The Nedcore Project has concluded that: "South Africa and Southern Africa are probably the most murderous societies on earth, even with the probable under-reporting."
The Nedcore Project claims the results of their surveys "underscore the fact that crime has become South Africa's pre-eminent sociological problem. It now eclipses even unemployment in concerns of all South Africans."
The bizarre behaviour of the ANC government in, at one stage, imposing a moratorium on crime statistics is also questioned.
The report shows that in the first seven years of ANC rule, violence and crime in South Africa increased by 33 per cent, officially.
Worse Than War The UCA Report on Murder in South Africa reveals that according to the official statistics, in the 44 years from 1950 to 1993, there was an average of 7 036 murders per year.
This covered the turbulent strife of the apartheid years of warfare, conflict, terrorism, riots and repression.
However, in the first eight years (of peace) of the new democratic dispensation, under the ANC, an average of 24 206 murders were committed each year.
However, if the Interpol statistics are accepted, then the murder rate in South Africa during the ANC years has averaged 47 882 per year.
Official Cover Up Sharp discrepancies between official statistics and those of Interpol and the Medical Research Council are considered.
One observer is quoted as saying that the "easiest way for the police to reduce the crime rate is simply to do nothing but record only those crimes where a case number is absolutely mandatory".
Numerous experts are quoted as suspecting "serious under reporting"; "perhaps these figures are concealed for political reasons"; "the reason for this under reporting could be the desire to change the ongoing reputation of South Africa as the crime capital of the world."
Yours in conscience.
http://www.looklocal.co.za/looklocal/content/en/benoni/benoni-your-voices?oid=5454915&sn=Detail&pid=null&The-tragedy-of-crime-ridden-SA
Crime is Crime Corruption is Corruption Murder is Murder Rape is Rape Facts are Facts
Thursday, April 26, 2012
Wednesday, April 25, 2012
Apartheid - An Inhumans System
The old SA is frequently accused of "abhorrent human rights abuse", but to this
day no one could come up with any evidence to the effect, yet we can provide
literally thousands of cases orchestrated and executed by the ANC against blacks
since their founding some 100 years ago.
According to the ANC Regime's own Human Rights Commission (HRC), 73 people died while in Police detention during the period 1963 to 1990, which equates to 2.6 people annually during the "Apartheid" years.
According to the ANC Regime's own Independent Complaints Directorate (IDC), 219 people died in police custody for the period 1997 to 1998 alone.
By the time we received their results for the period 2008 to 2009 a total of 912 people had died while in SA Police custody.
Yet the old SA police were accused of being brutal and inhumane, while no one has ever said a single word about what has been happening since the ANC took control of South Africa?
For more on this and other so-called Apartheid atrocities please read: Apartheid Inhumane System
http://toxinews.blogspot.com/2012/04/brutal-murder-of-yet-another-white-man.html
According to the ANC Regime's own Human Rights Commission (HRC), 73 people died while in Police detention during the period 1963 to 1990, which equates to 2.6 people annually during the "Apartheid" years.
According to the ANC Regime's own Independent Complaints Directorate (IDC), 219 people died in police custody for the period 1997 to 1998 alone.
By the time we received their results for the period 2008 to 2009 a total of 912 people had died while in SA Police custody.
Yet the old SA police were accused of being brutal and inhumane, while no one has ever said a single word about what has been happening since the ANC took control of South Africa?
For more on this and other so-called Apartheid atrocities please read: Apartheid Inhumane System
http://toxinews.blogspot.com/2012/04/brutal-murder-of-yet-another-white-man.html
Murder In The Police Cells
A witness has told how he heard a man calling for help shortly before he died
following an assault in the Durbanville police cells.
Eben Meyer, 47, apparently pulled on the cell bars in an attempt to get the attention of police officers on duty, Die Burger reported.
His blood-covered body was found in the early hours of Saturday morning in the cell that he was sharing with eight other men.
Meyer had been arrested at about 01:00 for public drunkenness. He had apparently gone drinking after a fight with his fiancée.
Another man from Durbanville, who asked to remain anonymous, said he had also been locked up in the police cells on Saturday evening.
He was put in a cell next to Meyer’s. He said the men were already assaulting Meyer when he arrived.
He saw them kicking and hitting Meyer.
Aggressive
The witness said, however, that Meyer had been aggressive following his arrival, swearing and demanding cigarettes, and hitting two other men. He said Meyer had been looking for trouble.
“It’s sad that he died, but he needed a hiding.”
He said it felt like the assault on Meyer had taken several hours and that he was surprised that the police officials in the charge office nearby did not come to Meyer’s aid.
The two accused, Daniel Dyosi, 40, and Sipho Mhlanga, 29, were charged with Meyer’s murder. They appeared in the Bellville Magistrate's Court on Monday, where their case was postponed to May 10 for a formal bail application.
http://www.news24.com/SouthAfrica/News/Witness-saw-attack-on-man-in-police-cell-20120425
Eben Meyer, 47, apparently pulled on the cell bars in an attempt to get the attention of police officers on duty, Die Burger reported.
His blood-covered body was found in the early hours of Saturday morning in the cell that he was sharing with eight other men.
Meyer had been arrested at about 01:00 for public drunkenness. He had apparently gone drinking after a fight with his fiancée.
Another man from Durbanville, who asked to remain anonymous, said he had also been locked up in the police cells on Saturday evening.
He was put in a cell next to Meyer’s. He said the men were already assaulting Meyer when he arrived.
He saw them kicking and hitting Meyer.
Aggressive
The witness said, however, that Meyer had been aggressive following his arrival, swearing and demanding cigarettes, and hitting two other men. He said Meyer had been looking for trouble.
“It’s sad that he died, but he needed a hiding.”
He said it felt like the assault on Meyer had taken several hours and that he was surprised that the police officials in the charge office nearby did not come to Meyer’s aid.
The two accused, Daniel Dyosi, 40, and Sipho Mhlanga, 29, were charged with Meyer’s murder. They appeared in the Bellville Magistrate's Court on Monday, where their case was postponed to May 10 for a formal bail application.
http://www.news24.com/SouthAfrica/News/Witness-saw-attack-on-man-in-police-cell-20120425
Tuesday, April 24, 2012
A True Story Of Police Brutality
That barbarian methods of torturing are used by police is one hundred percent correct. I can personally testify to this.
