An Uprising, And Then A League Of Silly Women

Last week university students across South Africa rose up in protest against a hike in fees for the 2016 academic year.

Barring the few incidents of violence and destruction of property, it was a sight to behold. Never has the government of this country been shaken as much and by mere students, unified across racial, gender, socioeconomic and political divisions.

So frightened were the ruling politicians, that they caved in last Friday and announced a zero percent increase in fees for the next year. This week however, students at some institutions were still not satisfied, and continued protesting, mostly for the complete abolition of fees for tertiary education.

If students could rattle the ANC government this much, imagine what a unified South Africa could do. I think these are troubling times for the fat-cat rulers and their cozy futures doesn’t look so bright any more. Finally the ANC’s disdain for the citizenry has reaped a whole lot of detest.

Meanwhile, one of the embarrassing ineffectual wings of the ANC (the other being the Youth League), The Women’s League has decided this week to march on the Union Buildings to protest the “denigration of the image of President Zuma by so-called artists.” In other words (so they insist) they’re marching to protect the dignity and honor of the President, all  because an artist had the foresight temerity to paint a picture of His Loathsomess in an er, uncompromising but accurate position.

These women should be ashamed of themselves. Scratch that. They’re proud supporters of patriarchy after all. Seems it hasn’t occurred to them that you can’t protect the honor of a man who has none.

Oh well, back to the students.

For many people in this country who had given up hope of ever holding this government to account, our young generation have shown quite conclusively that it is possible. Thank you all for coming in from the cold.

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.

Apartheid Resurrected

Apartheid is dead! Long live apartheid!

 

 

Sounds corny, right? But if you’re living in South Africa in these turbulent times, that

prospect is very real, very terrifying. Who could have imagined apartheid being resurrected by the very people who took it down less than twenty years ago.

It took less than two decades for the liberators to figure out that apartheid was perhaps not so bad after all. It could in fact be quite useful if:

1. Almost every member of your political organization has his or her hands in the nation’s cooky jar and you needed to make sure when caught, that they’re free from prosecution
2. Those same members have a pathological tendency to be arrogant, and habitually, if hysterically, shoot themselves in the foot when caught out
3. You need to silence the press who have this rather annoying habit of exposing the rampant corruption, laziness, incompetence, arrogance, nepotism, and sheer stupidity of the members of your political organization on a daily, even hourly basis
4. You need to satiate your unbelievable greed and love of bling, by either raiding the treasury or setting up elaborate kick-back schemes that are designed to enrich friends, family, sycophants and possible back-stabbers
5. You have a repressed hatred of White people who you still blame for the original apartheid
6. You want to rule until Jesus returns

That’s half a dozen reasons I can think of, off the top of my head.

But here’s the events that are unfolding right now in South Africa which lends credence to the need to revive apartheid:

1. The Protection of Information Bill [POIB] introduced by this organization is to be put to the vote before Parliament tomorrow, 21 November. Its passing in the National Assembly is assured because this organization makes up the majority in government. This Bill seeks to muzzle the press and the citizens of this country by ensuring that government’s sordid activities can be blanketed in a shroud of secrecy. This Bill seeks to kill free speech.
2. The Presidential spokesperson has just laid criminal charges against a major newspaper and two of its reporters for having the temerity to expose some of his dodgy dealings in the arms scandal that occurred some years ago. If anything raises alarm bells about POIB, this one act will make your ears ring.
3. The so-called youth wing [ANCYL] of this organization, a morose bunch of unemployable, arrogant, disrespectful misfits, seem hell-bent on turning the country into an economic dung-heap by demanding that businesses that keep the economy going, be nationalised and handed over to them to be sucked dry and land be expropriated Zimbabwe style to realise the revolutionary’s dream of being a landowner. These same morons idolize the fallen dictator Gaddafi, very publicly.
4. Nobel laureate Nadine Gordimer, a stalwart of the anti-apartheid movement speaks out strongly against the direction being adopted by this organization: “The corrupt practices and nepotism that they [politicians] allow themselves is exposed if we have freedom of expression. When we all voted together, which was a great moment in my life, [we thought] everything would be alright. That was a childish idea.”
5. Meanwhile, the President of this organization and the country, has very little to say about these matters, but seems to be pre-occupied building an extravagant Hitler-style bunker on his estate.

Yes folks, apartheid is once again all the rage in South Africa.

The march for economic freedom, or the Juju shuffle up the M1

"picked" from jacarandafm.com

His name is Juju, otherwise known as Julius Malema, and heads up the youth wing of the African National Congress (ANC) – you’ll be amazed how much trouble an empty head can both cause, and get into.

Haven’t heard of him huh? That’s okay. You’re probably not from South Africa, and you have your own problems with scumbag politicians fucking up your own country. Right?

