CWTV SERIES - GOSSIP GIRL

<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2KKvAVNUXvVHJBHR_OBPTFg6fCNvGhpF6UpaQ5h-P2F7vvkblFsoryV2ByqcN22jLSNtE818o_a-BOGEtgMYeXvs6d1S35UvNxSuAw09j7E2A1bbV1mGk4C6RV2ksZW6KSopA6d4obYwg/s1600-h/gossipgirl.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5263492256375828834" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2KKvAVNUXvVHJBHR_OBPTFg6fCNvGhpF6UpaQ5h-P2F7vvkblFsoryV2ByqcN22jLSNtE818o_a-BOGEtgMYeXvs6d1S35UvNxSuAw09j7E2A1bbV1mGk4C6RV2ksZW6KSopA6d4obYwg/s400/gossipgirl.jpg" style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 309px;" /></a><br /><br /><strong>Gossip Girl</strong> <br /><br />Gossip Girl is a series of novels written for teenagers by Cecily von Ziegesar. Gossip Girl is also the nom de plume of the narrator, and the title of the first novel in the series. It has also been adapted into a TV series airing on The CW and CTV. It spawned two spin-off book series, The It Girl and Gossip Girl: The Carlyles<br /><br /><strong>Plot summary</strong><br /><br />The Gossip Girl series revolves around a group of teenagers, four of whom live in the opulent Upper East Side of Manhattan in New York City. The teenagers deal with sex and relationship problems while attending elite private single-sex schools, where their lives are watched by the unseen title character who writes a popular blog about them. Whether or not the characters are aware of the omnipresent Gossip Girl, their every action is noticed and closely documented by the narrator. The main characters are Serena van der Woodsen, Blair Waldorf, Nate Archibald, Jenny Humphrey, Dan Humphrey, Chuck Bass and Vanessa Abrams. Throughout the books, the characters deal with problems that stem from the Upper East Side lifestyle. At the beginning of the series, Serena returns from boarding school for an unknown reason. She resumes her "best friends forever" status with Blair and her "normal" life filled with designer clothing and wild parties. The private girls' school of the series, Constance Billard School for Girls, is an exaggerated version of the author's alma mater, the Nightingale-Bamford School.[1]<br /><br />Starring:<br />Blake Lively as Serena Van Der Woodsen <br />Leighton Meester as Blair <br />Connor Paolo as Eric <br />Chace Crawford as Nate <br />Ed Westwick as Chuck <br />Penn Badgley as Dan <br />Taylor Momsen as Jenny <br />Kelly Rutherford as Lily <br />Sam Robards as Howie "The Captain" Archibald <br />Kristin Bell as the Narrator<br /><br />Synopsis: <br />From the brilliant minds that brought us The O.C. comes a fun drama about wealthy teens living in New York City. They may live privileged lives, but someone amongst their group is always busy blogging about their dirty little secrets - the problem is they don't know who has been betraying them.<br /><br /><strong>Gossip Girl Season 2 Extended Preview</strong><br /><br /><object height="344" width="425"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/NXSgqVjewL4&hl=en&fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/NXSgqVjewL4&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object><br /><br /><strong>Gossip girl last 2 minutes </strong><br /><br /><object height="344" width="425"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/8NQ5HNEtv8g&hl=en&fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/8NQ5HNEtv8g&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object><br /><br /><br /><em>Thanks and credits to hgal18 & CWtelevision</em>

CWTV SERIES - GOSSIP GIRL

Gossip Girl Gossip Girl is a series of novels written for teenagers by Cecily von Ziegesar. Gossip Girl is also the nom de plume of the nar...

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Obama's deception about his true radical agenda

<p><embed name="FLVPlayer" pluginspage="http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer" src="http://www.onetruemedia.com/share_view_player?p=" width="327" height="290" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" quality="high" scale="noscale" wmode="transparent" salign="LT" flashvars="&p=74403794a76c9d2e2903fa&skin_id=1010&host=http://www.onetruemedia.com"></embed><br /><br /><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;">While he was an Illinois state senator, Barack Obama told a Chicago radio show host that he sought "major redistributive change" for the benefit of fellow blacks.<br /><br />He was speaking in the context of the civil rights movement, and how it had fallen short of "economic justice." Although John McCain and other Republicans are afraid to say it, his remarks can only be interpreted to mean one thing: economic reparations for slavery.<br /><br />This is yet another example of Obama's lack of candor and deception about his true radical agenda during this campaign, as well as the mainstream media's failure to vet such serious issues and force them out into the open where voters can see them and have a fair chance to evaluate them before they go to the polls.<br /><br />In 2001, Obama said it's a "tragedy" the Constitution wasn't radically interpreted to force redistribution of wealth for blacks, and it's still an issue of concern for him today. And he suggested he wants to effect "major redistributive change" through legislation.<br />He complained that during the civil-rights era, "the Supreme Court never ventured into issues of redistribution of wealth" for blacks, and that the Warren Court was not "radical" enough.<br /><br />"One of the tragedies of the civil-rights movement was there was a tendency to lose track of the political and community organizing activities on the ground that are able to put together the actual coalitions of power through which you bring about redistributive change," he said while serving as a state lawmaker and University of Chicago lecturer. "And in some ways, we still suffer from that."<br /><br />That was in 2001. Now those coalitions, led by ACORN and other radical urban community organizers, hope to deliver Obama to national power along with a legislative majority working on their behalf.<br /><br />"Maybe I'm sharing my bias here as a legislator, but I'm not optimistic about bringing about major redistributive change through the courts," he added. "The institution just isn't structured that way."<br /><br />Obama explained that justices felt uncomfortable forcing school districts to pay the extra expense to make the necessary changes to accommodate their desegregation rulings. They would rather not get involved in issues of direct remuneration. Legislators, on the other hand, would have no such qualms about making people pay.<br />He said the process of redistributive change and "economic justice" is "administrative and takes a lot of time" -- things that are best left to a federal administration and legislature.<br /><br />In a separate interview, he said the framers of the Constitution had an "enormous blind spot" regarding slavery -- no argument there. But then he said that the Constitution -- in spite of its subsequent proper amendments giving blacks full citizenship and rights -- still "represents the fundamental flaw of this country that continues to this day."<br /><br />This echoes what he wrote in his 2006 autobiography about the Constitution being "marred by the original sin of slavery."<br /><br />Question: Does Obama want to further amend the Constitution in some way? It seems he thinks something is missing, left undone. Does he want to institutionalize reparations somehow? It's a serious question he should be compelled to answer, if he would only give reporters outside his fawning entourage a chance to ask it. (He hasn't held a press conference in over a month.) Remember, Obama was a constitutional lawyer and would know how to get the amendment ratification process started with the right majority in Congress behind such a movement.<br /><br />Back in August, Barack Obama said Washington shouldn't just offer apologies for slavery, but also "deeds." Don't worry, he said, he wasn't talking about direct reparations.<br /><br />I wasn't put at ease then, and I'm definitely not now.<br /><br />"I consistently believe that when it comes to ... reparations," Obama told a gathering of minority journalists, "the most important thing for the U.S. government to do is not just offer words, but offer deeds."<br /><br />A few days later, he clarified his remarks, saying he was not calling for direct cash payments to descendents of slaves, but rather indirect aid in the form of government programs that will "close the gap" between what he sees as white America and black America.<br /><br />In other words, stealth reparations.<br /><br />He says government should offer "universal" programs -- such as universal health care, universal mortgage credits, college tuition, job training and even universal 401(k)s -- that "disproportionately affect people of color."<br /><br />Obama's 2006 book and Web site outline a plan calling for essentially a government bailout of the inner cities, which he describes as "repositories for all the scars of slavery and violence of Jim Crow." Among other things, he proposes:<br /><br /></span></p><ul><li><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;">Doling out federal grants "targeting ex-offenders or substance abusers";<br /></span></li><li><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;">Subsidizing supermarket chains that relocate to the inner city;<br /></span></li><li><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;">Creating a "universal 401(k)" in which the government would tax private contributions and match public contributions made into new retirement accounts by low-income families;<br /></span></li><li><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;">Imposing "goals and timetables for minority hiring" on large corporations whose work forces are deemed too white;<br /></span></li><li><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;">Ramping up funding for the Community Development Block Grant program, Head Start and HUD public housing subsidies.<br /></span></li><li><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;">Funding Small Business Administration loans for minority; businesses who train ex-felons, including gangbangers, for the "green jobs" of the future, such as installing extra insulation in homes;<br /></span></li><li><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;">Doubling the funding for federal after-school programs such as midnight basketball;<br /></span></li><li><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;">Subsidizing job training, day care, transportation for inner-city poor, as well as doubling the funding of the federal Jobs Access and Reverse Commute program;<br /></span></li><li><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;">Expanding the eligibility of the earned income tax credit to include more poor, and indexing it to inflation;<br /></span></li><li><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;">Adopting entire inner-city neighborhoods as wards of the federal government; and </span></li><li><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;">Spending billions on new inner-city employment programs, including prison-to-work programs.<br /><br /></li></ul></span><p><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;">This is just a down payment on the "economic justice" Obama has promised the NAACP -- financed by "tax laws that restore some balance to the distribution of the nation's wealth," he says in his book.<br /><br />And the indirect aid he's proposing now could quickly turn into cash transfers once Obama is safely ensconced in the White House -- with perhaps a filibuster-proof majority of Democrats at the other end of Pennsylvania Avenue.<br /><br />Claiming "blacks were forced into ghettos," Obama is certainly sympathetic to the idea of reparations. His church has actively petitioned for them for decades. And he's strongly suggested there's a legal case to be made for them.<br /><br />"So many of the disparities that exist in the African-American community today can be directly traced to inequalities passed on from an earlier generation that suffered under the brutal legacy of slavery and Jim Crow," he said. "We still haven't fixed them."<br /><br />He assumes the economic gap is a legacy of discrimination and largely unrelated to personal responsibility. He also makes it seem things haven't gotten better for blacks, despite statistics showing enormous economic gains and a rising black middle class ("Better isn't good enough," he insists). He also assumes, like his spiritual mentor Rev. Jeremiah Wright, that America is "still run by racism." Obama claims "institutional racism" still exists in America, without offering any evidence that legalized discrimination still remains in this country, even in its most backwater parts.<br /><br />Another Obama confidante, Rev. Michael Pfleger, has asserted that white people have a moral obligation to surrender their 401(k) funds and other assets, which he suggested properly belong to blacks.<br /><br />Obama himself has said more needs to be done to "cleanse America of its original sin." He said he cannot "brush aside the magnitude of the injustice done, or erase the ghosts of generations past, or ignore the open wound, the aching spirit, that ails this country still."<br /><br />"The problems of inner-city poverty arise from our failure to face up to an often tragic past," Obama said.<br /><br />He also wrote in his recent autobiography that he sympathizes with militant black activists who fear that "white Americans will be let off the hook" for past crimes, such as "a hundred years of lynching under several dozen administrations."<br /><br />"I understand these fears," Obama said, and agrees that the government has a "responsibility to make things right," suggesting there is at least some legitimacy to militant demands for payback.<br /><br />In calling for a "new order," he invoked the memory of abolitionists and their "willingness to spill blood and not just words ... that helped force the issue of a nation half slave and half free."<br /><br />Apparently, Obama is under the delusion such a division still exists in this country, and that radical action must be taken to unshackle blacks from whatever fetters he imagines are holding them back.<br /><br />"I'm reminded that deliberation and the constitutional order may sometimes be the luxury of the powerful," Obama said. "And that it has sometimes been the cranks, the zealots, the prophets, the agitators and the unreasonable -- in other words the absolutists -- that have fought for a new order." By cranks, zealots and agitators, he is no doubt referring to all the radicals -- from Wright and Pfleger to Frank Marshall Davis and Bill Ayers -- with whom he has surrounded himself.<br /><br />Just what is this "new order" he and all his absolutist pals have in mind for America? And why keep it such a mystery from voters?</span> <p></p>

Obama's deception about his true radical agenda

While he was an Illinois state senator, Barack Obama told a Chicago radio show host that he sought "major redistributive change" f...