On 10 December 2002, I, Wilhelm Pretorius, a 25 year old student, was arrested on political and especially weapons-related charges, including high treason and conspiracy to a coup d’ état.
The charges were essentially similar to those for which a group of ANC-members consisting of most current South African Members of Parliament were charged during the apartheid years.
I was arrested at 20h00 (8:00 pm) in a park in Pretoria while it was drizzling. My hands were tied behind my back with thick, strong plastic cables, in such a way that the blood supply to my hands was denied. For approximately two hours I lay on the ground on my stomach. During this time, one of the policemen came and stood on my neck.
After approximately two hours, Captain Johan Vice took me to a Venture vehicle belonging to the police that had dark-tinted windows. When I got into the vehicle,which was driven by a white woman, Capt Vice was seated directly behind me, and one Lotter, another policeman, on the right-hand side of the seat behind mine. My hands were still tightly bound, so that my hands were already feeling numb. The next thing I knew was Capt Vice throwing his shirt over my head and pulling it back sharply, with the obvious intention of strangling me. I struggled violently and managed to free my head from the shirt, totally dazed by what had just happened.
I still was not prepared for the barbarism that would follow. He pulled the shirt over my eyes to blind me. Capt Vice is approximately 2 m (6’6”) tall. He is a large man with massive hands. With his gigantic hands, he grabbed me around my throat, pushing in my Adam’s apple to shut off my windpipe so that I simply could not breathe. I squirmed and struggled, but his hands were firmly anchored around my throat, like the paws of a lion around the throat of an impala.
I struggled for breath so vehemently that I eventually landed on the middle seat of the Venture.
I was now virtually lying on his lap, with my hands still bound behind my back. Using his fist, he repeatedly hit me on the side of my face asking where my brothers were. At that stage, they were still wanted by the police for the same case. This process continued for a long time. He also forcefully pushed his finger into my ear.
At one stage, we stopped next to the road Vice threatened that if I would try to remove the shirt from my eyes, he would kill me. He said to me that he had made special arrangements for a so called “Kaffir” (black man) to rape me. “They have been craving nice white flesh for quite some time now,” he sneered.
Somebody with alcohol on his breath then bent over me, as I was lying on the middle seat of the Venture, while the door was open. This person spoke in isiZulu and repeatedly tampered with my trousers and my belt. He also repeatedly slapped me in the face. I did not understand what he was saying. Sometimes he spoke near to me so that I could smell the odour of alcohol on his stinking breath. I later recognized the person from his voice as one of the policemen who much later interrogated me again. Again I was hit on the side of my face by Capt Vice, again and again. I was also repeatedly asked if I were a “virgin,” referring to the fact that I was going to be raped. This was continuously repeated to me.
They then took me out of the car and made me lie on a plastic sheet next to the road. It sounded to me as if it were a deserted place. I was still blindfolded and could not see where I was. The plastic cables started cutting into the flesh of my arms and my hands were totally numb, Capt Vice came and sat on me and forced a rubbery piece of material over my mouth and nose. I could get no breath. I initially kicked and struggled, but quickly realized that it only caused me to waste more breath. This process continued while they shouted and swore at me.
I lay on my numb hands and gasped for breath. Sometimes I just gave up and let go so that I could die, at other times I just saw stars before my eyes. My lungs felt as if they would burst, while my whole body was exhausted from being deprived of oxygen.
They continued cursing me and threatening to kill me. “Didn’t you sh** in your pants yet?” and other similar remarks were shouted at me.
During the struggle I landed on my stomach after having rid myself of the blindfold. I could then see who the savage was who had carried out his barbarian acts on me. The same man came and sat on me. He put the inner tube over my mouth and nose, and pulled my neck backwards, using brute force. Every second it felt as if my neck would break. I was helpless and could not do anything except endure it. I got no breath, my whole back and neck felt as if they would break at any moment.
There were times when I just gave up and thought to myself that if my neck had to be broken, then let it be. Initially I struggled against this murderer with all my power, but later I just gave up and let go. “If my neck breaks now, it would at least be the end of this hell,” I found myself thinking.
I then relaxed my whole body so that my neck could break. I was to find out afterwards that one of the AWB men, Phil Kloppers, who is still in jail today in a wheelchair, had been paralyzed by similar police torture.
After this session, the person stood on my lower back while he violently forced my hands upwards. It felt as if my arms were being torn out of their sockets. My head was against the ground, and my neck was stretched in such a way that once again I could not breathe. This continued the whole time while they yelled questions at me about where my brothers were, how we communicated, and when I was supposed to see them again.
I did not know where they were and had to think up a story of how we communicated and where they were, in order to get them to allow me some rest. They did not allow me any rest, however. After this torture session, my shoulders hurt so much that I could not lift them. For two weeks afterwards, I was unable to lift my arms above my shoulders, and two years afterwards, my shoulder still gave me problems during exercises. My torturer had completely strained my shoulder ligaments
I again landed on my back and was again suffocated with the rubber inner tube. At one stage, this was replaced by a plastic sheet. He then also repeatedly rubbed his knuckles violently on my breastbone. After I breathed for a moment, he would pick me up and put me on my feet. Approximately 8-10 times he hit me in the stomach with full force, so that I fell to the ground.
There was an unknown grey-haired policeman whom I will be able to recognize, who held me while the other one beat me up. I was picked up and hit in the stomach again and again.
After this session had finished, I was again blindfolded, this time with striped police barrier tape, the kind they use for roping off crime areas. This tape was wound tightly around my face. I can remember Vice and Lotter, and saw that there were two bakkies (light trucks) While this episode lasted, I heard them opening beer cans. In the bakkie there were a lot of empty beer cans.
They put me in the car again, finally believing that I would meet my brothers that night and that they would hide a message for me or I would hide one for them under a stone at an old fort which I knew well. We then drove to the fort, but they did not stop torturing me. On the way there, Capt Vice hit me on the elbow with the butt of his pistol and again hit me on the side of my face and pushed his finger into my ear. He also started hitting me on my thigh repeatedly. At that time, I had no feeling left in my hands. Even the blows to my head only made me see stars, but I actually did not feel the blows any more. The fact that I could breathe again was valuable to me.
I was lying on the middle seat of the bakkie. I heard them cocking their 9 mm pistols and running towards the fort. They shouted that they had seen tracks there and that my brothers probably were there. This was not so however, as people regularly visit that fort, and my brothers would never meet me there. We had not arranged to meet, and I did not know where they were.
