There is a lot of horrific crimes in South African over the past few years
that makes one think that our only solution to the rampant crime is capital
punishment, but with an inefficient and corrupt criminal justice system and
government, what can one expect?
South Africa is heading for a disastrous
future. The ANC are incompetent, short sighted and loaded with corruption. Crime
is everywhere, especially in the farming areas, as well as the low socio
economic areas where people get murdered on a daily basis. We need a more
efficient criminal justice system as convictions take ages. We need the death
penalty? Why because I know for a fact that crime/murder will decrease because
these murderers will think twice before killing somebody....at the moment they
don't think twice because IF they get caught they get 3 meals a day, room + bed,
tv etc all at our expense for a few years then get released on good behaviour
knowing that they are now hardened criminals and will stop at nothing to do what
they do best crime/murder.
I am a educated black person that knows
exactly how these people think- I have come across them and listened to the way
they speak and they are something out of a horror story. They murder farmers
because they dislike them because certain government leaders sing and chant hate
songs against white people. Dubula ibhulu is not a joke, it promotes these
crimes to the incompetent person in the poor areas. So instead of them going to
rob you and leave you unharmed, they know that the ANC and its comrades endorse
Dubula Ibhulu which means kill the white man/farmer...so, unfortunately they
will do what they have been told to do even though they might get a prison
sentence which means nothing to them They do it because they are looked up to in
their communities/gangs. I'm sorry to say this, but I warn you all to arm
yourselves especially if you are a farmer and defend yourselves because you
cannot rely on the cops or the courts! I feel very sorry for the farmers and all
the people that get murdered in South Africa. The government has failed on so
many levels. The ANC(African National Corruption) don't care about you and never
will. Either a new competent government takes over or we just live in fear and
misery!
Without the death penalty the only fear of committing a crime is
a jail sentence and that's if criminals get caught & convicted because our
courts are inefficient and backlogged! Considering how many crimes are committed
by repeat offenders this is not even a deterrent any more. Jail is simple not
scary enough. What scares anyone, including hardened murderers, is death. Having
this ultimate form of punishment in place shows that truly heinous crimes cannot
and will not be tolerated in civil society
There in an economical
benefit too for introducing the death penalty. The Department of Correctional
Services spends millions of tax rands on keeping these criminals in jails, money
that could be invested in other sectors like education. If most of these
barbarians were to be convicted and killed, we would not have to spend money on
them. South African is not a rich country and we have a lot of people still
living below the poverty line (i.e. not able to afford 3 meals a day like the
criminals in jails). So how about we take that money and do something useful
with it instead of wasting it on criminals who, after getting bailed out, commit
the same crimes again. This "correctional service" is not working and has been
nothing but an embarrassing money wasting exercise.
Our criminal
justice system/courts is another major problem. It favours more the wrongdoer
than the victim. The constitution also favours the rich in South Africa and that
is why organised crime has increased drastically in South Africa. If you have
money then you can obtain the best and highest paid legal team that will bend
backwards to ensure these organised criminals remain free to roam and commit
more crimes in South Africa. In actual fact the government has failed the South
African citizens by allowing the mafia into the country to set up shop to do
what they do best, organised crime! The unfortunate truth is that South African
white people are too complacent to do anything constructive about this. You all
moan and groan about problems in SA and the crimes which I agree is shocking,
but you never protest or do anything constructive to stop this madness. South
Africans in general are too materialistic and self centered to start a
revolution for a positive future!
You must be the change you want to see
in the world and that should be a psoitive one for all. The bottom line
is that, unless we have a better justice system, crime will keep on increasing
with criminals knowing there will be no consequences. One can just look at
Zimbabwe that was once the breadbasket of Africa. Such a shame to a once
beautiful and prosperous country. I just hope South Africa doesn't turn into
something similar with the current useless leaders & government, but I tend
to think that things are not looking bright for SA. Zimbabwe will now, out of
stupidity, bribes, & arrogance, get 'colonised' by China- a new era of
colonialism that's coming there way and the whole of Africa for that matter!
