The President is hands-on… Bwahahahaha!

I read with disbelief, this response to a blog post in Mail & Guardian, an online publication, from the government’s Communications department.

We read, with disbelief, the tirade by William Saunderson-Meyer supposedly on the performance of government, entitled “The Zuma government is floundering about” (August 18 2012).

Saunderson-Meyer tells us that the President “has been preoccupied with ensuring a second term at the African National Congress’s elective conference in December”. The writer provides no scientific evidence to back up this assertion. He has taken gossip that he has read elsewhere, and presents it to readers as analysis.

Also worrying, is the tone of the article, which is very condescending. It demonstrates that the writer has no respect for the South African head of state.

Well actually, my initial disbelief was replaced with howls of laughter, because the jackass who wrote that, one Sydwell Mabasa, is not only just another government stooge, but he has a little understanding of the scientific method, not to mention logical fallacies.

Saunderson-Meyer’s article was written from observation of government’s performance over a number of years, and even the most optimistic supporter will have to honestly admit that “it is floundering.” While President Zuma staggers from one political and personal  blunder to the next, his government seems to imitate him, with dizzying acts of inferior performance in almost every department of government.

Sydwell commits a cardinal fallacy by selectively picking a handful of the achievements (dubious though some of them are) of the ANC government’s tenure, and blatantly ignoring the multitude of failures, and acts of gross incompetence that have sullied the country’s reputation on the world stage. He arrogantly asserts that the piece of paper [Constitution/Bill of Rights] that guarantees certain freedoms coupled with the right to vote, is equivalent to the holy grail that the South African population have been seeking since Apartheid times.

Big fucking deal. These rights and freedoms enshrined in the constitution are being trampled on daily, by none other than the very government created to protect them. And what of the right to vote? Democracy South African style, guarantees you the RIGHT to be beguiled into making your choice for those with the most expensive marketing campaigns and creatively subtle threats. And if Sydwell needs the so-called “scientific evidence, it’s there for all to observe, unless you’re willfully blind, deaf or ignorant.

Saunderson-Meyer is quite correct. Zuma has surrounded himself with woefully inept Ministers and scheming acolytes whose only intention seems to be in securing their vertiginous rise from revolution to royalty. They may punt the bill of rights in public, but in private they’re secretly counting the bills that they have managed to line their pockets with.

Yes folks, as one commenter in the article said, Zuma is hands on alright – his hands are on the taxpayers money. What the commenter didn’t mention is that his hands are also on a lot of women too…

ANC: The struggle continues?

In their centenary year, the ANC seem keen to make it known that it has been a struggle all along. Even though the last 17 or so years have been spent in charge of South Africa, they will tell you that it has been tough at the top of the pile.

Every failure while governing – and boy does that happen with regularity – was the fault of apartheid, uncooperative Whites, a third force hell-bent on making them fail, and even the Devil himself. Yes, there were successes, a lot of them, but scales are tipping in the wrong direction in the last few years, more especially since Jacob Zuma assumed the reigns after booting out AIDS-denialist, Thabo Mbeki.

The ANC spent the last week, and R40 million (if reports are to be believed), in an euphemistically named Policy Conference. From what we’ve been hearing coming out of that talk-shop, it was nothing more than a very expensive pow-wow to talk utter rubbish about utter rubbish. The only occurrence of note, was when some of the delegates came to actual blows – again if news reports are to be believed.

And while the ANC was yammering inanities at the Gallagher Estate Conference venue, flanked by huge banners reminding everyone of that famous 100-year struggle, it seems that thousands of undelivered school textbooks were being burned in the Limpopo Province, while replacement textbooks had still not been delivered to schools, 6 months into the academic year. The pathetic Minister under whose watch this shambles occurred, seems largely unconcerned. Some of their more pathetic supporters [check out one Dave Harris in the comments section of the blog by William Saunderson-Meyer, referenced above] actually wants us to belive that the late (6 months?) delivery of textbooks is not a biggie.

Now imagine if R40 million (admittedly an exaggeration) worth of catering was not delivered on time to this so-called Policy Conference. I’m willing to bet big dollars that the visibly portly ANC delegates at this talk-shit-shop would have been up in arms.

What an absolute disgrace? The phrase Aluta Continua that the ANC and its struggle allies bandy about so freely, is actually a corruption of the Portuguese phrase “A luta continua, vitória é certa,” which means “The struggle continues, victory is certain.”

In my mind, there is no doubt that the struggle by the ANC indeed continues… the struggle to hide the theft, corruption, incompetence, lies, misogyny, backstabbing, racism, hatred, ignorance, idiocy, arrogance, self-serving, cheating, conniving, bling etc. etc. etc. that so characterizes this fallen organization, after the departure of Nelson Mandela.

And what is certain, is not victory. No, the victory belongs to the ANC only, not to the people…

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.