Posts tagged with 'Politics'

 

South Africa tells us that something is wrong – but we don’t listen anymore

Posted on 2 Comments
Is it really so that we don’t listen any more? In the aftermath of the Tumi Morake debacle that was one of the main accusations – we don’t listen any more. I don’t know if this is true, all I know is that we have certainly stopped listening to what South Africa herself wants to tell us Because when a white farmer is murdered in the most gruesome way on his farm, and the media keeps quiet about it – South Africa tells us that something is wrong. When coloured children on the Cape Flats are murdered and tortured by gangs and the provincial government keeps quiet about it – South Africa tells us that something is wrong. When an elderly woman is raped and her rapist says: “I did it because she is white” – South Africa tells us that something is wrong. When an Indian shopkeeper is robbed and stabbed – South Africa tells us that something is wrong. When a radio broadcaster openly offends a minority group by calling them bullies and gets away with it because she “only said what she felt” – South Africa tells us that something is wrong. How can it ever be right to offend and then justify your refusal to apologise? And when I look at a man and hate him purely because he is black or white or coloured, not for what he says or does, but for what he was born to be – then South Africa tells us that something is wrong When we then respond by saying: “No, things are not ideal, but life is much better for many people”, then there must be something terribly wrong with us, because then we don’t listen to South Africa any more. If a better life for some must come at the cost of blood and humiliation and blame and hatred and racism and prejudice and injustice and crime, then we cannot justify that improvement any more. The cost of believing that South Africa is doing well, is becoming too much now. It is not me saying this, it is South Africa saying this. Because if we have to destroy each other in this country, then we have to admit that we are on a course of destroying ourselves as well. We have always lived together in this country. I, as a white man, was born here and I love this country above all others. I belong here. And I am more than prepared to admit that so does the black man and woman, the coloured man and woman, the Indian man and woman. But then we must stand up, white South Africans and black and coloured and Indian and immigrant South Africans and say in Afrikaans and English and isiXhosa and in Zulu and Pedi and Fanagalo: There is something very wrong! When I have to live in fear and suffer humiliation and stereotyping and insult for who I am and what I believe, that cannot be right. Let us take the lessons which we have learned from the past 23 years and go back to the drawing board and start all over again! We need to figure out a way in which no man in this country has to live by the grace and the rules and the judgements of another. We need to have the right to be who we are, associate with whom we want to and each to call his own little piece of land under this great Southern sun: “Home.” And for that we cannot look to those career politicians in Parliament with their corrupt attitudes and their fancy old suits and diabolical fake smiles on posters when it becomes election time, only waiting for the time to pass to retire with their pension and their loot. We need to look to ourselves and say: If we are prepared to accept the status quo and to keep on justifying it with empty words, we have to accept that we are not listening to what South Africa tells us – and then there must indeed be something terribly wrong with us. We need to stop saying what is owed to us by the other person, and start asking: What do I owe myself and the people I am part of? This weekend we celebrate Heritage Day. Is this not the day on which we must now ask: What heritage will we leave behind? Will it be said of us: They were the last South Africans? If we have to admit the failure of the current dispensation and get rid of the causes of this failure, then that is what we must do. If we have to sit down and redesign South Africa to give each and every man and woman their due, their right, their heritage – then that is what we must do. And if every person in this country have to swallow the humiliation of admitting that we went wrong over the last few years, for our own sakes, then that is what we must do. If we cannot recognize and admit that some things, too many things, in South Africa are not right, then indeed something must be very wrong with us. Read the original article by Daniel Lötter on Front Nasionaal SA – blad South Africa Today – South Africa News

Is it really so that we don’t listen any more? In the aftermath of the Tumi Morake debacle that was one of the main accusations – we don’t listen any more. I don’t know if this is true, all I know is that we have certainly stopped listening to what South Africa herself wants to..
Continue reading…

Enjoyed this post? Share it!

 
 

Energy minister slips up on oil plan

Posted on Leave a comment
Energy minister slips up on oil plan

Minister of Energy Mmamoloko Kubayi is backtracking on the investigation into the sale of the country’s oil reserves, say highly placed sources. But the minister has denied this outright. In May, Kubayi announced in Parliament that she would investigate the controversial sale by the Strategic Fuel Fund (SFF) of 10-million barrels of the country’s fuel..
Continue reading…

Enjoyed this post? Share it!

 
 

Jacaranda FM Advertiser ‘Had Enough’, Pulls Advertising Worth R100K

Posted on Leave a comment
Jacaranda FM Advertiser 'Had Enough', Pulls Advertising Worth R100K

“Black people should stop saying we [white people] are to blame for their problems”.  Eric Barnard Meubels in Pretoria has pulled its advertising from Jacaranda FM because they do not want to be associated with a station that “gets involved with politics and mix it with business”. Manager and director of the popular furniture store,..
Continue reading…

Enjoyed this post? Share it!

 
 

Thousands of illegal KZN ANC members uncovered ahead of December conference

Posted on Leave a comment
Thousands of illegal KZN ANC members uncovered ahead of conference

A northern KwaZulu-Natal councillor has claimed that they have uncovered thousands of illegal ANC members ahead of the elective conference in December. ANC councillor in Pongola‚ Nqaba Mkhwanazi‚ who gave evidence on Monday at the Moerane Commission which is sitting in KwaZulu-Natal to investigate political violence in the province‚ cited factionalism and corruption as being..
Continue reading…

Enjoyed this post? Share it!