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Obama's Mansion, Saddam's Money

<p><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPBFI6g4Kw2IpdXmFbvQuYQ4lv_IAlE3K4gPJcPAIC7rJWvF2qbaM0X5ZRJ_orz-58u_e6BPAmkttmm6G_9o2kKZysNHFb42DFVfZJlIzqxASbdSP0lL9YeD5t-IgRzC6t1bZe3dN4ecs/s1600-h/ObamaHouse1.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5265300347493319842" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPBFI6g4Kw2IpdXmFbvQuYQ4lv_IAlE3K4gPJcPAIC7rJWvF2qbaM0X5ZRJ_orz-58u_e6BPAmkttmm6G_9o2kKZysNHFb42DFVfZJlIzqxASbdSP0lL9YeD5t-IgRzC6t1bZe3dN4ecs/s400/ObamaHouse1.jpg" style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 375px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 281px" /></a><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;">Barack Obama appears to have personally benefited from funds originating in Saddam Hussein's regime. It's a complicated connection, but one that deserves the consideration of Americans voters. </span><br /><p><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;"><em><span style="font-size:78%;color:#000099;">Barack Obama's house, Chicago</span></em></p></span><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;">Two similar figures, Nadhmi Auchi and Antoin S. "Tony" Rezko, served as the intermediaries. Both are Middle Eastern males of Catholic Christian heritage who left Baathist dictatorships for Western cities (Auchi from Iraq to London, Rezko from Syria to Chicago). Both became successful businessmen who hobnobbed with politicians and promoted Arab interests. Both have been convicted of taking kickbacks and both stand accused of other shady dealings. </span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;"><em><span style="font-size:78%;color:#000099;"></span></em></span><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;"><br />Auchi, born in 1937, is the more successful. When young, he joined Saddam in the Baath Party. He founded his main financial instrument, the </span><a href="http://www.gmhsa.com/"><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;">General Mediterranean Holding SA</span></a><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;"> in 1979 – revealingly, while still in Iraq. A year later, he emigrated to the United Kingdom. GMHSA now describes itself as a diverse group of 120 companies with consolidated assets of over US$4.2 billion. The Sunday Times (London) recently estimated Auchi's personal </span><a href="http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/specials/rich_list/article3796004.ece"><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;">wealth</span></a><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;"> at £2.15 billion, making him the 27th richest person in Britain. He garnered many </span><a href="http://www.gmhsa.com/nadhmi_auchi_2.html"><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;">honors</span></a><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;"> along the way.<br /><br />On the dark side, a French court in 2003 convicted Auchi of </span><a href="http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/us_and_americas/us_elections/article3433485.ece?print=yes&randnum=1224907031843"><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;">taking kickbacks</span></a><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;"> in the Elf Affair and handed down a suspended jail sentence and fine. One analyst, </span><a href="http://www.globalpolicy.org/nations/launder/regions/2003/1118elf.htm"><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;">Hector Igbikiowubo</span></a><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;">, calls this "probably the biggest political and corporate sleaze scandal to hit a western democracy since World War II." Also in 2003, one of Auchi's firms was accused of taking part in a </span><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2003/apr/04/health.business?commentpage=1"><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;">price-fixing cartel</span></a><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;"> of prescription medicines. In 2004, a report by the Pentagon's International Armament and Technology Trade Directorate found "significant and credible evidence" that Auchi organized a conspiracy to offer bribes to win </span><a href="http://wikileaks.org/wiki/US_Defense_Inspector_General:_Mobile_Telecommunications_Licenses_in_Iraq,_2004"><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;">mobile telephone licenses in Iraq</span></a><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;">. He was </span><a href="http://www.suntimes.com/news/metro/rezko/817377,CST-NWS-watchdog28.stng"><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;">barred from entering the United States</span></a><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;"> in 2005. </span><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;"><br /></span><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;"><br /></span><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLqJVhZvq-DVaaQTqT_U3OBc_gAlEKGL6iP6qufXg3c9VbmYiTeHvcsk2lJv6CBKhYe6r1ihDqRZC4PkOIB8Vo86ks0r4eWLHifKoy_04SJFBBvN9BG_92IBfctc9y9DM1LnD0eBJA2zk/s1600-h/Rezko.jpg"><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:78%;"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5263059565301864034" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLqJVhZvq-DVaaQTqT_U3OBc_gAlEKGL6iP6qufXg3c9VbmYiTeHvcsk2lJv6CBKhYe6r1ihDqRZC4PkOIB8Vo86ks0r4eWLHifKoy_04SJFBBvN9BG_92IBfctc9y9DM1LnD0eBJA2zk/s400/Rezko.jpg" style="FLOAT: right; MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; WIDTH: 250px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 191px" /></span></a><span style="font-family:arial;"><em><span style="font-size:78%;color:#000099;">Tony Rezko (left) with Illinois' junior senator, Barack Obama.</span></em></span><br /></span><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;"><em><span style="font-size:85%;color:#000099;"><br /></span></em></span><a href="http://chicagomag.com/core/pagetools.php?pageid=7030&url=/Chicago-Magazine/November-2007/Mr-Inside-Out/&mode=print"><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;">Rezko</span></a><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;">, born in 1955, arrived in the United States in 1974 to study civil engineering. After some work on road construction projects, he went into the fast-food business, then into real estate, with help from Auchi. His political involvement began in 1983 with a mayoral campaign, after which he acquired a taste for cultivating up-and-coming politicians, notably Obama and the current governor of Illinois, Rod Blagojevich. </span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:78%;color:#000099;"><em></em></span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;">Rezko too has extensive legal problems, starting with a June 2008 conviction on sixteen counts of taking kickbacks from companies wanting to do business with the State of Illinois. He also stands accused of evading </span><a href="http://www.suntimes.com/news/metro/rezko/977195,rezkogamble052908.article"><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;">Las Vegas gambling debts</span></a><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;"> and using false information in the </span><a href="http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2027565/posts"><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;">sale of his pizza businesses</span></a><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;">. In contrast to Auchi's wealth, Rezko is said to be over $50 million in debt.<br /><br />In three steps, these corrupt businessmen tie the Democratic Party presidential candidate to the executed Iraqi tyrant:<br /><br /><br /></span></span><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;"></span><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;"></span><ul><li><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;">Saddam Hussein made use of Auchi: Auchi's fortune largely grew through his Iraq government connection, much of it sub rosa. In the 1980s, he procured </span><a href="http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9805EEDE1E3DF933A05757C0A9659C8B63&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=all"><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;">Italian military ships</span></a><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;">. By 1993, the Italian banker Pierfrancesco Pacini Battaglia testified about Auchi bribing Iraqi officials for an Italian engineering company and called Auchi "one of the most important intermediaries in the affairs of Middle Eastern countries." Auchi is also a major shareholder in BNP Paribas, the French bank deeply implicated in the U.N.'s corrupt Iraq </span><a href="http://www.americanthinker.com/2008/03/obamas_iraqi_oil_for_food_conn.html"><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;">oil-for-food program</span></a><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;">.</span></li></ul><p><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;"></span></p><ul><li><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;">Auchi made use of Rezko: Rezko </span><a href="http://www.suntimes.com/news/metro/rezko/817377,cst-nws-watchdog28.stng"><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;">lobbied for Auchi</span></a><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;"> to be allowed into the United States. A wholly-owned GMHSA subsidiary, </span><a href="http://www.gmhsa.com/pdf/annual_report2006.pdf"><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;">Fintrade Services Inc.</span></a><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;">, transferred a loan of $3.5 million on May 23, 2005 to Rezko.</span></li></ul><p><span style="font-family:arial;"><br /><span style="font-size:130%;"></span></span></p><ul><li><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;">Rezko cultivated Obama: Rezko offered Barack Obama a job in 1990, which Obama declined. Still, Rezko persisted, hiring him for </span><a href="http://www.suntimes.com/news/metro/353829,CST-NWS-rez23.article"><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;">legal work</span></a><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;"> and hosting in 2003 an early fundraiser that, writes David Mendell in </span><a href="http://books.google.com/books?id=ZZsrHQAACAAJ&dq=mendell+Obama&lr=&num=100&ei=OnkDSaLnOY6OzQShqri0Dg"><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;">Obama: From Promise to Power</span></a><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;">, proved "instrumental in providing Obama with seed money" for his nascent U.S. Senate campaign. Then, on June 15, 2005, just twenty-three days after receiving Auchi's $3.5 million, Rezko partnered with Obama in a </span><a href="http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/us_and_americas/us_elections/article3433485.ece?print=yes&randnum=1224907031843"><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;">real estate deal</span></a><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;">: while Rezko's wife paid the full asking price, </span><a href="http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chicago/chi-0702240237feb24,0,2048964,print.story"><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;">$625,000</span></a><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;">, for an empty adjoining lot which they then improved, subdivided, and partially sold to Obama, Obama acquired a mansion for $1.65 million, $300,000 under the asking price.</span></li></ul><br /><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;">Summing up: Barack Obama's house purchase depended on favors from Rezko, flush with a "loan" from Auchi, whose fortune derived in part from Saddam Hussein's favor.<br /><br />When seen in the context of Obama's other dubious connections (Ayers, Davidson, Wright, Khalidi, et al.), this network is all the more alarming. </span><br /><p></p>

Obama's Mansion, Saddam's Money

Barack Obama appears to have personally benefited from funds originating in Saddam Hussein's regime. It's a complicated connection, ...

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South Africa's largest ever rape study - disturbing statistics

