JOHANNESBURG: Nelson Mandela's family has come under new scrutiny after a South African university law clinic said it gave free legal aid to a group of the former president's relatives on the grounds that some are poor.
The revelation was met with skepticism in South Africa where poverty is endemic and a number of commentators have questioned whether a clinic that is supposed to help the needy was instead seeking benefits from association with the high-profile family.
Many South Africans were already troubled by the Mandela family feud, which has coincided with the long illness of the 95-year-old anti-apartheid leader. Mandela was taken to a hospital on June 8 to be treated for a lung infection; the government says he is improving but remains in critical condition.
Mandela's family members went to court against a grandson of Mandela who exhumed the anti-apartheid leader's three deceased children from Mandela's hometown, Qunu, and reburied them in nearby Mvezo. The group won the case with help from the Rhodes University Law Clinic and the bodies were reburied in their original location.
The grandson, Mandla Mandela, is the oldest male Mandela heir and a tribal chief in Mvezo, where his grandfather was born.
Rhodes University said it became involved when the Mandela family urgently requested help from Wesley Hayes, a deputy director of the law clinic who was "previously known" to the family.
Among four family members deemed by the law clinic to be indigent and therefore deserving of aid are 22-year-old Mbuso and 20-year-old Andile, younger brothers of Mandla.
They were aligned in the case with a dozen other relatives including Mandela's three surviving daughters, one of whom is South Africa's ambassador in Argentina, and Graca Machel, Mandela's wife and a former first lady of Mozambique.
Susan Smailes, director of the special projects for the university, said Wednesday that one objective of the clinic in taking the prominent case was to highlight the kind of issues that clinic lawyers are pursuing. In a statement on Monday, the university gave other reasons.
"It is not uncommon for law clinics to represent groups of people, including some who are not indigent, in litigation involving matters that impact on human rights and the socio-economic conditions of disadvantaged communities," it said.
"The view was that Mr. Mandla Mandela's approach to deciding this family matter was at the expense of women's voices in the family," it said. It noted "tension" between the role of women in traditional matters and women's rights enshrined in South Africa's constitution.
Freddy Pilusa, a spokesman for Mandla Mandela, said the dispute had nothing to do with women's rights and that it was "absurd" to suggest that any member of the Mandela family is indigent.
"That is really tantamount to taking from the poor and giving to the rich," Pilusa said in reference to the provision of legal aid to the family.
Hayes, a salaried employee of the law clinic, did not receive additional payment for representing the family, according to Smailes. She said case costs would be covered by Mandla Mandela because he lost.
On its website, the law clinic says a key objective is to help those who can't afford private lawyers, "thereby increasing access to justice to the poorest of the poor and creating a greater respect for the rule of law."
Read more: http://www.dailystar.com.lb/News/International/2013/Jul-24/224907-mandela-family-got-free-legal-aid-meant-for-poor.ashx#ixzz2aAA40vaU
(The Daily Star :: Lebanon News :: http://www.dailystar.com.lb)
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Friday, July 26, 2013
South Africa: Money woes ground SAAF choppers
Just a decade ago, the ANC spent over R45 BILLION on an arms deal. Of course, it was only a cover to allow the ANC to receive bribe money under the table. Zuma received money, Mbeki received money, Mandela received money - in fact, everyone of the ANC mamparas received money from the arms deal - their just rewards for gaining control of the country from the White man.
So, now the South African Air Force (SAAF) sits with 18 Agusta A109 helicopters in storage, and no money to fly them. The SAAF only has enough money to start the engines every now and then, but no money to get the Affirmative Action pilots to fly them. Or maybe they don't trust them?
That's not all. The 26 Gripen fighter aircraft - also part of the billion-rand arms deal that South Africa HAD TO HAVE - is also sitting mothballed. The ANC has slashed the SAAF budget by 60% and now there's talk that they will be selling the Gripens and not just the A109 helicopters, but all helicopter operations.
Gone is the proud SADF, feared by just about every military in the world, replaced by the SANDF, run by a bunch of clueless nincompoops. Can the ANC do anything right, apart from stealing money from the country? If corruption were an Olympic sport, the ANC would get Gold, Silver and Bronze medals. In fact, there'd be so much competition to get into the team.
This is so embarrassing. A bunch of porch monkeys in charge of South Africa's military. But, why should the ANC care? A weak defence force means they don't have to fear a military coup from their own people.