 
 

EXCLUSIVE: Cash Paymaster Systems made R1-billion profit paying social grants

Posted on Leave a comment
EXCLUSIVE: Cash Paymaster Systems made R1-billion profit paying social grants

Over the past five years Cash Paymaster Systems recorded a pre-tax profit of R1.1-billion from paying social grants on behalf of the government, the outsourced service provider told the Constitutional Court on Tuesday. After tax the net profit came to R705-million, the now infamous American-listed company said. That translates to a profit to shareholders of..
Continue reading…

Enjoyed this post? Share it!

 
 

Home Affairs Director-General placed on ‘suspension’ without any reason given – Government is hiring and firing again

Posted on Leave a comment
Home Affairs Director-General placed on 'suspension' without any reason given - Government is hiring and firing againg

Home Affairs Minister Hlengiwe Mkhize has announced the department’s Director-General Mkuseli Apleni, has been placed on precautionary suspension as of Monday. The minister announced the suspension in a terse, one-line statement on Monday afternoon.The sanction was confirmed in a one-sentence statement released by Mkhize without any reason given. Apleni’s tenure at the department of Home..
Continue reading…

Enjoyed this post? Share it!

 
 

Zumas house of cards tumbling around him

Posted on Leave a comment
Zumas house of cards tumbling around him

On this day in 2008, the then ANC national executive committee (NEC) met to deliberate on the controversial Nicholson judgment. The die had already been cast. Outside the Pietermaritzburg High Court a week earlier, the then ANC Youth League leader Julius Malema had declared “the problem in the country is Thabo Mbeki and his people”…
Continue reading…

Enjoyed this post? Share it!

 
 

‘The new Guptas’ score billion-rand deal

Posted on Leave a comment
'The new Guptas' score billion-rand deal

South Africa’s “new Guptas” — former jailbirds Gayton McKenzie and Kenny Kunene — are being lined up to be BEE partners in a multibillion-rand gas deal. The pair, said to enjoy a cosy relationship with President Jacob Zuma, travelled to Russia three weeks ago to sell themselves to Russian company Rosgeo as possible BEE partners..
Continue reading…

Enjoyed this post? Share it!

 
 

Ventersdorp is defaced with graffiti of hate speech on road signs and walls

Posted on 2 Comments
Ventersdorp is defaced with hate speech on road signs and walls

The police in Ventersdorp are investigating a case of intentional property damage after road signs and walls in the town has been defaced with hate speech on. The hate speech appeared on Tuesday after Black First Land First (BFLF) supporters attended a Steve Biko day. Residents attacked social media on Wednesday with regards to the..
Continue reading…

Enjoyed this post? Share it!

 
 

Can we believe this: ‘I didn’t conspire with Zuma’ – Mkhwebane

Posted on Leave a comment
Can we believe this: 'I didn't conspire with Zuma' - Mkhwebane

Public Protector Busisiwe Mkhwebane has denied conspiring with the presidency and State Security Agency‚ saying her office remains independent. In papers filed in the High Court in Pretoria‚ the Reserve Bank accused Mkhwebane of meeting with President Jacob Zuma’s office and the State Security Agency before releasing her report on missing apartheid funds. The report..
Continue reading…

Enjoyed this post? Share it!

 
 

“I’VE DONE NOTHING WRONG” -CLAIMS FAITH MUTHAMBI ON NEPOTISM

Posted on Leave a comment
"I’VE DONE NOTHING WRONG" -CLAIMS FAITH MUTHAMBI ON NEPOTISM

The Public Service and Administration Minister confirmed to MPs on Wedesday that nine family members were employed to work in her office. Minister Faith Muthambi has told Parliament she doesn’t see anything wrong with hiring relatives to work for her. The Public Service and Administration Minister confirmed to MPs on Wednesday that nine family members..
Continue reading…

Enjoyed this post? Share it!

 
 

Johan Rupert: “Radical economic transformation is just a code word for theft”

Posted on Leave a comment
Johan Rupert: "Radical economic transformation is just a code word for theft"

South Africa’s richest man Johann Rupert said “radical economic transformation,” the policy championed by the country’s President Jacob Zuma to reduce racial inequality, is no more than theft. “Radical economic transformation is just a code word for theft,” Rupert said on the sidelines of Richemont’s annual general meeting in Geneva on Wednesday. “That’s what’s happening..
Continue reading…

Enjoyed this post? Share it!

 
 

ANC Parliament Members lives in fear of Malema and now ask for protection

Posted on Leave a comment
file photo

Members of the Parliament representing the ANC are afraid of Julius Malema and his 24 parliamentarians and now ask for protection, said the speaker, Baleka Mbete. Baleka made the comment yesterday and apparently referred the matter to a committee to set up and to look after members’ safety. Her comment was made in Pretoria in..
Continue reading…

Enjoyed this post? Share it!

 
 

Zuma: Struggle For Black People Not Over Yet- Black People Must Not Be Victimised For Speaking Their Minds

Posted on Leave a comment
Zuma: Struggle For Black People Not Over Yet- Black People Must Not Be Victimised For Speaking Their Minds

President Jacob Zuma has called on black people to learn from Steve Biko and to speak their minds without any shame. On Tuesday, the president commemorated the 40th anniversary of Biko’s death in Pretoria. The president says that black people must not be victimised for speaking their minds. “If you are black, you do what..
Continue reading…

Enjoyed this post? Share it!

 
 

A UNIQUE CULTURE OF RESISTANCE IN SOUTH-AFRICA

Posted on Leave a comment
A UNIQUE CULTURE OF RESISTANCE IN SOUTH-AFRICA

There is a remarkably unique culture of resistance in South Africa which basically works like this: The price of a train ticket goes up by 50c – annual increase. Because they have to pay R10 instead of R9-50 now, a group of unhappy citizens, usually representing a particular segment of our population, decide to set..
Continue reading…

Enjoyed this post? Share it!