<p><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNkMdIXPF-1-r-r2XX-PyTYSUwmd9EnNOMOP4-eioxVVTAey7Ggi_xqwz4aesJ76l2edISXpCgM56GMs_7e1_WPoZ6UMFv9iFmdLnCZrN4Z2SBDgID34cXXi26iM01LhE84Gna71zbq58/s1600-h/child_crying_1.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5263456150387768962" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNkMdIXPF-1-r-r2XX-PyTYSUwmd9EnNOMOP4-eioxVVTAey7Ggi_xqwz4aesJ76l2edISXpCgM56GMs_7e1_WPoZ6UMFv9iFmdLnCZrN4Z2SBDgID34cXXi26iM01LhE84Gna71zbq58/s320/child_crying_1.jpg" style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 241px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 320px" /></a><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;"><strong><span style="color:#cc0000;">Of every 25 men accused of raping a child or adult woman, 24 walk free - and one in every eight rape suspects is under the age of 17.<br /><br />These are just some of the disturbing statistics that have emerged from South Africa's largest ever rape study, which has exposed how local police and justice authorities are failing rape survivors.<br /></span></strong><br />The study, which has tracked 2 068 rape cases reported in 70 Gauteng police stations through the justice system from 2003 to the present, is supported by the SAPS and is due to be released by the Tshwaranang Legal Resources and Centre for the Study of Violence and Reconciliation on Monday.<br /><br />The Tracking Justice study's findings show that:<br /><br /></span><ul><li><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;">Only 4,1 percent of reported rape cases resulted in a conviction.<br /><br /></span></li><li><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;">One out of every 10 child rape cases reported to the police resulted in a conviction.<br /><br /></span></li><li><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;">Half of all reported cases resulted in arrests, but only 42,8 percent were charged in court.<br /><br /></span></li><li><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;">One in five reported rapes resulted in a trial.<br /><br /></span></li><li><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;">One in three alleged rapists were granted bail.<br /><br /></span></li><li><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;">Of the 34 convicted rapists eligible for a life sentence, only four received a life sentence.<br /><br /></span></li><li><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;">More than a third of reported rape victims were under the age of 17, with children under the age of 7 making up 14,6 percent of all victims. </span></li></ul><p><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;">The Tracking Justice study also lays bare shoddy police work:<br /><br /></span></p><ul><li><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;">More than a third of alleged rape victims withdraw their cases. Of these, the cases of one in five are quashed because police claimed they could not trace the alleged victim.<br /><br /></span></li><li><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;">The average number of attempts made by police to contact the alleged victim before declaring her untraceable was three. In some cases, no effort was made.<br /><br /></span></li><li><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;">Reports containing the results of DNA tests were available only in 2 percent of rape dockets, despite sexual assault evidence collection kits being collected in 67 percent of cases and sent to the police's laboratory for testing in 51 percent of cases.<br /><br /></span></li><li><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;">The suspect's blood is taken in only 8,2 percent of cases.<br /><br /></span></li><li><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;">In more than half of all rape dockets, the police official in charge had to repeatedly be urged to arrest the rape suspect. In nearly a third of such cases, the suspect disappeared by the time the police official involved attempted to arrest him.<br /><br /></span></li><li><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;">While police closed nine out of every 20 reported rape cases largely because the alleged perpetrator could not be identified or located, the study found that descriptions of the alleged rapist were absent from over three-quarters of all victims' statements.<br /><br /></span></li></ul><p><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;">The study comes just two months after National Prosecuting Authority head Mokotedi Mpshe admitted under oath that South Africa's justice system was failing its child rape victims.<br /><br />"Instead of having made vast progress since 2000, dedicated (child rape) courts have declined in numbers; SAPS Family Violence, Child Protection and Sexual Offences Units have been redeployed; trained forensic social workers employed by the police have become quite scarce; (some) magistrates have become obstructive; the system of district surgeons was abolished (giving rise to a loss of expertise); and the need for training of all remains, with language barriers exacerbating every identified issue," he said. </span></p><p><span style="font-family:arial;"><a class="l" onmousedown="return clk(this.href,'','','res','11','&sig2=4sIOh3-vRIYCRRTB1GgVvQ')" href="http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?click_id=13&art_id=vn20081027054824684C145739&set_id="><em><span style="font-size:85%;">Police rape study results drown victims' hope</span></em></a><em><span style="font-size:85%;"> - 27 Oct 2008</span></em></span></p><p><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;"> </p></span>

South Africa's largest ever rape study - disturbing statistics

Of every 25 men accused of raping a child or adult woman, 24 walk free - and one in every eight rape suspects is under the age of 17. These ...

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Fifa 'South Africa too dangerous for visitors'

<p><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXEKsdUQtZQaRdJ1z0EbxwUIcn9hX_Azc01dia7VdBZWjU-JbKEJS1Rys4zRck9vskq0XlZ_vafPD5oPEbRfbpl0zCl4R0Zoc_HKQRj7MsiJ2DrVubnFfUckucYLphgGQSVs6Vgq5SCb4/s1600-h/soccerball.gif"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5263048749688037186" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXEKsdUQtZQaRdJ1z0EbxwUIcn9hX_Azc01dia7VdBZWjU-JbKEJS1Rys4zRck9vskq0XlZ_vafPD5oPEbRfbpl0zCl4R0Zoc_HKQRj7MsiJ2DrVubnFfUckucYLphgGQSVs6Vgq5SCb4/s320/soccerball.gif" style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 292px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 320px" /></a><span style="font-family:arial;"><span style="font-size:130%;"><strong><span style="color:#cc0000;">South Africa, suffering from one of the world's highest rates of violent crime, is turning to private security firms to help make the streets safe ahead of hosting the Soccer World Cup, a minister said on Thursday.</span></strong><br /><br /></span><span style="font-size:130%;"><strong><span style="color:#cc0000;">Soccer's world governing body Fifa has raised safety and transport as key concerns for South Africa, which is battling perceptions that it might be too dangerous for visitors.<br /><br />Murders, rapes, robberies and carjackings are frequent and critics accuse the government of not doing enough to contain the violence.<br /></span></strong><br />"South Africa is in a panic mood on the issues of crime" Safety and Security Minister Nathi Mthethwa told reporters.<br /><br />"So we are doing everything possible, we'll partner with everybody, not only the private security companies [but] anyone ... who wants to assist."<br /><br />More than 400 000 visitors are expected to attend the 2010 tournament, officials said.<br />Fifa has approved South Africa's security blueprint but has said it needs to be fine-tuned ahead of the world's most popular sporting event.<br /><br />South Africa's 2010 safety and security strategy covers terror threats, hooliganism and crime. Hooliganism is not a part of the soccer scene in South Africa, though there have been some random incidents of fan violence.<br /><br />Despite the high crime, tourism growth in South Africa outpaced the global average of 5% in the first quarter of 2008, surging to 11,9% after a record 9,1-million tourist <em><strong><span style="color:#cc0000;">(refugees and asylum-seekers)</span></strong></em> arrivals last year, authorities have said. </span></span></p><p><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;"><em><strong><span style="color:#cc0000;">(Stats SA data show that more than three-quarters (76.1%) of foreign arrivals were from Africa, while 23.0% were from overseas countries. The number of foreign arrivals was up from 778 725 in July 2007 to 836 554 in July 2008 of which 636 475 were arrivals from Africa.)</span></strong></em><br /><br />The government has held "extensive" consultations with the private security industry to bolster crime fighting over the Christmas season, hoping to ensure the safety of local and foreign tourists, said Mthethwa. - Reuters </span></p><p></p>

Fifa 'South Africa too dangerous for visitors'

South Africa, suffering from one of the world's highest rates of violent crime, is turning to private security firms to help make the st...

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ANC 'majority will be slashed' and allow for investigations into arms deal & Travelgate

<p><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQZ6M2MKyMg-d8pAJJ9RtrxQ3B2TNJI92X1NKoHTYTjv5aZzFZFNq9andnfHEmyxjmD4cJZ1J46skpW1XfCfYmLF6ZMfdb_PorvJ6Ch3dUPuXAjb733ArrQ11682ffruQlkQ32ld6lH_Q/s1600-h/zuma6.jpg"><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5263067891060642642" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQZ6M2MKyMg-d8pAJJ9RtrxQ3B2TNJI92X1NKoHTYTjv5aZzFZFNq9andnfHEmyxjmD4cJZ1J46skpW1XfCfYmLF6ZMfdb_PorvJ6Ch3dUPuXAjb733ArrQ11682ffruQlkQ32ld6lH_Q/s400/zuma6.jpg" style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 203px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 250px" /></span></a><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;">While the ANC might win the elections next year, United Democratic Movement (UDM) leader Bantu Holomisa is adamant that the party will no longer have a two-thirds majority in parliament.<br /><br />He was addressing a lively audience at the TUT/Pretoria News Public Lecture Series at the university's Pretoria campus on Tuesday night.<br /><br />According to Holomisa, the loss of the two-thirds majority will allow for the opening of investigations into the controversial arms deal and Travelgate, as the ANC has used its majority to block inquiries into the two issues.<br /><br />Holomisa described this as a healthy situation for the country's democracy. He said the rebellion that has occurred within the ruling party had not only divided the ANC, but had divided the country as well.<br /><br />"If they think Terror (Lekota) would be targeting only within the 600 000 card-holding ANC members, they are (fooling) themselves.<br /><br />"There are about 18 million voters out there and many of them are not happy with what has been happening," said Holomisa.<br /><br />He did not rule out forming a coalition with the breakaway movement led by the Lekota and former Gauteng premier Mbhazima Shilowa.<br /><br />"Whether we will go into a coalition with them will of course depend on how well they perform in the elections.<br /><br />"We have formed coalitions before, even with the ANC in Kwazulu-Natal because they were struggling to form a provincial government," said Holomisa.<br /><br />He attributed the current political crisis within the ANC to the controversial multi-billion rand arms deal that has seen ANC president Jacob Zuma fighting corruption charges.<br />"Is it not ironic that both Zuma and former president Thabo Mbeki never got to finish their terms in office because of issues related to the arms deal?<br /><br />"It was controversial from the start because the White Paper by the parliament's defence review had made it clear that there was no immediate necessity to channel resources into arms. Instead it recommended that these resources be channelled towards the RDP," said Holomisa.<br /><br />Holomisa said the ruling party had justified the arms deal by saying it would create 65 000 permanent jobs and generate at least R4-billion in offsets and counter-trade.<br /><br />In reality, the cost of the deal had skyrocketed from an initial R29-billion to over R60-billion and costs were still mounting.<br /><br />"If this was the way of creating employment, why were poorer countries not just striking arms deals to create employment for their people?" he asked.<br /><br />Holomisa castigated ANC leaders like treasurer Mathews Phosa for making reckless statements about the country's economy.<br /><br />"He is not even in government but he was already assuring banks that they would be bailed out by the government if the current global economic crisis started to take its toll on South African banks," said Holomisa.<br /><br />Asked whether Zuma would be suitable as head of state, Holomisa said he could do well if he surrounded himself with better advisers than the ones he currently had.<br /><br />Holomisa asked why the ANC wanted a political solution to Zuma's legal woes while they maintained his innocence.<br /><br />"He even travelled to Mauritius to stop the use of evidence from documents against him, including a diary that does not even belong to him," he said. </span><p>

ANC 'majority will be slashed' and allow for investigations into arms deal & Travelgate

While the ANC might win the elections next year, United Democratic Movement (UDM) leader Bantu Holomisa is adamant that the party will no lo...

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Moiiuoaieiosiouaeuuoia Terrorpatrick Youdaman Lekota

<p><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjk2SRU6tcMKOVj9YzPjrBM3dp2UyrPjFsI5fbrKFqeLGAYXq1NEGrAdnDjL3T7Croia6E4if2TiKmxxSGfpt9_-2i9GAsVvCanOlmJTzST6oB00-whslZNQEbXlN7zPOd1q_oMAu3rc_8/s1600-h/lekota_mosiuoa220.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5263290257167557778" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjk2SRU6tcMKOVj9YzPjrBM3dp2UyrPjFsI5fbrKFqeLGAYXq1NEGrAdnDjL3T7Croia6E4if2TiKmxxSGfpt9_-2i9GAsVvCanOlmJTzST6oB00-whslZNQEbXlN7zPOd1q_oMAu3rc_8/s400/lekota_mosiuoa220.jpg" style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 220px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 272px" /></a><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;">PRETORIA. Rebel politician Mosiuoa Lekota says he wall reward loyalty at the polls by adding more vowels to his name because the masses like a chief with a long name. According to Lekota aides, he is likely to rename himself Moiiuoaieiosiouaeuuoia Lekota, although pundits agree it will make little difference as his name will still be unpronounceable.<br /><br />Lekota and former Gauteng premier Mbhazima Barney Barnato Shilowa are currently planning their first national conference, where they will try to explain to voters why their policies are completely different from and entirely identical to those of the ANC.<br /><br />"People are still a bit confused," said Lekota spokesman Pipsqueak Sephuma.<br /><br />"They are saying, 'But aren't you the same politicians who got the country into a mess under Thabo Mbeki, and endorsed quiet diplomacy with Mugabe, and denied Aids, and bought weapons while your people starved, and undermined the judiciary, and damaged race relations, and ignored crime?'<br /><br />"But what we're saying is…"<br /><br />"What we're saying is…"<br /><br />He then asked to be excused, saying he had "made a terrible terrible mistake".<br /><br />He is believed to have resigned.<br /><br />However new party organizers say they are confident that their new slogan – "Better The Corrupt And Arrogant Politicians You Know Than The Corrupt And Arrogant Politicians You Don't" – will make a difference at the polls next year.<br /><br />And Lekota has vowed to "give back to the people" by dramatically lengthening his name should the party make serious inroads in Parliament.<br /><br />According to one party insider who did not wish to be named but is believed to be Lekota's auntie Ivy, the politician has "always understood that the masses like chiefs with a long name".<br /><br />"If you can't have a big mshini then you must have a big name," she said, adding that Lekota had always had "something of a crush on Sri Lankan cricketers because they have those wonderful long names".<br /><br />She revealed that Lekota's imaginary friend as a child had been called Nelson Terrorpatrickterrorpatrick Lekotalekotalekota Youdaman Lekota.<br /><br />"That's why he got on so well with Thabo Mbeki," she said. "Thabo also had an imaginary friend. Two, actually. Funny little pixies, one on each shoulder, and they'd tell him what to do and what to say, and he grew to love them very much."<br /><br />Asked what their names had been, she said she thought they might have been called Essop and Aziz Pahad. </span><br /><br /><a href="http://www.hayibo.com/"><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:85%;"><em>http://www.hayibo.com</em></span></a></p>

Moiiuoaieiosiouaeuuoia Terrorpatrick Youdaman Lekota

PRETORIA. Rebel politician Mosiuoa Lekota says he wall reward loyalty at the polls by adding more vowels to his name because the masses like...

