Zuma's ancestor threat ignored

2011-05-19

The Democratic Alliance has made inroads in an area where President Jacob Zuma warned that people who turned their backs on the ANC would have to explain themselves to their ancestors when they died.

The DA increased its number of seats in Tswaing, in North West from one in the 2006 local government elections, to seven in 2011.

The party said its improved performance could be attributed to it winning two black wards there - including Vrischgewagt township near Delareyville.

Earlier this month, Zuma visited Vrischgewacht where he reportedly said that people who turned their backs on the ANC would have to face bad luck and explain themselves to their ancestors when they died.

"It's like history that's happened here. A complete village changed to the DA," newly elected DA councillor Carin Visser said on Thursday evening.

Visser was head of the Sannieshof Inwoners Belastingbetalers Unie (SIBU), a ratepayers association, which took over control of basic services such as disposal of sewage and waste removal in 2008, claiming the town council was incapable.

Instead of paying rates to the ANC-led Tswaing municipality, residents place the funds into a SBIU fund, and the SBIU provides some of the services.

"It's been six years that I've been working here to resolve problems," Visser said.

"It made an impression on the black people. It became known to them that I was a woman who solved problems."

'We give you Vrischgewacht'

Earlier this year, community members from Vrischgewacht, an ANC stronghold of almost 4 000 voters, approached her.

"We don't ask you, we give you Vrischgewacht," she said they told her.

"The whole village decided they wanted to turn it around," Visser said they started with basics like refuse removal.

She said this all happened a day before the Independent Electoral Commission finalised its candidates' lists, so there was no time to add the village's councillor to the list.

She did not have any DA T-shirts left for the village as she had already "painted Tswaing blue".

Instead they decided to do as the Blue Bulls did, and used oxide to paint the whole village blue, from windmills, to fences, to walls and even trees, Visser said.

It was during this time that Zuma paid a visit.

Visser said when the community was told they could not ask Zuma any questions, they pulled off their outer layers to reveal blue t-shirts underneath.

Under administration

The Tswaing local municipality, which includes Delareyville, Ottosdal, Sannieshof, was placed under administration in mid-2010 in terms of Section 139 of the Constitution.

It has been an ANC stronghold since 1994, and in the 2006 elections, the ruling party received 78% of the votes and the DA 6%.

In 2011, the ANC is projected to get 85% while the DA has risen to about 11%.

http://www.news24.com/SouthAfrica/Local-Elections-2011/Zumas-ancestor-threat-ignored-20110519 

High Court rejects ANC application

May 16, 2011

The South Gauteng High Court today denied the ANC’s application to intervene. The ANC applied for leave to intervene in a case of last year in which the court declared that the words Dubula i’Bhunu (Shoot the Boer), at first glance, should be regarded as a criminal offence.

Acting Judge Leon Halgryn also ordered in his ruling that the previous judgement should be amended to ensure that the words Dubula i’Bhunu, at first glance, should be regarded as inciting murder. Judge Halgryn further instructed that the conduct of the lawyer who acted on behalf of Mr. Mohammed Vawda and Mr. Willem Harmse, be referred to the Law Society of South Africa for further investigation.

In reaction to this, Willie Spies said that AfriForum will examine the ruling and will most probably use the precedent created by this ruling in its concluding remarks in the hate speech case against Julius Malema which continues on Thursday and Friday.

http://www.afriforum.co.za/english/2011-05-16-suid-gautengse-hooggeregshof-verwerp-anc-tussenbeidetrede/ 

Residents Whip Gate Thief

May 19 2011 

A Brazzaville resident yells at a suspected thief as the man is escorted to a police van after being stoned and whipped by a crowd of angry residents.

A man alleged to have tried to steal a garden gate off its hinges outside a shack in a squatter camp near Atteridgeville was attacked by a mob alerted by the homeowner’s screams for help.

The man, who was struck by stones, was rescued by police who spotted the commotion as they were driving past on patrol through the squatter camp. 

