South of the Zambezi

Speech delivered by Aaron Kahland at Orania Burgervergadering ( = Citizens meeting)

2011-12-30T03:10:00.000-08:00

By Aaron Kahland, ambassador of Orania in Germany.

I’d like to start by telling you a story from the country where I live, Germany. It is the story of Max Planck, the great German physicist. In 1918 Professor Planck won the Nobel Prize for his work on quantum theory. With this new fame he was asked at universities throughout Germany to give speeches on his discoveries. One evening he was due to give a speech in Munich. On the way there, Planck was having a discussion with his driver and his driver asked him if he had prepared the speech he was to give that night. Planck answered ‘no, I haven’t prepared, I have given this speech so many times that I can tell it by memory.’ His driver responded, ‘I have heard your speech so many times I could probably give it.’ Hearing this, Max Planck thought for a moment and then said to his driver, ‘why don’t we test your theory and you dress nicely and give the speech and I’ll sit in the front of the audience and pretend to be your driver and we’ll see if anyone notices.’

And, according to their plan, when they arrived Planck’s driver got up in front of the audience and gave a speech on very complicated physics in front of an audience of Munich’s scientific community. He delivered it so well that no-one noticed that it was not Planck himself. However, after the speech was given, there was time for questions from the audience. Sure enough someone from the audience stood up and asked a question on Planck’s quantum theory. For a moment the driver stood still and then he slowly shook his head and said, ‘I was led to believe that Munich was a sophisticated and intellectual city. So it surprises me that someone from this audience could ask me such a simple question.’ The driver then pointed to Max Planck in the audience and said ‘Indeed it is so simple that I am confident that even my driver could answer it.’

The reason I told you this story is that today I feel a little bit like Max Planck’s driver because I have been asked to speak a little about Afrikaner history. I am an economist by trade but I shall do my best and hopefully, I can introduce something new to you anyway.

I’d like to begin by going back in time to the mid seventeenth century when the Dutch state established a mercantilist outpost in Southern Africa whose mission it was to establish a port to provision Dutch trading ships travelling between Europe and the Dutch East Indies. In 1652, around two hundred Dutch East India employees and indentured servants arrived to create a settlement that would later become Cape Town. I want to emphasize that this was not some colony of free settlers but that the people brought over were in an initial state of semi-slavery and were provided very few freedoms. In 1657, 40 of these indentured servants were freed by the Governor. These freed men took up farming and grazing. These activities were permitted by the Dutch East India Company who wanted food to feed their growing town. Any other activities were strictly regulated and attempts by freemen to engage in free enterprise were forbidden including trading with the local KhoiKhoi though this happened despite the regulations. The monopolist V.O.C. did not allow the establishment of a free market but instead fixed the prices for goods produced by the burghers. These fixed prices often did not cover the costs of transportation and left free burghers economically impoverished. To escape this tightly controlled economic environment, many burghers began trekking east beyond the company’s control. The company then forbade migration or trade with the natives, a law that was introduced in 1677. The law wasn’t terribly effective because the government reintroduced similar laws in 1727, 1739, 1770, 1774, and 1786.

I have to say that I very much admire the attitude of your ancestors towards stupid laws restricting their freedoms. A very healthy attitude in my view.

I want to return to the Boer treks a little later but first I want to take a little look at what else was happening in the world at around this time.

The most important political development at this time was the growing rebellion against British rule in North America which had broken out in 1775.

Around a year after the outbreak of war against Great Britain the Declaration of Independence was issued which outlined the reasons the American colonists now considered themselves free of political ties to the former motherland.

The most often quoted portion of the declaration is the following,

‘We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights,[75] that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.’

These words were largely borrowed from John Locke a philosopher of the Enlightenment who wrote that man had the right to life, liberty and property.

Perhaps more important than this part of the preamble however is the means of achieving them. So wrote Thomas Jefferson,

‘That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.’

These words are very powerful and help to make this document, I feel, one of the key political writings of Western Civilization. Peoples have a God given right to rebel against their government. This was the principle upon which the United States of America was founded – and according to Thomas Jefferson, a principle which all men were granted.

Going back to the Cape now, it wasn’t long after the US achieved independence that the first Boer attempt to break-away from Dutch colonial rule was attempted with the creation of the short lived Graaf-Reinet republic along the frontier. By the time the British returned to the Cape in 1806, the Boer national consciousness was well established and with it the concept of self-rule.

In 1815, some frontier Boers began a renewed revolt against British rule at Slagters Nek after colonial authorities attempted to enforce British law along the frontier. In the trials following the failed rebellion, which led the execution of five men, one of the defendants stated before the court, ‘I am a young man who does not yet know what a Government is, as I was never near one.’

If the young man’s statement in his defense is representative of the motives for rebellion then this early Boer rebellion is illustrative of something very interesting. Unlike the American rebellion against British rule which established the right to rebel and form a new government, this early Boer rebellion was a fight to remain free from government. This is an important distinction.

The idea that a people can live without government seems, in our day and age, a difficult concept to accept. People tend to think of chaos and lawlessness. However, living without government, or living without a state, is not the same as living without governance. I believe that the early Boer experience is a good place to look to find evidence of this.

Indeed the American historian Joseph Stromberg wrote of the early Boer ideal as maatskaapy, a society of ‘free and independent men.’ A Boer felt that he required 6000 acres to be economically independent and as Stromberg writes, ‘Boers would move each generation, and would trek large distances to get away from unwanted government supervision.’

Stromberg also writes that ‘The Boers were united as maatskappy, a loose community of individual proprietors, the commando, a volunteer military arm their society, and as co-relioginists. More supervision than this they did not want. A Boer patriarch, sovereign on his own plek, with his wife, children and retainers, and armed for defense of his family and property, corresponded quite well – like the Anglo-Celtic Southerner – to the ideal citizen of classical republican theory.’

Indeed, Stromberg was right. The old Boers very much represented the ideal citizen of classical liberalism which was promoted most prominently by many of the founding fathers of the United States, and in particular, Thomas Jefferson.

Jefferson believed that an agrarian society was one which offered the best prospect for a free society. Despite being well known as an author, he only wrote one book, titled ‘Notes on the State of Virginia,’ written in 1781. In it he wrote,

“Those who labor in the earth are the chosen people of God, if ever he had a chosen people,
whose breasts he has made his peculiar deposit for substantial and genuine virtue. It is the focus
in which he keeps alive that sacred fire, which otherwise might escape from the face of the earth.
Corruption of morals in the mass of cultivators is a phenomenon of which no age nor nation has
furnished an example. It is the mark set on those, who not looking up to heaven, to their own
soil and industry, as does the husbandman, for their subsistence, depend for it on the casualties
and caprice of customers. Dependence begets subservience and venality, suffocates the germ of
virtue, and prepares fit tools for the designs of ambition. . . . “

Thomas Jefferson as US president went to great lengths to achieve his vision of a free people in a new land. He reduced the size of government, cut taxes and avoided conflict with foreign nations as best he could. He wrote that,

‘Every government degenerates when trusted to the rulers of the people alone. The people themselves are its only safe depositories.’

Jefferson’s ideal of an agrarian republic was best illustrated in the south of the U.S., including his native Virginia, where society was dominated by independent farmers. This is a society that shared some similarities with the Boer republics established in Southern Africa.

Stromberg wrote however that, ‘unlike the Southerner, the Boers were of a simpler school. Their nearest approach to liberalism was the notion of covenant. Thus it makes sense to think of the Boers as patriarchal, pastoral Calvinists living out a practical frontier anarchism.’

Now, I realize the word anarchist might seem unusual but what Stromberg means here anarchy in its true definition which comes from the original Greek meaning ‘without a leader’ or ‘without a state.’ Living without a state today seems like an unusual concept however what is it we speak of when speaking of a ‘state’? The German philosopher Hans Hermann Hoppe defines it as such,

‘A state is a territorial monopolist of compulsion, an agency which may engage in continual, institutionalized property rights violations and the exploitation of private property owners through expropriation, taxation, and regulation.’

So a state affords itself a monopoly on violence so that it can exploit those living within its territory of control. And so it is here South African government that has forbidden the use of the age old Commando system of voluntary self-defense. The Commando threatens the state’s monopoly on violence.

Piet Retief wrote in his manifesto before undertaking his Great Trek that he and his followers had decided to ‘quit this colony with a desire to lead a more quiet life than we have heretofore done.. under the full assurance that the British government had nothing more to require of us, and will allow us to govern ourselves without its interference in future.’

Hermann Giliomee writes that Retief emphasized in his manifest that ‘those undertaking the trek would take no-ones property but would defend themselves against attacks on their lives and property. They would make laws to govern themselves and would make their intention to live in peace clear to the black tribes amongst whom they settled.’ Retief wrote in his manifesto that ‘We desire to be considered a free and independent people.’

So off the Voortrekkers went to free themselves from Imperial state control. When they undertook their monumental trek, it is important to note that they did not travel without purpose. They intentionally avoided areas already settled. So they did not travel directly to the North where they were aware the Griqua lived. Nor did they travel to the East where the main Xhosa areas were. Instead the wagon trains headed North East into territory that had been decimated by a violent Zulu war of extermination against neighbouring tribes – a war that is estimated to have killed up to one million Africans.

So when the Voortrekkers set-off to live free of British rule they intended from the outset to find land on which to live that would not bring them into conflict with existing inhabitants. This is something that is largely unique in the history of the New World. Unlike Northern European settlers in North America, Australia, or New Zealand, the Boers did not engage in the extermination of already established peoples in order to settle a new land for themselves.

If the right to political secession is the finest political tradition in Western Civilization then it is no exaggeration to acknowledge that the Great Trek, an example of peaceful secession through migration, is one of the greatest of them all.

But if peaceful secession is our civilization’s finest political tradition then so too we must acknowledge that Empire, ruling over others who do not wish to be dictated to, is also morally unjustifiable.

In today’s South Africa, it is the ANC who have inherited the Empire. Their constant talk of themselves as a liberation movement echoes the empty propaganda of the British Empire in crying injustice at the treatment of the Uitlanders and blacks living within the Boer republics. As soon as they assume power, their motives become clear – enriching themselves economically through political means. Their talk of righting the wrongs of Apartheid and their active discrimination against the Afrikaner minority are only convenient distractions from their true intentions. Their project, like that of the British before them, is doomed to failure.

So where does that leave today’s Afrikaner? Many have chosen to secede from South Africa through migration. But I feel strongly that it is secession through migration within Africa that offers the best hope for the Afrikaner. To once again take the trek that Piet Retief and others took, to build a new home that offers the best chance of reviving the ancient Boer ideals of freedom.

Recently in Germany, I bought this postcard. It is dated the 10th of March, 1902, only weeks away from the end of hostilities with the British. It shows German volunteers fighting for the Boer republics and the motto of the unit is showing as,

Wir kämpfen nicht um Ruhm und nicht um Ehre,
Wir kämpfen nicht um gold und Edelstein,
Wir kämpfen nur um heimath, Weib und Kinder
Und um die Freiheit nur allein.

(Translation:

We fight not for glory, not for honor,
We do not fight for gold and precious stones,
We are fighting only to home, wife and children
And for freedom alone.)

I think these words are a good description of the historical quest for the Boer’s quest for freedom which today is best exemplified in the this little town we find ourselves in today. Boer freedom to be achieved through a sovereign homeland is a worthy cause and I am proud to be a little part of it. Thank you very much.

SOURCE: http://praag.co.uk/columns/rozanne-meyer/775-speech-delivered-by-aaron-kahland-at-orania-burgervergadering.html

Hat Tip: Laager

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Making sense of Julius Malema

2011-07-09T08:11:00.000-07:00

By
RW Johnson 28 June 2011

RW Johnson on the ANCYL President's place in South African politics

Julius Malema and the ironies of factionalism

Julius Malema is now the most magnetic figure in South African politics. He is execrated by most whites, feared by many mainline ANC figures, courted by the powerful and is clearly the idol of the large crowds he attracts. Watching him perform, I realised that he reminded me most of Jean-Marie Le Pen, the leader of the far right Front National in France. Le Pen, who was equally idolized and execrated, drew crowds like nobody's business.

When he was on TV the crowd in the cafe went quiet. Whether they were Gaullists, Socialists or Communists, they all wanted to watch Le Pen, in fact they couldn't help watching him. He had physical presence - a great big blond bruiser with an eye-patch over one eye, a man rumoured to have personally conducted torture sessions when he was a soldier in Algeria.

Malema cuts a figure which is at once more gross and more mediocre. When he says "I'm not powerful. I'm a nobody from Masakaneng", he's not being modest. He has a sort of childishly porcine face and his stomach already swells out far beyond his trousers, the sign of the well-fed tenderpreneur. Le Pen claimed to have been in the Resistance and he was certainly a Foreign Legionnaire, but Malema has no struggle credentials. Like Le Pen though, he can bellow with the best.

But what really sets them apart from others was that both were nationalists, each pitching their tent on the central nationalist ground. Le Pen would inveigh against illegal immigrants, against the high crime rate - and then explain that the muggers in the Metro were, of course, the same illegal immigrants - and appeal for the return of the "tried and tested guillotine". These crimes were assaults on true-born Frenchmen and why should be ashamed of speaking out for them?

At each point many heads in the cafe would nod, because these were views held by most ordinary Frenchmen, though Le Pen expressed them more forcefully. But then he would, without warning, ask if his listeners had noticed that he had been attacked in Le Monde - an article by Finkelstein, in L'Express - an article by Cohen and again the Nouvel Observateur, an article by Shapiro. As he said this there would be a rising roar of anger from his true followers, catching on immediately to this recitation of Jewish names. "So what have they got in common?" he would roar. "De Gaulle once said of the Jews that they were "clever, arrogant, too sure of themselves" but I would add, if they attack me when I speak for the interests of France, where then do they belong?"

Even in the cafe there would be some murmurs of assent, many awkward silences and a few gasps of horror. For while other conservative politicos might attack illegal immigration and crime, a full-blooded anti-semitic rant like this was way outside the norm. And that's where the habitual excitement came. He would break taboos that all others respected and you never quite knew what he might say next. It was riveting.

Nationalist Outliers

Malema is much the same. Though much younger and less experienced, he has learnt the importance of the sound-bite. He knows that to guarantee him fresh headlines there has to be at least one phrase in every speech where he breaches a taboo. Mainly, of course, he too will pitch himself safely on mainstream nationalist ground so that for the most part a Jacob Zuma or Tokyo Sexwale can sit next to him as he speaks and agree with a lot of what he says and then just look blank when he suddenly makes his sortie, demanding nationalisation of the mines, saying that whites are all criminals, or whatever the latest outrage is.

And when the party elders aren't sitting next to him, it's likely to be some cheeky assault on Zuma, some broad-sword attack on the SACP or Cosatu or even an unexpected compliment to the disgraced Mbeki. Like Winnie Mandela, he has a fine ear for the missed note and the lost chord. He understands exactly those points where the ANC faithful feel uncomfortable about Zuma, Blade Nzimande or Zwelinzima Vavi and that's where he slides the knife in. His followers, who know that no one else on their side (and they aren't listening to the Opposition) will ever make those points, love him not just for breaking the taboo but for articulating those particular points of discomfort. He scratches where it itches and where no one else will scratch.

Such outlier figures are found in most nationalisms - Blaar Coetzee was perhaps Malema's National Party equivalent. Once their movements arrive into government certain necessary compromises occur. Thus Malan, Strydom and Verwoerd were all premiers under a British Governor-General and the Crown for it was not immediately politic to seek a republican form of government or leave the Commonwealth.

A Blaar Coetzee would know, however, that within the Nat body politic there seethed all manner of bitter resentments against the Crown, against the rooineks, against the power and wealth of the mining houses, against Jewish leftists and so on. Coetzee would give voice to all this and would be cheered to the echo for it. The situation of the ANC in government and of Malema is much the same. We have seen the same often in Africa - in Zimbabwe in the 1980s when Mugabe had made his accommodation with the white farmers, Edgar Tekere played this outlier role, frightening the whites in Harare just as much as Malema does here. In Kenya Oginga Odinga played this role vis-a-vis Kenyatta.

In all cases these radical tribunes picked up on the unsatisfied land hunger of Africans and the broken promises made by the new elite as it filled its pockets and rode in pomp as the new waBenzi. Such tribunes, it should be noted, often became rich themselves but they seldom came to power.

The Youth League's Inheritance

Malema's case has its own interesting twists, the first of which is the crucial historical role of the ANC Youth League. All the actors within the ANC drama are keenly aware that from the moment the ANCYL was founded in 1944 it began to play a critical role in the ANC's history as the young warriors of the tribe, uncontrolled in the modern environment by the binding constraints under which they had laboured in traditional society.

The young Turks - Mandela, Sisulu and Tambo - were able first to capture the ANCYL leadership, then devise their own Action Programme, then ram it through the ANC to make it the official party programme, and then depose Dr James Moroka as ANC leader in 1952 when he provoked their ire. Two years later the Youth League threw Moroka out and helped push in Chief Luthuli in his stead.

And it did not stop there. Walter Sisulu, a senior SACP member, was now also ANC Secretary-General, a fact which greatly facilitated the calling of the Congress of the People and the way that white Communists were able to play a key organizing role there and write the resultant Freedom Charter itself. Luthuli, who was banned, could not himself attend the Kliptown Congress, and was deeply suspicious of the Freedom Charter, for he knew full well what the Communists were up to. In particular he expressed open dislike of the Charter's economic clauses which he thought too socialistic.

Under his guidance the Natal ANC argued that the language of the Charter was "good propaganda but...not appropriate to a factual document" and said that "lazy people should expect to go hungry"[1] But the Charter had been presented to him as a fait accompli so, despite his own Christian liberal principles, he accepted it.

Finally, of course, with the formation of MK the SACP, together with the old ANCYL team of Sisulu, Mandela and Tambo, effectively staged an intra-party coup against Luthuli, installing Mandela and then Tambo as leader. Though Luthuli remained ANC leader till he died, this was a purely nominal title.

The outline, at least, of this epic and successful drive by the ANCYL, is universally known so that there is always the thought that each Youth League leader may carry a field-marshal's baton in his rucksack. In addition, of course, the ANCYL was the first ANC formation to back Zuma against Mbeki and derived great prestige from this success.This greatly magnified the significance of the ANCYL both in their own eyes and those of others.

Malema, of course, trades heavily on this, increasing the excitement of his followers and the dread of those who dislike him. Malema's master-stroke in recent time has been to embrace the Freedom Charter as gospel and thus demand the nationalization of the mines and the expropriation (without compensation) of white-owned land. The key economic clauses of the Freedom Charter - which Luthuli so much disliked - read as follows:-

The national wealth of the country, the heritage of South Africans, shall be restored to the people.

The mineral wealth beneath the soil, the Banks and monopoly industry shall be transferred to the ownership of the people as a whole.

All other industry and trade shall be controlled to assist the wellbeing of the people.

All shall have the right to occupy the land wherever they choose.

The land should be "re-divided amongst those who work it".

This is all clear enough, as one would expect. There is no mention of compensation for any act of expropriation of land or industry, and the careful phrasing of such assets being "restored to the people" (ie. to the state, though that is never said) reflects exactly the Communist front tactics of the time. It must be remembered that the white Communists who actually drew the Charter up - men like Rusty Bernstein and Ben Turok - were 1950s Stalinists.

Their phrasing had a pleasingly beneficent sound and they had no difficulty getting it adopted by the willing (and carefully selected) crowd at Kliptown. (The Liberal Party, which would have been able to point out what was going on, stayed away from what they rightly saw as a Communist ramp.) Better still, it was then insisted that the Charter had been carefully made up from all the suggestions sent in by the masses, so the same masses could be sent happily away, believing that they themselves had devised the Charter.

This notion became ANC holy writ and appears, for example, in Sampson's biography of Mandela. This is pure ideology. Bernstein and Turok in their later years were quite open about the role they had played and Sampson was a friend of Bernstein. He must have known the truth, but Holy Writ is Holy Writ.

It should, of course, always be remembered that Bernstein and company, like all South African Communists of the 1950s, had absolutely no thought that their movement would ever come to power, so writing the Charter was purely an exercise in propaganda, with no thought that it might ever be implemented. To the extent that the Charter was real for them at all, it was a prescription for after the socialist revolution, when industry and the land could be re-organized without the complication of a bourgeoisie in the way.

The Constitution in the Sky

In the long years of exile and prison the ANC treated the Freedom Charter as its foundational document. It was the benchmark: you were either a Charterist or you were against the liberation struggle. Those who wished to join the ANC were not asked to assent to the resolutions of this or that party congress: they were asked to agree to the Freedom Charter. In those three decades the Charter became, so to speak, the movement's "constitution in the sky". Later, the Charter was even represented as the foundation document of the National Democratic Revolution though no one at the time had even heard that phrase.

The movement had no power, of course, to enforce its provisions so the Charter had a mystical presence, the Holy Ghost floating somewhere above the liberation struggle. The Charter had extensive provisions about human rights and democracy but this made no difference to the way in which the ANC refused for many years to call a party conference or the way it treated dissidents within its own ranks, particularly within MK. They were imprisoned without trial, allowed no legal representation, tortured and murdered. When such dissidents demanded that the Freedom Charter be respected, this was treated as mere insolence, rather as the Inquisition would have regarded any appeal to scripture by Gallileo.

This habit of having a "constitution in the sky" - which you celebrated, brought out proudly and showed around, enjoying its ringing phrases - but did not actually bother to observe, was extremely comfortable for the ANC leadership. So it was hardly surprising that when South Africa got a real democratic Constitution, the ANC treated it in the same way, proudly showing it around but often not bothering to observe it.

This became apparent as soon as April 1995 when President Mandela sacked his ex-wife, Winnie, as a minister. No one in the presidential office had bothered to read the Constitution which required him to consult others before taking such a step. Winnie had to be laboriously re-instated and then, when consultation had duly taken place, sacked all over again.

Implementing the Charter: Who Stands Behind Malema
Julius Malema realised that this situation gave him a wonderful opening. Wrapping himself in the Freedom Charter he declared that it is, after all, the ANC's programme and that it must thus be implemented. Pointing to the clause that says "The national wealth of the country....shall be restored to the people", he demands the nationalization of the mines. Pointing to the clause which says that the land "shall be re-divided among those who work it", he demands the expropriation without compensation of both white-owned farmland and the mines. He is, of course, careful never to quote the Freedom Charter's first line, "South Africa belongs to all who live in it, black and white".

In addition, he has read the Constitution and, declaring it to be quite untenable for so much of the country's wealth still to be in white hands, demands that the ANC use its two-thirds majority to do away with the property rights clause and any other parts of the Constitution which might stand in the way of a simple Mugabe-like grab for white-owned assets of any kind. This really backs the ANC leadership and even the SACP and Cosatu up into a corner for they have proclaimed the Freedom Charter to the skies and they have also not carried it out. This process really took wing under Mbeki who quietly ignored the Charter, never confronting it head-on or even discussing it at all. Policy was devised by stealth - particularly Gear - and this created Malema's opening. And behind Malema, one is told, stands a vast legion - not only the young unemployed but lumpen elements of every kind.

For a more exact estimate of Malema's following I turned to Professor Laurence Schlemmer who is not only South Africa's senior social scientist but a director of Markdata. His reply - based on his continuous scrutiny of polling data - was as follows:

Mr. Malema does not appear to be very popular among rank-and-file ANC voters, or not yet. My broad impression from field research is that he is not a role model for rank-and-file youth either, who on the whole are worried and frustrated but not militant, and are also cautious because they fear the conflict and disruption of the ANC that he could cause.