Times will be tough in Africa....most people are too oblivious for now!
We could also mention that our population, especially in poverty stricken
areas is increasing exponentially! With that happening, unemployment, poverty,
crime will only increase especially with our government not providing decent
education to the masses. The government needs to implement family planning
education, possibly free contraception. Otherwise the more unemployed,
uneducated people =problems create problems= it seems our government likes
chaos! Our unsustainable economy & corrupt government with their
materialistic and self centered lifestyles, coupled with our explosive
population growth in Africa, is a recipe for a well earned disaster!
Here is a link to prove that South Africa and
Southern Africa are probably the most murderous societies on earth, even with
the probable under-reporting. A very informative link that just shows how bad
things really are http://www.frontline.org.za/articles/gettingaway_withmurder.htm
http://www.news24.com/MyNews24/Violent-and-Hate-Crime-20120510
Crime is Crime Corruption is Corruption Murder is Murder Rape is Rape Facts are Facts
Friday, May 11, 2012
De Klerk and Mandela
F.W. de Klerk, the last leader of white South Africa, who joined with Nelson Mandela to bring an end to apartheid and shared a Nobel Peace Prize for their achievement, was recently interviewed at a summit of Nobel Laureates in Chicago and appeared on Thursday’s Amanpour.
So I’m a Convert
It was noted that Mandela had once called de Klerk “a man of integrity” but had taken it back, regretting that de Klerk had never renounced the principle of apartheid.
De Klerk responded: “Well, let me first say I’m not aware that Mr. Mandela says I’ve never renounced apartheid.” He then said, “I have made the most profound apology in front of the Truth Commission and on other occasions about the injustices which were wrought by apartheid.”
But then he added: “What I haven’t apologized for is the original concept of seeking to bring justice to all South Africans through the concept of nation states (essentially creating two separate states, one black and one white).”
“But in South Africa it failed,” he said. “And by the end of the ‘70’s, we had to realize, and accept and admit to ourselves that it had failed. And that is when fundamental reform started.”
He was then asked if apartheid failed because it was unworkable, or because it was simply morally repugnant.
“There are three reasons it (apartheid) failed,” he said. “It failed because the whites wanted to keep too much land for themselves. It failed because we (whites and blacks) became economically integrated, and it failed because the majority of blacks said that is not how we want our rights.”
Still, De Klerk would not back off his belief in the validity of the original concept of “separate but equal” nation states.
“There is this picture that apartheid was…used to be compared to Nazism,” said de Klerk.
“It’s wrong, and on that, I don’t apologize for saying that what drove me as a young man, before I decided we need to embrace a new vision, was a quest to bring justice for black South Africans in a way which would not – that’s what I believed then – destroyed the justice to which my people were entitled.”
“That’s how I was brought up,” said de Klerk. “And it was in an era when also in America and elsewhere, and across the continent of Africa, there was still not this realization that we are trampling upon the human rights of people. So I’m a convert.”
Eleven official languages
Again, he was asked if he wanted to take the opportunity to say that apartheid was, in retrospect, morally repugnant.
“I can only say in a qualified way,” said de Klerk. “Inasmuch as it trampled human right, it was – and remains – and that I’ve said also publicly, morally reprehensible.” He added, “But the concept of giving as the Czechs have it and the Slovaks have it, of saying that ethnic unities with one culture, with one language, can be happy and can fulfill their democratic aspirations in an own state, that is not repugnant.”
“With the advantage of hindsight,” said de Klerk, “we should have started the reform much earlier…But the intention was to end at a point which would ensure justice for all. And the tipping point in my mind was when I realized… we need to abandon the concept of separateness. And we need to build a new nation with its eleven official languages, accommodating its diversity, but taking hands and moving forward together.”
We call each other on birthdays
Mandela, will turn ninety in July and de Klerk was asked if they were friends.