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5,733 police officers do not have valid driving licences

<p><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4KDRx-10HIz7qnEuZcFbwlhlNuqcLF3ZxPhGw9BMQ0UtYD7dQhz_GL9VJCS5HSMH-e0u1GwtnqCfyJT1vgLhzSrGcATOuOm-jzLPhvy5caxM_JRRb-DL4n8UznkZRIASTbQiK0aeczuQ/s1600-h/Police_1.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5262326127623526274" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4KDRx-10HIz7qnEuZcFbwlhlNuqcLF3ZxPhGw9BMQ0UtYD7dQhz_GL9VJCS5HSMH-e0u1GwtnqCfyJT1vgLhzSrGcATOuOm-jzLPhvy5caxM_JRRb-DL4n8UznkZRIASTbQiK0aeczuQ/s400/Police_1.jpg" style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 400px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 279px" /></a><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;">Cape Town - Nathi Mthethwa, the new Safety and Security Minister, has told Parliament that 5 733 police officers do not have valid driving licences.<br /><br />These include 3 338 inspectors, 1 712 sergeants, and as many as 280 captains.<br /><br />Giving these figures in a written answer to a parliamentary question from James Masango of the Democratic Alliance circulated on Tuesday, Mthethwa said the current figures were arrived at after a verification process which followed a similar question put last year.<br /><br />He also admitted that the non-drivers included 620 members of the detective service and 67 from crime intelligence. Four-thousand nine-hundred and eight-four members of the visible policing units could not drive. Seventeen superintendents cannot either.<br /><br />The provincial breakdown of non-drivers shows that Gauteng and the Eastern Cape account for more than half the cops unfamiliar with the steering wheel. </span><p><a class="l" onmousedown="return clk(this.href,'','','res','1','')" href="http://www.news24.com/News24/South_Africa/News/0,,2-7-1442_2164580,00.html"><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;"><em>'Thousands of cops can't drive': South Africa: News: News24</em></span></a></p><p>

5,733 police officers do not have valid driving licences

Cape Town - Nathi Mthethwa, the new Safety and Security Minister, has told Parliament that 5 733 police officers do not have valid driving l...

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How to ruin a country in Ten years...

<p><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;"><span style="color:#cc0000;">This image has been doing the rounds in South Africa<strong>.</strong></span></span><strong><span style="color:#cc0000;"><span style="color:#cc0000;"><br /></span><br /></span></strong><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgv0RODzjpCnJeLXdULzZhdtFelz4LmXTKzRzlprdxfN3SchLaJq_Coz_zXmUvZJseCKM4ks2kc554S6zyiHozAsp_lswrlF6SM1Bo66s_XPYndtyWxJFX70rLocm0HELJQ8wImYMxEW2Y/s1600-h/How_to_ruin_a_country_in_ten_years.jpg"><strong><span style="color:#cc0000;"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5262311100917384466" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgv0RODzjpCnJeLXdULzZhdtFelz4LmXTKzRzlprdxfN3SchLaJq_Coz_zXmUvZJseCKM4ks2kc554S6zyiHozAsp_lswrlF6SM1Bo66s_XPYndtyWxJFX70rLocm0HELJQ8wImYMxEW2Y/s400/How_to_ruin_a_country_in_ten_years.jpg" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 400px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 300px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" /></span></strong></a><strong><span style="color:#cc0000;"> </span></strong><p>

How to ruin a country in Ten years...

This image has been doing the rounds in South Africa .

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House robbers Murder, Rape and Torture, their victims

<p><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2XzxZwL_enO2XYd6h7pzhKCLQwPebTH8812UXwY5hTtjw-ofMZmFENQvldMA0FvvST8w5_Dvbp6GnOnraNVmUOIZ__xdJeFWlA6cSqQ7Vd9TkscggCgVNzCDVe2oxgjfQz-fIa2wUoz0/s1600-h/crime-sa.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5262308513238170514" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2XzxZwL_enO2XYd6h7pzhKCLQwPebTH8812UXwY5hTtjw-ofMZmFENQvldMA0FvvST8w5_Dvbp6GnOnraNVmUOIZ__xdJeFWlA6cSqQ7Vd9TkscggCgVNzCDVe2oxgjfQz-fIa2wUoz0/s400/crime-sa.jpg" style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 319px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 400px" /></a><br /><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;">South Africa's house robbers are becoming more violent as attacks against home owners escalate.<br /><br />This was the message from University of South Africa crime researcher Rudolph Zinn when he spoke in Pretoria last week. Zinn has recently finished a report on the profiling of South African house robbers that it is hoped will assist in the fight against crime.<br /><br />Zinn interviewed 30 prisoners held in six Gauteng prisons for house robbery, a sub-category of robbery with aggravating circumstances.<br /><br />Between the 2002/2003 and 2006/2007 financial years, house robberies increased by 29 percent, with 12 761 attacks occurring in the 2006/2007 financial year.<br /><br />"Between the 2006/2007 and 2007/2008 financial years, these attacks increased by 25 percent, with 40 house robberies occurring every day, 20 of them taking place in Gauteng," he said.<br /><br />The study revealed that those interviewed had, in total, committed 2 099 crimes, with 20 of the offenders admitting that they were involved in 2 051 crimes, which they had yet to be convicted for.<br /><br />Zinn said 83 percent of those surveyed were South Africans aged between 19 and 26, 76 percent of them having left school between grades 8 and 12.<br /><br />The study also shows that 97 percent use guns in the attacks, 30 percent commit murder, and 13 percent rape and torture their victims.</span><p>

House robbers Murder, Rape and Torture, their victims

South Africa's house robbers are becoming more violent as attacks against home owners escalate. This was the message from University of ...

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Another hole in Oxford Rd

<p><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEikl8Sm1JkDZ7mUErbhl3gw7Q3FafRYDhqanG5LvXQfm0VdIDbOiE_Qsdth-pbm0Z89gklmKAzkd3s5mqZPSmW5c851HhBSFto9XGXeZ7nlCZ701Jt7TTSy7OKPE7QZDC0rk8Lnz40faxk/s1600-h/oxford+rd.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5262328859650888322" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEikl8Sm1JkDZ7mUErbhl3gw7Q3FafRYDhqanG5LvXQfm0VdIDbOiE_Qsdth-pbm0Z89gklmKAzkd3s5mqZPSmW5c851HhBSFto9XGXeZ7nlCZ701Jt7TTSy7OKPE7QZDC0rk8Lnz40faxk/s400/oxford+rd.jpg" style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 300px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 200px" /></a><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;">A hole which appeared on Oxford Road on Tuesday morning has led to the closure of the road, Bombela Civils Joint Venture said.<br /><br />Spokesperson Kelebogile Machaka said a subsidence occurred on the northbound lane of Oxford Road between Riviera Road and 8th Avenue.<br /><br />Bombela became aware of the hole around 7.30am. The hole was approximately 2m in diameter and 1m deep. A blue Nissan van, belonging to one of the Bombela workers, fell into the hole. No one was inside the van at the time and no one was injured. The van was towed out.<br /><br />"Gautrain tunnelling activities in this area were completed in September 2008," Machaka said.<br /><br />"Due to the close proximity of our site (Emergency Shaft E3) Bombela assisted in closing off the road and stabilising the exposed utilities in the interests of the public."<br /><br />Oxford Road in Riviera was closed between Riviera Road and 8th Avenue.<br /><br />"Traffic flow from the area is being diverted in order to allow the City of Johannesburg and utility owners to conduct investigations to determine the cause of the incident."<br /><br />Motorists could use 8th Avenue, Main Road and Riviera Road as an alternative route, said Johannesburg metro police spokesperson Superintendent Wayne Minnaar.<br /><br />North Road could be accessed from Main road. Restanwold road could be accessed from Eastwold way or via Englewold drive into Beechwold road and then via either Methwold or Aldswold roads.<br /><br />It was not known how long it would take to repair the hole.<br /><br />A previous such hole took eight weeks to repair, between July and 1 September, said Minnaar.</span><p>

Another hole in Oxford Rd

A hole which appeared on Oxford Road on Tuesday morning has led to the closure of the road, Bombela Civils Joint Venture said. Spokesperson ...

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Rampage schoolboys to be punished with blacks, normal sized girls

