives of our country should not be mudslinging but rather education, job creation, industrialization, academic research and development of a constitutional democracy in order to create a South Africa where all persons born therein can live in peace if not also in harmony.
And hopefully, where reconciliation after centuries of apparently exploited lifestyles which may require evolution and refinement can be completed if not in very least conducted in a fashion.
The TRPSA calls for all South Africans to remain calm and mindful.
Infact White Nationalism is perfectly normal as Black Nationalism is and indeed British National Party is one example of European White Nationalism, especially moderate versions thereof who wish to co –exist with neighbors , fundamentally we see absolutely nothing inappropriate with Afrikaners seeking self determination in a country of their own nor White Nationalism.
The Truth and Reconciliation Party of South Africa also wishes the newly elected leader of the AWB well in his new job and intends for him fellowship and for a mellowed approach.
The TRPSA has a level headed approach,we compliment where and what wa snto done by Tutus’ TRC and we will have role to play in the future of this land.
To conclude : tit-for-tat never really works so South Afirca lets figure it out now !
I too follow social media quiet often – I am literal sick of the hogwash and scrap I read some of my compatriots imagine to be true.
Lets walk to full recovery health and ” Mpilo”
Was it not only yesterday that Mantashe said he and Zuma had a talk with Julius, and from now on he would behave. Now I see Julius denies the talk, and still doesn’t behave. We are waiting in anticipation to see if the time will come when JZ will retract his statement that Julius is the leader of the future.
I did not see the clip on Melama’s conference, and I did not see the AWB guy misbehaving on ETV, but I just can’t help to notice the similarities and just giggle about it.
Chris says:
April 8, 2010 at 12:58 pm
“Was it not only yesterday that Mantashe said he and Zuma had a talk with Julius, and from now on he would behave. Now I see Julius denies the talk, and still doesn’t behave.”
Hey Chris – my wager offer still stands!
Maggs Naidu says: April 7, 2010 at 8:03 am
“I am willing to wager that he will tell them to bugger off and do whatever he wants to.”
You were right, and I must admit I doubted you.
But I also think JZ will call JM to his office and give him a good spanking in the not to distant future.
Chris says:
April 8, 2010 at 13:12 pm
“But I also think JZ will call JM to his office and give him a good spanking in the not to distant future.”
Unlikely!
Everyone are walking on eggs.
Maggs Naidu says:
April 8, 2010 at 13:15 pm
I’m not going to make any wager offers, and you are much closer to JZ than I am. I am willing to say this: If I were JZ I would have told li’l Julius to bugger off and find somewhere to play in the sand.
@ Maggs
I am not privy to details and circumstances of the awarding of tenders to JM but it has happened in the past that companies were awarded without proper compliance. Needless to say the journalist must investigate these details and report them as a front page story.
Chris says:
April 8, 2010 at 13:22 pm
There are many and varied reasons that lead to the mess that were are heading towards.
Most of all activists have turned into wimps.
Of course threats are hanging over many heads – take the nationalisation of mines debate for example, which if intensified will result in the dropping of the value of shares held by many leaders.
2012 is around the corner.
The media and opposition parties have been hoodwinked into superficial and superfluous issues, as Gwebe pointed out (April 7, 2010 at 15:02 pm) – they have turned into little more than noise makers and irritants.
Maggs, please explain why the no-confidence motion COPE brought in JZ was “superficial” or “superfluous.”
And please do not say “because it had no prospect of passing.”
@ Gwebecimele
http://www.beeld.com/Suid-Afrika/Nuus/6-Weke-6-moorde-20100212
CD says:
“Gwebecimele, this is exactly what worries me. Unhinged idiots (on all ends of the spectrum) blaming completely innocent people for things that have absolutely nothing to do with them. This is how ethnic wars start.
Incidentally (and this is not meant to be a dig) but I also happen to think that some of the views and suggestions expressed by you in the BEE context would also have the effect of targeting innocent people. But that is another debate I suppose.”
Who are these innocent people?
Think about the common use words such as idiots, low IQ etc that seems to come from a certain group of people and directed at black people?
My views on transformation are based on fairness and representitivity(demographics). That does not harm innocent people, it can only scare those who are against change.
@ Brett
Andiyazi iAfrikaans.
Michael Osborne says:
April 8, 2010 at 14:04 pm
“And please do not say ‘because it had no prospect of passing.’”.
That was of lesser importance.
There was nothing material behind the motion i.e. for those who don’t subscribe to the “Stop Zuma” campaign.
Hans Pienaar Published: 2010/04/08 11:24:31 AM
Flowers outside Terrblanche’s small-holding – Photo – Reuters.
One of the most depressing sights I have seen in a long time was the series of photographs of the house where Eugene TerreBlanche was murdered. But not because I have any sympathy for the Afrikaner Weerstandsbeweging troglodyte. I have absolutely none.
I’m thinking of the workers who murdered him. In what desperate straits do you have to be to go and work for someone who lives in such a delapidated structure? Where the soiled curtains look like they had been tackled by desperate termites who had given up on the sparse interior. There the only furniture, TerreBlanche’s now blood-soaked pinewood bed, was probably a reject from the Salvation Army.
The house with its jailhouse bricks and rusted window frames with their smudgy panes give even poor whites and trailer trash a bad name. In all probability TerreBlanche, who had had heart surgery some weeks before, was unable to pay his workers, let alone to try to cheat them.
What would prompt one to go and work for such a man? Undoubtedly the court case will throw light on the matter, but the desperate situation in which his workers must have been reminded me of that of the victims of the Reitz hostel students. However loathsome their video was, it graphically demonstrated how beholden black people at the bottom still are to our South African culture of jobs as handouts by whites.
More from Hans and our other commentators on Business Day’s Blog page
When Manto Tshbalala-Msimang died I published a post with a selection of her quotes. Many readers on this Blog lambasted me for this, arguing that one should not speak ill of the dead (even implicitly by quoting the dead’s own words without comment). I have been patiently waiting for all those readers to attack me for calling Terreblanche all kinds of names even before he has been buried. Nothing. Just goes to show, certain “traditions” are invoked opportunistically when it suits people to defend the indefensible. It is called hypocrisy. Amen.
Gwebecimele says:
December 29, 2009 at 13:06 pm
It seems as if we are only loosing the good politicians such as Modise, Mhlaba, Manto, Botha who seved us well. Is the Almighty punishing us by ignoring the bad ones and ensuring that we continue to be subjected to their rule?
I hope people like Mandela will outlive this period of denial and when their time come we will be at liberty to tell the truth about them, mostly the good but also the regrets. Long live Madiba!!!
Gwebecimele, the short version is that 6 elderly white people had been murdered in Pretoria alone by the middle of February.
(Referring to the story in Beeld. of course, as part of our racial tit-for-tat game in which Gwebecimele is on a hiding to nothing since this racial war is pretty one-sided. You know, the time-honoured ‘they’ game, ‘them’ v ‘us’….)
