To be true to history it must be noted that Jan van Riebeek wasn’t the first white man to be sent to the Cape of Good Hope.
The Portuguese set up a refreshment station which was later taken over by the Dutch. The Dutch then built a small fort as they feared that either the Portuguese, French or British would attack them. By the time Jan van Riebeek left the Cape the fort (Castle) hadn’t been completed.
One of the favored arguments of those opposed to private ownership of firearms is that guns kill people. However, while it is true that firearms were originally developed as a weapon of war, this argument ignores the fact is that firearms are inanimate objects that are simply not capable of taking action on their own.
Therefore, they require a conscious human operator with a clear objective in order to fire a projectile. Consequently, the truth is that it is not the firearm that kills people but, instead, the human operator who makes a conscious decision to take a life. The firearm is merely a tool to that end
So if the above is true, why do we have lawmakers and anti gun lobbies trying their best to ban guns? Or trying to make it practically impossible to get one.
We already have character checks, criminal record checks, competency checks in place to try weed out those who may inclined to violence or have some mental disorder that makes them unstable to actually handling a firearm.
When we were immature young boys leaving school, with tons of testosterone flowing through our bloodstreams, we were good enough to be armed with an assault rifle, handgun and hand grenades by the government. We were deemed good enough to go to war with the weapons provided and were hailed as heroes if we killed the enemies of the state. Those that didn’t shoot faster or more accurately than the people shooting at them, died. Survival was as simple as that
Now we have the government trying to say that we no longer have a right to protect ourselves or those around us by owning a firearm for self defence. It would seem that the government thinks that criminals are now going to throw their firearms into the sea,rivers or dams because the rest of the population has had to surrender their firearms? I seriously dont think so!
If ones looks at what the government proposes to do by saying that “self defense” is no longer a reason for owning a firearm, and that your current license is only valid for a couple of years, then you would not be in a position to reapply to renew your firearm license. Then you are illegally in possession of a firearm and would forfeit it to the state. You would also not be compensated for your previously legal firearm.
The government managed to disarm all the commandos as well as all police reservist without too much trouble. This has now created a veritable open season for criminals in areas where people are no longer protected. And the police have admitted that they are not in a position to stop crime, but can only react to crimes already committed. Plus the majority of armed police actually failed their competency tests for using a firearm!
If the proposed bill does go through, then the police and Gun Free South Africa who are pushing for the stringent new laws must also accept that the police and all the security companies that carry firearms aren’t doing it for self defense. They would be carrying firearms to attack defenseless people with impunity.
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?
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.
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 