And yet one wonders why thousands of South African and American soldiers are doing training exercises together in the Eastern Cape this week, apparently to respond to "humanitarian disasters and peace-keeping operations"? For that the ANC has got money, but to keep South African air-space protected - not so much.
Think about all the pilot training down the drain. All that considerable time and frustration put in by the White pilots to train the Affirmative Action pilots - that is, the one's which didn't crash their planes and who managed to survive - down the ANC toilet, where everything good in South Africa has gone before. The ANC has managed to chase away most of the competent Whites across the military, and now they sit with a bunch of retards who probably can't fly the planes and choppers anyway. So, sell it off as scrap - after White South African tax payers have paid $$ billions to arm the country. Apparently that's not so critical anymore....
Maybe Zimbabwe will buy the lot from Zuma at auction - then Zuma can afford to build a few more houses in his Nkandlagate compound, and get himself another wife and have a few more pikininis.
At least during Apartheid South Africans slept safe at night, knowing our military was excellent and competent to look after the country. We had faith in them.
Under the ANC, evil has taken over.
It's sad seeing South Africa crumble before our eyes.
So, now the South African Air Force (SAAF) sits with 18 Agusta A109 helicopters in storage, and no money to fly them. The SAAF only has enough money to start the engines every now and then, but no money to get the Affirmative Action pilots to fly them. Or maybe they don't trust them?
That's not all. The 26 Gripen fighter aircraft - also part of the billion-rand arms deal that South Africa HAD TO HAVE - is also sitting mothballed. The ANC has slashed the SAAF budget by 60% and now there's talk that they will be selling the Gripens and not just the A109 helicopters, but all helicopter operations.
Gone is the proud SADF, feared by just about every military in the world, replaced by the SANDF, run by a bunch of clueless nincompoops. Can the ANC do anything right, apart from stealing money from the country? If corruption were an Olympic sport, the ANC would get Gold, Silver and Bronze medals. In fact, there'd be so much competition to get into the team.
This is so embarrassing. A bunch of porch monkeys in charge of South Africa's military. But, why should the ANC care? A weak defence force means they don't have to fear a military coup from their own people.
And yet one wonders why thousands of South African and American soldiers are doing training exercises together in the Eastern Cape this week, apparently to respond to "humanitarian disasters and peace-keeping operations"? For that the ANC has got money, but to keep South African air-space protected - not so much.
Think about all the pilot training down the drain. All that considerable time and frustration put in by the White pilots to train the Affirmative Action pilots - that is, the one's which didn't crash their planes and who managed to survive - down the ANC toilet, where everything good in South Africa has gone before. The ANC has managed to chase away most of the competent Whites across the military, and now they sit with a bunch of retards who probably can't fly the planes and choppers anyway. So, sell it off as scrap - after White South African tax payers have paid $$ billions to arm the country. Apparently that's not so critical anymore....
Maybe Zimbabwe will buy the lot from Zuma at auction - then Zuma can afford to build a few more houses in his Nkandlagate compound, and get himself another wife and have a few more pikininis.
At least during Apartheid South Africans slept safe at night, knowing our military was excellent and competent to look after the country. We had faith in them.
Under the ANC, evil has taken over.
It's sad seeing South Africa crumble before our eyes.
None of the South African Air Force's 18 Agusta A109 helicopters are being used, because there is no money to operate them, Beeld reported on Wednesday.
The helicopters were occasionally enabled, but did not ascend, an anonymous source reportedly told the newspaper.
In the long term, this reportedly meant pilots could lose their competency skills and that the helicopters would fall into disuse.
Beeld reported that the SAAF's 26 Gripen fighter aircraft, which were bought in the multi-million-rand arms deal a few years ago, were also rarely used.
A senior South African National Defence Force officer reportedly told the newspaper said the situation was grim.
Amid a 60-percent budget cut, it was considering selling the Gripens and not just the A109 helicopters, but all helicopter operations.
Military expert Helmoed-Romer Heitman reportedly said the SAAF was suffering from the government's indecision about what it expected from an army.
“An air force without fighter aircraft is a dead duck in Africa's military context. An army without helicopters and transport aircraft is a dinosaur in a swamp,” he was quoted as saying.
“An army without attack and tactical transport helicopters is a lame duck. A navy without helicopters and maritime patrol planes is blind.”
According to the newspaper, the SANDF did not respond to requests for comment.