Brett, please forgive me, I am very slow.
I beg you to explain why you go on and on and on about “white” people being murdered — when we have agreed that the relative chances of a black person being murdered are much higher.
Are you arguing that there is a conspiracy to murder white people in particular?
If so, it is a remarkably badly targeted conspiracy.
Mikhail Dworkin Fassbinder says:
April 8, 2010 at 12:30 pm
Hey Big D,
It’s interesting that the rest of the hacks sat around and waited for “the story” while their comrade was kicked out.
Journalists and politicians seems to be cast in the same mold!
Pierre De Vos says:
April 8, 2010 at 14:26 pm
http://www.news24.com/SouthAfrica/News/Payco-Bury-TerreBlanche-at-sea-20100408
This makes me wonder if “certain traditions” really existed, or were they concocted to defend the indefensible.
Michael asks:
“I beg you to explain why you go on and on and on about “white” people being murdered — when we have agreed that the relative chances of a black person being murdered are much higher.
Are you arguing that there is a conspiracy to murder white people in particular?”
Why do I go on and on about white people being murdered, Michael? First, it is the truth. Why should I live with the lies of those made profoundly uncomfortable by this unfortunate truth, who prefer to live in denial? Then, I am white. I would really prefer not to be murdered. It has been close. Forgive me for starting to take near misses with black men personally. It has been really close, too, for members of my family, who are also white. I like having them around. Do you have family?
For 20 years ‘progressive’ whites have been silent in the face of the ANC’s racial mobilisation. You allow the Gwebecimeles of this country to stoke the fires unchallenged. Silence is assent. You live with their lies. Become accessory to it. Not only is that the worst kind of paternalism, that gives the lie to professed ideals of equality… (What about intellectual egalitarianism?) What has the effect of this refusal to engage the Gwebecimele’s as they play the racial blame game meant in terms of threat escalation to your own family? The people you grew up with? Have you done ANYTHING to make the ANC recommit to the modus vivendi between black and white in this country, this time without ANC fingers crossed behind ANC backs?
Have you done ANYTHING to make the ANC realise the ‘us’ v ‘them’ blame game; the ‘they’ game, is a loser’s strategy, unhelpful, one they will get spanked for consistently as long as they keep stoking the fires of racial animosity?
No?
So, now we have Afrikaners approaching the Courts twice in one week for protection and the worst caricature of Afrikaners murdered to show how valid whatever they put in their affidavits was.
Am I arguing that there is a conspiracy to murder white people in particular?
I have already answered that. ‘Zeitgeist’ is logically inconsistent with, almost oxymoronic with ‘conspiracy’.
Quite simply, with 20 years of racial mobilisation the godless, shameless ANC has created a zeitgeist in which murder of white people is easily justifiable. That is what Gwebecimele is doing.
I further do not believe genocides are as much the product of conspiracy as acquiring a logic of their own once the individual body count has obviously, visibly started to rise.
Michael, we never “agreed that the relative chances of a black person being murdered are much higher”. I hesitate to accuse you of being mischievious but the idea of an equation, a ratio – implied in your use of the words ‘relative chances’ and ‘much
higher’ has always been the bone of contention between us.
To avoid the appearance of misrepresentation you ought to list which assertions you feel we agree on.
I think we have admittted the lamentable paucity of relevant helpful statistics but agreed that we have to use the statistics at hand, poor as they are, because that is all we have?
That the vast majority of perpetrators and victims of homicide are black is no great revelation as 80% of the population is
black. (An ISS study has found 80% of homicides are acquaintance murders and therefore virtually unpoliceable. It might be
productive to look at a ban on alcohol. A 10/100 000 intimate femicide rate is an indication of a massive problem.)
That admission hardly constitutes an agreement “that the relative chances of a black person being murdered are much higher”. Do we agree that whites are overwhelmingly murdered by black perpetrators? Do we agree that the rate at which whites murder other whites is relatively low, taking into account an intimate femicide rate of 2,8/100 000? Do we agree that instances where black victims are murdered by white perpetrators are statistically insignificant?
Lets use the latest murder statistic we have – last year’s murder rate of 38/100 000? I see no reason to pre-suppose that Antony Altbeker’s hypothesis that the rate at which whites are murdered is 2/3 of the rate at which blacks are murdered should be downsized. The reverse seems a more logical assumption. That means that the rate at which whites were murdered last year is at least 25/100 000. (We do not know for sure whether inter racial homicide have changed still further.)
We do know that the intimate femicide rate where the victims were white was pegged at 2,8/100 000 in a (highly flawed) MRC study on intimate femicide. Intimate femicide is likely to be the category most inter-white homicides fall into. Men in drunken rages beating their wives to death.
Who killed 22/100 000 whites last year? 38/100 000 global black homicide rate – give or take few percentage points – as the
majority of South Africans are black. Blacks were killing other blacks (not their wives) at a rate of 3,8:1wife.
The rate at which whites were killing their wives compared to which the rate at which whites were being murdered for other reasons was at least 1:9. (One needs to look at how the MRC compiled those figures as women are 50% of the population
and wives and girlfriends are again a section of the female population.)
Are you denying the disparity?
@ Brett
You need an Invictus therapy or Rainbow nation feel good messages to protect you from reality.
My “lies” represent reality.
We are an unequal, racist society that really needs healing and Blacks have taken the first step and it is up to the other side to reciprocate the gesture.
Gwebecimele, you firmly believe in collective guilt. You extrapolise every incident in which a white person harms a black person to every white South African – without even a cursory inquiry as to the facts or the right or wrong of it.
The rate at which whites assault or murder blacks is insignificant compared to the rate at which blacks assault and murder whites.
Yes, this is a deeply unequal society that needs healing.
a) The ANC has done nothing to mitigate either but exacerbated the problem manifold through greed and incompetence – condemning a quarter of the population to a painful lingering death along the way, or a sudden violent one.
b) I cannot understand why whites are not involved in the service delivery protests or networking with those who are. Who wants to pay 60c out of every Rand they earn in tax to ensure a better life for all just to see it pissed away?
I said ,songs and flags are recreational past time events of the elite.
Aubrey Matshiqi says
The old South African flag or struggle songs are not the cause of poor race relations. They are but symptoms of a deeper malaise. They represent, not the failure of the reconciliation project, but the gap between reality and aspiration.
It is this gap that, in part, is responsible for our hysterical responses and, therefore, attempts to link the killing of TerreBlanche to the behaviour of African National Congress Youth League chief demagogue Julius Malema. To me, it seems Malema and some of his detractors have become two sides of the same irrational coin.
The solution to our race problems is not hysteria but the recognition that there is no group whose fears must take precedence over the concerns of others
@ Brett
I am yet to meet a white person who never benefited from apartheid and that includes those born yesterday.
Gwebecimele says:
April 9, 2010 at 10:39 am
“I am yet to meet a white person who never benefited from apartheid and that includes those born yesterday.”