<p><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifIlinWGCWGlPG2d4VWM5ohs465RF0VWnugu2zP0a0fQejFsWVKWJujmAewIU3X1qJf5LUzgVHJgC7J8DJKyM-CLE_XIOOZtCPAaXu8B4FNzF8FjsCgoOPjJVFPu7FNszxihoYPJ2blBw/s1600-h/High_School_Girls.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5261955344636170386" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifIlinWGCWGlPG2d4VWM5ohs465RF0VWnugu2zP0a0fQejFsWVKWJujmAewIU3X1qJf5LUzgVHJgC7J8DJKyM-CLE_XIOOZtCPAaXu8B4FNzF8FjsCgoOPjJVFPu7FNszxihoYPJ2blBw/s400/High_School_Girls.jpg" style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 400px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 320px" /></a><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;">CAPE TOWN. An elite Cape Town private school has confirmed that the Matric class that ran amok last week will be punished by making them talk to a black person and appear in public with either a Jew or a Muslim. The schoolboys have been granted a farewell dance but they will not be allowed to take anorexic blonde partners as has been the case since 1903.<br /><br />The school, which has asked Hayibo.com not to name it as its pupils and staff face enough ridicule on a day-to-day basis for having underdeveloped chins, made headlines last week after its senior class ran through the school damaging property and leaving behind lewd graffiti.<br /><br />According to an unnamed source, the violence had included "sexual abuse of a statue of Cecil John Rhodes in the Empire Memorial Quad, and the theft from the Chapel of a ceremonial dominatrix paddle used by headmasters since 1877".<br /><br />This morning the current headmaster, who has been at the school since he was a fetus, said that the perpetrators would be harshly dealt with.<br /><br />"I have instructed Matron to tell Mumsy to communicate it to Crispin the school factotum to tell the boys that we will not tolerate this kind of violence," said the headmaster.<br /><br />"Unless of course it is standard homoerotic bullying sanctioned by the school's governing body, which this wasn't," he added.<br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiuPNd_vKIx7yxKLwzEXKSPNvvka2vkmAHyYr9M0_MCJO0laFd4SLFWfcztDfvH4B-bJdo8ijt6yNYRqDEEdREUQ2EWmh1hqeT5W3MfB71EsaaoPzUz_f488ta1nDdRsUzgJfam4GMjFRg/s1600-h/fat-girl-black.jpg"></a><br />He said that the punishment, to be meted out immediately, was intended to give the boys "a taste of real life beyond the ivy-covered walls of our Mother School" and would require them to "approach and speak to, for a period not exceeding half an hour, a genuine black person of African extraction, as well as appearing in a public space with a person of either Hebrew or Mohammedan extraction".<br /><br />However, he said, the most severe punishment would involve the Matric farewell dance.<br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzHzIhyTVTTr3zV71QK3pwyoA5QnDjK0HsjTv1peXGjsU9SxnH6Iy5UrsU9nMAKYl1tT5SCzD34OnekVZ6fIvAy3U41ZbLaXrzQQwmL9j9fPHW6NQcKRU-pTFKeCDw_G9CiJ4m13g5HAU/s1600-h/delusion.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5262125096129471090" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzHzIhyTVTTr3zV71QK3pwyoA5QnDjK0HsjTv1peXGjsU9SxnH6Iy5UrsU9nMAKYl1tT5SCzD34OnekVZ6fIvAy3U41ZbLaXrzQQwmL9j9fPHW6NQcKRU-pTFKeCDw_G9CiJ4m13g5HAU/s400/delusion.jpg" style="FLOAT: right; MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; WIDTH: 320px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 400px" /></a><br />He explained that anorexic bottle-blonde women were the norm in the school's community, "understandably, as they are really the only things worth breeding with".<br /><br />However he said that this year the boys would be barred from bringing their regular partners to the dance, and would be required to bring girls who were "disturbingly normal, both in body shape and hair colour".<br /><br />He said that the boys had been nauseated to learn that most women didn't have knee-bones that were wider than their thighs and didn't have shoulder blades that protruded enough to sever bra straps.<br /><br />He added that some of the boys, "the clever, poor ones who are here on scholarships", had encountered "fat brunettes" before, and were often related to them, but he said that the rest of the boys were "severely shocked". However he said the school was beyond sympathy. <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0T1n92J1I7kT-ObSVcwHOpty7vKyU_B9FBlCI_oqjLZ-ldMy0xUkpRSeZzgg-7A7ajnDL2ViLtmnkVKTU0HCpTE3ngADKM0Ju_3fb63fQBLfU3lzBZQ0Onl9TtsWPHOYpvjpkDQ_FCsA/s1600-h/skinny-chics.jpg"></a></span></p><p><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjk5-jJ0mNcn4MVfphDVcYM05rywZf5EB5BYkAPunIm85YJ6u3MZ0KJOci1diGiMQl_45tmZDUq4EcTFk8CCjp3AkHeEBscwlP6i7QoZWh9NqYG8gCo9c5-nLOMQozHDhI4-0SDSzyAugw/s1600-h/skinny-knee.jpg"></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUc4ZL6AxhgeXUoFWNPx4DZiU91FDUc_1Y39TPYH1cVEcR7U3GgPHI6e5HtlnuolvkqtNMd2BBqDE2rT821y1-gW26yvK99Jkz8aFFwmoqZhqxNLEAQXXn5-AtMx1TsU_m_j9K4A3R3WY/s1600-h/youth-culture.jpg"></a>Meanwhile the reaction from the boys' girlfriends has been one of outrage and despair.<br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-kwzCp5tEx-sxYqr9q0Vz0Jx9qVfr4kFDoNnnJbd7RfpvXFB-pXY-uoYTfjfYV-1WPfXvtQxb9FrPcDtkg4TdY6WG0xVzqaI8pfwAB73bdJ7_7eDqd2uFEihhT5wYMapug-OCIpwG8ro/s1600-h/skinny-school-girl.bmp"></a><br />Tammy Rommel-Hess, 18, of Berchtesgaden Golf Estate in Bishopscourt, said that she and many of her friends had been working on their eating disorders for years, and that it would now all be a waste of countless hours spent hunched over the toilet.</span> </p><p><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;">"It was all part of a complex plan," she sobbed.<br /><br />"Go to the Matric Dance, get married, have a son, and a back-up daughter in case the son needs an organ transplant, do modeling, run an art gallery in a mall, and finally emigrate to London."<br /><br />Now, she said, her "dream was in tatters".</span> </p><p></p>

Rampage schoolboys to be punished with blacks, normal sized girls

CAPE TOWN. An elite Cape Town private school has confirmed that the Matric class that ran amok last week will be punished by making them tal...

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Mbeki Sanctioned Mugabe Power-Grab, Says Party

<p><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4yoDbeDxYt7uEkM0cWeG28Fr5qqHD1kRQTVvXFtwCftFwXpRYr4skYdZET0_fKm53xF4D4mvyqZv5hCRtIMxKch9J-qbIRY_HyZ2rwUJ-j1Cj_JTXEjIf32i25eVs-oH4tKoWNOCNvqA/s1600-h/mbekimugabeapril2008.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5261587068955226770" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4yoDbeDxYt7uEkM0cWeG28Fr5qqHD1kRQTVvXFtwCftFwXpRYr4skYdZET0_fKm53xF4D4mvyqZv5hCRtIMxKch9J-qbIRY_HyZ2rwUJ-j1Cj_JTXEjIf32i25eVs-oH4tKoWNOCNvqA/s400/mbekimugabeapril2008.jpg" style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 400px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 257px" /></a><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;">THE two factions of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) are seething with anger ahead of the make-or-break Monday meeting of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) Organ on Politics, Security and Defence over what they perceive as bias on the part of the facilitator, Thabo Mbeki, in favour of President Robert Mugabe.<br /><br />Details of the former South African president's mediation effort leaked to The Financial Gazette following his week-long visit that culminated in the dispute over the allocation of ministries being referred to the SADC Troika indicate that Mbeki believes President Mugabe's plan is sufficient to pacify the two MDCs.<br /><br />Sources privy to the stop-go negotiations said Mbeki's view is likely to resonate with the members of the SADC Troika, comprising Angola, Mozambique and Swaziland, which would be represented at the meeting by Prime Minister, Sibusiso Dlamini.<br /><br />President Mugabe had agreed to cede the Finance Ministry to the MDC-T and had no problem with his party sharing the Home Affairs Ministry with Morgan Tsvangirai's faction.<br /><br />But this week the MDC said the details contained in a document entitled "Reflections and Proposals of the Facilitation: Towards the Achievement of the Objectives of Equity and power-sharing in the Constitution of the Inclusive Government in Harare", buttressed its claims that Mbeki should be replaced as mediator in the eight-year-long crisis for being partisan.<br /><br />"This document proves what we have been saying, that Mbeki is not an honest broker," said Tendai Biti, the secretary-general of the MDC-T. "He wants us to rubber-stamp the allocation of ministries as ZANU-PF deems fit. As I have mentioned before, we refuse to ride a bicycle without wheels," he added.<br /><br />Priscilla Misihairabwi-Mushonga, deputy secretary general of the MDC-Mutambara, said her political formation was aware of Mbeki's proposals.<br /><br />"But we are going to be putting our responses on Monday next week before and in the presence of the Troika," she said.<br /><br />"However, I am not in a position to say whether we agree or disagree with contents of the Mbeki statement," added Misihairabwi-Mushonga.<br /><br />Patrick Chinamasa, the ZANU-PF chief negotiator, was not immediately available for comment at the time of going to print.<br /><br />The Financial Gazette can reveal that Mbeki, who returned home last Saturday after the three principals to the power-sharing deal reached a stalemate, saw no problem in ZANU-PF being allocated about 10 ministries the MDC-T considered key to the economic turn-around and political transformation of the country.<br /><br />These included the contentious ministries of Home Affairs, Defence, National Security, Foreign Affairs, Agriculture, Local Government and Land Resettlement.<br /><br />There is also a dispute over the appointment of 10 provincial governors and delays in issuing Tsvangirai a replacement passport.<br /><br />An eight-page document Mbeki circulated among the three parties last Friday as the basis of his proposals was almost in sync with the list of ministries gazetted by President Mugabe on October 10, before the talks began.<br /><br />In the document dated October 17, Mbeki says the priority tasks agreed by the parties when they signed the power-sharing agreement defined which, among the various portfolios, would serve as Ministries.<br /><br />He groups the priority tasks into seven categories: adoption of a new constitution, rule of law, restoration of economic stability, the land question, state organs and institutions, delivery of social services and national healing, cohesion and unity.<br /><br />He proposes the allocation to the MDC-T of the Ministry of Constitutional and Parliamentary Affairs, responsible for overseeing an envisaged new constitution-building process.<br /><br />Mbeki also proposed the Ministry of Home Affairs be co-chaired "since all the parties recognised the rights of all citizens to a safe and secure environment in which the police service plays an important part, both ZANU-PF and MDC-T share the responsibility."<br /><br />He says the Ministry of Economic Planning and Investment Promotions, allocated to the MDC T, would play the leading role in the overall development and implementation of the Economic Plan within which the all-inclusive government will pursue the objective of economic recovery.<br /><br />Mbeki proposed that eight other ministries directly relevant to the recovery of the economy be allocated to ZANU-PF, four to MDC-T and two to the MDC-M.<br /><br />Under the set up, ZANU-PF would have Transport, Local Government, Urban and Rural Development, Mines, Mining Development, Lands and Resettlement, Agriculture, Environment and Natural Resources, Tourism and Small and Medium Enterprises and Cooperative Development while MDC-T takes Energy and Power Development, State Enterprises and Parastatals, Information Communication Technology and Public Works. </span><p>

Mbeki Sanctioned Mugabe Power-Grab, Says Party

THE two factions of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) are seething with anger ahead of the make-or-break Monday meeting of the Southe...

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Selebi's office tea parties shock minister

<p><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGhZ2e4kyFH8nqe2WbxcsUKuHfw6wl2idp8jAJdvdoQwqja4tB_eNkRJIIZe5ZfJTjUP5fBxjXx8P_0sOASKFTR7kJ4F4mJtgxDIO3WKq9XDlAc59ZZN1iMlRgDnOS0WuiP2t-e8sdPUA/s1600-h/selebi2.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5261581592329989170" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGhZ2e4kyFH8nqe2WbxcsUKuHfw6wl2idp8jAJdvdoQwqja4tB_eNkRJIIZe5ZfJTjUP5fBxjXx8P_0sOASKFTR7kJ4F4mJtgxDIO3WKq9XDlAc59ZZN1iMlRgDnOS0WuiP2t-e8sdPUA/s400/selebi2.jpg" style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 220px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 294px" /></a><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;">Beleaguered National Police Commissioner Jackie Selebi has been visiting police headquarters in Pretoria on a regular basis since he was granted special leave by former president Thabo Mbeki in January.<br /><br />Police officials have told Weekend Argus Selebi often visits acting Police Commissioner Tim Williams at his office. The latest visit was on Friday afternoon.<br /><br />Safety and Security Minister Nathi Mthetwa has indicated on numerous occasions he would like to see Selebi replaced and a new police management appointed.<br /><br />Trevor Bloem, Mthetwa's spokesperson, said the minister was "taken aback" by claims Selebi was visiting police headquarters and that "he will not take kindly to it if the acting commissioner is unduly influenced in the execution of his tasks".<br /><br />Selebi has remained adamant his "hands are clean" and that he did not receive any bribes from his friend and crime boss Glenn Agliotti.<br /><br />While some claim Williams is relying heavily on the awaiting-trial top cop when it came to making management and policy decisions, others are adamant his presence is "totally innocent".<br /><br />Selebi on Saturday vehemently denied any claims of wrongdoing, saying his occasional arrivals at police headquarters were merely visits.<br /><br />"I am not under house arrest. I am on special leave," he said.<br /><br />Selebi pointed out that the present police management was more than adequately equipped to make decisions without consulting him.<br /><br />He would "definitely not" try to unduly influence any decisions made by Williams or any member of the management team while he was on leave pending the outcome of his court case.<br /><br />"The impression is being created that I am manipulating the situation. That is not true," said Selebi.<br /><br />Selebi requested the extended leave of absence from Mbeki after the National Prosecuting Authority announced he was to be charged with corruption and defeating the ends of justice.<br /><br />His contract was extended for a year when it came up for renewal in June.<br /><br />Selebi is not on suspension, which, according to analysts, means he is still effectively in charge of the SA Police Service and he probably has to be consulted when any policy decisions are made.<br /><br />One senior policeman, who did not want to be named, said: "He just comes in to drink tea with the acting commissioner. We cannot ignore him. He is still very popular among members of the police service and we miss his presence."<br /><br />Director Sally de Beer, Williams's spokesperson, said Williams "does not discuss his diary or who visits his office" with her.<br /><br />Morale in the national commissioner's office remained high and all staff were continuing with their duties normally.<br /><br />"The police officials on the ground are expected to follow suit, perform their duties and let justice take its course," she said. </span><p>

Selebi's office tea parties shock minister

Beleaguered National Police Commissioner Jackie Selebi has been visiting police headquarters in Pretoria on a regular basis since he was gra...

