South Africa P.I.G.: SA POLITICIANS

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'Politicians' spending YOUR tax money

The next time you hear an SA politician use the word 'billion' in a casual manner, think about whether you wanted the 'politicians' spending YOUR tax money. <img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5579421992566663058" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEih00c5caTtcxRHe0VZZ9rNV-2u9ZdLdL5_CdNxpL9Hi5SBDMP40SZ7VFksJL-vwbtgb24RetZ2u7mbcmjmtnGHYcTONcE5vMWmqkQZes4r84j-Xylfj_vIPz1wYKVGz6m_kwC5IBGHg8Jr/s400/zuma-gravy.jpg" style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 400px; DISPLAY: block; HEIGHT: 226px; CURSOR: hand" /> A billion is a difficult number to comprehend, but one advertising agency did a good job of putting that figure into some perspective in one of its press releases. A. A billion seconds ago it was 1959. B. A billion minutes ago Jesus was alive. C. A billion hours ago our ancestors were living in the Stone Age. D. A billion days ago no-one walked on the earth on two feet. E. A billion Rand ago was only 27 hours and 12 minutes, at the rate our SA government is spending it. Building Permit Tax Cigarette Tax Corporation Tax Income Tax VAT GST Fishing Licence Tax Food Licence Tax Fuel LicenceTax Petrol/Diesel Tax Hunting Licence Tax Luxury Tax Property Tax Service charge taxes Capital gains Tax Social Security Tax Road Usage Tax Local Tax Vehicle Licence Registration Tax Vehicle Sales Tax Workers Compensation Tax Not one of these taxes existed 20 years ago... And our nation was one of the most prosperous in Africa. We had absolutely no national debt... We had the largest middle class in Africa And Mum stayed home to raise the kids. What happened? I hope this message goes around at least a billion times. What the HELL happened ?????

'Politicians' spending YOUR tax money

The next time you hear an SA politician use the word 'billion' in a casual manner, think about whether you wanted the 'politicia...

12:10 AM

Malema linked to R250m mining deal

The most vocal proponent of the nationalisation of South Africa's mines, the leader of the ruling party's youth wing, Julius Malema, is linked to a R250m mining deal that involves politically connected individuals at the expense of impoverished communities, the country's Sunday Times reported. <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNke6m6yfFl7bcxpssiG_kYXwlEtO79vJlhU_6XHghY4fmw-TPhTaZV1JOuqo2vHyprneSmWZbaTJiqSdYBok7-37dcVi0CzesTCiSmFAJLKQUppI6guN0XO5g0njmU0cAphjWonmU8gFO/s1600-h/Malema01.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5448426917035457266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNke6m6yfFl7bcxpssiG_kYXwlEtO79vJlhU_6XHghY4fmw-TPhTaZV1JOuqo2vHyprneSmWZbaTJiqSdYBok7-37dcVi0CzesTCiSmFAJLKQUppI6guN0XO5g0njmU0cAphjWonmU8gFO/s400/Malema01.jpg" style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 314px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 400px" /></a>The company at the heart of the deal is ASA Metals, which is 60% owned by Sinosteel subsidiary Eastern Asia Metals Investment Co Ltd from China and the rest is held by Limpopo Economic Development Enterprise (Limdev) of South Africa. ASA Metals owns a chromite mine and smelter near Steelpoort on the platinum-rich Eastern Busveld Igneous Complex. The Sunday Times said it had information showing those involved in the deal include soccer boss Irvin Khoza and Kgomotso Motlanthe, the son of deputy president Kgalema Motlanthe. Limdev will retain 10% of ASA once the deal is done. Malema was also a founding director in a consortium that was registered for the bid, shortly after discussions about the broad-based black economic empowerment (BEE) deal started in 2006. He was later forced out, the Sunday Times said. But the Sunday Times said it understood he had since held several informal meetings with those involved in putting the deal together. Malema first publicly raised the issue of the nationalisation of mines at a Black Management Forum meeting on October 9 last year - about a week before ASA Metals and the Limdev were scheduled to announce the successful bidder, the newspaper said. Sinosteel denied speculation that it was being pressured into selling out of its 60% stake in ASA Metals. Sinosteel is to invest R3bn in the project, increasing it value 800 times, Suwei Zhang, chief executive of ASA Metals told the newspaper. An official announcement on the sale of 30% of ASA Metals, from Limdev's stake, is expected in three weeks, Sunday Times reported, adding it had been established that five consortiums and companies - from an initial short list of 43 - have been earmarked after being interviewed by the Limdev board a month ago. The five will each get a 12.5% stake of the shares being sold. The stake had been earmarked for impoverished communities living near the mine, but the Sunday Times reported there had been political infighting and intimidation by politicians. A number of politicians within the Limpopo ANC structures suggested Malema's increasingly strident calls for nationalisation were designed to deflected attention away from the ASA transaction. One of the short-listed bidders, who declined to be named for fear of reprisals, told the newspaper the entire transaction was "rotten". "You will be shocked to find out who else is involved (in this deal) ... I'm terrified just talking to you. I'm not only risking the deal but also putting my life at risk. These people mean business and are not prepared to lose this deal at whatever cost," the source was quoted as saying. He alleged that Khoza had used his political connections to "steal" a stake in the deal. "(A)nd there are other politicians and their families involved, who have either signed up in their own personal capacity or used proxies," he said, describing the deal as "a joke". The Sunday Times has established that the short-listed consortiums include Tunache Investment, led by Khoza and serial empowerment dealmaker Ronnie Ntuli; Rebone Mining Consortium; Kalapeng Mining Resources; Moribo Resources; and Dilokong Consortium. Buena Vista Trading, led by Kgomotso Isaac Motlanthe, features in one of the consortiums. Malema this week refused to speak to the Sunday Times. The youth league's spokesman, Floyd Shivambu, on Friday denied claims that Malema was benefiting, either directly or indirectly, from the deal or that he had lobbied on behalf of interested parties. Limdev's transaction advisers, SizweNtsaluba VSP, declined to discuss the deal or explain why the announcement of the successful bidders had been postponed twice. Limdev spokesman Leo Gama said he could not comment. "Once it is completed, our organisation will announce the winning companies and the public will know," he told the newspaper. - Fin24.comSee full story in Sunday Times - <a href="http://www.timeslive.co.za/sundaytimes/article354776.ece">Malema and the R250m mining deal </a>