He is popular, however, among two large categories of people. First among the highly ambitious and materialistic youth who have been influenced by township gang culture with its flamboyant local leaders, and second among semi-well educated and more seriously aspirant people who believe the route to wealth and success is through connections to politicians and hot-shot new entrepreneurs.

"This latter group", Professor Schlemmer continues,"includes the people who can be seen in the waiting rooms of ministers who hope that if only they can get the minister's attention, they will be able to set up some get-rich-quick scheme.

These people are often at their wits' end as well as at the end of their resources.

They will be slavishly deferential to the minister if they get a chance but bitterly denunciatory if the minister sweeps by and doesn't notice them. They are up for just about anything and ready to blame the foreigners or the whites for any piece of bad luck they may have.[2]

It should be realised that even this latter group, whom Professor Schlemmer describes so well, do not necessarily have ideological beliefs about nationalizing the banks, the mines or the land. It is more that Malema threatens to shake everything up so that things will come loose, creating openings for opportunists of every stripe.

Mbeki, Father of Factionalism

The ANCYL has emerged into its current prominence as a result of the failure of Mbeki-ism. Mbeki was bent on establishing a complete political and intellectual hegemony rather similar to the political domination of an Nkrumah or Nyerere, in which his theories, slogans and watchwords would be the only political discourse that mattered. It is too easily forgotten how close he came to succeeding. So great was the deference towards him (and fear of him) even in white liberal circles that in 2004 the University of Cape Town bestowed a special leadership award upon him which even had laudatory words for his murderous Aids policy. But Mbeki was still steering the ship of state through the peculiar optic of an ANC narrative which corresponded poorly with reality. It was a very deficient rudder to steer by so it was hardly surprising that he hit the rocks.

In the end Mbeki over-reached himself by dismissing Zuma and attempting to secure a third term. A Nyerere could have got away with that but South Africa is not Tanzania. In the great revulsion this provoked the present politics of ANC factionalism was born. Zuma was fighting for his political life and suddenly all other groups (including the press) realised that there was not just one monolithic ANC any more and this was the condition of freedom for them all. The press became much more free and critical and the ANC crystallised out into Mbeki and Zuma wings within every city, province and state institution. In addition, all manner of little local ANC bosses prospered, each with their own fiefdoms, their own rackets and their own patronage networks. By the end of Mbeki's term the monolithic party he had hoped to build had become a patchwork quilt of factions.

For all these new factions to exist, let alone flex their muscles, Mbeki's centralism had to be defeated, which was why Zuma was able to marshall most of these groups behind him at Polokwane in 2007. But with that centralist threat overthrown, the factions were free. Nothing necessarily linked them to Zuma thereafter and the centrifugal forces were strong. So strong indeed, that after 2009 - when the SACP leadership formally entered the government - strains grew rapidly between the SACP and Cosatu, who had hitherto enjoyed a fraternal relationship comparable to that between the PCF and CGT in France or the PCI and CGIL in Italy.

But now the SACP was in government and, notoriously, enjoying its perks, while Cosatu remained outside. Increasingly, its leader, Zwelinzima Vavi, saw himself as the tribune of all the dispossessed and saw the SACP leaders as men who had accepted the King's shilling. The crux came over Vavi's biting criticism of the ANC's "predatory elite". No such criticism came from the SACP leaders, Blade Nzimande and Jeremy Cronin, who were, after all, now members of that elite. Rumours multiplied that Vavi, furious that Nzimande had forsaken the SACP's historic role for a mess of potage, might challenge Nzimande for the Party leadership.

Both Cosatu and the SACP were, however, senior members of the Triple Alliance. The ANCYL has no such status: it is just the junior wing of the ANC and has no right to attend or speak when the Big Men of the alliance get together to thrash out the great questions of the day. Malema and his coterie, mindful of the ANCYL's historic role, were unwilling to accept such relegation. They wished to assert their right to drive ANC policy and they hit on the perfect tactic to do so: they would wrap themselves in the Freedom Charter - who could argue with that? - and then use that to insist on the Charter's full implementation, including the nationalization of the banks and mines and the transfer to those who work it. This would embarrass both their ANC seniors and both other major factions. After all, wasn't the Charter supposed to be ANC policy? And if it wasn't, what then was this new policy that had displaced the Charter, and which of their elders would disavow the Charter?

There was no really good answer to this. Mandela had early on disavowed nationalization when he had realised how lethal its effect would be on foreign capital markets. Since then the ANC and its partners had tried Gear, the New Growth Path and endless smaller initiatives. In reality, and despite a great deal of wordy rhetoric about the National Democratic Revolution, their policy was now one of muddling through and they wanted nothing more than to be allowed to continue to bumble along as before. In 1994 the ANC posters read just "Jobs, jobs, jobs". Unemployment then rose steadily. Every now and again the government unveils a great new initiative to create a million jobs or even five million jobs but after seventeen years the unemployment figures remain far worse than they ever were under apartheid.

Many of the ANC's new laws have quite clearly cut the number of jobs and no one in the leadership seems greatly bothered about this. The latest idea seems to be fund a vast new National Health Initiative by a payroll tax - that is, quite openly, a tax on jobs. This is the economics of Disneyland. Quite transparently, many of the ministers are most concerned to feather their own nests and Zuma to build Nkandla, his harem and the family fortune.

Thus by wrapping itself in the Freedom Charter the ANCYL challenged the government head on: why was it not implementing the Charter? The ANC leadership, who had continued happily to exalt the Charter on high days and holidays, were embarrassed to give the truthful answer which was that time and they had both moved on from the fantasies of white Communists penned over half a century before. Worse, throughout the long years of exile the ANC elite had grown to fear any critique which attacked them from the left and thus left them accused of being "sell-outs" or "counter-revolutionaries".

Such terms had been lethal to many a career so everyone in the ANC had learned to congratulate others and themselves on behaving in the "correct" and "revolutionary" manner. Malema now caught them in their own rhetorical trap and no one was keen to answer him. But the ANCYL was also clearly challenging Cosatu and the SACP - not just wanting status parity with them but criticizing them for having accepted a settlement falling far short of the Freedom Charter. Cosatu and the SACP naturally disliked this and so factional battle was joined. What hurt was that Malema's point was valid.

Even in Slovo's time the SACP had quietly slid away from its commitment to nationalisation - instead the Party liked to talk of "socialization", a deliberately little understood term. For Slovo, like Mbeki, had quietly abandoned the Freedom Charter without saying so. Yet what was a Communist Party all about if it did not favour the nationalisation of industry?

The second in this two part series can be found here. This article was published with the assistance of the Friedrich-Naumann-Stiftung für die Freiheit.

FOOTNOTES:

[1] S.Couper, Albert Luthuli: Bound by Faith, p.70.

[2] Communication from Laurence Schlemmer, 20.6.11.
_____________
Hat Tip: JP

Why Africa Will Never Succeed

2011-06-01T11:53:00.000-07:00

I expect, like me, you are aware that there has never been a prosperous black led country, but perhaps just blamed their “bad luck”, or whatever, for that uncontradictable fact.

Take Haiti as an example. Before the black slaves revolted and killed all the whites and half castes Haiti had a GNP greater than most of what is now the USA. It supplied 60% of all the sugar used in Europe.

Today it is a wasteland. Apparently if you Google Earth the place it is a sere, brown colour compared to the neighbouring Dominican Republic which is green and verdant.

Twice the USA has occupied Haiti, building roads, ports, hospitals and schools while putting in a functional society,

The moment the Americans left they reverted to dictatorship, voodoo, witchcraft, corruption and barbarism.

They did not stagnate. They regressed to the primitive savagery of their forefathers

Since the 1960s, when the Congo expelled the Belgians this has been a mirror of African regression , moving steadily southwards until the example of Zimbabwe. Once a prosperous, well educated exporter of food the population now eat rats to survive.

Will SA go the same way?

There are those optimists who say “No, we have such a strong economy, such sophisticated infrastructure, such a talent pool, that we can never sink”.

My belief is that they have not considered the root cause of Africa’s failure. A cause that is not spoken about as it is fearfully politically incorrect, and probably illegal to speak about.

To speak about it causes recollections of Hitler’s eugenics beliefs and the horrors that followed.

That cause is the deficiencies of the black ”mentality”, for want of a better word.

Are there differences between races, or is race just a meaningless social construct? Until recently I believed all races were the same under the skin variations, and that perceived differences were only the result of cultural differences. I believed in a common and equal humanity.

But things did not always ring true, observable anomalies were inexplicable if all men are the same.

Why, under apartheid, did the South African Indians prosper, become doctors, scientists, educators, merchants and professionals while the equally oppressed black Africans remained hewers of wood?

Why are Jews more than 12 times more likely to be Nobel Prize recipients than goyim? Why do they command the heights in academia, the arts, business and science?

Why can black Africans run, jump and throw better than whites, but why, out of a billion of them, have they never invented a single thing of any worth? Why have they, collectively, contributed absolutely nothing to the advancement of humanity.

Well the physical thing, the running, throwing bit is easily and uncontroversially answered. Simple, they (especially the Jamaicans) are genetically better equipped in this regard. Their muscle fibres are different and the typically have 15% more free testosterone than other peoples. That does not explain the Jewish or East Asiatic superiority in academics, science or any other meaningful sphere. Surely it cannot be genetic? That is racism.

Unfortunately, racist or not, that is proven and a fact. Google it and you will find that for over 70 years, in test after test, done by dozens of university professors and Nobel laureates plus USA government studies, Jews are the most intelligent of humans followed by East Asians. Then come westerners then, trailing by a wide margin, people of African descent.

I refer to I.Q. tests and the results of these . Jews come in at about 114 points, East Asians about 108, white Europeans 100, African Americans (with their mixed ancestry) 85 and sub Saharan Africans a lowly 70 odd.

Of course I.Q. tests have been attacked, especially by those who perform badly at them, as one might expect them to do. Detractors claim cultural bias, dysfunctional families, past oppression, poor schooling and a host of other reasons for poor black performance, but the professors defend their contention that I.Q. is largely an inherited trait, that differences are inherent, built into a person’s inherited DNA.

For every argument attacking the validity of these tests they have a host of results confirming their accuracy and typicality. Fascinating stuff if you are interested in reading up on it.

The effect of high/low I.Q. has also been studied in depth, with fairly predictable results. Low I.Q. individuals performed badly in social class, family stability, income, educational levels, illegitimate pregnancy, single parent families rate of prison incarceration, rape, violent crime etc. etc. etc.

I.Q. measurement measures different facets of intelligence and mental competence. Sadly it is in the absolutely vital sphere of cognitive ability that blacks score worst. This means they score abysmally in things like forward planning and anticipating the consequences of their actions, or inaction.

It is this I.Q. (and testosterone) disparity that is blamed for the fact that African Americans are 5 times more likely to be imprisoned than white (including Hispanic) Americans, 9 times more likely than Americans of Asiatic descent and 14 times more likely to be jailed than Jewish Americans. All in line with I.Q. distributions.

Once imprisonment for violent crimes are computed the numbers become stratospheric. These are American government collated statistics, so pretty accurate.

Our government in SA do not, for obvious reasons, publish similar stats, but a pound to a pinch of salt they are even more astounding.

So why the lecture on I.Q.?

Well for a start you must understand that our ruling party are voted into power by a largely moronic plebiscite. I choose the word moronic intentionally. If the cut off point for moronic is an I.Q. of 70, half the voting population would be classified as such.

Only one in 40 black SAns achieves the average I.Q. of his white fellow citizens. One in a hundred have the I.Q. to achieve university entrance requirements. That is why only one in ten blacks pass our dumbed down matric (with a pass percentage of 30% in many cases). Only one in 6000 black grade one learners will pass matric with both Maths and Science.

Simply put, they are bloody stupid, and they rule us. Furthermore Zuma says they will rule us until the second coming. I believe him.

This explains why the ANC have such idiots in their positions of power and influence, the likes of Zuma, Malema, Khomphela and Cele. They are, unfortunately, the best they have! Well they are the best blacks they have. All the critical positions are held by Indians, Coloureds or Whites, something I am grateful for but which annoys Malema considerably.

Will this last? I doubt it. The black/white polarisation is growing and the rhetoric is becoming more extreme. Listen to the pub or workplace chatter, read the blogs and comments sections of the newspapers and it becomes obvious. Whites are fed up at the waste, corruption and stupidity of the black elite. Blacks are demanding, as their right, the wealth of the whites by means of redistribution of assets. No matter that they have not worked for those assets, they claim them as the spoils of war.

Recently the Mayor of Pretoria, Malema, a minister and Winnie Mandela have gone on record as blaming whites for sabotaging redistribution and exploiting blacks. Malema calls out “Kill the boers for they are rapists” to thunderous applause by university students. Four influential ANC opinion makers who are echoing the groundswell of mutterings in the ghettoes. The natives are getting restless.

*CONFLICT IS COMING! Mark my words.

Things are not going to improve. They cannot, there is no reason to believe our slow slide into a failed state can be reversed with our current regime, and there is no prospect whatsoever of there being a change to governance based on meritocracy. Anyone who believes otherwise, or that the ANC can mend their ways, is living in La-La land. They do not have the intellect.

Like the proverbial frog in the slowly heating pot we have become inured to the slow collapse of our hospitals, schools, courts,water supplies, roads, civil service and service levels. They will become totally dysfunctional shortly. Inevitably so. Those in charge do not have the mental capacity or foresight to organise things.

Our economy and Rand is reliant on short term “hot” funds from overseas that can flee at the touch of a computer button, and probably will if our Rand weakens. Conversely we need a weaker Rand to encourage exports.

6 million taxpayers support 12 million recipients of social grants, and that figure is set to rise this year. The National Health Insurance scheme will happen, no matter how unaffordable. That will push our social grant costs up to four hundred billion Rand. Four hundred billion Rand which produces absolutely no product. Inflation is set to stay and worsen. The consequence of being the biggest socialist state on earth. I do not believe the ANC has the intellect to conceptualise how big a billion is, let alone 400 billion, or what effect this will have on the economy.

You do not believe Malema’s call to nationalise the mines? This man articulates what the hoi polloi are thinking, but the ANC leadership will not say yet. The tactic is to set the bar high, then lower it and the victims will sigh with relief and say it could have been worse. So perhaps it will not be total nationalisation but rather 51%, a’ la Zimbabwe. Just look north for revelation, Zuma does.

Who would have believed that this country of Jan Smuts would ever be headed by an unschooled, rape accused, adulterous, corrupt, sex obsessed bigot like Zuma. Anything is possible with the ANC.

Summary.

You have few years left to enjoy what is left of the glorious SA lifestyle, especially in the Cape, but understand it is not permanent. The end could be sudden as the tipping point is reached, just as it was sudden for those Zimbabwean, Zambian, Mocambican or Angolan whites. It could, conceivably, be as bloody as the Hutu/Tutsi uprising when primitive tribal bloodlust overcomes a thin veneer of inculcated civilisation.

Enjoy it while you can, and enjoy it in the Cape where the population mix is more favourable, but be aware that change is inevitable. Your children must get a world class education, because they will not be adults in South Africa.

Get assets stashed offshore, you and your children will need them there.

This article is attributed to:

Graham Allardice

Project Manager MPED

Toyota SA Manufacturing

Durban

Written c2009 to 2010

______________

Hat Tip: Laager

This is gonna hurt a little - Façade 42: It is time for Julius Malema and the ANC to admit....

2011-05-19T13:55:00.000-07:00

By Steve Hofmeyr

Steve Hofmeyr is an Afrikaner entertainer resident in South Africa who is taking on Julius Malema in public

_________________________

Afrikaners/Whites are suffering from confession fatigue. Even their children are now paying for the “sins of their forefathers”. They have had to admit to past injustices and are now made to apologise for any prevailing failures. They are secondhand citizens made to pay firsthand taxes. Blaming them is a relief valve for black leadership who has demonstrated zero accountability, confusing self-enrichment with achievement. Hate speech songs (“Kill the Boer”) as sung by ANC leadership are met with quiet insolence and even pride. Our government is now defending(with taxpayers money!) the right of that chant in court. Peter (“One Boer One Bullet”) Mokaba has a FIFA World Cup Soccer stadium named after him. All this while we sport the the most brutal murder-rate in the world, second only to Columbia. Once again, blameless Afrocentric arrogance abounds while we are asked to tolerate pathetic matric exam results and understand perpetrators’ rights. Although South Africans have incompatible memories, collectively we are all heirs of extremely aggravating circumstances. The defeatist victim mentality perpetuates condescendence and alas, inequality. We could have taught the world something. We have not.
It’s time...
1.    It is time for Julius Malema to admit that Struggle math doesn’t tally. Mitigating and aggravating factors can’t be quantified. Denialism and/or Black Empowerment here is hypocrisy and vulgar opportunism.
2.    It is time for Julius Malema to admit that the gravest acts of genocide did not occur during Colonialism/Apartheid, but before and after (read today). Right now South Africa has a lower life expectancy than Uganda.
3.    It is time for Julius Malema to admit that, unlike Native Americans and Australian Aboriginal genocide, first-nation populations in South Africa escalated under British/Afrikaner rule from 10-30 million in a few decades. Verwoerd was building African schools with Afrikaner money at the time Aussies could obtain fauna licenses to hunt fellow Australians.
4.    It is time for Julius Malema to admit that the only real genocide in South Africa was the Koi annihilation by his ancestors and what Shaka and Dingaan did to their own people. Today, once more, South Africans are wiping fellow citizens off the face of the earth.
5.    It is time for Julius Malema to admit that South Africans have lost more lives in the first four years of ANC rule than during the entire four decades of Nationalist rule. This statistic should be staggering by now, almost 18 years later.
6.    It is time for Julius Malema to admit that more Boer children died in the Anglo Boer War than South Africans in the entire century of the Struggle. Fact: twenty times more. Let’s talk entitlement.
7.    It is time for Julius Malema to admit that discontented South Africans of European descent do not burn down schools, drop their pants, capsize dustbins, plunder and intimidate hospital workers during marches and strikes. We certainly do our share of bad things, but we do not sing while babies die in maternity wards.
8.    It is time for Julius Malema to see the folly of transformation from Western democracies to Africa-socialism, placing need over achievement. Everybody is poorer and unemployment rife. There is nothing “just” about economic equality when it implies market tampering.
9.    It is time for Julius Malema (and Robert Mugabe) to admit to the futility of still blaming this on previous regimes. That redemption tool is now exhausted and merely perpetuates condescension and promotes professional suffering.
10.    It is time for Julius Malema to admit that the demonized Afrikaner was also the rightful owner of land they had acquired after a brutal war they had lost, at enormous human cost. Trivialising a blood sacrifice is insensitive and dangerous. Don’t question Afrikaner reluctance to assimilate before you get this.
11.    It is time for Julius Malema to admit that Verwoerd entrusted Malema’s tax-exempt great-grandfathers with gratis homeland larger than achiever-countries like Denmark, Norway and Switzerland, and still came up with nothing to show for it. Many Afrikaners found Verwoerd way too liberal with their tax money.
12.    It is time for Julius Malema to admit to his actual Western appetite combined with Africans’ neurotic leap from mother tongue education to English, a treason which may still erase the little literature and heritage they had bothered to record.
13.    It is time for Julius Malema to admit he can only favour place name changes in envy, as not one single Western city, town or street was stolen from anybody on this continent. A child can solve land claims.
14.    It is time for Julius Malema to admit that almost all former fruitful farmland dispossessed in land claims, have suffered the same fate – brutal sterilization.
15.    It is time for Julius Malema to admit that more Afrikaner farmers are slaughtered annually than South Africans who died during the Sharpeville violence, a figure that dwarfs Ireland’s national mortality rate (FYI, Bono).
16.    It is time for Julius Malema to admit that the new South Africa has contributed nothing to the world stage but shame and catch-up. This explains the following patronizing and affirmative therapy organizations:
Black African Cricket Forum, Black Broker Service Network (BBSN), Black Brokers Forum (BBF), Black Business Council, Black Business Forum, Black Business Woman Association (BBWA) , Black Editors' Forum, Black Filmmakers Network (BFN), is a network of over 200 individuals and 25 companies nationally, Black IT Forum (BITF), Black Law Students' Forum, Black Lawyers Association, Black Leadership Forum, Black Management Forum, Black South African Students’ Organization (SASO), FEW - black lesbian organization in South Africa, Forum of Black Journalists, National Black Contractors and Allied Trades Forum (Nabcat), National Forum for Black Public Administrators (NFBPA), National Society of Black Engineers, etc.
17.    It is time for Julius Malema to admit that the voters of the previous regime really voted the ANC into power and that they rule by the grace of a benevolent yes-vote in a referendum in 1992. He was pre-teen then. Everyday he parades his hypocrisy that yes-vote lives in regret.
18.    It is time for Julius Malema to admit that the killers and rapists in his songs are NOT an Afrikaner statistic. Examples abound 1,2,3. The greatest butchers of South Africans, by far, were his own ancestors (Dingaan en Shaka). Today 3500 plus Afrikaner farmers are no longer with us. This vile statistic of ethnic cleansing accumulates daily and is generally ignored.
19.    It is time for Julius Malema to admit that poverty will prevail for as long as they keep in power a government defined by nepotism, judiciary containment, golden handshakes, silent diplomacy, BEE charters, unprecedented unemployment, unethical grants, land grabs, tenderpreneurs and futile dreams of nationalization. A Welfare state of these proportions renders working men obsolete.
20.    It’s time for Julius Malema to admit that the book on tender procedures has been rewritten by ANC cronies, comrades and families. By October 2010 the amount of R26 billion of that had been investigated as fraudulent (The Star , 28 October 2010). By April 2011 the national press editorialized corruption as epidemic.
21.    It is time for Julius Malema and other instant millionaires to admit that one may only keep what one earns. This is capitalism. Fallible but unchallenged. Possessing what you did not earn is common theft in any language. “Deserving” politicians, nationalization, landgrab etc. translate to Afrikaans as theft, theft and theft.
22.    It is time for Julius Malema to admit culpability in keeping leaders in power who are dragging this fine nation to the bottom of international management, development and mortality indexes. The latter is the measure of civilization while we sport a lower life expectancy than Uganda. The 2010 Global Competiveness Report by the World Economic Forum rated the new, fair and Democratic South Africa such:
• Quality of the education system – 130th out of 139
• Quality of primary education – 125th out of 139
• Quality of math and science education - 137th out of 139
• HIV prevalence - 136th out of 139
• Life expectancy – 127th out of 139
• Infant mortality – 109th out of 139
• Tuberculosis incidence - 138th out of 139
• Business impact of HIV/AIDS - 138th out of 139
23.    It is time for Julius to explain to other Africans that circumcision and muti rituals are pre-civilization quackery, that AIDS is not cured by raping virgins and that sangomas will always be inferior to the Western tradition of health awareness as a science and a discipline.
24.    It is time for Julius Malema to admit that African folk are still dependent on what South African governments force other South Africans to do for them. Blunt patronization.
25.    It is time for Julius Malema to admit that he has run out of reasons and time to blame the previous regime and to sever the defeating umbilical chord of Afrodebt. Ironically, the only two former colonized states which became global achievers (India and China), did exactly that.
26.    It’s time for Malema to understand that the settler lineage will never fall for the Struggle propaganda that their contribution and sacrifices were insignificant. You cannot suppress their heritage by stealing the names of world class towns, cities and well established infrastructure; you can only defile it by not sustaining that incredible progress.
27.    It’s time for Julius Malema to show gratitude for a tribe who sacrificed almost 40 000 of its own population to rightfully own a country Africans acquired by virtue of outnumbering them and then agitating for a democracy.
28.    It is time for Malema to admit that one man’s liberty was always another man’s devastation and that the entitlement tug-a-war can only be solved by immediately declaring a breakeven point. Stop BEE, AA, quotas, EE and affirmative therapy right now.
29.    It is time for Julius Malema to admit that it is inconsequential to bemoan Western influence when everything you do is for Western style affluence and thanks to Western influence.
30.    It is time for Julius Malema to admit that nobody wants to rescue Apartheid, but that redress is only possible if something legally owned was taken away. Forced removals were regrettable but almost never done without offers of compensation. Why is this fact omitted when rallying up emotions to grab land?
31.    It is time for Julius Malema to admit that the oppressed during the Struggle has long since assumed and surpassed the role of the former oppressor. Collective amnesia at this point in our dour histories is dishonest and suicidal.
32.    It is time for Julius Malema to admit that his ancestors of the time were not invited to the Peace Treaty of Vereeniging, because they were, despite their numbers, economically, technologically, militarily and politically insignificant. This explains decades and decades of gross minority rule.
33.    It is time for Julius Malema to admit that Afrikaners would not have stood for subjugation by any minority, ever.
34.    It is time for Julius Malema to read the previous point again and ask the relevant questions.
35.    It is time for Julius Malema to admit that the colonised is a colonisable individual, and a very envious one at that (Fanon). The pathology of eternal debt is misguided.
36.    It is time for Malema to admit that no South Africans want to return to a pre-Eurocentric African state of mind and affairs. African anti-Western defiance is populist diatribe and hypocritical banter tagged with a huge dollar sign.
37.    It is time for Julius Malema to admit that Africa is the orphan continent thanks to many that went before him, fat-cat despots who sounded exactly like him.
38.    It is time for Julius Malema to admit that not one single leader, minister or mayor has been voted in legally or democratically. More than half of South Africans still don’t vote. The politically inept and unqualified surface and after being discredited, resurface elsewhere under the banner of ANC aegis.
39.    It is time for Julius Malema to admit that South Africa produces almost 25% of this continent’s GDP . SA qualifies to host world cup events on this continent. Not bad for the land that surrendered "colonial" rule stone last.
40.    It is time for Julius Malema to see that it is pathetic to use old buildings, highways, systems and infrastructure but pretend to be demoralized by the sight of old flags.
41.    It is time for Julius Malema to admit to the sometimes mutual incompatibility between hatespeech and traditional songs, the way Afrikaners had to sacrifice traditional terms like “kaffer”. He can not have his cake and eat it. If some can chant “kill the Boer”, others will gladly reciprocate by revoking the vocable.
42.    It is time for Julius Malema to see that most South Africans do not want the old South Africa back. We all opt for an accountable government of any colour or tribe. What we do not want is our former head of police and Interpol boss serving time for corruption and the spouse of our Minister of Security as a convicted drug smuggler. We demand safety and a future for our children.

