Ne Ultra - Nothing Beyond

Why Africa has gone to hell

2012-01-21T23:38:00.001Z

This article is over two years old, but still valid today.

by James Jackson – Taki’s Magazine:

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 appal.

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 descendants 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.

Rising cases of corruption

2012-01-18T15:08:00.001Z

This from the Sowetan:

INVESTIGATIONS into corruption and financial mismanagement involving provincial government departments are piling up.

Provincial departments throughout the country face a collective 1,640 investigations as a result of irregular activity, particularly in supply-chain management - a division through which contracts and tenders are awarded to national and provincial departments.

Auditor-General Terence Nombembe this week revealed a shocking number of probes into these departments, hinting that corruption might be spiralling out of control.

Leading the pack is KwaZulu-Natal, which is sitting with about 1,103 investigations for the year ending March 2011.

The province is under investigation for 710 incidents of fraud, 138 incidents involving supply-chain management and 255 other incidents of financial misconduct.

The auditor-general's report notes that "the extent of investigations commissioned suggests a control environment where fraud and financial misconduct are not prevented".

President Jacob Zuma's home province is listed in the report as one of the places with high rates of unauthorised expenditure.

The KwaZulu-Natal department of health reportedly underspent its budget by R1.4-billion, and that was because of "several lengthy tender appeals and delays on construction ..."

The two provinces that follow after KZN are Eastern Cape with 250 cases and Western Cape with 154. North West is the lowest with eight cases.

Another shocking aspect of the report is about the departments of Education, Health, Human Settlements, Public Works and Social Development - which account for 85% of provincial governments' annual spending. They were responsible for incurring R16.3-billion of the R20-billion in unauthorised, irregular as well as fruitless and wasteful expenditure.

The R20-billion squandered by the government in the year ending March 2011, was an increase from R16-billion the year before.

The auditor-general's results have not gone down well with labour unions.

Nehawu spokesman Sizwe Pamla said: "For a country that is struggling to pay its workers decent wages and failing to provide basic necessities to its citizens, this is scandalous and not acceptable.

"South Africans deserve better than this and their patience has already run out."

Individual provincial results showed that KwaZulu-Natal had the most departments receiving financially unqualified audits with 23, followed by Gauteng with 14 and Eastern Cape 11.

However, there was some progress as 31 departments retained clean audits while another 15 managed to receive clean audits.

Cadres blamed for failing departments

2012-01-18T14:54:00.001Z

It must be fairly clear that the corruption of the ANC is clearly visible through all levels of government, from local municipalities (of which hundreds are essentially bankrupt) through provincial to national government.

Since the Auditor General is not white and couldn’t thus possibly be one of the “racist, previously advantaged at the expense of others, longing for Apartheid, people who should rather leave the country” crowd, I wonder what is wrong with him? He doesn’t seem to blame the previous white government. He seems to highlight systemic issues with awarding government contracts.

And, like with the crime statistics and everything else reported by this regime, you have to remember that this is what has been audited. You cannot audit something which has not been documented. And the proof exists of the number of municipalities and provincial departments not being able to supply accounts worth auditing.

You would be forgiven for thinking the current regime is running out of excuses. But then again, they only need one. The previous white, racist government.

from Citipress:

Cadre deployment and nepotism are the main causes of under-performing government departments, the Christian Democratic Party said today.

“The Auditor General’s consolidated report on provinces clearly demonstrates that government must reconsider its continued blaming of apartheid for various woes,” party leader Theunis Botha said in a statement.

“The main problem lies with the present, not the distant past.”

According to the report, 69% of provincial departments employed non-competitive practices and 35% of tenders were awarded to government officials or family members, he said.

“Wasted expenditure increased from R189 million to R850m.”

Botha said that as long as the AG’s reports were not taken seriously and real efforts made to drastically improve the situation, the country would continue to underperform.

“Ridiculous election promises will remain pie in the sky and apartheid will once again be blamed. Some political maturity is seriously lacking,” he said.

Auditor General Terence Nombembe released his 2010/11 General Report on National Audit Outcomes in Pretoria on Monday.

He voiced concern about all but three of the 39 national government departments. The three were environmental affairs, public enterprises and science.

More than R20 billion spent by national and provincial departments has been found to have been unauthorised, irregular, wasteful and fruitless expenditure.

Nombembe highlighted supply chain management, a division through which contracts and tenders are awarded at both national and provincial departments, as a key problem area.

On Monday, the Federation of Unions of SA urged the government to stop “cadre deployment” and to curb corruption in local, provincial, and national government.

The Dubious Creators of the Apartheid Museum.

2012-01-14T06:16:00.002Z

Further confirmation that things are often not quite as they seem. I do not know if it has been mentioned here before but: the creators of the so called Apartheid Museum [ which is contested by a previous owner of the term Apartheid Museum who insists that he has the legal rights to the term ] are about the most unlikely candidates for having created it as they only did so in order to obtain the legal right to open a casino which is adjacent.

The following excerpt is from page 61 of a thesis entitled: Making Memory Space: Recollect io n and Reconciliation in Post Apartheid South African Architecture.

Truth is often stranger than fiction.

The Apartheid Museum is the brainchild of Abe and Solly Krok, entrepreneurial brothers who wished to take advantage of legal revisions that allowed for the establishment of casinos and gambling in a country previously constrained by conservative values that denied such activities. As if to highlight the dubious origins of the museum, the brothers made their fortune during Apartheid by selling toxic skin lightening cream to black women.190 The Kroks wished to develop a casino within an existing theme park and pseudo-mining town on the outskirts of Johannesburg - Gold Reef City, a successful and popular tourist attraction. In order to gain approval for the casino’s construction from the City of Johannesburg, the brothers had to produce a ‘social development’ project. After considering a variety of options, the idea of a museum was identified as a means to increase tourism, stimulate the economy and create employment.191 It is positioned in open field, on a seven-hectare site which consists of natural recreated veld and indigenous bush habitat containing a lake and paths, and on the edge of a car park, adjacent to the roller-coaster and other rides that make up Gold Reef City theme park and casino.

This revelation is further substantiated at: Apartheid: Now in Museum Form. It's almost like having a Voortrekker Monument created by Sir Alfred Milner or some other figure who capitalized on British Colonialism. [ Though oddly enough the Voortrekker Monument was designed by Gerard Moerdijk a son of Dutch immigrants who spoke English at home during his formative years. ] The ironic & downright cynical creators of this museum sort of compromises the entire project.

Reverend Waters: “Kill whites” on same page as Mandela feature

2012-01-09T12:41:00.001Z

On the same page IOL has a little thumbnail link to a special feature on Nelson Mandela, is the report on yet another black man in the public eye calling for “a material number of whites” to be killed. In the same series of tweets from this man who calls himself a preacher, father and truth seeker, he proclaims that he is busy with Biblical studies.

Now I wonder if he is a bit confused on what the Bible teaches us about our fellow brothers and sisters or if it is pure irony that this report on IOL sports a link to Nelson Mandela, the terrorist who masterminded the killing of white and black civilians in South Africa.

Update: In true South African ministry of lies tradition, IOL has already removed this article – the cached version is here: IOL cached link

from IOL:

A reverend used Twitter at the weekend to call for white people in South Africa to be killed.

The man singled out Helen Zille as among those who should be killed.

The Reverend Kemo Immanuel Waters runs a business called the KemoTherapy Institute of Truth and is an active member of Twitter, Facebook and MySpace. He is a DJ and describes himself on his Twitter profile as a preacher, author, poet, father and truth seeker.

From his previous tweets, Waters sounded like an intellectual, spiritual person, who occasionally discussed politics, but not with any controversy.

Then suddenly in the early hours of Saturday morning, this changed.

At 1.33am, the reverend wrote: “The only way to end racism is to kill a material number of whites. @helenzille your indifferent and patronizing stance is a double dare… ”

The tweet caused an uproar, with many responding angrily.

Zille said the tweet was hate speech and that she would be laying charges against Waters.

Tweeter @bronwynnielsen asked if he had lost his mind.

Waters replied: “No I have not lost my mind. But it is sad that this is what it takes to give racism the attention it deserves?”

In response to @Sibusisomtungwa, he tweeted: “You missed the gist of my msg… which is the only time a black man is afforded a dignified audience is when he pulls a gun.”

Waters also discussed the ANC centenary: “Happy 100th year anniversary to @MyANC_. You (sic) job is not done… but, a job well done in the past 100 years… You will rule till the rapture”.

Since his rant on Saturday, Waters has received many death threats. He said he had received five phone calls on Sunday morning from people wanting to kill him.

“All the people who gave me death threats have a racist undertone. Someone, a boer, said to me that everyone close to me will die,” Waters said.

“I will never back down. I will never take it back and I will never apologise,” he added.

Waters said he had been upset after his family had been made to sit at the bar in a busy restaurant in Camps Bay, Cape Town, for half an hour.

“In Joburg, you can go anywhere and you feel welcome.”

Waters said he would never kill anyone but knew black people who would. - The Star

Malema continues hate-speech whilst praising Mandela

2012-01-07T01:15:00.001Z

from Farmitracker

JANUARY 6 2011 -- THABA'NCHU, FREESTATE, South Africa.

Journalists Willem van der Berg and Pieter Steyn of Volksblad newspaper reported that the “suspended” ANC youth league leader Julius Malema, now elected as a senior member of the influential Limpopo ANC's executive committee, and thus more powerful than ever before, has launched into one of his by now world-infamous rampages against “white owned” mining houses and repeated his demands that all “white-owned” land must be confiscated.