Anyway over here in sunny South Africa, Juju has been in the news far too much recently. His big mouth, and dubious lifestyle has got him into a heap of trouble, most notably with his parent organization the ANC, who also happen to run the country…more or less, mostly less. I’m not so sure if he’s in much trouble with the law. We all suspect [with good reason] that his parent organization owns the law and can make any trouble they’re in, disappear – much like our taxes.

His trouble with the ANC is believed to be because he is at loggerheads with a certain faction within the organization who in turn is at loggerheads with a certain other faction within the rotting carcase that was once headed by Nelson Mandela. We can’t be 100% certain of this, but most knowledgeable people seem to think so.

There was a time when Juju was 100% for the leader of the ruling faction [most South Africans will remember that this was around the time when it was revealed that Juju scored only 20% for woodwork at school]. Since then he’s become a whole lot fatter, and it’s thought that this could be due to all the tenders he’s been scoring for being 100% for the leader. But all that’s changed now and if we follow everything we’re being fed in the news, Juju’s 100% for himself only.

A little while ago, someone [bastard – may the fleas of a thousand camels…] whispered in Juju’s ear that “political freedom is useless without economic freedom” and he interpreted it to mean that all mines should be nationalised, jobs be handed out to the unemployable, and shares on the stock exchange be distributed freely among the people. Since this epiphany, Juju has hung onto this silly dogma like a hungry you know what.

Which leads us to today and this silly march up or alongside the M1, from Johannesburg to the Stock Exchange Building in Sandton. Juju has branded it the “March for Economic Freedom,” although it’s debatable whether he understands anything about the economy or freedom for that matter. Juju is becoming quite the politician – by being very adept at misleading and exploiting the common people.

Those of us who work hard for the pittance we earn, know that this march is all about demanding for shit that you don’t want to work for. It’s just an extension of the culture of entitlement that the ANC has worked very hard to cultivate over nearly two decades in office, while simultaneously fucking up the country. Yes, it’s commonly thought that their biggest achievement in all that time was to learn how to raid the treasury effortlessly, while sidestepping every attempt to hold them accountable.

Yeah, Juju, you know what? No amount of marching or singing or dancing is going to suddenly make jobs appear, mines to become nationalised or shares to be distributed. You may have convinced 5000 [estimated] gullible idiots to shuffle along the M1 to your delusional tune, but all that’s generated so far is howls of laughter.

March on into the Indian Ocean, you pompous numbskull…

Real Toilet Politics

Lavatorial politics is common all over the world; politicians are compared to the stuff found in diapers, for good reason after all. But you can’t beat South African politicians for talking crap, especially the stinkers who belong to the ANC.

Recently the Democratic Alliance (DA) controlled local government in the Western Cape came under heavy fire from the ANC Youth League (ANCYL) for constructing toilets without enclosures in an informal settlement. The ANCYL went on to take the DA-led council to court to demand that the offending structures more commonly referred to as open toilets, be enclosed. However, they did manage to first organise some of the thugs that belong to their shady organization into destructive gangs who set about demolishing some of the structures, quite a while before dreaming up the court action.

Although there was what seemed an amicable agreement in place between the council and the locals over the construction of the toilets whereby the residents would self-enclose once the council provided the plumbing, the ANCYL won the case, citing a great victory for human rights and dignity.

Off course anyone with an ounce of intelligence in one hand, balanced with an ounce of decency in the other knows quite well that the ANCYL were merely taking advantage of a stupid lapse on the part of the DA, and were milking the situation thoroughly to score political points for the upcoming local government elections. Human rights and the dignity of the people have not exactly been the focus of the ANC since taking over power from the previous apartheid government; looting, hoarding, lying, cheating and generally fucking up, has.

Barely a few weeks passed, when the ANC-led council in a Free State Municipality were literally caught with their pants down in the same toilet scene. They had constructed open toilets for an informal settlement there, more than 7 years ago. Yesterday the ANC secretary-general Gwede Mantashe, told reporters that the ANC “didn’t know” about the toilets, notwithstanding the fact that a local newspaper broke the story nearly a year ago.

You’ve got to give credit to this bunch of so-called public servants. They’re consistent, very consistent – in denying and lying. They’re very good at it too. Perhaps they practice, while riding about in their chauffeur driven flashy expensive cars bought with taxpayers money, or while lazing on their fat arses, doing NOTHING for the people.

Today, Julius Malema, leader of the ANCYL commented that “heads must roll,” and that someone must take responsibility, most probably without realising the pun in his statement. Will he even admit that his own ANC are now the culprits, with the shoe now being on the other foot?

And will Julius really take the scumbags in his own organization to court to demand the open toilets be closed as in the Western Cape, or will he make good on his threat to knock down some of the heads that have been left un-enclosed for nearly 8 years?