Hey Gwebe,
I am yet to come across anyone that actually supported or voted for the NP in the bad old days, except PW, de Klerk and a few well known names.
Otherwise it was vote rigging.
So what?
White kids born yesterday benefitted from the education their parents got in the orderly schools their grandparents insisted on in the orderly suburbs their grandparents created in the ordered state their great-grandparents insisted on.
If there is a white culture it is a culture of order.
Do the black babies born yesterday not have these advantages because of the refused external interventions of white South Africans?
Do blacks need whites to establish a culture of order for them? What outcome has the ANC effected to this regard?
Is that the best you can come up with, Maggs?
Revenge is already in action.
Passenger injured in taxi attack
09 April 2010
Sowetan Reporters
——————————————————————————–
A YOUNG woman is fighting for her life in hospital after a taxi she was travelling in with 14 other passengers was allegedly shot at by two white men yesterday.
Police said the incident, on the N17 near Devon at 3.45pm yesterday, might be related to recent racial attacks.
Evelyn Mlangeni was shot below the armpit next to the heart. She was taken to Evander Hospital in a critical condition but was expected to be transferred to Steve Biko Academic Hospital in Pretoria.
Police said t he taxi was travelling on the N17 near Devon heading for Secunda. A white Toyota bakkie with two white male occupants was travelling in the opposite direction. The double-cab allegedly slowed down while driving parallel to the taxi and opened fire.
Meanwhile, Johannes du Toit, the farmer who allegedly assaulted his black employees “for killing his uncle ” Eugène Terre’Blanche, was released on R1000 bail yesterday after appearing in the Randfontein magistrate’s court. He will be back in court on May 6.
Maggs Naidu says:
April 9, 2010 at 11:03 am
You should stop living as a recluse Maggs, go out and meet people!
Chris says:
April 9, 2010 at 11:46 am
“You should stop living as a recluse Maggs, go out and meet people!”
I suppose that means that I should go out and meet the people who voted for the NP – they are really hard to find.
Maggs Naidu says:
April 9, 2010 at 11:53 am
Not if you offer t-shirts at discount prices.
Prof. Pierre and Chris
As one of the people who supported the late Dr. Tshabalala-Msimang against being terorrised after her death, I must say something here. The reason why I am not stopping you from attacking ET after his death is because he did not subscribe to my (Xhosa) nor (Manto’s ) Zulu culture which prohibits us from speaking ill of the dead. Therefore, you may speak ill of him and other non-subscribers as much as you want and you will not hear anything from me…
Chris says:
April 9, 2010 at 12:04 pm
“Not if you offer t-shirts at discount prices.”
Hey I have some from a fake order that I got a few days ago.
500 Golf T-Shirts, that should find me a few previously advantaged voters!
Maggs is right. NP only survived through vote rigging.
It is interesting that when you quote me, you omitt the word “racist”.
Yes, this is a deeply unequal…….. society that needs healing.
Wake up Brett, there is a real world out there.
May be we should wait for the leadership of MALEMA to negotiate this new wave of transition since the MANDELAS have been let down.
Sine says:
April 9, 2010 at 12:54 pm
To but it bluntly, I don’t believe of word ofg that.
ofg = of
@ Sine
Do we wipe the slate clean after death?
I would assume any good leader would want his quotes repeated and his stories told beyond his/her lifetime.
A guy like Minister Stofile(Xhosa) never says anything to the media and does almost nothing and when he is gone we must never say anything about him, sounds like a raw deal for us citizens.
Gwebecimele, perhaps you should tell those lamenting ‘nothing has changed’ that, when Malema becomes president of the idiocracy they can kiss their child grants and old-age pensions goodbye?
I have no doubt that other sectors will also reflect similar if not worse off performance.
Instead of transforming the country we are busy playing marbles.
Read below.
IN OCTOBER 2002, mining industry stakeholders reached agreement on an historic charter for the sector. The charter came into effect in May 2004, following the enactment of the Mineral and Petroleum Resources Development Act of 2002.
In terms of this act, companies or individuals with mining rights had to apply to the then Department of Minerals and Energy for new-order mining rights. To be awarded new-order mining rights, companies had to show they had met a number of conditions, including the objectives of the charter. These included the achievement of 15% black ownership in five years and 26% in 10 years.
Last week, Mining Minister Susan Shabangu found herself in a difficult situation as she convened a summit at the Drakensberg Sun to review progress. The government has awarded all companies their new-order mining rights, but many at the summit will point out that there is little evidence, almost eight years later, that the sector has met the objectives of the charter, especially the targets for black ownership.
Some mining companies say they have long since met the requirements of the charter. In Anglo Platinum’s annual reports for 2004 and 2005, for example, former chairman Barry Davison asserted: “The group has already met its 2009 target of 15%.”
We recently conducted research on black ownership in the platinum group metals (PGM) industry, the largest subsector in the mining industry. We found that the gross value of black shareholding (or “black economic empowerment (BEE) market capitalisation”) in the listed platinum sector was R30,7bn or 7,95% of the sector’s total market capitalisation of R386bn.
However, the value of black shareholding in Impala Platinum ( Implats ), the country’s second-largest platinum producer, accounted for R19,9bn or 65% of the sector’s BEE market cap. This shareholding consist of the Royal Bafokeng Nation and an employee share ownership programme. The gross value of black shareholding in Implats, Northam and Aquarius accounted for 89% of the sector’s BEE market capitalisation. If one excludes the black shareholding in Implats, because most of it had nothing to with the charter and was not a traditional BEE deal, the gross value of black shareholdings was R10bn — or just 2,79% of the sector’s market cap.
Given the good performance of platinum share prices since the charter was signed, notwithstanding the recent retreat, one wonders what would have happened if transactions had been concluded at the holding company level and not at the operating company level? The virtually nonexistent black shareholding at holding company level was an unintended outcome of the charter, which said: “The currency of measurement of transformation and ownership could, inter alia, be market share as measured by attributable units of South African production.”
As a result, Anglo Platinum and Lonmin , the country’s largest and third-largest PGM producers, pursued transactions at the level of operations or individual mines. Anglo Platinum also facilitated the creation of black- owned Northam and Anooraq .
If one looks at attributable BEE production, the face value of black participation is at 13,34%. The figure drops to 9% if one excludes Implats. But such statistics do not mean much. They do not take into account the debts acquired by black shareholders. For example, everyone in the industry knows that Incwala, Lonmin’s R4,5bn “black-owned” offspring, has gone bust. In the year to September 2009, Lonrho suffered a 50% (or 1,2bn) revenue collapse, a loss of 129m and retrenchments. This had a huge effect on Incwala, whose future is now uncertain.
The sector’s performance on the ownership indicator, whether one is looking at shareholding at the holding or operating company levels, does not look good. As one black businessman says: “There has been malicious compliance by mining companies. Many of them concluded transactions which they knew would never result in the vesting of ownership with black people.”