He repeatedly sang the banned song “KILL THE BOER”, to the delight of his 1,000 followers present at the meeting in Thaba'Nchu. Just a day earlier about 700 people held a violent demonstration in which they protested vehemently against the ruling ANC. This caused SA president Jacob Zuma to cancel his planned visit.

Yet only a day later a 1,000-member crowd cheered Julius Malema, who has since his suspension as president of the ANC youth league after a disciplinary hearing, been elected as a senior member of the Limpopo ANC executive committee.

The journalists present at the meeting said Malema continued making the same anti-white hate speech statements and again incited his followers to sing the banned song “KILL THE BOER”.

Malema reportedly also said at this meeting that he doesn't want to “chase all the whites into the sea”: on the contrary, he wants whites to work for him as domestics, he wants to humiliate them instead: “Within ten years I want whites to work as domestic labourers”, he said in a rousing speech, often breaking into his infamous “KILL THE BOER” song.

And then he added: “domestic workers are raped in the boss' and madam's bedroom but they cannot say anything because they will lose their work.”

He also spoke of his suspension as ANC youth league leader, and said “individuals make mistakes and leaders shouldn't then threaten with disciplinary actions. You can never suppress a revolutionary”, he yelled.

He ranted against banks, mining houses and white-owned land and said: “the media mustn't tell me I own land. I own a little bit of land”. He praised ex-ANC president Nelson Mandela for “his visionary leadership which convinced the ANC to drop its peaceful resistance and start the armed struggle”.

“Mandela told us it didn't help to write letters to the Queen of England. He said we must take up the weapon - and he said this when he was a member of the ANC youth league. And we will have to do the same thing if we want our economic freedom today”, MALEMA said.

After his speech, the minister of sport Fikile Mbalula, also attacked the ANC in a fiery speech and said that the ANC youth league was “AN AUTONOMOUS AND MILITANT organisation. The mother-body should not try to change that, they will never be able to do that.”

Mbalula was lavish in his praise of Malema. “There have been many great youth-league leaders before Malema and they all became great leaders. They all went through the process to reach the top. So why can't Julius?”

Mbalula also said it wasn't relevant that the ANC's lavish year-long party would cost R100 million. “What's money, it's f—k all,” he cursed. Throughout this meeting, the crowd was constantly encouraged and inspired to sing “KILL THE BOER”.

Meanwhile just 20km away from this venue, SA president Jacob Zuma paid a flash-visit to the Botshabelo former mission-station township. He promised residents “piped water” soon.

Volkstaat Maps Prove Boer Orientation of Afrikaans Self Determination.

2011-11-01T07:34:00.001Z

While looking at a number of maps for the proposed Afrikaner & or Boer Volkstaat I was struck how ALL of these maps intrinsically make the same basic point I have been making for years. IE: the drive for independence & secession within the broader local White population is far more concentrated within the Boer descended population. [ As opposed to Cape Dutch descendents & English speakers etc. ] There are those who assert that campaigning for Boer independence is "divisive" yet the very maps for the various proposed Volkstaat[s] all vindicate & validate the very point I & others have made. As a matter of fact these maps all recognize this point by noticeably leaving the bulk of the Cape Dutch population OUT of the equation. For example: the Cape Dutch strongholds are not even part of the various maps for the proposed Volkstaat. Therefore: if the Cape Dutch descendents were truly as interested in independence as the Boer descendents are then there should be at least some Volkstaat maps which include the Cape Dutch descended populated area of the Western Cape region within a proposal.

Out of all the maps I have seen: not one of them included the Cape Dutch descended stronghold of the Western Cape [ excluding the generic Western Cape secessionist movement which is a somewhat different matter ] & many even exclude Johannesburg within them. Even none other than the map of Dan Roodt [ who eschews the term Boer & favours the dispossessing term Afrikaner ] consists entirely of Boer populated & or historically held territory while conspicuously excluding the Cape Dutch descended population region. Now I know there is indeed a fledgling secessionist movement to break the Western Cape off from South Africa but that movement is not strictly an Afrikaner Volkstaat movement.

The folks who are most wanting a Volkstaat or Afrikaans language based autonomous state are overwhelmingly of Boer descent as even the various map proposals clearly indicate. Yet many Boer descendents insist on diluting their natural strength [ which comes as a natural result from identifying with the Afrikaner designation ] by ceding authority over to an amorphous Afrikaner macro grouping [ whose leadership naturally usurps the Boers' leadership when lumping the two groups together & consequently sharing a leadership ] - the bulk of whom are not descended from the Boer people & whose strongholds are not even part of the various Volkstaat proposal maps. This stark realization should prompt more of those Boer descendents who still think of themselves as Afrikaners to wake up because struggling for freedom under the Afrikaner designation is analogous to Scots struggling for freedom under the British designation or Quebecois struggling for independence under the Canadian designation.

The map for the proposed Volkstaat from the Freedom Front. Chosen for its sparse population.

The map of Dan Roodt spanning the Cape frontier region where the Boers developed / emerged right up to portions of OVS & ZAR Boer Republics. The Cape Dutch stronghold within the Western Cape is conspicuously omitted yet Boers are expected to classify as "Afrikaners" - a designation which was initiated & promoted by Cape Dutch intellectuals at Paarl starting in 1875 back when the Boer Republics were still independent & internationally recognized.

The map of Robert van Tonder of the Boerestaat Party which was a consolidation of the Orange Free State Republic with most of the Transvaal Republic [ ZAR ] & with the Vryheid Republic. This Boerestaat model was based on areas which were independent & under Boer government.

South African Police Farce

2011-10-22T12:05:00.001+01:00

You should know by now. It all goes tits up when Marxist terrorists run the show. In actual fact, you only need socialists in power for a country to be destroyed or millions to be killed. Or both. Just ask any of the 200 million killed by communism and socialism.

But the right wing poses the real threat, or at least according to the media. Just like the Tea Parties in America. Real racist terrorists they are, even cleaning up behind them after a rally. Unlike the 60s hippie wanna-be “Occupy Wall Street” movement whose members defecate on police vehicles. Which brings me back to my point.

The good old South African Police Farce. If it’s not former chief Jackie Selebi (pictured below) dragging its name through the mud (mind you, he hasn’t started his sentence yet, so maybe this is another Shabir Shaik case), it is the fact members manage to lose 20,000 firearms or that 10,000 of them are already in jail.

You have to feel sorry for those members of the force committed to upholding law and order. Those who go about their duty in the face of ever increasing danger, even from within the force itself. It is a difficult occupation in any first world country, let alone the environment many find themselves in with SAPS.

Just look at the following incident reported on by Censorbugbear and Beeld.

Afriforum was contacted after constable Angelique Kok, an Afrikaner police woman, was allegedly cursed by Brig Ndebele for “not driving with her blue lights on” when they were on patrol Friday-night in Sunnyside, Pretoria.

Ndebele was in a police car next to hers and yelled out the window. The young female constable then stopped her vehicle and climbed out - gesturing to Mrs Ndebele to repeat her comments because she couldn't hear them properly while driving.

Ndebele was in another car with a police-colonel. Ndebele then walked over to constable Kok's car, took the keys from the police vehicle's ignition and climbed back into her own car with the colonel. Constable Kok then went to Brig Ndebele's vehicle asking for her keys back as her police-dog was not allowed to remain alone in the vehicle.

Ndebele responded by telling Kok “don't you salute the colonel?”. Kok responded by saying that she had 'not seen the colonel' (it was at night), but then Mrs Ndebele snarled at the young Afrikaner police officer: “You think you are special because of your skin colour, because you are white”.

W/O Kok's police car was then driven away from the site by someone else. This occurred at a notorious prostitution spot on the corner of Schoeman and Wessel Streets in Sunnyside.

The young police constable was left standing alone without any transportation or any other colleagues. She was carrying only her police-revolver.

Kelder said: “Police management claims to be so worried because so many police-officers are being murdered, but then an SAPS-brigadier leaves a young female constable, armed only with her service pistol, alone amongst a bunch of drunk men and prostitutes”.

W/o Kok had to contact a friend to come and fetch her. She was so traumatised by the racial abuse and the entire experience that she's undergoing psychiatric counselling. W/o Kok, accompanied by Mr Kelder, placed a charge of crimen injuria at the Lyttelton-police station in Centurion.

This was confirmed by SAPS capt Pinky Tsinyane, provincial police spokesman. “The police are aware of the case. Once the investigation is complete, the dossier will be referred to the directorate of public prosecutions for a decision whether the case will be prosecuted in the courts, or not”, Tsinyane said.

If you think for one moment that this black, racist “senior officer” in the force will be reprimanded, you haven’t been paying attention.

SA loses billions to negligence and corruption

2011-10-17T06:21:00.001+01:00

from: LA Times

REPORTING FROM JOHANNESBURG, SOUTH AFRICA -- A South African government minister reportedly spends the equivalent of nearly $70,000 of taxpayer money on a trip to Switzerland to visit his girlfriend in jail (facing drug charges), then tells the president that he was on official business.

Now that was embarrassing. (He's been on sick leave since February).

Then there was the minister and the police chief who were implicated in an unlawful deal to lease police buildings at inflated prices, which cost taxpayers more than $250 million.