“Actually, we’re close friends,” said de Klerk. “Not the closest in the sense that we see each other once a week. Also, we live apart. But he’s been in my home as a guest; I’ve been in his home as a guest. When I go to Johannesburg, my wife and I have had tea with him and Graca, his wife.”
“We call each other on birthdays,” he said. “There is no animosity left between us.” But then he added: “Historically, there was.”
http://amanpour.blogs.cnn.com/2012/05/10/de-klerk-no-animosity-with-mandela/
So I’m a Convert
It was noted that Mandela had once called de Klerk “a man of integrity” but had taken it back, regretting that de Klerk had never renounced the principle of apartheid.
De Klerk responded: “Well, let me first say I’m not aware that Mr. Mandela says I’ve never renounced apartheid.” He then said, “I have made the most profound apology in front of the Truth Commission and on other occasions about the injustices which were wrought by apartheid.”
But then he added: “What I haven’t apologized for is the original concept of seeking to bring justice to all South Africans through the concept of nation states (essentially creating two separate states, one black and one white).”
“But in South Africa it failed,” he said. “And by the end of the ‘70’s, we had to realize, and accept and admit to ourselves that it had failed. And that is when fundamental reform started.”
He was then asked if apartheid failed because it was unworkable, or because it was simply morally repugnant.
“There are three reasons it (apartheid) failed,” he said. “It failed because the whites wanted to keep too much land for themselves. It failed because we (whites and blacks) became economically integrated, and it failed because the majority of blacks said that is not how we want our rights.”
Still, De Klerk would not back off his belief in the validity of the original concept of “separate but equal” nation states.
“There is this picture that apartheid was…used to be compared to Nazism,” said de Klerk.
“It’s wrong, and on that, I don’t apologize for saying that what drove me as a young man, before I decided we need to embrace a new vision, was a quest to bring justice for black South Africans in a way which would not – that’s what I believed then – destroyed the justice to which my people were entitled.”
“That’s how I was brought up,” said de Klerk. “And it was in an era when also in America and elsewhere, and across the continent of Africa, there was still not this realization that we are trampling upon the human rights of people. So I’m a convert.”
Eleven official languages
Again, he was asked if he wanted to take the opportunity to say that apartheid was, in retrospect, morally repugnant.
“I can only say in a qualified way,” said de Klerk. “Inasmuch as it trampled human right, it was – and remains – and that I’ve said also publicly, morally reprehensible.” He added, “But the concept of giving as the Czechs have it and the Slovaks have it, of saying that ethnic unities with one culture, with one language, can be happy and can fulfill their democratic aspirations in an own state, that is not repugnant.”
“With the advantage of hindsight,” said de Klerk, “we should have started the reform much earlier…But the intention was to end at a point which would ensure justice for all. And the tipping point in my mind was when I realized… we need to abandon the concept of separateness. And we need to build a new nation with its eleven official languages, accommodating its diversity, but taking hands and moving forward together.”
We call each other on birthdays
Mandela, will turn ninety in July and de Klerk was asked if they were friends.
“Actually, we’re close friends,” said de Klerk. “Not the closest in the sense that we see each other once a week. Also, we live apart. But he’s been in my home as a guest; I’ve been in his home as a guest. When I go to Johannesburg, my wife and I have had tea with him and Graca, his wife.”
“We call each other on birthdays,” he said. “There is no animosity left between us.” But then he added: “Historically, there was.”
http://amanpour.blogs.cnn.com/2012/05/10/de-klerk-no-animosity-with-mandela/
It's time to let our leaders know they've gone too far
Everyone who follows South African politics with any enthusiasm knew that 2012 would be an interesting year, but with seven months to go before Mangaung, "interesting" has taken on an oriental connotation.
Apparently, "may you live in interesting times" is not really a Chinese curse but, whoever is responsible, we do seem to have been so cursed this year.
