Infantile ANC

It’s been a while since my last political rant, but a number of incidents this week involving South Africa’s ruling party the ANC, has left me shaking my head in dismay… yet again.

Earlier this week, the ANC called for a boycott of MTN, a cellular service provider, after the opposition DA used airtime vouchers printed by a third-party (not MTN) to advertise a pre-election campaign message. The second incident also involves the opposition DA, but this time President Obama was drawn into the mix as well. Pending President Obama’s first visit to the country, the DA has invited him to accept the freedom of the city of Cape Town and address parliament.

Inexplicably an ANC spokesperson has condemned the invitation, calling it a publicity stunt. Both actions by the DA are for all intents and purposes totally above-board. These actions are simple politics, opportunistic though they may be. The childish reaction from the ANC tempts one to conclude that they’re kicking up a hissy fit simply because their propaganda machine did not think of it first.

The third incident which was literally crappy, involved the youth wing of the ANC, otherwise known as the ANCYL (ANC Youth League). While the ANCYL has a long history of perpetrating the most vile acts of anti-social behaviour, this latest incident is particularly nasty. Members of the ANCYL resorted to dumping human faeces collected from portable toilets, on the steps of the Provincial Legislature building in Cape Town, and then a day or so later, hurled more of the stuff at a bus carrying the DA party leader, Helen Zille.

The ANC have publicly distanced themselves from these latter two despicable incidents, But I can imagine them secretly laughing behind closed doors, such is the mentality prevalent in this rotten organization which has the morals and ethics of a squashed cockroach fermenting in a jar of horse piss.

With the recent diarrhoea outbreak in the coastal city of Durban, one wonders if the ANCYL will be in attendance, collecting more ammunition for their future protests.

These are by no means isolated incidences of madness on the part of the ANC. They perpetrate gross acts of misconduct, indulge in scandalous behaviour and petty squabbles and bully critics, on a daily basis. Their one major accomplishment is managing to convince the majority of the people of South Africa to keep them in power for so long, despite their many alarming acts of depravity.

Just Kiss

The self-appointed wardens of the invisible gods are at it again, and they will continue to dictate how you live your life, who you should worship and how not to mention how many times a day or week, how to dress, what to eat and what not, how to copulate, who to associate with or not, and a lot other things too mundane to mention.

This time they don’t want people kissing in public… in Turkey at least. There’s probably other places in the world besides, and it won’t be too hard to guess where.

Brave people in Ankara had to stage a protest this week in defiance at the railway station where a young couple who DARED to kiss in public were admonished. Apparently it’s immoral to kiss in public, but perfectly acceptable to indulge in atrocious acts of violence, in DEFENCE (?) of an invisible god.

I say fuck ‘em. Let’s not continue to abide these hypocritical holy men. Let’s all just kiss, wherever the fuck we want.

The time has come to give the kiss of death to the insane ideologies of archaic religions and their holy men.

Government School For Cronies

The ANC’s ability to stumble to new lows of depravity never ceases to amaze me. We watch and listen helplessly as on a daily basis they either blatantly deny their acts of corruption, nepotism and gross incompetence, excuse them by drawing out the race card or blaming their failings on apartheid.

This week Public Service and Administration Minister Lindiwe Sisulu announced that they will be establishing their “own government school in order to improve skills, ethics and professionalism in the public sector.” As reported in this online website:

This school will educate, train, professionalise and develop a highly capable, skilled, socially and committed public service cadreship with a sense of national duty and a common culture and ethos.

Note her own use of the term “cadreship.” If this is not an open admission that the ruling government deploys their own ANC cronies to cram public service positions, I don’t know what is. It is also a further admission that the cadres they have already deployed into key public administrative posts, have failed and require the skills which they have identified, and which they have previously denied not having.

While we have established and reputable institutes that produce trained (theoretically at least) people of all race groups, not to mention already skilled and experienced people from the business sector, the ANC will not recruit them, simply because they are intent on acquiring “yes men” who will toe the Party line first. To the ANC, service delivery has always been of secondary importance. The Party comes first.

And so now the taxpayer will have to foot the bill for this unnecessary extravagance in support of ongoing cronyism.

One can only hope that the pass mark for these cadres will not be 30%, as is the current norm in our ANC designed education system.

Corruption Wars xxx – Return Of The Phantom Handbook

Over the years the Presidential Handbook which allegedly contains the rules for expenditure on perks such as cars, housing and travel for the top-ranking government officials, has come under fire from various quarters, especially when used by ANC members to justify some of their more gratuitous and ostentatious spending.

Strangely, from what I could gather, no one apart from the ruling members of government have laid eyes on this elusive, yet much referenced Handbook. And presumably this is a different Handbook from that which governs Ministerial perks, which also begs the question of why there are two different Handbooks.

