When-we were South African

Nation is conducting electoral transparency according to Zuma

2010-12-11T08:11:00.001+02:00

BuaNews (Tshwane) 3 November 2010

Cap - President Jacob Zuma today welcomed the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) to help Africa South to be at the forefront of the election transparency in the world.

Speaking to members of various political parties and the media to the former Parliament today at the launch of the Atlas of the election results and the 2009 national Assembly, Zuma said that CIS is one of the organizations of the world in the electoral pioneer and innovative.

Atlas, which is the third of its kind following those printed after provincial and national elections 1999 and 2004, was awarded by the President of the CIS, Brigalia Bam, the former House to Parliament today at Zuma.

Atlas maps show the election data provision géographique.Il focuses on aspects such as rates of participation, registration of voters, the participation of women, change patterns of voting for the various political parties in different provinces.

"The CIS made if both in his work each year, some regional organizations in the world see is no longer necessary to send observers to the elections in this country, when we hold elections because they know that these will proceed," said Zuma.

He said that the CIS has been rented by the African Union, Commonwealth and for the support it has provided a number of African countries including the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Mozambique and Nigeria will help to put in place more transparent elections.

Zuma said: "" there are little if no countries, taking transparency at this level.""

He said he was convinced that political parties would not only help fight elections, but also to assist communities in the districts of voters who were experiencing low participation, come their ballots in the ballot box atlas.

Next, municipal elections next year, called Zuma members in support of advisors in order to improve the delivery of services.

He said mayors and municipal leaders told a meeting last year that they have blamed often by members of the community of problems of delivery has been raised, but only members and provincial and national Government does were not always there to help.

"" We have, as other spheres of Government, as well as Parliament, work harder to support a local Government to perform mieux.Les local governments work must not be forgotten sphere of Government,"said Zuma.

BAM says atlas had helped to drive efficiency and transparency of elections.

"One of the things we like very much on the atlas is encouraging, he gives to the political parties to go to other areas where they have not realized before, that we think is very good for our democracy," she says.

BAM said 47 countries had tried so far helper of the CIS on the implementation of free and fair elections.

The atlas has also presented at the United Nations, the at, Commonwealth, universities and colleges.

BAM said in addition to the atlas, the commission has also developed a geographic information system which had won the price of the computer world Smithsonian .c ' is a vote counting machine that promotes election transparency.

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Who let the dogs out?

2010-11-17T04:15:00.001+02:00

Another Gem article by "The Point" - iAfrica.

Tue, 16 Nov 2010 9:55

The Point is concerned that national What Would Julius Tweet Day is likely to lower the national IQ by at least 50 points. Sure, it starts out as a joke – a little Juju tweet here, a floydism there – but before you know it you are casually throwing the word nationalisation into conversations about Nando's. Cretations!

The Point – concerned as always with society's propensity for stupidity – has decided to roll out a little pop
quiz to stave off inevitable idiocy. There are no right answers. There may be wrong answers. I suggest you use the quiz as a method of refining (read: culling the morons) your circle of friends.

The ANCYL is championing the cause of Kim Jong-Il because:
(A) Mugabe is so 2009
(B) The North Koreans have embraced nationalisation… of everything
(C) Who can resist an outfit entirely in khaki? And those shoes!
(D) The Munchkin thought a trip to Thailand would be nice. Floyd booked the tickets. These things happen.
I know, I know, tough choices. Don't worry, the DA Youth have also been faced with this conundrum.

"The ANC and its Youth League should either distance themselves from these scandalous comments, or they should explain why it is that they are cavorting with despots," said DA Youth chairperson Mbali Ntuli.

Oh, well, when you put it like that.

"The stance is that the ANCYL supports the re-unification of North and South Korea," put forward the ANCYL's Magdalene Moonsamy.

That, folks, is a good example of a wrong answer.