We drove off again. I now promised that I would cooperate, in order to get a break to rest a little. My mind was tired, my throat bone dry, my hands were numb, and my whole being was blunted. Vice now cut off the plastic cords, using his pocket knife, and in the process, he also caused a cut in my left wrist. In spite of the fact that the cables had been removed, I still had no feeling. They bought me a Coke. My throat was so dry that the gas stuck to my throat.
We drove to their offices in the Piet Joubert building in Visagie Street. Here I was ordered to wash my face. I was startled to see my face in the mirror. My nose was covered with blood, and my face was so swollen that it looked like a pumpkin.
We walked upstairs to an office. Here, they peppered me with questions. Every time I gave an answer they did not like, they repeatedly slapped my head. Again, it was Capt Vice, Lotter, and the grey-haired policeman whose voice I recognized as the one who had pretended to be the black man who would rape me. There was a Zulu present as well. At one stage, when they started screaming at me again, they said that I had to go with the Zulu, because they knew how to make people talk.
One Colonel Van Rooyen then entered and took me aside. He had come to tell me that his father shares my views on politics. I had to cooperate with these people, though. He tried to convince me. When I asked him whether I did not have a right to remain silent, he became more aggressive and said that a criminal does not have the right to remain silent. Once a person has committed a crime, he no longer has a right to remain silent. He took me back to the others. Again they slapped me several times if they were not satisfied with the answers I provided.
One Commissioner Pruis and another commissioner then arrived. Also they peppered me with questions. We left the offices at approximately 10:00 (am). The policemen were in a jovial mood. I was not handcuffed. We got into the bakkie. It was the same bakkie in which we had driven there, and I also saw the pieces of barrier tape which they had used to blindfold me.
We then drove to Hartebeesfontein police station, approximately 300 km (200 miles) west van Pretoria. On the way there, we stopped at a liquor store in a town. The same three policemen asked me if I would go and buy liquor for them. I realized that if I did this, they could allege that I was trying to escape, and would able to shoot me dead. I refused, but tried to seem amicable.
Lotter, who sat next to me in the back, then went to buy the beer. They also gave me some beer, while they opened one beer after another. On the way to Potchefstroom, we passed through a roadblock, which made them very nervous, as they had drunk quite a lot.
My legal representative, Jaco van der Wateren in the meantime had traced me to Vice’s cell phone and I at last had an opportunity to talk to him. I also later phoned him from the police station. Vice told me that, if I cooperated nicely, they would look after me, otherwise they would “put me in with some Kaffirs.” “The Kaffirs are going to f**k you. Are you still a virgin, Willempie?” he sneeringly mocked me. When we arrived at the police station, I immediately phoned my attorney, who recommended that I file charges right away. I then made a statement without delay.
That night, I was locked up alone in an ice cold cell without being provided with any warm garments. My whole body was in a state of shock. The hairy, dirty blanket was insufficient. My neck was completely limp, and I to keep my head up was difficult. I carried my arms in front of me in a folded position, because I was unable to lift them. I started to experience a pins-and-needles feeling in my hands. I had pain-reliever tablets. My throat was so swollen from the strangulation that I could not eat anything. I could swallow with great difficulty only. I was locked up in the cell without water. I could not reach my wife on the telephone and was to learn afterwards that she had also been arrested, and one of my friends as well. I spent the night without painkillers or any other medication. Only the next morning did a policeman from Hartebeesfontein take me to a district surgeon. The DS examined me in the presence of the policeman, and I made sure that he made proper notes of all my injuries.
I was later informed that my wife’s door was kicked off while she was standing within sight of the police, phoning her attorney. They assaulted her and plucked the phone from her hand. A friend of mine who arrived on the scene was manhandled, and when he arrived at his car, he found that rivets had been shot into his tyres in order to prevent him from following them to see where they were taking my wife.
Capt Vice and Lotter still form part of the investigation team of the criminal case brought against me and others, which has been serving before a court of law for almost three years now. To date, nothing has come of the complaint filed by me. I have never yet met the investigating officer. In fact, no investigation has yet been done at all.
Au contraire, Capt Vice sits in court daily. He handles all written evidence of the accused, handles our security in jail, and is in charge of visits by our families. He sits in court daily and leers at us. Is this not a highly irregular arrangement under any legal system?
The ANC regularly complains that its members had been tortured by these monsters, yet the ANC has knowingly turned the self-same “policemen” loose upon its political opponents. Their members just turn their heads away while similar and worse violations are perpetrated against us.
This report mentions only the torture perpetrated against me personally. This does not even touch upon the refined psychic torture to which we are subjected day and night in jail.
Justice and righteousness cannot be relied upon in this country any longer. The monster of police brutality is a reality which is perpetuated by politically motivated silence.
http://www.whitenationnetwork.com/paper/?p=953
Monday, April 23, 2012
The ANC: The 10 most disturbing quotes
The ANC's all-time top 10
1. "We've been standing here for 26 seconds and nobody has been raped."
A quote which reveals the callous attitude and sustained denial which, for a long period of time, defined the ANC's response to the high crime levels in South Africa. Said on 2 February 2000 by the late minister of safety and security, Steve Tshwete, and former minister of justice and constitutional development, Penuell Maduna. The two were speaking on the American television program '60 minutes', during a CBS broadcast, and commenting on the statistic that one person is raped in South Africa every 26 seconds, something they clearly thought they had disproved using their own special kind of logic.
2. "[The ANC is] more important" than the Constitution. "No political force can destroy the ANC - it is only the ANC that can destroy itself... "[the Constitution is only there] to regulate matters."
The definitive quote when it comes to the Constitution and the ANC's attitude toward it. From cadre deployment through its various attacks on the judiciary, it is this sentiment that still motivates much of the ANC's action today. Said by then-ANC national chairperson Jacob Zuma, during an address to ANC delegates at a regional meeting in Durban, on 17 November 1996. Zuma was explaining the ANC's decision to remove Patrick Lekota as Free State premier (Lekota had exercised his constitutional right to fire an MEC without consulting the ANC NEC. In response the ANC NEC had removed from office and Zuma was deployed to reinforce the principle that party members were accountable first and foremost to the ANC.)
