South Africa Falling Into Decay

<br /><br /><em><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">By </span></em><a href="http://sarahmaidofalbion.blogspot.com/search/label/Poetry.%20Mike%20Wilson"><u style="background-color: #d9ead3;"><b><span style="background-color: white; color: #888888; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><em>Mike Wilson</em></span></b></u></a><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><strong><span style="font-size: large;">S</span>outh Africa</strong> – the name conjures up visions of white colonialism, riches of diamonds and gold, beautiful cities, beautiful people, rich farmlands and technical innovation.</span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial;"></span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">A strong and vibrant country with a modern army and air force and an air of expectancy, handed down from Afrikaner father to son, that their land would be the greatest in the whole continent.</span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial;"></span><br /><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="390" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/6Gm7IzfqWos" width="640"></iframe><br /><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Well it does to me and this is <strong>what the country used to be like</strong> when I lived there 40 years ago. Johannesburg was a thriving metropolis of great buildings and the frenzied rush of people going about their affairs much like any other major city in the world.<br /><br />It was such a powerhouse of people, ideas and innovations and the strong Boer mentality over rode all.<br /><br />Today Johannesburg appears to be a run down shanty town with decrepit buildings, boarded up windows, filthy garbage riddled streets and squalor everywhere.<br /><br /><strong>What happened?</strong></span><br />  <br /><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="390" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/LW6lOdxqSUE" width="640"></iframe><br /><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The infamous pass laws were rescinded in the early 90’s and <strong>the black man took over the country</strong>.</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This utopia, this land of riches, this gemstone in the crown of the continent is now like so many other African nations, a struggling mix of different tribes coming to terms with life in the 21st century.</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Unfortunately for these black Africans, they have not been able to rise above tribal culture and are cursed with a background that has not reached the stage which would enable them to mentally grasp all the requirements that are needed to administer a complex and busy country.</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">From being the underdog to being the dominant force today has created major schisms within the overall South African society.</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">There is an <strong>ongoing payback mentality</strong> that encourages blacks to take from the whites in many different ways. In one way the houses of white people are regularly burgled and effects stolen. This is not done covertly and gangs of blacks regularly threaten households. In another way there is what is now called ‘<strong>Black Empowerment</strong>’ or BEE where blacks are given <strong>preference over whites</strong> for available jobs. This stupid practice gives the unskilled African peasant direct involvement in manning the infrastructure support that runs the country. As a consequence the major power supply company Eskom is unable to maintain its equipment as most of the trained skilled white staff are no longer employed. This has caused frequent power supply problems so that they had to rely on power shedding or in other words maintaining power to select parts of their industry rather than all consumers who need it.</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The current youth leader of the ANC, Julius Malema, keeps telling his followers to <strong>kill the Boer</strong>, one man one bullet. He has recently been found guilty of inciting racial hatred and fined 50,000 Rand for his troubles. Not that this has changed his tactic one iota and on a recent trip to Zimbabwe he went out of his way to repeat the phrase to all who would listen.</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Over 3,000 white farmers have been murdered since the ANC took over in a deliberate government policy to get whites to give up their land. From being a rich farming country under white rule South Africa now faces the prospect of importing food to feed the masses. Many whites claim that there is now <strong>a policy of genocide levelled against Boer farmers</strong> as a result of the ANC policy to grab land. This is the same process that started in Zimbabwe and will have the same result.</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">On a recent trip to Zimbabwe there were talks between Mugabe and Malema on how to take over the remaining land <strong>still in the hands of white minorities</strong>. Now there is also talk of the mining industry which made SA very rich, being nationalised for the benefit of the black politicians.</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Law and order is a thing of the past now. There is no law of protection for whites and no laws for the blacks to abide by. Even <em>Jacob Zuma</em> the current leader of the ANC had a number of <strong>rape and corruption charges</strong> levelled against him by the then law and order anti- corruption team called the Scorpions. The ANC had an easy answer to all this, they simply disbanded the unit and the charges were dropped!</span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial;"></span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In fact many of the black policemen supposedly upholding what little law and order is left, are themselves involved in burglarising, raping and armed robberies. <strong>The number of deaths of whites has been unrecorded</strong> although the litany of deaths occurs on a daily basis.</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Many people felt that with the advent of black rule and empowerment blacks and whites would be able to sit together and maintain a strong and prosperous country that would continue to be the envy of Sub Saharan Africa. Today the situation is so bad that the country is becoming another Zimbabwe and whites are powerless to stop it but can only look on in horror as their once great country crumbles about them.</span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial;"></span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Due to the political process of giving to the black at the expense of the white there are now <strong>450,000 white people living below the poverty line</strong> in shanty towns around the country. The majority of these people are from Afrikaans backgrounds who would normally be the underclass looking after fairly menial jobs, railway workers, cleaners etc. Since those jobs are now taken by blacks these unfortunate men, women and children have no recourse but to become part of the homeless generation, forgotten by more affluent whites as well as the black government. <strong>Even some soup kitchens that were set up by well minded individuals have been closed by bureaucrats who say that the whites must fend for themselves.</strong> It’s only the help from other whites that keeps these unfortunate people with some form of subsistence.</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">White liberalism is to blame for the problems affecting South Africa and the fall of the white Governments pre 1994. The world saw a country with blacks being oppressed and demanded change for the betterment of the black population. Just like Rhodesia several years earlier. Today, who has benefited from these changes? Certainly not the blacks as the majority of them are now far worse off than ever they were under white rule. Again, the classic example is Zimbabwe under the megalomaniac Mugabe who has robbed his country blind whilst 98% of his followers still live in shantytowns without the benefits of modern civilisation and in abject poverty.</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Every one of the ruling politicians in South Africa lives a life of wealth and privilege, with <strong>the latest cars, biggest houses in the best suburbs</strong> etc., yet their followers are very much worse off than they were when the whites ruled the country. </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Apart from the trashing of cities which have become sleazy rubbish dumps the hospital services are almost non existent. It’s hard to accept that the country that pioneered the first heart transplant under Dr. Christian Barnard has now a run down medical service which once used to be the envy of the world.</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Everything about the country today smacks of total incompetence with inmates running the asylum for the rest of the inmates who just have no idea what is going on.</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><a href="http://elliotlakenews.wordpress.com/2010/04/18/eugene-terreblanche-last-interview/">The murder of Eugene Terreblanche</a> may be just the last nail in the coffin of apathy that has affected the white liberals in this broken country.</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Indeed, apathy is probably the correct word to describe how the rest of the world views this former nation. It just seems that the power brokers amongst civilised nations are just sitting on the sidelines waiting for the continent to implode before they go back in perhaps 40 years time or so, and pick up the pieces once more. Although by that time the Chinese will have probably got in first and blacks will have a far stronger, stricter and nastier <strong>overseer</strong> than the whites ever were.</span><br /><br />

South Africa Falling Into Decay

By Mike Wilson S outh Africa – the name conjures up visions of white colonialism, riches of diamonds and gold, beautiful cities, beautiful...

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Extreme Police Butality - Killing of Defenceless Protestor