But those incidents pale beside the sprawling, routine corruption and negligence in South African governance exposed by Willie Hofmeyr, head of an anti-corruption agency called the Special Investigating Unit. He told Parliament this week that around 20% of all government procurements, or about $3.8 billion, go missing each year -- some of it stolen, the rest untraceable because of negligence.

Twenty percent. The government didn't fall. It barely blinked.

Hofmeyr said his unit was investigating more than 900 cases of questionable contracts and conflicts of interest, valued at more than $635 million. But with only 700 investigators, they were scratching the surface. Ten times that number would be needed to do the job properly, he said.

The worst theft, he said, took place at the local level, where there wasn't much oversight.

In a speech in June, the head of the trade union council, Zwelinzima Vavi, condemned a "powerful, corrupt, predatory elite" and called on President Jacob Zuma to act against corrupt ministers.

The council, COSATU, this week called on Zuma to take swift action against Sicelo Shiceka, the minister who is said to have spent nearly $70,000 visiting his lover in a Swiss jail in 2008. Shiceka is also accused of staying in a luxury Cape Town hotel instead of the official house provided by the state.

Shiceka, a close Zuma ally, was investigated by another corruption buster, independent Public Protector Thuli Madonsela, who released her report Friday.

"What matters to me is that something is done, and within a reasonable time frame, so that justice is speedy," she said on television Friday.

Shiceka is one of the government's most controversial figures, with a reputation for a love of bling and a lavish lifestyle. The Citizen newspaper reported that he built himself a luxury mansion in his village of Ingquza Hill in the Eastern Cape and had the local municipality construct a new road to the village. It also claimed he took a helicopter to go shopping.

Shiceka rejected the public protector's findings Friday, saying they were baseless and unfair.

A presidential spokesman said Zuma would respond to the recommendations when he was ready.

Mud hut dwellers at it again

2011-10-16T11:35:00.001+01:00

What do you do when a court accuses you of hate speech for singing “Kill the Boer”? Why, it is obvious. You sing “Shoot all the white people” instead.

In case you wondered, “mud hut dwellers” is a term which has nothing to do with people in a specific abode. It refers to a type of people with a specific mentality and mental capacity. You wouldn’t expect from mud hut dwellers to understand anything beyond the boundaries of their huts. Malema is therefore also a mud hut dweller.

HT: Censorbugbear. Source: Rapport

A group of ANC youth league supporters of Julius Malema sang the song “Shoot all the White People” at the university of Witwatersrand on Friday-evening, 14 October 2011.

Tokelo Nhlapo, a member of the Student Representative Council at the university and also a member of the ANC youth league sang the song while the group was waiting for Malema's arrival to deliver a speech on 'economic freedom'.

Nhlapo started singing the first phrases of the prohibited hate speech song Ayesaba amagwala, but replaced the words ‘Shoot the Boer’ (dubul'iBhunu) with “dubulu lekgoa”, which means Shoot the White People.

Asked what he meant by singing those words, Nhlapo replied: "I have the right not to comment. I prefer not to say what I meant'.

Co-ruling ANC-party spokesman Keith Khoza commented that this was an unknown version of the Shoot the Boer song. "We have never heard of this version'.

ANC youth league secretary-general said this ' Shoot the White people' song was 'not the song of the youth league'. The president of the co-ruling Cosatu-trade union movement, Sdumo Dlamini, said he 'rejected the song, it sounds like hate speech'.

Prince noted that Judge Colin Lamont had earlier prohibited the singing of the song "Ayesaba amagwala" because it WAS hate speech.

The ruling African National Congress party has however lodged an appeal against this decision by Lamont in the Constitutional Court.

It was also reported by SAPA that the ANC under the chairmanship of Derek Hanekom continues its internal hearing against Malema and five other youth league leaders behind closed doors.

Keith Khoza confirmed that testimony was given by Housing Minister Tokyo Sexwale - a member of the ANC national executive committee. The hearing is taking place behind closed doors at the Nasrec stadium in Johannesburg.

The Madness of Malema

2011-10-09T14:04:00.001+01:00

from Before It’s News

In the fashion of racial madness likely to determine the fate of Afrikaners in South Africa, the ANCYL has announced a mass action against 'the oppressor-colonialist-imperialist' that will occur on October twenty-seventh and eighth. The sudden and unexpected arrival of military equipment shipped into South Africa from neighboring Zimbabwe is yet another indication that, for Afrikaners, the threat of UHURU may be at hand.

The concept of a violent, nationwide purging of Afrikaners (oppressor-colonialist-imperialists) is openly advocated by Julius Malema and other members of the African National Congress - including Nelson Mandela. Malema and his intellectually and morally depleted followers employ 'social justice', 'economic justice', 'climate justice' and a host of other illusory concepts to rationalize and validate their destructive intentions for colonialist-imperialist-oppressors.

In contrast, the ANCYL makes no attempt to disguise its intended use of violence to fulfil the agenda of the National Democratic Revolution (NDR). That agenda is the force behind uprisings across the globe - including the United States.

Malema and his followers are precisely tracking the dictates of Dr. James Cone's Black Liberation Theology - the theology Obama practiced for twenty-plus years. Black Liberation Theology is a component of Black Nationalist ideology. In short, the 'religion' of Black Liberation Theology denigrates oppressor-colonialists to the level of vermin while Black Nationalism rationalizes exterminating that vermin "by any means necessary".

The NDR agenda is foreign to a large percentage of those people targeted for extinction, especially in the United States. That agenda is in-line with the demands of countless Black Nationalist organizations. Those demands include reparations, full redistribution of wealth, the advancement of Socialism and Communism, the creation of nations under the exclusive control of Black Nationalists, the destruction of the oppressor's means of oppression and a host of unearned benefits.

Black Nationalist practitioners - like Van Jones, Julius Malema, Barack Obama, to name a few - have neatly snuggled their NDR agenda within the Progressive Movement; this concealment avoids the unnecessary disdain some oppressor-colonialists might feel towards an ideology advocating their extinction.

The unabashed praise of Hillary Clinton, Michelle Obama, Oprah Winfrey and other notables provides some insulation to the ANC from the consequences of on-going 'colonialist' genocide. Recently, the first lady had a pleasant meeting with Nelson Mandela, the iconic head of the ANC who, in his prime, and beyond the world's purview or concerns, was involved in the murder of countless oppressor-colonialists - Mandela and Obama have much in common.

Now that the Afrikaner population is sitting at stage six of the eight stages of genocide, all that remains is a single, explosive interlude to finalize the 'purification' of the African continent and the extermination of 'colonialist-imperialist-oppressor-racists' - This outcome meets or exceeds the expectations of Dr. Khalid Muhammad who, like Obama, modelled his ideological madness after the Black Nationalist artistry of Malcolm X.

Given that Malema shares a kinship with mass murderer Robert Mugabe - who violently purged 'colonialists' from Zimbabwe - and Hugo Chavez - who owns his own legacy of madness, is it any wonder Malema is eager to etch his name in the history book titled, "Madmen And Their Evil Deeds"?

Within the moorings of the concept of UHURU is the tragic reality that, since the day the ANC began destroying South Africa, the Afrikaner population has been systematically and horribly liquidated. All things considered, the mass ravaging of South Africa's 'oppressor-colonialists' on the 27th would merely be an expansion of efforts already well underway and not an expression of hastily planned insanity.

No. Even in a world of moral misfits, the issue of Afrikaner genocide cannot long be concealed nor its consequences to those committing the act, restrained.

Black traffic officers assault white farmer

2011-10-08T08:02:00.001+01:00

You know, the demented psychotic blind fools praising the ANC government for supposedly building houses (for illegal immigrants) and supplying electricity (which is never paid for by those “previously disadvantaged”), never care to tell the other side of the story. Like the liberal socialist left, the truth remains a scarce commodity.

This is the latest example of a corrupt criminal government, whether you are referring to provincial or national level. This is what happens when Marxist terrorists are handed a civilised country and expected to govern it.

A white farmer, being stopped for a non-functioning brake light on his vehicle is harassed and assaulted. When he indicates that he will be laying charges, he is left to drive off, only to be pursued by 4 traffic police vehicles, forced off the road and attacked like only savage beasts can. Two of his workers grabbed his two hysterical kids and ran off with them to protect them from the vicious attacks of the traffic officers.

One can only imagine that it must have been a traumatic experience for the two workers as well. So this is yet another example set by the Marxists in charge. While they are supposedly providing for the poor (read enriching themselves), they couldn’t give a rat’s bum who is the victim, as long as it isn’t them.

Now any sane person realising they have done something stupid, will either attempt to cover it up or own up to it if they possess any moral standards. These criminal thugs actually boasted about their “achievements”.

The post has been translated from Beeld, an Afrikaans newspaper, by a friend.

"This is what a white c*nt looks like after we f*cked him up"

This is how Mpumalanga traffic "officers" bragged after they seriously assaulted the 42 year old farmer from Grootvlei.

Mr. Rikus Ras' two toddlers went hysterical while about ten traffic "officers" assaulted their father.

Little Heinrich (2) and Rikus (3) were with their father when he was stopped by the traffic "officers" at a t-junction. "I have never in my life been so humiliated and afraid for my life. Fearing the very people who were 'appointed to protect the public'..." he said.

One of the traffic "officers" told mr Ras that his one brake light was defective. Mr Ras got out of his car and checked the light. An argument started and the traffic "officer" started pushing mr Ras around and head-butted him.