3. "We need to look at the question that is posed, understandably I suppose: does HIV cause AIDS? AIDS the acronym stands for Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome. Now I do believe that is a sensible thing to ask: does one virus cause a syndrome? A virus cannot cause a syndrome. A virus will cause a disease."
The theory that HIV did not cause Aids and the thinking that underpinned a sustained long assault on best medical practice and, with it, the hopes and needs of thousands suffering from HIV/Aids. Said by then-president Thabo Mbeki in the National Assembly, on 20 September 2000. What followed would be almost a decade of denial, the promotion of quackery, the courting charlatans, the refusal to implement court orders, the denouncement of antiretroviral drugs, the vilification of those who stood opposed to this kind of thinking and, finally, the ultimate price for those in desperate need of the state's help.
4. "God expects us to rule this country because we are the only organisation which was blessed by pastors when it was formed. It is even blessed in Heaven. That is why we will rule until Jesus comes back. We should not allow anyone to govern our city [Cape Town] when we are ruling the country."
Of the many statements Jacob Zuma and the ANC have made, along the lines that it will govern until the end of days, this is the definitive one. Said by Zuma at an ANC rally in Khayelitsha, Cape Town on 4 May 2008, it illustrates perfectly the ANC's attitude to power: that it governs not by the democratic will of the people, but by divine right and that South Africa belongs to the ANC, as opposed to its citizens. It represents the very antithesis of democracy and freedom of choice.
5. "I did not join the struggle to be poor."
I was somewhat hesitant to include this quote because, on face value, it is defensible. Who in their right minds would struggle to be destitute? But it is the context in which it was said that makes it infamous. Said by ANC national spokesperson Smuts Ngonyama in November 2004, in defence of his involvement in a BEE deal involving the sale of a R6.6 billion stake in Telkom to a consortium led by former director-general of communications Andile Ngcaba. Ngonyama alone stood to make up to R160 million. Around this period there were a range of BEE deals, each of enormous value, which time and time again, would be awarded to companies loaded with the same broad group of ANC. It was through this kind of ‘redistribution' that ANC created a wealthy, politically connected class that not only benefited repeatedly from BEE but, in turn, would fund the ANC and its activities. If it was not technically corruption, certainly it was ethical corruption on a grand scale.
6. "The African National Congress congratulates the people of Zimbabwe for a successful 2002 Presidential Election."
The ANC's official response to the 2002 Zimbabwean election, from a 13 March 2002 statement on the outcome. Another quote that speaks the ANC's sustained denial on a fundamental issue that affected negatively the human rights of thousands. Although Robert Mugabe narrowly won, the result was condemned by the Commonwealth, foreign observers and government, the media and Zimbabwean opposition figures as not free or fair. And with good cause. Among a myriad other problems, the number of polling stations in urban areas and MDC strongholds was reduced by up to 50%, some 1 400 opposition members people were arrested during the voting period and in 40-50% of rural constituencies, opposition officials were unable to oversee polling. Later that year ZANU-PF official Emerson Mnangagwa, referred to in some quarters as ‘The Butcher of Matebeleland', was given a standing ovation at the ANC's 2002 national congress in Stellenbosch.
7. "I think it's very important for coloured people in this country to understand that South Africa belongs to them in totality, not just the Western Cape. So this over-concentration of coloureds in the Western Cape is not working for them. They should spread in the rest of the country ... so they must stop this over-concentration situation because they are in over-supply where they are so you must look into the country and see where you can meet the supply."
Said by then director-general of labour Jimmy Manyi, in March 2010. A quote that goes to the heart of the ANC racial attitude, to coloured South Africans in particular and race relations in general - the very idea that people of any race should be stereotyped in this way or that they have a duty to equally distribute themselves being anathema to diversity and freedom. This kind of thinking not only informs hard ANC policy (the employment equity plan for correctional services, for example) but the ANC's general attitude to the Western Cape and coloured South Africans, which it paints as illegitmate and whom it disregards as second-class citizens respectively.
8. "I, for my part, will not keep quiet while others whose minds have been corrupted by the disease of racism, accuse us, the black people of South Africa, Africa and the world, as being, by virtue of our Africanness and skin colour - lazy, liars, foul-smelling, diseased, corrupt, violent, amoral, sexually depraved, animalistic, savage - and rapists."
Remarkably, this statement was made by then-president Thabo Mbeki, as part of along diatribe along similar lines, in response to a simple parliamentary question, asking whether or not he stood by his claim that HIV did not cause Aids. The next day, on 22 October 2004, Mbeki would publish the full response as an edition of ANC Today, the natural home for so much of his racial vitroil over the years. It was typical of the way Mbeki and the ANC would play the race card, not just on Aids, but with regards to almost any public position critical of the ANC. And how, through this kind of racial rhetoric, he would re-radicalise public discourse in the South Africa. Aids and Zimbabwe might well have been Mbeki's defining policy mistakes but it was this kind of deep-seated racial prejudice that remains his quintessential influence and, in fact, underpinned those policy positions in the first place.
9. "Same sex marriage is a disgrace to the nation and to God. When I was growing up, ‘ungqingili' [homosexuals in isiZulu] could not stand in front of me, I would knock him out."
Said by Jacob Zuma to thousands of supporters at Heritage Day celebrations in KwaZulu-Natal, on 26 September 2006. Zuma offered an apology, after the comment caused a national outcry, arguing that he "did not intend to have this interpreted as a condemnation of gays and lesbians". The quote is not only remarkable for its bigotry but for the particular brand of social conservatism it represents, one that defines much of the thinking behind and many of the positions adopted by the ANC.
10. "This rot is across the board. It's not confined to any level or any area of the country. Almost every project is conceived because it offers opportunities for certain people to make money. A great deal of the ANC's problems are occasioned by this. There are people who want to take it over so they can arrange for the appointment of those who will allow them possibilities for future accumulation."
No such collection would be complete without a quote about corruption. And no quote on corruption is more forthright or disturbing as this one. Said by then-ANC secretary-general Kgalema Motlanthe in an interview about corruption in the ANC with the Financial Mail, on 19 January 2007. It clearly and in no uncertain terms defines the fundamental problem: that the ANC's general attitude to the state is one of self-enrichment and patronage - nothing more, nothing less, than the means to that end.
Near misses
Where does one start, when faced with so many difficult choices?
First, there were some quotes I did not include because they were more personal than reflective of the ANC's general attitude. Zuma's infamous April 2006 shower quote, for example - "It... would minimise the risk of contracting the disease [HIV/Aids]." I felt such utterances said more about the individual than the organisation, however problematic.