Malema linked to R250m mining deal

The most vocal proponent of the nationalisation of South Africa's mines, the leader of the ruling party's youth wing, Julius Malema,...

1:56 AM

The fate of the nation

<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhA896MkKsachTwoRfHC0GWMWgBCCc8D5TOFSeTAS4jbAMIpVHW6b3U4CH9swjvCFZnG5gKPuTi7PtZeMl_Sw4hNBDPmvfaPboLseqgNBc7cuDLUMIOFCjUT5E1sJUZ0mrZkN9LN6X7_ts9/s1600-h/anc-terrorists.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5447822865991085266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhA896MkKsachTwoRfHC0GWMWgBCCc8D5TOFSeTAS4jbAMIpVHW6b3U4CH9swjvCFZnG5gKPuTi7PtZeMl_Sw4hNBDPmvfaPboLseqgNBc7cuDLUMIOFCjUT5E1sJUZ0mrZkN9LN6X7_ts9/s400/anc-terrorists.jpg" style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 320px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 289px" /></a>John Kane-Berman Although many people are unwilling to read it, the writing is on the wall for South Africa. From the thuggishness of the police to moribund public schooling, from the endemic corruption of the ruling party to the chronic incompetence of the civil service, from assaults upon the Judiciary to official cowardice in the face of violent trade unions, from hazardous public hospitals to potholes in the roads, from failed land reform to declining life expectancy, from poisonous rivers to rampant crime and killer drivers, we are in trouble. What makes all of this worse is the contempt with which the government routinely treats the public, even as it filches more money from our pockets. Ministers - even the president - jet in to communities in violent revolt and make promises they have no more intention or ability to fulfil this time round than last. When a president with Jacob Zuma's track record wants to start a public conversation about morality, one can only conclude that he is either a complete and brazen cynic or-worse-that he does not understand that he has done anything wrong. When the Gauteng premier can send the cops to block off half Johannesburg for half the day while she makes a speech, you know we have a mini Mrs Mugabe in the making. We are not a failed state, but that is where we are heading. (The comrades don't notice this because they are forever busy with parties, launches, summits, lekgotlas, conferences, grandiose occasions, overseas trips, etc.) Even if South Africa can pull off a Soccer World Cup where tourists don't get mugged or raped to the extent that South Africans do, or where they don't disappear into potholes or down manholes, we all know that when the party is over the country will resume its downward slide. Bits of the place spruced up for the benefit of World Cup visitors will be nothing better than Potemkin Villages. Fortunately, criticism of the ANC's deployment policy and of poor public service is growing, even within the three-ring circus sometimes known as the tripartite alliance. Unfortunately, we know from the apartheid era how long it takes for failing policies to be reversed, even when the penny has dropped. But we also know from the apartheid era that change is not a function of government alone. The private sector, civil society, non-governmental organisations, and ordinary citizens can bring about change without waiting for the government. This is already happening in the labour field, where regulatory rigidities are being undermined by labour brokers and noncompliant clothing employers. Like apartheid, the ANC's ‘national democratic revolution' will eventually disintegrate.