<p><strong><span style="color: #990000;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">South Africa “the protest capital of the world” - The beginning of the end for the ANC!<br /><br />As the ANC turns into an aggressive kleptocracy - and confronts an ongoing country wide revolt from poor communities - the politicians have made themselves the enemies of their own people. As one of its members said: “The ANC regards their own people — not the other official political parties — as their true opposition, because they are closer to the pain on the ground.” </span></span></strong><br /><br /><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhOx9f7BkdDjYzKofBlNkSEIVnrxXXFrOZb33o-B6tiZK_00UtRwvw1C6jTMwWH8k9F2ZilFT47oiV1AkdaEg7S0Bdb_Il9RoeKBUTiNOp-dfXi38tTnvDGmpVmpCtBqOguMhFDj6819gGE/s1600/BhekiCele+copy.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" i8="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhOx9f7BkdDjYzKofBlNkSEIVnrxXXFrOZb33o-B6tiZK_00UtRwvw1C6jTMwWH8k9F2ZilFT47oiV1AkdaEg7S0Bdb_Il9RoeKBUTiNOp-dfXi38tTnvDGmpVmpCtBqOguMhFDj6819gGE/s1600/BhekiCele+copy.jpg" /></a><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The ranting against Boers and ugly women is to take attention away from the multitudes of protesting people whose life is a nightmare under the rainbow-nation mirage. The very convenient return to anti-apartheid songs calling for whites to be shot.. and their harping on ‘struggle songs’ as they were sung in the past, is not a reflection of how attached they are to the struggle, but an attempt to get the people to believe that all they have is remnants of the old order against whom their anger should be vented. In this way, the political elite sidetracks the people from singing about the current dislocation of water and electricity, the ruthless and violent evictions of shack dwellers, the vicious police attack on service delivery protesters, and the kleptomaniac proclivities of the new political and economic elites. They raise race not to confront racism but as a card to render themselves immune from criticism and also to find a slice for themselves in the economic cake. It is a weapon of mass distraction. They want to focus the people on imaginary fights with the Boers while the filthy rich black political and economic elites are involved in equity deals with the stinky rich whites, strolling half-naked with them in exotic beaches and exclusive resorts.</span></div><br /><strong><span style="color: black; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The brutal killing of an unarmed protestor, attacked simultaneously by six policemen - viciously beaten with batons and fired on at close range with rubber bullets.</span></strong><br /><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Tatane was a school teacher, a councilor, a husband and father of one child, a rolemodel in his poor community where he was a volunteer teacher helping learners to improve their marks in Science, Math and Afrikaans. He rescued a helpless old man from being sprayed down by a water cannon. He took his shirt off to draw attention away from the old man, telling the police to rather spray him. The cops then attacked him. Anybody with sense will recognise brutal, excessive force by ill-disciplined cops. The ANC Militia, masquerading as the SAPS, are now clearly and assuredly completely out of control.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><strong>Shocking images of the police brutality were broadcast to the nation on television yesterday - they showed an unarmed man being viciously beaten and shot to death by a mob of policemen. </strong></span><br /><br /><div style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Pictures of the attack on the 33-year-old man by at least six policemen simultaneously, during a service delivery protest at Setsoto, in Ficksburg, eastern Free State, were shown on all SABC news bulletins last night. </div><div style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></div><div style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The visuals of the chilling and sad scene show how the armed policemen cornered Andries Tatane, striking him with their batons and kicking him in an assault that lasted for a few minutes. </div><div style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></div><div style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Tatane, from Masaleng township, Ficksburg, is seen holding his hand against his chest after the assault. He collapsed and died before an ambulance arrived.</div><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><strong><em>Click on image below to watch </em>SLIDESHOW</strong> <a class="photo" href="http://multimedia.timeslive.co.za/photos/2011/04/ficksburg-killing/" target="_blank">Ficksburg killing </a><strong><em> </em></strong></span><br /><br /><object classid="clsid:D27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000" height="412" id="soundslider" width="470"><param name="movie" value="http://multimedia.timeslive.co.za/photostory/flicksburgsz/soundslider.swf?size=1&format=xml&embed_width=620&embed_height=533&autoload=false&autostart=false" /><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always" /><param name="quality" value="high" /><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true" /><param name="menu" value="false" /><param name="bgcolor" value="#000000" /><embed src="http://multimedia.timeslive.co.za/photostory/flicksburgsz/soundslider.swf?size=1&format=xml&embed_width=470&embed_height=412&autoload=false" quality="high" bgcolor="#000000" width="470" height="412" menu="false" allowScriptAccess="sameDomain" allowFullScreen="true" type="application/x-shockwave-flash"></embed></object><br /><br /><strong><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"></span></strong><br /><strong><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><span style="color: #990000; font-size: large;">We are all Andries Tatane</span> - By An Anonymous Reader</span></strong><br /><br /><strong></strong><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">South Africa is far from what Tunisia was like pre-revolution (for one it is not governed by a one-party police state), but the parallels of small-town </span><a href="http://www.iol.co.za/news/crime-courts/protester-beaten-to-death-by-cops-report-1.1056538" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">cops beating to death</span></a><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> (</span><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=omWi5PayXiM"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">here</span></a><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">‘s video footage from the South African state broadcaster SABC news) a South African Everyman because he was angry with poor or non-existent service delivery (water, electricity, roads, housing) is eerily reminiscent of a certain </span><a href="http://english.aljazeera.net/indepth/features/2011/01/201111684242518839.html"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">fruit vendor in southern Tunisia</span></a><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">.   Again, the differences between South Africa and Tunisia are too many to mention. But if you asked someone in Meqheleng (yes, I did look up the largest township in Ficksburg in the Free State Province) if they are as frustrated as your typical Tunisian circa 2010, I wonder what they would say?</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Would the ANC’s proper electoral mandate and liberation credentials outweigh the impression that those in power–</span><a href="http://concernedafricascholars.org/bulletin/84/" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Jacob Zuma</span></a><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">, </span><a href="http://mg.co.za/person/tokyo-sexwale" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Tokyo Sexwale</span></a><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">, </span><a href="http://mg.co.za/person/sicelo-shiceka" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Sicelo Shiceka</span></a><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">, and </span><a href="http://mg.co.za/person/siphiwe-nyanda" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Siphiwe Nyanda</span></a><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">, etcetera–are amassing wealth and governing just like Hosni Mubarak and Ben Ali? I worry that a few years from now they won’t care how legitimate the ruling party’s mandate is: poor service delivery is poor service delivery.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">You know at least for now in further Tunisia parallels the people of Ficksburg have </span><a href="http://www.timeslive.co.za/local/article1020872.ece/Ficksburg-protesters-set-buildings-alight" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">ratcheted things</span></a><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> up a bit.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">That leads me this: Does that 18-year old in Meqheleng know the basic dynamics of what is happening in North Africa or the Middle East? Are vernacular radio and local papers giving the “Arab spring” coverage, at least to the point that that 18-year old realizes how crap Mubarak was and, closer to home, how dismissive the ANC leadership has been to their demands the last 17 years, basically the span of his or her entire lifespan?</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Trevor Manuel, former finance minister, said in the aftermath of the Paris riots that Cape Town  is treading water. Meanwhile, Moeletsi Mbeki, brother of Thabo, drew a picture for the country following the events in Tunisia.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We shouldn’t be surprised when in the absence of meaningful political representation and mediation, the atrophy of social change, and in a context of socially acceptable and government sanctioned accumulation through nepotism, cronyism, and political-connectedness, the structural violence of South African life finds vivid and widespread expression.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">“Service delivery” protests (a misnomer if there ever was one), or what passes as xenophobic, domestic, interpersonal violence, wanton brutality on the part of security apparatus, all these are all </span><a href="http://www.businessday.co.za/articles/Content.aspx?id=140341" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">symptoms of the greater malaise</span></a><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: Arial;"></span><br /><div class="comment-text" dir="ltr"><strong><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Sky news propaganda.</span></strong><br /><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Dramatic footage of the whole clip was shown on the <strong><a href="http://youtu.be/0iz2_pP7UTk">e News Channel</a> <span style="color: #cc0000;">(Warning - shocking and disturbing)</span></strong> where the man was just verbally challenging the police while they were threatening the crowd with a water cannon telling the protesters to go away. He was unarmed and posed no threat to the police. The man was first attacked by a cop with a batton, then he started fighting back... THEN <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Krh0k-tYFY&feature=related">Sky cut the clip</a> in where you see him fighting the cop. They make it look like he was violent to begin with, leaving out the beginning.</span><br /><br /><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DMSHm3mph3U&feature=related"><span style="color: #a64d79; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><strong>Another Police Beating</strong></span></a><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><strong> </strong></span><br /><br /><h3 style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8s7W2M4vnEc&feature=related"><span style="color: #a64d79; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Police Beating</span></a><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span></h3></div><br /><b><span style="color: #990000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Death in Ficksburg shows how we value life</span></b><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;"><em><strong>By : ITUMELENG MAHABANE</strong></em></span><br /><br /><span style="color: #990000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><strong>A MAN died this week. He died with his arms clutching his chest, trying to stop the blood spilling out of a gaping bullet hole.</strong></span><br /><br /><span style="color: #990000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><strong>His crime? In a country in which nearly 50% of the people live in poverty and where nearly 50% of black people are unemployed — most of them without the prospect of ever finding a job — he died because he wanted a better deal for his community.</strong></span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"></span><br /><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In a country in which miscellaneous items worth hundreds of millions of rand are consumed each year by politicians, where people become instant multimillionaires supposedly providing public goods, goods that rarely materialise, this man died because he wanted his government to do its job.</span></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"></div><br /><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">There is no official finding. Early indications are that he was killed, possibly murdered, by the system that is meant to protect him. He was beaten viciously by a group of police officers. Then he was shot. Probably as he was lying on the ground, hurt and defenceless.</span></div><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">By the the middle of this morning, there had not yet been a statement of sympathy, of outrage, of a call for an investigation, from a member of the Cabinet.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">A country with three Nobel Peace Prize laureates, a government ruled by a party once described as having the most genteel armed wing in the world, and this is what we have been reduced to?</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The public, vicious deaths of citizens at the hands of the people entrusted with protecting our lives seemingly leaves us cold.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In Andries Tatane’s death we have shown, unequivocally, how we value life in a country with a constitution that is supposed to be the most progressive and enviable in the world</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This is not simply about police brutality. This is about national brutality. The police are simply a reflection of the society we are. It begins with the acceptance of the brutality of poverty and economic injustice.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Former President </span><a href="http://www.blogger.com/" id="popupAnchor" style="color: #b30616; cursor: pointer; text-decoration: underline;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Thabo Mbeki</span></a><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> described SA as a country with two economies, a first economy and a second economy.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Between 70% and 80% of South Africans live in that second economy and it is a place of humiliating and incapacitating poverty.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The overwhelming majority of our country survives on a household income of less than R2500 a month, most will spend between R500 and R1500 a month on accommodation because there is a shortage of pro-poor housing stock.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">That is ignoring for a moment that even R1000 will simply get you a makeshift room. These households must then feed, clothe and send their children to school.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">These poor people must survive in an economy in which pricing is determined by the need to satisfy the earning expectations of first-world citizens and their price-fixing and where their government has failed to provide functioning public infrastructure.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The poverty in which vast numbers of South Africans live can make places such as Alexandra seem like places of privilege.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We have people who have been on housing lists for more than a decade, many of them the supposed recipients of supposed houses built by people who live it up at bling parties, hobnobbing with the political and business elites of the first world.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Meanwhile, provinces are rushing to outlaw shack settlements.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We seek instead to criminalise the poor for being poor.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">They must know their place and sit in the dust bowls that apartheid shipped them out to until the rest of us have eaten.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We cannot have them scarring the vistas of our first economy.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The maladministration and poor governance is tolerated, rewarded even.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The unequivocal message from the reaction to the death of Tatane in Ficksburg is that not only do we do not value the lives of our people, the government has a minimal sense of accountability to its citizens. If it does not care about their lives then how can it possibly care about its duty to them?</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This is not simply about poor governance and delivery, it is about economic and social justice. There is something repugnant, for instance, about the ease with which we demonise workers in our battle against inflation, when the problem is multifaceted.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In a country of bread-price fixers, officials who steal from children and pensioners, and crass chauvinistic materialists, the ease with which the working class has become the enemy of the country is a reflection of the society we have become</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We can comfort ourselves and tell ourselves that we have a democracy and a constitution and that there will be no violent uprisings in this country.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Yet democracy is not a piece of paper. It functions only if people believe they have a real choice, and many do not think they do.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In that context, the combination of extraordinary inequality, material excess, poor political accountability and responsiveness, and debilitating, brutalising corruption will eventually spread the flames engulfing poor, black SA into our comfortable little first world.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We are becoming tribes at war. We need to find our way back to prioritising an inclusive and just society.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><em>• Mahabane is a partner at Brunswick.</em></span><p>

Extreme Police Butality - Killing of Defenceless Protestor

South Africa “the protest capital of the world” - The beginning of the end for the ANC! As the ANC turns into an aggressive kleptocracy - an...

