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.

He’s White and he’s right

Wikipedia

This is South Africa, post-apartheid… 18 years to be precise. It’s come to this. No, no, no. Actually it’s been like this for 18 years.

Whenever a White person speaks out against the Black government, about the sad state of the nation, the sad state of democracy, they’re labelled whiners, or worse, apartheid denialists and racists. Sometimes you’d hear the popular refrain “White is not right.” When a Black person does the same thing, they’re labelled coconuts, traitors and worse things besides.

I speak out as often as I can; not always expressing myself with the same finesse as newspaper columnist William Saunderson-Meyer. But he’s one of those who are White and right. Truth has no colour…

No skaam. The dire state of an increasingly brazen SA

South Africa is in a dire state. Incompetence and irresponsibility are rife. Bad behaviour is the norm and few dare challenge it, which contributes to the undermining of democracy.

No, that’s not opposition Democratic Alliance leader, Helen Zille, on song. Boiled down, that’s the view of Auditor-General Terence Nombombe. He was this week lamenting the collapse of the public service at every level, from municipal to national, saying that the government’s lack of support for his office was making it irrelevant.

His concerns echo those of the Public Protector, Thuli Madonsela. She speaks of how the ‘silent thief’ of corruption has stolen the constitutional dream and how the secrecy Bill would derail her constitutionally mandated role.

As a nation, we should blush at the hash we are making of freedom. Unfortunately, South Africans are not big on embarrassment. Our instinct is to brazen it out.

The popular phrase, ‘S/he has no skaam‘ — one of those subtle Afrikaans words that encompasses being abashed, humbled and ashamed, even humiliated, but also penitent — should be emblazoned on the country’s coat-of-arms. In Khoisan, of course, so that not too many understand it. No one wants their nose rubbed in the national affliction.

Read the rest of this brilliant article here. It’s the right thing to do.

Denial ≠ Shit, we've been caught again!

The ANC are paragons of virtue and honesty!

I’m not shitting you; they honestly expect you to think that because you’re so fucking ignorant, right? Right? We all know that everything they’ve told us about how they run the government is true, right? Right!

The newspapers always lie right? Right! How can you believe such dreadful accusations that are levelled daily – no hourly – against these icons of virtue? Shame on you!

The NIA have just denied tapping the phone conversations of  Helen Zille, leader of the Democratic Alliance (DA). A National Intelligence Agency spokesperson has stated quite clearly that:

Our work is strictly governed by legislation and we have a number of oversight structures that ensure we execute our mandate within the prescripts of the law.

We all know that the ANC spokespeople are amazingly honest, right? Right! We all know that these oversight structures are beyond reproach, right? Right! And we all know that the prescripts of the law are the most effective deterrent against criminality, right? Right!

Just wanted to clear that up.

An open letter to Helen of Tafelberg

Dear Helen,

Southern Sudan will start voting tomorrow in a historic referendum that will enable them to secede to form a new country. In so doing they will at last escape the tyranny of that madman al-Bashir, and the Arabic Islamic North.

You and I, both live in a country being slowly ruined by several madmen who occupy the seat of power. I therefore seek desperately to move somewhere where my taxes wont find its way into the back-pockets of these despots-in-the-making, but into filling those potholes I routinely drive into on my daily commute, among other more pressing things like education systems that produce graduates who can score more than 30%, and a police service that can actually see their toes while standing upright. I dread the future that the products of this education system will undoubtedly create once they start working, and I sure as hell don’t want to live in constant fear of criminals who actually can see their toes.

I need security, and many others like me just want to be able to live in peace, and not worry about that next pothole that will ruin our cars, or that car-jacker who will ruin our relationship with our insurance companies.

I believe you can help us. Secession is going to be all the rage in 2011; I can feel it in my bones. Wink! Wink! Nudge! Nudge!

The Kingdom of the Cape sounds so much better than the land-locked one run by that despotic, polygamist, reed-dancing pervert. I would be honoured to be a citizen of another country and not have to cross an ocean to be there. And you would make such a good President…or even queen.

Please let me know if you will be interested in creating the push for independence; I will start getting my papers in order for emigration.

Helen Zille Quote

Leader of the opposition Democratic Alliance and President of Cape Town, Helen Zille was quoted this morning during a radio interview as saying that the ANC was a:

small, elite kleptocracy masquerading as a liberation party

I thought it was pretty funny, even though Helen is generally a very earnest women, not known for being humorous. Perhaps she was not trying to be funny at all, because those words are chillingly true. It’s a real pity that most South Africans won’t read this quote or even understand what it means. I’m pretty sure Julius Malema, President of the ANC Youth League won’t, because he’ll claim that kleptocracy is not a word in the Pedi language. [According to my spell checker, Pedi is not a word in the English language; Julius must be fuming]

It’s also a pity that Helen is a white women, because that seems to be the only valid reason why she is not South Africa’s President. Most South Africans will not vote for a white person, let alone a white women, because the damage caused by apartheid seems to still run very deep. And that too is a real pity.