A political conspiracy can rent a dog when:
(A) All the cats are already taken
(B) The ANCYL says it can
(C) Saturn and Jupiter are aligned
(D) ANCYL members are mysteriously gifted with legal prowess

The ANC, it would seem, is against all forms of animal hire.

"Not only is the ANCYL of the Northern Cape out of line for rubbishing the state security agencies and the courts of law, but should also publicly apologise to Advocate Simelane for calling him 'a rented dog of political conspiracy'," declared the eloquent Jackson Mthembu.

Ah, so now it's a bad idea to rubbish the courts? Someone forgot to give the memo to the new deputy minister of the police.

New deputy police minister Maggie Sotyu is:
(A) In the wrong job, she should have been given the Chief Justice spot
(B) An idiot
(C) Out to make a bit of a name for herself
(D) Going to crack down hard on criminals. Mainly the white ones.
In case you missed the news and are thoroughly confused, the gist of what Maggie said is that South African courts are racist because they dish out harsher sentences to black criminals. Her proof:

"There are scores, but I just can't remember now. You can't deny it. It's a fact our justice system hasn’t been transformed."

Oh, how I long for debating skills like hers. For who can resist such an infallible argument?

Many people, apparently. Most of them white.

Sasco posters calling for 'One Boer one bullet' are most likely the work of:
(A) Sasco
(B) Sasco
(C) Sasco
(D) White racists from AfriForum trying to smear the good name of Sasco
If you picked option (D) your name may very well be Mbulelo Mandlana. Check your ID. Yip, when faced accusations of racism, the Sasco president came up with this response:

"We are perturbed and disappointed that the AfriForum youth has the temerity to believe that a racist poster purporting to express the views of Sasco is real and part of our policy.

"These things occur consistently in white campuses and usually produced by white racist students who want to portray Sasco as racist in order to mobilise anti-Sasco sentiment among students."

Ah, yes, well that is the far more obvious explanation.
"We do not have proof that the so-called poster has actually not been produced by AfriForum members in order to later cry foul against our organisation and present us as racists and xenophobes."

Political conspiracy! Let's buy a dog and call it Roets.

Who is an example of a good leader?

(A) Winnie Madikizela-Mandela
(B) Steve Hofmeyr
(C) Tony Yengeni
(D) Juju Baby
PS. (A) is a trick answer. The Point wanted to confuse you by including another convicted criminal.

The real answer is, of course, Tony Yengeni. What? You picked Steve? Bad call. I mean, really, did he give up his illegal directorships this week?

"The ANC welcomes the immediate step [immediate is a relative term] by ANC NEC member Tony Yengeni to resign the directorships he holds in six companies as a show of good leadership," said Jackson Mthembu.

Yes, well, the ANC also kept you on as a spokesperson after you gave a drunken interview from a prison cell, so the standards aren't particularly high.

Illegal medical waste declared clean

2010-11-07T22:51:00.001+02:00

BuaNews (Tshwane) 3 November 2010
Pretoria - Inspection of environmental management (Green Scorpions) found four illegal medical waste disposal sites safe Welkom health risk.
The Scorpions Green said the maxim of bricks, firm Jonkersrus Welkom showgrounds and Harmony Gold
property sites are free of any medical waste have been rehabilitated therefore, Frances Craigie spokesman said Wednesday.
Craigie said they would now focus on the criminal trial.
Criminal case against nine individuals and entities considered dumped illegally waste continue 29 novembre.Les parties more should be added to the list of the accused.
Maxime bricks were searched in November 2009 and a significant amount of medical waste proved be buried on the site, including objects, sharp, vile, syringes, drainage, dressings sales and general medical waste.
Other sites have been discovered after several search warrants were issued.
Cleanup sites started in March 2010, with strict conditions defined by the Department of environmental for the kidnapping, the transport business and medical waste disposal.

