Tag Archives: zuma
Black Education
A bridge too far?
On Thursday last week there was an interesting article in News 24 in which Rabelani Dagada, a lecturer at Wits Business School, and a Programme Director for ICT Governance and Risk Management, told a debate on affirmative action that the apartheid-era Bantu (Black) education was far better than what is now being taught under the new post-apartheid government (ANC).
I went to my good friend Google and Linkin to see who this Wits academic is and from what base he is making these statements. Needless to say I found a man who has walked the walk and is in a position to make this assertion without fear of contradiction or favour.
I have quoted from the news article by News 24 and added some of my own comments in italics.
“It was far better in terms of quality than the education that our kids are receiving nowadays. That is where the problem is”.
And we now have these children finishing school and university with an education that is not up to standard. Pass rates have been dropped to such low levels that you only need to know less than a third of a subject and that okay to pass you. Here in the workplace we have graduates who can barely put a paragraph together in a coherent manner that have English as a subject that was passed in Matric.
“Affirmative action should be about empowerment. The best way to empower is not to take from those who have and give to those who don’t have. It won’t work.”
This statement in various guises has been bandied around for a long time and in various countries. Yet the ANC has seen it fit to ignore this warning and taken as much as they possible could from those who had and kept it for themselves. They didn’t even take the time to consider that there many who had worked very hard to get where they were without the help of the previous government. By giving those who didn’t have, a push through the education system, we have skewed the education which is necessary to take our country into the future.
Dagada said South Africans could only be empowered through proper education.
“After 20 years of democracy, the education levels have plunged. It’s worse than the so-called Bantu education. The best way to do transformation, empowerment is to provide quality education.”
And from Pik Botha at the same function:
Former foreign affairs minister Pik Botha said South Africa, under the ANC’s leadership, had moved away from former president Nelson Mandela’s principles. He said the country’s affirmative action policies were mainly hurting the black majority.
“How much further down must all of us go before we say this is enough now? Our education is far behind, it is the worst in Africa, [but] it has the highest per capita expenditure.”
Botha said Zimbabwe’s education system was better than South Africa’s.
“When is this going to change? At state hospitals black patients must wait for three years for an operation.”
Botha said when Mandela became president, he was careful not to lose skilled white people.
“He said we must not lose the proficiency of the whites. They must not leave the public service, but they should help us to train people to achieve that same proficiency,” said Botha.
“They have now removed all those people.”
Death in Darkest Africa
The uprising in the Central African Republic (CAR) and the subsequent loss of life of South African troops deployed there has raised many questions as to what they were really doing there and if there were ulterior motives of having them there.
It seems that once again our government is not telling us everything and are trying their best to shut everybody up by claiming it isn’t national interest and that it in the interest of national security not to disclose details of what really happened.
The snippets of news that we managed to get indicated that our troops had vacated their base in Bangui in such haste that they had left their uniforms and equipment lying on the parade ground. Pictures showed the victorious rebels standing around amongst items left behind by the South African parachute soldiers (parabats). Now as far as my memory serves me, I don’t recall any soldiers in the SADF (South African Defense Force) ever vacating a base and leaving any equipment to fall into enemy hands. On the contrary the SADF took over plenty of enemy bases, where they had just dropped everything and run. Sometimes even before our troops had reached them!
An unconfirmed bit of news was that the SA troops had fled Bangui and taken shelter at the airport under the protection of French troops. Now if this is true, South Africa as a nation that prided itself as being one of the best armies in Africa, no longer exists. The French news agency has reported that the number of SA troops killed was actually between 36 and 50 and not the 13 as claimed by the South African government.
International Relations Minister Nkoane-Mashabane said that the South African government would investigate international reports querying the death toll of South African soldiers in Bangui. If this is being investigated then there may be some truth in the higher figures.
The excuse of not knowing exactly what the number of killed is that the situation in the CAR is still chaotic. Quoting the minister “What I can say is that what was confirmed by United Nations [UN] and African Union representatives based in the Central African Republic is that in a coup situation there will be chaos, loss of life, and other unforeseen circumstances”. Apparently the government is waiting for confirmation of what is actually happening in CAR which brings me to our esteemed minister of defense in parliament today:
Minister Mapisa-Nqakula sat in parliament and stated to the world that our troops were not equipped or prepared to deal with an attack by the rebels in the Central African Republic.
A further matter of concern is that the minister hinted that there are questions regarding quality of military intelligence provided to the SA troops in Bangui.
The clash with Seleka rebel fighters in Bangui on 23 March was not really a surprise as our troops were aware of the fact that the rebels were on the outskirts of the town and were advancing to take over power in a coup.
