South Africa could do with a woman like this for President

Malawi is practically a neighbouring country, but I had no idea that the new President, Joyce Banda was making such radical changes there. It’s embarrassing; not the changes being made, but my ignorance.

In my defense, I was not expecting anything different from Banda, after Bingu wa Mutharika, Malawi’s former President ensured the Continent’s trend of setting up despots, thieves and madmen in power, until his timely death. Women are as susceptible as men to be corrupt, despotic, thieving and mad.

JOYCE BANDA (Photo credit: Back2Black Festival)

But not this woman it seems. No, Joyce Banda has within months of becoming the new President, made radical changes such as:

1. Getting rid of the Presidential jet which the poor country can ill afford
2. Ditching the cavalcade of expensive limousines that Mutharika used to ride around in like a pompous ass
3. Announced the repeal of laws banning homosexuality, imposed by the bigoted Mutharika
4. Sacked the corrupt police chief favoured by her equally corrupt predecessor
5. Appointed a new cabinet (hopefully one that the country can be proud of)
6. Re-stablished developmental and diplomatic relations with Britain
7. Working with the Bank of En value of Malawi’s currency
8. Refusing to allow Sudanese despot Omar al-Bashir into the country for an AU Summit in July

Joyce Banda provides hope that Africa may yet change radically, and rid itself of the penchant for self-destruction through the selection of dictators and madmen like Mugabe. And the fact that it took a woman to start this change is even more cause for celebration.

One can only hope that South Africa follows suite and ejects these greedy, corrupt, inept, power-hungry lunatics in the ANC from power. One would be even more hopeful that a woman or women accomplish that rescuing act.

Elections in Africa are free and fair

Photo credit: Wikipedia

I know what you’re thinking. You’re from one of the first world countries.

But it isn’t this: elections on the African continent are free and fair. Free for the politicians who stand for elections because both donors and the taxman is paying for it. Fair to the person or party that wins.

That’s right. And the politicians don’t have to work too hard to manipulate a win either. The people – the majority – are surprisingly pliable. You, from the first world can speculate why. It’s not that hard to figure out.

The winners join an elite body of rulers on the African continent,  the Organization of African Unity, otherwise known as the LAD’s – League of African Despots. You, from the first world will catch them on television every once in a while. They will be in a meeting of sorts, talking about shit that will never happen…. and drinking wine, expensive wine paid for by the voters of the country unfortunate enough to host them.

From Abdoulaye Wade to Mugabe, Mswati, Mbasago, Mosisili, Meles Zenawi, Mohammed VI, Mbeki (deposed), Muammar Gaddafi (dead), Malema (not yet… ruling that is), and all the way to Zuma. I’ll leave you to fill in the blanks. All given power by the people…

What were you thinking? You’re from Africa.

Kim Jong-il (1941/42 – 2011)

Image via Wikipedia

What are the chances? Kim Jong-il dying at about the same time as Christopher Hitchens who absolutely despised the North Korean dictator. Some coincidence, yes?

While Hitchens’ death was mostly lamented and regretted, Kim’s death was mourned openly, as evidenced by this YouTube video, to a degree that is quite bewildering. Now that is deeply disturbing.

Either the North Korean people genuinely loved the degenerate old tosser, or the show of grief is a put-on by a fearful populace. I’m going with the latter.

The passing of this evil tyrant will be mostly welcomed by all people in the world who have their heads screwed on right, but it also leaves everyone a bit jittery about what’s going to happen to the country which has nuclear capability. Kim’s successor, his own son Kim Jong-un appears to be just as evil, if not more so, just judging by this picture embedded after fact number 14 of this article in The Telegraph.

Off course there are a few sub-humans in the world who are at this moment bemoaning the death of Kim Jong-il and the decimation of the Despots Club; most notably one Robert Gabriel Mugabe of Zimbabwe. And it’s only a matter of time until some dingbat in South Africa’s own dictatorship-in-the-making, the ANC, will come out publicly to sing the praises of Dear Leader.

Now if only Mad Bob would croak before the end of the year in less than two weeks; it would be a bumper year indeed for the obliteration of tyrannical pieces of fecal matter. Come on Santa, make it happen!

God hates Zimbabwe… and must be a trifle miffed at South Africa too

If the maniac who is currently ruling Zimbabwe is right about God’s intentions for him, and if this deity does indeed exist, then he, she or it must surely hate that country and its people.

The loathsome human in question, one Robert Gabriel Mugabe has been in power for

Image via Wikipedia

more than 30 years, and is steadily transforming it into one humongous Zimbabwe Ruin. And he believes that God has chosen him to protect Zimbabwe from the “marauding imperialists.”

I am lucky God has given me this longer life than others to be with you. I cannot let you down. I cannot leave you on your own.