Following demands from the opposition Democratic Alliance to make the Presidential Handbook public, it has been revealed that it is still in draft form – since being compiled in 2007. So it would appear that public officials have been using a draft document which is not yet official policy, to spend lavishly, and defy accountability for at least five years. And this in a state in which the ANC touts as one of the most advanced constitutional democracies in the world.

The voters have been repeatedly duped and have been somewhat passively accepting it much longer than five years; in fact since corruption on a massive scale by government officials suddenly started being unearthed following the Arms Deal Scandal of 1999.

But voters are notoriously stupid gullible. Take this cretin for example, commenting on the latest iteration of the Handbook saga:

He claims to know the facts – that governments pull money out of the air to fight wars, and that attacks on the ANC is a Corporate agenda. With voters like these, is it any wonder that the ANC is enjoying a corrupt hegemony that threatens the future of beautiful South Africa.

Aluta continua!

To err is human, but to obfuscate is divine…

I readily admit that I rant a lot about the wrongdoings of government and politicians, but lately I’ve been wondering if it is actually achieving anything. I’ve come to realise that the more you denigrate these people, the more it tends to make them retreat into that comfortable shell of denial and obfuscation.

Let’s face it, politicians are generally slimy scumbags. There are probably a few honest politicians somewhere… like on another galaxy maybe.

The way I see it, the problem we have is that when we criticize these slime balls, we tend to speak on behalf of the many who are wronged by their actions, but either don’t have the cojones to speak out, or do anything about it, or can’t be bothered. And let’s not forget that there are always a few who are advantaged (at the expense of the many, off course) by their nefarious activities, because where there are politicians, there’s always cronies. Shit always attracts flies…

I often come across critics who ask this question of government (the politicians): “Do they honestly believe that we are that gullible or stupid?” The simple answer is “Yes, they do.” Because the numbers that continue to return them to power at the voting polls speaks volumes about our apathy, ignorance, fears, and yes, gullibility and stupidity.

Mocking and incensed dissonance is well and good. It’s nice to blow off some steam. But we need to understand that it is ineffectual in the end. Our real (and probably only law-abiding) power lies in tossing these bastards out at elections.

Education continues to take a back seat in South Africa

Not so long ago the liberation forces in South Africa entrenched the idea that the people should forgo their education in favour of fighting for freedom from the yoke of apartheid. Slogans such as “liberation before education” were common in the townships where the majority of South Africans were confined to live.

It was perhaps not the wisest of decisions because it burdened the country with a whole generation of people not quite ready for the demands of a free and democratic society. Leaders such as Nelson Mandela realised that education was a necessity to ensure a stable and prosperous democracy, but sadly that seems to fallen by the wayside as our current leaders embrace immorality and avarice as a means to an end.

It is hard to not notice how standards in education have fallen year on year, and while the people complain, the leaders just thumb their noses at us in response. The choice of Angie Motshekga as Basic Education Minister by President Jacob Zuma, was just another in a series of atrocious decisions by him. Choosing Blade Nzimande as Minister of Higher Education was no less abominable. When Angie does not bury her head in the sand in the face of warranted criticism, she has it jammed firmly up her backside. Blade on the other hand spends more time regurgitating obsolete revolutionary rhetoric, than doing anything worth mentioning for education.

The choice of these two incompetent wastrels, is a clear indication that the ANC government is not serious about taking education forward. Indeed, they seem to neither have the faintest idea how to accomplish this, nor the inclination to at least try.

Meanwhile the penchant to denigrate western standards of education by some apologists of Zuma and the government, don’t help matters at all. This writer believes that spending time behind a classroom desk should not be the only option available to learners. He seems to think that “…gathering plants for food, hunting wild animals, rearing cattle, planting crops, running initiation schools, slaughtering cattle or goats for ancestral rituals, paying tribute to kings, attending traditional courts, even engaging in war,” constitutes a viable alternative.

South Africa is headed for serious calamity in the near future if something drastic is not done to advance the cause for education. It’s a great pity then, that our current crop of leaders seem to favour majority rule as a means to change the world.

In response to a bigoted Christian politician…

It’s not often that men of the cloth admit to the follies of the Church and religious scripture. But when such a man does speak out against the crass wrongs perpetrated on society by the religious or political establishment, he deserves praise, not condemnation.

So you can imagine my consternation at reading this disgusting letter by one Thamsanqa Enoch Bam in an online publication, in response to Archbishop Desmond Tutu who spoke out against the vile and draconian anti-gay bill being proposed in Uganda. Tutu earned the ire of Bam by likening the hateful legislation to South Africa’s apartheid laws.

Bam, who also proclaims himself as the President of the People’s Party (a recent addition to the absurdly long list of insignificant South African political parties), asserts that the Archbishop was “going against” God’s Laws by condoning homosexuality. His conviction, unsurprisingly comes from the bible and is backed up by the quotation of a few hand-picked scriptures which I won’t repeat, such is my revulsion.