Now, with the official laundering of Lieutenant-General Richard Mdluli's record and reputation and the possibility that he may be in line to become the top cop, I fear we have moved from interesting to extremely dangerous.
Just about everyone who is privileged to have this sort of space to write in has tried to sound the alarm about Mdluli's return as crime intelligence chief after a long suspension on unresolved charges ranging from kidnapping and murder to corruption and fraud.
In a country where corruption, nepotism and political manipulation make the news almost every day, writers are running out of ways to signal the depth of their alarm at this development.
Business Day editor Peter Bruce took the rare step this week - a newspaperman's cris de coeur - of writing a front page editorial opinion on the topic.
Many newspapers have reported on Mdluli's alleged letter to President Jacob Zuma in November claiming the charges against him were the work of hostile conspirators and promising: "In the event that I come back to work, I will assist the president to succeed next year."
There was then and is now only one thing on Zuma's agenda this year, and that is to get himself re-elected as president of the ANC and guardian-in-chief of the feeding trough.
There is also a growing body of new evidence that, in addition to the charges against Mdluli, he abused previously unreported police funds for private purposes.
Glynnis Breytenbach, a deputy director of public prosecutions who had filed an extensive report on Mdluli's activities, has been suspended, allegedly on unrelated charges, and has been shot at.
As head of crime intelligence, Mdluli has the keys to the skeleton cupboard. He knows or can find out who among his friends and foes is seeing, talking to, sleeping with or giving business to which other of his friends and foes.
According to DA spokesman Dianne Kohler Barnard, his answer to one of her parliamentary questions revealed he is also the only person with the power to authorise phone taps, which means he can listen in on anyone, and no one can listen in on him.
Seen in isolation, the unexplained withdrawal of such a range of charges against him, his return to such a powerful position, his alleged crude pledge of a political payback and rumours he might become our commissioner of police, are cause for alarm and despondency.
But coming on top of the Zuma government's broad assault on the independence of our watchdog institutions and the abuse of the state's influence over business, they are nothing short of terrifying.
We have seen Willie Hofmeyr, the single most committed and successful corruption -buster in our history, fired as head of the Special Investigating Unit and replaced by a series of unsuitable successors.
We have seen the independence of the judiciary challenged and the credibility of the Judicial Service Commission dented by the rejection of many of the country's best jurists as candidates for the bench, and the politically assisted appointment of an inappropriate chief justice.
Provinces, cities and towns have been saddled with unqualified and often tainted administrators placed to tilt the political balance in Zuma's favour with no thought of the consequences of their inaction or incompetence in office.
The government has spent hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of rands trying to impose flawed secrecy legislation that will undermine the free flow of information despite overwhelming evidence that it is popular only with the security establishment.
Business worth billions has been funnelled to friends and relatives of the president and his clique, sometimes, as in the case of the Aurora mine, at direct cost to the lives of the workers the government purports to serve.
We have reason to be very worried that the race for the power that will be decided in Mangaung will fatally damage the democratic state so carefully built by people, including many in the ANC, who are now silent.
But we do not have to accept what is happening. We are still a democratic state and a free nation.
The public response to the Protection of State Information Bill and to the imposition of punitive tolls on Gauteng highways shows South Africans are finding the voice that earned them their freedom.
Though often inappropriately destructive, the actions we call service delivery protests show South Africans have not given up hope for better things.
It is clear that Zuma and his inner circle feel only contempt for the people who do the work and pay the nation's bills and for those who wish they could.
It is time to drop the constraints of respect for authority and to let the ANC leaders who either lead or allow the pillaging of our state know they have gone too far.
We don't need to wait for 2014 when we next get to vote. We can do it as we have in our response to censorship and excessive taxation. We can shout our opposition and we should.
http://www.timeslive.co.za/opinion/columnists/2012/05/10/it-s-time-to-let-our-leaders-know-they-ve-gone-too-far
Apparently, "may you live in interesting times" is not really a Chinese curse but, whoever is responsible, we do seem to have been so cursed this year.