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The ANCYL 'is as good as dead'

<p><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEioYcUneUybJyQ4Av6dmHlt0P8utJL8izT9iXS8PJkpVC2omyF4JvcIaTowTNQcP53rPIUfjvsmRk5sN6hGQPs1B2QLr8veczzFJ8XqzOA0lWcslaE9oicKguFuoQHJuBpWQBfTvK6vVpM/s1600-h/malema.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5261575307366551570" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEioYcUneUybJyQ4Av6dmHlt0P8utJL8izT9iXS8PJkpVC2omyF4JvcIaTowTNQcP53rPIUfjvsmRk5sN6hGQPs1B2QLr8veczzFJ8XqzOA0lWcslaE9oicKguFuoQHJuBpWQBfTvK6vVpM/s400/malema.jpg" style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 300px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 326px" /></a><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;">With the ANC's breakaway group campaigning on a Julius Malema-gevaar ticket, the battle is on to lure disgruntled young people away from the ruling party's youth league.<br /><br />A network of youth leaders working inside the ANC are assisting the splinter group to set up its youth wing, which expects to launch in the next few weeks.<br /><br />Anele Mda, the splinter group's interim national convener says most members will be defectors from the ANC Youth League (ANCYL).<br /><br />She says that in the Eastern Cape the breakaway group has taken control of 110 out of the 162 ANCYL branches in the OR Tambo district, all 62 branches in Alfred Nzo, 72 in Amathole and 38 at the Cacadu district.<br /><br />The Northern Cape "Shikota" provincial convener, McBride Motsage, says the ANCYL is as good as dead because the majority of the branches have crossed to the breakaway group. Motsage was an ANCYL regional executive committee member in the province and provincial treasurer of the Young Communist League.<br /><br />The biggest reason for the split in the league is Julius Malema's leadership style, according to most of the people who spoke to the Mail & Guardian.<br /><br />"We've come to a point of acknowledging the huge crisis that is created by the existence of Malema. The ANCYL has got only one item on the agenda, it's [Jacob] Zuma," Mda said.<br /><br />ANCYL spokesperson Floyd Shivambu says the organisation is not worried about the looming split because "it was going to be too much of an expectation that with the recent developments the youth league will not be affected".<br /><br />But he says the impact on the Youth League is being exaggerated.<br /><br />"It's not official structures of the ANC Youth League that are leaving, it's disgruntled people and some of them have either been suspended or expelled," said Shivambu.<br /><br />But he acknowledged that some of the concerns raised by the people who are now leaving the youth league are valid and could've been addressed better. "Lekota and Shilowa are taking advantage of that genuine anger."<br /><br />Provincial convener of the "Shikota" youth movement in the Western Cape Vuyisile Schoeman says the splinter group has secured control of all Khayelitsha branches and some of those in the Boland and the West Coast.<br /><br />Some "Shikota" youth conveners prefer to remain anonymous for now. The person identified as the "Shikota" provincial representative in the North West denied that he is part of the grouping. Coordinators for Mpumalanga, Limpopo, KwaZulu-Natal and the Free State did not want to be named because they are still operating within the ANCYL. However, despite the preferred anonymity all confirmed that they're consulting other youth groupings about breaking away from the league. Leaders of the "Shikota" youth movement in Limpopo are expected to reveal their identities on Monday when they'll be announcing their programme of action. </span><p>

The ANCYL 'is as good as dead'

With the ANC's breakaway group campaigning on a Julius Malema-gevaar ticket, the battle is on to lure disgruntled young people away from...

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Terror left the army in tatters

<p><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhvLTq3HoR3X6odBVyGpz7L2umGMYF8PDdEdyEWcvHIlS_lsMiMA2Jp5IIuTEJ2EhpmfwkP6-G47UqMLxW4qSk5Ek0Pm-OGDZsfhTskchQzbOleGh_CpfKjIMXaYzY-Bv5rXk9LPnN9Tsg/s1600-h/lekota-lynx.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5261555067064280770" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhvLTq3HoR3X6odBVyGpz7L2umGMYF8PDdEdyEWcvHIlS_lsMiMA2Jp5IIuTEJ2EhpmfwkP6-G47UqMLxW4qSk5Ek0Pm-OGDZsfhTskchQzbOleGh_CpfKjIMXaYzY-Bv5rXk9LPnN9Tsg/s400/lekota-lynx.jpg" style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 266px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 400px" /></a><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;">You have no doubt been following the exciting travails of Mosiuoa Gerard Patrick "Monsieur Terror" Lekota, the former minister of defence and apparently joint leader of the Shikota group of ANC splinteratchiks.<br /><br />"Shikota" is a neologism obtained by conjoining and compressing (what a thought) the surname of Mbhazima "Sam the Sham" Shilowa - the former premier of Gauteng and devotee of the Zion Christian Church (but no wine farm, mind you; no wine farm and no cigars) - and that of Lekota.<br /><br />Has the end of the world come? we ask ourselves. Has one cubicle, in the broad church that has been the ANC for so long, imploded? Will coffee ever taste the same? Can Lekota cure my dandruff? Will the price of pipe tobacco decline?<br /><br />Will archbishop emeritus Desmond Tutu ever get over his "pain" - try some aspirin, arch - and find it in his heart to vote again? Will Nelson R Mandela vomit on his ANC badge?<br /><br />Actually, I am very relieved that the end of the world never came, and that there was not even a small attempt at Armageddon - because what I find most remarkable is that this 60-year-old tubby fellow, who bears a striking resemblance to Jabba the Hutt, of Star Wars (the movie) fame, has had his podgy finger on the trigger of our national arsenal (such as it is) for almost 10 years. And we make fun of the Americans!<br /><br />I concede that it's probable that none of our stuff works - that our submarines are in dry dock, that we have no pilots for our Gripens, that Schabir Shaik probably stuck a spanner in the combat suites of the corvettes, that most of our armoured cars are deployed in townships to save the bacon of Shikota fellow-travellers, that the HIV infection rate of our army is probably about 67 percent, and that we have, in any case, sold the sea just outside Simonstown - but still.<br /><br />Mr Mbeki, what were you thinking, sir? How could you have left this incoherent big-mouth in charge of our army? What would have happened if there had been a serious, armed insurrection by the boere in Randburg? What would have happened if we had been forced to drop brave members of 1 Para on Harare? Do their parachutes still work?<br /><br />This Lekota fellow is remarkable. Outraged at having effectively had his bum removed from the butter and his nose from the trough - what a mixed metaphor; soon I'm going to be offered a job as a political analyst - he has stumped around the country saying plenty of nothing in the most self-righteous and outraged tones.<br /><br />He has told us that the head honchos of the ANC are not democrats; that they have trampled on everyone's rights (especially his); he has launched into endless diatribes about T-shirts and whose picture should be on them (Geez, if I have to hear another one of these bozos arguing about T-shirts, I am going to platz); and he has rabbited on about the Freedom Charter ad nauseam.<br /><br />On Saturday, I saw a clip of Lekota speaking at a mass meeting of about 23 people in some select suburb - no way was he going to venture back to a place like Orange Farm.<br /><br />Orange Farm is not for fat boys who have been living high on the hog in Pretoria.<br /><br />He asked his select audience audaciously: "Why doesn't Jacob Zuma tell us the truth about the arms deal?"<br /><br />Monsieur Mosiuoa - you have been the defence minister for nine- and-a-bit years, my china, why don't you tell us about the arms deal? Don't be shy; if you need to know anything, I can put you in touch with Patricia de Lille, of the Independent Democrats, who has made the arms deal her meal ticket.<br /><br />She's what you call a one-trick, as opposed to a one-prick, pony.<br /><br />Talking of which, why doesn't Shikota form a coalition with the ID? And why don't Terror and the Big Dudes give some thought to attracting some serious "names" to their party?<br /></span></p>

Terror left the army in tatters

You have no doubt been following the exciting travails of Mosiuoa Gerard Patrick "Monsieur Terror" Lekota, the former minister of ...

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ANC Youth League in debt to the tune of R14 million

<p><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjAQ-uUIdhbQ-6kfCpt1O1EdHJ-jv2wHoB5jq4s88TEUUfMt_AtAtey-i70pNDxFolQ_hiEgmMax3y5upJQlSjGJkH23LjXtg76QO9nGyJDX2ZvjrkexNeKVA7hnRde85Jy-pZFFPSvXqA/s1600-h/ancylconferencepostponed.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5261441950241761778" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjAQ-uUIdhbQ-6kfCpt1O1EdHJ-jv2wHoB5jq4s88TEUUfMt_AtAtey-i70pNDxFolQ_hiEgmMax3y5upJQlSjGJkH23LjXtg76QO9nGyJDX2ZvjrkexNeKVA7hnRde85Jy-pZFFPSvXqA/s400/ancylconferencepostponed.jpg" style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 248px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 400px" /></a></p><p></p><p></p><p><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;"><strong><span style="color:#cc0000;"><p><br />THE ANC Youth League is in debt to the tune of R14 million to creditors who supplied goods and services for various functions.</span></strong><br /><br />The Mail & Guardian reports that, in addition, there were questions relating to the whereabouts of the league’s R2 million share of a R20 million payout by Nedbank for its part of a stake it had held in People’s Bank through Lembede’s associate company, the Progressive Youth Investment Company.<br /><br />These dealings reportedly fell under the previous board of Lembede, which has since commissioned an audit by Gobodo. Lembede is the league’s investment arm. </span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;"><br /><span style="font-family:arial;color:#cc0000;"><em><strong><span style="color:#cc0000;">Youth league's dirty-money deals</span> </strong></em></span></span></p><p><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;">A confidential dossier on the financial affairs of the ANC Youth League suggests prominent members massively enriched themselves through transactions under the banner of the league’s investment arm, the Lembede group.<br /><br />The dossier, in possession of the Mail & Guardian, also reveals how deeply the league has sunk into debt.<br /><br />Figures attached to a September report prepared by league treasurer Pule Mabe reflected a total of more than R14-million owed to creditors who supplied goods and services for functions, including the league’s national congress in April and its rerun in June.<br /><br />A separate report prepared early this month by Lembede chief executive Lonwabo Sambudla shows how multimillion-rand deals involving Lembede companies often benefited prominent individuals within the league -- which helps to explain, perhaps, the Porsche-and-patio lifestyle with which they have come to be associated.<br /><br />The new board of Lembede, chaired by Mabe, tasked auditing firm Gobodo earlier this month with investigating Lembede’s financial affairs. The M&G has learned that the investigation might focus on some of these individuals.<br /><br />Among those apparently implicated in the dossier is Malusi Kekana, who now heads the Umsobomvu Youth Fund established by government to promote youth entrepreneurship.<br /><br />The Progressive Youth Investment Company (Pyico), a Lembede-associate company then headed by Kekana, was part of a BEE consortium that bought a 30% stake in Nedcor’s People’s Bank in 2001. But Nedcor bought the shares back from the BEE consortium in 2004/05 by assuming the debt incurred in the original transaction and paying R20-million over and above the amount.<br /><br />There are large questions about the whereabouts of Pyico’s -- in other words, the league’s -- share of the R20-million. Pyico held a 10th of the 30% stake, meaning it should have received R2-million. Chris Mamabolo, a former director of African Milestone -- one of the companies which formed part of the BEE consortium -- confirmed this week that Kekana represented Pyico and that the R20-million was shared by all the companies in the consortium.<br /><br />“We accepted the R20-million payout by Nedbank because the deal was under water. Nobody was going to make money out of it. They [Nedbank] offered us the R20-million as a consolation prize and this was shared between all the shareholders,” said Mamabolo. </span></p><p></p>

ANC Youth League in debt to the tune of R14 million

THE ANC Youth League is in debt to the tune of R14 million to creditors who supplied goods and services for various functions. The Mail ...