Now, Julius, go tally your populist and unfounded anti-western sentiments. You are keeping my South African compatriots victims in this sad old race to upstage Europeans. Ironically your efforts are still subsidized by white money. This you use gladly and squander greatly. We are not immigrating. We shall secure a future for our children in our motherland. This ship will be turned around by sober thinking South Africans, and I want to be there.
Steve Hofmeyr
*

ROY BENNETT- ADDRESS TO SA BUSINESS CLUB - 4 MAY 2011

2011-05-19T13:17:00.000-07:00

ROY BENNETT- ADDRESS TO SA BUSINESS CLUB

4 MAY 2011- NEW STREET SQUARE, LONDON ECLS 3BZ

Good Evening Distinguished Guests, Ladies and Gentlemen.

On behalf of my wife Heather, my party the Movement for Democratic Change, and of course the people of Zimbabwe, I thank the SA Business Club for the opportunity of engaging with like-minded people—people who care about the prospects of a democratic Southern Africa. Given the much esteemed personalities who have addressed this forum previously, I feel truly humbled.

I hope that my address helps to shed further light on the inescapable fact that Zimbabwe’s continuing trials and tribulations will increasingly impact negatively on South Africa, and on the region, if there is no true resolution of the crisis. A true resolution can only come when the theft of Zimbabwean votes is righted—when Zimbabweans are allowed to elect leaders of their choice.

Nearly twelve years ago, a close family friend of mine living in Johannesburg told me of a discussion he had had with one of Johannesburg’s celebrated business leaders. The gist of this conversation was along the lines of ‘Well even if President Mbeki has covered up for Mugabe, and the MDC actually did win the 2000 elections, so what?’ This whole issue will be seen by us in, South Africa as irrelevant and it will be business as usual—that’s ‘AFRICAN POLITICS’.

We all know now some of the more obvious results of President Mbeki’s policy of ‘Quiet Diplomacy’. South Africa has, for example, been overwhelmed by at least two million Zimbabwean migrants. This sad, unnecessary, traumatic exodus will be felt for decades and decades to come. Indeed, the effects cannot yet be fully evaluated. For the two million Zimbabweans cast into abject poverty, it is a human tragedy of epic proportions. If ever South Africans wanted to see the sheer scale of their misery, a visit at night to the Central Methodist Church in Johannesburg, is all that is needed. Bishop Paul Veryn and the Methodist Church will always be warmly remembered and admired by Zimbabweans for his single-handed, herculean efforts to ease the plight of homeless Zimbabweans.

The pressures exerted by desperate Zimbabweans, experienced across South Africa, has seen highly literate Zimbabweans compete for employment opportunities from white collar jobs to the most menial of tasks. This human contagion has already resulted in turmoil and social discord. Yet President Mbeki denied the very existence of xenophobia in South Africa, such was his disconnect with reality in his own country, let alone Zimbabwe.

I have news for all South Africans. If the result of the next Zimbabwean elections, likely to be held in early 2012, are not accepted by the MILITARY JUNTA/ZANU PF DICTATORSHIP and the resulting will of the people is again, for the fifth time, ignored, Zimbabweans will be left with no hope for a peaceful democratic future. They will pour into South Africa! But this flood of refugees will be different. The Zimbabweans, who will come to South Africa in 2012, will be older, much older and totally destitute. They will also be less educated, and they will most certainly not assimilate into South African society as well as the previous flood of Zimbabweans. They will become a DAILY, living reminder, on every street corner, of South Africa’s dreadful complicity in the subversion of democracy in our region. For Botswana, where Francistown groans under the weight of the Zimbabwean influx, the story will be the same. We are looking at an awful scenario.

Ladies and Gentlemen, please do not in any way simply brush this possible development aside. What we have in Zimbabwe is a ruthless coterie of thugs, bullies, and incompetent individuals, masquerading as a political organisation—ZANU-PF. They are capable of anything. Their capacity for institutionalised violence and torture is unprecedented, even in Africa. Most recently, they dragged my friend, the MDC’s Deputy Treasurer General, Honourable Elton Mangoma, to court in leg irons after an unpleasant and unjustified incarceration. Honourable Mangoma is Minister of Energy in this so called INCLUSIVE GOVERNMENT, and is a respected and influential leader in our party.

The South African Government and the governments in the region, as represented by SADC, MUST FINALLY and I repeat FINALLY, demand in simple unambiguous language, that ZANU-PF adhere to EACH AND EVERY condition that forms part of the Global Political Agreement. If they don’t, the REGION, the WHOLE REGION of Southern Africa, will feel the effects of their feebleness. Reluctance on behalf of SADC once again to reign in ZANU PF, will negatively and radically affect future regional business investment. It will be a red rag to the indigenization radicals in ZANU PF—a group that already has the whip hand—and the international investment risk profile for the entire region will go through the roof. It will also provide fuel for those in South African politics who see ZANU PF as blazing a trail, showing how the game should be played south of the Limpopo. This is not an exaggerated scenario. Every South African, Botswanan, Zambian, and Malawian citizen should demand from their governments that GADAFFI’S bosom buddy, ROBERT MUGABE, respect the peaceful democratic will of the people, and transfer power to the people’s choice, once their votes are tallied, after a peaceful electoral process. More than anyone, it is the South African business community that must see this scenario in full Technicolor and push its government to finally bring this nonsense to an end. Another pseudo-solution will be a disaster.

If any further proof is needed of ZANU PF’S failure to grasp reality, reflect for a moment on the absurdity of their most recent INDIGENIZATION demands. These are totally and utterly illegitimate, they are not endorsed by my party, and if implemented they will, as sure as day follows night, lay waste to Zimbabwe’s natural resources industry. If ever intelligent people are inclined to wonder what investors think of ZANU-PF’S nationalization/indigenization policies, just look what has happened to the value of PLATINUM shares such as IMPALA and ANGLO PLATINUM on the London Stock Exchange. It is beyond comprehension in today’s GLOBALISED competitive market place, to expect companies to cede 51% of their equity, and to fund the business going forward assuming their obligation and those of their NEW PARTNERS!

We only have to look back a few years to see what indigenization Mark 1 did to the country: we have gone down the road of ‘so called’ “Agricultural Land Reform”. Every Zimbabwean besides half-baked ZANU PF zealots knows now that agriculture and agri-business, hitherto Zimbabwe’s most productive sectors, have been virtually destroyed. Indicatively, literally all our groceries and food stuffs are imported, primarily from South Africa! Far from being liberated, we have become a Bantustan.

These are the legacies of ZANU-PF’S ‘BREAD BASKET, TO BASKET CASE IN TEN YEARS!’ How should business respond to these challenges? To begin, the desperate INDIGENISATION demands made upon well-known, respected London Listed companies must be disregarded. The majority party in Zimbabwe’s parliament is not a signatory to this institutionalised theft by individuals, posing as agents for the Zimbabwean people! Ladies and Gentlemen I also find the attempts by management of these companies to ‘NEGOTIATE’ an acceptable level of ‘theft’ quite nauseating. It is symptomatic of a worldwide malaise affecting many companies. Namely a gross failure to understand, that a country’s resources, whether they be Libyan, Egyptian or Zimbabwean, are not the property of illegitimate dictators, their wives and fellow travellers. The justifiable anger of the Egyptian people directed at the MUBARAK family should serve as a real wake up call to ZANU-PF. Zimbabweans have had enough of Grace Mugabe’s shopping trips using our peoples resources!

Ladies and Gentlemen, I am not an embittered ‘Rhodesian Farmer’. I am not a product of WHITE privilege. In fact most of you will be interested to know that many WHITE Zimbabweans complicit with the regime for monetary gain actually loathe me—I am ‘BENNETT the TROUBLE MAKER’ etc. I have often been asked to ‘CUT A DEAL’—‘ALL THEY WANT IS MONEY’ and so on. My constituency and reference point in life is the wonderful, brave ethical people of CHIMANIMANI and ZIMBABWE. A friend of mine once told me I have perhaps become the JOE SLOVO of Zimbabwean Politics. Being a simple Zimbabwean farmer, I didn’t know whether it was a compliment or a back handed snide remark, given how apparently unpopular the late JOE SLOVO was with many white South Africans! However, the steadfast bravery and support which I enjoy from ordinary Zimbabweans, reminds us all in Southern Africa of Nelson Mandela’s vision. This is what he had to say at his inauguration as democratic South Africa’s first president on the 10th May 1994 and it rings loud and clear for us tonight: ‘The time for the healing of wounds has come. The moment to bridge the chasms that divide us has come. The time to build is upon us... We enter into a covenant that we shall build the society in which all South Africans, both black and white, will be able to walk tall, without any fear in their hearts, assured of their inalienable right to human dignity- a rainbow nation at peace with itself and the world’ This is the part of the African National Congress that ZANU-PF can never resonate with. Since when should I accept that I have no rights in the country of my birth? Since when should Ndebele’s accept second class citizenship in Zimbabwe, and so on, and so on?

Is it too much in the 21st Century for Zimbabweans to expect access to functioning educational infrastructure, decent/effective health care, socially acceptable housing, and meaningful employment opportunities, with access to impartial courts of justice?

Zimbabweans demand that the fundamentals of democratic society, stolen by ZANU-PF, be returned to us. We are NO DIFFERENT from KENYANS; FROM IVORIANS. How are we different from the brave people of South Sudan, our African brothers and sisters in Tunisia, Libya and Egypt? The days of tyrants and dictators are over.

Individually, when evaluating the possibility of supporting MDC, all of us here need to reflect on the reality that the African National Congress is not aligned to ZANU-PF, and has little in common with it.

ZANU- PF’S history in the war of liberation was in Partnership with the PAC. When President Jacob Zuma, and ANC MK CADRES fought alongside freedom fighters in the then Rhodesia, President Zuma came under fire with comrades from ZAPU and their armed wing ZIPRA alongside him. The party of Luthuli, Mandela, Sisulu and Tambo is not, and can never be equated with ZANU-PF. ZANU-PF is the party of TRIBAL ETHNIC CLEANSING. Mugabe’s shameful extermination of thousands of Ndebele’s was a deliberate systematic pogrom of murder. Only recently Operation MURAMBATSVINA (CLEAN OUT THE FILTH) is yet another grotesque example of ZANU-PF’S ‘APARTHEID JACK BOOT’ approach to solving dissent. The similarity displayed by ZANU-PF’S disgusting destruction of people’s homes, mirrors the myriad actions of the Apartheid regime’s delinquent behaviour over many years with forced relocations. The shameful record of ZANU PF obligates every South African to speak out. ZANU PF constantly violates EVERY tenet, of the remarkable South African Constitution. We as MDC strive for people’s Constitution that is comparable.

The one strand that I sense is the real fundamental disconnect between the ANC and ZANU-PF, and which is at the core of the African National Congress and its Alliance Partners, is its declared commitment to non-racialism and the pre-eminence the ALLIANCE gives to HUMAN RIGHTS. We in the MDC, aspire to be a party, which shows by its decisions and policies, that we are in step with the vision of Nelson Mandela.

My involvement in the unfolding struggle is to ensure that fundamental HUMAN RIGHTS be entrenched in every component of our country’s new constitution. My struggle, and that of many Zimbabweans, demonstrates to people—irrespective of race—that those whose rights have been ignored, and trampled upon, are also citizens deserving to have their respect and dignity restored.

Now enough with the ‘gloom and doom’. Believe me; I am totally optimistic about Zimbabwe and the region’s future. With one caveat though: there is, in spite of what I have said, no room for any of you as mere spectators and arm chair critics! Accordingly, I urge each and every one of you, to genuinely engage in your own way directly in the fight for Southern Africa’s DEMOCRATIC FUTURE. A real life drama is playing out. Everyone is part of history in the making.

Most of you in this audience are probably sceptical about the suggestion that Zimbabwe has all the possibilities to become Africa’s ‘Switzerland’. But if one stops for a moment, and reflects on RWANDA’s dramatic progress over the past few years, Zimbabwe’s transformation is entirely feasible and optimistic.

My position heading up our party’s GLOBAL ADVOCACY campaign which embraces far, far more than FUNDRAISING, has enabled me to meet one-on-one, with some of the world’s most influential entrepreneurs, financiers and business leaders.

I find it simply incredible that LONDON and NEW YORK are more favourably disposed to Zimbabwe than South Africa. It is not ignorance either: whether the interest comes from Europe, Canada, or Brazil or Sweden, I have been warmly received.

Business opportunities will flourish in Zimbabwe as our economy begins to grow again. One of the world’s outstanding entrepreneurs confirmed to me, after a personal, on the ground visit to Zimbabwe recently, that unlike most African countries, ‘Everything, infrastructure-wise was built— power, roads, railways, schools, arms, factories, homes. It is always easier to rebuild than to create from scratch’. I was deeply impressed with his observations and advice.

My colleagues in party leadership positions will fast track ethical investment in every sector of the economy. It is South African business, those listed construction companies in South Africa, mining houses, exploration companies, health sector players that stand to benefit, if they engage properly. But perhaps significantly, it is individuals, who wish to re-connect with Africa, that offer our best hope for the future.

With a natural resources boom underway, and likely to be in play for some time ahead, the fundamentals of SUPPLY and CAPACITY constraints continue to undermine landlocked Southern Congo, Zimbabwe, Zambia and Botswana’s ability to effectively leverage the value of their mineral resources.

As long as Zimbabwe, which acts as the LOGISTICS HUB for Central Africa, is rightfully perceived by the investment community as another SOMALIA in the making, Botswana, Zambia and the resource-rich Southern Congo, will be deprived of natural resources growth investment. An efficient rail network is required in the region. Investment of this scale clearly requires a measure of stability going forward. This is just one fundamental reality beyond the scope and capacity of ZANU-PF to understand.

Our Party’s is a broad church. Its bedrock is the Zimbabwean people, most of who are recognised throughout Africa as industrious, intelligent, educated individuals. Unlike many in Africa, we know the STATE cannot offer sustainable economic growth, employment or career opportunities. The institutions of the STATE are they HEALTH, EDUCATION, WATER AND SEWERAGE, RAILWAYS or ROADS, have been ruined by ZANU-PF.

Tremendous business opportunities therefore exist in Zimbabwe for tomorrow’s dynamic entrepreneurs. EVERYTHING, I repeat EVERYTHING, has to be RE-BUILT. The goodwill and financial capacity to fund this is available from the world community—if we get our politics right.

We look for inspiration to our friends in Botswana, South Africa, Zambia and our SADC partner Mauritius. Why can’t Zimbabwe emulate the development that is occurring in these countries?

Everyone can be sure of one thing. I speak to you tonight in all honesty, and filled with excitement of perhaps being able to look on as an elder figure, while the youngsters, the smart guys in our party, roll up their shirtsleeves and create a genuinely business-friendly environment in our beloved country. It is an honour for all Zimbabweans, and a singular reason for us to be proud, that our MDC Minister of Finance has become respected around the world. I acknowledge our economy’s modest size but reflect also on his achievements against all odds.

By helping us in Zimbabwe, to rid ourselves decisively of the scourge of ZANU-PF—folks it’s in South Africa’s selfish best interests. Here is a simple illustration of my argument. An MDC-led Zimbabwe will embrace broad based economic EMPOWERMENT initiatives that clearly sustain and encourage investment, which are supported by local communities and CIVIL SOCIETY. This carefully crafted legislation will be the genuine perfect alternative to POPULIST rhetoric in South Africa for the nationalisation of specific sectors. Zimbabwe has been down the nationalisation road to ruin and chaos. The evidence of abject failure is there for all who truly have the best interests of the region’s people at heart. We in Zimbabwe have seen the MOVIE, been there, and DONE THAT. Believe me; South Africa does not need to go down that road.

We yearn to show you all that Zimbabwe can, and with the hard-nosed good will of others, in time truly become an African Switzerland. We can, as predicted by MDC President Tsvangirai at the recent MDC party congress in Bulawayo, transform ourselves into a US$ 100 billion economy within 30 years.

While many among you may be sceptical, perhaps even cynical, Zimbabwe offers so many opportunities for those who are African in their souls. Those who wake up in Zimbabwe, and breathe that wonderful fresh, unpolluted air still believe. ‘Yes, we Can’ overcome the pervasiveness of failure and AFRO pessimism. Now is the time for action. Zimbabwe’s glass is most definitely half full and the future is that of opportunity and growth.

I would like to take this opportunity to say with pride MAKOROKOTO, AMHLOPHE, CONGRATULATIONS, to the MDC for last weekend’s successful historical third Party Congress. A big thank you to my fellow members for the confidence they have shown in my unopposed re-election, congratulate my colleagues on their election and join them in a commitment towards the next election, TOGETHER. UNITED, WINNING, READY FOR REAL CHANGE!

It has been a pleasure to talk to you this evening as an African talking to my fellow brothers and sisters from South Africa. I say THANK YOU-SIYABONGA- BAIE DANKIE- HAMBE GAHLE.

Skilled whites also facing racial purge - Solidarity

2011-03-12T10:07:00.000-08:00

Union says amendment will make racial demography only criterion for setting targets

Another affirmative action shock - available skills may no longer count

In yet another radical amendment to the affirmative action legislation, the Department of Labour has suggested that the availability of skills may no longer be used in the implementation of affirmative action. According to trade union Solidarity, employers are, under current legislation, required to take into account the skills available when affirmative action are implemented. This stipulation is going to be eliminated in accordance to the new proposals. The only measure which will be used to determine targets is the demography of the economically active population (EAP).

The government hereby fails to appreciate the fact that there is a skills shortage, according to Solidarity. It also corroborates the idea which the current government spokesperson Jimmy Manyi has announced. Manyi has already stated in 2007 that the skills shortage is only an urban legend. He reiterated this statement several times. This amendment only confirms Manyi's view that there is no skills shortage.

The underlying idea of the new amendment is that representation is the only measure for affirmative action. According to Beeld on 12 May 2010, Manyi also told the Steel and Engineering Industries Federation of South Africa that absolute representation is the only measure of employment equity.

"Despite this new amendment's failure to appreciate the problem, Blade Nzimande, Minister of Higher Education, emphasised in January this year that the economy is thwarted by the serious skills shortage. He further underlined the fact that South Africa has a shortage of artisans, in particular, and that approximately 10 000 artisans should be trained annually," said Dr Dirk Hermann, deputy general secretary of Solidarity.

Meanwhile, Solidarity reckons that the dissemination of skills between race groups cannot be ignored. "According to Statistics South Africa's data of the 2007 community survey, the distribution of qualifications is not a direct reflection of the distribution of the EAP.

In 2007 almost 52% of all South Africans above the age of 20 years who were in possession of a matric certificate with university exemption were Africans. In the same year, only 34% of South Africans older than 20 with an honours degree, and only 28% with a masters or doctors degree were black.

In contrast, 73,7% of South Africa's EAP are black. The application of the demographic profile of the EAP in the country can therefore not simply be used as the only measure, since people of the designated group with the applicable skills are frequently just not available. It is absurd to think that an employer may be penalised if he does not comply with employment equity targets in spite of a serious skills shortage," Hermann said.

The implementation of this legislation would lead to, among other things, positions being left vacant if suitable candidates from the designated group are not available. In the private sector this will hamper the growth of firms as well as economic growth in general. In the public service deteriorating service delivery will continue. This is despite President Jacob Zuma stating in his State of the Nation address that public service positions may not be left vacant.

The answer to the skills shortage in South Africa does not lie in ignoring it, but to confront it. True affirmative action will consist of launching large-scale skills development programmes. The new amendment to the legislation focuses on outcomes, namely racial targets. The correct approach will be change that stimulates input, namely training and development.

Solidarity has reiterated its plea that the amendment should be recalled.

Statement issued by Dirk Hermann, Deputy general secretary: Solidarity, March 6 2011

Source

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Hat tip JP

South Africa: Only a matter of time before the bomb explodes

2011-03-12T07:31:00.000-08:00

by Moeletsi Mbeki: Author, political commentator, entrepreneur and brother of the former South African president

I can predict when SA’s "Tunisia Day" will arrive. Tunisia Day is when the masses rise against the powers that be, as happened recently in Tunisia. The year will be 2020, give or take a couple of years. The year 2020 is when China estimates that its current minerals-intensive industrialisation phase will be concluded.

For SA, this will mean the African National Congress (ANC) government will have to cut back on social grants, which it uses to placate the black poor and to get their votes. China’s current industrialisation phase has forced up the prices of SA’s minerals, which has enabled the government to finance social welfare programmes.

The ANC inherited a flawed, complex society it barely understood; its tinkerings with it are turning it into an explosive cocktail. The ANC leaders are like a group of children playing with a hand grenade. One day one of them will figure out how to pull out the pin and everyone will be killed.

