How democracy in South Africa is being nursed along

Following the publication of my post yesterday about the ANC’s shocking understanding of democracy, it has occurred to me that democracy is being kept alive on life support.

This then is the postscript to The ANC’s perception of democracy is terrifying.

This may sound overly dramatic to the majority who voted the ANC into power, but the parties that you spurned at the polls, are in fact the only thing keeping this country from being not only a kleptocracy, but a dictatorship as well. Yes, the minority parties are in fact protecting you from the ANC.

Ironic, isn’t it?

The much vaunted Constitution is barely coping in keeping greed, corruption, cronyism, fascism and hunger for power at bay, being under constant attack by the ruling party. Were it not for the Public Protector, the minority opposition parties in Parliament and the reliable preservers of justice still left in the Judiciary, who knows where this country might be today.

Don’t believe me? Go on shooting yourself in the foot then.

When the denial prefaces the justification

Perhaps you notice how the denial is so often the preface to the justification. – Christopher Hitchens

Last week I wrote about the release of the Public Protector’s report on the Nkandla scandal which discloses how nearly R250-million of taxpayers’ money was squandered on supposed security upgrades to President Zuma’s private home.

On Sunday the President spoke about it for the first time, but his response is both hysterical and contemptible at the same time. While the report was quite clear that Zuma and his family benefitted materially from the upgrades at taxpayers’ expense, and that he displayed both lack of leadership and control, the President prefers to bury his head in the ground.

I did not use taxpayers’ money. They put in windows that I don’t even want. Then they turn around and say this fellow used the government’s money.

This despicable man, who is slowly but surely eclipsing some of Apartheid South Africa’s past Presidents, and even Robert Mugabe, for being the worst example of leadership on the continent, actually expects the public to believe that he did not know what was going on in his own backyard.

Is it reasonable to expect anyone who finds bulldozers busy on his property and massive and expensive renovations taking place, not to question what is going on? What is this bullshit about windows? That does not even begin to address the scale of the renovations, but he glibly mentions this to the group of elderly people he was selling his candidacy to, for the upcoming elections.

It is gratifying to note that the calls for his impeachment are growing and even his own party members who previously closed ranks around him, are now asking him to answer for his scandalous behaviour. However there are still those within the ANC and bewilderingly some members of the public who think it’s okay to misappropriate public money.

Let’s hope that both these miscreants and the President are given what they deserve before the elections in less than two months, because the country surely will not survive another term of office with Zuma in charge.

#In case you’re wondering about the picture. It’s a new meme doing the rounds on social media. It points out that the public did not ask for the very expensive electronic tolling of major highways which the President signed into effect a few months ago, and which is attracting massive resistance.

And oh, you might want to check out this parody of what I would describe as the worst song ever, which suddenly became somewhat likeable.

Low Down Dirty Shame

It’s been exactly a week since Thuli Madonsela the South African Public Protector, released a report into the outrageous spending of R246-million of public funds on security (sic) upgrades to President Jacob Zuma’s private compound residence Nkandla.

Oh there’s been the usual ducking and dodging, disingenuous comments and feigned outrage by the President’s hand-picked cronies Ministers and acolytes, but Zuma himself has kept mum except to utter these condescending, yet self-reflective remarks at some political rally today:

Some take the people of South Africa for granted and underestimate their intelligence.

Be an example and lead.

The guy’s such a smug piece of political vermin, he’s blind to the irony.

Off course, Zuma’s henchmen are not the only people rallying to his defence; ordinary members of the (credulous) public such as this one in an open letter, tried to cast veiled aspersions at the Public Protector, but failed gloriously – and not because of his atrocious spelling and grammar. It was actually quite hilarious to read (if you can stomach the grammar) in the end.

Others however were not fooled by the claims of innocence, as the The Lone Groover’s (rather good) attempt at poetry demonstrates:

My president is a fool,
he has no understanding
of the difference
between
serve and rule.

My president is a liar,
he lines his pockets
and he lights the fire
giggling
over his objects
of desire.

My president is a thief,
rotten to the core
way beyond belief
living in the past
and thinking like a chief.

My president makes me sad
as he squanders all the resources
that we have.

My president makes no sense
with his claims of innocence.

And my people make me cry
when they vote once more
for this guy.

However, the best riposte by far has to be this cartoon:

So for now, the long-suffering public is in for the long wait, as it appears likely that Zuma will waste yet more of our taxes fighting this thing in the courts.

If you’d like to wade through the rather lengthy Public Protector’s report on the Nkandla scandal, here’s a PDF version:

Secure In Comfort

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.

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?

How's this for bare-faced cheek from a government spin-doctor?

Image via Wikipedia

No so long ago the Sunday Times newspaper in South Africa published a damning investigative report [story with timelines here] about the irregular signing of a R500-million lease agreement which involved the National Police Commissioner Bheki Cele.

After receiving a request by the Director of the South African Institute for Accountability, the Public Protector conducted an investigation which has found the Commissioner guilty of improper conduct, a ruling which most sane people will find grossly under-exaggerates his guilt. There was certainly much more involved in this whole saga, as suggested by the Sunday Times report.

Today, the ANC spokesperson Jackson Mthembu released this highly amusing statement, following heated calls for the Police Commissioner to be axed:

We note that the violation of public administration laws, in terms of the public protector’s conclusion on the matter, does not necessarily amount to a criminal finding.

He followed up with this absolute howler when requesting all parties to take the…

…necessary corrective action in a manner that restores public confidence in our administration

Here’s the obvious problems which the ANC seemingly have failed to take notice off:

1. Misconduct and violation of administration laws are deeply frowned upon in the private sector and invariably leads to dismissal and in some cases further criminal prosecution of the offender. In the case where the offender is employed as a servant of the public and has abused both trust and public funds, the offence should be deemed to be doubly [if not more] serious. We should not be baying for the cretins head, but for the rest of his miserable, thieving body too.
2. How can the ANC seriously expect public confidence to be restored when this is but one of a very long list of transgressions involving corruption? The ANC must surely consider their voters to be seriously ignorant or retarded or both.

Once again, we’re being shown the utter contempt that the ANC has for the people.