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Cele and his SAPS criminals vs Jesus and His 12 Apostles

<p><span style="color: #990000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><strong>No this is not an April Fools joke</strong></span><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwnXIAZ1V4lQjZzy08lLT4EenZqm2GG7Bln5wn2mPfTMQy_piAVkAxrPsH99FpEFsFE8bezCkp8p5wm19OxCQ1aj8ncW_7w3rKVrTjnWD5y9Qj4dZeAAc3_Z07Omnmndr4iPDD5AVI4Dms/s1600/shitforbrains+copy.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="336" r6="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwnXIAZ1V4lQjZzy08lLT4EenZqm2GG7Bln5wn2mPfTMQy_piAVkAxrPsH99FpEFsFE8bezCkp8p5wm19OxCQ1aj8ncW_7w3rKVrTjnWD5y9Qj4dZeAAc3_Z07Omnmndr4iPDD5AVI4Dms/s400/shitforbrains+copy.jpg" width="400" /></a><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">National police chief </span><a class="tips" hoverintent_t="undefined" href="http://www.whoswhosa.co.za/bheki-cele-8977" jquery1509375304565641562="15" rel="/Handlers/WhosWhoTooltip.ashx?url=http://www.whoswhosa.co.za/hover.php?uid=8977" title=""><strong><span style="color: #0e2e5e; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Bheki Cele</span></strong></a><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"> has likened the SA Police Service to Jesus Christ and his 12 <strike>apostles</strike> disciples. </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: #073763;"><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="color: blue;"><em>(The term apostle means one who is sent forth as a messenger while a disciple is a follower or a student who learns from a teacher. Is the blundering, </em> </span></span><em><span style="color: blue; font-size: small;">loose-tongued, self-styled "general" police <strike>clown</strike> chief Bheki Cele even aware of the difference?)</span></em></span></span></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">He said that if even Jesus and God had criminals in their midst, it was to be expected that there would be criminals in the 193 000-strong police force.<br /><br />"Jesus Christ had an organisation of 12 people... among those 12 there was a criminal who sat with Jesus every day," Cele was quoted saying at a police cars handover ceremony in Pretoria on Friday.<br /><br />"Even when Jesus berated him [Judas], he denied that it was him who was a criminal.<br /><br />"In the Garden of Eden, there were two people. God himself did an inspection every morning. One day, He could not find them. They were hiding, because they had committed a crime," he said. </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><em><span style="color: blue;">(<span style="font-size: small;">Which begs the question what did God do? Did He condone corruption within the organisation? Did He reward the criminals with a promotion, big bonuses, deployment, suspension with full pay? Adam and Eve chose the way of disobedience and were banished from the Garden for one mistake-just one <strike>crime </strike>sin, no second chances.  We all understand choice and consequence. </span><span style="font-size: small;">God warned them that if they should eat the fruit of this tree, in the same day they would die. Sure enough, this is what happened. All of creation was subject to death as a result of their choice</span></span></em></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><em>.) </em></span></span></span></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">"If you will find criminals amongst two people, then you will find criminals in an organisation with 193 000 members," Cele said.<br /><br />Beeld said that in the past seven months, some 254 police members in Gauteng were arrested for alleged involvement in robberies and corruption.<br /><br />Top cop </span><a class="tips" href="http://www.whoswhosa.co.za/richard-mdluli" jquery1509375304565641562="19" rel="/Handlers/WhosWhoTooltip.ashx?url=http://www.whoswhosa.co.za/hover.php?uid=48558" title=""><strong><span style="color: #0e2e5e; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Richard Mdluli</span></strong></a><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"> and several of his colleagues were arrested this week for their alleged involvement in a murder that was committed in the late 1990s.<br /><br />This is not the first biblical comparison used in SA politics.<br /><br />President </span><a class="tips" hoverintent_t="undefined" href="http://www.whoswhosa.co.za/jacob-zuma-927" jquery1509375304565641562="20" rel="/Handlers/WhosWhoTooltip.ashx?url=http://www.whoswhosa.co.za/hover.php?uid=927" title=""><strong><span style="color: #0e2e5e; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Jacob Zuma</span></strong></a><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"> was criticised a few years ago for saying the African National Congress will rule until Jesus comes.<br /><br />In 2008, a provincial ANC leader likened Zuma's suffering in the then corruption case against him to what Jesus had gone through.</span></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><br /></div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><a href="http://www.blogger.com/" id="ctl00_ctl00_MainBodyPlaceholder_Column1Placeholder_articlePaged_lnkArticleAccreditationName" target="_blank"><strong><span style="color: #0e2e5e;">- SAPA</span></strong></a></div><div align="center" class="separator" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; clear: both; text-align: center;"></div>

Cele and his SAPS criminals vs Jesus and His 12 Apostles

No this is not an April Fools joke National police chief Bheki Cele has likened the SA Police Service to Jesus Christ and his 12 apostles ...

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Justice in South Africa? It's a sick joke

<p><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;color:#990000;"><strong><span style="color:#990000;">More than 20 000 firearms <strike>sold to criminals</strike> lost by SAPS since April 2004</span> </strong></span></p><p><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEikln7qWciJdCXfkPhyphenhyphenTe6bmpeA8PW6iAs5KW-C1ZYXpQqCu4yBtKaSR6_8k4CvqS13rxAbi9Gra24IF0F3EJ6tbOjBORXT6o7FZcVX4wHXEAwKalXpdmU6bSG8tmGYp2qBsfJ_sdRfpzPc/s1600/cele-journalist.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5582242645305933938" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEikln7qWciJdCXfkPhyphenhyphenTe6bmpeA8PW6iAs5KW-C1ZYXpQqCu4yBtKaSR6_8k4CvqS13rxAbi9Gra24IF0F3EJ6tbOjBORXT6o7FZcVX4wHXEAwKalXpdmU6bSG8tmGYp2qBsfJ_sdRfpzPc/s400/cele-journalist.jpg" style="MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; WIDTH: 400px; FLOAT: right; HEIGHT: 278px; CURSOR: hand" /></a><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;"><a href="http://www.thestar.co.za/mps-warn-cele-and-top-brass-1.1038485?pageNumber=2">MPs GUN for SAPS top brass</a></span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;"><br />Embattled national Police Commissioner General Bheki Cele and his top brass have been warned by MPs that lying to Parliament was a criminal offence as the department was grilled on its chaotic firearm controls.<br /><br />MPs came out guns blazing against police bigwigs for claiming, during previous committee meetings, that their management of firearms was under control. This followed a senior SAPS commissioner admission that there was really no system in place to monitor and safeguard firearms.<br /><br />Cele was not present during Tuesday’s meeting with the National Assembly committee on police. Chairwoman Sindi Chikunga said he had excused himself.<br /><br />Commissioner for visible policing at the SAPS, Joel Mothiba, said: “We really don’t have control of the environment (firearm controls) … we must point out that we do not have a system.”<br /><br />In response, angry MPs accused the police management of lying to them during previous meetings.<br /><br />ANC MP Annelize van Wyk said the committee’s patience with the department was wearing thin as it was not the first time information that had been provided was questioned and earlier statements disputed.<br /><br />“It’s a criminal offence to lie to Parliament. There will come a time when this committee has had enough of these half-truths.”<br /><br />DA MP Dianne Kohler Barnard said: “The absolute top structure (of SAPS) had sworn to us on stacks of Bibles that a system was in place. Now you mean there’s no system?<br /><br />“Why have we been listening to top structure saying everything (was under control) … I don’t know how you even manage to apprehend criminals. I’m absolutely gob-smacked,” Kohler Barnard said.<br /><br />The SAPS on Tuesday presented its report on the safeguarding of firearms to the committee.<br /><br />Over the past seven years, 20 429 firearms were reported lost despite 12 control measures put in place. To date, the SAPS has recovered 4 810 of the guns and no steps have been taken against any officers.<br /><br />The department has 264 845 firearms.<br /><br />On the report, Chikunga said: “The report today, if you look at it and really think about it, it’s somewhat a fatal report.”<br /><br />Members expressed their concern about the statistics in the report because the national department had relied on the provinces to provide the numbers, with very few actual inspections of police stations.<br /><br />Van Wyk said, if the figures relied on information from the provinces, “I can say without a doubt that they are wrong”.<br /><br />Earlier, SAPS divisional commissioner of supply chain management Gary Kruser said he had only been notified of the meeting the day before the department was scheduled to appear before the committee.<br /><br />“So we had to put the presentation together in a rush.”<br /><br />Chikunga took issue with this, saying the SAPS had been handed the committee’s schedule in October.<br /><br />“It’s surprising that only yesterday people were told. I’m not sure what this means … I have a problem with the document being prepared one day before the meeting. Even if the national commissioner (Cele) could not come he should have prepared the people who came. (That it was) only prepared yesterday talks to the disorganisation on that level.” - Political Bureau</span></p><p><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;"><em>Click on link to see reader comments: </em></span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;"><a href="http://www.thestar.co.za/mps-warn-cele-and-top-brass-1.1038485?pageNumber=2"><em><span style="font-size:85%;">http://www.thestar.co.za/mps-warn-cele-and-top-brass-1.1038485?pageNumber=2</span></em></a><span style="font-size:85%;"> </span></span></p><p><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><strong><span style="color:#990000;"><span style="font-size:130%;">91,216</span> REPORTED MURDERS 2005-2010 - ONLY <span style="font-size:130%;">27,648</span> IN PRISON FOR MURDER - </span></strong></span></span></p><p><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><strong><span style="color:#990000;"><span style="font-size:130%;">20 429</span> FIREARMS have been 'lost' in the police force since April 2004 and no steps have been taken against any police officers!</span></strong></span></span><span style="font-family:arial;"><span style="color:black;"><em> </em></span></span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;"><span style="color:black;"><em><br /></em><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="color:#990000;">Politicsweb note:</span> The total number of reported crimes, according to the SAPS, between 2005 and 2010 for the following categories are: Murder, 91,216; Sexual crimes 335,941, Robbery 327,633, Robbery with Aggravating circumstances 599,743; residential burglary 1,253, 246.</span></span><span style="font-size:130%;"> <a class="read_more" href="http://www.politicsweb.co.za/politicsweb/view/politicsweb/en/page71656?oid=225314&sn=Detail&pid=71616"><span style="font-family:arial;">Read more</span></a><span style="font-family:Times New Roman;font-size:small;"> </span></span></span><span style="color:black;"><br /></span><br /><span style="color:black;"><em><span style="font-family:arial;color:#000099;">Source:</span> </em></span><span style="font-family:arial;color:black;"><em><a href="http://www.politicsweb.co.za/">http://www.politicsweb.co.za/</a></em></span><span style="font-family:arial;color:black;"><em> </em></span><br /></p><em><span style="font-family:Arial;"></span></em><p></p>

Justice in South Africa? It's a sick joke

More than 20 000 firearms sold to criminals lost by SAPS since April 2004 MPs GUN for SAPS top brass Embattled national Police Commissione...