A famous African liberation movement, the National Liberation Front of Algeria, after tinkering for 30 years, pulled the grenade pin by cancelling an election in 1991 that was won by the opposition Islamic Salvation Front. In the civil war that ensued, 200000 people were killed.

The former British prime minister, Margaret Thatcher, once commented that whoever thought that the ANC could rule SA was living in Cloud Cuckoo Land. Why was Thatcher right? In the 16 years of ANC rule, all the symptoms of a government out of its depth have grown worse.

Life expectancy has declined from 65 years to 53 years since the ANC came to power;
In 2007, SA became a net food importer for the first time in its history;
The elimination of agricultural subsidies by the government led to the loss of 600000 farm workers’ jobs and the eviction from the commercial farming sector of about 2,4-million people between 1997 and 2007; and
The ANC stopped controlling the borders, leading to a flood of poor people into SA, which has led to conflicts between SA’s poor and foreign African migrants.

What should the ANC have done, or be doing?

The answer is quite straightforward. When they took control of the government in 1994, ANC leaders should have: identified what SA’s strengths were; identified what SA’s weaknesses were; and decided how to use the strengths to minimise and/or rectify the weaknesses.

A wise government would have persuaded the skilled white and Indian population to devote some of their time — even an hour a week — to train the black and coloured population to raise their skill levels.

What the ANC did instead when it came to power was to identify what its leaders and supporters wanted. It then used SA’s strengths to satisfy the short-term consumption demands of its supporters. In essence, this is what is called black economic empowerment (BEE).

BEE promotes a number of extremely negative socioeconomic trends in our country. It promotes a class of politicians dependent on big business and therefore promotes big business’s interests in the upper echelons of government. Second, BEE promotes an anti-entrepreneurial culture among the black middle class by legitimising an environment of entitlement. Third, affirmative action, a subset of BEE, promotes incompetence and corruption in the public sector by using ruling party allegiance and connections as the criteria for entry and promotion in the public service, instead of having tough public service entry examinations.

Let’s see where BEE, as we know it today, actually comes from. I first came across the concept of BEE from a company, which no longer exists, called Sankor. Sankor was the industrial division of Sanlam and it invented the concept of BEE.

The first purpose of BEE was to create a buffer group among the black political class that would become an ally of big business in SA. This buffer group would use its newfound power as controllers of the government to protect the assets of big business.

The buffer group would also protect the modus operandi of big business and thereby maintain the status quo in which South African business operates. That was the design of the big conglomerates.

Sanlam was soon followed by Anglo American. Sanlam established BEE vehicle Nail; Anglo established Real Africa, Johnnic and so forth. The conglomerates took their marginal assets, and gave them to politically influential black people, with the purpose, in my view, not to transform the economy but to create a black political class that is in alliance with the conglomerates and therefore wants to maintain the status quo of our economy and the way in which it operates.

But what is wrong with protecting SA’s conglomerates?

Well, there are many things wrong with how conglomerates operate and how they have structured our economy.

The economy has a strong built-in dependence on cheap labour;
It has a strong built-in dependence on the exploitation of primary resources;
It is strongly unfavourable to the development of skills in our general population;
It has a strong bias towards importing technology and economic solutions; and
It promotes inequality between citizens by creating a large, marginalised underclass.

Conglomerates are a vehicle, not for creating development in SA but for exploiting natural resources without creating in-depth, inclusive social and economic development, which is what SA needs. That is what is wrong with protecting conglomerates.

The second problem with the formula of BEE is that it does not create entrepreneurs. You are taking political leaders and politically connected people and giving them assets which, in the first instance, they don’t know how to manage. So you are not adding value. You are faced with the threat of undermining value by taking assets from people who were managing them and giving them to people who cannot manage them. BEE thus creates a class of idle rich ANC politicos.

My quarrel with BEE is that what the conglomerates are doing is developing a new culture in SA — not a culture of entrepreneurship, but an entitlement culture, whereby black people who want to go into business think that they should acquire assets free, and that somebody is there to make them rich, rather than that they should build enterprises from the ground.

But we cannot build black companies if what black entrepreneurs look forward to is the distribution of already existing assets from the conglomerates in return for becoming lobbyists for the conglomerates.

The third worrying trend is that the ANC-controlled state has now internalised the BEE model. We are now seeing the state trying to implement the same model that the conglomerates developed.

What is the state distributing? It is distributing jobs to party faithful and social welfare to the poor. This is a recipe for incompetence and corruption, both of which are endemic in SA. This is what explains the service delivery upheavals that are becoming a normal part of our environment.

So what is the correct road SA should be travelling?

We all accept that a socialist model, along the lines of the Soviet Union, is not workable for SA today. The creation of a state-owned economy is not a formula that is an option for SA or for many parts of the world. Therefore, if we want to develop SA instead of shuffling pre-existing wealth, we have to create new entrepreneurs, and we need to support existing entrepreneurs to diversify into new economic sectors.

Mbeki is the author of Architects of Poverty: Why African Capitalism Needs Changing. This article forms part of a series on transformation supplied by the Centre for Development and Enterprise.

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Hat Tip Dina

Gerrymandering: Social engineering's worst face

2011-02-27T08:43:00.000-08:00

Wikipedia definition: “In the process of setting electoral districts, rather than using uniform geographic standards, Gerrymandering is a practice of political corruption that attempts to establish a political advantage for a particular party or group by manipulating geographic boundaries to create partisan, incumbent-protected, and neutral districts. However, a gerrymander may also be used for purposes that some perceive as positive, notably in US federal voting district boundaries that produce a proportion of constituencies with an African-American or other minority in the majority (these are thus called "minority-majority districts").”

Manyi wanted Coloureds to move out WCape - Solidarity

Dirk Hermann

24 February 2011

Union posts video clip of former Labour DG complaining of minority overconcentration in province

Western Cape has "over-concentration" of coloured people, says Manyi

(In South Africa the term "Coloureds" refers to people of mixed race)

The trade union Solidarity posted a video of an interview with Jimmy Manyi, former director-general of labour and present government spokesperson, where he says there is an over-supply of coloured people in the Western Cape, on YouTube today. According to Manyi, the over-supply of coloureds in the Western Cape doesn't work for them. In the video he states that coloured people should "spread in the rest of the country" and "stop this over-concentration situation" in the province. He says the rest of the country should be looked at to see where there is a demand for coloured workers.

This interview with Manyi was broadcast on KykNet's Robinson Regstreeks in March 2010 while he was still the director-general of labour.

Unless the government repudiates Manyi's statements and withdraws the proposed amendment to labour legislation, these remarks will continue to be regarded as the government's official standpoint.

The proposed change to the Employment Equity Act (EEA), in terms of which national demographics and not regional demographics in provinces must be taken into account, corresponds with Manyi's views. The amendment makes provision for a large-scale social engineering programme according to which the entire country must be an exact replica of the national demographics.

According to Beeld, Manyi also told the Steel and Engineering Industries Federation of South Africa on 12 May 2010 that absolute representation is the only measure for employment equity.

The proposed amendment to the EEA is therefore not ambiguous. In fact, the amendment is a clear reflection of the effect of Manyi's ideological framework of representation and is not an inadvertent mistake.

Solidarity announced on Sunday that if the proposed amendment to the EEA is implemented to the letter, close to 80%, that is, about one million, of all economically active coloured people in the Western Cape will be over-represented. In addition, if the amendment is adopted, more than 300 000 Indians in KwaZulu-Natal will be over-represented.

"What we did with the figures was to point out the absurd consequences of the ideology of absolute representation. The ideology is now contained in a proposed amendment to legislation. We propose that the proposed change be withdrawn immediately," explains Dr Dirk Hermann, deputy general secretary of Solidarity.

Meanwhile, Solidarity also stresses that the problem with the bill is not limited to the removal of the regional demographic profile of the economically active population. In terms of the current legislation, present and future financial and economic factors can be taken into account in determining whether an employer complies with the EEA. The availability of qualified persons can also be taken into account. The new act does not make provision for these factors.

Source

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Hat Tip: JP

Farm attacks: An analysis

2011-02-27T07:12:00.000-08:00

writing in April 2010 James Myburgh argues that the criminal does not cancel out the political

JOHANNESBURG - The brutal killing of AWB leader Eugene Terre'Blanche has once again highlighted the murderous phenomenon of farm attacks in South Africa. According SAPS statistics there were 9,378 farm attacks, resulting in 1,437 killings, between 1994 and mid-2007 (at which point the police stopped publishing statistics.) These figures are staggering given that there are an estimated 40,000 commercial farmers in South Africa, down from 60,000 several years ago.

The question previously raised about these killings is whether there is some kind of malign political motive behind them. This concern has recently been sent into hyper drive by ANCYL President Julius Malema's singing of ‘shoot the boer' and the ANC's complacent defence of his right to do so.

But as the Mail & Guardian noted this week the phenomenon, despite being intermittently written about for the past decade, is not well understood. Part of the problem, perhaps, is the way in which it is often assumed that the ‘criminal' element of a killing (theft or robbery) automatically cancels out any possible political or racial motive.

On the face of it, this opposition seems to me to be misconceived. At the extreme: the persecution of prosperous minorities - whether in Germany or Uganda or Zimbabwe - almost always went hand-in-hand with the theft of their property. (Such annihilation processes are driven forwarded by a furious churn of motives - including resentment, greed, hatred and, ultimately, fear of justice and revenge.)

A proper study of the phenomenon of farm attacks would have to dissect the relationship (if any) between the criminal and political. The motives of the perpetrators would need to be teased out and analysed, as well as their political histories or lack thereof.

As far as I am aware this has never been convincingly done. Last year, however, the Daily Dispatch published an brilliant piece of investigative journalism into the phenomenon of attacks on Somali immigrants. This provides a fascinating insight into how prejudice, criminality and government indifference can combine with deadly results.

In his investigation Thaduxolo Jika conducted a series of prison interviews with Andile Tunzana - a criminal responsible for the murder of at least four Somali immigrants in the Eastern Cape. Tunzana explained why he had killed as follows: "We knew they had a lot of money in their shops and had no guns to fight back. We shot those who tried to resist and then looked for money. No one cared for them in the township because they are grigambas."

He added: "I did not care much about robbing any other person who looks like me because I know that they might be struggling to survive. The Somalis were just other foreign people with money and no one cared about them."

From Jika's report it is clear that Tunzana's actions were driven by a combination of criminal, opportunistic and racial motives. Somali shopkeepers were targeted not just because they had money to steal (the criminal), but because they were seen as soft and morally acceptable targets. The fact that the local community was indifferent to their fate made it easier to get away with these crimes.

It seems likely that many of the murders of (often old) white farmers by criminals would be driven by a similar combination of motives. Farmers are isolated and vulnerable. They also possess valuable goods (often guns) which makes them worth targeting. For many young criminal psychopaths this is probably reason enough to attack these targets. The key question is though whether farmers are seen as legitimate targets in the same way that Somali shopkeepers were?

It is in this context that the culpability of the ANC needs to be evaluated. At the very best the ruling party is guilty of malign neglect on such crime. Part of the reason why this epidemic has run unchecked for so long is that the ANC has done little to turn farmers from soft targets into hard targets. Indeed, their interventions (such as disbanding the commandos and pushing whites out of the police force) have tended to run in the opposite direction.

It is also difficult to see how Malema's rhetoric could not but provide a kind of moral green light to those thinking about targeting farmers. It is not just the singing of ‘shoot the boer' that is menacing. In an address to a Black Management Forum conference in October 2009 he stated, to the laughter of delegates, "At the negotiations pre-1994, they [the whites] said to us that for them to agree we must accept the willing buyer-willing seller idea. But now we must say we can't buy the land from you because you stole it from us." Is it really a crime, in other words, to take back ‘stolen' property?

The real problem is that Malema did not invent the song, or this propaganda. He is simply articulating - in a crude, reckless and self-destructive way - deep underlying pathologies within the ANC. As he recently noted he's been singing ‘shoot the boer' ever since joining the ANC, aged nine. No-one complained before. So why all the fuss now?

Source

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Hat Tip: JP

Farm murders "hurt SA economy"

2011-02-27T06:37:00.000-08:00

From a News24 report 23/02/2011

The wave of farm murders has triggered mounting concern within the agricultural community which is demanding immediate steps to stop it, the commercial farming body Agri SA said on Wednesday.

"I am frustrated that the horror crimes farmers are exposed to are not priority crimes for the government,” said Johannes Moller, president of Agri SA, in a statement.

Moller said farm murders must be addressed as one of the “focal points” if government was serious about its aims to turn agriculture into an area for job creation.

He specifically referred to attitudes, statements and conduct that was needed from political role players to build a community where lives, property rights and cultural heritage was respected.

Full report
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Hat Tip Jenny w

More White South Africans murdered

2011-02-27T06:35:00.001-08:00

The ongoing carnage of South African whites, which some would have us believe is not happening, continued this week with at least a further three deaths. All the killings were officially blamed on robbery, but there is scant evidence to support such assumptions:

Man dies at Cape Small Holding

A 42-year-old man was found murdered in his home in Kraaifontein on this morning. Police were called by neighbours to a Joostenbergvlakte small holding in Kraaifontein, where the body was found around 05:30, said Captain Gerhard Niemand.

The man's body was found on a couch in his lounge with his hands tied with an electric cord and a stab wound to his chest.

According t the man's young children where asleep inside the house when what appeared to have been a robbery happened. The children were not harmed.

The murdered man's Toyota Tazz, which was stolen during the robbery, was found abandoned near Fisantekraal.

A case of murder and robbery was being investigated.

News report:
http://www.news24.com/SouthAfrica/News/Man-murdered-in-Cape-home-20110226

Question: if this was a "robbery" why was the only item "stolen" then abandoned?

Deaths at Family Barbecue

Two more white men were murdered earlier in the week, Edenvale residents Philip Jackson, 53, and Dillon Ensley, 21, were gunned down by armed black men while the victims were having a family barbecue in the backyard. There seemed no motive to justify for such excessive violence against an unarmed family: the so called ‘robbers’ only looted a few cellphones and some cash (the "robbery").

Present at the barbeque were Dillon Ensley, his girlfriend Stacey Jackson, 20, and her parents Pillip and Janet Jackson. Edenvale police said that while the four whites were being tied up in the kitchen, the men attempted to resist at which point Jackson was shot dead while Ensley was shot in the stomach. Mr Jackson died at the scene while Dillon Ensley died later in hospital.

The entire Afrikaans report can be read at: http://www.beeld.com/Suid-Afrika/Nuus/Vrou-se-pa-kerel-sterf-toe-rowers-toeslaan-20110225

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Hat tip Jenny W

The Unspoken Genocide Continues

2011-02-20T10:53:00.000-08:00

Only two days ago, on Friday, I reported the last South African farm killing, the victim of which is now named as Alberto Costa, and now I must update my figures and name another.

The latest victim was Mr. Helgard Muller of Frankfort in the Free State, who turned 66 during the week. He died in an ambulance on the way to hospital.

The incident took place on the farm Mara, about 15 km outside Frankfort. Mrs. Marietjie Muller and a domestic worker were alone when two men in their early twenties, armed with a gun entered the house and asked for money. Mrs. Muller, who is confined to a wheelchair, told the men she didn't have the key to the safe and her husband was not there. The men tied them up with shoelaces and rope and left them in different rooms.

An hour later Mr. Muller returned and was overpowered and shot in his head. The men made off with his truck which was later found on a gravel road nearby Frankfort. Mrs. Muller and the domestic worker were able to free themselves with a knife, and, although not hurt, were treated for shock.

News Report

I am told that there are additional reports stating that arrests have been made, and the weapon which killed Mr. Muller has been recovered, however, I am unable to find that story.

In a separate news report, South Africa's News 24 state that there has been a farm attack every day since President Jacob Zuma made his State of the Nation address in which he claimed that certain categories of crime were falling.
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Hat Tip: Heather C

South African farmer dies in shooting

2011-02-18T11:44:00.000-08:00

An, as yet unnamed, farmer in the hamlet of Cloetesville in South Africa's Western Cape was shot and killed during a shoot-out with a group of men who had broken into his house.

The attack took place when he went investigate a noise at 03:00 am this morning (Friday 18th Feb) and confronted two armed men in his home, at which point a shoot out occurred.

The 44 year old victim, he succumbed as a result of a gunshot wound to his chest. Mercifully his wife and two children escaped the ordeal unscathed.

The intruders left the property empty-handed though police believe a blood trail on the scene suggests one of them could have been injured.

Report at Censor Bugbear

Revising history to excuse the present

2011-01-31T22:06:00.000-08:00

By Robin Hind

One recent example is Operation House Number, an attempt to give addresses to informal settlement dwelling, in order to make it easier for the emergency services to locate individuals rapidly.

In announcing this the South African Broadcasting Corporation stated, in its 19.00h news bulletin on 25th January, that the absence of house numbers and street names had arisen because of apartheid as people tried to protect themselves from the security forces by anonymity.

Let us leave aside a dismissal of this ludicrous statement (because those with knowledgeable perspective to argue otherwise will meet the blank wall of inflexible assertion). However, a reality which is impossible to deny is that seventeen years have passed since apartheid was abolished, effectively a whole generation, but no attempt was made in that time by the residents to identify their house number . Why? There can be no other explanation than indolence, inertia, civic incapability, and the assumption that some superior group would eventually do this for these communities. It might then be justifiably wondered if these were not the true reasons why the problem had arisen in the first instance, totally unrelated to apartheid.

Such is the glaring irrationality that one wonders if the temerity of misinformation should not be tempered with embarrassment. However, it seems that this is not the case, perhaps because state organizations in South Africa, such as the South African Broadcasting Corporation, lack the insight and comprehension capabilities to be embarrassed.

The continued obsession with disinformation in South Africa (and the national disharmony which it causes) over-rides all reason and any desire for societal reconciliation

A special kind of stupidity

2011-01-14T07:22:00.000-08:00

RW Johnson on the South African govt's draft Land Tenure Security Bill

It is with a tremendous sense of déjà vu that I read the documents on PoliticsWeb on Land tenure Security. It is just over twelve years ago that Lawrie Schlemmer and I carried out the first - and as far as I know, the only - full-scale survey of farmer and farmworker attitudes in KwaZulu-Natal. (Those were the days, now sadly long gone, when the Helen Suzman Foundation was doing research projects.)

The extraordinary truth was that although a great deal was written about the rights and wrongs of the rural situation, no one had ever interviewed a properly representative sample of farmworkers. Typically the agrarian radicals who produced most of the literature had not spent time on farms (which they regarded as enemy territory) and the farmworkers they interviewed were, literally, sacked or evicted or ex-farmworkers whom they found at rural bus stops and taxi ranks - by definition an atypical and biased sample.

The people who did such research had hardly entered a farm or met a farmer but they got awards for their research. Welcome to the wonderful and dysfunctional world of academic South Africa. Have a look sometime at what passes for research into rural South Africa. It's often just straightforwardly embarrassing, with agrarian radicals pressing hard for land reform which never actually works.

Even more remarkably, such folk would often organize conferences about "rural livelihoods" and the like - omitting farmers. When the farmers asked if they could attend they were treated almost as if they didn't legitimately exist. Conference resolutions would be drawn up without taking them into account and would be pushed through by large, whipped majorities, usually insisting on all manner of ideological objectives which the farmers thought either impossible, fantastical or objectionable and often all three.

Judging by AgriSA's walk out from a recent such conference, such tactics continue. The key to all such research and all such politicking was a workerist approach which simply assumed that the employers were, so to speak, foreign devils and then assumed, against all empirical evidence, that if you removed the farmers you got something called land reform. What you actually got was chaos and starvation. At very best, the farmers were regarded as a necessary evil.

What this disregarded was the simple fact which Ministers of Agriculture round the world have all realised long ago, which is that you can only bring about change in commercial agriculture by working with and through farmers. Even if the Minister sends in farm inspectors, the farmers are, after all, the people in charge on the farm for at least 99% of the time. The farms are their property and the workers their employees. They are driven, very powerfully, by the exigencies of the climate, the seasons and the market. Those are forces that they absolutely have to obey and reckon with. It is extremely difficult for any outside agency to make much of a dent in that.

The KZN Agricultural Union - KwaNalu - was the only fully integrated, multiracial farming organization in South Africa. Mandela had regarded its formation as so important that he personally attended its inauguration (and danced at it). It had a majority of small black farmers and a large number of Indian sugar farmers as well as the province's main white commercial farmers.

Nonetheless, KwaNalu felt frustrated by the current situation and invited us to do the research. They were model clients - fascinated by what we had to tell them but utterly non-interfering in our research or analysis. We published our full results in a publication doubtless still available from the HSF: RW Johnson and Lawrence Schlemmer: Farmers and Farmworkers in KwaZulu-Natal. Employment Conditions, Labour Tenancy, Land reform, attitudes and relationships (HSF, December 1998, 98pp plus questionnaires).

We actually went onto all the farms and to ensure we got truthful responses we made sure that farmers and workers were interviewed out of sight and earshot of one another and by someone from their own language group. The results were then tabulated and analyzed by us, out of the reach of either farmers or farmworkers.

The results were extremely interesting and showed a far more harmonious situation than one might have divined from any of the radical agrarians' publications. On the whole farmers and farmworkers got on pretty well with one another and working conditions and wages were also much better than generally believed.

One reason this was so was that many farms were examples of what one might call working paternalism. For the farmer was first port of call for workers in need. Many received extra food from the farmer, or were provided with TV rooms on the farm, or had their children's school fees paid or were given interest-free loans or got lifts from the farmer into and out of the nearest town.

Once you added in all these small payments in kind, you realised that overall, farm wages were not uncompetitive and that farmworkers on a flourishing farm, where they had often worked all their lives, often had a greater sense of job security than most industrial workers.

Quite often the workers' schoolchildren, back on the farm during vacations, would ask for and get small farm jobs - painting a fence, washing a car, mowing a lawn - which provided them with pocket money. We were careful to ask the workers very closely about farmers who hit or abused them but the results were vanishingly small.

Continue reading

Thanks to JP

The Arrogance of Reflected Power

2011-01-14T06:52:00.000-08:00

Nelson Mandela's ex-wife Winnie Madikizela-Mandela is demanding an apology from two police officers who pulled over her car on the M1 highway because it was weaving recklessly through traffic at 150km/h.

"Who the fuck do you think you are," she repeatedly yelled at him and his colleagues, Warrant Officer Jannie Odendaal said on Tuesday.

"I didn't recognise her since she had white powder all over her face and looked much older than when I'd last seen her."

Odendaal, a member of the Gauteng police flying squad, said the occupants of the vehicle refused to identify themselves.

"I've been working my arse off in the police for 19 years and now I have to apologise to her for doing my job," said Odendaal.

A general in the office of the Gauteng chief of police, Lieutenant General Mzwandile Petros, told Odendaal that he would accompany them to Madikizela-Mandela so they can apologise.

Petros apologetic

Petros would then apologise on behalf of the police.

"I don't know if I still belong in the police if this is the way they treat me.

"It looks like they're accepting Ms Madikizela-Mandela's word above my own," said Odendaal.

At about 09:50 on December 30 2010, Odendaal and his colleague - who doesn't want to be identified or discuss the events - pulled over a silver Audi A6 at the Jan Smuts Avenue off ramp on the M1 north.

On orders from Petros, they were pulling over and searching vehicles.

According to Odendaal they had already noticed and followed the Audi at the Xavier Road off ramp.

"We decided to pull over the Audi and switched on our sirens and lights," Odendaal said.

The car, which has tinted windows, only stopped about 5km further.