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Zuma appoints a new judges

2010-11-07T01:33:00.000+02:00

BuaNews (Tshwane) 3 November 2010

Pretoria - President Jacob Zuma has announced the appointment of 17 different courts judges across the country on Wednesday.

Judge Willie Seriti, who oversaw the trial of the Waterkloof four sentenced in the Northern Gauteng High Court - to the death of a man in a park in Pretoria - has been appointed to the Court of appeal.

The four began to serve their sentence of 12 years in prison for murder in 2008 after themselves to the police.

Last year, President Zuma was also named the Seriti as Chairman of the independent Commission on the door Agency, a Committee which is responsible for compensation of establishing a framework for allowances and the treatment of certain holders of public office as advisors.

Seriti nominated alongside Leona Valerie Theron and Stevan Majiedt, who will assume his duties in December.

Chair of the Conseil de l'Ordre Pretoria Hendrik Johannes de Vos was appointed judge of the northern and southern Gauteng high courses starting on 15 November.

Your was appointed alongside Mahomed Ismail Fayeeza Kathree-Setiloane Ramarumo, Jain, Selewe, Mothle, Willem Wepener.

For high prices to Durban and Pietermaritzburg, Zuma named Nompumelelo Radebe and Rishinand Seegobin juges.Ils two will assume his duties in January 2011.Chimanlal Patel was appointed Chairman of judge in the same courts of first instance.

Only two appointments were made for the CAP - oriental .Belinda Hartle was appointed judge of the High Court of the Eastern Cape and Gloria Mjali as a judge of the High Court of Mthatha.

An appointment has been made for each Western Cape and Northwest .Monde Samela was appointed judge of the Court top Western Cape, while Gutta Nadia was appointed judge of the Supreme Court of North West.

The Court of appeal of the competition, Zuma Nambitha Dambuza appointed as a judge for a period of ten years from October 31.

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Stop Tweeting Us, say young people from the party in anger

2010-11-06T09:56:00.000+02:00

3 November 2010

Johannesburg - A spokesman for the Youth League NAC call for the closure of Twitter social network administrators have nothing to stop impersonators of its President Julius Malemba said on Wednesday.

"We will examine ways to stop this..."."Even if it means going to the police," said Floyd Shivhambu.

A twitter Malemba research reveals 12 users, including Julius_Malema JMalema, the Julius_S_Malema and the jujumalema.

12 Six users bear the image of the ardent young leader.

"Comrade home welcome @ jacobzuma."Please allow me to run the country without you for a few semaines.Il was strong, sharp!, "read an update status, written by Julius_Malema on 30 August."

Another update status by JMalema read: "Tatry comrades! I am somewhat do speeks in SA! Viva na! PS."who is Barack Obama.»

Shivhambu said that the League had tried several times to block the accounts "fake Twitter", but no action was taken by network administrators.

"Those systems of piracy as the direction of the ANC YL should cease immediately because the laws of this country will be very difficult," said Shivhambu.

He said that Malemba was not a Twitter account owner.

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Company attacks civil decision advantage "Paranoia".

2010-11-05T18:28:00.000+02:00

3 November 2010

Johannesburg - Scathing reaction of ANC conference civil society last week was "reminiscent of the paranoia of the era Mbeki", Conference co-hosts said Wednesday.

"This is a behavior that suggests the non or certain persons hide its flag have something to fear," said Section27 Executive Director Mark Heywood.

Section27 and Treatment Action Campaign jointly a Conference of civil society with the Congress of SA Trade Unions (Cosatu) last week, a movement which brought angry ANC.

Former President Thabo Mbeki has not a cordial relationship with the TAC or alliance partner of the NAC, Cosatu and often criticized leadership.Cela style has led to the eviction by the current President of the ANC Jacob Zuma.

National Working Committee (NWC ANC) Tuesday accused Cosatu and civil society to take a stance towards the Government NCAS

Mantashe de Gwede for Secretary General triggered non implementation warning against the attempt to influence the change of regime.Mantashe said NAC - the Government should have been invited to participate as criticism "in absentia" and not taking into account the space to defend themselves.