The Department of Mineral Resources must shoulder some of the blame – for granting new-order mineral rights to companies that did not have to prove that ownership would vest with black people. Looking back, one of the biggest weaknesses of the Mining Charter was its lack of a rigorous measurement system with clear targets and definitions to significantly reduce the possibility of different interpretations by companies.
Lack of capacity in the former department of minerals and energy to evaluate complex funding structures facilitated the confusion. Therefore, Anglo Platinum could claim five years ago that it had already met the charter’s ownership target for 2009.
The Department of Trade and Industry BEE Codes of Good Practice (2007) provide a robust measurement system for companies outside the mining sector. Last April the Department of Mineral Resources published the Codes of Good Practice for the Minerals Industry (“the DMR Codes”), which included general principles for measuring ownership and a scorecard.
The DMR Codes include some of the concepts found in the DTI Codes on ownership, but without the detail that is necessary to eliminate confusion. Despite the problems with the DTI Code on Ownership, the DMR Code is a significantly inferior tool for measuring ownership.
However, the inclusion of a net value (the unencumbered black equity interest) indicator in the DMR Codes is significant. On this measure, none of the platinum mining companies, except Implats and possibly Northam, are anywhere close to achieving the 26% net value target contained in the DMR Codes.
This raises serious problems for Shabangu: all the platinum companies have received new-order mining rights but few of them are close to achieving the 26% net value target. The same probably applies in the rest of the mining sector. In other words, the government’s significant leverage in the sector (the ability to award licences) has not even been used to achieve “narrow BEE”. The same could be said about using government leverage in mining to achieve broader economic development objectives.
The platinum price was below 600 when the charter was signed. It has since increased to more than 1500. Other countries have huge sovereign wealth funds to show after the recent commodity boom. For example, Norway’s Petroleum Fund has accumulated 450bn. It has extracted massive economic rents from the oil sector – through taxes, licence fees, dividends and direct ownership. In the past the state gave its own oil company 50% and more of licence awards.
There are two solutions for Shabangu, according to one industry insider. She can cancel the new-order mining rights and start a process of re-issuing them with strict conditions. Or she can renegotiate terms with existing new-order mining rights holders. The latter option would require the government to establish the infrastructure to conduct a deal-by-deal analysis of funding instruments to determine net value currently in the hands of black shareholders and persuade companies to renegotiate terms and commit to new vesting targets and dates.
But a focus on “narrow BEE” will not fly this year.
We need a new model of BEE that is linked to broader economic development objectives. If we are to have such a debate, we will realise that high interest rates, an appreciating currency and a timid approach to industrial policy prevented the country from reaping its own “Norwegian dividend”.
- Gqubule, a consultant and economic analyst, is the author of Making Mistakes, Righting Wrongs (Boomerang Books).
@ Gwebecimele
There was a discussion on not speaking ill of the dead after the sad departure of Dr. Manto Tshabalala-Msimang. I kindly refer you to the posts thereunder.
http://constitutionallyspeaking.co.za/manto-tshabalala-msimang-in-her-own-words/
Blacks In Bondage
2010-04-11 13:00
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Venterdorp is South Africa. If we want to understand South Africa, then we need to look more closely at Ventersdorp, a town that springs up at you in the heart of the North West maize belt.
I grew up in Potchefstroom on the Haagners farm, a stone’s throw away from Ventersdorp.
This dorpie eloquently tells the story of the criminal neglect of black people by the ANC government in the past 16 years. Go see for yourself the demeanour of black residents. They are tense and fearful, a powerful symbol of black powerlessness, because the ruling party has made a pact with the devil.
Until his death, Eugene Terre’Blanche and his gun-toting men were allowed to spread terror. Almost every black person who lives around Ventersdorp knows the wrath of the AWB. In 1997, a young black mayor of Ventersdorp, Kabelo Oupakie Mashi, a staunch member of the SACP, stood up against the bullies of Ventersdorp.
He transformed budgets, cajoled the local criminal justice system to take racist violence seriously, and attempted to bring freedom to Ventersdorp.
Mashi was abducted and murdered, his body left in the veld. Witnesses were openly intimidated and the murder remains unsolved. If a mayor can be killed for challenging white power and the perpetrators can get away with it, what chance do ordinary mortals have?
Terre’Blanche had carte blanche to terrorise black people.
When he got out of jail , the first people to publicly and warmly welcome him back were the ANC and the SACP.
Government accepted the status quo as long as the AWB didn’t extend its reign of white terror too far beyond North West.
In Potchefstroom, known AWB members such as Pieter and Bob Haagners joined the ANC and continued their terror, now under the protection of the people’s movement. The vicious Jan Serfontein became an ANC MP and later an MEC in North West.
Growing up, I remember that when Terre’Blanche came to town blacks would clear out. “Ons sal nie ons land terug koop nie; ons het dit klaar gekoop met die bloed van ons mense,” the radio would bellow.
There is no evidence that Luthuli House was ever going to come down and liberate Ventersdorp’s black slaves. Black life in Ventersdorp was destined to continue in morbid fearfulness with new and old scars of white supremacy.
But that changed with the killing of Terre’Blanche. I went to Ventersdorp this week in solidarity with the accused to ensure that they were not lynched.
We stand sandwiched between the local magistrates court and the Boer monuments that bear the names of the Afrikaner patriarchs who inspire the AWB. They are ugly, cheap and fragile. It’s as if they represent a memory that is slowly fading away.
Young blacks stand on top of the monuments with the hope of getting a glimpse at the accused. We wait for hours in the sun. Then, as the first accused, barefoot like Jesus Christ, is pushed into the Casspir, the crowd breaks out as one: “Amandla! Hero! Hero! Hero!” It was a moment of total identification with those accused of murdering ET. They were saying: “If you didn’t see the faces of the accused,it’s OK, you have seen our faces. We are the accused!”
We are seeing a new kind of black youth – one pushed into a corner. Whoever murdered ET is seen, here, as a hero bigger than those who went to exile or spent time breaking stones on Robben Island. This is what one hears from the people of Tshing. ET was the ultimate symbol of white supremacy, but he was killed by mere children.
What kind of nation allows its children to become murderers in order to defend themselves? Why was a 15-year-old a farm labourer? Why did he need to toil in order to live?
This is how life is in Ventersdorp and its surrounds. Blacks live in servitude.
Tshing, like all townships, is still a reserve for cheap labour for ET and his men.
It’s a crying shame that in the past 16 years of democracy, only 6% of the land has been transferred to blacks.
More than a million farm workers have been evicted from land since 1994. As long as blacks remain landless, they remain subjected to racism.
Malema’s reckless rhetoric, in this context, is a cruel manoeuvre for self-enrichment. The ANC doesn’t need to implore anyone to kill the Boer. It must simply use its political power to change things. The problem is not the white racists, but the refusal of the ANC to use its political mandate to end racism. The singing of militant liberation songs in an attempt to voodoo the people is not the solution. The solution to ending racism lies in ending the unequal economic power relations. It’s much simpler than BEE and tenders.