The 30-year-old man, who is from Atteridgeville West, is believed to have been seen by the homeowner as he walked out of his home in the Brazzaville squatter camp to go to vote. 

Community members who responded to the man’s calls for help allegedly stoned the man before apparently whipping him. It is understood that people were whipping the man when the police patrol drove past. 

Atteridgeville police station spokesman Captain Thomas Mufamadi confirmed the attack and said the man was rescued before being arrested for the alleged attempted theft. 

He said the man had severe head injuries and was taken to Kalafong Hospital, where he was being treated under police guard. 

“At the moment no one has been arrested for the attack, although we are hoping to make arrests soon,” Mufamadi said. 

“We are appealing to anyone with information on the identities of the suspect’s attackers to come forward and talk to the police. 

“We are also appealing to people not to take the law into their own hands. 

“If a person suspects someone of committing a crime they should rather call the police.”

Police were also investigating a case of assault with intent to inflict grievous bodily harm. 

http://www.iol.co.za/news/crime-courts/residents-whip-alleged-gate-thief-1.1070996 

Closing Malema's Trial

2011-05-19

Closing argument in the hate speech trial of ANC Youth League president Julius Malema will begin on Thursday, said Willie Spies, the lawyer for lobby group AfriForum.

"The case is of national importance since it will usher in a public debate on the nature of the South African democratic government and the place of minorities in its system," he said in a statement.

"With this case, we will be able to determine if there is room for an approach of mutual respect and tolerance in South Africa."

Arguments will be heard over two days at the High Court in Johannesburg, sitting as the Equality Court.

AfriForum took Malema to court in the hope of restricting his singing of lyrics which translate from isiZulu to "shoot the boer".

It finds some of the translations to English threatening to farmers and Afrikaners.

Malema and ANC representatives, including secretary general Gwede Mantashe, have told the court that the struggle song against apartheid was now sung as part of the ongoing battle against economic oppression.

On Monday the words "dubula ibhunu" (shoot the boer) was declared incitement to murder in a judgment handed down in the High Court in Johannesburg.

In his order, Judge Leon Halgryn said "... the publication and chanting of the words 'dubula ibhunu', prima facie satisfies the crime of incitement to murder".

The judegment was separate to the Malema hate speech trial and related to two members of the Socity for the Protection of Your Constitution.

One member Mahomed Vawda planned to sing it at an anti-crime march in Mpumalanga last year. The other member Willem Harmse was opposed to this.

Eventually the two reached an agreement and without much press fanfare secured a settlement order prohibiting the singing of the words.

http://www.news24.com/SouthAfrica/News/Closing-argument-in-Malema-trial-begins-20110519

Mandela Grandson in Court

May 12, 2011

Nelson Mandela's grandson, and business partner of President Jacob Zuma's nephew, Khulubuse Zuma, appeared in the Randburg Magistrate's Court yesterday on charges of speeding. 

Zondwa Mandela, CEO of embattled mining company Aurora Empowerment Systems, was allegedly caught driving at 158km an hour in a residential area in Fairland, Johannesburg, on Saturday night. 

He was released the same night on R1000 bail by the Traffic Offences Court. 

The businessman was smartly dressed in a blue and white striped shirt and a blue suit when he made his first court appearance. 

He is also the director of a Johannesburg branding and marketing company. 

The court heard that photographs of Mandela's car were already in the docket. 

Mandela's attorney, Sello Baloyi, said his client would plead not guilty.

"We are going to challenge that," he said. 

