A Rainbow Nation Burns

By Gareth Cliff:

Between a rock and a hard place….

Thabo Mbeki was right: There really are two South Africas. Most people jump to the conclusion that we’re a nation divided along racial lines.
Others think it’s about the haves and the have-nots.
The events of the past few days have made it abundantly clear that the real divide is between those who want law and order; and those who see the law only as a means to make themselves more powerful.
Those are the two South Africas.

Before you read any further, let’s take a moment to appreciate context and perspective, because nothing happens in isolation: We have been living on a powder-keg of unsustainable, teetering and disdainful politics since about 2009 (the seeds of which were germinating in the ugly part of our pre-1994 history). While Jacob Zuma was a big part of the overall toxic mixture, he was not the only reason we have found ourselves in this situation. A combination of the ANC’s inability to bring itself to order; the constant public narratives used to divide us; an economy that has been mismanaged in a destructive alliance between unions, the ruling party and crony corporations; and ultimately a devastating and unpredictable pandemic have created a perfect storm that just needed an excuse to break.

Let’s be very clear: what we’re experiencing isn’t about Jacob Zuma, inequality and poverty, or a lack of vaccines. While those things may have contributed to the overall power vacuum, they’re symptoms, not causes. That all of this started in KwaZulu-Natal isn’t a surprise either: weak political leadership, confusion in the Zulu royal family and an overpopulated province of young people with no reason to wake up every day, no sense of purpose or hope, this was inevitable.

We’re witnessing the final unravelling of the ANC, and especially the elite criminal coterie who have been manipulating the institutions and authority of government for their own purposes for at least the last decade. Their reluctance to act against each other, abide by the law or do what is good for South Africa is a can that was kicked down the road until they ran out of road. Unimpressive and incoherent fools, promoted far beyond their competence in a system that rewarded greed, party loyalty and failed ideology have brought them to a breaking point. That’s what ultimately precipitated this orgy of looting, criminality, violence and stupidity. That has been predicted by much smarter people than me for much longer.

So if you stop reading here, you’ll probably wish you hadn’t read any of this at all – but fortunately that isn’t all.

The heartening and hopeful evidence of good people standing together, taking up arms and looking to protect each other from criminals and scum is everywhere. I saw a group of old and young; rich and poor; black, white and Indian neighbours on the news last night, determined to look after the suburb of Montclair in Durban. Their eyes betrayed not a spark of fear, but a resourceful, determined and strong sense of community – in the best sense of that word. Those men had something powerful to fight for, and they weren’t in it to steal a TV.

We’ve always had poor people in this country (sadly, far too many) who battle through every day – and none of them partake in arson and theft, even if they’re desperate. There’s a moral majority of granny-headed, religious and decent rural families who have as much disdain for the carnage they see as any angry taxpayer does. Together, they’ve watched crooks plunder the land Mandela promised them. Today, they stand united against the mob.

The great divide in South Africa is and will continue to be between those who want a future for themselves and their children, who believe we are a civilised people with enormous potential – and those who have given in to the chaos of destruction, hopelessness and self-loathing. On the one hand we have the steely resolve of the better part of our nature, and on the other the vacant yellow eyes of opportunists and monsters. The real looting (of some R500-billion or more) has already taken place. Those who took it are now deploying their vassals and playing the only card they have left.

It’s time you asked yourself which South Africa you want to be a part of, and what we need to clear out of the way in order to share our place in the sun. It’s always darkest before the dawn.

 

No Defense.

On Friday 21 May, the South African government published changes envisioned to the firearms act. If passed this law would no longer make it possible to use self defense as a reason for owning a firearm. It would also also make it illegal to reload any ammunition.

These changes are over and above the current draconian laws that are already in place.

The minister of police, Beke Cele, has already stated that the police are not able to fulfill their constitutional duties of protecting the population from previous bodily harm. So why are they trying to stop citizens from protecting themselves and their loved ones? The excuse of removing illegal firearms from circulation by making it impossible for law abiding citizens to own firearms is ludicrous. Criminals will always be able to obtain firearms on the black market. Whether obtained from the police, SANDF, or smuggled across our open borders these firearms continue to flood the market.

Could it be that the ANC is planning to move South Africa into a dictatorship? Then it makes sense to me to disarm the population. Then there would no uprising against the dictators and their armed forces. Or is it that the ANC still fears the few remaining whites in the country? Is it a legacy of what the old SADF did to the ANC during the Bush wars, are they scared that their arses could be kicked again by a few old men armed with handguns obtained for self defense, and a few rifles used for the annual hunting of meat for biltong?

It is also a concern that the police have admitted that there are nearly 250,000 applications scattered all over the floors at the Firearm Registry. Now by passing this new law the majority of the applications become invalid, because they are mostly for self defense. What an easy way to clear the backlog even though there are people out there that have been waiting for two or more years to hear about their firearm application.