Past experience with these immoral cretins tells me that they will just let this one slide until the stink is over, just as they do with everything else they screw up.

Alcohol and opportunism

The recent announcement by South Africa’s Department of Social Development to intensify efforts in combating drug and alcohol abuse is highly commendable.

However, their intention to use legislation, to among things increase the legal age limit to purchase alcohol from 18 to 21, is quite absurd. It illuminates the idiotic decision of the government to allow 16-year old’s to have the right to vote, and 18-year old’s to join the Armed Forces to take up arms in defence of the shambolic government that the 16-year old’s helped put into power.

Time and again, intelligent people have learnt that making something illegal, makes it more desirable. Intelligence however is a rare trait in the current ANC government set-up. Emotion, not intelligence rules over this lot.

While the department noted “…the link between alcohol abuse and a range of chronic health problems, increased mortality and opportunistic diseases,” it did not take long for the ANC Youth League (ANCYL), fresh from making a complete ass of themselves (yes, yet again) over their recent calls for nationalisation of the mines, to jump on this available bandwagon to bleat about their feigned support of the department’s initiatives.

I guess they didn’t realise that it wouldn’t take long for knowledgeable people to recognize them [the ANCYL] as one of the country’s main opportunistic diseases.

Have these disgraceful ANCYL pricks no shame? On the one hand they use every opportunity to abuse whatever occasion is thrown their way [usually at taxpayer’s expense] to booze and party up a storm, and on the other hand they expect us to believe that they support efforts to clamp down on alcohol abuse. How can one believe that the ANCYL spokesperson, Floyd Shivambu is honest when he says:

They would stop at nothing in ensuring that alcohol consumption in South Africa was radically reduced and all alcohol regulations and laws were properly enforced by law enforcement agencies.

What does this mean for the President of this loutish organization, one Julius Malema, who has a propensity to quaff expensive bottles of Johnny Walker Blue Label at every occasion?

If the legal age limit for consuming alcohol is raised to 21, and his own members started policing the law, Malema would have to wait 16 years before he could touch another bottle of Johnny Blue again…

The ANC: The rot within breaks the surface

Image via Wikipedia

There have been many times when I bought a rosy apple, only to later find the ugly rot that lay hidden under the surface. Such is the ANC in South Africa today.

The only difference is that apples don’t try so desperately to hide its rotten core…

I think I’ve now finally seen it all. There is no stunt that the ANC can pull that will ever surprise me again. They just keep getting worse…only now I expect only the worst. You’d have to be one of their really ignorant supporters to not have noticed that the inner rot that is slowly decimating this once-proud liberation organisation, is starting to break the surface in an ugly inflammation that threatens the fragile new order of attempted democracy. The only question is, will the end of the ANC be a dull implosion or a spectacular explosion.

The liberators have become afflicted with the disease they fought so valiantly (so we thought) to destroy – the multi-headed beast representing hegemony, corruption, larceny, self-interest, cronyism, deception, contempt, abuse of human rights. Only now, they prefer to be known as revolutionaries; or is that just the mugs in the Youth League. One never can tell, because the elders work hard at being bigger mugs.

The liberation dreams of Nelson Mandela turned into a Orwellian nightmare by the current leader and his cronies.

Such is the stuff of Hollywood movies, but Africa is living it daily, from Swaziland and Zimbabwe (and now South Africa) to the Mediterranean Sea; the African Peoples both indigenous and settlers, are at the mercy of a coterie of unfeeling, unthinking, self-indulgent, self-interested monsters who masquerade as leaders.

But I digress.

Let’s get back to the ANC and how the rot is finally breaking the surface. In a matter of a few weeks:

1. The President of the country reveals what a religious retard he is by claiming that a ticket to heaven can be secured by voting for the ANC.
2. The ANC-appointed Commissioner of Police is found to have committed some serious transgressions in his management of the Police Services, which the Public Protector, in her wisdom declined to label as criminal. The thinking public however know that when something smells this bad, it sure as hell is not dead roses.
3. Elements of the police try to intimidate the Public Protector in apparent retaliation, but we’re not supposed to make that kind of conclusion.
4. The official spokesperson of the ANC-government demonstrates that racism is not just confined to the pale skins.
5. A senior, but well-respected  Minister in the ANC government has to publicly rebuke the spokesperson for his blatant racism and stupidity.
6. The war veterans of the ANC, popularly known as the MKMVA engage is a war of words with the Youth wing of the ANC, the ANCYL, over the President’s rather dubious relationship with some rich, but seriously dodgy Indian businessmen, and their rather obvious influence over the government. It’s a classic case of the ANC’s waning geriatrics versus their kindergarten delinquents. Off course it’s not hard, for thinking, even non-thinking people to suspect that where there’s smoke…
7. The President still refuses to speak out explicitly against known despots around Africa [one very noticeably on our doorstep], even one that is facing a revolt from his own people who is likely to topple him quite soon. Instead he prefers to bury his head in the sand, refusing to acknowledge that a popular revolt is certainly entirely possible in South Africa – because he has this spectacularly ignorant (or is it naive) notion that we are different to the rest of Africa because we have regular democratic elections.