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Mampara of the week : Makhenkesi Stofile

<p><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRqTJN1I5bi0rCcvxu9AlbYLzMK7nMElAI0WvPLxxrl5puMf-LfE0Z0paCWKLlXvqN9nV73jt8qraFp1UyAD-ngBdqB7ioAiN38WAsvxByBNb-q442ErJZwbuRn3Wj8M7jBgberNg54is/s1600-h/Stofile_Nuus_OK_01--297x250.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5261434874075725826" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRqTJN1I5bi0rCcvxu9AlbYLzMK7nMElAI0WvPLxxrl5puMf-LfE0Z0paCWKLlXvqN9nV73jt8qraFp1UyAD-ngBdqB7ioAiN38WAsvxByBNb-q442ErJZwbuRn3Wj8M7jBgberNg54is/s400/Stofile_Nuus_OK_01--297x250.jpg" style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 297px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 250px" /></a><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;">Even greater than a moegoe or a moemish is a mampara. This week Makhenkesi Stofile wins the coveted prize hands down.<br /><br />Foot firmly in mouth, the minister of sport proudly told a sports portfolio committee meeting that SA Rugby owed the government royalties for the use of the Springbok emblem. He even claimed his department owned the rights to the Bok. Erm, it doesn’t — Saru owns the emblem.<br /><br />It’s a cynical game the minister plays: klap the Bokkie around long enough and you’ll succeed in obscuring the problems that afflict a myriad sports.<br /><br />Unwilling to heal South Africa’s Olympic ills or Bafana Bafana, our Mampara’s only interest is in soft targets. After all, the Springbok can’t talk back. </span><p></p>

Mampara of the week : Makhenkesi Stofile

Even greater than a moegoe or a moemish is a mampara. This week Makhenkesi Stofile wins the coveted prize hands down. Foot firmly in mouth, ...

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NPA officials suspended, others facing criminal charges

<p><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjv5kw1m3rCj0MzSZasf319gbt1iGMEjHVbqpLO2lfmRxunIb6wxG1R-A0I2BtWLjK99rywpscbVjkEBzeKnGPrS3e-gPuWGCcqEsCdVP79XPKOVLQ5e15f8pt346rzlhSdYtpV8IfAFc/s1600-h/law_supremecourt_1006.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5261427325669645202" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjv5kw1m3rCj0MzSZasf319gbt1iGMEjHVbqpLO2lfmRxunIb6wxG1R-A0I2BtWLjK99rywpscbVjkEBzeKnGPrS3e-gPuWGCcqEsCdVP79XPKOVLQ5e15f8pt346rzlhSdYtpV8IfAFc/s400/law_supremecourt_1006.jpg" style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 320px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 240px" /></a><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;">The auditor-general, Terence Nombembe, has slammed the National Prosecuting Authority after uncovering widespread tender-rigging and financial irregularities involving more than R500-million.<br /><br />The unlawful expenditure was uncovered during a routine audit of the NPA’s finances.<br /><br />Nombembe has now ordered a “full-scale” investigation into the awarding of tenders in the NPA.<br /><br />The Sunday Times has established that several NPA officials have been suspended while others are facing criminal charges for tender-rigging and taking bribes from service providers.<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhW1E0f3CitpazsPB05ywhiHmy1lzL8QlYaRgGWJT99BLYU1JyQtYpMBVmLlpYQ-9b4c094QVjKfWUwv4_vIkrFN6OK_YL-uVyK0tE1MIPI3M2d9pBJnxZKi_O-n_4GOC69_Yq64ZCCF3o/s1600-h/Tlali+Tlali"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5261426484750927570" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhW1E0f3CitpazsPB05ywhiHmy1lzL8QlYaRgGWJT99BLYU1JyQtYpMBVmLlpYQ-9b4c094QVjKfWUwv4_vIkrFN6OK_YL-uVyK0tE1MIPI3M2d9pBJnxZKi_O-n_4GOC69_Yq64ZCCF3o/s400/Tlali+Tlali" style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 175px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 196px" /></a>A senior NPA official confirmed that the Specialised Commercial Crimes Unit, which forms part of the NPA, is conducting its own investigation. Some officials could face criminal charges within weeks.<br /><br />Some NPA officials have resigned in the wake of the investigation, which comes at a time when the NPA is under pressure from the ANC for pursuing its president, Jacob Zuma. This week parliament voted to disband the Scorpions.</span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;"><em><span style="font-size:78%;color:#000099;">NPA spokesman Tlali Tlali</span></em><br /><br />In a report to parliament, Nombembe said he had decided to conduct a “full-scale” investigation because of “possible fraudulent activities”.<br /><br />Nombembe said that because of the extent of the irregularities he could not even express an audit opinion on the NPA’s financial statements.<br /><br />The NPA, Nombembe said, had disclosed an amount of R423-million in irregular expenditure in the year to March 2008.<br /><br />Audit evidence obtained by the auditor-general showed that the R423-million figure had actually been “understated by a potential R86-million”.<br /><br />The Sunday Times has established that the R86-million irregular expenditure included R30-million given to a company to conduct surveillance operations on behalf of the NPA.<br /><br />The NPA has an annual budget of R1.8-billion.<br /><br />In the report, Nombembe said his audit had found complete disregard of the law in the NPA in the awarding of tenders.<br /><br />Listed among the irregular tenders were:<br /><br /><br /></span><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;"></span><ul><li><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;">R54-million worth of tenders to various consultants, including forensic auditors and intelligence companies, to help the Scorpions with their investigations;<br /><br /></span></li><li><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;">R66-million paid to the rental company, Rentworks, to rent vehicles;<br /><br /></span></li><li><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;">An R11-million tender awarded to a security and intelligence company in KwaZulu-Natal. Three NPA officials have been suspended for taking kickbacks from the company;<br /><br /></span></li><li><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;">R62-million paid to a facilities management company for the NPA’s headquarters in Silverton, Pretoria;<br /><br /></span></li><li><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;">An additional R35-million paid to the same facilities management company for services not in terms of the contract; and<br /><br /></span></li><li><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;">Tenders worth R113-million approved without proper delegation of powers.<br /><br /></span><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;"></span></li></ul><p><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;">According to the auditor-general’s report, the NPA flouted the law by awarding tenders to suppliers who did not qualify and were not on the approved database of suppliers.<br /><br />In some instances the NPA deviated from regulations by awarding contracts worth millions of rands to service providers without putting the contracts out to tender.<br /><br />Some contractors were appointed and paid millions despite not having been approved by the “authorised official”.<br /><br />The auditor-general also took a swipe at the NPA for failing to account for criminal assets forfeited to the state.<br /><br />He said the NPA unit responsible had “failed to disclose forfeiture assets and monies from confiscation and forfeiture orders in the financial statements”.<br /><br />NPA spokesman Tlali Tlali had not responded to written questions at the time of going to press.</span> </p>

NPA officials suspended, others facing criminal charges

The auditor-general, Terence Nombembe, has slammed the National Prosecuting Authority after uncovering widespread tender-rigging and financi...

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Zuma vs Lekota: There will be blood

<p><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqRcFupwmfaN-nN3Usrf-IW4k7sEcpyxofFZq46eikvA5CAkUMMly3Uv4mlzETA4o-BwUXyfc-gHMxYQCcScEBK3-2iCvT2UhxLl3OYioSRzEGeBOW2Vps1Xk_GGl1riV3hZqJr2r8rJs/s1600-h/Lekota+rally.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5261411794360274994" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqRcFupwmfaN-nN3Usrf-IW4k7sEcpyxofFZq46eikvA5CAkUMMly3Uv4mlzETA4o-BwUXyfc-gHMxYQCcScEBK3-2iCvT2UhxLl3OYioSRzEGeBOW2Vps1Xk_GGl1riV3hZqJr2r8rJs/s400/Lekota+rally.jpg" style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 200px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 130px" /></a><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;">AS the battle lines are being drawn between Mosiuoa Lekota’s supporters and those of ANC president Jacob Zuma, there are ominous signs that the confrontation will turn nasty. On Thursday Lekota’s supporters had to be escorted to a meeting venue in Orange Farm outside Johannesburg by armoured vehicles as Zuma’s supporters attempted to prevent the meeting from taking place.<br /><br />There was one victim, an old woman who was smacked around by the mob before being rescued. As the election approaches and the two parties confront each other across the country, South Africa’s public order policing ability will be sorely tested.</span></p><p><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;">Thanks to a policy decision to do away with the old “riot police” the authorities have found themselves wanting. Look at the recent attacks on foreigners. There were insufficient police to deal with the situation and eventually the military had to be called in.<br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZTfN0RA1XPj76r4yjylfxKhkBVMuFLgcmYdPskMdjdM2RlbgFMSmg4A_WqJpoX1ATOZRWNnWlOkQfICje-Z5viagVFpV_2yx0eIUBy1h_u-6vo6lSQip9xAzHxAhkOyw5Ezgs6DqkLuk/s1600-h/anc+supporters.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5261412064863726930" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZTfN0RA1XPj76r4yjylfxKhkBVMuFLgcmYdPskMdjdM2RlbgFMSmg4A_WqJpoX1ATOZRWNnWlOkQfICje-Z5viagVFpV_2yx0eIUBy1h_u-6vo6lSQip9xAzHxAhkOyw5Ezgs6DqkLuk/s400/anc+supporters.jpg" style="FLOAT: right; MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; WIDTH: 166px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 200px" /></a><br />This will not be a good advertisement for democracy. Troops bearing machine guns separating opponents at political rallies. It will take us back to the bitter violent confrontation between the ANC and the IFP ahead of the 94 election, a conflict which was characterised by intolerance, “no-go areas” and the like.<br /><br />Lekota has commendably called on his supporters to be tolerant and not to disrupt the activities of the Zuma camp, saying: “If they say you are dogs, don’t call them dogs… Those of you who were in the ANC and have T-shirts of the ANC, you must not burn them. “We must not allow throwing stones, don’t throw stones back. If they go and burn someone’s house, don’t go and burn their house. We must protect the rights of other political formations and parties. We must protect the right to hold meetings, to talk to people.”<br /><br />But Zuma has been ominously quiet. He must speak out now in very clear terms against this sort of intimidation.</span> </p><p><a class="newshead" href="http://www.thetimes.co.za/News/Article.aspx?id=869674" target="_parent"><span style="font-family:arial;"><em><span style="font-size:85%;">ANC elders must stop mob’s rabid rhetoric now</span></em> </span></a><br /><a class="newshead" href="http://www.thetimes.co.za/News/Article.aspx?id=869709" target="_parent"><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:85%;"><em>Seeds of Terror</em></span></a><br /><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:85%;"><em><a href="http://www.thetimes.co.za/News/Article.aspx?id=869378">Lekota, Zuma supporters trade insults</a><br /><a href="http://www.thetimes.co.za/News/Article.aspx?id=868785">Lekota & Co take on ANC in Gauteng</a> </em></span><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:85%;"><em><br /></p></em></span><p>

Zuma vs Lekota: There will be blood

AS the battle lines are being drawn between Mosiuoa Lekota’s supporters and those of ANC president Jacob Zuma, there are ominous signs that ...

