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.

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!

The most expensive WordPress template in the world?

Would you pay a web development company R40m [$4.41m] to create a website for you? Surely not!

That’s what the Free State Provincial Government [which is led by the African National Congress] in South Africa, forked out to a web development agency which strangely does not even have their own website. Actually the amount is in dispute, with the Provincial government claiming it was R40m while the newspaper that leaked the story reported an astounding R140m.

But that’s not all. It appears that the designers used a WordPress theme called London Live, to create the website which goes for $40, or at the latest exchange rate, around 362 South African Rands. [Read one such report here].

That makes London Live, the most expensive template ever designed… or there are some serious shenanigans at work here. If you consider that WordPress themes are really easy to use and one need not be an expert at using a CMS to make design changes, it would take an experienced web designer a few days or less to create a really stunning site. So either the design agency has pulled off the mother of all web-design con jobs, or there’s some sort of fraud involved here.

With the ANC having a well-known history of fraud and corruption up to the highest levels in government, I’m going with MASSIVE FRAUD.

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Update, 13 March 2013:

The woman who handed out this ludicrous tender to the design agency, a Director-General at the time, has been promoted by the Provincial Premier to Minister of Finance. Now don’t this beat all?

Our Pathetic, Pissant President and his Party Pimps

No, that’s not the headlines you’ll be reading tomorrow if by some cruel twist of fate, Mitt Romney wins the US Presidential elections. No, even if that contemptible Republican weasel, wins, the American press and the people will accept him with open arms.

Strange yes, but that’s the Americans for ya.

I’m actually talking about Jacob Ged-like-you-know-his-name Zuma, the South African version of a George W Bush on ‘shrooms. I vouch that not even Georgie B on his worst day, could ever sink to the despicably deprived depths of Jacob Zuma. Just when you think he’s scraped the bottom of the barrel, he confounds everyone with masterful ease by scraping right through the bottom, to the foot of Satan’s long-drop.

This patriarchal parasite and his pompous henchmen stumble from one scandal to the next, while still holding the ignorant masses in awe of their dastardly deeds, with simple tools like the race card. And by carefully orchestrating the exhumation of apartheid and keeping it on a leash, these scoundrels have a handy hound to beat whenever they’re shown up for their incompetence, greed and lascivious behaviour.

But let’s not forget the President’s official spokes-stooge, Quarter-Pounder Maharaj. He reminds one of a dinosaur whenever he whines on behalf of the President.  He deserves to have a species named for him because of the pre-historic, mind-numbingly stupid, and suck-ass comments he makes. How about Stooge-O-Saurus-Rex?

But back to the President. In a short space of time he’s become the laughing-stock of the world. Thank the Flying Spaghetti Monster, that decent people around the world still love this beautiful country in spite of this clown and his African Neutered Circus, an organization known in more honourable times as the African National Congress.

It is almost  certain that history will remember Zuma as the worst President that South Africa ever had, eclipsing even the vilest apartheid-era politicians.

Unbelievably, none of this seems to trouble our President. More honourable people would have crawled back under a rock, under these circumstances, but our President continues to rock the needle of the disdain-o-meter, off the charts.

In Women’s Month: Selling Women Down the River

Men are taught to apologize for their weaknesses, women for their strengths. – Lois Wyse

It was bad enough that the President committed the dreadful blunder of patronising women on national television during Women’s Month in South Africa. It’s then really lamentable when an organization that is supposedly in place to promote equality and women’s rights, supports this patriarchal madness.

The ANC Women’s League (ANCWL) which is headed by Angie Motshekga [remember this inept woman who doubles as the Education Minister?], today defended the atrocious comments by President Zuma, claiming that they were taken out of context, because he was referring to his daughters only. Judge for yourself if these statements were misconstrued:

I was also happy because I wouldn’t want to stay with daughters who are not getting married, because that in itself is a problem in society. I know that people today think being single is nice. It’s actually not right. That’s a distortion

You’ve got to have kids. Kids are important to a woman because they actually give an extra training to a woman, to be a mother.

League spokesperson Troy Martens’ attempts to rationalize these absurd statements is a disgrace. She performs a huge disservice to women everywhere. How is that out of context when Zuma clearly refers to it being a problem with society?

The ANCWL continues to emphasize what a toothless organization they really are. Their only function seems to be as cheerleaders for their “ruler” and the other incompetent ANC Ministers in government.

Considering this, shouldn’t the ANCWL be renamed ANC Woman in League with Hypocrisy, Patriarchy, Misogyny and Dirty Politicians?

The President is hands-on… Bwahahahaha!

I read with disbelief, this response to a blog post in Mail & Guardian, an online publication, from the government’s Communications department.

We read, with disbelief, the tirade by William Saunderson-Meyer supposedly on the performance of government, entitled “The Zuma government is floundering about” (August 18 2012).