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SA Govt repeating past mistakes...Again, Still, Whatever!

<p><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;"><strong><span style="color:#990000;">Govt's <strike>TOP-10</strike> TOP-15 serious blunders that caused extreme alarm in 2010</span></strong><br /></span><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;"></span><ol><li><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;">The water crisis,<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQZdguT7C2IEhpOcuMhTZM-JkOa5CzZX5etWtx12zwtksfhi3ZTd1FTB6Z_VOBsCIOEK_PXlZMP2e7E5mdH1k6_IQ4sCUtjbA4gALNAZRZF1x_M09U6DcisZg18Iu8-YeylPRATyo5Oh86/s1600/anc-logo.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5556269021058784578" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQZdguT7C2IEhpOcuMhTZM-JkOa5CzZX5etWtx12zwtksfhi3ZTd1FTB6Z_VOBsCIOEK_PXlZMP2e7E5mdH1k6_IQ4sCUtjbA4gALNAZRZF1x_M09U6DcisZg18Iu8-YeylPRATyo5Oh86/s320/anc-logo.jpg" style="MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; WIDTH: 320px; FLOAT: right; HEIGHT: 256px; CURSOR: hand" /></a> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIGGWfVaUkOdaDCWdD3_Zm5sJgnwnLGMkmD1KxE6zUp5T95x3tQf5X54TzfZI3Q4Qu70WxQCUe0qauHutgMF8fVDHEGeAXWBf9ocW0aFsXaxUOeB28Yug8FLAPyASciTKV4hKlWiifR99g/s1600/anc-logo.jpg"></a></span></li><li><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;">Misappropriation of state funds, </span></li><li><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;">Efforts to gag the media,</span></li><li><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;">The ongoing fiascos at semi-government institutions, </span></li><li><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;">The government's handling of youth matters, </span></li><li><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;">Road maintenance and potholes, </span></li><li><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;">South Africa's military readiness, </span></li><li><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;">CRIME, </span></li><li><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;">The widespread housing scandal </span></li><li><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;">Labour problems, </span></li><li><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;">Hosting of the R69m World Youth Festival by the NYDA; </span></li><li><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;">Poor service delivery from parastatals; </span></li><li><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;">The failure to create sufficient jobs; </span></li><li><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;">A housing scandal involving 2 000 government officials, </span></li><li><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;">The failure to crush South Africa's "internationally feared" criminals.</span></li></ol><p><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;"><strong><span style="color:#990000;">***</span></strong>Corruption is present in most of the above</span></p><p align="left"><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;"><strong>Water crisis state's worst blunder</strong><br /></span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;">1. <strong>Water crisis<br /></strong></span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;">Government's denial of the worsening water problems in South Africa in 2010 must rate as one of its more serious blunders.<br /></span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;">In the same year that Trevor Manuel, minister in the presidency, shrugged off as "ridiculous" predictions that toxic mine water could seep out at various locations in Gauteng before long, government for the first time ever acknowledged its failure to maintain municipal sewerage plants all over the country. </span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;">The latter issue is a matter of grave concern. According to government's so-called Green Drop report for 2009, only 32 of the 449 plants tested managed Green Drop status. (Only 449 of the country's 852 plants were tested.) This means that millions of litres of insufficiently purified water daily find its way into our rivers.<br /></span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;">In a country afflicted by a scarcity of water, a fast-growing population and ageing infrastructure, our water predicament has now become a ticking timebomb.<br /></span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;">2. <strong>Youth</strong><br /><br /></span><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;">One of the most expensive government blunders without a doubt was the 17th World Youth Festival presented by the National Youth Development Agency (NYDA) in December.<br /></span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;">The festival cost almost R69 million, of which R29 million was funded by the treasury. In view of the current unemployment rate of 35,8% among South Africans in the age group 15 to 34 (according to the narrow definition of unemployment), such extravagance flies right in the face of our youth's aspirations. </span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;">However, a critical 2010 blunder with more far-reaching consequences flows from government's continuing inability to solve our nation's education woes. The matric pass rate for 2009 was 60,6%. Owing to the prolonged teachers' strike in particular, the 2010 figure could hardly be an improvement on last year. Still failing to prepare our youth for the labour market, the education system generally produces merely mediocre school-leavers.<br /></span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;">3. <strong>Misappropriation</strong> </span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;">Here are just some of this year's shocking blunders regarding state spending: </span></p><ul><li><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;">The disclosure in November that the bodyguards of the leader of the ANC Youth League, Julius Malema, had already cost the taxpayer more than R880 000. </span></li><li><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;">In October it was divulged that R3,7 million had been transferred from the South African Police Service (SAPS) budget to pay for the residence of police chief General Bheki Cele. </span></li><li><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;">Some R130 million was spent by government and several semi-government institutions on tickets for various matches in the Soccer World Cup Tournament. </span></li><li><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;">In November the auditor-general revealed numerous government departments' "irregular" spending of approximately R2,3 billion (i.e. spending incurred outside stipulated guidelines). </span></li></ul><p><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;">As to the management of municipal funds the picture is bleak indeed. Financial statements of South African municipalities published by the treasury disclosed that consumers of municipal services were overdue by more than R62 billion at the end of September 2010 - with close to R3,4 billion due by the state itself. </span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;">4. <strong>Potholes keep government stumbling<br /></strong></span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;">While South African roads face a construction backlog of almost R100 billion, motorists are spending some R50 billion annually to have pothole-related damage to their vehicles repaired.<br /></span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;">The maintenance of our secondary roads in particular has become a veritable nightmare thanks to the fact that, to a large extent, road maintenance has simply stopped. </span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;">The Automobile Association of South Africa (AA) issued a warning in October that our roads were fast becoming irreparable. The AA conducted a study in 2008 by measuring road conditions on a scale of zero (worst condition) to 100 (best condition), according to the so-called visible-condition index (VCI). The index dropped to 46 in 2008, as against 65 in 1998.<br /></span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;">Minister of transport, S'bu Ndebele, admitted in October that bad roads increase the risk of accidents.<br /></span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;">5. <strong>Media tribunal </strong></span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;">It would seem that a transparent society, investigative journalism and media freedom are to make way for more corruption and deeper murkiness. This scenario, among others, awaits South Africa if the proposed media tribunal and the Protection of Information Bill were to be adopted.<br /></span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;">Already experts are describing eventual state control of the media as a disaster. The proposed legislation is aimed at, among others, empowering the authorities to classify information and to prosecute contravening opinionmakers such as journalists and editors. </span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;">It is highly ironical that the ruling party who clamoured so vociferously for the freedom of speech during apartheid should now be trying to convince South Africans that a free press was indeed a threat to democracy!<br /></span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;">6. <strong>SANDF</strong><br /></span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;">Disturbing rumours were again doing the rounds this year that the defence force was nowhere near fighting trim. </span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;">The low morale in the SANDF is alleged to be very serious; in fact, in November an MP warned that it could even endanger state security. The publishing of a comprehensive report on the combat status of the SANDF is awaited with apprehension.<br /></span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;">7. <strong>Semi-government institutions<br /></strong><br /></span><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;">Many semi-government institutions are continuing their negative tendencies. </span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;">Some of these institutions are hampered by thousands of vacancies, weakening their service delivery. In May 2010 Transnet had some 4 500 vacancies, Eskom had 1 200, while SAA lacked 600 workers. Solidarity cited affirmative action as a probable contributing factor behind the vacancies, with service delivery its ultimate victim.<br /></span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;">8. <strong>Labour</strong><br /></span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;">Government's target of creating five million new jobs in the next decade is commendable; however, if this initiative was not left to the private sector, it cannot succeed. </span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;">The failure of the Essa project (Employment Services South Africa) seems inevitable.<br /></span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;">Essa is a centralised database which is supposed to match jobseekers and employers. Since its inception four years ago, only 2% of the more than 1,2 million jobseekers have been placed successfully. Close to 170 000 jobseekers were registered in 2007/08, of whom only 3% were successful. More than 420 000 people were registered in 2008/09 - the lucky ones came to only 3,5%. And a meagre 1% of the more than 630 000 people registered in 2009/10 are now employed.<br /></span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;">9. <strong>Housing scandal </strong><br /></span><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;">The housing corruption involving some 2 000 government officials is one of the most disgraceful public sins of 2010.<br /></span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;">Minister of human settlements, Tokyo Sexwale, said in August this year that syndicates selling and leasing government housing were to be investigated. Numerous government officials, notably in Gauteng, North West and KwaZulu-Natal, are allegedly benefiting underhand from these deals. </span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;">The authorities' housing promises pose another fiasco. Sexwale announced in April this year that the housing backlog even exceeded the backlog in 1994: the figure has swelled from 1,5 million in 1994 to 2,1 million at present. Meanwhile the need for housing is growing daily; the number of informal settlements has already reached the 2 700-mark, of which at least 70 are inhabited by white people in shanty towns. </span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;">10. <strong>Crime and law enforcement </strong></span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;">The authorities are still failing to crush South Africa's internationally feared criminals, despite a growing police force. </span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;">According to data released by SAPS in September, 16 849 murders, 68 332 sex-related crimes and 64 670 muggings (robberies with violence) were recorded as at 31 March 2010 when the 2009/10 financial year ended. Residential and business burglaries increased by 1,9% and 4,4% respectively. </span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;">Experts are moreover concerned that a growing percentage of crime victims no longer even bother to report the misdeeds they have suffered. And in March it was revealed that one out of three police stations lacked suitable victim support facilities.<br /></span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;">Successful policing by police members with a sense of duty is further hindered by affirmative action as well as poor law enforcement and ill-considered strategic planning.<br /><br /><em><span style="font-size:85%;">Solidarity emphasised the gravity of the crisis, saying that <strong>extensive and permanent damage</strong> had already been done and that merely pulling up its socks is not good enough for 2011.</span></em></span></p>

SA Govt repeating past mistakes...Again, Still, Whatever!

Govt's TOP-10 TOP-15 serious blunders that caused extreme alarm in 2010 The water crisis, Misappropriation of state funds, Efforts to ...