Now, with the official laundering of Lieutenant-General Richard Mdluli's record and reputation and the possibility that he may be in line to become the top cop, I fear we have moved from interesting to extremely dangerous.
Just about everyone who is privileged to have this sort of space to write in has tried to sound the alarm about Mdluli's return as crime intelligence chief after a long suspension on unresolved charges ranging from kidnapping and murder to corruption and fraud.
In a country where corruption, nepotism and political manipulation make the news almost every day, writers are running out of ways to signal the depth of their alarm at this development.
Business Day editor Peter Bruce took the rare step this week - a newspaperman's cris de coeur - of writing a front page editorial opinion on the topic.
Many newspapers have reported on Mdluli's alleged letter to President Jacob Zuma in November claiming the charges against him were the work of hostile conspirators and promising: "In the event that I come back to work, I will assist the president to succeed next year."
There was then and is now only one thing on Zuma's agenda this year, and that is to get himself re-elected as president of the ANC and guardian-in-chief of the feeding trough.
There is also a growing body of new evidence that, in addition to the charges against Mdluli, he abused previously unreported police funds for private purposes.
Glynnis Breytenbach, a deputy director of public prosecutions who had filed an extensive report on Mdluli's activities, has been suspended, allegedly on unrelated charges, and has been shot at.
As head of crime intelligence, Mdluli has the keys to the skeleton cupboard. He knows or can find out who among his friends and foes is seeing, talking to, sleeping with or giving business to which other of his friends and foes.
According to DA spokesman Dianne Kohler Barnard, his answer to one of her parliamentary questions revealed he is also the only person with the power to authorise phone taps, which means he can listen in on anyone, and no one can listen in on him.
Seen in isolation, the unexplained withdrawal of such a range of charges against him, his return to such a powerful position, his alleged crude pledge of a political payback and rumours he might become our commissioner of police, are cause for alarm and despondency.
But coming on top of the Zuma government's broad assault on the independence of our watchdog institutions and the abuse of the state's influence over business, they are nothing short of terrifying.
We have seen Willie Hofmeyr, the single most committed and successful corruption -buster in our history, fired as head of the Special Investigating Unit and replaced by a series of unsuitable successors.
We have seen the independence of the judiciary challenged and the credibility of the Judicial Service Commission dented by the rejection of many of the country's best jurists as candidates for the bench, and the politically assisted appointment of an inappropriate chief justice.
Provinces, cities and towns have been saddled with unqualified and often tainted administrators placed to tilt the political balance in Zuma's favour with no thought of the consequences of their inaction or incompetence in office.
The government has spent hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of rands trying to impose flawed secrecy legislation that will undermine the free flow of information despite overwhelming evidence that it is popular only with the security establishment.
Business worth billions has been funnelled to friends and relatives of the president and his clique, sometimes, as in the case of the Aurora mine, at direct cost to the lives of the workers the government purports to serve.
We have reason to be very worried that the race for the power that will be decided in Mangaung will fatally damage the democratic state so carefully built by people, including many in the ANC, who are now silent.
But we do not have to accept what is happening. We are still a democratic state and a free nation.
The public response to the Protection of State Information Bill and to the imposition of punitive tolls on Gauteng highways shows South Africans are finding the voice that earned them their freedom.
Though often inappropriately destructive, the actions we call service delivery protests show South Africans have not given up hope for better things.
It is clear that Zuma and his inner circle feel only contempt for the people who do the work and pay the nation's bills and for those who wish they could.
It is time to drop the constraints of respect for authority and to let the ANC leaders who either lead or allow the pillaging of our state know they have gone too far.
We don't need to wait for 2014 when we next get to vote. We can do it as we have in our response to censorship and excessive taxation. We can shout our opposition and we should.
http://www.timeslive.co.za/opinion/columnists/2012/05/10/it-s-time-to-let-our-leaders-know-they-ve-gone-too-far