Saunderson-Meyer tells us that the President “has been preoccupied with ensuring a second term at the African National Congress’s elective conference in December”. The writer provides no scientific evidence to back up this assertion. He has taken gossip that he has read elsewhere, and presents it to readers as analysis.

Also worrying, is the tone of the article, which is very condescending. It demonstrates that the writer has no respect for the South African head of state.

Well actually, my initial disbelief was replaced with howls of laughter, because the jackass who wrote that, one Sydwell Mabasa, is not only just another government stooge, but he has a little understanding of the scientific method, not to mention logical fallacies.

Saunderson-Meyer’s article was written from observation of government’s performance over a number of years, and even the most optimistic supporter will have to honestly admit that “it is floundering.” While President Zuma staggers from one political and personal  blunder to the next, his government seems to imitate him, with dizzying acts of inferior performance in almost every department of government.

Sydwell commits a cardinal fallacy by selectively picking a handful of the achievements (dubious though some of them are) of the ANC government’s tenure, and blatantly ignoring the multitude of failures, and acts of gross incompetence that have sullied the country’s reputation on the world stage. He arrogantly asserts that the piece of paper [Constitution/Bill of Rights] that guarantees certain freedoms coupled with the right to vote, is equivalent to the holy grail that the South African population have been seeking since Apartheid times.

Big fucking deal. These rights and freedoms enshrined in the constitution are being trampled on daily, by none other than the very government created to protect them. And what of the right to vote? Democracy South African style, guarantees you the RIGHT to be beguiled into making your choice for those with the most expensive marketing campaigns and creatively subtle threats. And if Sydwell needs the so-called “scientific evidence, it’s there for all to observe, unless you’re willfully blind, deaf or ignorant.

Saunderson-Meyer is quite correct. Zuma has surrounded himself with woefully inept Ministers and scheming acolytes whose only intention seems to be in securing their vertiginous rise from revolution to royalty. They may punt the bill of rights in public, but in private they’re secretly counting the bills that they have managed to line their pockets with.

Yes folks, as one commenter in the article said, Zuma is hands on alright – his hands are on the taxpayers money. What the commenter didn’t mention is that his hands are also on a lot of women too…

More on Motshekga

I have written previously about this vile woman, but it seems she is not quite done yet with her acts of unbelievable stupidity…

Angie Motshekga, Minister of Basic Education continues to baffle us all with the levels of depravity, incompetence and utter idiocy she is capable off achieving. In the month of August which South Africa has dedicated to honouring woman, she has chosen to show the world that she can be the worst possible example to humanity, let alone womanhood.

Motshekga is all set to contest NGO Equal Education’s application to the High Court forcing her to promulgate legislation that sets out norms and standards for school infrastructure, which will both compel and hold the government accountable to meet those standards. Apparently she intends using the ludicrous defense that the Constitution does not guarantee children the right to basic education, and that both the budget and resources are inadequate.

That is utterly absurd if you put it in context against the recent (undeserved) 5% salary hike that the government awarded itself, and the fact that they are spending billions where it is least needed. Not to mention the shambolic manner in which her Ministry is being run; what with textbooks being undelivered more than 6 months into the school year, ghost teachers on the payroll and various other forms of maladministration that characterize the Education portfolio. Then there’s the rampant corruption all arms of government are  contentedly engaged in, with the un-mistaken approval of the ANC-government leadership.  Should we even mention, the government’s partner-in-mismanagement, labour union SADTU’s role in destroying education in South Africa?

Wikipedia

Motshekga seems not only determined to follow through on this path of ignominy she has set for herself, she is arrogant beyond measure about sticking it out in spite of the howls of protest from all quarters. It seems that she is hell-bent on competing with President Jacob Zuma and Julius Malema for the title of scumbag of the decade.

But the most baffling thing about this whole saga is the seeming disinterest and apathy from the majority of the Black population whose children are most affected. The same people very quickly formed a mob to lynch an artist whom they were misled into believing had insulted the honour of the President, but cannot raise so much as a whimper to save the honour of their own children. What a sad state of affairs and a telling indictment on their mentality.

Thank god that Motshekga is not Minister of Higher Education too. We seriously cannot afford to have all forms of education totally fucked up. Unfortunately though, the Higher Education Ministry has another palooka in charge, and he’s busy doing a bang-up job of reducing it to the same pathetic level as Basic Education. But that’s another story…

ANC: The struggle continues?

In their centenary year, the ANC seem keen to make it known that it has been a struggle all along. Even though the last 17 or so years have been spent in charge of South Africa, they will tell you that it has been tough at the top of the pile.