Then the minister came up with some statements that in any other country would have had her looking for a new job tomorrow:
Quote 1:
“I’m still wondering how we lost it there, what happened.”
Now when a minister of defense sit back comfortably in her leather chair in parliament and states that she is wondering how and why we lost troops it just tells me that she has no idea of what happened and that she doesn’t deserve to be a minister of defense. From what I have heard she has never even been in the military and has no idea of what really goes on in her portfolio.
Quote 2:
“I think that is what we did not anticipate, that the kind of rebel you would end up protecting yourself from is the kind of rebel which will come in heavy vehicles and will have high-calibre machinery, I think that’s what happened here.”
Now if reports from Bangui are anything to go by it would seem that the SA National Defense Force (SANDF) troops were equipped and had the necessary armoury to deal with the rebels they expected to encounter. But suddenly the rebels were armed with mortars and heavy-calibre weapons when they attacked the SA troops.
Lieutenant General Derrick Mgwebi then went on to say that military intelligence had showed that the rebels were poorly trained and that they really didn’t have any heavy firepower at their disposal. He then went on to insinuate that the troops that attacked the SA troops weren’t actually Seleka rebels but came from one of the neighboring countries.
Now even if they were, how did they manage to move from this neighboring country all the way to the capital without being noticed by the UN or the African Union or the French troops stationed in CAR? Where was our own military intelligence during all of this?
On Wednesday (3 April 2013) President Jacob Zuma announced South Africa would withdraw its troops from the country. Wonder if we will once again be exposed to yet another cover up? And the withdrawal won’t make it any easier for the families that lost loved ones in some foreign country for who knows what reason.
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
The views expressed on this website / blog / profile are mine alone and do not necessarily reflect the views of my employer, political party or affiliations.
Enough said!!
thanks to jollygoodjokes.com
Just heard that there is an advert being aired here in South Africa where someone asks “Steve” if he was the one who gave Zuma a bond!!
For those who dont live here in SA the Steve advert is run by FNB promoting their products above those of other banks.
Jacob Zuma and bending the truth.
The saga about the upgrading of Jacob Zuma’s cultural village just won’t go away as he may have hoped.
The fraud and corruption trial of his former friend Schabir Shaik is revealing where some of the funds for his home “Nkandla” came from. It seems that some outside sources (French weapons manufactures) helped the President pay a bill of R1,3 million towards the costs of this village. There was also an amount of R140,000 paid from Bohlabela Wheels to the construction company working on the Nkandla site. (I will blog about Nora Fakude-Nkuna later)
Banks bending the rules.
Now the saddest part of the latest report has to do with the alleged financing of a housing loan from FNB.
Evidence revealed during the trail that President Zuma got a housing loan of R900,000 and that a businessman stood surety for nearly half of the loan, R400,000. From court records it seems that the businessman, Vivian Reddy, also made repayments during 2003 and 2004 to this home loan. (I will blog about Vivian Reddy later)
It would seem that a FNB home loan official made the cardinal sin of putting in writing “I’m convinced that the appropriate authorities will help us bend the rules slightly.”
Now it would seem that the rules really got bent by the bank! Firstly from all reports and rumours doing the rounds it would seem that the actual ground does not belong to Zuma. One story has it that the ground belongs to Zulu King Goodwill Zwelithini. Another story has it that the ground belong to a tribal trust. A search of the Deeds Office has not revealed any deed over the property in the name of Jacob Zuma. So in who’s name did the bank register the bond? And why was it necessary to bend the rules according to the bank official?
If my memory serves me, I seem to recall that at one stage Jacob Zuma was living way above his means and Schabir Shaik was even paying his children’s school fees and debts. Now if this was the case, surely the bank would have been aware of the state of Zuma’s affairs? They do all these checks to see if you can afford to repay the loan. And heaven forbid that you are on ITC and paid an account late! Your loan will not be approved.
So it seems as long as you have the political connections you can get the banks to break the rules but what is the payback? You scratch my back and I’ll scratch yours? And at the time of the alleged loan Mac Maharaj’s was a director of FirstRand, the holding company for FNB.
Personally I think the President should get his spokesperson, Mac Maharaj, to keep his comment to himself. His ducking and diving in this matter is just making matters worse!! Also check the following article for Mac’s involvement in various deals (especially the new toll roads).
http://mg.co.za/article/2011-11-25-the-evidence-that-damns-mac
Bank refutes giving Zuma a loan:
http://mg.co.za/article/2012-11-20-fnb-we-couldnt-have-given-zuma-a-bond-for-nkandla
Nazi Regime!