"The ANC should not close the critical voice... the ANC should be capable of withstanding the internal critics," said Heywood.

"If she wants to go back to non-Mbeki, then it will close these voices."

Reaction of the party in power, coupled with its proposal for the Court of appeal and contentious protection bill media information suggested that there is "some people hell bent on the closure of these voices."

Heywood said Cosatu had committed to ongoing campaign with civil society, and considers that the Federation will be held in one.

He described Cosatu response of the General Secretary Zwelinzima Vavi, ANC criticism as "courageous".Vavi describes as "paranoid" ANC response

Heywood warned, however, that civil society would step be trained in all political games.

"Civil society is not interested to be a pawn in of the someone set including Cosatu, there is a game", he said.

TAC President Nonkosi Khumalo said society civil would not excuse to go forward with the Conference and for having failed to invite the non or any other party policy.

"We have a seal of approval of them [ANC]", she says.

"I think that we need to be pessimistic in any way."

It said that it is not a meeting of political parties and civil society held talks with the Government and knew his politiques.La question of the provision of services is a problem for a long time", she said, adding that the Conference was a platform to find ways to deal with problems of provision of service"different ways ".

Heywood added that the reaction of the Northwest company was not surprising since people like the former Minister Siphiwe Nyanda communications, convicted fraudster Tony Yengeni and Chairman of the Youth League NAC Julius Malemba all seated on the Working Committee and were "people mired in allegations of corruption."

The TAC and Section27 believes that the North West company should welcomes the Conference and said in hindsight, that he still would not have invited political parties.

The aim of the Conference was to forge unity between civil society and "finding common causes and common strategies", in various campaigns for social justice.

The Conference would not be the last.

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New unit to combat corruption in public service

2010-11-04T23:31:00.000+02:00

BuaNews (Tshwane) 3 November 2010

Pretoria - A unit for combating corruption, scheduled to be launched at the end of this month, will focus on a coherent approach that integrates elements of prevention, detection and combating corruption in the public service.

The unit is part of the strategy to combat corruption of officials, which seeks to improve report malpractice, lines as well as to protect whistleblowers and witnesses, Minister of service public Richard Baloyi said Wednesday.

The new unit will work in conjunction with existing institutions such as the Panel of inquiry, Auditor General, the public service Commission and national treasure.

Baloyi said in the National Assembly that unity will prohibit activities corrupt by individuals and enterprises; improving management policies and practices;ensure the management of professional ethics, as well as raise awareness, educate and train employees.

In the meantime, the Minister welcomed Minister newly appointed for the public service and administration, expert Ayanda.

Baloyi is convinced that the expert has a set of skills, experiences and qualifications that will add value to the advancement of the vision for the portfolio of public service and administration.

"Experts joined the portfolio at a time where we just signed an agreement on 12 result for an efficient public service delivery efficiently and oriented on the développement.Nous are convinced that the Minister will be central in the manner in which realigning our processes to the public service," said Baloyi.

Appointment of experts follows its mandate as Parliamentary Counsel to the présidence.Elle was also Secretary General of Umkhonto weSizwe military Veterans' Association until his appointment to the Parliament after the national elections in 2009.

It takes over from Roy Padayachie, who has been appointed as the Minister of communications.

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A non-racial effort

2010-11-04T05:07:00.001+02:00

BuaNews (Tshwane) 3 November 2010

Pretoria - Vice President Kgalema Motlanthe said that it would be useful for all South Africans to work even more difficult to non-racial character of the country in all aspects of cement.

Replying to a parliamentary question that if the Government remains on course in its efforts to create a non-racial South Africa Motlanthe said South African challenge seeks not to be tolerant of the diversity, but he explores and finally understand and master it.

Central vision, he says, should be one where the South African belief in a common destiny.