Now if you happen to be a marauding imperialist, know that God hates you too. Either that, or you’re just a figment of the imagination like this deity that Mugabe holds so dear.

While ordinary Zimbabweans show up as apathetic at best, their only hope at opposition to Monster Mugabe appears to be a bumbling, whiner who seems to be as interested in power for the sake of it, as the incumbent. Morgan Tsvangirai, far from being a threat, actually makes Insane Bob look like a desirable leader.

But the hating does not stop there. Some of God’s ire seems to be focussed on neighbouring South Africa which has been encumbered with a bunch of thieves to run the country, while outwardly masquerading as a liberation movement. And surprise, surprise, these louts who have already turned South Africa into their personal fiefdom, have publicly given their support [for his re-election to President] to Mad Bob Mugabe, so that he can rape Zimbabwe for another five years.

With benevolence like this, who needs the Devil?

Human Rights Day? What for?

South Africa celebrated Human Rights Day today. Well actually, some of us just celebrated a free holiday and took time to do stuff that had nothing whatsoever to do with human rights.

Personally, I can’t see the point to Human Rights Day – in South Africa, that is. It was put in place by the post-Apartheid government to commemorate the shooting of 69 people by the police in Sharpeville, South Africa in 1969. The same police kill many more people in post-Apartheid times – their Commissioner is a member of the ANC, so I guess that makes it all RIGHT. Is the government going to give us a holiday for every 69 people his policemen kills?

Why bother commemorating Human Rights? This government supports some of the worst violators of human rights across the African continent and abroad. They are friendly with and openly indulge in the favours offered by the slimiest politicians to sully this planet - Robert Mugabe, Muammar Gaddafi, Kim Jong-il, Obiang Mbasogo, Omar Al-Bashier and Paul Biya, to name a few. This government’s own conduct in the general administration of its mandate is not far off from that of the evil tyrants already mentioned - it is only just picking up steam.

And today, they used the Human Rights platform to pay lip service to Human Rights, and perform the more pressing task of electioneering in the Western Cape; the only Province they don’t control politically, the only one in South Africa functioning reasonably well.

How about talking about and showing some responsibility for a change, instead of beating that monotonous RIGHTS drum every time you need to seize the attention of the people?

It’s only a matter of time when that tune goes out of favour with the people, and you need to dance to the sound of anger.

No surprises there!

Who is supporting the most evil tyrant in Southern Africa, one Robert Gabriel Mugabe? I’ll give you one guess!

M&G, 02 March, AP

Catch the full disgusting story here.

Two things…

Spare a thought for the 46 Zimbabweans who were arrested by Robert Mugabe’s Gestapo-like police force recently for attending a lecture discussing the recent uprisings in Egypt and Tunisia. Some of those arrested were allegedly also tortured.

We all know quite well that Mugabe is hell-bent on retaining power, but resorting to manufacturing absurd charges of treason against this group who have been identified as labour and social activists, confirms that he’s one paranoid son-of-a-bitch as well. Their lawyers are asking quite reasonably, why the rest of the population have not been arrested as well for watching the revolts against the two North African dictators. One can only conclude that Mugabe needs to make an example of this unfortunate bunch, so that nobody else considers rising up against his tyrannical rule.

South Africans need to be aware that if our own government push into legislation their recently proposed draconian censorship laws, this sort of thing might become a reality even here.

∞

I watched a video hosted on AlJazeera’s website of dictator Muammar Gaddafi’s desperate and threatening speech broadcast on Libyan television earlier this week, where he makes reference to the fact that he was not a leader, but a revolutionary.

Interspersed with pleas for cessation of the hostility against his regime and the usual revolutionary rhetoric, he issued threats to maim and burn his own people. This rant sounded quite familiar to me, having come across that same technique on numerous occasions in e-mails, pamphlets, flyers and billboard posts by the lunatics who make up the Christian fundamentalist lobby.

Meanwhile, South Africans need to take note of how a certain obstreperous Youth organization affiliated to the government, conceitedly also refer to themselves as revolutionaries at every occasion. More disconcerting however, is that they style themselves not after honourable revolutionaries such as Benjamin Franklin, but after despots like Gaddafi.

Getting and spending…

Just recently I was prompted to write about William Wordsworth’s famous sonnet, The World Is Too Much With Us. I now understand why this particular piece of poetry sticks in my mind.

It has much more significance than the materialist tendencies of man and the destruction of nature. One line in particular stands out for me when it comes to the ugly world of politics:

getting and spending we lay waste our powers…

But when it comes to politicians the line might as well read: getting and spending we lay waste our tax revenues.

And in South Africa, one man stands out like an ugly train-wreck when it comes to gross profligacy. He’s none other than Jacob Zuma, the President [I say the President rather than our, because he does not represent me, nor do I suspect many others as well].