Apartheid

"A man jumped out and yelled: 'Who the hell do you think you are to want to search this vehicle, we are not in the era of apartheid any more'," Odendaal said.

The man appeared to be one of Madikizela-Mandela's bodyguards. He bumped Odendaal against the chest, according to Odendaal.

"I fetched a taser from our vehicle to scare him off. He then said they are accompanying Ms Madikizela-Mandela and they're very late."

Odendaal's colleague insisted that he wanted to identify Madikizela-Mandela himself, but the man refused.

Odendaal says he and his colleagues were in full police uniform.

Madikizela-Mandela got out, yelled at them, and instructed her bodyguard and driver to drive on.

According to Odendaal they logged the incident, but no complaint was laid because they felt "nothing would come of it since it's Madikizela-Mandela".

Transferred

Last week they were informed that Madikizela-Mandela, her bodyguard and driver had submitted three complaints against them.

Odendaal says he was initially willing to swallow his pride and apologise, but has since changed his mind.

He and his colleague were transferred to other departments in the police on Friday until an internal investigation can be completed.

"We were asked to write a report and did so. We had to go to the provincial office where a general said Madikizela-Mandela would withdraw the complaints against us if we apologise to her."

Colonel Neville Malila, police spokesperson, said on Tuesday that a complaint of pointing a firearm and intimidation is being investigated against Odendaal and his colleague.

An internal investigation is also underway.

He said the bodyguards submitted these complaints. According to him the two policemen didn't speak to Petros and the case is considered sub judice.

source

Related article

Mama Whetu is officially above the Law

From Dina

Pensioner shot in face - bleeds for six hours before rescue

2010-12-29T02:26:00.000-08:00

Mr Willie van Zyl (58) A pensioner, was shot in the face by 4 men around 01:30 in his room on a smallholding near the Baviaanspoort jail, north east of Pretoria. He bled for 6 hours before found by his cousin.

He could not contact anybody for help because his cellphone was take by the attackers. It is uncertain if anything else was taken.

News report

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From Dina

Brandon Huntley to Appeal Canadian Asylum Ruling

2010-12-29T02:13:00.000-08:00

By Jinine Botha, Beeld

Johannesburg - The Canadian legal team of the white South African who was granted and then lost asylum status in Canada, is preparing to appeal the withdrawal of his right to remain in that country.

Brandon Huntley, 32, caused a stir in Canada and South Africa in 2009 when he claimed his fear of crime against whites made him a candidate for asylum, and a government board agreed.

Huntley, who grew up in Cape Town, claimed he had been attacked seven times by black robbers and called a “white dog” and a “settler”.

A panel of the Canadian immigration board found that his fear was justified and granted him asylum in August 2009.

Immigration Minister Jason Kenney appealed to the country’s federal court for a review of the decision by William Davis of the immigration and refugee board.

Pressure

Advocate Russell Kaplan, one of Huntley’s lawyers, alleged that Kenney would never have appealed the decision if not for “pressure, driven by allegations of racism” by the South African government.

Continue reading

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From Dina

Farm attacks over Christmas

2010-12-27T05:23:00.000-08:00

Marie Weilbach

79 year old retired dairy-farm owner Marie Weilbach died in hospital on Christmas eve as the result of brain damage caused by a vicious attack on her by two farm workers, the day before, at her farm south of Johannesburg, following what the press are somewhat bizarrely describing as a "wage dispute". An explanation for black violence against whites, which gained popularity with the media earlier this year following the equally violent murder of Eugene Terreblanche.

Eon Viljoen shot the attackers

Ms. Weilbach's assailants Mhlushwa Khoza and Mbongiseni Hornsby were subsequently shot dead by her grandson Eon Viljoen when they attempted to ambush him with a shotgun and lead piping.

We await to see how the racist ANC government will react to a white man using lethal force to defend himself and his family from black aggression.

Afrikaner language news report

Further commentary on this case can be read at South Africa Sucks

KwaZulu Natal killing

In a separate incident, I have been advised that a South African smallholder, Janine Meintjies, died on Christmas day following a hammer attack at her home in Dundee KwaZulu-Natal on Christmas Eve. I am unable to find news reports giving the circumstances of Ms Meintjies' death, or her age, other than that she was the mother of two small children.

Therefore, I have not yet included her as one of the victims of the on-going genocide pending receipt of further information. If anyone is able to provide additional details of this and other South African farm murders please forward them to me at sarahmaidofalbion@gmail.com

Farmer strangled, wife beaten and robbed

2010-12-18T10:24:00.000-08:00

A badly beaten Mrs. Schoeman in Hospital

An elderly South African farmer, 86 year old Tolstoy Schoeman was beaten and strangled to death by intruders at his farm near Badplass in Mpumalanga, shortly after midnight on Thursday .

The killers who were armed with a panga and a knife then severely beat Mr. Schoeman's 65 year old wife Güdryn before driving her to an ATM about 5 km outside of town where they forced her to withdraw cash. The killers then rolled the car and fled.

The amount of blood at the scene showed that the victim put up quite a fight before he was overpowered, tied up and strangled with his track suit pants.

Tolstoy Schoeman had farmed in the area for 46 years and had helped in building up the local town. His traumatised widow remains in hospital.

News report

Mr. Schoeman's death brings the total number of South African farmers and their families murdered since the end of Apartheid to at least 3,132, although some believe the number is as high as 3,700. Although the actual figures are covered up by the South African police and a controlled international media, it is widely estimated that the total number of South African whites murdered since 1994 is in excess of 35,000.
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Thanks to Mulder and Heather for this information

Six held after farm family murder

2010-12-02T14:44:00.000-08:00

Six people have been arrested and are being questioned over the brutal murder of a Lindley family.

Attie Potgieter, his wife Wilma and their three year old daughter Willemien were found murdered on their farm on Thursday morning. The South African farmer, in his 40s, had been attacked with a panga (machete), while his wife and infant daughter were shot.

Three of the suspects were arrested on the farm, while other three were picked up in the town of Lindley, Makhele said.

Most of the suspects are in their early twenties.

The commercial farming body, Free State Agriculture has condemned the killings with Free State Agriculture chief executive, Henk Vermeulen calling it senseless murder.

Lindley is a small town situated on the banks of the Vals River in the eastern Free State which was established by an American Presbyterian missionary named Daniel Lindley, who was the first ordained minister to the Voortrekkers in Natal.

The settlement of Lindley was laid out in 1875 on the farm Brandhoek and was proclaimed a town in 1878.

News source
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Hat Tip: Jenny and RBT

Free State Farm Murder

2010-10-30T12:24:00.000-07:00

Another South African farmer was murdered on Tuesday night on his farm near Warden in the Free State, between Johannesburg and Durban. 43 year old Christiaan van Wyngaard, owner of the Good Hope farm had been repeatedly stabbed with a sharp object.

According to police, farm workers found the body of the victim on Wednesday morning. The police also confirmed nothing was stolen and that Mr. Van Wyngaard's wallet and cell phone and other valuables were untouched. Nobody has been arrested for the murder.

Mr, Van Wyngaard's wife Marie (55) survived the incident but had to be treated for shock.

News report

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Hat tip: Mulder

Another Tanzanian Albino medicine killing

2010-10-24T04:24:00.000-07:00

The dismembered body of a young albino boy has been found in a river on the Burundi-Tanzania border, reports say.

The boy, aged nine, was taken from Makamba province in Burundi by a gang that crossed the border, the head of Burundi's albino association said.

Kassim Kazungu told AFP the remains had been recovered from the Malagarazi river and given a formal burial.

Albino body parts are prized in parts of Africa, with witch-doctors claiming they have special powers.

In Tanzania, the body parts of people living with albinism are used by witch-doctors for potions which they tell clients will help make them rich or healthy.

Dozens of albinos have been killed, and the killings have spread to neighbouring Burundi.

BBC Report

Elderly couple die in in gruesome double farm Murder

2010-10-18T09:55:00.000-07:00

Elizabeth and Jan Smit

From the News24 report dated October 15th: The small coastal town of Stilbaai in the Southern Cape has been rocked by the gruesome murders of an elderly couple (Since named as Jan and Elizabeth Smit, pictured above).

The bodies of the couple, both in their sixties, were found by police on their smallholding near Jongensfontein on Thursday.

A friend went to the smallholding at about 09:00 after she became concerned when she was unable to get hold of them, said Southern Cape police spokesperson Captain Malcolm Pojie.

"She saw the couple lying in the house and called the police. The woman was tied up and was presumably stabbed with a garden fork.

'Extremely gruesome murder'

"The man had several wounds to his body. It was an extremely gruesome murder and the house was a mess," added Pojie.

The couple were presumably murdered sometime between Tuesday and Thursday. Although their names are known to reporters, police said their identities would be revealed once their next-of-kin had been informed of their deaths.

Forensic officials were on Thursday night still searching the scene for clues, to determine how the murderer(s) had gained access to the house. Robbery was presumably the motive.

Reporters learned that the couple used to own a coffee shop in Stilbaai and had moved to the area from Lydenburg in Mpumalanga a number of years ago.

Dominee Willie Gouws of the NG congregation in Stilbaai said he had known the man and woman well. "They weren't registered members of the NG Church but they were very religious people."

Another Stilbaai resident, Philip Claasen, said the people of the town were shocked by the murder.

Retirement town

"It is totally unheard-of in Stilbaai. And totally unacceptable. They will have to look into these types of incidents.

"Keep in mind that 60% of the residents of Stilbaai are older than 60. It is a retirement town and the residents here are very exposed.

"There has definitely been an increase in crime recently. There are several elderly residents who live on smallholdings here," said Claassen.

He described the deceased as good, friendly people.

Pojie said post-mortems would soon be held on the couple.

By late on Thursday, no one had yet been arrested in connection with the murders.

News report
Censor Bugbear report on Farm Murders

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Hat Tip: Jenny and Ptr.M

Crime in South Africa an Update

2010-10-18T08:54:00.001-07:00

I am sorry this blog has not been updated recently, this is due to circumstances in my private life which have limited the amount of time I have been able to spend on the computer.

However, I would like to share just a small number of the news stories from South Africa which readers have sent me over the last six weeks:

Retired mechanic killed on smallholding

Mr. John Staples (79) was killed at a Roodepoort smallholding outside Bronkhorstspruit, at the end of September. Mr. Sarel van der Walt, Staples's son in law, said the exact circumstances of the murder is still unknown. "It seems they are one of the doors broken open and my late father in his bed, overwhelmed," Van der Walt said.

News report

Farmers forced to catch attackers

Farmers in Limpopo have condemned the police's slow response to a farm attack that took place near Marken on Sunday.

Instead, it was the farmers who ended up catching the suspects.

A farmer and his wife, both 66 years old, were attacked by three men who threatened them with a knife.

The farmer was tied up in an outside toilet while his wife was raped by all three attackers.

Spokesperson for the Transvaal Agricultural Union's northern branch (TAU-SA North), Dries Joubert, said "as usual" farmers were first on the scene after the farmer managed to untie himself and call for help.

"The landline of the Villa Nora police precinct has been out of order and the police gave us a cellphone number to report crime," said Joubert.

The cellphone number was not answered on Sunday, however.

News report

NZ Rugby coach stabbed

Former New Zealand rugby coach John Mitchell has been stabbed in a break-in at his home in Johannesburg.

Mitchell, who joined South African provincial side Lions as head coach in July, was attacked on October 9th. Mitchell had been stabbed in the thigh and upper arm after two burglars broke into the house he shared with fellow New Zealand-born coach Wayne Taylor in the wealthy Hyde Park suburb.

The former 46-year-old All Blacks player was taken to hospital in nearby Sandton, where he received stitches to the two wounds.

News report

State witness in corruption trial attacked on farm

A Jack Russell terrier probably saved the lives of a Wesselsbron farmer and his wife when it started barking wildly in the garden, alerting them to the presence of intruders.

Carel Marais, 59, a farmer and businessman, says the incident on his farm was no ordinary robbery or farm attack.

He says the four armed men were there to kill him to prevent him from testifying in a controversial corruption trial.

One of the defendants in the case is the brother of a Free State Provincial Executive Council member.

"There is no doubt in my mind that the four men - who each had R1 000 on them when they were arrested - were paid to kill me."

News report

SA Police Killed 860 in the last year

Altogether 860 people died at the hands of South African police or in their custody last year. According to the latest figurs, 294 suspects died in custody and a further 566 people were killed by police.

Of those, 46% died during the course of arrest and many others while a crime was under way. A further seven people were allegedly "tortured" to death.
Admittedly, the total killed are 6% down on last year

Report

Farmer's wife shoots attacker in the neck

In another farm attack on the farm Stormpan in the Freestate,a farmer's wife shot an attacker in the neck around 3am. Mrs Cecilia Steynberg (51) were home alone at the time because her husband had to go to Kroonstad. Fortunately she was woken up by her small dogs and heard the attacker. She took the gun from the safe and when the intruder rushed at her, she managed to shoot him in the neck at a range of around one meter.

News report

Father of two pretends he is dead after he is shot four times

The following attack took place in Koster which is a small town in a rural farming area however, it is not clear from the report whether this would constitute a farm attack

Mr. Coenie Pitout (35), Father of 2 little girls was shot 4 times by 3 intruders who broke into the family's home. Mr. Pitout's wife woke him up when she heard noises. Wrongly assuming his wife had heard the children he did not take any weapon with him. On entering the kitchen he was shot in the left cheek at close range by one of three intruders who confronted him. He put up a fight and was stabbed and shot a second time. The report then states that he managed to free his one daughter from one of the attackers so both girls could get to their Mother in the bedroom which has somewhat sinister implications. The mother then broke a window and fled to the neighbours.

The intruders then shot Pitout for a third time, this time in the shoulder whereupon he fell down pretending to be dying, in the hope that they would stop attacking him, but an attacker approached him, stepped on his face and shot him again, in the chest.

According to the police he attackers did not demanded money or any valuables.

Miraculously the victim survived the attack but as of he news report dated 28 September he remained in a serious condition in hospital

News Report

Six Year old found next to father's body

A 6year old girl from Vereeniging stayed with her father's corpse for 10 hours after he was killed by attackers who broke into their home in the three rivers area.

Mr. Christo Mouton (54), an accountant, who was working for Child Welfare for Vereeniging was shot in the heart.

The attackers fled with the TV and PC's only.

The girl was found next to her father's body by the house keeper the next morning.

News story

Additional recommended reading:

10,000 + SA Cops in Prison

Willem Ratte’s Declarations from Jail - Scroll down for English version

Are Afrikaner Whites Not South Africans?

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Thanks to Dina, Jenny, Birdman, Molder

The Bees Roux case

2010-09-02T12:07:00.000-07:00

Blue Bulls player Bees Roux

Apart from the ongoing public Sector strikes a major news story in South Africa at the moment involves white Blue Bulls Rugby player, Bees Roux, who has been arrested and charged with murdering a Black traffic policeman

To quote from South Africa Sucks

'Every day Whites are killed by blacks in South Africa. Thousands a year. Many do not even make the daily newspaper, but let it just be the other way around, or let a white just successfully defend himself against assault by blacks, then all hell breaks loose in South Africa.
In South Africa the law is on the side of the criminal. When a black breaks into the house of a white person and even attempts to stab the owner, the owner is not allowed to simply defend himself with a firearm.'

News reports

Roux's mother threatened by victim's brother

Pretoria - A credit card belonging to Blue Bulls prop Bees Roux, who has been charged with the murder of a Tshwane metro policeman, was used at a fast food restaurant shortly after the incident.

This is what Roux's legal representative, Rudi Krause, alleged in the Pretoria Magistrate's Court on Monday, where Roux applied for bail after the death on Friday of Sergeant Ntshimane Johannes Mohale, 38.

Krause said Roux's credit card was used at a McDonald's restaurant on Friday morning at 02:31 - between 30 minutes and an hour after Mohale was assaulted.

Roux appeared calm but slightly nervous in court.

About 50 metro police officials, including senior officials as well as Dikeledi Lehobye, mayoral committee member for community safety, were in the court.

Mohale's brother, Richard Taukobong, 48, called out to Roux "You fucking dog!" as he was led to the dock.

When Roux was led out for a short recess minutes later, Taukobong yelled: "I'm going to get your mother, you fucking dog!"

Metro police officials repeatedly had to hold Taukobong back. After the lunch hour, armed members of the police's tactical response unit entered the courtroom to maintain order.

Roux said in his statement to the court, which was read by Krause, that he is not a flight risk and that he has thus far done everything in his power to help the police with their investigation.

"I don't want to live like a fugitive."

The defence said Roux will plead not guilty and asked that bail be set at R5 000. They indicated that Roux earns R850 000 per year.

The State asked that it be set at R20 000. Chief Magistrate Desmond Nair, however, set bail at R100 000.

This was paid and Roux was released on Monday.

Report Continues

Bees "Was being blackmailed"

Bees Roux may have become the victim of blackmail at the hands of metro police officers, after he spent a drunken evening at an infamous strip-club in Pretoria.

Roux had been at the club, Flamingo’s in Church Street, until the early hours of the morning before he was flagged down by members of the Tshwane metro police.

Roux later was arrested for murder after an incident in which one of the metro policemen died.

Pieter Crous, owner of Flamingo’s, said on Wednesday that officers of the Tshwane metro police would wait for his clients to emerge in the early hours and then drive them to ATM machines.

“The clients must then draw money and give it to the metro police officers or face being arrested for driving while drunk,” explained Crous. He confirmed that Roux and a friend were at his club on Friday morning.

Full report

Police call on ancestors to haunt Bees Roux

Ancestors will be called on to haunt the alleged murderer of Johannes Mtshumane Mogale, executive director of policing Ndumiso Jaca said at the memorial service in Pretoria on Thursday.

Addressing a packed gathering of family members and fellow metro police officers, Jaca said Blue Bulls rugby player - Bees Roux - arrested for Mogale's murder - "would not rest".

"Let's call on the fallen members of the department to go and man the road blocks and ensure Bees doesn't rest."

Roux was arrested last Friday after he had allegedly been pulled over by Mogale for drunken driving.

Shortly after, Mogale's beaten body was found by two other patrol officers.

"Let's call on our ancestors, lets ensure we hound Bees until he tells the truth," he said to angry shouts of agreement.

Click here to continue reading

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Hat Tip: Dina and Birdman

Afrikaners facing starvation

2010-08-30T08:07:00.000-07:00

Report at Censorbugbear

Couple attacked in game reserve

2010-08-30T07:49:00.000-07:00

Durban - A woman was killed and her husband critically injured in an attack at their home on a game reserve in Cramond, KwaZulu-Natal police said on Sunday.

A police spokesperson said an unknown number of people gained access to the Croeser couple's house in Msinsi game reserve at around 02:30 on Saturday and attacked them with knives.

The gang stabbed the man Morne Croeser, 34, in the stomach before they attacked his wife, Erica, 34, and stabbed her in numerous parts of her body.

She later died from her injuries.

The news report confirms that no property was taken from the couple's home during the attack.
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Hat Tip: Jenny

Patients start dying due to South Africa Strike

2010-08-30T07:46:00.000-07:00

A psychiatric patient died on Wednesday due to a lack of medical care, bringing the death total in the Eastern Cape to five, the provincial health department said.

Eastern Cape health spokesperson said three infants and two adults had so far died from a lack of medical care caused by the public sector strike.

The most recent was an adult who died at Komani Psychiatric hospital in Queenstown, due to an untreated wound.

The hospital was among those which had not been assisted by the military.

Full report

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From Dina

Mother admits staging 'muti murder'

2010-08-25T07:27:00.000-07:00

A mother who stabbed and strangled her five-year-old son to death before cutting off his ear and penis has told the Pretoria High Court she was "very sorry" for what she had done.

She was "down and out", and feared her son would become a well-known criminal like his father, she said.

The 26-year-old Tembisa mother, Batseba Irene Lekgeu, on Monday pleaded guilty to killing her second-born child, Andile in November, 2008.

Lekgeu explained that after killing the child, she cut off his ear and penis to make it look like a muti murder.

Full story

Hat Tip : Dina

South African Government - "Genocide claim ludicrous"

2010-08-25T06:49:00.000-07:00

Govt spokesperson Maseko dismisses genocide claim

A claim that the government was committing genocide against Afrikaner farmers was "ludicrous", government spokesperson Themba Maseko said on Tuesday.

"We think it is ludicrous in the extreme," he said in response to a petition by an unnamed farmer to the United Nations.

"There is no wholesale attempt or process to commit genocide against Afrikaner farmers. Although we acknowledge that there is crime affecting farmers, government is dealing with all incidents of crime, not just attacks against farmers.

"It is ridiculous, totally ridiculous."

In a petition submitted to the UN, a farmer, who wants to remain anonymous, has accused the ANC-led government of committing genocide against the "Afrikaner Boer".

"The second act of genocide committed against the Afrikaner Boer nation is by the ruling ANC government in South Africa," read the preamble to the petition, which was posted on the website www.stopafrikanervolksmoord.co.za on Tuesday.

"No doubt that the perpetrators of the crime against humanity of apartheid, has become the victims of those people whom they oppressed during the years of apartheid. This petition acknowledges the crime of apartheid," it read.

It was submitted to the office of the UN special adviser on the prevention of genocide, assistant secretary general Francis Deng on Wednesday, according to lawyer Fanie van der Walt.

He said he was acting on behalf of the farmer, who had relocated for his own safety.

The petition asked that the UN Security Council and General Assembly "allow the study of the possibility of the ANC government using criminal gangs (including foreigners and particularly Zimbabweans and Mozambique citizens) as well as through the clandestine use of the South African National Intelligence Agency (NIA), the utilisation of the [Umkhonto we Sizwe (MK)] veteran soldiers and the South African Police Services, to execute these farmer murders and attacks".

The farmer also wants United States President Barack Obama to intervene.

Article continues here

Related:
UN hears of "Genocide" claim
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Hat Tip: Dina

South African farm genocide - Update

2010-08-25T06:44:00.000-07:00

Earlier this month I reported that 86 year old pensioner Jack Bergman had survived an attack at a Farm in Port Elizabeth and was recovering in hospital. Sadly Mr. Bergman has since succumbed to his injuries and has died. Report in Afrikaner here

Mr. Bergman was attacked by intruders who broke into his home whilst he slept. A 50 year old black man has been arrested.

In the same article I reported that a farmer had died in an attack at a farm in the Limpopo area, the victim of that attack has since been named as 46 year old Koos Daffeu who was shot dead by unknown killers when driving back to his farm.

No arrests have yet been made in the Daffeu killing.

The latest killings bring the number of white farmers murdered since the end of Apartheid to 3118, that is to say between three and four killings a week

Hat tip: T.M.

Whites-only fund ruling disputed

2010-08-25T06:34:00.000-07:00

Bloemfontein - A high court ruling which made an educational fund for poor white girls available to girls from all races was disputed in the Supreme Court of Appeal on Monday.

The curators of the multi-million-rand Emma Smith Educational Fund at the University of KwaZulu-Natal brought the appeal after the high court ruled against them.

The university had sought an order that would delete the words "European", "British" and "or Dutch South African" from the trust that was established according to the will of the late KwaZulu-Natal industrialist Sir Charles George Smith, who died in 1941.

The trust holds that "European girls born of British South African or Dutch South African parents who have been resident in Durban for a period of at least three years immediately preceding the grant", could benefit from the fund.

On Monday, the university, which manages the fund, submitted the phrase "born of British South African or Dutch South African parents" had ceased to have meaning in present-day South Africa.

The words served to undermine the broader charitable purpose which Sir Charles sought to achieve, which was to help poor girls who would otherwise be unable to continue their studies.