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Shrien Dewani And The Murder Of Dr Pox Raghavjee

<P><a href="http://www.anorak.co.uk/?s=shrien+dewani&submit=" target="_blank"><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;">SHRIEN Dewani</span></a><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;">: At-a-glance look at the murder of Anni Dewani in the news – Mr Dewani has been released on £250,000 bail.<br /><br /></span><div itxtvisited="1"><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiAFprO-IgOcuVcnCW3Rev9y1_lI1MdFJ9a-b8JiXn58Ie4kL9AuOcWrDY-aQN4z8616Z7_BxD6zYh-wgX55OEYQ0FthDGEW6uUdw1kbWzJx_Pm9Nsifg_G4LKt99V5N50ceMaMtUo1sWMq/s1600/BHEKI-CELE.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5549554406511292194" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiAFprO-IgOcuVcnCW3Rev9y1_lI1MdFJ9a-b8JiXn58Ie4kL9AuOcWrDY-aQN4z8616Z7_BxD6zYh-wgX55OEYQ0FthDGEW6uUdw1kbWzJx_Pm9Nsifg_G4LKt99V5N50ceMaMtUo1sWMq/s400/BHEKI-CELE.jpg" style="MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 289px; FLOAT: left; HEIGHT: 400px; CURSOR: hand" /></a>South African prosecutor Ben Watson tells the High Court, “<em itxtvisited="1">the net was closing in.</em>” He lobbied against bail “<em itxtvisited="1">even on the most stringent conditions</em>“.</span></div><div itxtvisited="1"><span style="font-size:130%;"><br /><span style="font-family:arial;"></span></span></div><div itxtvisited="1"><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;">Zola Tongo, the taxi driver already jailed, claims in his statement (<strong itxtvisited="1"><a href="http://www.anorak.co.uk/267523/media/shrien-dewani-zola-tongos-statement-in-full-and-how-annis-death-hurt-south-africa.html" target="_blank">read it in full here</a></strong>), that Dewani paid him to arrange the murder. His claim has seen seven years knocked off a 25 year sentence.</span></div><div itxtvisited="1"><span style="font-size:130%;"><br /><span style="font-family:arial;"></span></span></div><div itxtvisited="1"><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;">The claim states that he got the impression Mr Dewani has done similar before. No proof. Not a shred of evidence. But, still,</span><a href="http://www.iol.co.za/news/crime-courts/dewani-and-the-eastern-cape-link-1.1000090?showComments=true" target="_blank"><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-family:arial;"> <em>IOL</em></span></span></a><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;">, a South African site, introduces the name Dr Pox Raghavjee, a Port Elizabeth doctor murdered in October 2007.</span></div><blockquote itxtvisited="1"><div itxtvisited="1"><em itxtvisited="1"><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;">No motive for the murder was ever established as his cellphone, watch and wallet with R500 were found on the scene.</span></em></div></blockquote><div itxtvisited="1"><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;">A “<em itxtvisited="1">source</em>” tells us:</span></div><blockquote itxtvisited="1"><div itxtvisited="1"><em itxtvisited="1"><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;">“Soon after the murder of Dr Pox, his wife went and stayed in Cape Town where she was said to be grieving and it is understood that she had visited the mother city before the murder as well.”</span></em></div></blockquote><div itxtvisited="1"><span id="more-267847" itxtvisited="1"></span><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;">The wife is called Heather Raghavjee. The site says she…</span></div><blockquote itxtvisited="1"><div itxtvisited="1"><em itxtvisited="1"><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;">“…has close ties to Dewani and his family. She travelled with King Williams town businessman Peter Dhaya to Cape Town on the Monday after Anni was killed to comfort Dewani.</span></em></div></blockquote><blockquote itxtvisited="1"><div itxtvisited="1"><em itxtvisited="1"><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;">“Shrien’s father and family were here (King Williams town) last December and that is how Heather came to know and befriend the family because my family hosted them,” Dhaya confirmed to the Saturday Star’s sister newspaper, the Weekend Argus, yesterday.</span></em></div></blockquote><div itxtvisited="1"><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;">The police chief has already</span><a href="http://www.anorak.co.uk/267800/media/shrien-dewani-the-gay-monkey-and-anti-british-bias-in-south-africa.html" target="_blank"><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;"> labelled Shrien Dewani a monkey</span></a><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;"> and pretty much stated that he’s</span><a href="http://www.anorak.co.uk/267800/media/shrien-dewani-the-gay-monkey-and-anti-british-bias-in-south-africa.html" target="_blank"><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;"> got his man.</span></a><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;"> Now we get to hear from police spokesperson Captain Thozama Solani. Says:</span></div><blockquote itxtvisited="1"><div itxtvisited="1"><em itxtvisited="1"><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;">“The case had always been open and remained a mystery to us because even though there was a R100 000 reward offered there were no leads, but in light of the new information we are putting all we have got in solving the case.”</span></em></div></blockquote><div itxtvisited="1"><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;">Mr shrien Dewani needs his brief.</span></div><div itxtvisited="1"><span style="font-size:130%;"><br /><span style="font-family:arial;"></span></span></div><div itxtvisited="1"><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;">Clare Montgomery, his QC, says:.</span></div><blockquote itxtvisited="1"><div itxtvisited="1"><em itxtvisited="1"><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;">“It would be grotesque to remand a man like this in custody. It is a flimsy case (against him] that relies on the words of self-confessed robbers and murderers.” </span></em></div></blockquote><div itxtvisited="1"><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;">Says she:</span></div><blockquote itxtvisited="1"><div itxtvisited="1"><em itxtvisited="1"><a href="http://www.thisisbristol.co.uk/news/Honeymoon-murder-husband-granted-bail/article-2995516-detail/article.html" target="_blank"><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;">His </span></a><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;">lawyer, Clare Montgomery QC, said he had been accused by a group of “self-confessed robbers and murderers desperate to escape a whole life sentence” and with “everything to gain and nothing to lose” by implicating him in the killing.</span></em></div></blockquote><div itxtvisited="1"><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;">This is all big news in South Africa. John Dobson </span><a href="http://news.iafrica.com/features/693536.html" target="_blank"><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;">writes</span></a><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;">:</span></div><blockquote itxtvisited="1"><div itxtvisited="1"><em itxtvisited="1"><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;">This week the nation sighed in relief at the news that Shrien Dewani had been accused of ordering, like the linefish of the day, the murder of his bride, Anni.</span></em></div></blockquote><blockquote itxtvisited="1"><div itxtvisited="1"><em itxtvisited="1"><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;">Firstly, if the driver’s claims are true, it is sad that we were the destination of choice to arrange this. I suppose it would have been harder to sell Bogota or the Mexican border town of Ciudad Juarez to your wife than trendy Cape Town as the venue for your honeymoon.</span></em><br /></div></blockquote><blockquote itxtvisited="1"><div itxtvisited="1"><em itxtvisited="1"><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;">The fact that one could possibly arrange a hit so readily and easily, as did Dina Rodrigues (one trip to Milnerton taxi rank to remove Baby Jordan) and Najwa Pietersen, inter many alia, is a poor reflection on our country.</span></em><br /></div></blockquote><blockquote itxtvisited="1"><div itxtvisited="1"><em itxtvisited="1"><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;">And thirdly, what about the amount that was allegedly paid for Anni’s murder? It seems that three, possibly four, people were involved in the murder of Anni for R15 000, which is hardly a life altering quantum and certainly not enough for that sought-after plasma TV.</span></em></div></blockquote><div itxtvisited="1"><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;">And crime is rife in SA:</span></div><blockquote itxtvisited="1"><div itxtvisited="1"><em itxtvisited="1"><a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/from_our_own_correspondent/9275324.stm" target="_blank"><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;">The </span></a><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;">crime statistics in Gugulethu are staggering. There have been 700 murders here in the past five years, but many of them happened behind closed doors – they were domestic crimes, not attacks on strangers.</span></em></div></blockquote><p>

Shrien Dewani And The Murder Of Dr Pox Raghavjee

SHRIEN Dewani : At-a-glance look at the murder of Anni Dewani in the news – Mr Dewani has been released on £250,000 bail. South African pros...

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'Sleeping cops' photo posted on Facebook

<p><span style="font-family:arial;"><span style="font-size:130%;"><strong><span style="color:#990000;">Three constables photographed "sleeping" in a Cape Town police station charge office<br /></span></strong><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3o-KwsX5RBg_8obf_pJTidbU558oiqRGe-JGk8Ckcd1ts7cBrnGTMGiCD29a8SMRjWeD6YD1NIues1C3aipC9R79Qr7aou0RE1fUMFPlOJ4cm4rL2EMsoHd35cxHf23DmyOUXg8wwk-n6/s1600/cops+sleeping.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5549532676977624482" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3o-KwsX5RBg_8obf_pJTidbU558oiqRGe-JGk8Ckcd1ts7cBrnGTMGiCD29a8SMRjWeD6YD1NIues1C3aipC9R79Qr7aou0RE1fUMFPlOJ4cm4rL2EMsoHd35cxHf23DmyOUXg8wwk-n6/s400/cops+sleeping.jpg" style="MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 300px; FLOAT: left; HEIGHT: 225px; CURSOR: hand" /></a>A photograph of three police officers sleeping at a Cape Town police station charge office on Facebook has opened a can of worms.<br /><br />The Mitchells Plain police station commander Major General Veary has started an investigation into the matter after denying that the photograph, posted by Mitchells Plain DA councillor Grant Pascoe, was authentic.<br /><br />Pascoe has responded by initiating an investigation of his own, with the aim to prove that the photo is real.<br /><br />AND WHAT DID THE COPS DO?<br /><br />The police responded by claiming that the picture was "manipulated" and immediately launched an investigation into its origin.<br /><br />The three lady constables, who are members of Popcru, strongly denied that they were sleeping.<br /><br />They say that they were 'ordered' to pose for the picture.<br /><br />At first, the police claimed that the ladies don't work there. Now it emerges that they do work there, but were put up to it.<br /><br />Instead of civil servants saying sorry and trying to put the situation right, they launch a witch-hunt.<br /><br />And of course the race card - there were also reports that the situation at the police station was caused by racism.<br /><br /></span><em>SOURCE- <a href="http://www.timeslive.co.za/local/article756472.ece/Sleeping-beauties-row">http://www.timeslive.co.za/local/article756472.ece/Sleeping-beauties-row</a></p> <strong><span style="color:#000099;">WATCH VIDEO-</span></strong> <a href="http://www.zoopy.com/video/5epf/sleeping-cops-photo-on-facebook-sparks-two-probes">http://www.zoopy.com/video/5epf/sleeping-cops-photo-on-facebook-sparks-two-probes</a> <br /><br /></em></span>

'Sleeping cops' photo posted on Facebook

Three constables photographed "sleeping" in a Cape Town police station charge office A photograph of three police officers sleepin...