Gender equality is the politicians head-bashing tool of the moment

Welcome to South Africa, where the politicians spend equal amounts of time verbally bashing each other and frittering away our tax-money, while reluctantly giving up a meager percentage of their time to attend to the business of governing.

In the news at the moment is gender equality; an important and relevant issue for all women and well-adjusted men, but simply another tool to bash each other with, in the hands of politicians.

The formation of the new Ministry for Women, Children, Youth and People with Disabilities has raised the ire of gender groups such as Gender Links and People Opposed to Women Abuse (POWA), but has raised the curiosity of the official Opposition Party in Parliament, the Democratic Alliance (DA). While the gender activists are wondering if this is a good development for women’s rights, the DA are wondering how best to use it against the ruling ANC government.

And in a move that has fanned the flames of heated debate, Helen Zille leader of the DA which won the Provincial election in the Western Cape, has announced a Provincial Government Executive composed of entirely males. While this has women’s rights groups up in arms, the ruling ANC government and its chihuahua-on-a-leash, the ANC Youth League (ANCYL) have used it to score political points against Helen Zille and the DA. To make things more interesting, both Helen Zille and the ANCYL have indulged in a bitter verbal war, trading insults which promises to provide much writing fodder for the press. To further complicate issues, the former military wing of the ANC’s, Umkhonto we Sizwe (MK) Military Veterans Association has joined the fray and threatened to “launch a political programme aimed at rendering the Western Cape ungovernable.” What exactly this entails, I don’t know, but a bunch of decrepit pensioners invading the Provincial Assembly to play bingo, springs readily to mind.

If we ignore all the distractions of the politicians and their lap-dogs, and rationally examine the allegations of gender disparity in Helen Zille’s Provincial cabinet, one has to ask if serving the interests of gender equality (and by extension, gender activists), is more important than serving the interests of the public and province, as these are public office positions. If Helen Zille has picked the people best suited to serve their constituency, and they so happen to be all male, then we should have no qualms. However, if she has picked a man where an available women candidate could perform equally well or better, then the gender groups have every right to demand that the man be replaced.

The Election Circus is in Town

Once every four years or so, South Africa’s finest “political” acts crawl out from under great big slimy rocks where they have been hibernating (well, actually living it up on their ill-gotten gains), to take to the stage and act out a grand farce known as the Elections. This year a fantastical collection of 117 National acts and and a motley assortment of local and regional acts (39 or so) are jostling for centre stage, trying their utmost to showcase their outrageous talents for lying, conniving, cheating, backstabbing and not forgetting the customary ass-kissing.

You will not have seen or heard from some of these acts for quite a while; four years in fact. But here they are for the next few months, right in your face, promising the same shit they did the last time, only this time they have “a better plan to make it happen.” You will notice some familiar faces from the past, only this time they have been recruited by another act. Same faces, different acts, same promises, slightly different tactics; the same sorry result – disappointment.

The leading acts have wasted no time in “putting on a show.”  The ANC this week held a rally in Chatsworth, which resulted in the injury of 63 supporters who were stampeded by crowds trying to get into a stadium. A look at the pictures in an on-line newspaper reveals mostly African supporters present at the stadium, which is strange considering that Chatsworth is an Indian settlement. Presumably, all the Indians were attending a free lunch and concert at the local beach, sponsored by the Minority Front. Another look at the pictures of hapless supporters sprawled on the ground after the melee, reminds one that Julius Malema was perhaps on the mark when he commented that “we will die for Zuma,” but perhaps “we will be stampeded first” is more likely.

Meanwhile, Allan Boesak of Cope has taken to the stage claiming that his conviction for fraud should be “overlooked” as he did it for the struggle. Seems that all the other acts were too busy making fools of themselves to take notice. Else we will by now have heard all the other fraudsters from various other acts claiming the same. And in other news, Helen Zille, the champion of rich white minority rights has also been busy showcasing her talents for comedic debate, with the leader of the ANC Youth League, whose unfortunate attempts at woodwork has not helped his appreciation of good humor.

As far as some of the other acts are concerned, the Keep it Straight and Simple Party has so far managed to stay out of the limelight, presumably keeping it simple, until they don’t have to any more. And what about the goofy assortment of religious acts such as The African Christian Alliance, Africa Muslim Party,  African Christian Democratic Party, African Nazareth Democratic Movement, Christian Democratic Front, Christian Democratic Alliance, National Christian Democratic Party, ChristenParty/Christian Party, Divine Kingdom Party, God’s People’s Party (???), Christian Front (not democratic?); man this list is long.  Any idea why religious acts feel the need to become political acts? The less said about this lot, the better.

All of this from just a few of the top acts in this year’s election circus. I unfortunately have not had the time (or patience) to catch up on the antics of all the minor acts, but you can be rest assured that they will reveal themselves in time. Just sit back and enjoy the show…