Mr Ras informed him that he was going to lay a charge at the police station for the assault. He then drove of towards the town to go to the police station.

A couple of kilometres further he was forced off the road by 4 traffic police vehicles.

That was when all hell broke loose. One of them tried to break his window while another was choking him through the back window of his pickup truck. One of the "officers" sprayed teargas into the cab of the vehicle.

Two of Ras' workers who were on the vehicle pulled the children through the window and ran away with them for their own safety.

The traffic "officers"dragged him from the vehicle, swore at him, made racist remarks and assaulted him.

He was handcuffed and taken to the police station where he was charged with assault, crimen injuria, and refusing to comply with an order from a traffic "officer".

He was later taken to the Grootvlei police station where he laid charges against the "officers" and he was released on a warning - no bail required.

Mr. Joseph Mabuza, spokesman for the department of safety and security confirmed the incident.

Lt.Col. Leonard Hlathi, police spokesman confirmed that they are investigating the case.

Table of Contents of Boerestaat by Robert van Tonder.

2011-09-14T07:06:00.002+01:00

Not too long ago I found a few images online of an English version of the notable book Boerestaat by long time Boer Republican activist Robert van Tonder. Robert van Tonder was the son of one of the Boer commandos who voted to continue the Anglo-Boer War. He later left the National Party in 1961 in order to advocate for the restoration of the Boer Republics in order to reacquire Boer self determination which was surrendered in 1902 with the signing of the Vereeniging Peace Treaty. Van Tonder observed that the declaration of the Republic of South Africa in 1961 was a "betrayal" of the Boer Republics & that the RSA was a threat to Boer identity. After failing to get the other political parties to consider the notion of reinstating the Boer Republics, van Tonder founded the Boerestaat Party in 1986 & wrote a book of the same name outlining his vision. Robert van Tonder died on August 4 1999 after a long battle with cancer.

This book sounds very interesting as it expresses a long suppressed Boer Republican outlook.

Black-run municipality in total disarray

2011-07-22T07:31:00.001+01:00

Here is a prime example of the state of affairs at the typical local municipality in South Africa. In short it can only be described as a total breakdown of financial controls and corporate governance.

Source: Praag

Bloemfontein - Managers and officials of the Setsoto local municipality could face criminal and disciplinary charges over allegations of theft, fraud and corruption, the Free State government said on Thursday.

Free State Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs MEC Mamiki Qabathe ordered a probe into the municipality after protester Andries Tatane died in service delivery protests earlier this year.

In an executive summary of its report released on Wednesday, it found that the municipality was in total disarray with no proper management and financial control.

It was totally unstable because of widespread theft, fraud and corruption.

The investigation found that supply chain management department staff were often coerced by senior managers into making orders that were against policy.

It recommended that the municipality's director of corporate services be suspended and investigated over alleged illegal staff appointments and the unauthorised buying of vehicles.

The chief financial officer should also be suspended and disciplined for allegedly buying 90 desktop computers at inflated prices.

The municipality’s IT officer should also face disciplinary charges over the employment of his fiancée at the municipality.
The investigators also recommended that two demand and acquisition clerks be suspended pending criminal investigation of fraud and corruption.

Another clerk in the same department should be sent on precautionary leave pending a forensic investigation.

Co-operative governance spokesperson Ntai Mokhitli said the full report could not be released because of the pending disciplinary charges against some officials.

In the summary, investigators indicated that the Meqheleng Concerned Citizens (MCC) group under whose leadership most of the protests were conducted had some "personal interests" in the Setsoto local municipality.

One of the findings was that the MCC wanted "our comrades" to be appointed at the municipality.

The investigators said that in a letter from the MCC to the municipality on March 25, a request was made for "intervention and collaboration in the filling of the vacant advertised posts".

In the letter, the MCC said it would be "appropriate" for the accounting officer to give 18 of "our people" employment in the municipality.

"All this will count in your favour as the municipality," the MCC wrote.

"We’ll provide you with the list of all our comrades today, March 25 2011."

Earlier, MCC spokesperson Sam Motseare said this allegations and others were not true.

"It's a blatant lie," he said.

The Setsoto municipality covers the towns of Ficksburg, Senekal, Clocolan and Marquard.

Mokhitli said the report and recommendations were tabled before the Setsoto municipal council last week.

The department would closely monitor the implementation of the recommendations.

Why should Boers bother to vote?

2011-07-14T05:39:00.002+01:00

From March 12th, 2011.

Why should Boers bother to vote at all? By Adriana Stuijt. a.j.stuijt@knid.nl –

An anti-voting boycott has been launched amongst the 3-million-strong [ Ron edit: 1.5 million as total White Afrikaans population is at 3.5 - 4.5 million. ] Boer minority in South Africa. Declining to vote in the admittedly-fraudulent ANC-run electoral system, instead there’s a groundswell of support for autonomy for this besieged ‘white’ minority.

Conservatives not only decided to boycottthe forthcoming national elections under the ANC-regime – they have also launched the Volksraadsverkiesingskommissie – an electoral election commission which plans to hold its first all-Boer elections to chose their own leaders in their own traditional Boer volksraad in September. Their only purpose is to gain autonomy for the Boer people – peacefully.

Meanwhile the boycotters against the ANC-run national and municipal elections — such as Kallie du Preez, (writing in the Parys Gazette), mount powerful arguments against the Freedom Front party’s claim that ‘a no-vote for them would be a vote for the ANC.’

Instead, many Boers believe that the Freedom Front Plus should step out of ANC-ruled electoral processes altogether, and join them instead to try and obtain political autonomy. The Freedom Front Plus already represents the “Afrikaners’ in the Unrepresented Nations and People’s organisation in The Hague (UNPO). The FF+ also supports the idea of an independent homeland for the ‘white’ minority in South Africa. It has most of its support in the Christian-Afrikaner enclave Orania. However the Boers view the FF+ as sellouts for continuing to participate in the increasingly chaotic and fraudulent ANC-cabinet, where its leader Pieter Mulder was appointed as deputy-minister of Agriculture.

Du Preez writes: “The Politics of Lies have brought the Boers to this predicament”:

“It is exactly by participating in the Politics of the Lies that our nation has ended up in its present predicament. For 17 years the so called ‘opposition parties’ have been growing fat in the seats of parliament, but everything merely deteriorates at a increasingly rapid rate. The FF leader sits on the gravy-train together with the ANC and they only have one purpose: namely Rands and Cents. This so-called opposition party just sits and eats up the hard-earned taxpayer’s money. “

Vote Right – Stay Away:

He warns (article below): “Be aware of the non-vote factor. It could become the majority which can never be beaten at the polls. So wake up. Vote right – stay away.’ He also urged Boer voters to withhold their taxes ‘from this corrupt and sick system.’ “Please explain to 5-million – if we all stand together – could ever beat 50-million black voters at the polls? Do you think that we (Boers) can beat this very diseased, rotten and corrupt ‘democracy of the ANC’ at any polling booths? So do you really think they (the ANC) will give up their present lavish existence voluntarily – even if they were to loose at a ‘cooked’ election?”

“Everything which our forefathers built up and owned, they bought with their blood. And we (Boers) have lost everything they created – at the Voting booths. Our party is ‘Vote Right – Stay Away”.

The Freedom Front Plus Party – which drew only 127,217 votes from the white Afrikaans-speakers in the last election in 2004 and have a mere four very ineffective members in Parliament – have in turn obtained the help of big crowd-pullers such as the extremely popular artist/singer/songwriter Bok van Blerk. He composed the song “My Kreet” (My Scream), an emotional plea for help for his besieged people, and in which he also pleads with his fans to continue voting in the ANC-ruled electoral system.

His video was placed on the website of Solidarity trade union’s Helpende Hand charity – which feeds nearly 1-million impoverished Boers in more than 640 squatter-camps: brought to the begging cup by the ANC-regime’s vast number of illegal labour-restriction laws barring ‘whites’ from the entire SA labour market. http://www.helpendehand.co.za/my-kreet-bok-van-blerk/

Boers have no influence on any ANC-ruled electoral process whatsoever:

Indeed there seems to be very little point for Boers to participate in any national elections organized by the ANC-regime, because of their very small minority of no more than 3-million people. [ Ron ed- no more than 1.5 million. ] White voters are fractured into a variety of parties including the Democratic Alliance under Helen Zille – who does not speak up on behalf of Boer/Afrikaner voters – and tiny parties such as the Christian Democrats. The Boer-Afrikaners who have persistently voted for the Freedom Front Party only managed to gain four seats in the National Assembly (parliament). And only one Afrikaner from this party serves in the cabinet: deputy-minister of agricultural Pieter Mulder.. Previously, under the leadership of General Constand Viljoen, 424,555 Boer/Afrikaners had cast their votes for the Freedom Front party in 1994. However under the leadership of Pieter Mulder, its support dropped to 127,217 Boer/Afrikaner votes in 2004.

The Boer/Afrikaner’s minority-representation in parliament is so minimal that none of their representatives in Parliament – despite always vehemently opposing and objecting and campaigning against the large number of genocidal anti-white employment laws put in place by the ANC-regime – have been totally unable to block any of this illegal ANC-legislation which is impoverishing its own electorate at a very rapid rate.