Racial exclusion

"The purpose of the bequest was to oversee disadvantages confronting poor women in obtaining tertiary education," according to court papers submitted by the university.

The university also submitted the words "European", "British" and "or Dutch South African" should be struck from the terms governing the fund as they constitute racial discrimination.

The University of KwaZulu-Natal submitted it was no longer practical to carry out Sir Charles' charitable purpose in the way he had stipulated.

The university's lawyer D Stewart told a panel of five judges that Sir Charles could not have foreseen how South Africa would change.

"(The will) did not foresee that racial exclusion terms would be a problem. (An) embarrassment for the university."

The curators submitted to the SCA that the object of interpreting any bequest was to give effect to the testator's wishes.

"The selection of recipients is a matter of freedom of testation."

The two lawyers appointed as curators further submitted there were still enough applicants falling within the categories selected by Sir Charles for his objectives to be achieved.

If the university found it embarrassing to refuse to help non-white girls, it should ask the court to appoint other trustees.

The curators told the judges to keep in mind that if potential testators got the impression their intended benefits could be interfered with, they would shy away from leaving money for the benefit of others.

"This would clearly be against the public interest."

It was further submitted that the measuring of freedom of testation against unfair discrimination in the Bill of Rights would have serious implications for this "charitable instrument".

Judgment was reserved.

Source

Related:
Double Standards to Get Whitey

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Hat Tip Dina

More South African genocide

2010-08-13T02:44:00.001-07:00

I am sad to report another series of attacks on white South African farmers, two of whicg were fatal so far this month bringing the total number of white farmers killed since the end of Apartheid to 3117.

Farmers wife dies following attack - body guarded by her pets

Three Jack Russell dogs belonging to Chrissie Harmzen, 70, climbed on top of her and guarded her after she was so severely assaulted on a farm outside Burgersfort in Limpopo on Friday morning that she died later that day of her injuries.

Johan Harmzen, 72, told how the dogs wouldn’t let anyone near his injured wife. “They were very attached to her.” he said. The couple has five Jack Russells.

Mrs. Harmzen was attacked and assaulted barely five steps from the back door of the house she and her husband rent on the farm, Dresden.They have been living on the farm for the past ten years.

“She was beaten so hard that her lungs burst,” said her husband. She was also repeatedly beaten in the face and hit over the head with an unknown object. Harmzen died of her injuries in the Midmed hospital in Middelburg, Mpumalanga.

The couple had been married for 50 years and three months.“We were a part of each other,” said Mr. Harmzen.

Only Mrs. Harmzen’s cellphone, the back door keys and the security company’s panic button were stolen. Nothing was taken from the house.

“It wasn’t a robbery or theft. It was just plain murder. It was a sadist who came here to murder,” Harmzen said.

Continue reading here
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Man killed on Smallholding - domestic worker assaulted and raped

A 46-year-old man died after five men gained access to his smallholding outside Tzaneen and assaulted him, Limpopo police said on Wednesday.

Police said five unidentified men wearing balaclavas waited for the man at his gate on Tuesday evening and then assaulted him with pangas and iron rods.

The man died on the scene.

A domestic worker on the property was assaulted when she came to investigate.

She was dragged into the house where two of the men raped her.

The men took cellphones and household appliances, including a television and DVD player. They may have also taken two guns from the safe. Source

Source
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Pensioner Survives Farm Attack

An elderly man was assaulted on his smallholding in St Albans, Port Elizabeth police said on Sunday.

According to police, four men attacked Jack Bergman, 86, in his bed after climbing into his house through a window in the early hours of Saturday "The victim had several face injuries and stab wounds to the chest and on the arrival of the security company he was semi-conscious".

A security company found the pensioner, who lived alone, after the house alarm went off. He was taken to Livingstone hospital.

No arrests have been made.

Source

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Post Script - A tale of two Couples

Readers in the UK will be aware of the fact that the headlines here last week were full of reports about the "British" couple, Gul and Begum Wazir, who were murdered in Pakistan in what was variously described as an honour killing or a dispute over a marriage. However, to my knowlege there was significantly less mention of the British couple Christopher and Jennifer Early, who were murdered in South Africa , following what was described as a "robbery", I wonder what it could have been that made the one "British" couple so much more news worthy than the other.

______________
thanks to Dina, Jenny and Toppie for alerting me to these news items, most of which never make it into the international news.

Retired Journalist and Wife slain at their home in KwaZulu Natal

2010-07-23T11:49:00.000-07:00

The bodies of a former Daily Dispatch journalist and his wife were discovered in their home in Pinetown on Friday afternoon, KwaZulu-Natal police said.

They were identified as journalists Graham Lizamore, 62, and his wife Kate, in her fifties, who had both formerly worked for the Daily Dispatch and who have recently moved to KwaZulu-Natal.

A police spokesman stated that “The couple were found partially decomposed. The woman’s head was covered in a plastic bag and the man’s ankles and wrist were tied,”

The bodies were discovered by a relative, who visited the house, found the door open and the couple dead inside..

Police confirmed there were no signs of the couple having been robbed and that the motive was unknown.

New source

Why Africa Has Gone To Hell

2010-07-21T12:03:00.000-07:00

by James Jackson

White Zimbabweans used to tell a joke—what is the difference between a tourist and a racist? The answer—about a week.

Few seem to joke any more. Indeed, the last time anyone laughed out there was over the memorable headline “BANANA CHARGED WITH SODOMY” (relating to the Reverend Canaan Banana and his alleged proclivities). Zimbabwe was just the latest African state to squander its potential, to swap civil society for civil strife and pile high its corpses. Then the wrecking virus moves on and a fresh spasm of violence erupts elsewhere. Congo, Ivory Coast, Sudan, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, even Kenya. Take your pick, for it is the essence of Africa, the recurring A-Z of horror. And as surely as Nelson Mandela took those steps from captivity to freedom, his own country will doubtless shuffle into chaos and ruin.

Mark my words. One day it will be the turn of South Africa to revert to type, its farms that lie wasted and its towns that are battle zones, its dreams and expectations that lie rotting on the veldt. That is the way of things. Africa rarely surprises, it simply continues to appall.

When interviewed on BBC Radio, the legendary South African jazz musician Hugh Masekela spoke of the 350-year struggle for freedom by blacks in South Africa. The man might play his trumpet like a dream, but he talks arrant nonsense. What he has bought into is a false narrative that rewrites history and plays upon post-colonial liberal angst. The construct is as follows: white, inglorious and bad; black, noble and good; empire, bad; independence, good; the west, bad; the African, good. Forgotten in all this is that while Europeans were settling and spreading from the Cape, the psychopathic Shaka Zulu was employing his impi to crush everyone—including the Xhosa—in his path, and the Xhosa were themselves busy slaughtering Bushmen and Hottentots. Yet it is the whites who take the rap, for it was they who won the skirmishes along the Fish and Blood Rivers and who eventually gained the prize.

What suffers is the truth, and—of course—Africa. We are so cowed by the moist-eyed mantras of the left and the oath-laden platitudes of Bono and Geldof, we are forced to accept collective responsibility for the bloody mess that is now Africa. It paralyses us while excusing the black continent and its rulers.

Whenever I hear people agitate for the freezing of Third World debt, I want to shout aloud for the freezing of those myriad overseas bank accounts held by black African leaders (President Mobutu of Zaire alone is believed to have squirreled away well over $10 billion). Whenever apartheid is held up as a blueprint for evil, I want to mention Bokassa snacking on human remains, Amin clogging a hydro-electric dam with floating corpses, the President of Equatorial Guinea crucifying victims along the roadway from his airport. Whenever slavery is dredged up, I want to remind everyone the Arabs were there before us, the native Ashanti and others were no slouches at the game, and it remains extant in places like the Ivory Coast. Whenever I hear the Aids pandemic somehow blamed on western indifference, I want to point to the African native practice of dry sex, the hobby-like prevalence of rape and the clumps of despotic black leaders who deny a link between the disease and HIV and who block the provision of antiretrovirals. And whenever Africans bleat of imperialism and colonialism, I want to campaign for the demolition of every road, college, and hospital we ever built to let them start again. It is time they governed themselves. Yet few play the victim card quite so expertly as black Africans; few are quite so gullible as the white liberal-left.

“On the eve of this millennium, Nelson Mandela and friends lit candles mapping the shape of their continent and declared the Twenty-first Century would belong to Africa. A pity that for every one Mandela there are over a hundred Robert Mugabes.”

So Britain had an empire and Britain did slavery. Boo hoo. Deal with it. Move on. Slavery ended here over two hundred years ago. More recently, there were tens of millions of innocents enslaved or killed in Europe by the twin industrialised evils of Nazism and Stalinism. My own first cousins—twin brothers aged sixteen—died down a Soviet salt mine. I need no lecture on eggplants and neck-irons. Most of us are descendents of both oppressors and oppressed; most of us get over it. Mind you, I am tempted by thoughts of compensation from Scandinavia for the wickedness of its Viking raids and its slaving-hub on the Liffe. As for the 1066 invasion of England by William the Bastard…

The white man’s burden is guilt over Africa (the black man’s is sentimentality), and we are blind for it. We have tipped hundreds of billions of aid-dollars into Africa without first ensuring proper governance. We encourage NGOs and food-parcels and have built a culture of dependency. We shy away from making criticism, tiptoe around the crassness of the African Union and flinch at every anti-western jibe. The result is a free-for-all for every syphilitic black despot and his coterie of family functionaries.

Africa casts a long and toxic shadow across our consciousness. It is patronised and allowed to underperform, so too its distant black diaspora. A black London pupil is excluded from his school, not because he is lazy, stupid or disruptive, but because that school is apparently racist; a black youth is pulled over by the police, not because black males commit over eighty percent of street crime, but because the authorities are somehow corrupted by prejudice. Thus the tale continues. Excuse is everywhere and a sense of responsibility nowhere. You will rarely find either a black national leader in Africa or a black community leader in the west prepared to put up his hands and say It is our problem, our fault. Those who look to Africa for their roots, role-models and inspiration are worshipping false gods. And like all false gods, the feet are of clay, the snouts long and designed for the trough, and the torture-cells generally well-equipped.

I once met the son of a Liberian government minister and asked if he had seen video-footage of his former president Samuel Doe being tortured to death. ‘Of course’, he replied with a smile. ‘Everyone has’. They cut off the ears of Doe and force-fed them to him. His successor, the warlord Charles Taylor, was elected in a landslide result using the campaign slogan He killed my ma, he killed my pa, but I will vote for him. Nice people. Liberia was founded and colonised by black Americans to demonstrate what slave stock could achieve. They certainly showed us. Forgive my heretical belief that had a black instead of a white tribe earlier come to dominate South Africa, its opponents would not have been banished to Robben island. They would have been butchered and buried there.

When asked about the problem of Africa, Harold Macmillan suggested building a high wall around the continent and every century or so removing a brick to check on progress. I suspect that over entire millennia, the view would prove bleak and unvarying.

On the eve of this millennium, Nelson Mandela and friends lit candles mapping the shape of their continent and declared the Twenty-first Century would belong to Africa. Whatever. Meantime, the vast natural resources have been frittered and agricultural production since independence has halved. A pity that for every one Mandela there are over a hundred Robert Mugabes.

Visiting a state in west Africa a few years ago, I wandered onto a beach and marvelled at the golden sands and at the sunlight catching on the Atlantic surf. It allowed me to forget for a moment the local news that day of soldiers seizing a schoolboy and pitching him head-first into an operating cement-machine. Almost forget. Then I spotted a group of villagers beating a stray dog to death for their sport. A metaphor of sorts for all that is wrong, another link in a word-association chain that goes something like Famine… Drought… Overpopulation… Deforestation… Conflict… Barbarism… Cruelty… Machetes… Child Soldiers… Massacres… Diamonds… Warlords…Tyranny… Corruption… Despair… Disease… Aids… Africa.

Africa remains the heart of darkness. Africa is hell.

Source
____
Hat Tip: JP

News from SA

2010-07-21T11:45:00.000-07:00

Mystery surrounds UK couple found murdered
The family of an elderly couple, who were found bludgeoned to death near their home, are to fly in from the US to identify their bodies. Full Story...

Cop fired for allegedly raping sister
A Free State constable under investigation for allegedly raping his sister has been fired, the Independent Complaints Directorate said. Full Story...

Rapist gets two life sentences
A 33-year-old man who strangled and raped his neighbour's 12-year-old daughter was given two life sentences by the Pietermaritzburg High Court. Full Story...

More arrests for Kagiso robbery
Two more people have been arrested for a robbery that took place at a supermarket in Kagiso, west of Johannesburg on Saturday, bringing the total to four, Gauteng police said. Full Story...

Three in court for F State mayor's murder
Three people appeared in the Wepener Magistrate's Court on Monday in connection with the murder of Naledi municipal mayor Motlatsi Motloi. Full Story...

St George's Mall shootout accused gets bail
One of the men arrested in connection with an armed robbery in St George's Mall and the subsequent shootout in the city centre has been released on bail of R2 000. Full Story...

Somali teen murdered at shop
A Somali teenager has been killed outside a shop on Sweet Home Farm near Nyanga. Full Story...

Mountain mugging alert
A safety action group has declared parts of Table Mountain "no-go zones" after muggers, brandishing broken bottles and knives, attacked hikers and residents in at least 10 incidents since May. Full Story...

Hijacker shot after bullets barely miss girl
An off-duty police officer has killed a suspected hijacker after bullets whizzed past his sleeping daughter near Overport. Full Story...

Man in dock for wife's death: Family in shock
The husband of murdered Franschhoek resident Chanel du Toit has appeared in court in connection with her death. Full Story...

Cops moved by granny's rape 2010-07-19 14:26:11
Durban police officers, shaken by the rape of a 92-year-old woman, have tried to bring her some comfort on Mandela Day, which happened to be her birthday. Full Story...

IFP members challenge dismissals in court 2010-07-19 13:46:24
Three expelled IFP members have lodged court papers in the Pietermaritzburg High Court challenging their dismissals and the legality of the current party leadership. Full Story...

I am afraid of my own anger: distraught dad 2010-07-19 13:15:09
A KwaZulu-Natal father fears for his two-year-old son's safety after the boy's penis was cut in eZimangeni in eNanda. Full Story...

Granny raped days before 92nd birthday 2010-07-19 12:57:28
Experienced Durban policemen, shaken by the rape of a 92-year-old woman, clubbed together to bring her some comfort on her birthday which she shares with Nelson Mandela. Full Story...

Cop killed in road rage incident 2010-07-19 11:33:23
An off-duty policeman was shot through the windscreen of his car after confronting three men in Cape Town. Full Story...

Shooting victim was reformed gangster: gran 2010-07-19 13:50:39
Hours after receiving a chilling SMS warning him to watch his back, a Cape Flats dad has been gunned down. Full Story...

Durban man shot in hijacking 2010-07-19 09:30:26
A 53-year-old man has been shot and wounded after his car was hijacked outside his house in Pinetown, Durban, according to paramedics. Full Story...

Toddler found with tongue, penis cut off 2010-07-19 09:20:40
A two-year-old KwaZulu-Natal boy is in a critical condition after his tongue and penis were cut off, according to police. Full Story... Ice cream shop owner found dead in fridge
A 34-year-old man was found dead inside a fridge and his parents were injured at their ice cream shop in Port Elizabeth, Eastern Cape police said. Full Story...

Ponzi scheme accused stops auction
A man accused of fleecing people of millions in a Ponzi scheme has managed to halt the sale by public auction of two expensive cars he allegedly bought with investors' money. Full Story...

Man plunges to death in freak lift accident
Leigh Kenton Roomes had tried to help his friends when they got stuck in a lift at an apartment block in Cape Town. Full Story...

Killer dad slays entire family
Five people, including three children, burnt to death after their father torched their home after an argument with his wife. Full Story...

ATM bomber's freak shot kills cop
A bullet from a shot hastily fired by an ATM bomber climbing over a fence hit a police constable under the armpit killing him. Full Story...

House declared unsafe after fire
Johannesburg police are investigating the cause of a fire that claimed the lives of two children in Norwood. Full Story...

Policeman gunned down in Gugulethu
Western Cape police are investigating the fatal shooting of an off-duty officer in Gugulethu this weekend. Full Story...

Safmarine officer suspended
A senior Safmarine officer has been suspended amid allegations that he raped a trainee on the Kariba vessel. Full Story...

Police probe death of cadet sailor 2010-07-18 17:47:52
Police are investigating the death of a young South African woman whose body was found drifting in the sea off the Croatian coast last month. Full Story...

Ethiopians found dead in shop - police 2010-07-18 16:32:34
Two Ethiopians were found dead in their spaza shop in Walmer, near Port Elizabeth, according to police. Full Story...

Man found dead inside fridge 2010-07-18 16:28:10
A 34-year-old man was found dead inside a fridge and his parents were injured at their ice cream shop in Port Elizabeth, Eastern Cape. Full Story...

Guard dies in hospital after robbery 2010-07-18 15:11:38
A security guard shot during a robbery at a supermarket in Kagiso has died. Full Story...

Teen shot dead in Soweto shebeen fight 2010-07-18 13:10:08
An 18-year-old youth was gunned down by a group of men in a tussle at a shebeen in Dobsonville, Johannesburg police said. Full Story...

Guard shot dead in Somerset West 2010-07-18 12:35:30
A security guard was shot dead in what is believed to have been a robbery-related incident in Somerset West, Western Cape paramedics said. Full Story...

'Drop bribe charges and pay me R1m' 2010-07-18 11:42:46
A suspended prisons manager wants a pay-out of more than R1 million for 460 leave days - and his full pension in exchange for being let off the hook for serious corruption charges. Full Story...

Cape nudist beach a crime hotspot 2010-07-18 11:33:58
People have been urged to avoid Sandy Bay, Cape Town's famous nudist beach, after two men were robbed by armed and "aggressive" thieves. Full Story...

Gunman follows victim to hospital 2010-07-18 07:31:53
A relentless gunman shot a young man in the leg before following him to a nearby hospital, where he shot at security guards and then became involved in a gunbattle with patrolling police. Full Story...

Metro Cop run over at roadblock 2010-07-17 22:03:05
A Johannesburg metro police officer was injured when he was ran over by a motorist who refused to stop at a road block in Soweto. Full Story...

Suspected robber fires on cops 2010-07-17 17:17:50
A man allegedly fired shots at police officers outside a hospital in Atlantis after being spotted by a person claiming to have been robbed by him. Full Story...

Suspectd robber killed during in Kagiso 2010-07-17 16:57:27
A suspected robber was shot dead during an armed robbery at a supermarket in Kagiso, west of Johannesburg. Full Story...

Cop shot dead in Soweto 2010-07-17 12:12:50
A 32-year-old police constable was shot dead by a gang of ATM bombers at Braamfischerville in Soweto, Gauteng police have said. Full Story...

Gum choke woman 'can't run own life' 2010-07-17 09:30:27
A SA Revenue Service employee who suffered brain damage earlier this year after she choked on chewing gum, is said to be unable to handle her own financial affairs. Full Story...

Women jump off moving train to escape robbers 2010-07-17 09:20:08
Somerset West police say that four women jumped off a moving train to escape two robbers who threatened them with a beer bottle. Full Story...

'We Zulus are going to beat you up' 2010-07-17 09:35:09
Moses ka Moyo has lived in Hillbrow for the past 11 years. Along with at least 400 other immigrants living in a block of flats, he was one of the recipients of a door-to-door leaflet blitz. The message was stark. Full Story...

Trafficking of people, the Cup crisis that never was 2010-07-17 09:23:01
Forty thousand: that is how many cases of human trafficking were predicted to occur during the World Cup. Kasiefa Ajam finds out the actual number of reported cases. Full Story...

Is it really xenophobia? 2010-07-16 16:32:56
Police Minister Nathi Mthethwa has cautioned the media over its reporting on the issue of the "so-called" xenophobia. Full Story...

Taxi driver charged after toddler killed 2010-07-16 14:16:50
After being rescued from an angry mob, the taxi driver accused of killing a four-year-old girl in an accident on John Dory Road in Durban will soon have to face the law. Full Story...

Bottle store murderers hear their fate 2010-07-16 15:21:11
Three men who cut short the promising life of 19-year-old Jonny Canos in a brazen robbery in June 2006, have received a heavy sentence for the crime. Full Story...

ATM bombed in supermarket, witnesses shaken 2010-07-16 11:45:06
A group of armed men held up staff and blasted open an ATM at a supermarket in Nuffield, Springs. Full Story...

Distraught mom: My child died a tik hostage 2010-07-16 11:15:13
A Cape Flats girl beaten to death had over 30 bruises on her battered body when she died. And cops say the man accused of her murder used her as a pawn for drugs. Full Story...

'I feel like Semenya' 2010-07-16 11:39:23
A Cape Town woman says she was told to take the "Caster test" after Home Affairs mistakenly classified her as a man. Full Story...

Initiate's death: Members, staff tight-lipped 2010-07-16 10:26:21
A 21-year-old man has been killed at an illegal initiation school in Joburg, allegedly after being beaten with sticks. Full Story...

Cele pledges high-profile strategy 2010-07-16 08:22:50
National police commissioner General Bheki Cele has promised to maintain the high police visibility employed during the World Cup, although "for obvious reasons" there could not be the same number of officers as there had been during the event. Full Story...

'Bizarre acts of love' 2010-07-16 06:30:04
A young mother strangled her two children with a cellphone charger cord "out of love for them", a leading psychologist has testified. Full Story...

Durban sailors robbed at sea 2010-07-16 07:27:04
Two sailors anchored off Barra Lodge, near Inhambane in Mozambique, woke up to find a man with a knife about to cut their fuel line. Full Story...

Wary foreigners scared to sleep at home 2010-07-16 08:31:45
Some Somali shopkeepers have returned to informal settlements across the Western Cape to repair their looted shops, but are still too scared to sleep in their homes as they fear being attacked overnight. Full Story...

Man arrested over Winelands murder 2010-07-16 07:44:16
A 26-year-old man was arrested in Franschhoek on a charge of murder in connection with the death of Chanel du Toit, who was found strangled on the Dieu Donne wine estate. Full Story...

God saved me - carnage survivor 2010-07-16 06:42:09
"All I remember is seeing the car flying through the air, praying I would survive, and then the explosion." This is the sole recollection that survivor Jacob Sekgothe has of the crash after a high-speed car chase between police and suspected robbers. Full Story...

Paralysed soapie star wins damages case 2010-07-16 07:34:47
Soapie star Erik Holm, who is claiming millions in damages from a company which owned the waterfront shopping centre where he dived into a lake and became paralysed, will receive half of the damages he can prove he suffered. Full Story...

Cops to 'stamp out xenophobia myths' 2010-07-16 07:30:58
Police have vowed to "smoke" anyone committing crime or spreading rumours of violence. Full Story...

'Please bring my five-year-old son back' 2010-07-16 07:25:05
For two nights, Lethiwe Ncube has been unable to sleep or eat since her five-year-old son went missing from a house in Yeoville, Joburg. Full Story...

Deadly beating at 'illegal' initiation school 2010-07-16 07:16:21
Three suspects have been arrested after the 21-year-old's murder, according to police. Full Story...

Zuma calls for unity 2010-07-15 22:48:54
President Jacob Zuma has appealed for calm amid reports that African migrants are fleeing the country in fear of fresh xenophobic violence. Full Story...

Trio accused of human trafficking 2010-07-16 00:21:17
Two girls were rescued after the Hawks and the Free State Tactical Response Team raided clubs presenting strip shows. Full Story...