The case was postponed to May 20 for further investigation. 

http://www.timeslive.co.za/local/article1063138.ece/Mandela-grandson-in-court 

Steve Hofmeyer's Comments

It's time for Julius Malema and the ANC to admit..... Steve Hofmeyer

Afrikaners/Whites are suffering from confession fatigue. Even their children are now paying for the "sins of their forefathers". They have had to admit to past injustices and are now made to apologise for any prevailing failures. They are secondhand citizens made to pay firsthand taxes. Blaming them is a relief valve for black leadership who has demonstrated zero accountability, confusing self-enrichment with achievement. Hate speech songs ("Kill the Boer") as sung by ANC leadership are met with quiet insolence and even pride. Our government is now defending(with taxpayers money!) the right of that chant in court. Peter ("One Boer One Bullet") Mokaba has a FIFA World Cup Soccer stadium named after him. All this while we sport the the most brutal murder-rate in the world, second only to Columbia.  Once again, blameless Afrocentric arrogance  abounds while we are asked to  tolerate pathetic matric exam results and understand perpetrators' rights. Although South Africans have incompatible memories, collectively we are all heirs of extremely aggravating circumstances. The defeatist victim mentality perpetuates condescendence and alas, inequality. We could have taught the world something. We have not. 

It's time... 

1.    It is time for Julius Malema  to admit that Struggle math doesn't tally. Mitigating and aggravating factors can?t be quantified. Denialism and/or Black Empowerment here is hypocrisy and vulgar opportunism. 

2.    It is time for Julius Malema  to admit that the gravest acts of genocide did not occur during Colonialism/Apartheid, but before and after (read today). Right now South Africa has a lower life expectancy than Uganda. 

3.    It is time for Julius Malema  to admit  that, unlike Native Americans and Australian Aboriginal genocide, first-nation populations in South Africa escalated under British/Afrikaner rule from 10-30 million in a few decades. Verwoerd was building African schools with Afrikaner money at the time Aussies could obtain fauna licenses to hunt fellow Australians. 

4.    It is time for Julius Malema to admit that the only real genocide in South Africa was the Koi annihilation by his ancestors and what Shaka and Dingaan did to their own people. Today, once more, South Africans are wiping fellow citizens off the face of the earth. 

5.    It is time for Julius Malema  to admit that South Africans have lost more lives in the first four years of ANC rule than during the entire four decades of Nationalist rule. This statistic should be staggering by now, almost 18 years later. 

6.    It is time for Julius Malema  to admit that more Boer children died in the Anglo Boer War than South Africans in the entire century of the Struggle. Fact: twenty times more. Let's talk entitlement. 

7.    It is time for Julius Malema  to admit that discontented South Africans of European descent do not burn down schools, drop their pants, capsize dustbins, plunder and intimidate hospital workers during marches and strikes. We certainly do our share of bad things, but we do not sing while babies die in maternity wards. 

8.    It is time for Julius Malema  to see the folly of transformation from Western democracies to Africa-socialism, placing need over achievement. Everybody is poorer and unemployment rife. There is nothing "just" about economic equality when it implies market tampering. 

9.    It is time for Julius Malema  (and Robert Mugabe) to admit to the futility of still blaming this on previous regimes. That redemption tool is now exhausted and merely perpetuates condescension and promotes professional suffering. 

10.    It is time for Julius Malema  to admit that the demonized Afrikaner was also the rightful owner of land they had acquired after a brutal war they had lost, at enormous  human cost. Trivialising a blood sacrifice is insensitive and dangerous. Don't question Afrikaner reluctance to assimilate before you get this. 

11.    It is time for Julius Malema  to admit that Verwoerd entrusted Malema's tax-exempt great-grandfathers with gratis homeland larger than achiever-countries like Denmark, Norway and Switzerland, and still came up with nothing to show for it. Many Afrikaners found Verwoerd way too liberal with their tax money. 

12.    It is time for Julius Malema  to admit to his actual Western appetite combined with  Africans' neurotic leap from mother tongue education to English, a treason which may still erase the little literature and heritage they had bothered to record. 

13.    It is time for Julius Malema to admit he can only favour  place name changes in envy, as not one single Western city, town or street was stolen from anybody on this continent. A child can solve land claims. 

14.    It is time for Julius Malema to admit that almost all former fruitful farmland dispossessed in land claims, have suffered the same fate - brutal sterilization. 