When I go to Ventersdorp, I see a microcosm of South Africa – racist, untransformed, supremacist.
Disposition not written in stone
2010-04-11 13:00
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THE recent comments made by Max du Preez and Ferial Haffajee on the Constitution in City Press cannot be left unanswered lest the poverty of thought, evasion of issues or dangerous bias, which they express, spread and society gets caught up in the resulting quagmire.
The country is undergoing serious crises that require honest and genuine debates with meaningful resolutions.
Du Preez tries to buttress his song by being cynical to the point of rendering discussions on the Constitution ridiculous.
Du Preez calls this Constitution “the best” and Haffajee labels it “a grand founding document” like many apologists or beneficiaries. Both have the right to express their views but are obliged to acknowledge there are other perspectives which must be expressed in the same media.
There is plenty of evidence that much of the country’s social and moral degeneration is due to this highly licentious Constitution. There are large numbers of people who are perturbed by provisions in the Constitution, which allows for same-sex marriages, school moms on campuses or lenient treatment of criminals.
These are legitimate concerns that cannot be scoffed at.
Also, much of the political difficulties and problems now facing the country have their roots in this Constitution. It has given excessive and exclusive power to parties at the expense of the people.
In this way the Constitution ensures that it is not someone’s character or qualifications that are relevant but a person’s association with the party.
Given sheer historical inertia, control of government and propaganda, the ANC will continue to dominate and whoever rides in the party will get what they want.
The media and others have pointed out this phenomenon yet a Constitution that makes these glaring faults possible is regarded as the “best” or “grand”.
Direct participation is the best test of democracy as the dictum “the people shall govern” implies. This is patently not so in South Africa where only parties reign supreme.
If a tree is known by its fruits this Constitution has harvested the bitterness of social degeneration and is a mockery of representative government.
It is also no defence to say that a Constitution is fine but it is those who are handling it who are at fault or who “frustrate the dream” it contains, as Haffajee states.
Being the product of human effort or expression, no document can be perfect or irreproachable. Such documents should be amendable. This shows that societies evolve.
It is the effect on ground realities that must guide us in evaluating constitutions rather than adhering blindly to supposed “best” and “grand” abstract principles.
There is an urgent need for a constitutional review if people and not paper formulations still matter.
@ Gwebecimele
Thanks very much for posting (and acknowledging the sources of) the thought provoking articles.
@ Sine
Public Officials and famous people will always be quoted during and beyond their lifetime. They determine their own content, logic, timing etc and if the quotes are not palatable we cannot blame the messenger.
Whether we should focus on the good or the bad that is entirely another matter. I believe people must own up for ALL their actions, wisdom & quotes beyond their lifetime.
Bankers and lawyers at it again.
http://www.busrep.co.za/index.php?fSectionId=553&fArticleId=5423819
More Malema supporters who took him at his viva voce instead of the wishful thinking of fearful white appeasers living in denial of a reality too ghastly to contemplate:
http://www.nuus24.com/Suid-Afrika/Nuus/Aanvallers-gebruik-glo-Malema-se-naam-20100412
Aanvallers gebruik glo Malema se naam’2010-04-12 07:20
Virginia Keppler, Beeld
“Sterf wit man! Viva, Malema!”
Só het vier gewapende rowers glo Saterdag omstreeks 05:00 tydens ’n plaasaanval in Bynespoort, sowat 5 km van Mamelodi in die ooste van Pretoria, geskreeu toe hulle ’n gesin aangeval het.
Leon Johan Koekemoer (39), ’n kaptein en instrukteur in die Herstigte Kommandokorps, was saam met sy vrou, Annelie (37), en hul drie minderjarige kinders en hul 56-jarige loseerder tuis op hul plaas naby die Cullinand-pad toe die rowers toegeslaan het.
Kmdt. Franz Jooste, uitvoerende direkteur van die kommandokorps wat as ’n art.21-maatskappy geregistreer is, het gesê die rowers het deur ’n venster in die sitkamer ingebreek nadat hulle die diefwering oopgebreek het.
Jooste het gesê toe een van die rowers die egpaar in hul kamer wou oorval, het mev. Koekemoer opgespring en die kamerdeur toegegooi en dit probeer toedruk.
“Die rower het die deur oopgeskop en toe met haar begin stoei. Kapt. Koekemoer het opgespring en na sy byl, wat hy in die kamer hou, gegryp.”
Jooste het gesê kapt. Koekemoer het aanvanklik gesukkel om ’n hou in te kry omdat die aanvaller en sy vrou rof gestoei het. Toe hy ’n kans kry, het hy hard na die aanvaller gekap.
“Dié het toe dadelik uit die kamer gehardloop en deur die sitkamervenster gevlug. Sy makker het intussen na die loseerder se kamer gegaan en daar probeer inkom.
“Toe hy uiteindelik by die deur ingestorm het, het die loseerder twee skote op hom gevuur en hy het in die gang dood neergeval.”
Die ander twee aanvallers het ook gevlug. Jooste het bygevoeg dat hulle die plaasaanvalle op mnr. Julius Malema, die ANC-jeugleier, en sy sing van die woorde “skiet die Boer” blameer.
Jooste het gesê dié aanvallers het hulle vasgeloop omdat hul kommando’s paraat is danksy goeie opleiding wat hulle gekry het. “Ons het baie groot suksesse met die nuwe kommando wat weer op die been is.”
Kapt. Sipho Zulu, polisiewoordvoerder, het gesê die polisie ondersoek ’n klag van huisroof en poging tot moord.
“Die polisie is ook besig met ’n geregtelike doodsondersoek na die dood van een van die aanvallers,” het Zulu gesê.
-Beeld
‘Justice’ leaves the poor cold
While legal big wigs pontificate about the number of white judges versus black ones on the bench, true justice continues to leave the poor and marginalised of South Africa in the cold room.
Educated debate continues on more such stages where legalese is an escape vent for grandeur, in pretence to champion the cause of the “little people”.
One such “little person” is Sechaba Mohlala, 26, an ordinary, unemployed young man from Naledi, Soweto, who is trapped in a judicial nightmare.
He has been languishing in the awaiting-trial prison cells for nearly a year. Yet, even so, his prospects of seeing justice done remain remote.
As things stand his constitutional rights have been violated straight into oblivion. He is one of those of our compatriots who are mere shadows – at least until the next election, when his vote momentarily makes him human. And then, its back to the freezing real world of inconsequence.
Mohlala was arrested in May 2009 and has been in custody since.
He has not been arrested for murder, rape or hijacking. He has been awaiting trial for almost a year for allegedly stealing a firearm from a neighbour.
But the police never found the firearm in his possession nor were there any witnesses, other than the accuser, to the alleged crime. During the past 11 months, the SAPS have not found or searched for any physical evidence and there are no corroborating statements that support the charges against Mohlala.