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Super Roadblocks a flagrant abuse of State Power

<P><em><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:85%;">By Iain Robertson</span></em> <p><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;"><strong><span style="color:#990000;">Super Roadblocks are our gift from Government over the Holiday Season. </span></strong></span></p><p><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;"><strong><span style="color:#990000;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0F_K0pO-QoPHdDaRrKsVkXkhy0lGR9GsAlUi-62JJNZr_rwHgrGldKYmeSSGQ6K3VeZPEtmSFB9hLN8TRwLfp8IiweisA8ZoY__smOpSU_o87N04dpBdfC-EbauQNUfiMCo2Oa1OmpbBV/s1600/Totalitarian-Demotivational.jpg"></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhcB1NupHpDUGq-vDKUi9dG5wa827ykxwRIJrkQQbiCVo7VJE1WjxTAHi5IhEZRiJbhv7Bd9fZWmcf_NuMuONUstIMptmTYaLxR63LdJgiFaNN4LWn0MQ__AgODmgsrOSpjVC26AuoUrSAX/s1600/police_state.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5539000546045902802" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhcB1NupHpDUGq-vDKUi9dG5wa827ykxwRIJrkQQbiCVo7VJE1WjxTAHi5IhEZRiJbhv7Bd9fZWmcf_NuMuONUstIMptmTYaLxR63LdJgiFaNN4LWn0MQ__AgODmgsrOSpjVC26AuoUrSAX/s320/police_state.jpg" style="MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 320px; FLOAT: left; HEIGHT: 320px; CURSOR: hand" /></a>As usual drivers and their vehicles are liable to be checked, but this time passengers are to be checked as well. </span></strong></span></p><p><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;"><strong><span style="color:#990000;">The roadblocks will be manned by the SAP and by other State Agencies looking for amongst other things tax evaders, illegal immigrants and dangerous goods. </span></strong></span></p><p><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;"><strong><span style="color:#990000;">Is this a good thing in that a much broader spectrum of criminals will be arrested, or is it a flagrant abuse of State Power?</span></strong><br /><br />General Bheki “Rambo” Cele told parliament last Friday that roadblocks are to be manned by combined teams from up to ten Government Agencies including the SAP, SARS, Home Affairs and Nature Conservation. The programme is unofficially set to start in Gauteng early next month and nationwide from December 4th.<br /><br />He has warned that tax dodgers, illegal immigrants and carriers of dangerous and illegal goods should brace themselves for a hard time. Another new concept he has introduced is that travellers without an acceptable ID will be fingerprinted, and the fingerprints used to check for any outstanding issues. I thought he might mellow after his honeymoon. No such luck.<br /><br />We normally expect an increase in roadblocks at holiday times, but this announcement takes the concept a whole yard further – longer traffic queues, lots more vehicles, lots more flashing lights, uniformed SAP officers strutting their stuff, pulling you over and interrogating you and your passengers, perhaps demanding fingerprints, certainly demanding ID books or proof of ID. Several groups of people dressed in civilian clothes in the background tapping your ID number into laptops. People searching your vehicle and rummaging around in your possessions. Scary. Especially at night. In the rain. If you are a woman alone.<br /><br />Road blocks are pretty inefficient in catching criminals. They are highly efficient at catching drivers with outstanding fines. That however, is not law enforcement or crime prevention, that’s revenue generation. Roadblocks on steroids will be no different, just longer queues and more aggravation.<br /><br />So why the upgrade of SAP vehicle focussed roadblocks to fully-fledged <strong>State fishing expeditions</strong> ?<br /><br />To be kind, it smacks of the usual government kneejerk reaction that something must be done, someone having what they think is a brilliant idea to do it, and some suit behind a desk not thinking through all the implications of implementing the brilliant idea.<br /><br />Not to be kind, it is a PR exercise, pure and simple. We will see Rambo grand-standing sometime in January or February showing what a fine fellow he is by catching so many criminals in December.<br /><br />To the cynical mind, it has the unholy stench of an impending <strong>totalitarian police state</strong>. Part of the insidious progression this Government is making towards <strong>total dictatorship and removal of basic human rights</strong>. Look at the Media Tribunal Bill and the Protection of Information Act as part of the same package.<br /><br />Don’t get me wrong. I’m all for genuine criminals being caught. But I don’t think this is the way to do it.<br /><br />There are a few practical problems. Several of the activities are probably unconstitutional and will be challenged in court.<br /><br />Dennis Jackson of the Justice Project of South Africa says that there must be “reasonable suspicion” before any action can be taken against motorists or passengers at the roadside. Durban attorney Saber Jazbhay said the roadblocks would not be “constitutionally sound”.<br /><br />First, there is no easy definition of what constitutes reasonable suspicion. For example, are Home Affairs officials allowed to assess whether someone is potentially an illegal immigrant by the colour of their skin. There will be many claims against the State for unlawful arrest and detention if that is the level of criteria used as a definition of “reasonable suspicion”.<br /><br />Assuming that reasonable suspicion exists, what are the lawful grounds for arrest at a roadblock by the various Agencies. Are they in fact allowed to arrest you, or do they have to ask the SAP to do so ? Recently the Government inserted Sections 4A and 4B into the Customs and Excise Act conferring the power of arrest on Customs Officials and authorising the carrying of firearms for the purposes of enforcing the Customs Act. In other words, a Customs Officer can be deemed to be a Peace Officer as defined in the Criminal Procedures Act. Customs are part of SARS, so take that sports lovers. You can be arrested at gunpoint at a road block for not submitting a tax return.<br /><br />It will be a brave one who insists that only the original copy of a court issued arrest warrant is sufficient.<br /><br />Western Cape Transport MEC Robin Carlisle attempted to justify the involvement of highly specialised groups like SARS by stating that they had emergency vehicles and officials with powers of arrest. They therefore would help in targeting people who caused road fatalities.<br /><br />It’s the first time I hear that a major cause of our road carnage is not having a tax clearance form. Smooth tyres perhaps, drunk certainly, but irregularities in your tax affairs. Give me a break.<br /><br />I suspect the biggest problem, and there this is where M’Learned friends will make hay while the sun shines is that most Government databases are not accurate and not up to date, and probably not set up with the immediate updates necessary for use in this environment. As a result incorrect information will make the innocent look guilty and the guilty look innocent. Court cases will follow as surely as lawyers will hang around roadblocks.<br /><br />The second big problem is that with a few notable exceptions, the people involved do not have the qualifications or intention to act in a professional and impartial manner. It’ll be holiday bonus time. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to guess the option a father will take when presented with the two options of seeing his family spend Christmas in jail or coughing up some folding money. He may even suggest the spot fine option. Other officials, flushed with their temporary power will go on a cosmic ego trip and really make some people’s holiday.<br /><br />In summary, this looks once again like applying First World principles and policies with African precision.<br /><br />Whatever the real answer is, applying State Resources in this ham-fisted and heavy-handed way tramples on all the rights that those dear folk fought so long and so hard for.</span> </p>

Super Roadblocks a flagrant abuse of State Power

By Iain Robertson Super Roadblocks are our gift from Government over the Holiday Season. As usual drivers and their vehicles are liable to ...

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The chief of police who stirs up trouble

<p><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYgedd9765_wi6BKL2ghqYHH6-2lkm-fH7gcTwMKt-EawPDPKP0PFvmKYdrVutPaTXC2F6GPuNgxkA0k-AoZmhoVOQDtKgEdK2W6FXTB3r6IVFebAdx8D_qAa4mBNBzxFzlQ5o6FuTavIi/s1600/cele-pic-getty.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5536163625269376546" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYgedd9765_wi6BKL2ghqYHH6-2lkm-fH7gcTwMKt-EawPDPKP0PFvmKYdrVutPaTXC2F6GPuNgxkA0k-AoZmhoVOQDtKgEdK2W6FXTB3r6IVFebAdx8D_qAa4mBNBzxFzlQ5o6FuTavIi/s400/cele-pic-getty.jpg" style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 400px; DISPLAY: block; HEIGHT: 375px; CURSOR: hand" /></a><br /><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:85%;color:#333333;"><em><strong>By Mike Hamilton - Mirror.co.uk </strong></em></span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:arial;"><span style="font-size:130%;">Blundering police chief Bheki Cele - who lied to the world in a bid to convict UK newspaper journalist Simon Wright (Who was arrested, jailed and put on trial after embarrassing South African police) - has earned a reputation as a motormouth over slurs, inaccuracies and insults.<br /><br />He sparked a diplomatic row before The World Cup by saying he hoped America would not get too far in the tournament so President Barack Obama would not visit South Africa.<br /><br />Cele, 58, was ticked off by government officials after telling parliament that hosting the world's most powerful leader would pose a major headache for police.<br /><br />In May he came under fire after claiming Fifa secretary general Jerome Valcke had been "almost in tears" because he was under so much pressure to withdraw the World Cup from South Africa. Baffled Mr Valcke issued a statement to confirm he had never been told to move the tournament, and added: "Mr Cele made a big mistake."<br /><br />Other gaffes include his admission last August that he would happily suppress statistics on South Africa's crime rate. The loose-tongued police boss was slammed by opposition MPs for the mistake just days after being sworn in.<br /><br />Cele - who took control of the 180,000-strong force a year ago - said: "I will support whatever we do that gives us an upper edge to fight the crime. If releasing stats helps us to fight crime better, I will support that. If a moratorium helps us better, I will support that."<br /><br />The self-styled "general" - ridiculed for bringing in military ranks for officers - was accused of ramping up his role when he ordered MPs to address him with his Army rank in March. Former South African cabinet minister Kader Asmal accused the police chief of being "idiotic" and "whimsical".<br /><br />Cele had caused trouble even before he became police chief. In 2007 he was caught in a convoy doing than 100 mph - apparently because he was late for a meeting.<br /><br />And he has faced claims his ex-girlfriend bombarded him with texts vowing to destroy him after he ended their relationship last year.</span><br /><br /><em><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="color:#000099;">Read more:</span> </span></em></span><a href="http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/top-stories/2010/07/18/the-chief-of-police-who-stirs-up-trouble-115875-22421113/#ixzz14ROz4bqh"><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:85%;"><em>http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/top-stories/2010/07/18/the-chief-of-police-who-stirs-up-trouble-115875-22421113/#ixzz14ROz4bqh</em></span></a><span style="font-family:arial;"><br /></span><p>

The chief of police who stirs up trouble

By Mike Hamilton - Mirror.co.uk Blundering police chief Bheki Cele - who lied to the world in a bid to convict UK newspaper journalist Simon...