1994 election was unconstitutional, said Afrikaner/Boer parties which refused to participate… In 1994, initially NONE of the Boer-Afrikaner parties had registered for the 1994 elections and had refused to do so on the grounds that they viewed the election as unconstitutional. In a move that greatly dismayed and upset other Boer-Afrikaner conservatives, Genl Konstant Viljoen registered the Freedom Front with the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) on 4 March 1994 to take part in the April 1994 general elections. On 12 March 1994 Viljoen handed in a list of candidates for the FF to the IEC, confirming that his party would take part in the elections.

Freedom Front received 424,555 votes (2.2%) in 1994; 127.217 (0.8%) in 1999; 139,465 (0.89%) in 2004… and never managed to stop any of the ANC’s anti-white employment laws…

In the 1994 election, under the leadership of General Viljoen, the Freedom Front received 2.2% of the national vote (with 424,555 votes cast) and nine seats in the National Assembly. In the 1999 election their support dropped to 0.8% (127,217 votes cast) with three seats in the National Assembly. In 2001, Viljoen handed over the leadership of the Freedom Front to Dr. Pieter Mulder.

In 2003, shortly before the 2004 general election, the Conservative Party, the Afrikaner Eenheids Beweging and the Freedom Front decided to contest the election as a single entity under the name Freedom Front Plus (FF+), led by Dr. Mulder. Later, also the Federal Alliance joined the VF+/FF+. In the 2004 general election, support for the Freedom Front rose slightly to 0.89% (139,465 votes cast). The party won one seat in most of the provincial legislatures, and four seats in the National Assembly. In the 2006 municipal elections, the Freedom Front Plus received 1% of the popular vote (252,253 votes cast).In the 2009 general election, the party received 0.83% (146,796 votes cast) and retained its four seats in the National Assembly, and the full support from the small Christian-Afrikaner enclave Orania.^[1] After the elections, the Freedom Front’s leader Pieter Mulder was appointed as Deputy Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries by the new President Jacob Zuma.

Alternatives: a newly independent Boer Republic where Boers represent only their own nation’s interests:

A groundswell of support has been growing steadily for a brand-new movement: the Boers want to create their own political home; elect their own representatives and have for this purpose founded the Volksraadsverkiesingskommissie (VVK)– the Boer Folk Electoral Commission.

They want to hold their own elections to chose their own natural leaders without any outside interference from black political leaders. The VVK has one purpose: to gain legal autonomy for themselves by electing efficient leaders who can argue their case in the national- and international forums.

Their temporary convenor, legal counsellor Paul Kruger is targeted by a disinformation campaign in which he is targeted by infamous Piet “Skiet” Rudolph and several cohorts (description of his career below). This burly crowd of Afrikaner bullies showed up at the latest meeting of the VVK on February 17 2011 in Paardekraal, Krugersdorp – one man walked up to Kruger and slugged him so hard, without any provocation, that Kruger ‘s nose bled profusely while he continued his speech. Three men were arrested at this meeting: one was Piet Rudolph, who threatened another Boer with a firearm, according to Kruger.

Piet Rudolph – the man of all parties:

Rudolph has always been a ‘man for all parties”. He also was widely known among Afrikaner conservatives for acting as the ‘ political bully ‘ at many of their meetings. Boer-State Party leader Robert van Tonder told me personally that he and other party-members became “wary” of Rudolph, and voted him out as their deputy-leader because of his rapid party-hopping: born in the village of Vischkuil near Springs in June 1937, Rudolph first became city councilor in Pretoria for the National Party breakaway – the Herstigte Nasionale Party led by Dr Albert Hertzog. Then he suddenly joined the Conservative Party; then the Afrikaner Weerstandsbeweging; then he became a deputy leader of Boerestaat Party and was voted out.. On April 15, 1990, angry at the unbanning of the ANC and the South African Communist Party, Rudolph suddenly led a group of young Boer men who proceeded to steal a large quantity of weapons from the South African Airforce Head Office’s armoury. In June 1990 Rudolph released a video in which he declared war on the government of South Africa, the ANC and SACP. It “was no longer time to talk” and that it “is better to die in glory than live in disgrace”, Rudolph said at the time. “All we need is about 500 Boers who are prepared to give their lives on the altar of our ideal to ensure success,” he said. He went to ground amidst much publicity, but was not given much support from any of his former political friends, including Boer State party leader Robert van Tonder. The latter, at the time, also personally told me that he ‘opposed Rudolph’s use of violence to gain political independence for the Boers. ‘ In this period, the Boer State Party had applied for membership of UNPO – but was turned down because of the violent actions by Rudolph. UNPO membership is only granted if unrepresented minorities swear off the use of violence to gain their political objectives.

Van Tonder also told me personally that members of his party had become ‘suspicious’ of Rudolph. Rudolph apparently eventually gave himself up in Pretoria on September 17, 1990 and led police to his arms cache. The circumstances remain murky to this day. He later was awarded R110,000 in damages from the police following an altercation with officers at the Boeremag trial in the Pretoria High Court – where Paul Kruger, the present convenor of the VVK, had been the legal counsel representing the imprisoned Boeremag men who were accused of treason. They are still sitting in a high-security jail to this day, as ‘trial-awaiting prisons’ in a trial which could go on for another 5 years… According to the ‘Pretoria News’, Rudolph had initially claimed more than R500,000 in damages from the Minister of Safety and Security, but the matter was settled with the police agreeing to pay him R110,000. It was said that Rudolph called the police “traitors and sellouts of the Boere people” because he did not want his wife searched before she entered the court. The elderly Rudolph then told the policeman, who was 1.82m and weighed 130kg, “Mannetjie, ek donner jou (I’ll smack you)”, before grabbing one of them by the tie”. - Sapa source: http://www.iol.co.za/news/crime-courts/piet-skiet-held-after-bloody-fight-1.1029042?ot=inmsa.ArticlePrintPageLayout.ot

Related: The Future of the Boer.

Corruption eclipses sunshine

2011-07-13T23:06:00.001+01:00

I don’t have a very high regard for journalists. One only has to look at liberal and leftist bias in everyday reporting, especially with the major media outlets, to realise that most have forgotten the concept of supplying worthy reading material. Objective reporting is as scarce as rocking horse poo.

But once in a while somebody comes along to set the standard again. Somebody with the ability to look beyond political correctness, playing the race card and peddling the blame game. Somebody who, well, says it like it is. No strings attached.

I might actually be convinced that journalism isn’t dead…

From Times Live, by Justice Malala:

In the early 1990s South African cynics coined a phrase that they gleefully used to denigrate journalists who saw the positive side of the changes the country was going through.

As Nelson Mandela and his comrades were released from jail, the ANC and other liberation movements were unbanned and exiles returned home, these "optimistic" journalists wrote about the non-racial country we were being given and the inclusive future we had the possibility of building.

Yet the cynics kept having a go at them. South Africa, they said, would go the way of all Africa: wars, poverty, and corruption.

The journalists were accused of "sunshine journalism". They were told they were blind to "the real ANC" and its communist allies. They were told the country would implode in 1994.

South Africa did not implode. Instead, under the wisdom of Mandela and the steady hand of Thabo Mbeki, what followed were 14 fat years of economic growth and stability. Don't get me wrong - there were massive failures as well under these two presidents, but the trajectory was upwards and onwards.

I have always been a sunshine journalist. Whenever I have attended ANC meetings and been confronted by angry loyalists asking why I criticise them, my answer is simple: "I criticise out of love for this country."

I see a future for South Africa and, therefore, like the members of the ANC and other parties, I also want the best for it. The most patriotic thing I can do for my fellow citizens is to write, and write again, and continue writing. Even when I am at my most critical, the point is that I am critical to help, somehow, right the wrongs that afflict us.

I am making this point because it is becoming harder to be an optimist in South Africa. Corruption is becoming endemic and it is destroying virtually everything that we stand for and hold dear.

It is becoming impossible not to, every so often, shake one's head and wonder if the cynics were right.

I am reminded of Minister in the Presidency Trevor Manuel's report a few weeks ago. It contains three haunting paragraphs. They read: "Political change brings no guarantee of social, economic or indeed political progress. Throughout history many civilisations, empires and countries have experienced dramatic decline rather than progress .

"The indicators most often associated with decline include rising corruption; weakening of state and civil society institutions; poor economic management; skills and capital flight; politics dominated by short-termism; ethnicity or factionalism; and lack of maintenance of infrastructure and standards of service.

"Elements of these indicators are already visible in South Africa, though their strength and prevalence is uneven and differs from sector to sector. If they become more prevalent, the country's progress could be stalled, its gains reversed and even the foundational aspects of democracy unravelled."

Corruption in South Africa has now reached unspeakable levels. It is spoken of as if it is part of the norm. For many of us, it is now part of doing business with the government. For many citizens, it is just part of what we have become.

I spoke to a group of women last week who casually agreed that they would buy their driver's licences. Why? They believe that driving inspectors will fail them just so they should pay bribes. These are intelligent individuals with degrees - and they have lost all faith in the system.

Can I blame them? Last week, Cosatu asked why President Jacob Zuma had not lifted a finger on acts or accusations of clear corruption in his administration. Cosatu cited several of these acts.

First, Co-operative Governance Minister Sicelo Shiceka allegedly used taxpayers' money to visit a girlfriend in jail in Switzerland. Months after the scandal, Zuma has done nothing.

Second, Northern Cape ANC chairman and finance MEC John Block is still in his office despite charges of corruption and fraud.