The police have admitted that some firearms applications have been chewed by rats while being stacked in passages! Could it have been done by some large, two legged rats trying to reduce their work load?

 

Cuban Engineers UPDATE.

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.

 

Cuban Engineers

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?

 

Zuma’ Orange Suit?

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

 

What a Cheek!

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.

 

NKANDLA

 

President Zuma Behind Bars

Visiting Soweto – News24 photo

Not really but when I saw the photo my wicked sense of humour took a turn for the better!
But now that I have your attention here is my most favourite person in the news again.
After failing to take charge of Pretoria’s Metro Police after getting kicked out of Ekurhuleni Metro Police he is once again at it..

All the world’s a stage, and all the men and women merely players: they have their exits and their entrances; (thanks to William Shakespeare – As You Like It: Act 2 Scene 7)
As I stand in the wings watching the play unfold in South Africa the often used quote by Shakespeare comes to mind.
We have a comedy in the making with the appointment of Robert McBride to be the next head of the Independent Police Investigative Directorate (IPID).
In a time when the South African Police has such a tarnished image of corruption, brutality and a total disregard of basic policing, one is left to wonder why this appointment is being made.
I find it totally laughable that the ANC’s Western Cape chairman, Marius Fransman, has the gumption to state that McBride is “a hero, patriot and committed civil servant to the people of South Africa”. As far as my memory serves me, once upon a time, civil servants and especially those representing the government had to be beyond reproach with no criminal records, strong morals and impeccable ethics.
Our incumbent president Jacob Zuma has in the last while stated most categorically that he is trying to clean up the government (can he start with himself, I wonder?) and then we hear about McBride, once again surfacing like a rotten smell which just doesn’t want to go away.
When completing your application for employment in the government you are asked if you have ever been found guilty of any criminal act. Now even if we discount the Magoo Bar bombing in which civilians were killed because it was politically motivated (shouldn’t this ruling then also be applied to the Boeremag who accidentally killed a women while blowing up train lines?).
McBride and others members of his terror cell were granted amnesty for the attack. The Truth and Reconciliation commission actually stated that this act was a “gross violation of human rights”.
Or even if we by some long stretch of the imagination should agree that McBride was totally sober after his Christmas party celebrations when he crashed his car on the way home. And we would then also have to wonder how he was found not guilty of trying to defeat the ends of justice while the doctor who issued the results of the blood test without even seeing McBride was found guilty of misconduct. We would also have to ignore the bullying of witnesses by his security minions to a point where they and their families were to terrified to state anything in court. Mcbride was found guilty and sentenced to five years imprisonment. This was later set aside leaving many wondering who was pulling the strings.
Then we have a small incident of being arrested in Mozambique while doing some gun running. Was he just trying to smuggle arms and ammunition into places such as KZN where innocent victims were being slaughtered just to try destabilising the area? He was found guilty and sentenced to jail time but once again his powerful friends in the ANC pulled some strings and he was sent back to South Africa.
What about being involved in an assault case while in the company of underworld bosses at some escort agency? Wonder if he and the previous head of the police and Interpol, Jackie Selebi, were house friends?
In looking at the farce of appointing heads of police we must include Bheki Cele and Mangwashi Victoria Phiyega in this illustrious gathering of players. None of the previous appointments made any positive impact on crime in South Africa and it may be stated that crime actually got worse. Police brutality by far exceeds anything that the previous government did. Corruption is seen as an additional source of income to some police.
SO HOW DOES MCBRIDE EVEN COME INTO CONTENTION FOR THIS POSITION WHERE HE WILL BE INVESTIGATING PEOPLE FOR THE VERY SAME THINGS HE IS GUILTY OF?
1) President Zuma’s ANC are not serious about fighting crime or corruption. Is it far more lucrative to have it continue while they are in power?
2) Why did Police Minister Nathi Mthethwa support the nomination of McBride. Was pressure put on him by higher powers?
3) Does President Zuma want to avoid the possibility of having someone appointed from outside the ANC who would be independent of politics? Maybe Zuma learnt his lesson when he appointed Thuli Madonsela as public prosecutor!
4) According to the (Democratic Alliance) DA the advertisement for the post seems to have been tailored to McBride’s CV. Makes me wonder who was responsible for authorising the changes…
In a recent survey people were asked about problems in South Africa and it is not surprising that fear and mistrust of the police came second to being murdered during a robbery!!

 

Trust the Military to look after your kids?

 

Quite some time ago I did a blog about a general in the South African National Defence Force who was caught cheating during promotion exams. He had copied answers from a fellow candidate.

At the time he had the rank of a general and after being found guilty of cheating he was demoted to the rank of major. This on its own was enough to raise some eyebrows as the expectation in military circles was that Sithabiso Mahlobo should have been cashiered from the army without any benefits.