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Cops nepotism exposé - the news that didn't make the news

<p><strong><span style="color:#990000;"><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;">Cops put lid on nepotism</span> </span></strong><br /><br /><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;"><strong><span style="color:#990000;">What we are not able to tell you this weekend, dear reader, is that nnnnnnn were employed in an irregular process that nnnnnnn because nnnnnnn manipulated it. </span></strong></span></p><p><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;"><strong><span style="color:#990000;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjEauhrU9LAObAHYpggBGTVfofhV1yEMKK4xchXYe5cEZ_jrek6KxCw4Zlwo0ja8r0sm6D1sELp_H_CfSyEaf3hpIYwXtmZNhryt1JRvIe8qktx-V2omkQZvigN5eoDeajNPM9g1Ugjd1eF/s1600/nepotism-poop.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5534189823169767826" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjEauhrU9LAObAHYpggBGTVfofhV1yEMKK4xchXYe5cEZ_jrek6KxCw4Zlwo0ja8r0sm6D1sELp_H_CfSyEaf3hpIYwXtmZNhryt1JRvIe8qktx-V2omkQZvigN5eoDeajNPM9g1Ugjd1eF/s320/nepotism-poop.jpg" style="MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; WIDTH: 320px; FLOAT: right; HEIGHT: 268px; CURSOR: hand" /></a></span><span style="color:#000000;">Nepotism sweeping the police force</span></strong><span style="color:#000000;"><br /></span><br /><strong>The Sunday Independent</strong> was meant to publish an article about nepotism within the police ranks but a court interdict on Friday night stopped the story from going public. The court has also ordered the newspaper to hand in documents relating to the issue.<br /><br />The SAPS resorted to a discredited and “unconstitutional” piece of legislation in a desperate bid to muzzle The Sunday Independent.<br /><br />The police were granted an order interdicting this newspaper from publishing details of malfeasance and violation of laws by the SAPS Crime Intelligence – without argument – at the North Gauteng High Court on Friday night.<br /><br />The Sunday Independent has taken a decision to challenge this order every step of the way.<br /><br />The interdict application was brought by lawyers for Police Minister Nathi Mthethwa, National Commissioner Bheki Cele and Head of Crime Intelligence Richard Mdluli, late on Friday night and was summarily granted which did not wait for the newspaper’s lawyers before starting proceedings.<br /><br />The order prevents Independent Newspapers and in particular Sunday Independent journalist Gcwalisile Khanyile from publishing any information about the police’s Crime Intelligence Unit. The Sunday Independent had planned to do a series of exposes on appointments within the Crime Intelligence Unit based on reliable information she had received from various sources.<br /><br />The gagging order prohibits this newspaper from publishing any details on advertisements and appointments made in the unit.<br /><br />The newspaper has been ordered to hand documents to police and is interdicted against writing further articles about the division – particularly covert appointments processes and whether or not they had been manipulated. But the order does not stop us from finding out what the police are doing to root out nepotism within their ranks.<br /><br />National Police spokesman Colonel Lindela Mashigo said the order was necessary to protect the safety of operatives.<br /><br />“In the environment that we are talking about (crime intelligence), it is not necessary to be in public.”<br /><br />Mashigo was initially vague in his explanation. He said police would take “internal measures” and when pressed for clarity said allegations against Mdluli would be given “the necessary attention”.<br /><br />When asked why he was being vague, Mashigo said: “Yes, we will remain vague until a decision is taken. At this point it remains an internal matter.”<br /><br />Mashigo asked for further questions to be sent by email, for fear of being misquoted. The Sunday Independent asked whether the police do not believe that the public has a right to know when nepotism or corruption takes place in units meant protect them. Mashigo responded: “SAPS is not pro-corruption.”<br /><br />He added that police would “act against irregular conduct, beyond this we are not ready to comment”.<br /><br />According to the Parliamentary Monitoring Group, Advocate Premjith Supersad of the State Security Agency told the ad hoc committee on the Protection of Information Bill in May that parts of the Protection of Information Act (84) of 1982 were “outdated and unconstitutional” and “unenforceable”.<br /><br />The police have defended the decision to interdict The Sunday Independent using this act, saying “the police are obliged to enforce the laws of our country for as long as they are valid”.<br /><br />The Sunday Independent editor Makhudu Sefara said resorting to this legislation showed the level of desperation to keep a lid on the rot.<br /><br />“If they said our claims were false and baseless perhaps they would have a point. But what they are saying is that even when we report the truth about the rot, they will use discredited legislation against us to keep their wrongs from the glare of the public. It is wrong, it is shameless and we will pursue this matter to its logical conclusion,” said Sefara.<br /><br />He added that the order granted by Judge Ephraim Makgoba was too broad and too limiting.<br /><br />“What the police effectively, though temporarily, did was to keep us at bay with the hope that nobody reports on the spectre of nepotism sweeping the police force. This will not last.”<br /><br />Sefara said he would meet with lawyers early next week to discuss where and when to launch an appeal against the order.<br /><br />Media bodies have questioned the granting of the order.<br /><br />In a statement released yesterday, South African National Editors Forum said it was “disconcerting” that there “appears to have been an element of miscommunication between the lawyers representing the parties which resulted in the paper’s lawyers having to travel to Pretoria after the police lawyers had arrived at court. The paper’s lawyers arrived five minutes after the judge had made his ruling.”<br /><br />National Press Council chair Yusuf Abramjee, who was at court on Friday evening, said the decision raised questions about the justice system. “We believe the story is of public interest. It’s about a very important department.”<br /><br />Abramjee added: “This application puts the police in a very bad light. Police leadership should have known better. We need to ask the question, ‘What do the police have to hide?’ “ - Sunday Independent - <a href="http://www.iol.co.za/"><em><span style="font-size:85%;">http://www.iol.co.za/</span></em></a> </span></p><p></p>

Cops nepotism exposé - the news that didn't make the news

Cops put lid on nepotism What we are not able to tell you this weekend, dear reader, is that nnnnnnn were employed in an irregular process ...

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The R4m luxury home Cele made you pay for

<p><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;"><strong><span style="color:#990000;">Official residence not good enough for top cop<br /><br />The government spent R4.2-million buying and furnishing a plush home for police commissioner General Bheki Cele in an exclusive Pretoria suburb of Waterkloof after he turned his nose up at the official residence he was offered.</span></strong><br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5UP0zeimjPrB7DvGZuucDd6RcyAVpgWqGx7EwqNaZAYIG3oi7V-QsDwynMjagEgAMgEzEWbMPzLGOXzS42fEfGHSH8cCGQGZjiY9Sk9R9GVUVEi4-z3omgwQM3u5XLozltJj2Lx8aZfYS/s1600/bheki+cele+house.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5516121213338373746" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5UP0zeimjPrB7DvGZuucDd6RcyAVpgWqGx7EwqNaZAYIG3oi7V-QsDwynMjagEgAMgEzEWbMPzLGOXzS42fEfGHSH8cCGQGZjiY9Sk9R9GVUVEi4-z3omgwQM3u5XLozltJj2Lx8aZfYS/s400/bheki+cele+house.jpg" style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 300px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 300px" /></a>The house cost R3-million with transfer costs, and the SAPS forked out a staggering R1.2-million for luxury furnishings, including a R500000 home gym that is under construction.</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:85%;color:#000099;">Cele's new house in Waterkloof Ridge, Pretoria</span></em><br /><br />The SAPS appears to have kept the costs of decorating Cele's house just below the R500000 level that would require a tender by splitting the invoices between goods and services. Lavish furnishings came to R499800, and the interior decorator was paid another R249900 for her services.<br /><br />Documents show that while Cele was approving scaling back on services to poor communities in KwaZulu-Natal, his Waterkloof house was being fitted with every imaginable luxury. An approved Mirisa Interior quote includes:<br /><br /></p></span><ul><li><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;">R8000 for upholstered queen chairs at the ends of an eight-seater wooden table;<br /></span></li><li><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;">R12500 for a braai-area day bed;<br /></span></li><li><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;">R5000 for a vase with artificial flowers;<br /></span></li><li><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;">R11000 for a Mombasa King headboard and base set in the master bedroom;<br /></span></li><li><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;">R27500 for three flat-screen TV sets, for the lounge and two bedrooms.</span><br /></li></ul><p><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;">This extravagance is at odds with the image Cele presented in parliament last week. He told MPs he was determined to root out consultants who are "there to milk - that money is huge", and vowed to ensure his department's scarce resources were spent on fighting crime, especially in poorly serviced rural areas.<br /><br />The home was bought - and paid for out of the SAPS budget - after Cele rejected a spacious house previously occupied by Asset Forfeiture Unit and Special Investigating Unit head, Willie Hofmeyr, in a secure police compound that would have cost taxpayers nothing.<br /><br />This makes Cele South Africa's first police chief since the end of apartheid - and possibly the only civil servant at director-general level - for whom a new house has been bought.<br /><br />Cele's predecessors, Jackie Selebi and George Fivaz, lived in privately owned homes.<br /><br />Government policy does allow officials in the security forces to be provided with housing.<br /><br />But a senior official in the Department of Public Service and Administration, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said this typically meant existing official accommodation, such as on a military base or police compound. "If a DG comes to live here (in Pretoria) from another province he must buy a property on his own," the official said.<br /><br />"To the best of my knowledge there are no other DGs who have had houses bought for them."<br /><br />This week, Cele said his procurement staff had to take the blame if there were any irregularities in buying and equipping his house. He stressed he did not own the house, and paid "rental" in the form of housing benefit deductions totalling R8968 a month.<br /><br />But this rental payment would account for roughly only R800000 of the purchase price.<br /><br />Cele argued that a plush interior was needed to entertain important guests. "If the head of Interpol visits me I don't want him to find me living in a shack or a house with one pot," he said.<br /><br />Cele's legal adviser, Lieutenant-General Julius Molefe, said the free house previously occupied by Hofmeyr, which is inside a guarded police compound occupied by its elite unit, the Hawks, was not deemed suitable because of "serious security concerns".<br /><br />It was also unfair to compare Cele with other top government officials. "He's not the DG of water affairs," said Molefe.<br /><br />Cele also came under fire this week for approving a 10-year lease for more than R500-million at inflated rentals without going out tender to house the new police headquarters in a building owned by a friend of President Jacob Zuma's, Roux Shabangu. The deal forms part of an SIU investigation also covering two leases signed before Cele was appointed.<br /><br />Today the Sunday Times can reveal the details of how Cele allegedly tried to strong-arm his generals into approving the Shabangu deals worth R1-billion. <span style="font-size:85%;"><em><span style="color:#000099;">(see full story here)</span></em> </span><a class="l" href="http://www.timeslive.co.za/sundaytimes/article653424.ece/We-were-forced-out-because-we-questioned-deals---generals" onmousedown="return clk(this.href,'','','','1','6t6MmMPxr_VHB8p8CdpWcQ','0CAgQFjAA')" resultindex="1"><em><span style="font-size:85%;">We were forced out because we questioned deals - generals - Times LIVE</span></em></a></span><br /><br /></p><span style="font-family:Arial;font-size:130%;"></span><p></p>