New allegations on the arms deal have come up. Zuma has not acted. Why not?

When a newspaper sent questions to Zuma's spokesman, Zizi Kodwa, he sent an SMS saying: "No comment."

There are so many instances of cronyism, downright corruption and bribery, the whole thing has become farcical.

The ANC as a party is not much help. Its investment arm, Chancellor House, is an example of high-level looting of state resources.

There is no leadership on the issue. The Zuma family is so mired in controversy, the president cannot move.

South Africa has brilliant sunshine even in the middle of winter. Increasingly, though, it seems that's all we've got. And that cannot build a country.

12 Reasons why Africans are poor, miserable & pitiable

2011-07-10T00:44:00.001+01:00

I share the same sentiment towards some of my own race as this African does towards his countrymen. There are few things on this planet which abhor me more than people with a sense of entitlement only whilst displaying no responsibility whatsoever. For all the good done by social benefits to those really in need, the evils created in allowing those whose only intent is abusing the system and living an entire life off “government” hand-outs greatly outweigh the good.

You will search far to find better examples of “white trash” than in countries like the United Kingdom. And I use this term sparsely, as I find it a disgrace to my race. People, totally able and capable of working, with no intent of ever doing so. Because they have tasted the life of never-ending provision paid for by the sweat of others.

A close second on my list are those that lack the will to think for themselves. In many cases you will find they are the same people covered in number 1 on the list, as it appears that living a life off continual supply by others has the very unfortunate effect that it also strips you of the will to think. Which probably explains why these people think it is government which “supplies”.

Apart from finding these people without apparent ability to think for themselves in the bowels of society, they seem to frequent the elite circles too. Think of the typical white liberal and it isn’t difficult to see they will never be prepared to live in the world they so insistently preach for others to accept as the norm. You find many of them with their grounding in some private school where their comprehension of other cultures are based solely on interaction with those from similar elitist backgrounds. And of course I am not referring to everybody here, but just as the majority of those “benefits for lifers” lack thinking caps, the elitists seem to lack reason and sense of reality.

The above explains why I don’t believe in unconditional aid to Africa either. Over and above the inefficient application due to corruption, is the overriding fact that you are applying the worst practices of the first world (the social benefit system) to the worst problems of the third. It could only ever work when people realise they have to do something themselves, which essentially entails that they have to work. Strangely enough, in some of the poorest of eastern and Asian countries, people know this is the only solution – to work, do something for yourself. Which means that you need to think first…

from Idang Alibi, All Africa:

Albert Einstein who is acknowledged as one of the brainiest men that ever lived on the surface of the earth once said that the average human uses less than 10 per cent of the brain God has given to him.

Whether out of a sense of modesty or he was seriously speaking the truth, he said further that even he himself (who had such a high reputation for accomplishing much with his brain) did not use more than that 10 per cent. . If this assertion is correct and if other races use less than 10 per cent of their installed capacity for production, I can safely say that we Black people use less than one per cent of our installed brain capacity for reasoning, inventing and producing things.

Why do I say so? Our race seems so averse to thinking and this helps to explain why we have achieved so little in terms of socio-political organisation, scientific and technological inventions, economic and material development and in all other indices of human progress or development. Please do not accuse me of being harsh on ourselves. I say this out of patriotic anger and disappointment and there is truth in what I am saying.

I have said several times that this earth that God has made our habitation is a work-in-progress. God deliberately did not 'complete' creating a perfect world for us his children to just dwell in it without a care for anything but to tend it, subdue it and make it to suit our requirement because he did not intend us to be robots, but to be thinking and creative beings who will be his partners-in-progress.

That is why God did not build houses for us to just inherit and live in, once we are born; but He created limestone, clay, sand, water and granite for us to figure out how we can convert them to building materials and use them in making for ourselves habitable houses. God could have made us furniture but he instead made for us tress so that we can fashion out from them wood and turn them into the kind of furniture we desire.

With thinking or creative faculty bestowed upon us we are meant to put our brains to work. But we the Blacks are the least willing or the least able of all the races to put our brains to productive work.

Our refusal, so to say, to use our brains and think out solutions to the challenges confronting us is the number seven reasons why we are the way we are--poor, miserable and pitiable.

We Blacks everywhere are too willing to resign ourselves to any situation in which we find ourselves. The Black man can remain in a ghetto environment for centuries without thinking about how to improve his circumstances. Government will not care about him and he will not care about himself. Go to any African country: the same type of grass-thatched round mud house that our ancestors of pre-historic times lived in is the same type of houses many of our people are still living in today. This does not in any way show a people who regard life as a continuing battle to conquer and subdue the earth so we can live a better life than our forebears did. This shows a people who do not sit down and use their brain for their own good.

From the little reading I have done, I have discovered that every great civilisation that has ever been built was done so based on certain ideas: the wise elders of the people of that material time sat together and reasoned among themselves and decided that they needed to follow certain principles of life before they can grow and develop. It is said that ideas rule the world. They indeed do. Every country that is known as great is built on an idea or a set of ideas. Any discerning person who visits any country for the first time, will know what ideas, or if any ideas at all, informed the building of that country. You will know if a country is built to confer the greatest good on the greater number of the people or is meant for the elite or is a looters' haven.

Europeans who fled from religious persecution to the new world of what is today America decided that they will embrace what we call today Protestant Ethic namely frugality, liberty, hard work, discipline and the pursuit of happiness. Employing these principles they proceeded to build a country that has become an empire still bulling the rest of us in the world today.

About fifty years ago the tiny city-state island of Singapore was a dirt poor place, even more backward than some of the countries in present day Africa. One man, who can be called the island's philosopher-king according to the prescription of Plato, sat down, thought hard and decided that certain things needed to be done to take Singapore from a backward Third World nation to a successful First World country. That man is called Lee Kuan Yew.

He said the country must embrace a sort of capitalism driven by the state which is in turn governed by a tiny band of highly educated, patriotic, honest, absolutely corrupt-free, disciplined and visionary elite. Today, that country that is smaller both in size and population than Sokoto state is called a tiny titan; it punches far above its weight!

Where, I cry, are our own thinkers, planners and executors of the ideas we have for building great African societies? First of all, what are the ideas that we Africans have for building our countries? This is where everything starts: a good thought.

On what ideas is a country like Nigeria founded? From the way our country is run, it looks like this is anything- goes- place. It is a place without rule or order. Do anything you can and anything you please to grab as much as you can. If you like keep your loot here or better, hide it in safe havens abroad. Even if a country is founded to be a rouge haven, there must be guiding rules for roguery so that every rogue can enjoy his loot in relative peace. But no. Dare to call for some kind of conference, whether sovereign or non-sovereign so that our governing elite can sit down and decide what we need to do as a people, and many who are afraid that an inconvenient rule may be made to stop looting may be thought of to spoil their own chance, will not like to hear that. And so we are stuck.

And that is the fate of many African countries. We are afraid of even thinking about the way forward. What a tragedy!

Africa, the untold truth

2011-07-09T23:29:00.001+01:00

From News24: MyNews24, J Nepgen

What most people in South Africa remain oblivious to are the millions upon millions illegal immigrant Africans living in Europe. Go to any big European city and you'll see desperate Black Africans trying to sell items of fake goods, or whatever else that could possibly get them money to send back home. The Mediterranean Sea has THOUSANDS of Africans per week crossing over to seek better prospects in Europe. I predict that we're to see ALL South Africans following the same path, unless we start dealing with these issues pragmatically we have standing thanks to extremists like Malema.

Oddly enough Dutch speaking Belgium has the most amount of immigrants. Twenty-five percent of their population. Of which Africans make up a healthy majority in that same number. What do we call these people - invaders, settlers? It seems that in South Africa government officials take full right to blatant racism, something a European politician would be locked up in prison for saying.

I just truly wonder why the stories of what racist politicians are saying is not demonstrated to the world! I also wonder why it's not common knowledge how tens upon thousands of South Africans feel so threatened that they've placed refugee applications into foreign embassies, awaiting, begging and pleading to be allowed out of this racism mess that the ANC seem so beset on creating. What would be great is to see demonstrations like never see before to voice the cry of anguished people living under a Neo-Nazi threat, this time only reversed, here in Africa.

The question is more, what is causing Africa's failure? Where its population have to migrate out of sheer desperation to elsewhere in the world? And why have the immigrants the ANC so willingly let into South Africa (thinking that they'd vote them in) voted against the ANC, following them getting voting rights!

Because Africa as a whole has dealt with 50 years of banging its head against a brick wall. Same as in my Mum's Ireland where post-liberation Irish voted in extremism to have the Catholic Church rule the Irish state and to cut off their nose to spite their face. By refusing to do business there 500 year oppressive Colonisers, the Brits. While understandable, led to 70 YEARS OF HARDSHIP. Of Irish being forced to leave Ireland to move to Britain. Same story as Africa. And same story as to why African immigrants into South Africa vote against the new extremist ANC, who've forgotten the Freedom Charter.

I predict that the biggest threat to the ANC is progressive Socialism, as seen in Botswana and most of Europe and other successful world states. Of course the DA will CERTAINLY not give a damn to the biggest crisis answer - Progressive Socialism.
Because here's the sheer reality. We're heading for economic meltdown. What we need is an educated large middle class population with a huge buying power. Instead we're to have Extremist self-interested populists like Malema cause economic meltdown havoc. Because this country and well as most of Africa is too clueless to see the benefits of making sure every last criticise is given a fair chance to perform well to the benefit of the entire economy. I understand that Progressive Socialism is not understood in this "Bold and the Beautiful", "Young and the Restless" American media Capitalist educated population of ours.