Lekota telling the ANC they act like a Nazi regime
I really enjoyed the outburst in Parliament yesterday when Congress of the People president Mosiuoa Lekota accused President Jacob Zuma of violating his oath of office.
I agree that the president had not upheld his Constitutional obligation to protect the rights of artist Brett Murray, or City Press editor Ferial Haffajee. When Zuma assumed the office he solemnly swore to “protect and promote the rights of all South Africans”, “do justice to all” and devote himself “to the well-being of the Republic and all of its people”.
But what really tickled my fancy was when Lekota referred to the tactics being used by various party leaders and Cabinet members who were now resorting to Nazi style measures and tactics to ‘ ‘threaten those who were exercising their rights to express themselves’. He went on to say that the tactics reminded him of the use of storm troopers by Hitler to crush all opposition.
When I sat back and thought about it, he made a lot of sense. Here we have the ANC protesting that the dignity of the president has been besmirched and that they needed to rise up (no pun intended) en mass, to show just how unhappy they are. The protesters didn’t just arrive at a gathering point; most of them were bussed in from various areas. Once again brand new T-shirts were dished out as well as neatly printed placards. Watching the leaders of the march and the unruly crowd following them had me having flashbacks to previous marches in support of something or someone that they felt hard done by. Julius Malema comes to mind.
If President Zuma was acting in the best interest of the country he would have repudiated Higher Education Minister Blade Nzimande, who is also general secretary of the SA Communist Party, for “acting in direct contravention of the Constitution”. Will there be an investigation into this serious breach of the Constitution? I doubt it!
Of course President Zuma won’t even mention the hard handed tactics of one of his senior ministers, quoting Lekota again, “the fascist action”, of Arts and Culture Minister Paul Mashatile, “who literally frog marched Goodman Gallery owner Lisa Esser to make a public apology before the media”.
Hitler also used crowds of his followers to sweep up the masses to the point where they erupted into a frenzy of nationalistic pride that bordered on hysteria. If you watched the crowds of ANC supporters marching on the Goodman Gallery you saw exactly the same as when the Nazi supporters marched to burn down Jewish shops.
Hiltler also chipped away at the constitution until he could finally discard it in its entirety. Lekota actually made a very good point when he said, and I quote from his speech, “The President has made clear that in the exercise of his cultural rights, he is not constrained by the Constitution. A parallel constitution, it would seem, has come into effect”.
Now if we suddenly have everybody claiming that their cultural rights are above the Constitution we end up with a very serious problem in our country. Who’s cultural rights would then supersede who’s? Will a Zulu’s rights be higher than a Xhosa or a Tswane or a Basotho…..
Obviously the cultural rights of Whites, Coloureds and Indians would be right at the bottom of the pile.
Can you use Zuma and respect in same sentence?
Zapiro has once again added a new twist to the famous shower head cartoon which appeared after the president had slept with a friends daughter knowing full well that she was HIV positive. The president who did not use a condom said he wasn’t worried, as he had a shower after having sex and this would stop him getting the HIV virus!
Now we have an artist, Brett Murray, who did a painting with the presidents penis hanging out of his pants causing a total meltdown in the ANC camp.
Zapiro has modified a picture of Zuma and replaced the presidents penis with a shower head! The words ‘Sex Scandal, Corruption, Nepotism, Cronyism” seem to be coming from the shower. These are all things that president Zuma has been accused of in the past yet he is still clinging onto the office of president of South Africa.
If we are trying to become a second world country, how come we still have a president that the rest of the world sees as a liability and a joke?
Dirty Tricks and Politics
What is it that allows our government here in South Africa to have our crime intelligence boss to firstly be suspended while there were investigations against him for murder and corruption, then to be re-instated, and then removed from his position?
The plot could not have been thought out by any mini-series script writer as it is just too far-fetched.
My personal musings about the character of the person who is in charge of national intelligence is that the person must be above reproach in all aspects of their lives. But here we have a person who was under investigation for murdering his lover’s husband, Oupa Ramogibe in 1999. Now most other countries would have had him out of his position so quickly that he wouldn’t even had time to wipe his nose!
Then charges of murder and fraud are controversially withdrawn in February even though the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) seemed to have a good case at the time.
Then there are the investigations of corruption (more below) and nepotism that just cloud the water even more.
BUT, it is a matter of record that crime intelligence boss Lieutenant General Richard Mdluli then writes a very strange letter to our very esteemed president Zuma in which he mentions that if he is allowed back to work as crime intelligence boss he will would “assist the president to succeed next year” meaning that he would ensure that Zuma is re-elected as president at the next election. Now if that isn’t trying to pull strings I just don’t know! But never the less, suddenly Mdluli is back in his office as if nothing was being investigated against him.