The fate of the nation

John Kane-Berman Although many people are unwilling to read it, the writing is on the wall for South Africa. From the thuggishness of the po...

10:44 AM

ANC hijack Madiba again!

A shocking affair - I heard some of Zuma's speech, broadcast on TV yesterday <img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5326827109804416242" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEguQ-pLKwohtegW_V6OS4ZaSYTr6zoD6BvNAgChHqrv75me9N0KdYA7vS8eEYdY6NRGDISGO-ZiN6obbM4JrN24g8DEsrZMpFjEtoU7zxGntWxJHPIzjJtG8gtDGx3Kn3-kbqFlPKr9WWUQ/s400/Nelson-Mandela-Winnie-Jac-001.jpg" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 400px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 240px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" />Former South African president Nelson Mandela is helped on to the stage by current ANC president and presidential candidate Jacob Zuma, left, and former wife Winnie at the start of an ANC rally in Johannesburg Sunday"Former president Nelson Mandela asked to be taken to the Coca-Cola Park stadium in Johannesburg for the ANC's Siyanqoba ("we are winning") rally" ANC president Jacob Zuma said on Sunday. Zuma said this to allay critics who lashed out at the party in February when Mandela attended an African National Congress election rally in Idutywa in the Eastern Cape. "Today Mandela is here with his family. Let's also clarify this fact for those who like to comment on issues like these: The leader of the ANC... the icon of this country asked us to take him to the rally in the Eastern Cape and we obeyed his instructions. "Once again, he asked again to be part of the Siyanqoba rally today," Zuma said. Mandela was among senior ANC leaders who had attended the rally in Johannesburg along with thousands of supporters on Sunday. As he was driven by golf cart into the stadium, the crowd erupted into cheers and members of Umkhonto we Sizwe rallied around to prevent members of the media and the public from getting closer to him. The Hijacking of Madiba 26 February 2009<img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5326828742783935522" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjp1uk43MajC3lXEYV5dfH7nHrSQEEUeuSYlU2uOHq53I29ZIS240lRJAmdUbipSrvAbEHkes_iSpW6VWapwjnzLeXbKwHQ1BZMIqGPvPfh_9a15cwXp9hihhN-ZWu0mT4qB8h-GmU_arxY/s400/mandela-zuma.jpg" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 400px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 261px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" /> Former South African president Nelson Mandela is helped on to the stage by current ANC president and presidential candidate Jacob Zuma, left, at the start of an ANC rally in Eastern Cape in FebruaryThere have surely been few more disgraceful moments in South African politics than the one enacted last week when Nelson Mandela was physically hijacked by the ANC to go politicking for Jacob Zuma. Now 90, and frail, Mandela was flown in a private plane, without his usual bodyguard and medical backup, from his Johannesburg home to Idutywa in the Eastern Cape. Repeatedly, he had told his staff that he did not want to get involved in current politics, but his hijackers neither informed nor consulted the Nelson Mandela Foundation, which usually had supervised his travel arrangements. At the rally, Zuma helped to hoist him on to the stage. The full story is told in last week's Sunday Times, which quoted a family friend: "Shame, the old man really doesn't deserve this kind of nonsense at this time of his life". Just what pressures the Zuma gang used to persuade Mandela to go to Idutywa are still to be revealed. An ANC spokesman gave this assurance: "Mandela still has his full senses...he won't do what he does not want to do". But South African politics are confusing, and the assumption is possible that Mandela was manoeuvred into thinking that the ANC is still an honourable institution - a legend approaching its centenary - and that it is his solemn duty to protect it. The question persists: does Madiba understand fully that the ANC is no longer a legend? Which ANC does he support - the one-time legend? The Polokwane manifestation (and the Jacob Zuma versus Kgalema Motlanthe schism within it)? The Cope breakaway (and the Lekota versus Mvume Dandala schism within the breakaway)? Is Madiba keenly observing the run-up to the general election battle on April 22, and if so does he agree with Thabo Mbeki's brother Moeletsi that the ANC poll in the elections could be between 48% and 55%? If Moeletsi, an experienced analyst, is right, then certain scenarios play out: ANC secretary general Gwede Mantashe is "living in cloud-cuckoo land" if he thinks (as he publicly declared) that "We don't want a two-thirds majority; we want a three-thirds majority". Moeletsi is also right then to dismiss the possibility of the ANC securing a two-thirds majority; and he might just be right that the ANC will fall short even of a simple majority. So which ANC does Madiba support? Either he keeps himself up to date with what is happening in the ANC, and makes his trips to Idutywa, or he goes to bed. To enlighten himself though, he might read the article Mondli Makhanya (Sunday Times editor) wrote last week about Julius Malema's election as president of the ANC Youth League. In the article, Makhanya recorded how he had asked a senior ANC member "how a movement with so noble a history could choose a hooligan to be its leader"? The ANC member explained that the ANCYL was about militancy: each generation of leadership has to be more militant than the previous one. "And after Malema?" inquired Makhanya. "We cannot go backwards', answered the ANC member. "We will need someone more militant." Is this the ANC for which Madiba flew to Idutywa? Madiba has no love for Thabo Mbeki, but in some ways Mbeki knows his own people better than most. Delivering the Nelson Mandela Memorial Lecture on July 29, 2006, then President Mbeki spoke about "the demons embedded in our society". He said: "Thus, every day, and during every hour of our time beyond sleep, the demons embedded in our society, that stalk us at every minute, seem always to beckon each one of us towards a realisable dream and nightmare. With every passing second, they advise, with rhythmic and hypnotic regularity - ‘Get rich! Get rich! Get rich!" Is this the Idutywa ANC? Is this the ANC membership as Madiba knows it? Is it because he no longer knows his own people that he allowed the Zuma gang to humiliate him? Does he accept what Justice Malala wrote in the Times last week: "The party (ANC), unless it does something dramatic, is finished. It will win this year's election, but 2014? And after that? It is over for the continent's oldest liberation movement. It is now just another grubby political party". Source <a href="http://www.politicsweb.co.za/politicsweb/view/politicsweb/en/page71619?oid=118983&sn=Detail">The hijacking of Madiba</a> <a href="http://www.politicsweb.co.za/">http://www.politicsweb.co.za/</a>