15.    It is time for Julius Malema  to admit that more Afrikaner farmers are slaughtered annually than South Africans who died during the Sharpeville violence, a figure that dwarfs Ireland's national mortality rate (FYI, Bono). 

16.    It is time for Julius Malema  to admit that the new South Africa has contributed nothing to the world stage but shame and catch-up. This explains the following patronizing and affirmative therapy organizations: Black African Cricket Forum, Black Broker Service Network (BBSN), Black Brokers Forum (BBF), Black Business Council, Black Business Forum, Black Business Woman Association (BBWA) , Black Editors' Forum, Black Filmmakers Network (BFN), is a network of over 200 individuals and 25 companies nationally, Black IT Forum (BITF), Black Law Students' Forum, Black Lawyers Association, Black Leadership Forum, Black Management Forum, Black South African Students' Organization (SASO), FEW - black lesbian organization in South Africa, Forum of Black Journalists, National Black Contractors and Allied Trades Forum (Nabcat), National Forum for Black Public Administrators (NFBPA), National Society of Black Engineers, etc. 

17.    It is time for Julius Malema  to admit that the voters of the previous regime really voted the ANC into power and that they rule by the grace of a benevolent yes-vote  in a referendum in 1992. He was pre-teen then. Everyday he parades his hypocrisy  that yes-vote lives in regret. 

18.    It is time for Julius Malema to admit that the killers and rapists in his songs are NOT an Afrikaner statistic. Examples abound 1,2,3. The greatest butchers of South Africans, by far, were his own ancestors (Dingaan en Shaka). Today 3500 plus Afrikaner farmers are no longer with us. This vile statistic of ethnic cleansing accumulates daily and is generally ignored. 

19.    It is time for Julius Malema  to admit that poverty will prevail for as long as they keep in power a government defined by nepotism, judiciary containment,  golden handshakes, silent diplomacy, BEE charters, unprecedented unemployment, unethical grants, land grabs, tenderpreneurs and futile dreams of nationalization. 

20.    It's time for Julius Malema to admit that the book on tender procedures has been rewritten by ANC cronies, comrades and families. By October 2010 the amount of R26 billion of that had been investigated as fraudulent (The Star , 28 October 2010). By April 2011 the national press editorialized corruption as epidemic. 

21.    It is time for Julius Malema  and other instant millionaires to admit that one may only keep what one earns. This is capitalism. Fallible but unchallenged. Possessing what you did not earn is common theft in any language. "Deserving" politicians, nationalization, landgrab etc. translate to Afrikaans as theft, theft and theft. 

22.    It is time for Julius Malema  to admit culpability in keeping leaders in power who are dragging this fine nation to the bottom of international management, development and mortality indexes. The latter is the measure of civilization while we sport a lower life expectancy than Uganda. The 2010 Global Competiveness Report by the World Economic Forum rated the new, fair and Democratic South Africa such:

"Quality of the education system " 130th out of 139 

"Quality of primary education " 125th out of 139 

"Quality of math and science education" - 137th out of 139 

" HIV prevalence" - 136th out of 139 

"Life expectancy "127th out of 139 

"Infant mortality" 109th out of 139 

"Tuberculosis incidence" - 138th out of 139 

"Business impact of HIV/AIDS" - 138th out of 139 23.   

It is time for Julius to explain to other Africans that circumcision and muti rituals are pre-civilization quackery, that AIDS is not cured by raping virgins and that sangomas will always be inferior to the Western tradition of health awareness as a science and a discipline. 

24.    It is time for Julius Malema  to admit that African folk are still dependent on what South African governments force other South Africans to do for them. Blunt patronization. 

25.    It is time for Julius Malema  to admit that he has run out of reasons and time to blame the previous regime and to sever the defeating umbilical chord of Afrodebt. Ironically, the only two former colonized states which became global achievers (India and China), did exactly that. 