The investigating officer, Inspector Thomas Hlongwane of the Naledi police station, refused to take the statements of the two witnesses that contradict the accuser’s claims.
The Wits Justice Project tried to intervene and called Inspector Hlongwane. He admitted to not taking down their statements. He said it was not his job. He said the court would decide whom to call as witnesses.
Sadly, if more frustrating, Mohlala’s legal counsel – Gloria Shiringane from the Protea Justice Centre – it seems couldn’t care one hoot to help him find justice. Maybe it is because he does not pay for her services. The centre is run by Legal Aid SA. Shiringane apparently does not see the point of challenging the charges against Mohlala.
http://www.sowetan.co.za/News/Article.aspx?id=1131678
Maggs, refresh our memories quickly about your attitude toward DuBuisson who got 15 years for making predator trap-guns. Is the difference in your sensibilities that he was white and Mohlala is black?
IMHO both cases are a freaking disgrace. Hlongwane should be in the dock for malicious prosecution and kidnapping.
Brett Nortje says:
April 13, 2010 at 9:16 am
Hey Brett,
Cloning may help.
Your single brain cell is feeling very lonely.
Really, Maggs? That is all justification you have upon being confronted with your inconsistency?
Brett Nortje says:
April 13, 2010 at 9:26 am
Wanna play “Spot the difference”???
1. “DuBuisson who got 15 years for making predator trap-guns.”
2. “… Sechaba Mohlala, 26, an ordinary, unemployed young man from Naledi, Soweto, who is trapped in a judicial nightmare. He has been languishing in the awaiting-trial prison cells for nearly a year. Yet, even so, his prospects of seeing justice done remain remote.”
I’ll give you some clues which you can use and claim as your own.
One went to court.
The other is “awaiting trial”.
One had evidence presented at his trial before a judicial officer.
The other – “the police never found the firearm in his possession nor were there any witnesses, other than the accuser, to the alleged crime”.
One had proper legal counsel.
The other – “Mohlala’s legal counsel – Gloria Shiringane from the Protea Justice Centre – it seems couldn’t care one hoot to help him find justice.”
Let me know if you need more help with the clues or if I should draw pictures for you.
@ Brett
Was your absence/silence yesterday linked to the gun amnesty deadline???????? I hear you guys are defying the Minister.
Now that is a slightly more intelligent contribution! Think you can sustain your effort, Maggs?
It is tempting to follow your lead and split hairs about Mohlala appearing before a judicial official in a bail-hearing.
There are many similarities.They were both represented by legal aid, DuBuisson was railroaded into pleading guilty to what should not be a crime. Do you think DuBuisson’s legal aid representative gave one hoot about getting him justice?
One difference is that the investigating officer in DuBuisson testified on his behalf.
It is more important to see both men as victims of the hysteria created by gun prohibitionists who knowingly raped the Constitution.
Gwebecimele, the Secretary of the Police – the major achievement on her CV is being an anti-gun prohibitionist – told the parliamentary portfolio committee (when the amnesty was proclaimed) that not one gun used in crime had been handed in during the previous gun amnesty.
The object of this farcical fraudulent amnesty was to bully a few thousand more elderly white people into handing in their property without compensation before the Western Cape High Court hears the compensation matter again next month.
It is a real shame that Nathi Mthethwa has staked his credibility on the thumb-suck interpretation of his legal advisor (who got spanked in the first round) in the compensation case. Nathi Mthethwa had the potential of being the best Minister of Police this country has had in decades. I prefer a good manager over glad met sy bek every time.
The Minister will have no alternative to resignation with his credibility shot to pieces after the matter is heard.
Hey Brett,
She must be on your side “anti-gun prohibitionist”!
Well spotted, Maggs! You are right, I have been caught out. A malapropism. An errant comma. Tautology. Swak! You do know I am so anal about grammar and spelling I will not sleep tonight?
Next thing you know I will be spelling like Pierre, perhaps, one day, like that Boepens guy!!!!
Brett Nortje says:
April 13, 2010 at 10:56 am
a) A malapropism.
b) An errant comma.
c) Tautology.
d) Swak!
e) I am so anal
And the answer is (e)
Thank you, Maggs, for another intelligent contribution.
I am sure when JZ sees it the contract is yours!
Brett Nortje says:
April 13, 2010 at 16:38 pm
“Thank you, Maggs, for another intelligent contribution.”
Hahahahahahaha.
Nice try Brett – a backdoor attempt at elevating yourself.
That was amusement (my own of course; it no doubt slipped you by).
If I wanted intelligent engagement I would try someone who is demonstrably brighter by far – perhaps at the level of Juju at least.
From Google:
The Makotulo BEE Consortium is led by the women owned Makotulo Agricultural Investment Company. Led by prominent agribusiness women such as Ntombi Msimang,
Once it got underway it was revealed that the main shareholder is Hitachi Power Europe.
Moneyeb says;
“The CEO said it was logical that when the need arose for new power plants in SA it would set up a local operation for the imminent contracts. To get them Hitachi needed to qualify for BEE so it found Chancellor House and one other partner, Makotulo. They were given 30% ownership”
Former Treasurer General of ANC was……………………….Msimang.
http://www.moneyweb.co.za/mw/view/mw/en/page295025?oid=481996&sn=2009+Detail&pid=287226
INDIPENDENCE OF REGULATORS
Acsa
Muhammed Sizwe, the chairman of the economic regulator responsible for setting tariffs for Airports Company South Africa (Acsa), is fuming because the Department of Transport has refused to give it the financial support it needs to oppose court action brought by the parastatal.
Sizwe says this is undermining the regulator’s independence, although one might argue that with a 100 percent funding from the state, its independence is relative.
He adds that there is no point in the work it does if the government is going to dictate to the regulator how it should operate. “The minister might as well do the work himself,” Sizwe said yesterday.
Acsa is exploring the legal option because it is unhappy with the regulator’s decision. A request for a 133 percent tariff increase for 2010/11 was declined and instead, the airports operator was awarded a 40.7 percent increase.
The company has spent R16 billion over the past three years adding capacity and upgrading its airports in preparation for the World Cup. It also built a new R6.7bn airport in Durban that will be commissioned next month.
Those opposed to the new airport have claimed that if it were not built, Acsa would not require such a high tariff increase. However, Acsa has maintained that the reason for the huge tariff hike is that the regulatory regime changed and asked it to deliver the infrastructure first before getting passengers to pay for it.
There is a theory that Acsa had never wanted to build the King Shaka airport and that doing so was imposed on it by the government, its shareholder. If that is indeed the case, it makes sense for the government to do everything in its power to protect the company.
Unfortunately, it looks like there will be nobody to fight the battle for the millions of passengers who utilise Acsa’s assets.