A harder decision was to exclude the June 1999 comment by former Mpumalanga premier Ndaweni Mahlangu that "[Lying] is nothing new. Many politicians publicly deny they did certain things but then later admit to them. It is accepted and is not unusual anywhere in the world." One could make a case that dishonesty in the ANC was commonplace but then, compared to the problems that flowed from its open positions on issues like Aids and Zimbabwe, I felt it just missed out.
On Aids and Zimbabwe the list of choices was extensive. There was, for example, the infamous quote from former ANCYL leader Peter Mokaba, made in an interview with the New York Times on 31 March 2002, where he said:
"HIV? It doesn't exist. The kind of stories that they tell that people are dying in droves... It's not true. It's not borne out by any facts. Where the science has not proved anything, we cannot allow our people to be Guinea pigs. Anti-retrovirals, they're quite dangerous. They're poison actually. We cannot allow our people to take something so dangerous that it will exterminate them. However well-meaning, the hazards of misplaced compassion could lead to genocide."
In the end, though, I felt Mbeki's quote more important because, if anything, Mokaba - an out-and-out Mbeki acolyte - was just parroting Mbeki's line anyway.
Leaving out the former minister of health, Manto Tshabalala-Msimang, was difficult too. Her suggestion in June 2005, that "beetroot, garlic, [and] lemon" were a suitable substitute for ARVs, came to define her as ‘Dr Beetroot'. And her stubborn refusal to implement an ARV programme (perhaps best captured by her November 2000 quote - "Today I want to dispel this myth, because it is absolutely not true [that ARV's work]. The pharmaceutical industry and those who have a vested interest in the drug industry fuels this propaganda") was indicative of the ANC's broader attitude. But again, Mbeki was the root cause, and so his quote won out.
Likewise on Zimbabwe - so many options. I went with the election quote because that moment was defining, not only for Zimbabwe but for the ANC which, having then endorsed the inexcusable every day for the months and years that followed dug itself deeper and deeper into the anti-democratic trench it had built. Zuma's 15 March 2002 quote from inside Zimbabwe, that "...the elections were legitimate, are valid. They were free and fair and we have got to respect that", was a close second, but the ANC's national release was more representative.
In other cases it was a close call between two quotes that illustrated the same problem. Take the 26 seconds rape quote - a horrific sentiment. So bad you might be forgiven for thinking it was isolated. Not so. In May 2002 then-safety and security minister Charles Nqakula would ask, "Is that realistic? I have more than three children at home, and yesterday not one was abused." A reference to the figure that one in three South African children are abused daily. That two police ministers could advocate the same attitude about crime statistics and the victims of crime tells you everything.
Then there was a random collection of quotes, each one of which was disturbing and powerful and, indeed, represented something important but which lost out on nothing more than their overall significance.
Here, for example, I am referring to quotes like president Mbeki's March 2002 statement about our national sporting teams, that "for two to three years let's not mind losing international competitions because we are bringing our people into these teams" (to this day I wonder who exactly "our people" are). And the December 2000 quote (just before the local government elections) by ANC leader in KwaZulu-Natal, Sbu Ndebele:
"To all Africans, Coloureds and Indians who voted for the DA, be warned that there's going to be consequences for not voting for the ANC. When it comes to service delivery, we will start with the people who voted for us and you (DA supporters) will be last."
A quote which tells you much about the ANC's attitude to the opposition.
Racism was another issue about which it was difficult to choose the defining ANC quote. No doubt everyone remembers the late Blackman Ngoro, media advisor to Cape Town mayor Nomaindia Mfeketo, whom in July 2005 described coloured as "...beggars, homeless and drunk on cheap wine", and wrote how "vastly superior Africans are" before concluding that "coloureds must undergo ideological transformation if their race is to prosper and not die a drunken death". In the final analysis, I felt Manyi's reference to national demographics spoke more to the nature of the ANC's general prejudice.
Finally, there were many quotes that might have been used to demonstrate the ANC's attitude to service delivery and accountability. Alec Erwin's Eskom bolt quote, said on 28 February 2006, that "this is not, in fact, an accident. Any interference with any electricity installation is an exceptionally serious crime. It is sabotage", was not only a good way for the ANC to excuse its failings on the eve of an election but a perfect illustration of how it was willing to say anything, including flatly contradicting itself, rather than hold someone to account for a problem. A few months later, in August 2006, he would appear before parliament to say: "The cause of the damage to the generators is the question that has caused massive public interest. Of as much interest has been whether I said that this was an act of sabotage. I did not say this." To date no one has been fired, rebuked or sanctioned in anyway for the fact that the country ran out of electricity.
Alas, any top ten list requires some brutal decisions.
http://www.politicsweb.co.za/politicsweb/view/politicsweb/en/page72308?oid=294328&sn=Marketingweb+detail&pid=90389
1. "We've been standing here for 26 seconds and nobody has been raped."
A quote which reveals the callous attitude and sustained denial which, for a long period of time, defined the ANC's response to the high crime levels in South Africa. Said on 2 February 2000 by the late minister of safety and security, Steve Tshwete, and former minister of justice and constitutional development, Penuell Maduna. The two were speaking on the American television program '60 minutes', during a CBS broadcast, and commenting on the statistic that one person is raped in South Africa every 26 seconds, something they clearly thought they had disproved using their own special kind of logic.
2. "[The ANC is] more important" than the Constitution. "No political force can destroy the ANC - it is only the ANC that can destroy itself... "[the Constitution is only there] to regulate matters."
The definitive quote when it comes to the Constitution and the ANC's attitude toward it. From cadre deployment through its various attacks on the judiciary, it is this sentiment that still motivates much of the ANC's action today. Said by then-ANC national chairperson Jacob Zuma, during an address to ANC delegates at a regional meeting in Durban, on 17 November 1996. Zuma was explaining the ANC's decision to remove Patrick Lekota as Free State premier (Lekota had exercised his constitutional right to fire an MEC without consulting the ANC NEC. In response the ANC NEC had removed from office and Zuma was deployed to reinforce the principle that party members were accountable first and foremost to the ANC.)
3. "We need to look at the question that is posed, understandably I suppose: does HIV cause AIDS? AIDS the acronym stands for Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome. Now I do believe that is a sensible thing to ask: does one virus cause a syndrome? A virus cannot cause a syndrome. A virus will cause a disease."