Every failure while governing – and boy does that happen with regularity – was the fault of apartheid, uncooperative Whites, a third force hell-bent on making them fail, and even the Devil himself. Yes, there were successes, a lot of them, but scales are tipping in the wrong direction in the last few years, more especially since Jacob Zuma assumed the reigns after booting out AIDS-denialist, Thabo Mbeki.

The ANC spent the last week, and R40 million (if reports are to be believed), in an euphemistically named Policy Conference. From what we’ve been hearing coming out of that talk-shop, it was nothing more than a very expensive pow-wow to talk utter rubbish about utter rubbish. The only occurrence of note, was when some of the delegates came to actual blows – again if news reports are to be believed.

And while the ANC was yammering inanities at the Gallagher Estate Conference venue, flanked by huge banners reminding everyone of that famous 100-year struggle, it seems that thousands of undelivered school textbooks were being burned in the Limpopo Province, while replacement textbooks had still not been delivered to schools, 6 months into the academic year. The pathetic Minister under whose watch this shambles occurred, seems largely unconcerned. Some of their more pathetic supporters [check out one Dave Harris in the comments section of the blog by William Saunderson-Meyer, referenced above] actually wants us to belive that the late (6 months?) delivery of textbooks is not a biggie.

Now imagine if R40 million (admittedly an exaggeration) worth of catering was not delivered on time to this so-called Policy Conference. I’m willing to bet big dollars that the visibly portly ANC delegates at this talk-shit-shop would have been up in arms.

What an absolute disgrace? The phrase Aluta Continua that the ANC and its struggle allies bandy about so freely, is actually a corruption of the Portuguese phrase “A luta continua, vitória é certa,” which means “The struggle continues, victory is certain.”

In my mind, there is no doubt that the struggle by the ANC indeed continues… the struggle to hide the theft, corruption, incompetence, lies, misogyny, backstabbing, racism, hatred, ignorance, idiocy, arrogance, self-serving, cheating, conniving, bling etc. etc. etc. that so characterizes this fallen organization, after the departure of Nelson Mandela.

And what is certain, is not victory. No, the victory belongs to the ANC only, not to the people…

The government totally sucks…

You all know that already, right?

In this video [watch till the end - it gets better and better] Jack Black may be singing about the US of A, but right here in South Africa, they’re doing their damndest to win the race for suckiest government ever.

*****

But on a serious note, Justice Malala, a columnist in the online Times Live had this to say about the ANC this week, all of it absolutely true:

This is not an organisation whose mission is to liberate ordinary South Africans from poverty. It is a party that has been hijacked by people whose aim is to loot the state as quickly as possible before the taps are shut.

Let the world, still enchanted by the South African rainbow dream, know that it has turned out to be just a fucking nightmare.

Angie Motshekga: An awful example to women everywhere

I really meant to title this post “A women who should neither be seen nor heard.” But that would have been truly awful…

Let it be known that I would be proud to be called a feminist. I strongly support gender equality and care about gender issues. I truly feel for women who invariably have to work twice as hard, if not harder, to earn the respect that men get for doing little or nothing. It’s a shitty, lopsided world – where women have to prove themselves daily.

And it shouldn’t have to be like that.

But when a woman has been entrusted with a position of power, a position of national importance, and then proceeds to make light work of totally fucking things up, then I have to speak up yet again – in the interests of those directly affected and for good woman everywhere who make a success of their position against major odds. Such a woman is Angie Motshekga, the South African Minister for Basic Education.

Not only has Angie set education back many years in South Africa, she continues to blunder ahead with an arrogance that will put many men to shame. No doubt Angie has ample talents, but furthering the interests of education in post-apartheid South Africa, is most certainly not one of them. She seems to have the knack for stumbling from one crisis to another, the latest being her Ministry’s failure to ensure that more than 64 500 teaching positions are filled in one Province alone.

This act alone while being extremely detrimental to the educational needs of South Africa’s children, should be declared as criminal. How her gross incompetence is allowed to continue in a country having what we are assured is a democracy, is beyond comprehension.

Angie Motshekga also serves as the leader of the ANC Women’s League, an organization whose relevance in a modern society is rather dubious, when for most intents and purposes, they seem to serve only as the cheering section for the glut of incompetent men in the ANC government. A recent report in the Sunday Independent suggests that this wing of the ANC, much like the ANC Youth League, is in some disarray. Another report in the Daily Maverick suggests that the ANC Women’s League under Angie are “slavishly loyal to the ANC at the expense of women’s rights.”

Angie’s recent call for action against patriarchy was rather hollow considering her die-hard support for President Jacob Zuma, who’s undoubtedly an icon of this reprehensible social malaise in South Africa. The recent furore over the Spear painting highlighted this fact most convincingly.

In short, Angie is a pathetic example to good women everywhere. One hopes that she is removed from the spotlight before she does more damage to both our education system and the plight of women.