26.    It's time for Malema to understand that the settler lineage will never fall for the Struggle propaganda that their contribution and sacrifices were insignificant. You cannot suppress their heritage by stealing the names of world class towns, cities and well established infrastructure; you can defile it by not sustaining that incredible progress. 

27.    It's time for Julius Malema to show gratitude for a tribe who sacrificed almost 40 000 of its own population to rightfully own a country Africans acquired by virtue of outnumbering them and then agitating for a democracy. 

28.    It is time for Malema to admit that one man's liberty was always another man's devastation and that the entitlement tug-a-war can only be solved by immediately declaring a breakeven point. Stop BEE, AA, quotas, EE and affirmative therapy right now. 

29.    It is time for Julius Malema  to admit that it is inconsequential to bemoan Western influence when everything you do is  for Western style affluence and thanks to Western influence. 

30.    It is time for Julius Malema  to admit that nobody wants to rescue Apartheid, but that redress is only possible if something legally owned was taken away. Forced removals were regrettable but almost never done without offers of compensation. Why is this fact omitted when rallying up emotions to grab land? 

31.    It is time for Julius Malema  to admit that the oppressed during the Struggle has long since assumed and surpassed the role of the former oppressor. Collective amnesia at this point in our dour histories is dishonest and suicidal. 

32.    It is time for Julius Malema  to admit that his ancestors of the time were not invited to the Peace Treaty of Vereeniging, because they were, despite their numbers, economically, technologically, militarily and politically insignificant. This explains decades and decades of gross minority rule. 

33.    It is time for Julius Malema  to admit that Afrikaners would not have stood for subjugation by any minority, ever. 

34.    It is time for Julius Malema  to read the previous point again and ask the relevant questions. 

35.    It is time for Julius Malema  to admit that the colonised is a colonisable individual, and a very envious one at that (Fanon). The pathology of eternal debt is misguided. 

36.    It is time for Malema to admit that no South Africans want to return to a pre-Eurocentric African state of mind and affairs. African anti-Western defiance is populist diatribe and hypocritical banter tagged with a huge dollar sign. 

37.    It is time for Julius Malema to admit that Africa is the orphan continent thanks to many that went before him, fat-cat despots who sounded exactly like him. 

38.    It is time for Julius Malema  to admit that not one single leader, minister or mayor has been voted in legally or democratically. More than half of South Africans still don't vote. The politically inept and unqualified surface and after being discredited, resurface elsewhere under the banner of ANC propriety. 

39.    It is time for Julius Malema  to admit  that South Africa produces almost 25% of this continent's GDP . SA  qualifies to host world cup events on this continent. Not bad for the land that surrendered colonial rule stone last. 

40.    It is time for Julius Malema  to see that it is pathetic to use old buildings, highways, systems and infrastructure but pretend to be demoralized by the sight old flags. 

41.    It is time for Julius Malema to admit to the sometimes mutual incompatibility between hatespeech and traditional songs, the way Afrikaners had to sacrifice traditional terms like "kaffer". He can not have his cake and eat it. If some can chant "kill the Boer", others will gladly reciprocate by revoking the vocable. 

42.    It is time for Julius Malema  to see that most South Africans do not want the old South Africa back. We all opt for an accountable government of any colour or tribe. What we do not want is an Interpol boss serving time for corruption and the spouse of our Minister of Security as a convicted drug smuggler. We demand safety and a future for our children. 

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

Steve Hofmeyr 

http://stevehofmeyr.co.za/website/home 

The ANC doesn’t deserve your vote

by SP1984

2011-05-17

In less than 24 hours, millions of us will visit polling stations around the country with the dream that our votes will change the country for the better. We have dreams that our votes can actually accomplish its goal of providing a better future for all South Africans. There is one problem however, and it is the African National Congress.

From their humble beginnings on the January 8 1912 to June 26 1955 when the freedom charter was adopted to April 27 1994 when all South Africans were finally free to cast their vote. They were the invaluable element which freed South Africa from its state of oppression and this has resulted in the rights to freedom, rights to education, and the right of living in a democracy where each and every South African can be equally respected.