This Motlanthe said, will be the galvanization vision to support our spirit in the fight against poverty and inequality, and that will keep focused us on the construction of a non-racial future for all.

"It is our collective responsibility keep the vision of a United, non-racial non-gender-based, democratic and prosperous construction South Africa champion", he told MEPs.

The Vice-Chairman said Government to intensify its programs to try to fight against poverty.

While interventions such as social subsidies remain an essential element, Government had to find more effective ways to engage communities marginalized in sustainable economic activities.

To this end, the Government, in consultation with the social partners across the country, has developed a comprehensive strategy to fight poverty (SPA) to integrate and improve efforts to cope with poverty.

Motlanthe said the strategy would among other things, monitor and verify the impact of the provision of services performed by the departments on the progress and the graduation of households and communities in poverty.

Cabinet marked in the war against poverty campaign 2008 as an intervention short-term PSA to address pressing issues of poverty.

Motlanthe said that this campaign could also be resized to cover a total of 1 128 districts or one-third of all districts in the country the poorest in 2014, with a 3 million estimated households and approximately 15 million people living in extreme poverty.

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Travel the World and Get Paid!

2010-10-20T06:23:00.000+02:00

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2010-10-19T06:59:00.000+02:00

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2010-10-18T18:19:00.000+02:00

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2010-10-17T19:51:00.000+02:00

Tip and Hints for South Africans who are considering moving to Australia

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2010-10-16T20:18:00.000+02:00

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Surprising point on the early career of Verwoerd

2010-10-16T03:49:00.002+02:00

Johannesburg - "it is not biological between groups of racing, as argued earlier, differences Verwoerd said his students"
IN the 1930s, a young Professor Afrikaans told his students at the University of Stellenbosch as follows: "there is no biological between groups of great race differences as argued earlier", which means that "this (biological differences) does was not really a factor in the development of a social civilization higher by the white race race." Prof Hendrik Verwoerd's Fensch also rejected claims that the anatomical differences between black and white proved that black people
are related to the monkeys. He said: "whites also have certain features which the Negroids did not, but who are resembling large singes.Ils have so much hair."The legs are shorter in comparison to their upper body.
Some people might be surprised to learn that these words belong to Verwoerd, described by the writer Christopher Hope as "the true Apostle of apartheid." Hope, whose family has lived in the same neighbourhood as Verwoerd Johannesburg in the 1940s, called Verwoerd a deadly fanatic whose "enthusiasm" for the Afrikaner blood purity made all more intense by the fact that, Verwoerd, does he not Afrikaans at all.
Verwoerd was born in Netherlands in 1901, but came in 1903 to SA, where his father hoped to become a missionary.
Hope writes to the brothers under the Skin: travel in tyranny, Verwoerd was the first tyrant he never met. Hope, says: "Verwoerd family had emigrated to Holland SA, a fact they loved never dwell .they came to stand during the sacred racial purity, but Ms. Verwoerd (wife of HF) and her children climbed to tram old that up past the Parkview zoo Lake, a suburb of Johannesburg where I lived, my aunt to widen my ribs and we would stare, even if we knew who was bad ways, because for the rumor ran, the wife of Dr. Verwoerd, Betsy, dark and austere, was not entirely to cent percent classifiably"white"certified."
The hope was four when the national party won the 1948 election Verwoerd Parkview and his job as editor of Transvaler Die to join the cabinet of DF Malan.Means the Verwoerd Hope knew in the late 1940s was different from the Verwoerd telling his students in the 1930s, he thought there is biological differences and intellectual between blacks and blancs.Mais, as Roberta Balstad Miller wrote in 1993, there was no evidence to support the belief that Verwoerd was a "rigid ideologue and an unwavering nationalist". Miller explains that, on the contrary, "Verwoerd views on race (before 1937, when he became editor-in-Chief of Transvaler Die) were more liberal than those of many sociologists of the time."
Verwoerd, only 23 when he was awarded a doctorate in psychology Stellenbosch in 1924, was formed not sociologist.Yet he was appointed head of Department of Sociology Stellenbosch and social when it was established in 1932 work.It was first Department of Sociology SA and its formation grew out of recommendations of the poor white, a study funded by the U.S. - based Carnegie Corporation to address the problem of poor white SA.The idea was to train social workers and experts in social science that apply science in their efforts to understand and to eradicate poverty white in SA.
According to Miller, whose essay, science and society in the early career of HF Verwoerd, was published in the journal of Southern African Studies, Verwoerd sociologist "was descriptive, empirical and appliquée.Il tended to describe social conditions rather to search for patterns or regularities in social behavior, and was less interested in theories of social change that social problems.""He laced his lectures with social statistics, tell her classes that they must treat the facts first - theory would later".Miller, explains: "learned sociology as Verwoerd objective was not to develop a general understanding of social phenomena, but rather to address specific social problems in SA."Verwoerd could not, at least in respect of sociology, a large image.Mais guy said Miller, he was a morality when she proposed explanations of the pauvreté.Il believed that "individual uprising" and the right personal choices could reduce described pauvreté.Miller Verwoerd approach before leaving academia ? and a "soft social-political ameliorism".but it.
When he joined Die Transvaler and in 1948, the cabinet, Verwoerd Malan completely changed the cours.Miller, explains Verwoerd can have always supported Hope calls its bizarre theories kept quiet on the subject for the sake of his social status in Cape Town, "liberal"; there may be a pragmatist who abandoned pragmatism Afrikaner nationalism, or might be opportunistic ambitious came to suggest that national policy only would achieve its written ambitions.Miller: "if it should not be construed as an ideologue, but rather as a pragmatist and opportunistic whose ambitions guided by his actions and, finally, in the form of beliefs."