Woman stabbed and burned after divorce shock 2010-07-15 22:59:43
A Brakpan man stands accused of stabbing his wife, dousing her with petrol and setting her alight after receiving divorce papers. Full Story...

WC party gives way to migrant fears 2010-07-15 20:21:02
President Jacob Zuma has called for "calm and unity" after reports African migrants are fleeing South Africa for fear of fresh xenophobic violence. Full Story...

Journo attack 'influenced by xenophobia' 2010-07-15 18:59:58
The Daily Sun says that it -s standing by a report it published which described a xenophobic assault on one of its journalists. Full Story...

_________________
From Dina

A Familiar Descent

2010-07-21T11:35:00.000-07:00

Even in South Africa the denialists will not see all the benchmarks of Zimbabweanism, as each is reached and then passed.

Malema's R136,000 monthly dividend

Politicsweb.co.za

19 July 2010

And nine other key articles from the weekend press (July 16 - 18 2010)

10. The Sunday Times report on how Mbhazima Shilowa is struggling to hold his faction together within COPE:

The newspaper reports that "Shilowa's chief lobbyist, Andile Nkuhlu, has resigned and the party's general secretary Charlotte Lobe - who is one of Shilowa's most vocal allies - also wants to throw in the towel. ... Lobe - a key ally in the battle with Lekota - had to be persuaded to stay after she drafted a letter of resignation and threatened to hand it in to the party. Those close to her said she has taken strain as a result of the infighting and was no longer interested in managing the party's day- to-day affairs. Shilowa supporters fear, however, that if Lobe resigns she will have to be replaced by her deputy, Deidre Carter, who is closely aligned to Lekota. ‘We can't allow (Lobe) to leave. We will lose the office (of general-secretary) and we can't have that happening before the elective congress in September,' said an insider who is also a close Shilowa confidante."

9. De Wet Potgieter's feature in the Sunday Independent [NL] on the battle to clamp down on the production of "tik" by restricting the supply of ephedrine:

Potgieter writes that ephedrine, from which tik is manufactured, was upgraded to a Schedule 6 drug earlier this year which meant (inter alia) pharmacies are no longer able to buy or stock the drug in its raw form. "With tightening border controls making it increasingly difficult to smuggle the chemicals into the country, criminals have focused on hijacking stocks legally brought into the country and on armed robberies at storage facilities."

8. The Saturday Star front page report on how Minister of Higher Education, Blade Nzimande, had stayed at the Mount Nelson in Cape Town for 15 days last year:

The newspaper said that Nzimande's spokeswoman, Ranjeni Munusamy, "confirmed that the communist leader stayed at the Mount Nelson Hotel for 15 days, between June and October last year. ‘While Parliament was in session, Minister Nzimande had to stay at various hotels in Cape Town, depending on the availability of rooms and compliance with reduced government rates. (Nzimande) stayed at the Mount Nelson a total of 15 days at a total cost of R40 675,' she said." The Saturday Star added that "some in the ANC's national executive committee (NEC) questioned why the spotlight was being consistently placed on [Communications Minister Siphiwe] Nyanda and not on Nzimande. The matter reached the stage where a senior ANC official raised the matter about Nzimande and the unashamedly colonial Mount Nelson at the last NEC meeting."

7. The extract from Jay Naidoo's memoir - Fighting for Justice - published in the Sunday Independent [NL]:

Naidoo observes that the ANC's ascent to power in 1994 led to a change in political culture. "We had our hands on the levers of power, money in a budget, staff, resources and the conviction that this government by virtue of its democratic election was the only legitimate representative of the aspirations of our people. In the process of tackling so many challenges, we robbed the country of an enormous contribution that all other sections of society could make. The government would give people jobs, houses, social security, schools and clinics and knew what was right for the citizenry. People who had participated in the fight for change now became passive bystanders. At the same time, any criticism of the government was a criticism of the revolution. There were also those who felt that as exiles their contributions to the struggle had amounted to more than the efforts of those who were inside the country. In fact, one person openly said to me: ‘Guys like you and Cyril Ramaphosa have not been brought up in the ANC tradition. You have only recently joined the movement. You have not been schooled in the revolutionary theory of our liberation struggle'."

6. The Sunday Times interview with Atul Gupta, head of SAHARA computers and aspiring press baron:

Anton Fereira notes that the Gupta brothers "who immigrated to South Africa in 1993, are partnering with Mbeki confidante Essop Pahad - whose magazine, The Thinker, they fund - in launching their paper, which will be edited by former Business Day journalist Vuyo Mvoko. Gupta dismissed suggestions that the paper would be pro-ANC, but said: ‘We will be broadly supportive of the ruling government. What is wrong with that?' Gupta said he planned to shape editorial policy at the paper and would keep a hand on the tiller while it established itself."

5. The Mail & Guardian report on how Mamodupi Mohlala's 10-month tenure as director general of communications has seen a staff exodus from the department:

Jackie Mapiloko and Glynnis Underhill write that five senior managers "have resigned, citing her autocratic leadership in their exit interviews. Mohlala has suspended another six for alleged misconduct and corruption.In the same period the department has spent R1,3-million in legal costs and settlement agreements involving the chief director of human resources, Basani Baloyi, and the chief financial officer, Harry Mathabathe." A source at the department told the newspaper "She manages by fear and no one can take it any more. People feel it's better to be without a job than work for her."

4. The Mail & Guardian report on how communications minister, Siphiwe Nyanda, his deputy Dina Pule, and Director General Mohlala have all lived it up in Cape Town at taxpayers' expense:

Glynnis Underhill and Jackie Mapiloko report that "Invoices leaked to the M&G show the three government officials flew business class, stayed in five-star accommodation and charged hotel meals, room service, telephone, laundry and valet bills to the communications department. While dining alone during his stay at the five-star Mount Nelson hotel in September last year, Nyanda did not stint on life's finer pleasures, invoices reveal. The minister's meal on September 8 last year at the hotel's acclaimed Cape Colony Restaurant started with oysters, followed by a main course of springbok loin and was washed down with a bottle of mineral water and two glasses of Bordeaux-style red Meerlust Rubicon. The wine cost R330 and the meal for one took the bill to R700, tip included."

3. The Sunday Times report that the ANC Youth League had successfully managed to get nationalisation of the mines onto the agenda of the ANC's National General Council later this year:

According to Moipane Malefane and Mzilikazi wa ka Afrika ANCYL spokesperson Floyd Shivambu said the League was "not worried whether nationalisation should happen or not; the question is how we are going to manage it". He also suggested the ANCYL might encourage the ANC to replicate Zimbabwe's land reform programme, saying "many people are misreading what happened in Zimbabwe. There was nothing fundamentally wrong with their land reform programme. In South Africa we can do it without creating perceptions that we are abusing human rights. People who don't agree with the youth league are trying to divert attention and protect their interests. We can't be held to ransom by the interests of minorities. The best way to celebrate Nelson Mandela is to become more decisive in the struggle for economic freedom in our life-time."

2. The Mail & Guardian report on the latest extension of the Zuma family's business empire:

Stefaans Brümmer and Sam Sole report that "President Jacob Zuma met the boss of a South Korean shipping multinational before the Korean signed a major deal with Zuma's nephew on Monday... A spokesperson for Daewoo Shipbuilding and Marine Engineering confirmed on Thursday that his company's chief executive, Nam Sang-Tae, met President Zuma in Pretoria shortly before Nam signed the shipping deal with Khulubuse Zuma's Impinda Group." The newspaper notes that Khulubuse "has made rapid strides in business since his uncle took power." Most recently, "Democratic Republic of Congo President Joseph Kabila awarded Khulubuse Zuma two heavily contested oil exploration blocks on Lake Albert last month. The contracts are controversial because Khulubuse has no background in the oil business and the exploration rights were taken from Irish multinational Tullow Oil and South Africa's Sacoil, which were originally granted them... Asked whether President Zuma had introduced his nephew's company to them, [the Daewoo spokesperson] initially said: ‘Yes, that's right,' but later said he was not sure."

1. The City Press article on how a Julius Malema company - Blue Nightingale Trading 61 - was cut in on a lucrative contract for the removal and treatment of medical waste from Limpopo's hospitals and clinics.

Mariechen Waldner and Piet Rampedi report that Malema is a business partner of Dr Christos -Eleftheriades of Thermopower Technologies, a company facing a series of charges for environmental violations. Eleftheriades's Medicare Process Technologies and Malema's company are partners in Tshumisano Waste Management, a consortium which won the Limpopo contract. "Blue Nightingale, of which Malema is the sole director, owns a 3% stake in Tshumisano....Eleftheriades said that the Tshumisano consortium paid Blue Nightingale a monthly dividend of R136 000." When contacted by the newspaper the ANCYL president denied everything.

______

Hat Tip JP

African Justice

2010-07-17T12:53:00.000-07:00

June 04 2010 at 09:35AM
A 20-year-old man was beaten to death by community members in Ngoma
News - Crime & Courts: Alleged thief beaten to death (http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=15&art_id=nw20100604090624148C194347)

June 10 2010
Angry mob kills suspected robber in Sun City village near KwaMhlanga
News - Crime & Courts: Angry mob kills suspected robber (http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=15&art_id=nw20100610124421952C409480)

June 22 2010
Thando Kitshini, 29, from Khayelitsha, was beaten to a pulp then thrown over a concrete slab
News - South Africa: Suspected thief beaten to death (http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?from=rss_South%20Africa&set_id=1&click_id=13&art_id=iol127719543621D124)

June 24 2010
Body found with chop wounds, 22 arrested
News - South Africa: Body found with chop wounds, 22 arrested (http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?art_id=nw20100624124327714C848334)

June 28 2010
A man suspected of being a criminal was stoned to death in Nongoma
News - Crime & Courts: Vigilantism rears its ugly head (http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=15&art_id=nw20100628122658879C684919)

June 29 2010
Mob Torches Suspected Thief in Nyanga
News - Crime & Courts: Mob torches suspected thief (http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=15&art_id=vn20100629125422888C535102)

June 29 2010
Twenty-five people have been arrested after Phoenix violence
News - Crime & Courts: Arrests made after Phoenix violence (http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=15&art_id=nw20100629222237727C524018)

June 30 2010
Mob kill man for attempted attack on family
News - Crime & Courts: Mob kill man for attempted attack on family (http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=15&art_id=nw20100630140301770C789614)

A very strange conspiracy

2010-07-06T11:47:00.001-07:00

By Helen Zille, Premier of the Western Cape and head of South Africa's
opposition Democratic Alliance

Note: An ongoing news story in South Africa involves the scandalous allegation that residents a housing development in Makhaza, Khayelitsha. in the Western Cape, which is under the control of the opposition Democratic Alliance were forced to use open toilets, however, as in so many things where politics are involved the situation may not be quite as it appears

The DA leader on the emerging truth about the Khayelitsha toilets saga

Another step closer to the truth behind the toilets saga

One of the ground rules of political communication is captured in the aphorism: When you're explaining, you're losing.

But like all rules, there are exceptions. When things are not what they seem, I believe it is important to explain why. During the Erasmus Commission for example, people advised me to stop talking about the matter because I was merely playing into the hands of those trying to smear me.

I didn't listen and instead used every platform to get the truth across. That we were vindicated of any wrongdoing, coupled with the High Court's finding that former Premier Rasool had violated the Constitution in setting up the illegal Commission, justified my breaking this rule.

I have decided to break it again by explaining another poorly-understood issue: the "open toilets" saga.

Let me be clear at the outset: nothing justifies an open toilet. It is an affront to human dignity. But that is precisely why this saga, as it has been told and re-told over the past six months, makes so little sense. There are too many contradictions and unanswered questions. And too few facts.

The media have reported, again and again, that 55 families in Makhaza were forced to relieve themselves in full public view for over two years. This has been repeated so often, in various ways, that I believed it was true. I apologized in Parliament. And I asked myself: how was it possible for this to happen under a DA administration, and on my watch as Mayor?

But the more I thought about it, the less the story hung together:

If this project started in 2007, why did I only hear about it in January 2010? Why did no-one protest sooner?

Why did none of the numerous DA public representatives in Khayelitsha, ever raise the alarm?

Why had the vigorous local Khayelitsha media never reported on so newsworthy a matter?

During that period, I had participated in numerous talk shows on the local Khayelitsha radio station. Why had no listener ever called in to complain?

Even more mystifying was why the ANC didn't use the "open toilets" against me in the run-up to the 2009 election?

And most puzzling of all: why did Andile Lili, the project's paid facilitator since 2008 (as well as a local ANC Youth League leader), only start to protest against the project when it was 96% complete? Indeed, given that he was the project facilitator, why was he protesting at all?

The answer is simply this: there were, in fact, no open toilets in 2007 or 2008 or indeed until the end of 2009. The 55 toilets that remained open were those installed in the very final stage of the upgrading project -- in November 2009 -- when 96% of the 1,316 toilets provided for each family had already been enclosed. For some reason, the last 55 were not.

Following a newspaper photograph of an open toilet in January 2010, Mayor Dan Plato immediately ordered them to be covered, despite the objections of the 1,261 families who had enclosed their own toilets. But on January 25th, when the City arrived to enclose the toilets, they were prevented from doing so by a small group of people claiming to represent "the community". Two subsequent attempts by the City to erect enclosures, were thwarted when the ANCYL tore them down, despite almost all the individual families requesting, in writing, that the City enclose their toilets.

During the time that the 55 toilets remained open, no person was "forced" to use them. The community is well serviced with an alternative option - one enclosed toilet for every five households which is the national norm for incremental upgrading projects. Given that 96% of the families in the project now have their own toilets, the communal toilets are free most of the time.

In other words, the repeated allegation that - "for two years, 55 families in Makhaza were forced to relieve themselves in full public view" - is entirely without foundation. .

Furthermore, as soon as the City learnt about the open toilets, they attempted to enclose them. But the ANCYL wanted them open, because it suited their agenda. The 55 open toilets happened to be located in the precise area where the ANCYL's leading "thugocrats", Andile Lili and Loyiso Nkohla, conduct their reign of terror. Given the contradiction between the community's wishes and the ANCYL's actions, there is only one conclusion: the open toilets were a direct result of the ANCYL's intimidation in order to drive their political agenda.

I experienced this first-hand when I visited the area to speak to members of the community. I was informed that the last person to openly express opposition to the ANCYL, had to live with the consequences. Despite their palpable fear, the first two families I spoke to said they wanted the City to enclose their toilets. But then a menacing individual arrived, refused to give his name, and said people could only speak to the community through the "committee". It was an instructive, if devastating, glimpse into life in a closed, fear-driven community, run by the "thugocrats" of the ANC Youth League.

Many people understand the political motives of the ANCYL, but argue that we should just put this to rest by providing the concrete-enclosed toilets?

This sounds fair and reasonable. So why can't we erect concrete enclosures for the 55 families? And why did the 1,261 families who enclosed their own toilets, not demand concrete enclosures as well?

I put this to the officials working on the project. And I found the answer instructive.

The upgrading of informal settlements has two phases. The first involves the provision of infrastructure services: roads, stormwater, water, sewage etc. The second is the erection of a top structure (the house). It is essential to ensure that the two phases are aligned. If concrete toilet enclosures are provided on each erf during phase one, they must be removed in phase two in order to incorporate the toilet into the house. This means an additional cost of R4,000 per erf. This amount has to be deducted from the R75,000 subsidy for each family's top structure. This means, in practical terms, that a concrete enclosure in phase one, will result in a house in phase two that is two square meters smaller than it would otherwise have been. If you enclose your own toilet in phase one, it can be incorporated into your house in phase two, and you will reap the benefit of a bigger house. This is why families choose to enclose their own toilets in phase one. It is an empowering and logical choice. That is, until the ANC Youth League decides otherwise.

The saddest aspect of this saga is the pitiful report of the Human Rights Commission, which is full of the factual inaccuracies required to reach the conclusion that the Council violated the human rights of the residents of Makhaza. It is the clearest possible demonstration of what happens when the ANC deploys its parliamentary cadres into institutions that are supposed to be independent of the ruling party. They become extensions of its power abuse instead of limits on its power.

Three years ago when the City was locked in a make-or-break battle with the Province over the unconstitutional Erasmus Commission, Professor Pierre de Vos took me to task for saying: "some judges allow themselves to be used and, unfortunately, (Judge) Nathan Erasmus is one of them." Today, I repeat that in relation to the SA Human Rights Commission: Some Chapter Nine institutions allow themselves to be abused and, unfortunately, the SA Human Rights Commission is one of them.

Source

Hat Tip: JP

Farm attacks and other anti-white violence

2010-07-01T09:51:00.000-07:00

Elderly Farmer Stabbed and Robbed

Bloemfontein - Two men have been arrested for attacking 83 year old Tobie Loubser his farm in Koppies Free State on Friday night.

According to police the attackers demanded R40 000 from him, which he did not have and then took R800 and a pistoll before they stabbed him in the face and arms and then drove off in his car.

Farm Family tied up and robbed

Stellenbosch police are searching for six knife-wielding men who tied up a farming couple and their two sons and locked them in a bathroom before fleeing with guns and valuables.

The family were watching television in their home on Cloud Nine Farm in Devonvale, outside Stellenbosch, when the six men, wearing gloves and with their faces covered, stormed in and demanded the key to the safe, said police spokeswoman Rene Matthee.

It is not clear whether the men knew that there was a safe or assumed there was one.

Using belts and ropes, the men tied the family members' hands, and locked them in a bathroom.

The gang ransacked the house, and took five firearms, cellphones, jewellery, two laptops, a Sony camera and six lenses. The items lost were worth about R850 000.

Wife found in Pool of Blood

Monica de Ville

Attackers first tried to smother the slightly-built wife of a DA councillor from Standerton with a towel, then they tried to strangle her with a hairdryer cord before stabbing her in the neck with scissors.

The blade almost hit Monica de Ville's main artery, said her husband, Advocate Rosier de Ville on Monday.

"If they had hit the artery, she would have died."

The attack happened shortly before 10:00 on Friday at the Coupe's home in Leyd Street, Johannesburg .

__________

From Dina

Behind the Vuvuzelas 3

2010-06-22T13:54:00.000-07:00

Hawks face integrity tests

2010-06-21 08:22

Members of the police's elite unit will in future be subjected to strict "integrity tests", including traps where bribes are offered.

A store owner has shot and killed a suspected robber

2010-06-19 23:43

A store owner has shot and killed a suspected robber in his shop at the Emily Hobhouse Square shopping centre in Bloemfontein.

Robber threatens Cup tourists

2010-06-19 22:05

A lone robber has threatened to "kill" a group of Cup tourists after being caught in their rented house in Cape Town.

56 new courts for Cup crime

Joburg 'hit' on ex-Rwandan army chief

2010-06-19 20:00

The BBC reports that an attempt has been made in Johannesburg to assassinate an ex-Rwanda army chief.

Cape cops make R3m tik bust

2010-06-19 12:36

A drug bust on the N1 highway outside Beaufort West has resulted in the confiscation of tik with an estimated street value of R3m.

Robber wounded in shootout

2010-06-18 22:42

Johannesburg police say a robber has been wounded in the foot during a shootout outside a Bryanston home and two others were still at large.

Elderly man attacked with axe

2010-06-18 19:40

An elderly resident from White River, Mpumalanga is in the ICU of a Nelspruit hospital after he was attacked with an axe at home.

Panga-wielding robbers nabbed

2010-06-18 14:12

Four men have been arrested for allegedly threatening a shopkeeper with a panga and robbing his store, police say.

Cop held for killing superior

2010-06-18 13:07

Two men, including a police constable, have been arrested for the murder of a former station commander in his driveway in Durban, police say.

Cop shot dead in driveway

Mexican theft case postponed

2010-06-18 09:55

The case against a man accused of robbing a Mexican tourist has been postponed because the victim went to Polokwane to watch rugby.

Cup fraudster gets jail time

Couple arrested in house raid

2010-06-17 19:24

A man and a woman have been arrested after police found stolen car parts, guns, counterfeit money and police-issue bulletproof vests in a Soweto house.

KZN policeman in drug bust

2010-06-17 14:58

A KwaZulu-Natal policeman has been arrested for possession of heroin and cocaine near the FIFA fan park in Durban.

Angolan kidnap accused 'an illegal'

2010-06-17 13:00

One of the two men accused of kidnapping the 5-year-old son of an Angolan mining magnate is in the country illegally, the Johannesburg Magistrate's Court has heard.

Crackdown on circumcision schools

2010-06-16 19:05

The Eastern Cape health department has started an operation to rescue circumcision school initiates in the Port St Johns area following the deaths of 11 boys.

Cup fraudster gets jail time

2010-06-16 08:22

A man has been sentenced to 18 months in jail after being convicted of defrauding a US tourist wanting to hire a car for the World Cup.

Cops nab 3 over rhino horns

2010-06-15 20:43

Sars says three men have been arrested for allegedly trying to smuggle rhino horns worth more than R2m out of the country.

Harsher sentence for rape couple

2010-06-15 12:25

The North Gauteng High Court has ruled that the non-custodial sentencing of a couple for rape and indecent assault should be increased to effective jail sentences.

3 arrested for E Cape murder

2010-06-15 10:56

Three men have been arrested for allegedly stabbing another man to death in Tsolo following an argument at a local tavern, say Eastern Cape police.

Convicted surgeon 'brain damaged'

2010-06-14 22:04

A Western Cape orthopaedic surgeon - convicted of raping and indecently assaulting female patients - has brain damage, the Bellville Regional Court has heard.

Surgeon found guilty of rape

Protesting guards 'misled'

2010-06-14 20:01

Security guards who rampaged at Durban's Moses Mabhida stadium reportedly were misled by disgruntled rival security companies.

SA couple murdered in Madagascar

2010-06-14 18:19

A South African couple living on a small island about 35km east of Madagascar has been found murdered at their home.

Man caught raping sister-in-law

2010-06-14 15:31

A 33-year-old Soweto man has been arrested after he was caught allegedly raping his brother's wife, Johannesburg police say.

'Kidnapped' man found dead

2010-06-14 14:07

A man, wearing only his underpants, has been found dead next to a railway line after he was allegedly kidnapped in a road rage incident, KZN police say.

Toddler raped, killed, dumped

2010-06-14 13:01

A 2-year-old girl has been raped, killed and dumped in an open veld near Mthatha, Eastern Cape police say.

Teen shot dead in CT

2010-06-14 11:35

A 15-year-old boy has been shot dead by two men who approached him in Athlone, Cape Town police say.

Man held for raping 15-year-old

2010-06-13 22:28

A 23-year-old man is to appear in the Evander Magistrate's Court for allegedly raping a 15-year-old girl, police say.

Elderly man set alight

2010-06-13 09:29

A 70-year-old man is in a critical condition after he was set alight in Florida in Gauteng. He was airlifted to hospital.

Man killed in Silverton robbery

2010-06-12 21:05

One person has been killed and two others shot during a robbery on a smallholding in Silverton, Gauteng police have said.

6 held for robbing soccer fan

2010-06-12 16:30

Six people who allegedly robbed a hotel in Mpumalanga and held up a Chilean soccer fan have been arrested in White River, police say.

5 held for hijacking

2010-06-11 14:02

Five people have been arrested following the hijacking of a DHL vehicle in Mabopane in Pretoria, Matrix Recovery Service says.

Family up for R29m scam

2010-06-11 08:01

The case of a family involved in a R29m liquor scam has been postponed as investigators have been deployed on World Cup duties.

Tourist robbed in cop shop

2010-06-10 21:16

Cape Town's special SWC Magistrate's Court has dealt with its first cases, including a theft from a tourist in a police station.

