On the not-worth-talking-about scale

A 5.5 magnitude earthquake struck South Africa today around lunch time. Originating in Orkney in the North West Province, the tremors were felt in large parts of the country and even in neighbouring Botswana and Mozambique.

I felt it in my office while on a conference call and just looked up at the ceiling. I’ll bet many others looked up at the ceiling too. Probably a normal reaction, that. It’s being reported as one of the biggest to hit South Africa. Seems there wasn’t too much damage, except for the unlucky guy who died after a wall apparently collapsed on him.

Up here on the Reef, we live directly above working mines and tremors from mining activity is quite normal. Sometimes in the dead of night, I can swear I hear the locomotives running deep underground in the mine tunnels. But this was a real quake, albeit not much worth talking about when compared to the recent disaster in China.

In other not worth talking about news, I discovered today that there’s a random dude from South Africa who’s following my blog. What’s not worth talking about though is his blog which spews the kind of bigotry I rant about here on my own blog. Seems he’s a homophobic, patriarchal, anti-feminist, religious ANC supporter.

Not sure I want his kind following my blog. Get thee gone bigot.

And finally, it’s being reported that the ANC Women’s League (ANCWL) is losing its relevancy. That to me is not entirely correct. Presided over by Angie Motshekga, this woeful organization lost its relevancy a long time ago. They were merely going through the motions of being constituted, whereas all they were doing was supporting the puerile ambitions of power-hungry ANC men, and furthering the patriarchal agenda.

It is widely said that Motshekga single-handedly destroyed South Africa’s education system. Perhaps a bit of an exaggeration, but she most certainly played a huge role in dumbing it down, and still does. And her feats of maladministration in the Education Ministry are now legendary.

The cremation of the ANCWL will not come soon enough, and hopefully we won’t have to suffer the presence of Angie in Education much longer too.

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 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?

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…

The biggest laugh in South African politics this year…

Forget the chuckles we had over that Zuma painting saga. Forget the loud guffaws that followed the falling out with Julius Malema, (former) head of the ANC Youth League, and erstwhile bum-chum of Zuma.

Forget every hilarious (albeit tragic) incident involving Jacob Zuma and his bumbling quest to govern South Africa, this year. They all pale in comparison to the latest incident of utter absurdity surrounding the President.

Jacob Zuma, who’s widely known to have had no formal education, has been conferred with an Honorary Professor of International Relations degree by Peking University in China.

Although it’s just a worthless title, the guy is totally undeserving of such an “honour.” He has not achieved anything of significance, both locally and abroad. It’s patently clear that it’s just an astute move on the part of the Chinese to stroke Zuma’s ego, in their pursuit of economic ties with South Africa, which no doubt will be more favorable to them.

The whole affair further sullies the academic world, which is increasingly awarding useless degrees to all sorts of questionable people. However, in the South African context it is a monstrous travesty, considering the Zuma government’s dismal performance in the delivery of Education to the country.

The insult to all the children of South Africa who have been negatively affected by the incompetence of Zuma’s Education Ministry is made all the more unpalatable by this comment by him at his acceptance speech in Beijing:

We are inspired by the value attached to education in the analects of the ancient Chinese philosopher Confucius, who stressed the importance of education and study as being fundamental to human progress.

There are now many in the country who are absolutely convinced that the only progress, Zuma and his ANC cohorts are interested in, is to do with their own self-interest.

One wonders how long it will be before Minister of Education Angie Motshekga, is invited to China to receive her Honorary Doctorate in International Educational Relations…

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.

The shit they’re saying in politics #2

Another Brick In The Wall

*PA - The Telegraph, 31 March 2011

Mamphela Ramphele, a well-known South African academic reckons that our education system is worse now than under the “bad old” days of apartheid. Off course, a fair measure of ordinary South Africans with little to no academic qualifications, have been saying the same thing [more or less] for some time now.

Now that it’s being backed up by a respected academic, gives this contention more bite.

However Angie Motshekga, the latest in a procession of ANC Ministers, under whose tenure the education system has been steadily putrefying, prefers to keep her head lodged firmly up her ample butt, by insisting that that’s not the case. This jewel in the ANC’s illustrious line-up of incompetent Ministers, claims that the problems in education are:

…not because it’s worse than during apartheid but because it’s not in the level that we want it to be.

We may not be where we want to be. But it’s wrong — I think treacherous — to say we’re going back to Bantu education…

No! no! no! you pompous political prat. You, Angie are not at the level required to administer something as important as education. You are the traitor here; for stabbing your own people in the back and preparing them to be little more than voting fodder. You deserve to wear the dunce cap for the rest of your miserable, deceitful life.

Shame on you for being just another brick in the ANC wall of incompetence and denial.

*Fair usage. Source

The ANC Is In A “League” of Their Own

The African National Congress (ANC) under the leadership of Nelson Mandela scaled great heights in the 90’s to transform from a liberation movement into a fully-fledged political party, founded on sound ethical principles. In recent times, however this once great force for political change, has fallen on hard times, bedevilled by corruption, incompetence, immorality, unethical behaviour by senior members, the resignation and break-away of senior party members, and a disturbing leaning toward dictatorial rule.

 

Some, if not all of these unhealthy qualities are no more evident than in the organization’s Youth and Women’s wings; the ANC Youth League and the ANC Women’s League respectively. Freshly elected Youth League leader, Julius Malema and Women’s League leader, Angie Motshekga both started off their “reign” of ignominy within their respective areas, with a strange case of foot-and-mouth disease. Their public rantings ranged from mildly amusing, to the bizarre.

 

Malema’s famous “kill for Zuma” speech got him into a lot of bother; and then he went on to repeat the same nonsense, cloaked in different terms, even after public and organizational censure. And if that was not enough to label him a lunatic, he went on to lead the charge for President Mbeki’s dismissal from public office. A little while ago, Motshekga on the other hand broke out into a serious sweat over several senior ANC members who were planning to form a break-away political party, labelling them as “dogs” who were “sick in the head.” More recently though, she has been quoted as publicly stating that education is not important (while being in the position of MEC for Education in Gauteng Province), when it was revealed that Malema had really rotten matric exam results (of which one was a G symbol in Woodwork and another, an H symbol in Maths, both on the standard grade). And to top that, in a recent interview she declared that it was in the interests of democracy to have a one party state.

 

It’s bad enough when public figures mouth off with no regard for decency and the harm their ill-considered remarks causes, but it’s downright despicable when they try to back-track and deny meaning what they said; even blatantly refusing to apologise. When you look and listen to these two representatives of the ANC as it exists today, it’s not hard to imagine the makings of a tyranny in the works.