Fears of foot - and - mouth soothed

2010-10-15T09:25:00.003+02:00

BuaNews (Tshwane) Siphiwe Nyathi14 October 2010
Burgersfort - Ministry of agriculture, forestry and fisheries has provided Limpopo farmers and there was no outbreak of disease very contagious foot - and - mouth disease in the region of the great Tubatse livestock owners.
This comes after it has issued a statement Friday saying
who suspect the laboratory results had been received from a few cattle sampled in the free zone of diseases normally.
Thursday, Director of the Department of communication and information, Noncedo Vutula confirmed the results proved negative.
"All the follow-up monitoring and laboratory tests proved négatifs.Il has no clinical signs of disease or serological evidence of spread of the disease and no foot and-mouth virus has been detected", she said.
Vutula added that veterinary authorities have confirmed the results of laboratory.
Foot - and - mouth disease is a serious, highly contagious viral disease captured mainly cattle and pigs, although it may also affect sheep, goats and other cloven-feathered Dove-hooved animals such as deer and camels.
The virus can be spread by animals, people or materials put into physical contact with susceptible animals.
In the month of August, the Ministry reported an outbreak in the area of Gravelotte farm private Malati.

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Kill our heritage for money

2010-09-23T05:00:00.002+02:00

These thugs and their cohorts should face the full wrath of the law! They were not disadvantaged bush-dwellers, but moneyed people of good standing. They've betrayed their nation and SA in General.

Following the 10 year sentance handed down to a Vietnamese national, for dealing in Rhino horn, these cockroaches should face 15 to 20 with confiscation of their many ill-gotten gains ... but will they? Does money make some people more equal than others? A good lawyer spinning good lies....?

Unfortunately the eleven people accused of being members of a rhino poaching syndicate were released on bail in the Musina Magistrate's Court on Wednesday.

Game farmer Dawie Groenewald was released on R1-million bail and his wife, Sariette, on
R100 000 bail. This thug has a history of lawlessness all over the world, & should not be allowed to posses a firearm or deal with animals.