The R4m luxury home Cele made you pay for

Official residence not good enough for top cop The government spent R4.2-million buying and furnishing a plush home for police commissioner ...

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HIDDEN SIDE OF THE RAINBOW NATION

<p><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;"><span style="font-size:85%;">By Bill Coles</span><br /><br /><strong><span style="color:#990000;">AS Nelson Mandela swept into power on a wave of euphoria 16 years ago, South Africa was optimistically dubbed the Rainbow Nation. But on the eve of the first World Cup ever to be staged on the African continent, the colour is fast fading from this rainbow dream.<br /></span></strong><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidc55y6pZIzoTbXxD-3lhV24nLfxiLMLBm8RBY0h6cFehZaOQxppOailch8qoS8uzQhTzGMGkm9OqL4qoXox0u7xNvg3KPl2QKJfKm8EvoeCjVTadmqhRE3jml14z0yxdIUjgjtbM9u3vm/s1600/mandela-violence.jpg"></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHG3cbLbT7k0rojIpk32W1P7Sp_FhaVpre1gMhNG9g2cVpprEEXQxIRpP0_x5bqdnuDb2FcPiFgWP-qrQIFWpwcD0UINKnJ0oGfZrFHgIXqP9Pvdf9UzbiD4ouZu-_eeSbby6e9fgb5DmJ/s1600/anc-terrorists.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5471927275638931586" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHG3cbLbT7k0rojIpk32W1P7Sp_FhaVpre1gMhNG9g2cVpprEEXQxIRpP0_x5bqdnuDb2FcPiFgWP-qrQIFWpwcD0UINKnJ0oGfZrFHgIXqP9Pvdf9UzbiD4ouZu-_eeSbby6e9fgb5DmJ/s400/anc-terrorists.jpg" style="MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 320px; FLOAT: left; HEIGHT: 289px; CURSOR: hand" /></a>Crime is now so rampant that more than 50 people are being murdered in South Africa every day. These brutal killings – often accompanied by rape – are so rife that they merit only a few paragraphs in the local papers.</span> <p><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:130%;">On top of this, the richest country in Africa is being swept by an Aids ­epidemic, with some 11 per cent of its 48million population now infected with the HIV virus. Average life expectancy is just 50 years.<br /><br />The tensions are also beginning to show in the much-trumpeted ­harmony between black, white and coloured, as it was revealed this month that more than 3,000 white farmers have been murdered since President Mandela took power.<br /><br />Retired journalist Brian O’Hanlon, who has lived in scenic Hermanus, near Cape Town, for the past eight years, said: “I would not go near a black township and I would not expect the people from a black township to come in to the white areas.<br /><br />“There are murders every day but if you’re a resident you become inured to it. If you didn’t, you would probably have to go back to England or my native Ireland.”<br /><br />With the World Cup just four weeks away, many believe the organiser Fifa is now practically running the country in order to ensure that South Africa presents a clean, wholesome image to the rest of the world. ­Thousands of beggars and street ­children have been shipped out of Johannesburg and Cape Town and crammed into tin-hut settlements.<br /><br />An army of 44,000 police officers – more than a quarter of South Africa’s entire force – is dedicated solely to ensuring the safety of World Cup spectators. Some 8,500 of these ­officers will be wearing full body armour shipped in from France.<br /><br />Meanwhile football fans are being blitzed with advice on how to stay safe, with the Foreign and Commonwealth Office warning of “a very high level of crime”.<br /><br />Yet despite all the fanfare, even Archbishop Desmond Tutu, 78, was this week lamenting how crime and corruption were ruining his homeland. The Nobel Peace Prize winner said: “Something happened to us. It looks like we have lost our pride. It is not because of poverty.<br /><br />“We are prisoners in our homes. Look at what is happening to the farmers. But it is not only the ­farmers. You read something horrific almost every day. We should ask ­ourselves: ‘Hey, what is going on?'”<br /><br />For some, the constant menace of crime has become so traumatic that they’ve had no option but to quit the country. Since the end of apartheid, some 800,000 white South Africans out of a total of 4.4 million have ­emigrated, abandoning hundreds of thousands of acres of farmland.<br /><br />Mr O’Hanlon said: “You have to box clever and you mustn’t put yourself in a situation where there might be trouble. You mix with your own.”<br /><br />Almost every South African has some horror story to tell that has either occurred personally to them or to friends and family. These crime stories range from car-jackings at gunpoint – which are now so common they don’t even get a mention in the papers – to being pistol-whipped in your own home.<br /><br />Philip Oliver, 41, left South Africa three years ago for work reasons and now can only marvel at how free and easy life seems in the UK. Performance coach Mr Oliver, a father of one, says: “In South Africa you have to be constantly aware of the dangers of crime. I have to pinch myself now that I’m in Britain. It may sound perfectly normal but here I can walk from my car to my hotel without a care in the world. It’s an absolute delight. You could never do that in South Africa where you live with this kind of shadow of crime over your life.”<br /><br />He adds: “In Cape Town you can be living in an incredible apartment which looks over Table Mountain but you’re aware that it’s risky to walk there. It’s a heavy price to pay in South Africa but if that’s all you know, you accept it.”<br /><br />The most notorious of South ­Africa’s cities is Johannesburg, which is one of the hubs of organised crime. In the run-up to the World Cup, dealers are stockpiling huge quantities of cocaine and the amphetamine “tik”.<br /><br />Just near Johannesburg’s Soccer City stadium is the lawless ghetto of Diepsloot which is seeing four ­murders every week. A taxi driver was recently shot dead because he refused to hand over the equivalent of 50p in change. Vigilante squads now roam the streets while kangaroo courts ­dispense violent and summary­­­­ justice.<br /><br />One British expat moved to Cape Town after seeing his Durban home ransacked for the third time. During one of these robberies he was tied up and blindfolded. The expat, speaking anonymously, said: “When South Africa won the right to host the World Cup, we thought this was gold but now we learn that for six weeks Fifa will run this country. The informal traders who thought they would make a killing cannot go ­anywhere near the ­stadiums.<br /><br />“Of course security is a priority, with the crime and theft rates the highest in the world. Petty crime will be at a high level. The other day in Cape Town and without any announcement, 250 police and armoured cars drove through the streets in a show of strength. It was laughable. The police in the cars were all overweight, their beer ­bellies hanging over their belts. They couldn’t have run 50 metres.”<br /><br />Seraj Jones, a senior sports writer with Media 24 in Cape Town, was equally dismissive of Fifa: “They are throwing their weight around this country, especially in terms of ­monitoring the ticket allocations. Nothing moves here ­without Fifa’s approval. But I’m not at all sure that the infrastructure is going to be finished on time. I can see it all as I come in to work every morning and I’d be amazed if the transport ­system was ready in four weeks.”<br /><br />Since 1994 the murder toll among South African farmers has been alarming, with 3,000 dead including recently white supremacist Eugene Terre’Blanche. Almost all were white Afrikaners and many were tortured before they were killed.<br /><br />One farmer, Manie Potgieter, was seconds from being shot dead by three armed raiders. Mr Potgieter, 30, was attacked at his farm in ­Vredefort, south of Johannesburg. He was tied up and forced to watch his wife Helena, 28, being stripped.<br /><br />“She was telling me in Afrikaans not to worry,” he said. I just prayed. The man said: ‘Listen you white b******. I have Aids. We are now going to rape your wife and give her Aids too. Then, we kill you.'” Luckily the attackers were disturbed and fled.<br /><br />Race relations have now deteriorated so much in South Africa that Julius Malema, the firebrand leader of the ANC’s Youth League, has been whipping up rallies with an old anti-apartheid struggle song which includes the words, “Shoot the Boer”. He caused further outrage by telling a BBC journalist: “Don’t come here with that white tendency” before throwing him out of a press conference.<br /><br />Mr Oliver, who moved from South Africa to Edinburgh, said: “You just get used to hearing about the violence and sometimes if you’re unlucky you experience it yourself. Of course you do all the usual things to stay safe. You’ll have burglar bars on the doors and windows as well as alarms and you’ll hire a private security firm to provide an armed response.<br /><br />“You’re also on constant alert when you’re out of your house, when you’re driving or parking your car. You have this natural awareness of what’s going on around you. But sometimes it’s not enough.<br /><br />“A couple I know from Johannesburg had five youths break into their house and their daughter was home alone. She was very distressed. That was the last straw. They were out of the country within weeks and ended up in the UK.”<br /><br />He added: “I don’t know many South Africans who are not schizophrenic about their love and hate for the place. If you could wave a magic wand and remove the crime then I’d go back there because it’s God’s own country.” </span></p><p><br /></p>

HIDDEN SIDE OF THE RAINBOW NATION

By Bill Coles AS Nelson Mandela swept into power on a wave of euphoria 16 years ago, South Africa was optimistically dubbed the Rainbow Nati...

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