“Chancellor House will only share in the profits of the local scope and it will not be billions … We are looking at about R50-million over a period of eight years. That’s the magnitude,” said Hitachi Power Africa chief executive Johannes Musel.
That money would not go to any political party, said Musel, because the beneficiaries of the Chancellor House Trust were “natural persons”.
DOES THIS MEAN, PHOSA GOT IT WRONG AND THE ANC IS NOT A BENEFICIARY/SHAREHOLDER. WHO ARE THESE NATURAL PERSONS?
Gauteng ANC threat to expel renegades
22 April 2010
Zukile Majova and Kingdom Mabuza
——————————————————————————–
THE top Gauteng ANC leadership has threatened to expel members breaking the rules, as lobbying for the provincial leadership gets ugly, provincial secretary David Makhura warned yesterday.
The threat came amid intense campaigning and lobbying by members in opposing camps supporting incumbent, Paul Mashatile, Deputy Minister of Art and Culture, against Gauteng Premier Nomvula Mokonyane.
So serious are the threats that last week, Thapelo Ranto, a chief campaigner for Mokonyane’s bid, was suspended.
Ranto, a member of the Greater Montana branch in Tshwane was suspended allegedly for sending out an SMS inviting his comrades to a meeting to discuss leadership ahead of the provincial elective conference on May 6-8 at Tshwane’s Events Centre.
Regional spokesperson, Burton Joseph confirmed the suspension but refused to elaborate. Makhura said the PEC had received reports of lobbying groups holding illegal meetings, but whistleblowers were “reluctant” to testify before a DC .
“Those involved in these actions will be suspended with immediate effect,” Makhura said.
At least 243 of the 375 branches have submitted nominations for the new leadership to be elected.
Mokonyane’s supporters allegedly disrupted a meeting in Randfontein while Mashatile’s are accused of intimidating and purging ANC leaders in Alexandra Township.
The citizens are paying dearly and I honestly believe that one day we will wake up and regret the free opening of our borders. The never ending stories about Zim’s, Moz’s, Israel/Greek Mafia, Somalis, Pakistanis etc are a constant reminder.
Borders and citizenship are the two things that we need to possesively guard with everything we have.
http://www.sowetan.co.za/News/Article.aspx?id=1138785
Such a pity Vavi cannot control his wife….
http://www.businessday.co.za/articles/Content.aspx?id=107336
Those are two of the primary functions of the state, Gwebecimele. I agree fully. The ANC was completely irresponsible in transforming border security from an operation where insurgents were tracked within hours to borders that leaked like sieves.
In the big-people world, actions have consequences.
What worries me even more though is that the knowledge of the existence of low-paying labour provides a kind of safety net to the very poor. Those people have some security in the knowldege though, however bad their circumstances may become, they can survive with the income from menial jobs.
In this country you have illegal aliens in that niche.
@ Brett
Agreed. Vavi has all the ingredients.
If we are to take a lesson from the British politics and elections. It is not always possible to get everyone agreeing on the same things and you can have equally opposing numbers but life must go on.
In SA we waste a lot of time trying to convince each other on various issues rather than just implementing based on the mandate.
http://www.news24.com/World/News/Tories-have-1st-right-to-govern-Clegg-20100507
http://www.businessday.co.za/articles/Content.aspx?id=109059
The new standard and approach of running elective conferences must be a real threat to our democracy. Branches a formed overnite and list of delegate gets manipulted up to the last moment. Once the list has been compiled then the technicalities of eliminating voting delegates begins followed by chairs and forceful removal.
Even esteemed business organisations such as BUSA are picking up on this habit.
Lastly, it seems as if truth has many variations in SA, depending on timing, political climate, who is the opponent etc.
How do you explain these two points.
All of a sudden Jimmy Manyi has to choose between his two positions when this was never an issue before and he had Minister’s blessings.
Now JZ cannot hide behind culture about his fathering of a baby out of wedlock. One boyfriend, One girlfriend campaign.
Well lets hope the earth remains round.
They say when you point a finger at someone at least three of your fingers are pointing back at you.
This poor councillor cannot be responsible for all the problems of Sweetwater and soon others(including Ministers with performnce contracts) will also realise that they are placed in impossible positions to deliver.
Our budgets and priorities of the last 16 surely are the responsible for marginalisation of the poor.
http://www.timeslive.co.za/local/article456729.ece/Johannesburg-councillor-defends-Hummer-H3
Gwebecimele says:
May 19, 2010 at 11:09 am
“This poor councillor cannot be responsible for all the problems of Sweetwater and soon others(including Ministers with performnce contracts) will also realise that they are placed in impossible positions to deliver.”
Freedom was not have been good for the community – without sufficient info it will be difficult to draw conclusions.
Either way the ANC is the dominant party there and they are responsible.
But it is surprising that our President does not seem to know that people are living in deplorable conditions.
It seems that he is not even aware that some South Africans even have electricity cut off by the callous authorities –
http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=13&art_id=vn20100519045958504C787413
“Freedom was not have been good for the community” = Freedom may not have been good for the community
When a taxi or a bus is overloaded we know exactly who to blame.
http://www.news24.com/SouthAfrica/News/Maxeke-neonatal-ward-overcrowded-20100519
Gwebecimele says:
May 19, 2010 at 15:01 pm
When a taxi or a bus is overloaded we know exactly who to blame.
——————————————————————————————————
We sure don’t know, yet, who to blame for this :
“Peters confirmed for the first time in a written response to a parliamentary question that the company paid an average of 12.3c a kilowatt hour for Eskom power supplied to its Mozal aluminium smelter in the year to March.
“She said Anglo American also paid well below the production cost of 24.3c a kilowatt hour.
“The contract with Motraco, the Mozambique company that carries power to BHP Billiton’s Mozal aluminium smelter, was signed in 1997 and expires in 2025.”
http://www.timeslive.co.za/business/article469723.ece/Ministers-Eskom-shocker
And meanwhile, back at the ranch “(a)ngry Parkhurst resident Lindin Mazilis “nearly fell over” when he opened his March account and found the amount for electricity was R93 206″.
http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=13&art_id=vn20100526043940274C826126
@ Maggs
Viva Alec Erwin, Viva Mlambo-Ngcuka, Viva Maduna, Viva Manuel, Viva Mbeki, Viva Vally Moosa, Viva Ruel Khoza, Viva Gcabashe. We know as the poor you are on our side
Men of Integrity.
Now find a street, library, hospital or a Museum that we can name after these men of honour.
How are the Malema trips going?
Well read below.
ANYONE who has had a small child knows that sometimes they want things just because they want them — whether it’s to grab the cat, take apart the alarm clock, or drive the car. The risk with nationalisation is that we’re following the same impulsive belief that somehow, once we’ve got something in our hands, we can make it do anything we want.
SA remains one of the most inequitable countries in the world, with mass unemployment and poverty. We need to find practical measures to democratise economic power and ensure more people benefit from the nation’s wealth. It doesn’t help to raise radical-sounding slogans that are irrelevant to the real economic and social challenges.