But anyone with a tiny bit of sense will realise that Progressive Socialism as seen in Botswana and Europe will wipe out the racism out of this land. No, we're not talking Venezuela failed style of Socialism, but light touches of Socialism to equip all citizens to have buying power. And that Socialism by definition does not discriminate, and is our best chance towards a New South Africa, unlike the once White and now Black Nationalism rearing its ugly head under the helms of Malema and the rest of those Gucci cadres.

If you wish to see the end of all this South African strife and South Africa turning into another African casualty you'd realise that if every last member of our society was helped to become contributable members of society we'd see a new land, as successful and dynamic as every other well run country run under progressive socialism.

Botswana is one of the least corrupt nations ON EARTH! How's that for a shocker. Truly wish some dynamic political leader could seize the success stories of Progressive Socialism in action and make a society away from what we're heading to. Crime and criminals who get deceived into such lives due to their economic circumstances become our problem in this United States of Capitalist South Africa, where we're too short sighted to realise the damage of selfishness.

The hoax of farm murders

2011-07-03T21:36:00.001+01:00

Some psychopaths would like you to believe that farm murders are a hoax. Whites aren’t being deliberately targeted on farms, smallholdings and in rural areas by gangs of savages. The weekly reports of attacks, torture and in most cases resulting in murder, is all a fabrication.

The fact that nobody is able, least of all the South African Police Farce, to keep an accurate statistic of exactly how many thousands of people have been slaughtered in the most horrendous manner on farms and smallholdings seems to equate to a hoax in the “minds” of certain people. Keep in mind that this is the same Farce which can’t account for 20,000 firearms. The same Farce with criminals in charge (or have you already forgotten about Selebi?) Or the recent events around tenders and Police Farce connections.

In the same country where the government openly lies about the pass rate of matriculants (final year of secondary school) to support their failing Outcome Based Education joke, corrupt government, provincial and municipal officials literally steal (embezzle is where you actually attempt to hide the fact you are stealing) money faster than they can conjure up new taxes for white citizens to support the cesspool of criminals and the esteemed president can’t keep his ANCYL poodle on a leash, we are to believe that farm murders are a hoax – because nobody has the actual count.

Well, if they embezzled less, I mean steal less, maybe the departments responsible for civil protection would be able to keep statistics on violent crimes, or at least murders. Oh wait, they said they do. Remember how they told everybody a year or so ago that the United Kingdom has more violent crime than South Africa? Just a pity they didn’t tell you that in the UK you’ll get arrested for verbally abusing somebody in the street and that it would count towards violent crime.

So, you can’t count murders in South Africa. The Police Farce employs known criminals. But the SA government can tell you with certainty that there is less violent crime in South Africa than in the UK. You don’t need to have passed a course in research methodology as a precursor to post graduate studies to figure out the logic doesn’t add up, never mind the scientific content.

The fact is I can’t remember a week go by the past few years where I haven’t read or heard about a murder on farmers, smallholding inhabitants or people living in remote rural areas. Below is yet another example.

By all means decide for yourself which is more credible. The accounts you read on blogs like these from time to time of the horrific acts committed against these people, or psychopaths telling you it’s all a hoax.

From News24, Johannesburg:

An elderly couple was murdered on their Heidelberg farm on Saturday morning, Gauteng police said.

Constable Tikoane Sonopo said a towing service called the couple's son after their car was found overturned on the R42 road near Vereeniging.

The son went to his parent's Houtpoort farm just after 05:30 and found his 60-year-old mother tied up in the living room with multiple stab wounds. She was already dead.

He found his father, also with multiple stab wounds, dead on the bedroom floor.

Sonopo said the house was ransacked. A rifle and electrical appliances were stolen.

Police were investigating, he said.

Living in Jujuland

2011-07-03T10:57:00.001+01:00

This is the future president of South Africa. A racist, vile little hatemonger shouting for the killing of whites at political gatherings. Yet another corrupt ANC comrade who whines about colonialism and capitalism, but has no problem wearing his Breitling watch and expensive suits while his idiotic followers live in shacks.

Shacks in squatter camps. Squatter camps which didn’t exist 25 years ago, but the liberal sheeple of this world will tell you otherwise. They will never be able to explain to you why the previous South African government spent millions in developing massive electrified fences on its northern borders to keep illegal immigrants out. Which begs the question why millions would want to flee to South Africa when “Apartheid was the greatest threat to humankind”? If you haven’t cottoned on to the fact that a lot of what you thought you knew about Apartheid was liberal left wing and communist propaganda, some of what is happening in South Africa today must surely give you a few hints that all was not so screwed up before as it is now.

For those of you not so familiar with South African politics, Julius Malema is often referred to as “Juju”

From The Witness, by Mental Health Practitioner

WHILE diagnosing a public figure from his or her public behaviour is unsound psycho-diagnostic practice, Julius Malema does demonstrate an almost full house of traits of what diagnosticians call a narcissistic personality disorder. Narcissistic personality dynamics centre principally around the individual’s attempts to shore up a fundamentally inadequate sense of self-worth. In its most flagrant forms, pathological narcissism is most recognisable by an overwhelming projection of a sense of grandiosity. Ironically, though, this assertion of grandiosity is usually a function of exactly the opposite in terms of the internal dynamics of the narcissist, i.e. an overwhelming and terrifying doubt — often only partially conscious to the narcissist — that he or she is of value to others. The narcissist’s defence is typically to assert forcefully, often inappropriately and damagingly, the opposite of this internal conviction.

In their daily interactions with other people, pathological narcissists tend to regard them principally as potential sources of narcissistic supply, i.e. as objects that are of value if they can confirm to the narcissist that they are powerful, influential, valued and competent. Hence, they are largely disinterested in people who will be unable to bolster their grandiosity and they tend to like to have nothing to do with those who are likely to criticise them or even to offer objective assessments of their competence or desirability.

Narcissistic traits are very common among prominent politicians around the world.

Developmentally, narcissism can often arise when the very young child is inappropriately and unconditionally affirmed for whatever he or she does, without discrimination, or when the child is very inadequately affirmed during his or her struggles to develop a sense of personal identity. Some researchers have also suggested that pathological narcissism can arise later in life if there is an inordinate change in the individual’s circumstances, such as a move from abject poverty or insignificance to overwhelming wealth or influence. They have called this acquired situational narcissism.

The diagnosis

The nine key diagnostic markers of narcissistic personality disorder and convincing examples where these have been on display by Malema, follow.

Narcissistic personality disorder is diagnosed in terms of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorder (IV), a handbook of definitions used by mental-health practitioners, by the presence of five or more of the following.

1. An exaggerated sense of self-importance, i.e. a sense of self-importance that is not matched by actual performance.

Evidence of Malema’s intellectual and performance capacity is not nearly as overwhelming as his claims to macro-economic policy development and judicious governance. He failed Grades 8 and 9 at school and has no formal tertiary training. While he appears to be a highly skilled demagogue in the mould of many ANC leaders, his technical capacity for skilled governance has yet to be seen.

2. Preoccupation with fantasies of unlimited success, power, brilliance, beauty or ideal love, i.e. they live in their own self-centred world and hate to be reminded that their fantasies don’t match reality.

After racially abusing BBC’s Johah Fisher in April, 2010, after Fisher remarked that Malema lives in an affluent suburb of Johannesburg, Malema was unapologetic about his actions. He accused Fisher of being disrespectful and of coming from a country that undermines the credibility and integrity of African leaders. But Malema’s narcissism is most evident in his insistence that Fisher apologise after the incident, despite the fact that the ANC and President Jacob Zuma condemned Malema’s outburst.

3. He believes he is special and should only associate with other special people.

Malema’s ready association with influential or powerful individuals, almost without reference to their associations or affiliations, suggests that to him, their power is their primary appeal. His endorsement of Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe and various leading ANC figures suggests a need for affiliation with power, with little regard to the integrity of that power.

4. Requires excessive admiration.

Malema’s hostile reactions to anyone who doesn’t provide the affirmation he demands, or who questions his integrity, and his relentless bids for greater political influence suggest his obsession with ever more political recognition and admiration. He very successfully secures this in the Youth League and this appears, in usual narcissistic fashion, to fuel further bids for recognition.

5. Has a sense of entitlement.

His claimed mission of advocacy for the poor from the luxury of his substantial Johannesburg home, his high-spending lifestyle and expensive fashion tastes (Breitling watches, etc.) and, more significantly, his outrage at any suggestions that these may be at odds with his apparently socialist ethics, suggest a sense of entitlement and a belief in his specialness. He is entitled to the luxuries that others don’t enjoy because he is special.

6. Selfishly takes advantage of others to achieve his own ends.

Malema’s survival is due almost entirely to his nuanced capacity for populism, based in a largely illiterate, disenfranchised and loyal black populace. Whether this constitutes taking advantage of others or just ordinary politics is a matter of opinion. But he appears to have enriched himself far more substantially than any of those who have kept at the top of the ANC Youth League pile.

7. Is envious of others or believes that others are envious of him.

Malema has made regular public assertions that there are “agents” and other forces that he believes are determined to sink him. If he genuinely believes that any difference of opinion with his own is the work of a harmful external force, he need never take any genuine notice of the opinions of those others. This is a foolproof narcissistic defence: those who don’t agree are jealous or mischievous, hence we need never consider the content of their criticisms of us.

