Black Tuesday + 1

As the public venting of anger over the passing of the Protection Of Information Bill [POIB] by the majority ANC-led Parliament spills over into Day 2, it’s become necessary to spit out some of the bitterness that’s clogged up in our mouths.

And so I pondered the curious case of former poster boy for the ANC, one Julius Malema, freshly expelled from the party for certain indiscretions, and now plotting his vengeance from the sidelines. This bozo who enjoyed telling the world he would die and kill for the President, now finds himself at odds with his former idol, and is screaming blue murder.

He refuses to vacate the position of leader of the ANC Youth League that he’s been fired from, and still goes around acting like he’s in charge. And the ANC bigwigs seem powerless to do anything about it.

© 2011 Zapiro (All rights reserved)
Printed with permission from www.zapiro.com
For more Zapiro cartoons visit www.zapiro.com

Which left me wondering how these same morons intend to silence an entire nation with the POIB, while they are so easily held to ransom by one of their own fallen comrades. Herein lies the secret to defying or defeating this insidious piece of legislation, after all legal and peaceful means fails. I think you all know what I’m getting at, and it does not involve marching like idiots to the Union Buildings.

Incidently, Malema may not have an ANC membership card anymore, but he still has that ace up his sleeve – the race card.

We will not be silenced

Despite the large-scale opposition to the Protection Of Information Bill [POIB] from all the opposition parties, civil society, the media and other interest groups, the ANC majority in the National Assembly steam-rolled it through the first stage anyway.

The ANC has, during its tenure done many loathsome things that demonstrated it’s utter disdain for the people of this country, but I don’t think anything said “fuck you” quite like this event.

The jackasses who voted for this abhorrent piece of legislation have very short memories about the involvement of their predecessors [albeit more honourable persons] from the ANC, in the fight for justice and freedom against the previous apartheid government. Even in the shadow of world events, especially in North Africa where ordinary people have ousted the tyrants that have dared to go too far in toying with their aspirations…

Perhaps all tyrants need to learn the hard way, fall the hard way; the ANC are no exceptions.

But all is not lost. The Bill still needs to be ratified by another House of Parliament. And if they should also piss on the protestations of the people, there is the Constitutional Court.

Let’s hope it does not have to go beyond there, because we will not be silenced.

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 truth is not out there…

People of South Africa,

Your President wants you to believe the following:

The executive, as elected officials, have the sole discretion to decide policies for government.
This means that once government has decided on appropriate policies, the judiciary cannot, when striking down legislation or parts thereof on the basis of illegality, raise that as an opportunity to change the policies.

Do not believe him or his rotten political party. They are pressing ahead to enforce a despicable piece of legislation known as the Protection of Information Bill (POIB) which coupled with the Media Appeals Tribunal (MAT), will make wholesale theft from you the people legal, and a crime for you to complain about it. And they don’t want the judiciary to interfere by throwing the constitution at them.

That’s what it boils down to in its most basic form.

Do not allow them to continue to steal from you with impunity as they are doing right now.

Fight them with everything you have. It’s your right…

Hey, wanna know a secret?

The South African government, or more precisely the ANC, wants to rape your freedoms because they think you’re stupid.

That’s right. First they raped justice and actually got people to support their heinous crime. Now they’re attempting to rape freedom of speech with the implementation of the disgusting Secrecy Bill [POIB]; and they expect you’ll fall for this one too. They’re testing your gullibility and they seem to think they have a good chance to prove once again that stupidity is like death and taxes.

Those of us who fought tooth and nail against them the first time around, are still fighting, but this time we’re going to throw the kitchen sink at them too. And cartoonist Zapiro, never fails to come to the party…with yet another beauty that sums up everything I’ve said, perfectly.

© 2006-2011 Zapiro (All rights reserved). Printed with permission from http://www.zapiro.com. For more Zapiro cartoons visit http://www.zapiro.com

If you haven’t aired your loathing yet for what your government is trying to do to your freedoms, please add your signature to the petition at Avaaz.

arcana imperii is an evil perpetuated by evil governments

Governments all over the world tell their citizens that arcana imperii or state secrets, is imperative for the proper functioning of the state.