Is there a more revolting blend than a politician and a religionist?

Bam asks how the Archbishop could miss such clear scripture [referring to the revolting quotations I earlier sidestepped like a pile of steaming horeshit]. Off course, we would not be allowed the courtesy of asking how this cretin [Bam, and others of his ilk] misses with unerring conviction, all the other contradictory and hateful biblical scriptures that don’t confirm his/their prejudices.

This letter in the Times Live appears to be an extract from a lengthier blog he wrote, which also condemns gay marriage, and confoundingly professes support for the dreadful ANC [ruling party], if they “made an about turn and ended their duplicity, corruption, mismanagement and disregard of the poor masses.” And to add further insult, he concludes that the ANC’s manifest incompetence would be solved if the “country goes back to God.”

And like all fundamentalists he is off course intimate with God’s will:

As a Christian, I pray that gays and lesbians will eventually see their folly, repent, and turn away from their abominations. That is the will of God.

What a slimeball? The will of this atheist is that you change the name of your political party to Asshole’s Party, because you will never represent the people, just bigoted assholes like yourself.

A nation of sheep will beget a government of wolves

A nation of sheep will beget a government of wolves. – Edward R Murrow

© 2012 Zapiro (All rights reserved)
 Printed with permission from www.zapiro.com
 For more Zapiro cartoons visit www.zapiro.com

Is your President as contemptible as ours?

I felt rather vomitus today after digesting yet more revelations about our scandalous President in the media.

I think we’ve become immune to the daily exposés about President Jacob Zuma’s depraved life, because they usually come in small doses. I think South Africans are beyond being shocked and disgusted by his loathsome behaviour. We’re just exhausted learning about every nasty bit of larcenous, incompetent and immoral deed he’s done since taking office.

Off course it all started before he took office. And today’s revelations touch on some of these, and so much more. So much more…

Auditors KPMG have compiled a 500-page report on the alleged acts of corruption that Zuma has been involved in dating back to 2006. Follow all the links provided on this news article posted in the online version of the Mail & Guardian.

What many South Africans are disgusted with though, is the apparent impotence of the various arms of the law and justice system to do anything about it. Even more galling is the prospect of living another 5 years under the (mis)rule of this miscreant. By all accounts he’s clearly manipulated his way (with acts of violence in some reported cases) into securing the vote to remain head of the ANC, which in effect guarantees him the Presidency at the next elections. Unless off course the masses who vote for the ANC with crass predictability, have a sudden rush of comprehension (by whatever miracle), and vote for Opposition Parties.

In light of the above, the rather candid admission by a senior ANC official that ordinary ANC members are mere “voting cattle” whose main purpose seems to be to keep the elite in power, is even more infuriating. However, this is perhaps the most honest thing we’ve heard from the ANC in many years, but is very disturbing all the same.

Looks like troubled times ahead for South Africa. Is there a Banana Republic on the horison?

This is South Africa, still untamed in some ways…

I’ve often been amused by Westerner’s who come to South Africa expecting to see wild animals wandering in the streets of Johannesburg.

While these travellers may be disappointed in not spotting any game for free, they’re more than happy to fork out a small fortune (in South African Rands at least) to go on the obligatory game drive, where they might also be treated to some tribal dancing, at the more upmarket private wildlife reserves. And If the local beer isn’t enough to satiate the more bloodthirsty among them, some sleaze ball ranches offer canned hunting…

But I digress.

One thing that the traveller is sure to find alive and well, is the practice of archaic cultural traditions, by all races. Our very own President, Jacob Zuma is a principal practitioner. He’s in it deep – keeping multiple wives, war dances, ancestor worship, promoting tribal and bush justice and maintaining a traditional living compound, allegedly at taxpayers expense; more that R200 million worth of posh huts with underground bunkers and electric lifts.

It’s actually inexplicable why someone so traditional, is also so comfortable living the bling Western lifestyle… also at taxpayers expense off course. No different though, than the South African Communist Party (SACP) leadership who exult in the pleasures of capitalism, whilst regurgitating communist, socialist bullshit to anyone stupid enough to listen. Some say it’s a culture of entitlement; spreading much like a disease. If it is, it’s highly likely entitlement will be one of the last remaining diseases to be eradicated from the African continent.

In one such ceremony yesterday, President Zuma slaughtered cattle, danced and appealed to his dead ancestors to “guide and protect him” apparently against those who were “ganging up against him,” while he seeks to maintain his unholy grip on power. Truly bizarre if you consider he belongs to the Full Gospel Church of Southern Africa. I guess if one is religious, it doesn’t hurt to cover as many bases as possible.

However just in case the spirits of your ancestors are otherwise engaged, it doesn’t hurt to hedge your appeals with a little vote-buying while on the campaign trail, as alleged here. If true, these allegations prove that the President is undoubtedly traditional all right – a traditional scoundrel.