The last item perhaps is an indicator of why there is such blatant disdain for the citizens of South Africa, from the ANC. They have this arrogant belief that since they were voted into power by the majority of the population, that fact alone lends credence to their claim to “rule until Jesus returns,” and perception of invincibility at the polls. Until such time as more people taste the emancipation that real education delivers, the majority of the South African public are supposed to buy such delusional utterances as that of the Libyan leader, that the  “people love their leader.”

In the South African context, democracy is but an illusion. The fact that we have different leaders who rule govern makes no difference; the ruling Party still pulls the strings here, including those that control the ruler. Why can’t all the people see that – different ring masters, same circus?

The Mongrel Growls Again

In the land of Za, lived a mongrel dog called Lame Jules. You couldn’t really tell what type of dog it was, but a cross between pig-ugly and bone-dumb was quite evident.

Lame Jules became leader of the Rabid Young Dog’s League (RYDL) after a heated and widely disputed arse-sniffing conference held in Bloemfontein in 2008. Some time thereafter his support and allegiance to the Grand Master of Za, became well-known, by the sign displayed prominently above Lame Jules’s kennel door which read “I will kill for Jazooma.”

For a while all was well with the Grand Master and his lap-dog. Except for the odd embarrassing, ignorant growl from Lame Jules ( which still elicits shrieks of laughter from the rest of the world), things were just peachy; even while the Grand Master seemed to be forever on heat. But then the Grand Master started spending more and more time at the pig trough, and Lame Jules started feeling left out. He was just not satisfied with the scraps that were being thrown his way – tender-ized steaks were nice, but juicy T-bones and fillet are better, thought Lame Jules.

While salivating at the thought of the  juicy T-bone and fillet steaks that he felt entitled to, it occurred to him that he would need a place to hide them. Looking at his belly that had grown grossly bloated from too many howling-at-the-moon parties, and expensive bottles of  Johnny Walk-The-Dog, he realized that he would not be able to dig the deep holes necessary to hide his loot.

And then a flash of brilliance, the only one he would ever experience in his dog-forsaken life; mines have ready-made holes. What if he could have unfettered access to those mines? It would be so easy to then hide those juicy steaks.

And so he started growling about nationalizing the mines…

Bloggers For a Free Press: In support of Sipho Hlongwane’s call

I almost missed the opportunity to join an increasing number of people in speaking out against attempts to muzzle the freedom of the press, by that government lap-dog organization known as the ANC Youth League. Luckily, a friend of mine pointed me to Chris Roper’s site where he supports the call of Sipho Hlongwane, for Bloggers to join in condemnation of any attempt to stifle media freedom in general, but especially the despicable tactics employed by the ANC Youth League.

Here are some extracts from Sipho’s call, but more here at chrisroper.co.za:

I’m sure you’re aware by now of the slander campaign launched by the ANC Youth League’s spokesperson Nyiko Floyd Shivambu against journalists they perceive to be against the Youth League. This campaign is especially directed against City Press journalist Dumisani Lubisi. You’ll remember that he was instrumental in exposing Julius Malema’s interests in various companies.

I’ve invited a number of South African bloggers to publish a message to the ANC and the Youth League on Wednesday, condemning the actions of Shivambu and calling on them to distance themselves from such practices. We also reminds the ANC of the vital role played by the press in the liberation struggle.

If you’re a South African blogger and are interested in joining, then drop me an email at sipho.hlongwane@gmail.com. Alternately, you can reach me on Twitter (@ComradeSipho). I’ll fill you in with further details and put you on the SpeakZA mailing list.

If you’re on Twitter, the hashtag is #SpeakZA. Let’s get the word out there.

Let’s put a stop to government and its cronies meddling with our freedoms.

If these clowns were not so damn funny…

You’ve gotta love this country. No matter how much our politicians screw up (and cover up), South Africans always manage to see the funnier side of it all. Take this cartoon in an on-line newspaper for instance; it’s fucking hilarious.

In fact, it’s so damn funny, I can’t resist having a go at the military theme myself:

• Transport Minister – Major Pothole
• Arts and Culture Minister – Private Parts
• Communications Minister – Major R & R
• Housing Minister – Major Billet
• State Security Minister – Rear Admiral Snoopy
• Justice Minister – Major Injustice
• Finance Minister – Major Money-spinner
• ANC Spokesman – Major Bullshitter
• Rest of cabinet – might as well be AWOL

We’re so busy laughing, we’ve postponed the revolution to reclaim the country…for now.