While democratic governments normally consult and make arguments that seem convincing before implementing legislation dealing with state secrets, despotic governments tend to enforce made-up laws as they see fit. However, the South African government seems to be in between at the moment with its intention to steamroll a particularly nasty piece of legislation known as the Protection of Information Bill (POIB).

Before we examine POIB any further, it’s prudent to ask what are state secrets and why governments think that they are so necessary?

Herfried Münkler, Professor of Political Theory in the Faculty of Social Sciences  at the Humboldt University of Berlin has this to say about state secrets:

The disclosure of state secrets means a loss of strategic capability, which is undoubtedly bound up with the ability to maintain secrecy.

A state that has lost the ability to maintain secrecy has lost its ability for political struggle.

From what Professor Münkler is saying, it seems that state secrets allow governments to double-deal and perpetuate political strife. This allows politicians and politics to proliferate. And so we come closer to the truth about state secrets – it’s all about politicians and their deceitful shenanigans.

People don’t make enemies with people in other country’s. Country’s don’t make enemies with other country’s. Politicians do!

Is it then illogical to conclude that state secrets are there to protect the politicians rather than the citizens? If the politicians had nothing to hide, what is the need for state secrets? What could possibly be of such strategic importance, that it needs to be kept secret? Certainly not science and technology – these need to be shared with the citizens of the world. Unless the politicians don’t want to share technology because of its potential to create weapons for war?

And so citizens become the pawns of the politicians when they are forced to bear these weapons of destruction – so that they can defend more state secrets. A vicious circle tailor-made for the politicians.

Coming back to South Africa. The ANC government are hell-bent on pushing POIB through into law, despite fierce opposition from the Media, many organizations both here and abroad and even from within their own party. Consensus of opinion seems to indicate that it is being done mainly to muzzle the free press and curtail the constant embarrassment that the ANC has to deal with, considering the almost hourly revelations of their dirty, thieving, deceitful and shameless behaviour with respect to the treasury, the ideals of democracy and the constitution.

The ANC government seems to not realise that although the majority of the population, steeped in ignorance, ensures that they stay propped in power, things will not always be this way. Ignorance is curable and it won’t be long before their deceit is understood and realised by that same majority.

A week after the elections…

The Times Online, February 02, 2010

Politics in South Africa is back to normal. We’re going to miss the run-up to the elections when the assholes in the contending political parties tried to be nice to us for a few weeks.

Now that the vote has been secured, it’s back to the same petty squabbling, deceit and plain stupidity one has come to expect routinely from the swine of the earth – our glorious self-serving politicians.

Admittedly I haven’t heard too much from the Democratic Alliance (DA), but they’re no doubt busy behind the scenes savouring the gains they have made and plottting their next moves. No so however with the African National Congress (ANC).

They’ve been quite vocal. From the idiot former mayor in the Eastern Cape who urged his followers to burn down a local newspaper and drive opposition voters into the sea for allegedly supporting the DA, to  ANC Secretary General Gwede Mantashe disingenuously claiming that the leader of their Youth League, Julius Malema lost them some votes. Then we had President Jacob Zuma calling for an enquiry into the running of a Municipality by the DA prior to the elections and which they had retained control of after the elections. Off course the DA cried foul, calling it a political stunt, and perhaps they have a point because it’s practically unheard off for the ANC to call for investigations into anything, particularly since the ANC are alleged to be involved in major financial irregularities in practically every local council they have under their control.

Meanwhile minor political parties and independents who won a few seats, began the rather unsavory job of prostituting themselves by getting into the bed of the heavy-weights, mainly the ANC. The ANC off course lost no time in securing these liaisons because they’ve become quite adept at sleeping with anybody and anything that furthers their self-serving nature.

But all of these events pale in comparison to the ANC’s threat to stymie further debate on the Secrecy Bill, more formally known as the Protection of Information Bill (POIB), and hasten it through Parliament. Their intent is obviously to use their majority to pass the Bill, thus stifling freedom of speech which they hope will accord them the protections to continue with the raiding of the treasury among other more dastardly deeds.

Now that the sweet smiles from government that greeted us during the elections have turned into ugly fangs, it’s time to resume our vigilance and bring out the anti-venom.