Veterinarian Karel Toet was granted R50 000 bail while his wife, Mariza Toet, was granted R20 000 bail and his colleague, veterinarian Manie du Plessis, was released on R20 000. These people were supposed to love animals and care for them.

The other accused, professional hunter Tielman Roos Erasmus, Dewald Gouws, Nordus Rossouw, Leon van der Merwe and Jacobus Marthinus Pronk, were released on R20 000 bail each while Paul Matoromela was granted R5000 bail.

Their bail conditions included that they would not be allowed to tamper with 32 rhinos currently on Groenewald's game farm, Pragtig, in Musina.

They had to hand in their passports and identity documents and must give the police a week's notice if they want to leave the province.

The 11 accused nodded in agreement when the magistrate asked them if they understood the bail conditions.

The case was postponed to 11 April.

Will they be here to face their accusers........?

When-we were Pigspotting update

2010-09-18T08:05:00.000+02:00

On Fri The Jhb Metro laid a charge against "Pigspotter". The exact nature of the charge is unknown - it cannot be for defeating the ends of justice; as in 2 previous cases, in different provinces, courts handed down rulings that it was not illegal to warn someone that they were about to commit a crime!

So could our fat friends feel their "dignity" has been tarnished? Hardly likely when the MAJORITY of Jhb's finest are slovenly & obese.

One thing is certain - Pigspotter is controversial and stirs heated debate: over 14,000 followers on Twitter by Friday afternoon. The groundswell of support is amazing! Very few people have respect for the Metro pigs. This is not surprising as they use the law as a form of income generation - not to make the roads safer! What's worse is that they are all corruptable (For the right price). I make this claim because with it being common knowledge that bribes are being exchanged on a daily basis, no member of the public has ever been arrested or charged for bribery.

Does this behaviour add to lawlessness in SA?

I don't know ... but I follow and support Pigspotter with interest!

When-we were pigspotters

2010-09-15T15:32:00.001+02:00

The Road traffic authorities (responding to 2 serious Taxi accidents in which 16 people died - 9 of them children) have anounced a campaign to stop & inspect 1 million motorists every month. Drivers licences, vehicle roadworthiness, & outstanding fines will be targeted. The intention is good, even if reactive, but this will proove totally innefective with the majority of road users latent criminals with no moral integrity. The corrupt traffic officials are in for an early bonus this year. We all know that!

This may sound like another defeatist whinge, but having lived through countless campaigns & drives to force the population to abide by the law I know that in Africa this is futile!

A very interesting counter campaign is "Pigspotter" on Twitter, who tips off motorists about traffic roadblocks.

"Two piggies hiding behind the trees with a camera trapping drivers heading north just after Investment Cars," PigSpotter, also known as Cliff, tweeted from his BlackBerry just before 2pm --

three hours after his announcement.

"Three piggies dust bathing in the shade by epsom downs.

Trapping," he tweeted just minutes earlier. "Pork chops sitting under the shade with a speed camera on Jan Smuts Corner Adith Road

coming from JHB CBD," was another tweet, and: "Pigs trapping on Oxford before M1 south onramp."

In his tweets, Cliff refers to traffic police as "pigs", "porkers" or "bacon rashers".

Johannesburg Metro Police spokesman Chief Superintendent Wayne Minnaar warned that he could soon face the full might of the law.

"What he has done, is defeating the ends of justice," said Minnaar.

"We have information that we are following up. That is all we are saying. He will face the consequences of his actions."

PigSpotter's announced he would stop after an interview with Talk Radio 702 on Wednesday morning. He wrote on Twitter: "For those who didn't hear, I was just on 702 [Talk Radio]. Made an agreement to stop roadblock reporting in exchange for a weekly spot to expose... police corruption in the roadblocks and victimisation. Let's LEAD SA and stop the corruption."

In the radio interview, he said he was not trying to insult metro police or be derogatory.