ANC hijack Madiba again!

A shocking affair - I heard some of Zuma's speech, broadcast on TV yesterday Former South African president Nelson Mandela is helped on ...

8:06 AM

Aids killing African politicians

<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhm7Vl_cdBntYn7dd7wZICSHYJPboySLm2aqcy2h8elcRY4MNc3qsGrJzl7a1e90Ph6MBP3pUdkaxpH_RqyBl6NYtMm3pwZm4TtWR82LDdLXRqI0OFkTwn9wyY8dVzwK1MCqH6Td3AvYlU/s1600-h/AIDS%2520dayBM2381847.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5314176670642657410" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhm7Vl_cdBntYn7dd7wZICSHYJPboySLm2aqcy2h8elcRY4MNc3qsGrJzl7a1e90Ph6MBP3pUdkaxpH_RqyBl6NYtMm3pwZm4TtWR82LDdLXRqI0OFkTwn9wyY8dVzwK1MCqH6Td3AvYlU/s320/AIDS%2520dayBM2381847.jpg" style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 288px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 267px" /></a>Aids is killing so many politicians in southern Africa that their deaths are threatening the ability of governments to function properly, a researcher said on Tuesday. Kondwani Chirambo, the lead author of a new study on deaths among local councillors in South Africa, told AFP he had studied six other countries where unnatural numbers of deaths of lawmakers could be attributed to Aids. "If you look at the statistics, MPs have been dying relatively young and dying in large numbers. These trends are not dissimilar from the general population," said Chirambo, of the Institute for Democracy in South Africa. Over the last eight years, South Africa has seen nearly half of its elected local councillors dying before the age of 50. Chirambo said this "does not bode well" for South Africa, where the poor government services are a major public complaint. In the whole of southern Africa, the study found only one elected official who openly disclosed her HIV status, and Chirambo attributes the failure of these officials to seek help to a fear of stigma. "It is not a very healthy profile. Councillors are not the poorest people in the world," he said. "It is clear a great deal of them feel to disclose your status is a form of political suicide." South Africa has one of the world's highest Aids prevalence, with 5.4 million people affected. Eighteen percent of them are in the work force. According to Chirambo, 2.6 million registered voters have died since 1999, the majority of them still young. In Senegal, with a national Aids prevalence of one percent, there were only three vacancies in parliament caused by death of the politician. By comparison in Zambia, where the first Aids case was noted in 1995, death is the most common cause for parliamentary vacancies.

Aids killing African politicians

Aids is killing so many politicians in southern Africa that their deaths are threatening the ability of governments to function properly, a ...

7:55 AM

South Africa P.I.G.

'Politicians' spending YOUR tax money

Malema linked to R250m mining deal

The fate of the nation

ANC hijack Madiba again!

Aids killing African politicians

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