But after his demotion in 2002, Sithabiso Mahlobo was once again promoted up through the ranks and in 2008 was promoted to the rank of Brigadier General. Not bad for a cheat!

As Brig-General he was put in command of 46 Brigade who will soon be deployed to the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) to fight against the infamous M23 rebels. He is responsible for the training of these troops under his command and yet according to military expert, Helmoed-Rӧmer Heitman, no officer that has been found guilty of a crime such as cheating in exams should be allowed to lead or train troops.

I did a quick check on both the American and British armies to see how they would apply military laws. Well, even a rumour of a bit of hanky-panky could be enough to ruin your career. Any sniff of anything irregular or contrary to military law was enough to get you kicked out, without even a pension to help you get through the rest of your life.

So why did Sithabso Mahlobo get to stay on in the army, and how did he move up in the ranks when he, previously all on his own, displayed adequate reason that he wasn’t fit to even lead a platoon on garden duty?

Actually while musing about Mahlobo and his shenanigans I got to thinking about Rear-Admiral Kyanysile Litchfield-Tsabalala  who just happened to falsely claim for a stolen government laptop after a conference she was attending in Sandton, and for lodging a false claim for accommodation at a guesthouse, and for assaulting a junior naval staffer who wanted to search her car when leaving a military base.

She was found guilty of 2 criminal charges (see above) for defrauding the State in 2007 in a military court instead of a civilian court. The excuse at the time was that it due to her high rank. Yet even after being found guilty she still remains the Navy’s director of transformation (department set up to move more blacks into the navy according to BEE (Black Equity Empowerment) even though most of them cannot swim.) Even though the Military Court of Appeals confirmed her convictions, she has continued to be paid her monthly lucrative salary.

By all accounts she has some very powerful friends all the way up to the minister of defence and seems to have some hold over them to ensure that she isn’t kicked out in disgrace.

Now taking both stories into consideration it seems that the message that is being sent out to the rest of the defence force is that corrupt behaviour by senior officers is most certainly being rewarded instead of being condemned with all the suitable negative repercussions that should be applied.

I feel sorry for those members who are trying to make a success of the defence force yet are being thwarted by the very people who are supposed to lead them.

tomorrow I need to do some serious musing about kids getting killed because of inadequate training and how the UN has even told us so.

 

SERIOUSLY?

It has been an interesting week or so here in South Africa. There have been heat waves, floods, strikes, fires and court cases 

Here are some musings that kept me busy this week while driving to and from work as I don’t use my phone, nor drink coffee, or heaven forbid, put on makeup while travelling:-

Pretoria/Johannesburg Hi-way:

In the last week I have noticed the local traffic officials on the hi-way are traveling in unmarked vehicles with only a sticker on the door stating that the car is being used by the local Road Traffic Management Corporation (RTMC). The blurb at the bottom of the sticker states that the cars are sponsored by Avis. (What happened to all the powerful BMW’s that were donated just the other day?)

Now I was just wondering if there could be a conflict of interest that Avis may request that any traffic fines that their company picks, up be overlooked in the spirit of a mutually benefiting agreement?

I do suppose that both the traffic department and Avis will both deny any knowledge of any agreement but going by the history of how business is conducted by our councils it would still leave me wondering. And what use are they on the hi-way as they have to obey all the rules of the road as they don’t have any flashing blue lights to open the way. (This alone must be tough that they now have to leave home early like the rest of us just to get to work, and not rely on their blue lights to get them through the traffic even though there is no emergency!)

In some parts of the world they are aiming at zero fatalities on some of their hi-ways. There is a drive/campaign currently on here in South Africa to reduce the amount of collisions and deaths on our roads. To quote  the  Deputy Transport Minister, Sindisiwe Chikunga in July 2012, ‘there was nothing normal about 14 000 people dying in South African road accidents every year.’  But this morning I once again witnessed a collision where four cars were involved with related fatalities. Now, I don’t have any personal grudge against busses and taxis but it would seem to me that drivers of these vehicle seem to operate way above the law without any fear of prosecution by the traffic officials. Just prior to the collision, in the lane going the opposite way, I saw a taxi exceeding the speed limit of 100 kph  (for public transport vehicles) travelling in the emergency lane then ducking right across four lanes causing cars in those lanes to have to apply their brakes to avoid the taxi. Then not even a hundred metres further on, the taxi swung back across all the lanes with the same modus operandi as it had used to move from the emergency lane, thereby causing other motorists to apply their brakes to avoid a collision. Just in front of me there was a traffic official sitting in an official traffic department vehicle with all the bells and whistles (lights, decals, colouring etc). He obviously had the exact same view of all of this happening as I did. Yet he just adjusted his posture in his seat to a more comfortable position and continued on his merry way as if nothing untoward had happened. It is this perception that taxi and bus drivers are untouchable that allows them to break the law with dire consequences to other motorists.