"I have the greatest respect for them; for all the good ones out there. For the guys who are collecting bribes, I have absolute zero respect for them."

Tweeters who follow PigSpotter responded shortly after his announcement.

LewEvil tweeted: "Hahaha referring to cops as pigs on the radio Gotta love @PigSpotter."

Another, Abdullah_L said: "@pigspotter heard u on radio. Good stuff u serving ur community and TammyCromhout said: "What is the oldest profession? Traffic Cop.... It says in Genesis 3:4 "... and I saw an evil spirit standing behind a bush..."

Minnaar said that in telling the public where police roadblocks were, PigSpotter was giving way to drunken drivers on the road.

"He is informing drunken drivers about roadblocks, and drunken drivers can kill innocent people," he said.

"He could also warn criminals to avoid police, leading to their escape.

Twitter users in other provinces have now emerged modelling themselves on PigSpotter.

PigSpotterKZN and PigSpotterCPT, supply warnings about traffic action in Durban and Cape Town.

A PigSpotter group was also started on the social networking site facebook on Wednesday.

The group describe sits goal as "to network with each other via facebook and Twitter so that traffic pigs with their speed cameras, radar guns and roadblocks, can be identified and neutralised".

"Just post any viewing of pigs directly on this group page and all who have joined will be notified."

Love it ......!!!!

Lead SA

2010-09-12T04:06:00.001+02:00

Following the upswell in positivity around the world cup, Primedia and radio station 702 have come up with an initiative to keep the momentum. After the amazing achievement of hosting the most successfull (Budget as well as numbers) the "Lead SA" initiative is aimed at getting ordinary people to take responsibility for their own actions; not just take responsibility, but do their best to make a difference.

As with any ground breaking idea, support is quite slow. Many business and social leaders are trying to promote the initiative by linking any positive action to LSA. At this stage the profile is still quite low and general public involvement limited to the Primedia footprint of Gauteng and Cape Town.

I'm a firm believer in top down leadership. Our illustrious Government should be setting the example - not the minority of the citizenry. Although, with a President who flaunts the law, I suppose we can't look to them to guide any moral rejuvination .....

Latest SAPS crime stats....

2010-09-10T15:59:00.000+02:00

For the first time in quite a while there seems to be some positive movement on crime. Not only that, but the report seems to be widely accepted as being factual and unmanipulated. Murders are down (by 8.6 percent) and so are sexual offences (by 2182 cases).

Well why would that be? Are the vast hordes of criminals having a change of mind? Are the SAPS getting better?

Not likely!!! The fact of the matter is that there were some unussual factors that came into play:
The world cup being the most notable.

For a full month all police force (SAPS & Metro) members had leave canceled. It was an amazing sight to see visible policing in the form of cops on the beat; patrol cars on the highway; cops on bicycle; cops on horses. This certainly had an impact.
Another spin off was that there was a real spirit of Ubuntu that brought everyone together - this was tangible and even spread to check out counters and forecourts.
Then, I guess the criminals also love soccer when not hitting little old ladies over the head with a brick, so they were probably cudled up at home watching Footie on the newly aquired 54 inch Plasma, being run off the illegal Eskom connection.

The reduction in serious crime was underlined by the headlines in the local press .. gone were the ussual grim murders & rapes.

What else has changed?

Well, with the ex-head of SAPS (And Interpol official) Jackie Selebi fighting to sidestep a well earned sojourn (he's been sentanced to 15 years) in one of the State hotels, the new comissioner (Bheki Cele) seems to have breathed a bit of life into a fading force.

Here are the latest stats:

Murder: 16 834
Assault: 402 577
Burglaries and robberies: 361 670
Sexual offences: 68 332
Child Abuse: 4014
Kidnapping: 2889
Shoplifting: 88 634
Arson: 6701
Driving under the influence: 62 939

What do you think?
Could this be a trend?