Angry mob beats teen to death

2010-06-10 19:36

An angry mob has killed a teenager and seriously injured his friend after they broke into a house and stole items in Sun City village, Mpumalanga police say.

Nigerian kidnap case postponed

2010-06-10 18:17

The court case of six Nigerian nationals accused of kidnapping and torture has been postponed in the Johannesburg Magistrate’s Court, a report says.

SA assures visitors' safety

2010-06-10 14:25

The SA government has moved to reassure World Cup visitors that their safety and security remain top priority, a spokesperson says.

Terre'Blanche accused 'may flee'

2010-06-10 13:33

Should Eugene Terre'Blanche's murder accused Chris Mahlangu be granted bail, he will never be found again, says an investigating officer in court.

Chinese journalists robbed

2010-06-10 07:55

An armed gang has stolen money and a camera from four Chinese journalists in South Africa, Chinese state media has reported.

McBride described as 'mad man'

2010-06-09 13:12

Former Ekurhuleni metro police chief Robert McBride is a "mad man" who is capable of anything, says an ex-colleague turned State witness.

http://www.news24.com/Tags/Topics/farm_attacks

Farmers, govt settle case

2010-06-18 16:25

Free State farmers' three-year court case against the government over the lack of security along the Lesotho border has been settled out of court.

From Dina

HATE COMPLAINT AGAINST MALEMA

2010-06-22T13:28:00.000-07:00

Johannesburg - The International Criminal Court on Thursday confirmed receipt of a complaint by a Rustenburg farmer against ANC Youth League president Julius Malema.
etc

ANC Youth league Disgusted

Johannesburg - The ANC Youth League is disgusted by "the insanity" of "some" Afrikaner farmer who had reportedly lodged a genocide charge against its leader Julius Malema at the International Criminal Court.

"The ANCYL is disgusted by the attention seeking sentiments and insanity of some Afrikaner farmer from Rustenburg who has reportedly lodged a complaint with the International Criminals Court about the singing of liberation songs in South Africa’s ANC-led liberation movement," the league said in a statement.

The ANCYL said the laying of the charges was an attempt by right-wing elements to divert it from its main political programmes.

"The issue of liberation songs is currently before South African courts, which have issued an interim interdict on the singing of some of the liberation songs until the ANC has successfully defended its struggle and liberation songs and heritage."

The league said it had never engaged in any criminal activity because it was aware that this would undermine the freedom its "forbearers" had fought for with their lives.

From Dina

Behind the Vuvuzelas 2

2010-06-22T13:20:00.000-07:00

From Dina in SA

The newspapers say that crime is less during the world cup, but far away from the headlines things are somewhat different

http://www.news24.com/SouthAfrica/News/Robbers-shoot-at-KZN-campers-20100617

1. Shots fired at holiday makers from Jhb in a caravan park, Gwala-gwala nearSt. Lucia nature reserve.
- Willie Maartens (40) from Roodepoort with his extended family reports shots fired at 3 caravans and tents, and robbed at gunpoint. Bullets passed right through the caravans, etc

http://www.volksblad.com/Suid-Afrika/Nuus/Skote-klap-by-vakansie-oord-20100617-2

http://www.beeld.com/Suid-Afrika/Nuus/Rowerkoeels-deurboor-woonwaens-in-kusoord-20100616

2. Since a lot of attention has turned to the Farm Attacks, it seems killing the aged in their homes is the way to go, as this is still going on every week!

A 72 year old man from Witrivier is in a serious condition in hospital after being attacked with a byl in his house. He is Mr. Charles Baty, a bagpipe player in die Stevenson Hamilton Pipe Band, a well known Scottish orchestra in the Lowveld. He was found in a pool of blood by a visitor. He was last seen the day before at church. His kids immigrated to the USA. Nothing was stolen.

http://www.beeld.com/Suid-Afrika/Nuus/Bejaarde-tuis-met-byl-aangeval-20100618

http://www.news24.com/SouthAfrica/News/Emotional-burial-for-slain-cop-20100615

Johannesburg - Members of the police force have to choose whether they want to be heroes or gangsters.

This was what the national head of police, General Bheki Cele, said on Monday at the military funeral of Sergeant Gert du Toit, 34, in Johannesburg.

Du Toit, a member of the K9 unit (the former dog unit) in Johannesburg, was shot dead by cash-in-transit robbers in Protea South, Soweto, last Saturday.

Cele told his family that they could be proud of him.

"You can walk proudly out of this church. He died for what he believed in."

.....................

Cele said he was worried about police members who were "becoming rotten themselves".

"We have to guard against being different people by day and by night."

He referred to the R5 assault rifles that were found on the crime scene.

"There is only one organisation that uses these weapons and that is the SA police force."

etc

Other news:

http://www.news24.com/SouthAfrica/News/KZN-policeman-in-drug-bust-20100617

Durban - A KwaZulu-Natal policeman has been arrested for possession of heroin and cocaine near the FIFA fan park in Durban, police said on Thursday.

He was arrested when police found heroin, cocaine, five cellphones and R10 000 in his car when they searched it at a roadblock in South Beach on Wednesday, said Lieutenant Colonel Vincent Mdunge.

http://www.news24.com/SouthAfrica/News/Crackdown-on-circumcision-schools-20100616

http://www.news24.com/SouthAfrica/News/GP-man-rapes-stepdaughter-20100615

Johannesburg - A 67-year-old man was arrested for allegedly raping his 6-year-old stepdaughter in Tembisa, Gauteng police said on Tuesday.

Behind the Vuvuzelas 1

2010-06-22T13:15:00.000-07:00

TV crew robbed

http://www.news24.com/SouthAfrica/News/TV-crew-robbed-20100613-2

Man held for raping 15-year-old

http://www.news24.com/SouthAfrica/News/Man-held-for-raping-15-year-old-20100613

Toddler raped, killed, dumped

http://www.news24.com/SouthAfrica/News/Toddler-raped-killed-dumped-20100614

Foetus dumped in taxi

http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?from=rss_Crime%20And%20Courts&set_id=1&click_id=15&art_id=nw20100614103837667C528356

Police open fire on protesting Durban World cup security staff

http://www.businessday.co.za/articles/Content.aspx?id=111784

Teenager shot dead in Athlone

http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?from=rss_Crime%20And%20Courts&set_id=1&click_id=15&art_id=nw20100614103640732C523466

Man gunned down at braai, two others hurt

http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?from=rss_Crime%20And%20Courts&set_id=1&click_id=15&art_id=vn20100614043525875C416542

Man caught raping sister-in-law

http://www.news24.com/SouthAfrica/News/Man-caught-raping-sister-in-law-20100614

SA couple murdered in Madagascar

http://www.news24.com/SouthAfrica/News/SA-COUPLE-MURDERED-IN-MADAGASCAR-20100614

Eight arrested after foiled robbery

http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?from=rss_Crime%20And%20Courts&set_id=1&click_id=15&art_id=nw20100614165717466C488630

Teen shot dead in CT

http://www.news24.com/SouthAfrica/News/Teen-shot-dead-in-CT-20100614

Man killed in nightclub brawl

http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?from=rss_Crime%20And%20Courts&set_id=1&click_id=15&art_id=vn20100614043634794C649588

Taxi 'executions' on the rise in KZN

http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?from=rss_Crime%20And%20Courts&set_id=1&click_id=15&art_id=vn20100614044501866C361669

Alleged rapist apprehended in tavern

http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?from=rss_Crime%20And%20Courts&set_id=1&click_id=15&art_id=nw20100613221317266C661952

R25m drugs seized in Sandton

http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?from=rss_Crime%20And%20Courts&set_id=1&click_id=15&art_id=nw20100614164517720C541091

CRG accused of voodoo as goat and cow are sacrificed

http://www.busrep.co.za/index.php?from=rss_Business%20Report&fArticleId=5512620

Land Bank staffers arrested

http://www.news24.com/SouthAfrica/News/Land-Bank-staffers-arrested-20100613

Doctors' exodus hits West Rand hospital

http://www.timeslive.co.za/local/article502710.ece/Doctors-exodus-hits-West-Rand-hospital

Staff crisis at SWC hospital

http://www.sport24.co.za/Soccer/WorldCup/NationalNews/17-doctors-quit-SWC-hospital-20100614

Cele slams foreign criminals

http://www.sport24.co.za/Soccer/WorldCup/NationalNews/Cele-slams-foreign-criminals-20100614

Transnet wants to fire Siyabonga Gama: Hogan

http://www.busrep.co.za/index.php?from=rss_Business%20Report&fArticleId=5513628

74 000 vote for vuvuzela ban

http://www.sport24.co.za/Soccer/WorldCup/TournamentNews/74-000-vote-for-vuvuzela-ban-20100614

Cosatu wants suspended officials charged

http://www.timeslive.co.za/business/article503643.ece/Cosatu-wants-suspended-officials-charged

Rea Vaya workers go on Soccer City strike

http://www.mg.co.za/article/2010-06-14-rea-vaya-workers-go-on-soccer-city-strike

Fifa to probe transport as thousands stay away

http://www.businessday.co.za/articles/Content.aspx?id=111719

World Cup security protest R190 wages

http://www.timeslive.co.za/local/article502532.ece/World-Cup-security-protest-R190-wages

South Koreans buy condoms like they're going out of fashion after World Cup win

http://www.thedailymaverick.co.za/article/2010-06-14-south-koreans-buy-condoms-like-theyre-going-out-of-fashion-after-world-cup-win

Feel ‘it’, it’s here says ladies of the night

http://www.sowetan.co.za/News/Article.aspx?id=1151395

World Cup booklet blunder costs R1.5m

http://www.timeslive.co.za/local/article502289.ece/World-Cup-booklet-blunder-costs-R1.5m

______________

Hat Tip The ABC of the ANC

South Africa - Three shot one dead

2010-06-14T12:20:00.000-07:00

A further farm killing took place in South Africa this weekend, again ignored by the assembled world media. One farmer was killed and two injured during a robbery on a smallholding in Silverton, Gauteng on Saturday.

According to police five armed men held up two men and a woman on a smallholding in Silverton
The three resisted and all were shot, one man being fatally injured.

The man and woman remain in hospital.

This murder brings the total number of white South African farmers killed since Nelson Mandela became president in 1994 to at least 3,109

News report
____________
From Dina

Retired SADF couple survive torture ordeal

2010-06-12T00:32:00.001-07:00

A retired (SADF) army Colonel Thys Eagar (78)'s cheekbones was crushed and his ribs broken when he and his wife Barbara (74) were attacked, stabbed and assaulted in their house in Wierdapark, Centurion. Wis wife was badly beaten, stabbed and choked. The attackers gained entry through the roof of their house in a security complex at 3:00 AM in the morning, and they were attacked where they were sleeping in their bed. When the old man woke up, he asked them in Zulu if they wanted food or money, but they simply started beating and choking him that he lost consciousness twice.

Fortunately an alert neighbour on hearing screams phoned the police who's arrival made the attackers flee. One was subsequently arrested.

Report at Censor Bugbear

News source
_________
Dina

Farmer murdered daughters raped

2010-06-10T13:18:00.000-07:00

News has reached me of a further farm killing earlier this month. News reports have so far been very limited, and there is nothing that I can find in the English language press. However, according to the Afrikaner press four Mozambicans have been arrested in Soweto following the gruesome murder of a 50 year old farmer at his small holding near Meyerton in South Africa's Gauteng province.

The men are also accused of the repeated rape of the victim's daughters aged 16 and 18.

Allegedly the murderers waited for the victim to return home. After the 16 year old daughter opened the door for her father, they shot him and forced their way into the house where the rapes then took place. The attackers fled with a radio,TV and the family's BMW. However, the vehicle together with the stolen property was later found abandoned.

I will post further information on this killing if I get it. This now means that, at least 3,108 white South African farmers have been murdered since the end of Apartheid.

________
From Dina

Gardner found guilty of torture and murder of South African women

2010-06-10T13:17:00.001-07:00

Helen Lotter

Days before the start of the world cup, the gardener of the two frail and unarmed Afrikaner women who were tortured to death on March 6 last your has been found guilty of their violent and sadistic murders by a South African Court.

The court found that the gardener Joseph Hlongwane, 22, had tortured to death 76 year old Alice Lotter and her daughter Helen. No explanation was given by the gardener as to why he had displayed such extreme cruelty, the torture had continued for at least three hours before the women died.

Warning: The following details, of extreme sexual violence, are particularly gruesome.

Mrs Alice Lotter died from multiple, deep stabbing wounds to her neck and throat; her daughter Helen, suffered 'severe, repeated, sharp trauma injuries to her lower body administered with knives and a broken beer bottle.' A post-mortem examination revealed that all of Helen’s front teeth were bashed out and that her entire body and face were ‘covered in severe bruises, chafing and stabbing wounds. During testimony from the coroner it was revealed that broken glass had been inserted into Ms Lotters genitals after which she had been savagely and repeatedly kicked in the groin. Her sexual organs internally and externally were extensively mutilated – some body parts including her cervix and uterus were completely missing:

Ms Lotter's breast had also been removed, and used to write the anti-white slogans such as "Kill the Boer" on the wall.

All this occurred whilst the women were still alive.

Very little of value was stolen from the victims during what the police had previously referred to as a "robbery"

A full report together with relevant links can be found at CensorBugbear

The verdict comes two months after the violent murder of Afrikaner Resistance Movement leader Eugene Terreblanche and mere weeks after South African Farmer Johan Strydom was murdered after being chained to the back of his truck and dragged around his farm, allegedly by three black men.

South African thugs savagely mutilate cattle

2010-06-04T13:40:00.000-07:00

In the early hours of Sunday morning May 29, a group armed with pangas descended on a Kokstad farm intent on destruction.

The attack was notable for its savagery, leaving cows hamstrung, without tails and with deep cuts in their udders, legs, backs, ears and heads. Nine of the 37 cows that fell victim to the attack had to be put down

The attackers then set 150 bales on the farm alight.

Douglas Wolhuter, "When I arrived at the scene, it was like it only happened an hour or two after the attack. The first cattle I saw were the eight that were hamstrung. They were so badly mutilated that they had to be put down."

"In my opinion the cuts on the udders were consistent with attempts to hamstring the rest of the cattle, while slashing the face and the back was just malicious," Douglas said.

Report

________
Hat Tip: The ABC of the ANC

'Witchcraft' murder

2010-06-04T13:36:00.000-07:00

A 70-year-old Eastern Cape woman has been shot and killed, and police suspect the killing which took place near Lusikisiki in Eastern Cape was witchcraft-related.

The incident happened, when two people kicked open the woman's door and shot her dead.
A police source commented "(For) a woman of this age it is not normal that she is killed...they are killed when the killing is related to witchcraft,"

Report

Residents demolish preacher’s house because of his sermons

2010-06-04T13:31:00.000-07:00

Angry residents demolished a preacher's home because they're fed-up of his public sermons accusing female neighbours of sleeping around.

But the man of God refuses to budge and has simply rebuilt it.
Philippi residents say the pastor regularly stands in the middle of the road and starts swearing at women in front of their young children accusing them of having affairs.

People finally had enough and demolished his shack on Monday but the persistent preacher rebuilt his shack on Tuesday.

A resident says the pastor is lucky people in his area have not tried to hurt him.

"He stands in the road and tells the women they cheat on their men and others sleep with their own children"

Story

Scammers kidnap US woman

2010-06-04T13:21:00.000-07:00

Police have arrested four people implicated in a so called 419 scam after they allegedly held a US woman hostage for nearly a month.

A police spokesperson said "Police believe the four lured the US citizen with a promise that she had won $1.06m (R8m),"

The gang started scamming her last year and fleeced $60 000 from her between April and July.

"After July, the communication went cold until they approached her again in April this year."

She was told to come to South Africa in person to claim her prize and bring $2 000.

Taken hostage

"She duly came and on arrival on April 15 they took her hostage from the airport and kept her in a house for well over a month.

Full report

Zuma's 21st

2010-06-04T13:16:00.000-07:00

President Jacob Zuma may soon welcome another child - his 21st - to the presidential family.

On Monday the presidency did not deny reports that Zuma will soon be a father again.

This time it's his second wife, Nompumelelo Ntuli (better known as MaNtuli), who is expecting a child. There are rumours that her relationship with Zuma is on the rocks.

The news comes seven months after Zuma's child with Sonono Khoza, daughter of Zuma's friend and soccer boss Irvin Khoza, was born out of wedlock. Zuma acknowledged paternity of the child in February.

Officials in the presidency pulled a veil of secrecy around the latest revelations. Zuma's spokesperson Vincent Magwenya said: "It is a family affair and I am not willing to comment on this matter."

He refused to acknowledge that the matter is in the public interest since tax payers will have to support yet another child of the president.

Report

_________
Dina

Farm killings 'not political'

2010-06-04T12:56:00.000-07:00

Farm and rural killings should not be politicised and all murders should be treated equally, Minister of Police Nathi Mthethwa said on Monday.

Addressing an AgriSA conference in Pretoria on rural safety, Mthethwa said the race card should not be brought into the debate by unions, political parties and other stakeholders to advance their own agenda.

"We do not see it as anything else political or racist, we see it as just crime.

"We cannot sit on different sides of the fence and point fingers, we need to recognise that most farmworkers and farmers are valuable assets."

Continue reading

Terre'Blanche murder 'political'

The murder of Afrikaner Weerstandsbeweging (AWB) leader Eugene Terre'Blanche was no ordinary crime, but a political murder, "probably involving government", the agricultural union TAU-SA said on Tuesday.

"The cruelty and barbaric actions which is evident during such murders, was repeated in the case of Mr Terre'Blanche, and does not relate to the alleged motive," said TAU-SA president Ben Marais.

The situation in South Africa was much worse than the general perception and called for drastic intervention, he said.

"If we look at the course of events during the previous weeks, an upsetting pattern has materialised in which the murder of Mr Eugene Terre'Blanche is but one incident.

Continue reading

_____________
Dina

Farmer Shot - wife beaten

2010-06-04T11:57:00.000-07:00

Back in May a farmer and his wife were attacked on their smallholding outside Klerksdorp Nort West Province.

According to a police spokesman four men called the 56-year-old farmer to his door "by name", When he opened the door the [men] stormed into the house and demanded money

After the farmer told them he did not have any money, one of the men shot him in the leg.

One suspect also confronted the man's 52-year-old wife, she was hit on the head with the butt of a firearm.

Source

More farm attack related news: http://www.news24.com/Tags/Topics/farm_attacks

Dina

Youth accused of raping 3 year old

2010-06-04T11:54:00.000-07:00

Johannesburg - An 18-year-old youth was arrested for raping his 3-year-old niece in Tembisa, Gauteng police said on Tuesday.

The child's 31-year-old aunt left the toddler with the youth when she went to work on Monday, said Constable Tebogo Sesing.

When the woman returned, she found the child crying outside on the street.

The child then told her what had happened.

The aunt took the child to the clinic and reported the incident to the police.

The 18-year-old was arrested and was due to appear in the Tembisa Magistrate's Court soon.

Source: http://www.news24.com/SouthAfrica/News/Youth-rapes-niece-3-20100601

Hat Tip: Birdman

ANC Arrogance

2010-06-04T11:40:00.000-07:00

- Given some previously well known utterances that the ANC would rule (as opposed to govern), until ‘Jesus comes again’, as well as the very recent assertion by Zuma that any member of the ANC who dares to leave the party will be exposed by "the ancestors" and "will get sick" and that the ANC will exist forever, I can’t help but consider the vast differences in approach and understanding of democracy across cultural divisions.

Western centric thinking considers that a democratically elected government are servants to the public (who pay their salaries after all), and are duty bound to serve as long as the electorate see fit. They are answerable and accountable to the public that elected them. Should they fail to meet the mandate given them, they are replaced (by way of democratic process). In running a country (like running a business), there is no such thing as a “job for life”.

In contrast, in many cases (Zimbabwe for example), evidence would suggest that African centric thinking is somewhat different and adopts a “father (or mother) of the nation” philosophy and considers that rulers are to be automatically respected, revered, feared , seldom questioned, and provide some kind of perpetual moral guidance to the nation as a whole. An emotional kinship between the ruler and those that are ruled seems to prevail and hold more sway than actual bottom line performance and measurement.

Continue reading: http://www.news24.com/MyNews24/Letters/ANC-arrogance-20100524

Hat Tip: Dina

Thousands of Police Fire arams “lost or stolen”

2010-06-04T11:36:00.001-07:00

More than 5 300 firearms have been lost or stolen from police stations around south Africa over the past two years.

According to a written reply to a parliamentary question a total of 2 603 firearms were lost or stolen in the financial year 2009/10 and 2 759 the previous year.

Of these 457 of the firearms which disappeared over the two-year period went missing from police head office in Pretoria Meanwhile KwaZulu-Natal saw an increase of 238% from 353 in 2008/09 to 840 in the last year. Mpumalanga saw a 300% increase.

Only the Eastern Cape saw a fall in the numbers of missing guns having lost 1,095 in 2008/09 but only 613 in 2009/10

Action had been taken against 56 police officers.

News report

Hat Tip: Dina

Malema Defends himself to BBC

2010-06-04T11:30:00.001-07:00

ANC Youth League president Julius Malema has defended his recent behaviour which landed him before an ANC disciplinary committee, while also pledging his allegiance to President Jacob Zuma during an interview with the BBC.

According to the BBC report, Malema - who is yet to attend anger management classes ordered by the ANC as part of his punishment for criticising Zuma - said he did not feel betrayed by the ANC president who had said the youth leader was "out of control".

Zuma "whipped the youth into line" whenever he saw "anything wrong", Malema told the BBC.

However, Malema also refused to admit he had done anything wrong.

Malema said he was "fighting for the emancipation of blacks and Africans in particular, politically, socially and economically", and that he would like to see democratic and compensated land redistribution in South Africa.

He was initially charged by the ANC for his public support for Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe, throwing a BBC journalist out of a media conference and singing "Shoot the Boer" after it had been banned. The charges were later dropped by the party in return for Malema admitting guilt over criticising Zuma

Report

BBC report

___________
From Dina

South African cop held for attempted farm murder

2010-05-24T13:27:00.001-07:00

A female police constable from the South African Police Crime Prevention Unit has been arrested for attempted murder – a suspect in a foiled farm attack carried out 333km from her duty station. In addition an ex-cop whose vehicle she was driving, also is sought as a suspect.

The allegedly targeted farmer apparently heard gunshots on his premises and saw three people entering through the gate gunshot was fired at him, in response he drew his own firearm and shot back.

The suspects fled on foot.

The officer was later apprehended with what is described as "incriminating evidence" in the back of a white truck belonging to a retired policeman

Further details at Censor Bugbear and News 24

_____________________________
Thanks to Dina and Carl

ANC appeals 'shoot the boer' ban

2010-05-20T05:39:00.000-07:00

ANC Youth leader Malema sings "Shoot the Boer"

According to newspaper reports the ANC has asked the South Gauteng High Court for leave to appeal against the ruling that declared the controversial "shoot the boer" song unconstitutional

Details

From Dina

A further update on recent farm attacks

2010-05-20T05:17:00.000-07:00

Last month I posted a report about an attack on a Carolina (SA) farm where the attackers attempted to burn Cornelia de Wet and her children alive in their own home after sealing the doors with wire.

Cornelia de Wet was the victim of a further attack last weekend when she was shot and wounded in the leg in what is apparently the fifth attack on the farm since last months attempted arson.

We will post further details if I receive them

Source

____________
Hat tip Dina