We’d hardly gotten over the fact that he spends upwards of R15-million of our taxpayers money yearly, on his multiple wives and children, when we were forced to accept the cost of the bloated, fuck-useless administration he concocted just to provide employment for an assortment of sycophants and other palm-greasers’. Now we learn that he spent around R17-million of taxpayers money on wining and dining 15 African leaders [term used loosely] before and after the World Cup held here last year. This oozing slime-fest was attended by a veritable who’s who in the despot zoo; Mad Bob and Teodoro leading the display of the worst that Africa offers.

I’m not even factoring in all the other idiotic schemes that Zuma wastes our money on, on a daily basis. This one however is the most galling. To think that my taxes are being lavished on the slime of the universe…aaarrrghh.

This particular act of piracy worked out at about R1-million per Head of State [which included their wives]. Apparently Zuma invited all 53 HOS’s from Africa. Should we be pretending that we were lucky they didn’t all attend? That would have put us out-of-pocket to the tune of R53-million? Perhaps not, because as sure as death and taxes, Zuma has pissed away that saving, somewhere else…

What is even more infuriating however, is that the taxpayer doesn’t seem too concerned with these acts of lunacy. Have we become that numb to government’s extravagant misuse of our taxes?

How to win elections and intimidate people

Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe may not have written the book yet on electoral manipulation, but its fundamental precepts are well-known all over Africa and other parts of the world that are afflicted by, and so easily succumb to, dictatorial rule.

And just like the blurb on the bestselling Dale Carnegie book, Mugabe knows: How to go after the election you want…and win it! Take the dictatorship you have…and make it more brutal! Take any situation you’re in…and make it seem like the fault of white colonialism!

It’s no surprise to learn therefore that:

After conducting an audit of the [electoral] roll, the ZESN [Zimbabwe Election Support Network] reported that 27% of people registered to vote were dead.

The computer test revealed that 2 344 people born between 1901 and 1909, therefore aged between 101 and 110 years, were on the voters’ roll.

Nine people born between 1890 and 1900, aged between 111 and 120 years, are registered voters.

The ZESN report found that 41% of voters had moved without updating their details

About 52% of men were registered, compared with 48% of women. This is unusual considering there are more women in the country than men.

Young people were underrepresented, with only 18% registered.

I don’t how the ZESN managed to painstakingly collate all this information, considering that the ZANY-PF government “maintained only paper editions of the [voters'] register,” but it makes for frightening reading.

It makes one wonder what sort of machinations the incumbent SA-government are up to, ahead of local government elections, and national elections scheduled for next year. With their penchant for dipping their fingers regularly in the public cooky jar, their love for power and the determination to keep it all costs,  crooking the books is not beyond them either…and yes, they’re very chummy with one Robert Gabriel Mugabe, to boot.

Gbagbo… just won't go

Is there something in the air or soil of Africa that nurtures despots, tyrants and just plain bad-ass politicians? Perhaps it’s the African sun? But whatever it is, I’m pretty sure that Africa hosts the majority of the world’s worst leaders [I use the word grudgingly].

The latest in a long line of despots whose minds have seemingly become frizzled by the African sun, and who refuse to relinquish their grip on power, is Laurent Gbagbo of the Ivory Coast. This Bgagbo of shit joins an ignominious assembly of scumbags, who desperately cling to power, and whose utter disregard for humanity is legendary:

• Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe [30 years]
• Omar Hassan al-Bashir of Sudan [21 years]
• Muammar al-Qaddafi of Libya [41 years]
• Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo of Equatorial Guinea [31 years]
• Yoweri Museveni of Uganda [24 years]
• Paul Biya of Cameroon [28 years]
• Yahya Jammeh of Gambia [16 years, and oh, get a load of this cretin's shameless vanity in insisting that he be addressed as His Excellency Sheikh Professor Alhaji Dr. Yahya Abdul-Azziz Jemus Junkung Jammeh]

For a more comprehensive [but not definitive] list, which incorporates crackpots from all over the world, visit foreignpolicy.com. And this is just a list of the current filth that pollutes world’s political stage. Let’s not even consider the likes of Idi Amin, Mobutu Sese Seko and Jean Bedel Bokassa. The most striking thing about these scum of the earth, is that they would most likely have at some stage in their rotten lives, spoken out against European or Western imperialism and colonialism. So what turns self-proclaimed liberators into fascists?

Do we in South Africa have anything to worry about? Not with Jacob Zuma, I don’t think; it’s abundantly clear he’s just a puppet. However, with the likes of Julius Malema, idling in the wings, mouthing off about revolutionaries on the one hand and agents on the other, I think we need to be extra vigilant…