The theory that HIV did not cause Aids and the thinking that underpinned a sustained long assault on best medical practice and, with it, the hopes and needs of thousands suffering from HIV/Aids. Said by then-president Thabo Mbeki in the National Assembly, on 20 September 2000. What followed would be almost a decade of denial, the promotion of quackery, the courting charlatans, the refusal to implement court orders, the denouncement of antiretroviral drugs, the vilification of those who stood opposed to this kind of thinking and, finally, the ultimate price for those in desperate need of the state's help.
4. "God expects us to rule this country because we are the only organisation which was blessed by pastors when it was formed. It is even blessed in Heaven. That is why we will rule until Jesus comes back. We should not allow anyone to govern our city [Cape Town] when we are ruling the country."
Of the many statements Jacob Zuma and the ANC have made, along the lines that it will govern until the end of days, this is the definitive one. Said by Zuma at an ANC rally in Khayelitsha, Cape Town on 4 May 2008, it illustrates perfectly the ANC's attitude to power: that it governs not by the democratic will of the people, but by divine right and that South Africa belongs to the ANC, as opposed to its citizens. It represents the very antithesis of democracy and freedom of choice.
5. "I did not join the struggle to be poor."
I was somewhat hesitant to include this quote because, on face value, it is defensible. Who in their right minds would struggle to be destitute? But it is the context in which it was said that makes it infamous. Said by ANC national spokesperson Smuts Ngonyama in November 2004, in defence of his involvement in a BEE deal involving the sale of a R6.6 billion stake in Telkom to a consortium led by former director-general of communications Andile Ngcaba. Ngonyama alone stood to make up to R160 million. Around this period there were a range of BEE deals, each of enormous value, which time and time again, would be awarded to companies loaded with the same broad group of ANC. It was through this kind of ‘redistribution' that ANC created a wealthy, politically connected class that not only benefited repeatedly from BEE but, in turn, would fund the ANC and its activities. If it was not technically corruption, certainly it was ethical corruption on a grand scale.
6. "The African National Congress congratulates the people of Zimbabwe for a successful 2002 Presidential Election."
The ANC's official response to the 2002 Zimbabwean election, from a 13 March 2002 statement on the outcome. Another quote that speaks the ANC's sustained denial on a fundamental issue that affected negatively the human rights of thousands. Although Robert Mugabe narrowly won, the result was condemned by the Commonwealth, foreign observers and government, the media and Zimbabwean opposition figures as not free or fair. And with good cause. Among a myriad other problems, the number of polling stations in urban areas and MDC strongholds was reduced by up to 50%, some 1 400 opposition members people were arrested during the voting period and in 40-50% of rural constituencies, opposition officials were unable to oversee polling. Later that year ZANU-PF official Emerson Mnangagwa, referred to in some quarters as ‘The Butcher of Matebeleland', was given a standing ovation at the ANC's 2002 national congress in Stellenbosch.
7. "I think it's very important for coloured people in this country to understand that South Africa belongs to them in totality, not just the Western Cape. So this over-concentration of coloureds in the Western Cape is not working for them. They should spread in the rest of the country ... so they must stop this over-concentration situation because they are in over-supply where they are so you must look into the country and see where you can meet the supply."
Said by then director-general of labour Jimmy Manyi, in March 2010. A quote that goes to the heart of the ANC racial attitude, to coloured South Africans in particular and race relations in general - the very idea that people of any race should be stereotyped in this way or that they have a duty to equally distribute themselves being anathema to diversity and freedom. This kind of thinking not only informs hard ANC policy (the employment equity plan for correctional services, for example) but the ANC's general attitude to the Western Cape and coloured South Africans, which it paints as illegitmate and whom it disregards as second-class citizens respectively.
8. "I, for my part, will not keep quiet while others whose minds have been corrupted by the disease of racism, accuse us, the black people of South Africa, Africa and the world, as being, by virtue of our Africanness and skin colour - lazy, liars, foul-smelling, diseased, corrupt, violent, amoral, sexually depraved, animalistic, savage - and rapists."
Remarkably, this statement was made by then-president Thabo Mbeki, as part of along diatribe along similar lines, in response to a simple parliamentary question, asking whether or not he stood by his claim that HIV did not cause Aids. The next day, on 22 October 2004, Mbeki would publish the full response as an edition of ANC Today, the natural home for so much of his racial vitroil over the years. It was typical of the way Mbeki and the ANC would play the race card, not just on Aids, but with regards to almost any public position critical of the ANC. And how, through this kind of racial rhetoric, he would re-radicalise public discourse in the South Africa. Aids and Zimbabwe might well have been Mbeki's defining policy mistakes but it was this kind of deep-seated racial prejudice that remains his quintessential influence and, in fact, underpinned those policy positions in the first place.
9. "Same sex marriage is a disgrace to the nation and to God. When I was growing up, ‘ungqingili' [homosexuals in isiZulu] could not stand in front of me, I would knock him out."
Said by Jacob Zuma to thousands of supporters at Heritage Day celebrations in KwaZulu-Natal, on 26 September 2006. Zuma offered an apology, after the comment caused a national outcry, arguing that he "did not intend to have this interpreted as a condemnation of gays and lesbians". The quote is not only remarkable for its bigotry but for the particular brand of social conservatism it represents, one that defines much of the thinking behind and many of the positions adopted by the ANC.
10. "This rot is across the board. It's not confined to any level or any area of the country. Almost every project is conceived because it offers opportunities for certain people to make money. A great deal of the ANC's problems are occasioned by this. There are people who want to take it over so they can arrange for the appointment of those who will allow them possibilities for future accumulation."
No such collection would be complete without a quote about corruption. And no quote on corruption is more forthright or disturbing as this one. Said by then-ANC secretary-general Kgalema Motlanthe in an interview about corruption in the ANC with the Financial Mail, on 19 January 2007. It clearly and in no uncertain terms defines the fundamental problem: that the ANC's general attitude to the state is one of self-enrichment and patronage - nothing more, nothing less, than the means to that end.
Near misses
Where does one start, when faced with so many difficult choices?
First, there were some quotes I did not include because they were more personal than reflective of the ANC's general attitude. Zuma's infamous April 2006 shower quote, for example - "It... would minimise the risk of contracting the disease [HIV/Aids]." I felt such utterances said more about the individual than the organisation, however problematic.