Then suddenly, Mdluli is removed from his office and Police Minister Nathi Mthethwa’s makes a statement to Parliament showing that Mdluli was removed to allow state law adviser Enver Daniels the opportunity to investigate claims made by Mdluli that senior police officers were plotting against him. These allegations were also included in the letter to president Zuma but were very strangely phrased.
ANC insiders and securocrats have been puzzled by Mdluli’s perceived closeness to Zuma, since he has no struggle record. And this seems to be a pre-requisite to be in the inner circles which will ensure you have a top job no matter what your sins are!
Now Mdluli is saying that his sudden removal from office has nothing to do with the serious allegations of corruption and nepotism against him. Yet from another source we get to hear that he and other senior high-ranking officers were involved in the looting of an R200m secret service account for their own personal benefit.
This secret fund was pumped into a front company which by a strange twist of fate was started by the apartheid-era police. Universal Technical Enterprises (UTE) was established in 1988 by the security branch and used by its bomb-making unit to buy equipment to blow up anti-apartheid activists. (see below)
The current investigations against Mdluli has allegedly uncovered that crime intelligence ha sbeen using UTE as a front to siphon of funds, buy luxury vehicles, cover personal debts and pay for private flights all over the place.
During the investigations by the Hawks (Special Investigation Branch) it found that Mdluli employed at least seven family members within crime intelligence, kitted them out with luxury cars and rented houses he owned to his own division. (How did he get to own houses that could be rented out?)
———————————————————————————————————————————————————
Below is a history of the front company being used by intelligence which I found in the City Press newspaper. It makes for interesting reading!
Johannesburg – The front company allegedly used by crime intelligence boss Richard Mdluli and other agents to plunder a secret “slush fund”, was started by the apartheid-era police.
Universal Technical Enterprises (UTE) – a police front company – was established in 1988 by the security branch and used by its bomb-making unit to buy equipment to blow up anti-apartheid activists.
UTE was set up by former security policemen and co-owned by, among, others a notorious apartheid bomb-planter and killer until 2004.
The existence and abuse of UTE and other crime intelligence front companies are exposed in affidavits made by two top Hawks investigators and in a top-secret report to acting police commissioner Lieutenant General Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi.
The directors of UTE are chief financial officer of crime intelligence Solly Lazarus and former crime intelligence boss Mulangi Mphego, who resigned from the police but is still listed as a director.
Company records show that UTE was set up in May 1988 and that its original directors were Wybrand du Toit, Christoffel Breytenbach and Adam Helberg.
City Press was told last week that UTE was among a host of former security branch front companies and was utilised by the unit’s technical division to buy spy devices and equipment to assemble explosives.
Du Toit was a brigadier in the security branch and was widely known as Wal du Toit.
Motherwell Four
He was the head of the technical division of the security police and was in charge of manufacturing bombs and other explosive devices that were used to blow up activists.
Du Toit is a convicted murderer who appeared before the Truth and Reconciliation Commission for his complicity in killing 13 activists.
In June 1996, Du Toit was convicted of murder for blowing up four policemen – known as the Motherwell Four – with a car bomb in the Eastern Cape in December 1989.
The security police were concerned that the policemen were leaking information to the ANC, but didn’t have enough evidence to charge them.
Du Toit had to manufacture the car bomb. He was sentenced to 15 years’ imprisonment, but received amnesty.
Du Toit was also involved in the February 1991 murder of Johannesburg lawyer Bheki Mlangeni when he received a Walkman cassette player with a tape in the post.
The security police wanted to kill former Vlakplaas commander Dirk Coetzee, who was in exile with the ANC.
Du Toit and his men built explosives into the earphones of a Walkman and sent it to Coetzee. But it landed up with Mlangeni, who switched on the recorder and was instantly killed.
Equipment
Du Toit was also a mastermind behind the bombing of the ANC headquarters in London in 1982 and Khanya House, the Pretoria headquarters of the Southern African Catholic Bishops Conference, in 1988.
A former security policeman told City Press the technical division provided the security police with phone-tapping and tracking equipment, listening devices and whatever gadgets they needed to fight their secret war against the ANC.
UTE was set up to enable the unit to purchase any equipment they needed.
Although Du Toit was suspended from the police in 1996, his resignation as a director of UTE was recorded only in April 2004.
That was also the date on which Lazarus and Mphego became directors.
Lazarus is accused of being instrumental in the looting of the secret fund and was suspended from the police with Mdluli until their controversial reinstatement last month.
also check out: http://blogs.news24.com/paulseso1/what-constitution
paulsmusing2 