Sadly, this is not the case. In the 17 years gone by since the ANC first took over as our government, they have diverged further and further away from the ideals that the founding fathers of the ANC sacrificed their lives for. They have fallen so short of the goals in the Freedom Charter that they cannot even identify what the first proclamation states, which is “The People Shall Govern”.

The Freedom Charter states under that “All people shall be entitled to take part in the administration of the country; the rights of the people shall be the same, regardless of race, colour or sex; all bodies of minority rule, advisory boards, councils and authorities, shall be replaced by democratic organs of self-government”.

The current ANC is different to the ANC from two decades ago. It has obtained almost dictatorship status by using race as its sole draw card. It is a strategy that has worked every election since then and the people are worse off for it. This majority rule has enabled it to perform countless crimes against the people, starting with the inequality between races to the nepotism and completely despicable corruption we face today.

We are supposed to have the freedom to choose who we want as a government, we are supposed to be the democracy that our forefathers fought and died for. When Jacob Zuma tells his constituents in the ANC that the ancestors will be upset if they don’t vote ANC - what do we label that? It is known as intimidation. Ever since the start of the election campaigning, the ANC has gone negative against every other party in terms of their campaign strategy. They promised they will deliver if the people vote for them again, and again, and again.

From the previous municipal election to this one, some people around the country have started to realize that they need a government who can deliver. 

They need a government who doesn’t misappropriate funds into its own pockets. 

The people need a president who doesn’t have six wives and 30 kids whose lifestyles are funded by the people working from 08:00 to 20:00.

The sad part is that those who have now become educated have realised these facts, but we are not strong enough in numbers to go against the uneducated masses. It is enough though to ensure the ANC never gets the majority to impose their rule.

We need a government who realizes it is there to SERVE the people. We desperately need a government who has the nation’s best interests at heart. We have to have a government with civil servants who are selected based on merit, and not on skin colour. We need civil servants who are competent and are truly honest. We need a government who knows where the money actually comes from (hard working taxpayers). We need a government who is completely transparent in everything they do - total freedom of information.

If anyone has read the DA manifesto, their candidate biographies and visited their website for more information, they will realise that this party does represent the ideals spoken of in the freedom charter. No matter how much negativity they face from the ANC, they work harder and harder, delivering services, delivering results. If one reads their plans for the country, they will realise that the DA actually has a strategy for tackling the dire problems that the majority of South Africans face. The ANC will put their plans together after we vote for them (sic). They have woken the ANC up to the thought that they will be able to no longer rule with an iron fist.

Ask yourself the following questions and then decide who you will give your vote to:

1. Is the president of our nation someone who is involved in the largest corruption scandal in South Africa and was allowed to get off on a technicality?

2. Is the president of our nation a man who has unprotected sex and showers to wash the HIV off?

3. Is the ANC a party which has wasted at least R5bn of taxpayers’ money in order to drive fancy cars and stay in hotels that cost R30 000 per night?

4. Is the ANC a party which accused the DA of failing to enclose 51 toilets yet they have not enclosed over 2 000?

5. Can you vote for a party which disbanded an independent investigations unit for the fear of exposing their crimes and corruption?

6. Can you vote for a party who diminishes the value of education by lowering the pass marks to increase the pass rates?

7. Can you vote for a party that will prevent you from speaking out on their corruption due to the passing of new legislation?

8. Can you vote for a party whose character is embodied by Julius Malema?

9. Will you vote for a better future or for the party that wants to ruin it?

It’s a very exciting time in our nation (every five years) and I do hope that every person casts their vote in favour of a party that really deserves it.

I really hope South Africa becomes the country we all dream of.

From an idealist who still has hope that we can progress.

http://www.news24.com/MyNews24/YourStory/The-ANC-doesnt-deserve-your-vote-20110517