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SA politician’s “most embarrassing moment” viewed more than 70 000 times around the world

<p><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;"><strong><span style="color:#990000;">A video clip of a politician’s “most embarrassing moment” has been viewed more than 70 000 times around the world.</span></strong><br /></span><br /><object height="344" width="425"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/2ChOX9QZiaY&hl=en&fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/2ChOX9QZiaY&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object><br /><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;"><br /></span><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;"></span><ul><li><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ChOX9QZiaY"><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;">VIDEO: Watch the funniest moment on SABC2 this year!</span></a><br /></li></ul><p><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;">The Times reported yesterday on the toppling of the chairman of parliament’s portfolio committee on finance, Nhlanhla Nene, during an interview on SABC2’s View from the House, broadcast live on Tuesday morning.<br /><br />International broadcasters such as the UK’s BBC and Sky News, and The Daily Telegraph newspaper, US network CNN and a host of bloggers have posted the video on their websites, giving the clip titles such as “SABC takes the chair out of finance chairman”.<br /><br />Nene’s fall has been talked about on radio shows, and local and international viewers have watched his tumble on e-mail, and social networking sites Facebook and YouTube. There are also at least 500 Google listings of the gaffe.<br /><br />The clip shows Nene chatting to presenter Hayde Fitzpatrick about Minister of Finance Trevor Manuel’s mini-budget. Nene’s chair cracked, then collapsed — and he tumbled to the floor.<br /><br />On Talk Radio 702 yesterday morning, Nene said he didn’t “understand why people thought the clip was funny as it was the most embarrassing moment of my life”.<br /><br />Reports that an SABC employee who leaked the clip had been found and punished proved to be untrue.<br /><br />A spokesman for the broadcaster, Kaizer Kganyago, said: “The matter is still being investigated. The allegations that someone internally has been caught for being responsible for leaking the video are not true.”<br /></span></p>

SA politician’s “most embarrassing moment” viewed more than 70 000 times around the world

A video clip of a politician’s “most embarrassing moment” has been viewed more than 70 000 times around the world. VIDEO: Watch the funniest...

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Will Jesus save us from poverty and BEE?

<p><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhA4XTaYtKFHIbaV80OAI3jqzbR6XfMW4udJQInDpz84wMmDNhIoh30NxAb_I3ruOyJLrTJ2WB4jxowRoPcKx3pWBtkbpwHE6R3DoHfdJN0Otd8p1GLgsiCRtu17tSrNkXFtuPZ2fiDCTE/s1600-h/zumamoses.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5261458198271165138" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhA4XTaYtKFHIbaV80OAI3jqzbR6XfMW4udJQInDpz84wMmDNhIoh30NxAb_I3ruOyJLrTJ2WB4jxowRoPcKx3pWBtkbpwHE6R3DoHfdJN0Otd8p1GLgsiCRtu17tSrNkXFtuPZ2fiDCTE/s400/zumamoses.jpg" style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 295px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 340px" /></a> <em><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:85%;">David Bullard</span></em></p><p><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;">The air is full of feathers and the sound of confused squawking. The ANC chickens are finally coming home to roost. They bragged in the past about a 1000 year rule and being in power until Jesus comes but I reckon some of the smugness has disappeared now that the newspapers are carrying front page photos of the rank and file tearing up their precious ANC membership cards. The head honchos of the ANC are finally coming to realise that they are nowhere near as popular as they thought. The renegades are already drawing decent sized crowds and we will know for sure in mid December whether there will be another political party to contest next year’s election.<br /><br />I think it’s pretty safe to assume that there will be at least one new party to come out of the old ANC and possibly two. The one thing that could muck up next years election would be the appearance of Jesus. Jacob Zuma has already conceded defeat to "Him" but how would the breakaway parties take it? Would they really have anything to offer the voters? My guess is that any party leader who can turn water into wine and feed five thousand hungry people with a few loaves and fishes will romp to victory. We live in interesting times.<br /><br />One of the great dilemmas to come from the recent party split as far as big business is concerned is which rear end to stay close to now. Big business in this country has adopted a shameless policy of ass kissing in the past and it has worked well for them. Politicians are rarely qualified to do anything very useful in society and love it when wealthy businessmen representing large companies drop to their knees and make slurping noises.<br /><br />Johann Rupert delivered the Anton Rupert memorial lecture recently and it seems that he is as cynical as I am about business organizations that claim to be able to talk to government on our behalf. He refers to the past meetings as “Powerpoint exchanges” and goes on to say that “whenever any of us wanted to speak out our fellow businessmen, or should I say, lobbyists, made sure that we were kept quiet”.<br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjGQq5id8-z5O90syhnwiYk8WsIHdXB2PEHEuIUcvPHT06L-CaswxXuZpWaQKb0KNjCsyhILSaztMSL09KhxvXsx78N5HtxO7BFa4SfuM5m0VAAPybkac-XLAiG4KCmv-4y1GqczRxLn3I/s1600-h/zuma_hears2.jpg"></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7ezD4zLItI4NgFw3z1C-dqOBkja-F4VlyDGYA6eDxF3fJl-DcQGv6KvpE-_UC7bR3VwC_0zWaPq6vFBPWzANF1vjpsBmpOsyP-C-JOA929bubPxdaGOr14GbRid-W56XkssSNUAN9-4E/s1600-h/zuma_hears2.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5261459060441303474" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7ezD4zLItI4NgFw3z1C-dqOBkja-F4VlyDGYA6eDxF3fJl-DcQGv6KvpE-_UC7bR3VwC_0zWaPq6vFBPWzANF1vjpsBmpOsyP-C-JOA929bubPxdaGOr14GbRid-W56XkssSNUAN9-4E/s320/zuma_hears2.jpg" style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 242px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 320px" /></a><br />This unwillingness to “rock the boat” hasn’t done the country much good. One understands the need on the part of business for a certain amount of pragmatism when dealing with government but the “roll over and kick me in the ribs again baas” posture adopted by many businessmen is quite nauseating. Wouldn’t it have been kinder and more honest to have told the government where to stick their ludicrous affirmative action and BEE policies? Surely if you have a non racial society (as the brochure promised in 1994) and then you reserve jobs for people of a particular race you’re simply back to the days of apartheid with a change of cast?<br /><br />I would have much preferred a tax incentivised system of mentoring because if that had happened we would now have a large pool of black management. It’s quite obvious that we don’t have that large pool of talent and that many black managers are way out of their depth in their current jobs. The important thing though is that they now believe they are executives and entitled to live like executives. Well if they want to play pretend that’s their business but the new world economic order isn’t going to have the capacity to carry passengers for much longer. The boom times are over and pinched margins will eventually weed out the slackers irrespective of race.<br /><br />Black Economic Empowerment has been the biggest con of all. Essentially it’s an extra tax on business because shareholders are expected to hand over a large portion of their shares for free based on the premise that the recipients are previously disadavantaged. A lovely idea if you happen to be the lucky recipient of tens of millions of rands but I don’t think there’s been too much trickle down effect. Once again, the idea of handing over a large chunk of a company to carefully selected individuals for free only really works when share prices keep going up and when there is a buoyant economy.<br /><br />Now things are not looking quite so rosy on the economic front and rather confusing on the political front, big business is going to have to decide which political rear ends to stay close to. Or maybe they will take note of what Johann Rupert said and finally stand up for what they really believe in. </span></p><p><br /></p>

Will Jesus save us from poverty and BEE?

David Bullard The air is full of feathers and the sound of confused squawking. The ANC chickens are finally coming home to roost. They brag...

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Zimbabweans forced to eat rats

<p><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5Ygl0zganDQqZ4MtzDE-adTfwXw5mfccBm8Nm238HkhF4Jht47Dv00QTm70QM8VvWmqORnI_nS13FG3RicJUtuSsTElFcdPam-jpZhVWSTp8ib1K7YdKR_ot2cV5WsRrI7k4whsk9NH8/s1600-h/Zim+rockstar.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5261583627948103618" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5Ygl0zganDQqZ4MtzDE-adTfwXw5mfccBm8Nm238HkhF4Jht47Dv00QTm70QM8VvWmqORnI_nS13FG3RicJUtuSsTElFcdPam-jpZhVWSTp8ib1K7YdKR_ot2cV5WsRrI7k4whsk9NH8/s400/Zim+rockstar.jpg" style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 267px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 400px" /></a><br /><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;">Blackjacks, grass, berries, wild figs, rats, roots and seeds meant for planting have become the staple diet of hundreds of thousands of Zimbabweans, according to refugees fleeing the hunger.<br /><br />While the political leaders haggle over cabinet posts in a political stalemate, ordinary Zimbabweans are either fleeing across the borders for food, or are resorting to desperate means at home to find a few morsels to eat.<br /><br />"My family back home is eating berries, rape and anything else they can find when I cannot send food home to them," a Zimbabwean living at the Methodist Church in Johannesburg said last week.<br /><br />"There are no beverages, no meat. We were poaching for fish in small dams with nets," said one man.<br /><br />"If we can't get fish, we eat rats. Others are following the railway lines and the roads used by the grain trucks. They pick up any seeds or grains that fall off and eat them. There is nothing else we can do."<br /><br />Another said poaching for meat in national parks and reserves had also become a norm, given that "it is so easy to bribe the officials so that we can go in and get some food".<br /><br />Many of those spoken to last week said they had fled to South Africa to find food.<br /><br />"I am here to work so that I can send food to my family. They are starving. There is no mealie meal in the shops. In the shops you have to pay in rands or American dollars for anything.<br /><br />If you want to buy soap, you have to queue at the bank for three days so you have enough money for a bar," said a man who fled three weeks ago.<br /><br />This week a 2kg packet of rice was selling at US$4.90, 2.5kg of cake flour at $5.60 and a bar of laundry soap cost $4.<br /><br />All had the same story - their wives, parents, children, grandchildren and girlfriends would die if they did not receive food aid.<br /><br />The Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition said in a recent report that desperately hungry Zimbabweans were running out of survival options and had, in some instances, resorted to selling their livestock to buy food.<br /><br />There were growing numbers of cases in the southern provinces where families were marrying off their underage daughters to elderly well-off men in return for food and support.<br /><br />In Harare last week, firemen went on strike because they were too hungry to work.<br /><br />Last week Women of Zimbabwe Arise (Woza) held a protest in Bulawayo declaring a national disaster and demanding food aid. Two leaders were arrested.<br /><br />In an open letter to the government, mediator Thabo Mbeki, President Kgalema Motlanthe and SADC, Woza said despite the crisis "still nothing has been done" and "people are dying of starvation".</span><p>

Zimbabweans forced to eat rats

Blackjacks, grass, berries, wild figs, rats, roots and seeds meant for planting have become the staple diet of hundreds of thousands of Zimb...

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