8. Lacks empathy.

In March 2010, Malema was convicted of hate speech by the Equality Court for telling a Sasco (South African Students’ Congress) meeting that the woman who accused ANC president Jacob Zuma of rape had a “nice time” with him because in the morning she had “requested breakfast and taxi money”. His repeated insistence on the singing of the “Shoot the Boer” song and refusal to acknowledge that it may be offensive to others suggest a limited capacity for empathy. At the very least, he appears not to have a sense of the potential impact of his utterances on the feelings of others.

9. Shows arrogant, haughty, patronising or contemptuous behaviours or attitudes.

The media is littered with Malema’s contemptuous dismissals of those who are not in his camp, from political opponents to journalists, and extending to colleagues in the ANC who don’t share his views. His aggressive and angry outbursts suggest a poor capacity to regulate his rage at those who anger him, which is often a hallmark of somebody who is easily narcissistically wounded.

TRP rips Michelle Obama apart on SA comments

2011-06-26T19:41:00.001+01:00

Not even FLOTUS gets a “get of out jail free” card. Vintage Frank from The Right Perspective demolishes her comments on the “liberation movement” made whilst visiting South Africa. He wants to know how a movement could be referred to as liberation when they were given refuge by the country responsible for the worst human atrocities known. He calls her terminology a “communist technique”.

The ANC is described as what they really are – Bolshevik armed guerrillas. He even mentions the ANC death camps, where the communists beat and killed their own kind when they didn’t want to execute terrorist attacks.

I don’t want to elaborate further – rather listen to reason and real knowledge of world affairs in action. Pity we don’t have more of their kind in the west.

The fattening effect of the South African gravy train…

2011-06-24T06:28:00.001+01:00

Blacks didn’t need World Cup

2011-06-22T06:44:00.001+01:00

HT Exzanian

Giving their all 'We forget at our peril how by-laws were changed, people removed, schools destroyed, hawkers made to disappear and tax laws altered to make sure Fifa was happy'. (David Harrison, M&G)

By ANDILE MNGXITAMA: INEQUALITY, Mail & Guardian online

The Fifa World Cup cost South Africa about R120-billion. We will be coughing up at least R100-million annually to service the stadiums, our beautiful cathedrals of self-enslavement. Set the cost of the Fifa World Cup against our development needs, and you can't but conclude that we didn't need it, nor could we afford it. So why did we go all out to host such an unnecessary event?

Anyone who has doubts about just how bad things are for the majority of South Africans should read Trevor Manuel's National Planning Commission report on the state of things. Education for black people has basically gone to hell. Even the allegedly improved matric pass rate is a ruse, because the "67.8% pass rate hides the fact that only 15% achieved the pass rate mark of 40% or more. This means that roughly 7% of the cohort of children born between 1990 and 1994 achieved this standard". In a normal country with a caring politics, such a report would have led to the fall of a government.

It gets worse. Manuel tells of shocking death rates, unimaginable inequality, an appalling state of healthcare and high rates of theft as a result of corruption. In short, our country, perceived from the bottom, is in a permanent state of crisis. The black majority is left outside the democratic experiment. Why would a nation engulfed by such challenges choose to take money away from hospitals and schools to host a party?

This conundrum is partly answered by the euphoric piece our former president Thabo Mbeki wrote for Bloomberg news: "We were convinced that, were we to win the right to host the soccer World Cup, this would make a decisive contribution to the achievement of the goal of vital importance to all Africans, of destroying the demeaning stereotype of a hopeless continent."
The hopelessness of being black is overwhelming. So powerful is the desire to be acknowledged by the white world that we blacks will do anything to get the nod. Our beloved Desmond Tutu shared Mbeki's sentiment that we blacks needed to do all we could to show that we were human too. He said it didn't matter if after the World Cup those stadiums were white elephants.
We forget at our peril how by-laws were changed, people forcibly removed, schools destroyed, hawkers made to disappear and tax laws altered to make sure Fifa was happy and its profits guaranteed.

Now we must look beyond the social and financial costs of the World Cup and focus on what it promised the abandoned black child in search of approval from its indifferent white father. The success of the World Cup moved our former philosopher-king to enthuse: "A giant step forward has been taken towards achieving the goal of destroying the age-old negative stereotype of Africa and the Africans. Similarly, as Africans we have also made an important statement to ourselves that we are as capable as any in the world to organise for success that brings a sense of fulfilment to billions."

The World Cup was indeed organised for the delight of the (white) "world". We blacks could now walk the talk. Ostensibly, we had shown the doubting Thomases that we were human too. This is pathetic self-delusion. In spite of more than 500 years of denigration, oppression and enslavement -- which continues without so much as a "sorry" -- we believed that if we could demonstrate our humanness somehow, the white world would get it. This is a case of powerlessness that begets well-deserved contempt.

When I look at the World Cup and how we valorise the temporary psychological satisfaction it brought us blacks it reminds me of my own childhood on the farms of the old Transvaal. Our parents, who were virtual slaves, competed among each other for the approval of the baas. The things our parents did at times were downright embarrassing.

Blackness is an amputation, a lack that can be fulfilled only by white acknowledgement. Even ANC Youth League leader Julius Malema's ramblings against "bloody whites" must be understood in this context.

The tragedy of it all is that whiteness has already stymied our efforts to be seen as human. We perform this futile exercise again and again, with the same results. Even as a proponent of black consciousness, with its promise of a self-validation that requires no external source, I know we blacks are defeated before we start -- and this makes me sympathetic to our black follies.

Andile Mngxitama is the editor of New Frank Talk, which in conjunction with The Bioscope will screen Tin Town, about the people evicted for the Fifa World Cup, on Saturday June 18 at 5.30pm at The Bioscope at Arts on Main in Jo'burg. The screening will be followed by a discussion with Mngxitama and Denis Beckett.

Mike Smith on Sharpeville and Cato Manor

2011-06-18T23:35:00.001+01:00

Get the facts on “Sharpeville massacre” at Mike Smith’s blog. He provides excellent background on the Cato Manor incident which preceded Sharpeville. It’s a good read folks…

Continue reading here…

Malema calls for land seizures

2011-06-17T06:50:00.001+01:00

By Robyn Dixon, Los Angeles Times

June 17, 2011

Reporting from Johannesburg, South Africa—

ANC Youth League President Julius Malema, right, addresses a crowd outside a Johannesburg court in April. Malema denied that singing the anti-apartheid struggle song, "Shoot the farmer," incited violence against whites. He is now calling for seizing land from whites to redistribute to blacks. (Alexander Joe, AFP/Getty Images / June 17, 2011)

Julius Malema, the ambitious, firebrand leader of the South African ruling party's youth wing, Thursday called for the nationalization of mines and seizure of land without compensation — policies the government has repeatedly ruled out in the past.

Speaking at the African National Congress Youth League's electoral conference, Malema said the youth league had put nationalization and land seizures on the agenda. He has also pushed bank nationalization in the past.

Malema faces a leadership challenge, but is expected to be reelected and his nationalization drive will probably gather steam in the lead-up to next year's ANC national conference, which sets policies for the party.

"Our calls for mines to be nationalized and land to be expropriated without compensation is currently our most important issue," he told delegates in a 90-minute speech.

Malema, flanked by President Jacob Zuma, said past efforts to redistribute resources from the white minority to the black majority had failed dismally.

"The struggle for land reform and transfer of land is long overdue and should be speeded up to avoid the conflicts that characterize many post-independence African states," he said. "We refuse to continue living like we are in a colony. The only solution available to us now is expropriation without compensation.

"We have demonstrated, through sound political and ideological arguments, that mines in South Africa can be and should be nationalized," he added.

South Africa currently derives most of its export earnings from mining, including of platinum and gold.

Government officials, such as Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan and Mines Minister Susan Shabangu, have taken pains to reassure investors and international markets that nationalization of mines will not happen any time soon.

Supporters tout Malema as a young Nelson Mandela, based on the former president's rebellion against ANC leaders in the late 1950s to push successfully for the party to take up arms against apartheid.

Yet it was Mandela who abandoned nationalization after his 1991 release from prison, because of warnings that investors would abandon South Africa, which he believed would have been catastrophic for the country as it tried to move past the poisonous legacy of apartheid.

Malema's economic policies put him closer to Zimbabwe's leader, President Robert Mugabe, who in 2000 ordered seizure of farms from whites without compensation, a policy that has caused the collapse of the nation's agriculture-based economy. Mugabe's government also passed a law in 2008 to force international mining companies to hand over 51% of their assets to Zimbabweans, and in March, firms were ordered to submit plans on how they will meet the requirement.

Malema attacked critics who described him as reckless. "What is reckless about calling for changing property relations to favor the working class and the poor?" he said. "We should be the voice of farmworkers, of garbage carriers, of street sweepers, of manufacturing workers, of the unemployed reserves of workers. We should be the voice of all people in informal settlements and underdeveloped areas."

Malema has kept Zuma guessing on whether he will support him for a second presidential term, with media reports that the youth league leader and allies are part of a faction planning to oust Zuma at next year's national conference.

But on Thursday he pledged his loyalty to Zuma — just two weeks after commenting that former President Thabo Mbeki, Zuma's archrival, was the best leader the ANC ever produced.