You’re Wrong by NOFX

I’ve been meaning to post this song for some time now, but I just don’t know what’s stopped me. Perhaps it had something to do with the explicit lyrics, especially the part referring to that religious right-wing bitch, Ann Coulter who believes that people are sinful and need to be redeemed, and she’s the self-appointed redeemer.

Anyway, my disgust with self-appointed redeemers is not the reason for finally posting this marvellous NOFX song. It has more to do with our government’s pig-headed intention, in the face of overwhelming opposition, to pass the Protection of Information Bill (POIB), which would effectively give them free rein to do pretty much whatever they pleased.

It’s not like they’re not doing that already; it’s just that this ridiculous Bill would not only legitimize their constant illegal actions, it would render any information pertaining to it, hidden from public view, under the guise of state secrecy. Listen out for the words that always puts a smile on my dial: And you’re wrong if you don’t question your government

You’re Wrong

You’re wrong about virtues of Christianity
And you’re wrong if you agree with Sean Hannity
If you think that pride is about nationality, you’re wrong

You’re wrong when you imprison people turning tricks
And you’re wrong about trickle down economics
If you think that punk rock doesn’t mix with politics, you’re wrong

You’re wrong for hating queers and eating steers
If you kill for the thrill of the hunt
You’re wrong ’bout wearing fur and not hating Ann Coulter
Cause she’s a cunted cunt

You’re wrong if you celebrate Columbus Day
And You’re wrong if you think there will be a Judgement Day
If you’re a charter member of the NRA, you’re wrong

You’re wrong if you support capital punishment
And you’re wrong if you don’t question your government
If you think her reproductive rights are inconsequent, you’re wrong

You’re wrong fighting Jihad, your blind faith in God
Your religions are all flawed,
You’re wrong about drug use, when it’s not abuse
I hope you never reproduce

You’re getting high on the downlow
A victim of Cointelpro
You’re wrong and will probably never know

Media Freedom Day

Freedom loving South Africans commemorated Media Freedom Day today, in South Africa. Today marks that fateful day in 1977 when the former Apartheid government shut down newspapers, banned civic organizations and arrested journalists and activists; the same actions being pig-headedly contemplated by the so-called liberation government in power, today.

While it seems that this same government are about to backtrack on the implementation of that disgraceful piece of legislation known as the Media Appeals Tribunal (MAT) in its current form, there is no absolute guarantee of that. Freedom loving South Africans need to remain ever vigilant and in united opposition to it ever seeing the light of day.

While MAT may indeed wind up as still-born, the implementation of that other sinister piece of legislation known as the Protection of Information Bill (POI) which continues to threaten our basic freedoms, is still very much on the cards. The same opposition we have shown towards MAT, needs to be gathered up again twice and thrice-fold, to defeat those who dare meddle with our freedoms.

We must not allow ourselves to be mislead by government propagandists such as Aziz Pahad, whose call for “a greater variety of voices… to be heard more often in the South African media…,” is nothing short of a smokescreen to give credibility to that new pro-government rag that is about to be published by the Gupta’s, The New Age. Sure we need a greater variety of voices in the media, but not those that toe the ruling party line, or suck up to the politicians, in anticipation of favors.

And perhaps as a sign that Media Freedom Day did prick some consciences, five senior editors of the propaganda rag, The New Age, resigned this afternoon, just  hours ahead of its launch tomorrow. Hopefully these journalists will now join a truly free newspaper publisher.

Let’s all stand firm against any legislation that threatens media freedom.

Right 2 Know

The campaign to prevent the South African government from trampling on our basic freedoms through the imposition of odious legislation, is gaining momentum.

Make your opposition to the Protection of Information Bill and the Media Appeals Tribunal, known. Join the Right 2 Know campaign here.

These are just some of the individual signatories:

Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Nadine Gordimer, Prof Kader Asmal, Zakes Mda, Prof. Max Price, Prof. Jonathan Jansen, Zackie Achmat, Pieter-Dirk Uys, Mary Burton, Mazibuko K Jara, Prof Hoosen Coovadia, Max Du Preez, Andre Brink, Pippa Green, Breyten Breytenbach, Cathi Albertyn, Rhoda Khadalie and Andrew Feinstein

For more international and local Organizations who have added their voice to Right 2 Know, click here. Add your signature not because they have; add it because it’s the right thing to do.