Latest happening regarding the importation of 24 Cuban Engineers is that they have arrived in South Africa. There are two versions doing the rounds currently (1) that have been here since October 2020 and have been learning English and (2) they only arrived yesterday. But with the blatant lies being told by the minister Lindewe Sizulu I am no longer able to say which happening is correct.
Sizulu has stated publically that the reason she got engineers from Cuba is that (1) she was unable to get ANY local engineers with appropriate qualifications to work in remote areas, (2) the Cuban engineers work for a stipend and therefore financially it makes sense.
According to all sources that are available, there are NO local highly qualified engineers that were approached by Sizulu to commence with work. These currently unemployed engineers WOULD JUMP AT THE CHANCE TO EARN SOME MONEY! A quick search of local media does not reveal a single instance of Sizulu or her department advertising or inviting our local engineers to apply to do any work. President Ramaphosa has in the past stated, that where possible we must use local expertise to getting South Africa moving forward. If the minister he appointed is hiring foreigners then we must wonder if the President is merely spouting lip service to the world, or is his minister just doing as she pleases?
Lindiwe Sizulu, South African Minister of Human Settlement
On point number 2 above the figure getting thrown around for the costs of these 24 Cuban engineers is a whopping R65 million! This is apparently for a period of 2 years. So if this is the stipend that Sizulu claims tmthey are paid while in South Africa it’s one hell of an amount. Rumour has it that the balance is paid to the Cuban Goverment.
Consider this – if the engineers only get a stipend and the contract for their services is let’s say R40 million, yet we are led to believe that the costs amount to R65 million. The government pays over the R65 million, but R25 million is siphoned off and split between someone in Cuba and someone in South Africa. The taxpayers just think they are being ripped off for paying so much, the unemployed know they are being shafted by being sidelined from working. And possibly some person, or persons, is making money by means of corrupt dealings. I would love to be proved wrong in my musings about why we need Cuban engineers who have no knowledge of local conditions being brought in to South Africa (are Cubans considered valid BBBB-EE employees?) or why the public were kept in the dark until it was too late to do anything.
Lindiwe Sisulu, minister of water and sanitation said on Tuesday that 24 Cuban engineers would be arriving in South Africa to help with the problems now being encountered at water and sanitation plants.
Firstly this is a problem created by members of the ANC who misappropriated funds that were meant for routine maintenance of these plants. As long as the plants were working and no sewage was gushing down the streets or flowing into the dams and rivers, who cared?
Secondly, according to the ANC policy (BEE and all the other acronyms) all white qualified engineers who had for years maintained these plants, were laid off to go sit at home as there was no available work for them. The few who were able to leave the country were snapped up by other countries as they are fully aware of the quality of engineers produced at our universities. Those left here have offered their services to the government to clean up the mess. But to no avail.
Because they are white (mainly male) the government would lose face if they had to be hired to now fix up this great stinking mess which has become a country wide problem. This spillage of raw sewage is found in our great cities as well as rural areas.
Where once South Africa could pride itself on having some of the cleanest rivers and dams and drinking water in the world, this is no longer the case by a long shot. The impurities in our water have risen to such levels that it is no longer safe to use any untreated water.
So Sisulu arranges to bring in more Cubans to fill jobs that could be given to South Africans. We have already had Cuban teachers, doctors and engineers who couldn’t speak English or any African language here before. No significant help, advances or changes have occurred by importing Cubans instead of using local people. One starts to wonder if the ANC isnt busy with yet another case of siphoning off more millions of the taxpayers money? We know they have no money to really pay for the next elections so just maybe?
Way back in history I was already asking why the then president of South Africa, Jacob Zuma, was charged with corruption and sent to jail. It looks as if he is finally running out of maneuvers and may end going to jail first for failing to appear before the Zondo Commission. Then hopefully after that he can go to jail for corruption, state capture and whatever else he has done wrong
On Sunday a 62 year old caretaker of a small holding in Brits, North West Province, South Africa, was murdered.
He was attacked outside his house and it seems that only the house keys are missing. His car which was parked nearby wasn’t even stolen.
This is the second attack on farmers this weekend where nothing was stolen, but they were still murdered. The percentage farm attacks that result in arrests or prosecutions in relationship to attacks is very small. The ANC did away with the local Commando forces which for years ensured stability in rural areas. The local SA Police dont have the manpower or expertise or tackle farm murders and are left floundering away without concrete results.
The attacks on legitimate white and black farmers seems to my view to be focused on removing the farmers from their farms and then distributing these farms to cadres of the ANC and the members of COSATU and the SACP. Brings back memories of what happened in Rhodesia/Zimbabwe.
Niel Mckay was 26 years old when he was attacked while working as a foreman on a farm. He was shot leaving him paralyzed from the waist down and in a wheelchair.
His late father helped him set up a farm about 3 years ago in Winterton, Kwazulu, South Africa where he continued farming even while being in a wheelchair.
On Saturday 10th April 2021 Neil McKay was murdered on his farm.
His mother arrived at the farm late is Saturday and found him tied up in his wheelchair. He had been beaten and allegedly strangled to death. From investigations it seems he had been attacked outside the house and dragged into the house where he was allegedly murdered.
This was no robbery. The television and other electronic equipment were not taken as happens in 100% of robberies here in South Africa. THIS WAS A SENSELESS FARM MURDER ON A HELPLESS PERSON
Former National Crime Intelligence boss Richard Mdluli, has said he wants to apply to the state to pay his legal expenses in a case where he is accused of multiple counts of fraud and theft and corruption.
Mdluli’s legal says they are going to apply for the funding as Mdluli worked for the state at the time that these crimes supposedly were to have occurred.
The bottom line is that South African taxpayers end up paying all these legal costs for government officials who are ending up in court due to wrongdoings.
We are already supporting a non-performing ANC government, and an economy that is now worse off than the great depression of 1933. As to why we as taxpayers are made to pay for court cases involving state employees (Jacob Zuma is another costing us millions in costs), remains a mystery.
Personally I feel that if you are charged with theft, corruption or anything else you can apply for legal aid if you can’t afford legal representation. If you want expensive advocates to represent you, then pay for them yourself. If this trend continues then every crooked policeman, soldier, politician and who knows who else, will be standing in court being funded by our taxes.
This is something that we as citizens need to take note of. The government uses false information and statistics to justify why private ownership of firearms is bad.
Once the individuals are defenseless they hold total power and can practically do what they want with total impunity.
paulsmusing2 