A harder decision was to exclude the June 1999 comment by former Mpumalanga premier Ndaweni Mahlangu that "[Lying] is nothing new. Many politicians publicly deny they did certain things but then later admit to them. It is accepted and is not unusual anywhere in the world." One could make a case that dishonesty in the ANC was commonplace but then, compared to the problems that flowed from its open positions on issues like Aids and Zimbabwe, I felt it just missed out.
On Aids and Zimbabwe the list of choices was extensive. There was, for example, the infamous quote from former ANCYL leader Peter Mokaba, made in an interview with the New York Times on 31 March 2002, where he said:
"HIV? It doesn't exist. The kind of stories that they tell that people are dying in droves... It's not true. It's not borne out by any facts. Where the science has not proved anything, we cannot allow our people to be Guinea pigs. Anti-retrovirals, they're quite dangerous. They're poison actually. We cannot allow our people to take something so dangerous that it will exterminate them. However well-meaning, the hazards of misplaced compassion could lead to genocide."
In the end, though, I felt Mbeki's quote more important because, if anything, Mokaba - an out-and-out Mbeki acolyte - was just parroting Mbeki's line anyway.
Leaving out the former minister of health, Manto Tshabalala-Msimang, was difficult too. Her suggestion in June 2005, that "beetroot, garlic, [and] lemon" were a suitable substitute for ARVs, came to define her as ‘Dr Beetroot'. And her stubborn refusal to implement an ARV programme (perhaps best captured by her November 2000 quote - "Today I want to dispel this myth, because it is absolutely not true [that ARV's work]. The pharmaceutical industry and those who have a vested interest in the drug industry fuels this propaganda") was indicative of the ANC's broader attitude. But again, Mbeki was the root cause, and so his quote won out.
Likewise on Zimbabwe - so many options. I went with the election quote because that moment was defining, not only for Zimbabwe but for the ANC which, having then endorsed the inexcusable every day for the months and years that followed dug itself deeper and deeper into the anti-democratic trench it had built. Zuma's 15 March 2002 quote from inside Zimbabwe, that "...the elections were legitimate, are valid. They were free and fair and we have got to respect that", was a close second, but the ANC's national release was more representative.
In other cases it was a close call between two quotes that illustrated the same problem. Take the 26 seconds rape quote - a horrific sentiment. So bad you might be forgiven for thinking it was isolated. Not so. In May 2002 then-safety and security minister Charles Nqakula would ask, "Is that realistic? I have more than three children at home, and yesterday not one was abused." A reference to the figure that one in three South African children are abused daily. That two police ministers could advocate the same attitude about crime statistics and the victims of crime tells you everything.
Then there was a random collection of quotes, each one of which was disturbing and powerful and, indeed, represented something important but which lost out on nothing more than their overall significance.
Here, for example, I am referring to quotes like president Mbeki's March 2002 statement about our national sporting teams, that "for two to three years let's not mind losing international competitions because we are bringing our people into these teams" (to this day I wonder who exactly "our people" are). And the December 2000 quote (just before the local government elections) by ANC leader in KwaZulu-Natal, Sbu Ndebele:
"To all Africans, Coloureds and Indians who voted for the DA, be warned that there's going to be consequences for not voting for the ANC. When it comes to service delivery, we will start with the people who voted for us and you (DA supporters) will be last."
A quote which tells you much about the ANC's attitude to the opposition.
Racism was another issue about which it was difficult to choose the defining ANC quote. No doubt everyone remembers the late Blackman Ngoro, media advisor to Cape Town mayor Nomaindia Mfeketo, whom in July 2005 described coloured as "...beggars, homeless and drunk on cheap wine", and wrote how "vastly superior Africans are" before concluding that "coloureds must undergo ideological transformation if their race is to prosper and not die a drunken death". In the final analysis, I felt Manyi's reference to national demographics spoke more to the nature of the ANC's general prejudice.
Finally, there were many quotes that might have been used to demonstrate the ANC's attitude to service delivery and accountability. Alec Erwin's Eskom bolt quote, said on 28 February 2006, that "this is not, in fact, an accident. Any interference with any electricity installation is an exceptionally serious crime. It is sabotage", was not only a good way for the ANC to excuse its failings on the eve of an election but a perfect illustration of how it was willing to say anything, including flatly contradicting itself, rather than hold someone to account for a problem. A few months later, in August 2006, he would appear before parliament to say: "The cause of the damage to the generators is the question that has caused massive public interest. Of as much interest has been whether I said that this was an act of sabotage. I did not say this." To date no one has been fired, rebuked or sanctioned in anyway for the fact that the country ran out of electricity.
Alas, any top ten list requires some brutal decisions.
http://www.politicsweb.co.za/politicsweb/view/politicsweb/en/page72308?oid=294328&sn=Marketingweb+detail&pid=90389
Saturday, April 21, 2012
Robert Mugabe's Rule
Here is a look at Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe, the 88-year-old who has ruled the southern African country for more than three decades.
1980 - Robert Mugabe's ZANU-PF party wins independence elections. He takes office as prime minister on April 18.
1982 - Mugabe deploys North Korean-trained troops to crush rebellion by ex-ZAPU guerrillas. Government forces are accused of killing thousands of civilians.
1987 - Mugabe and ZAPU's Joshua Nkomo sign a unity accord, leading to the integration of PF-ZAPU and ZANU-PF.
1990 - ZANU-PF and Mugabe win parliamentary and presidential elections.
1998 - An economic crisis marked by high interest rates and inflation provokes riots and increasing support for the Zimbabwean Congress of Trade Unions led by Morgan Tsvangirai.
-- The opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) is formed and Tsvangirai is appointed leader in 1999.
2000 - Thousands of independence war veterans and their allies, backed by the government, seize white-owned farms, saying the land was illegally appropriated by white settlers.
2002 - Mugabe wins election against Tsvangirai. Observers condemn the poll as flawed and unfair.
2005 - ZANU-PF wins parliamentary election, giving it the majority it needs to change the constitution.
2008 - Parliamentary election results show ZANU-PF losing its majority for the first time. MDC says Tsvangirai also won the presidential election and calls on Mugabe to concede.
-- Run-off goes ahead despite calls for a postponement as violence mounts. Mugabe is declared the winner with over 85 percent after Tsvangirai pulls out.