I must also mention that the only vehicles I do see them pulling over are those with foreign number plates. Could it be that they are easy pickings? Just wondering…

 Pretoria:    

If I was a tourist, I would never guess that Pretoria was the capital of South Africa if I were to look at the state of the city center and the suburb, Sunnyside. To put it mildly, it is dirty, smells like a latrine, and is in a state of utter disrepair!

But what caught my attention in the news, was an article of a strike of city council bus drivers that was averted. It seems that their gripe is that of the 200 plus busses used to service Pretoria, there are only 20 busses that are capable of running! The mechanics at the bus depot are having to resort to cannibalizing spares from other broken down buses, as they have no new spares that can be used to get the broken down buses back on the road.  My question is what happened to the funds that must have been budgeted for by the council for maintenance and repairs of the bus fleet?  The ratepayers in Pretoria  (apart from government buildings, officials and diplomatic properties) still pay their rates, yet we cannot even keep the cities buses running or keep the city clean.

Bloemfontein:

My current favourite person in South Africa is Free State rector Professor Jonathan Jansen, who has in the last while made some most enlightening statements which really make sense and highlight topics which the government and the population need to take note of.

On Monday Prof Jansen took a full swipe at both the government and the Minister of Education AngieMotshekga. He was addressing the first-year students and told them that they were not to become like South Africa.  He said that it was an utter disgrace that the minister boasted about the pass rate in matric (grade 12) for 2012 when the required mark to pass was only 30%.

He went on to say that he was willing to expel any students on campus threw stones, hit anybody else, treat women without respect and just generally were angry. This stance of Prof Jansen is something that the government should have applied a long time ago but I personally think that the government has been using the strikes and disturbances to further their own agendas.

The quote by Prof Jansen that really made my day, was something that my late mother used to say to us on occasion:  “You may be poor, but you can behave decently.”

The ANC and FNB

Now it seems that ANC and its youth branch have put some serious pressure on FNB to withdraw the ad campaign which aired last week. (And this after it was proved that they gave Zuma a loan under suspicious circumstances)

It is very sad that the ANC was able to put on enough pressure that the bank had to withdraw the campaign as they feared for the safety of the children that took part.  It seems that the participants may have been threatened and now feared reprisals as it is alleged that the ANC called the participating children’s action as treason against the state.

No wonder the ANC wants to bring in the Freedom of Information Act! Then they would be in a position where they could just ban children speaking about what they want as free citizens of South Africa.

Here is an extract of the ad campaign where children are expressing their hopes and views of a free South Africa.

Many years ago, in 1976, a group of brave young people stood on the ground where we are gathered tonight.

From this very place, they took their first steps towards freedom.

It is because of people like them, that I was born free, born from the very roots of Limpopo, in the greatest country in the world.

But we are not here tonight to talk about revolution.

We are here to talk about belief, and what belief can do.

Today, we, the children of South Africa, would like to share the following message with you:

There will be a day, when the difficulties we see before us now,

the greed, mistrust and anger, will be behind us.

There will be a day,  a day when the violence, and our indifference to the violence,

will be a thing of the past.

A day when the children of this land will no longer be slaves to their illiteracy, but free to write their own destiny.

There will be a day when, instead of blaming each other, we’ll build each other.

Instead of hurting each other, we’ll help each other.

The challenges before us, cannot be solved by money, or petty politics, protest or violence.

All of the great things we’ve done, we’ve done together, by helping each other.

 

Now the ANC states that the bank is ‘disrespectful’ and that it is appalled by the campaign which attacks the ANC, its leadership and government.

 “FNB, in an obviously lame attempt to recreate an Arab Spring of some sort in South Africa, uses children to make unproven claims of a ‘government rife with corruption’,” spokesperson Khusela Sangoni-Khawe said in a statement.

Now I’m sorry to say that both the ANC and it’s youth league must sit back and reflect on the very bit where they say that unproven claims are being made against a ‘government rife with corruption’. Just in the last few years we have had corruption charges leveled against members of parliament, ministers, city councils, police, government departments as well as members of the ANC and the ANCYL. What about the various commissions appointed to investigate corruption? The Arms Deal spring to mind, involving the very head of government. What about the violence in the country? Is this just a figment of imagination that the children don’t see? One wonders how come there have been allegations of government involvement in these violent strikes.

I also wonder if this is the start of the ANC applying censorship by pressure instead of the law?

As Bob Dylan once sang – Now is the time for your tears. (The times they are a changing)

 

Oh yes, the campaign went viral, so let’s see the ANC try stop the world from seeing it now. If they had kept quiet it would most likely have stay local J J

 

 

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