- Makgetla is an economist at the Development Bank of Southern Africa.
http://www.businessday.co.za/articles/Content.aspx?id=109987
Gwebecimele, I am pleased you say ‘Viva Mbeki’ not ‘Viva Thabo Mbeki’…
Let us not forget the reports that Epainette Mbeki (by all accounts an old lady of unshakeable integrity) refused her late husband’s state house at a subsidized price only to see her daughter-in-law put it in the market at a massive profit a few weeks later….
I did not get an account from JHB.gov from Nov through March. I kept phoning 375 5555 only to be told I was about R500 in credit.
Knowing what kind of city government we have in the ANC I did not blow the lights and water budget on a holiday, if you know what I mean….
We are getting closer to who killed the babies.
http://www.dispatch.co.za/article.aspx?id=404768
Gwebecimele says:
May 26, 2010 at 13:39 pm
It almost seems like that Health and Higher Education are few of the functioning Ministries that we have or at least that these ministries are aware that the departments are beset with problems.
Our President recently discovered to his horror that people live in abject poverty and squalor.
The Minister of Human Settlements was surprised with sub standard government houses.
The Minister of Water found out that the state of sewage works is nearly at disaster stage.
The Minister of Environment learned that some mines are polluting the countries water and the environment (soon maybe the ministry will learn that the world famous heritage site is about to be destroyed).
The Minister of Corrections has read that warders abuse prisoners.
Now our Minister of Basic Education has learned that the schools with the lowest pass rates are beset with problems : http://www.timeslive.co.za/local/article472266.ece/Motshekga-hopes-to-turn-around-chaotic-schools
Maybe we will get lucky enough that our Minister of Police will find out that there are criminals in the SAPF.
Or the Minister of Justice will find out that the term of the CC judges is not the cause of the problems faced by the justice system.
WITH NO POLICING ON THE BORDERS AND NO CONFIRMED POPULATION REGISTER ITS FREE FOR ALL.
Over half-a-million South Africans have not collected their IDs and won’t be able to comply with the law.
At least half a million South Africans do not have ID books, after failing to collect them from the Department of Home Affairs’ offices.
This means they cannot comply with the SIM card registration law.
Thousands more may also be unable to comply with the law as many South Africans do not even appear on the population register, and home affairs has no idea how large that number is.
Cellular operators have already reported slower subscriber growth as a result of the law. However, it is unclear how many people will be cut off from the network and cease to be a source of revenue for the companies at deadline time.
The fact that so many South Africans do not have a green bar-coded identity document is a cause for concern, and could undermine the security aspects of the law, says an analyst. Among the reasons for the introduction of RICA was the need to cut down on crime facilitated by criminals making calls from untraceable numbers.
The Department of Home Affairs’ deputy director-general for civic services, Vusi Mkhize, could not comment this morning on how many South Africans do not have identity documents.
However, he says the department has embarked on a nationwide drive to register all the citizens who currently do not possess proper identification papers.
Large gap
Home affairs minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma told a Parliament media briefing on 18 March that a number of South Africans were not registered with the department and are without proper documentation.
However, the minister had no idea how many South Africans are not even on the population register. She noted: “There was evidence that showed that a large number of people were not registered on the system. It was clear that there were thousands of people in SA who were not registered.”
The department was, however, endeavouring to update the population register. This would then allow it to provide more accurate information as to how many citizens SA has, Dlamini-Zuma added.
According to Statistics SA, there are currently 49 million South Africans, of which 28.6 million are over the age of 20. Theoretically, these people should be in possession of an ID book, as citizens can apply once they reach 16.
No ID, no registration
In February, half a million ID books were lying around departmental offices waiting to be collected. Out of a total of 524 618 uncollected IDs, 111 395 were in KwaZulu-Natal, 92 410 in Gauteng and 89 284 in the Eastern Cape.
These documents had been sitting at home affairs offices waiting to be collected, Dlamini-Zuma said.
MTN (JSE:MTN) South Africa says it is required by law to ensure customers provide their original identification documents, such as an ID, when registering their SIM cards.
“If a customer does not have the necessary identification documents, MTN would advise these customers to obtain these documents from the applicable government department as quickly as possible, in order to be registered successfully,” Africa’s largest cellular operator says.
MTN has so far registered 5.5 million prepaid SIM cards out of its base of 13 million prepaid subscribers. Prepaid SIMs are harder to register, as these generally belong to people with no fixed abode.
Vodacom (JSE:VOD) says it has experienced issues with people wanting to register their cards without an ID book. However, the company has found there are more customers who have challenges complying with proof of residence documentation, than complying with providing a green bar-coded ID.
Vodacom SA MD Shameel Joosub says the company has more than 110 000 RICA agents across SA, especially in rural areas, to assist registration of cards. So far, it has verified just over 50% of its 26.3 million customers.
All SIM cards, including those used for data, must be registered. Parents can register cards belonging to their minor children, but still need to provide a green bar-coded ID or temporary ID certificate, or a passport as well as proof of address.
People coming into SA as refugees or seeking asylum will need to use those documents as proof of identity.
Problematic
“The fact that many people don’t have an ID is a key risk for the success of RICA,” says Frost & Sullivan ICT industry analyst Spiwe Chireka.
She explains that people could try to find a way around the legislation and ask their friends to register their SIM card on their behalf, and in their name. This will lead to subscribers not being properly registered, she notes.
Chireka says this almost defeats the purpose of complying with RICA from a security point of view. “When people are put in a corner, they find ways to get around the system.”
Government may have to look at the possibility of capping the amount of numbers any one person can have in order to avoid this situation, she says. According to Chireka, the lack of IDs will be a major risk when the deadline rolls around at the end of the year.
How is “the sim card registration law” reconcileable with S14 of the Constitution?
I think you are certainly an interesting analyst, with a very good way of simplifying legal issues for public consumption. At times you also follow the mainstream defined herd, which I think, well, I wish we’d have less of the analyst-herd mentality on ‘controversial’ issues, most of which are issues of controversy for mostly white conservatives. So after all this genuine praise, I just wish can’t believe you called McKaiser a progressive analyst. This is someone who obviously doesn’t grasp that race is an ideological and political phenomenon and not about people’s skin colour. That’s just not progressive I’m afraid. To behonest, any scholar of ‘race’ and the history power and colonialism would cringe at the stuff McKaiser says. Where did all that stuff Biko say about ‘race’ not being about ‘race relations’ die… dear me…
Great blog right here! Also your website so much up very fast! What web host are you the use of? Can I get your associate hyperlink on your host? I wish my web site loaded up as quickly as yours lol
@ Talk Talk [etc]
“I wish my web site loaded up as quickly as yours”
As we say in Slovenia, when God want to punish you, he grants your prayers! This web site is full, all right, But mostly with the vile execrations of feeble minded bigots and those who have made an extreme vision of whitishness their guiding light!