-- Economy is crushed by hyperinflation, reaching billions of percent, due what analysts blame on Mugabe's mismanagement.
-- Negotiators from the MDC and ZANU-PF hold talks to end the deadlock over Mugabe's re-election, eventually reaching a power-sharing deal in September.
2009 - Tsvangirai is sworn in as prime minister by Mugabe.
2012 - Saviour Kasukuwere, Zimbabwe's empowerment minister, says he expects to finalise the transfer of majority stakes in foreign mining companies to local blacks by the end of April.
http://www.timeslive.co.za/africa/2012/04/18/a-look-at-robert-mugabe-s-30-years-in-power
1980 - Robert Mugabe's ZANU-PF party wins independence elections. He takes office as prime minister on April 18.
1982 - Mugabe deploys North Korean-trained troops to crush rebellion by ex-ZAPU guerrillas. Government forces are accused of killing thousands of civilians.
1987 - Mugabe and ZAPU's Joshua Nkomo sign a unity accord, leading to the integration of PF-ZAPU and ZANU-PF.
1990 - ZANU-PF and Mugabe win parliamentary and presidential elections.
1998 - An economic crisis marked by high interest rates and inflation provokes riots and increasing support for the Zimbabwean Congress of Trade Unions led by Morgan Tsvangirai.
-- The opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) is formed and Tsvangirai is appointed leader in 1999.
2000 - Thousands of independence war veterans and their allies, backed by the government, seize white-owned farms, saying the land was illegally appropriated by white settlers.
2002 - Mugabe wins election against Tsvangirai. Observers condemn the poll as flawed and unfair.
2005 - ZANU-PF wins parliamentary election, giving it the majority it needs to change the constitution.
2008 - Parliamentary election results show ZANU-PF losing its majority for the first time. MDC says Tsvangirai also won the presidential election and calls on Mugabe to concede.
-- Run-off goes ahead despite calls for a postponement as violence mounts. Mugabe is declared the winner with over 85 percent after Tsvangirai pulls out.
-- Economy is crushed by hyperinflation, reaching billions of percent, due what analysts blame on Mugabe's mismanagement.
-- Negotiators from the MDC and ZANU-PF hold talks to end the deadlock over Mugabe's re-election, eventually reaching a power-sharing deal in September.
2009 - Tsvangirai is sworn in as prime minister by Mugabe.
2012 - Saviour Kasukuwere, Zimbabwe's empowerment minister, says he expects to finalise the transfer of majority stakes in foreign mining companies to local blacks by the end of April.
http://www.timeslive.co.za/africa/2012/04/18/a-look-at-robert-mugabe-s-30-years-in-power
Whites Not The Enemy?
It was high time the ANC reviewed the lyrics of struggle songs that depicted whites as enemies, President Jacob Zuma said.
Speaking at a wreath-laying ceremony in honour of the fourth president of the ANC, Josiah Tshangana Gumede, who led the party from 1924 to 1930, Zuma said the singing of such songs in a democratic dispensation was "tantamount to making peace with a so-called enemy while waving a weapon".
This was after a struggle song, the lyrics of which, when loosely translated, are "We as the soldiers of Umkhonto we Sizwe are prepared to kill these Boers" was yesterday sung at Gumede's graveside, at Mountain Rise Cemetery, in Pietermaritzburg, with new lyrics.
The new line is "We as the soldiers of Umkhonto we Sizwe are prepared to reconcile with these Boers".
Zuma was in agreement with ANC national chairman Baleka Mbete, who had earlier called for a debate on certain songs' lyrics.
Mbete said that, when she first raised the issue, she was met with heated opposition from leaders and members of the party.
The lyrics of ANC struggle songs shot into the spotlight early last year when AfriForum raised a hate speech complaint after suspended ANC Youth League president Julius Malema sang the song Dubul'ibhunu (Shoot the Boer) at an ANC meeting.
In his ruling last year, Johannesburg High Court judge Colin Lamont said the song constituted hate speech. The judge prohibited Malema and the ANC from singing it, either in public or in private.
But ANC members and alliance partners said the ruling was destructive of the party's heritage.
After the judgment, Malema and some ANC members changed the lyrics to "Kiss the Boer".
Zuma said yesterday: "The debate on the songs with inflammatory lyrics is important. When we're moulding our country we need to say we unite all South Africans, even those we fought against [during the struggle].
"There's no need for certain people to feel unwelcome in their country. We need to include everyone in our country because the ANC will rule the country until those that are dead rise back to life."
http://www.timeslive.co.za/local/2012/04/20/whites-not-the-enemy
Speaking at a wreath-laying ceremony in honour of the fourth president of the ANC, Josiah Tshangana Gumede, who led the party from 1924 to 1930, Zuma said the singing of such songs in a democratic dispensation was "tantamount to making peace with a so-called enemy while waving a weapon".
This was after a struggle song, the lyrics of which, when loosely translated, are "We as the soldiers of Umkhonto we Sizwe are prepared to kill these Boers" was yesterday sung at Gumede's graveside, at Mountain Rise Cemetery, in Pietermaritzburg, with new lyrics.
The new line is "We as the soldiers of Umkhonto we Sizwe are prepared to reconcile with these Boers".
Zuma was in agreement with ANC national chairman Baleka Mbete, who had earlier called for a debate on certain songs' lyrics.
Mbete said that, when she first raised the issue, she was met with heated opposition from leaders and members of the party.
The lyrics of ANC struggle songs shot into the spotlight early last year when AfriForum raised a hate speech complaint after suspended ANC Youth League president Julius Malema sang the song Dubul'ibhunu (Shoot the Boer) at an ANC meeting.
In his ruling last year, Johannesburg High Court judge Colin Lamont said the song constituted hate speech. The judge prohibited Malema and the ANC from singing it, either in public or in private.
But ANC members and alliance partners said the ruling was destructive of the party's heritage.
After the judgment, Malema and some ANC members changed the lyrics to "Kiss the Boer".
Zuma said yesterday: "The debate on the songs with inflammatory lyrics is important. When we're moulding our country we need to say we unite all South Africans, even those we fought against [during the struggle].
"There's no need for certain people to feel unwelcome in their country. We need to include everyone in our country because the ANC will rule the country until those that are dead rise back to life."
http://www.timeslive.co.za/local/2012/04/20/whites-not-the-enemy
Friday, April 20, 2012
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