As with nearly all murders, the cold facts reported in newspapers and on websites, and the clever comments deliberated on in opinion pieces and blogs, do not reveal the gut-wrenching pain of loss, especially when it is a violent and unexpected loss.

Eugene Terre’Blanche addresses the Pretoria Press Club in 2001 (photo from fOTOGLIF)

And, while most of us vehemently disagree with his opinions and lifestyle, before all else, Eugene Terre’Blanche was a man, a human being, with family and friends. And it is their loss that is the tragedy.

The second

So far most observers have ignored is another tragedy. A fifteen year old boy was part of the attack, and according to his mother responsible for some of the injuries that lead to Eugene Terre’Blanche’s death. Fifteen years old!

What is it about our society that allows, enables, leads to, a fifteen year old boy getting himself into a position where he is part of a murder? And, more telling, what does it say about our society that commentators and media are so preoccupied with the race issue that the idea of a fifteen year old committing murder barely raises an eyebrow? Barely a sentence written about it anywhere. Fifteen years old!

The third

And therein lies the third tragedy. We allow race and race relations to over-shadow all other issues (a strange concept since race cannot have a relationship; people have relationships).

We have allowed ourselves, and our media, to temper all our thoughts and actions with the colour of our skin. And although the colour of our skins, to a large extent, defined our history, it is absurd that we continue to define our future in the same terms. There has to come a time and place when we look at people and see them for their humanity before we see them being black, white, straight, gay, Zulu, Croatian, Christian, Muslim, left, right, or whatever other tribe we care to define.

Because if we don’t, we slip very easily into Eugene Terre’Blanche mode: there is only black and white; there are no people, only black people and white people; there are no good ideas, only my ideas which are superior to your ideas; there is no common good, only my good at the expense of yours.

And we don’t want that, do we?

Youngsters now trying an alternate way of protesting to marching (photo from fOTOGLIF)

Julius Malema and his ANCYL comrades have been making waves in the press world again. This time it was a series of attacks on the press and journalists. But, instead of the usual sniggers and/or anger, they provoked a thoughtful response from internet savvy young adults. Sipho Hlongwane, a young law student initiated a campaign amongst his online peers to use the power of blogs protest this abuse.

Here is the text of the article, and a list of the known bloggers who are taking part in the protest. Little more needs to be said:

Bloggers for a free press

Last week, shocking revelations concerning the activities of ANC Youth League Spokesperson Nyiko Floyd Shivambu came to the fore. According to a letter published in various news outlets, a complaint was laid by 19 political journalists with the secretary-general of the ANC, against Shivambu. This complaint letter detailed attempts by Shivambu to leak a dossier to certain journalists, purporting to expose the money-laundering practices of Dumisani Lubisi, a journalist at City Press. The letter also detailed the intimidation that followed when these journalists refused to publish these revelations.

We condemn in the strongest possible terms the reprisals against journalists by Shivambu. His actions constitute a blatant attack on media freedom and a grave infringement on constitutional rights. It is a disturbing step towards dictatorial rule in South Africa.

We call on the ANC and the ANC Youth League to distance themselves from the actions of Shivambu. The media have, time and again, been a vital democratic safeguard by exposing the actions of individuals who have abused their positions of power for personal and political gain.

The press have played a vital role in the liberation struggle, operating under difficult and often dangerous conditions to document some of the most crucial moments in the struggle against apartheid. It is therefore distressing to note that certain people within the ruling party are willing to maliciously target journalists by invading their privacy and threatening their colleagues in a bid to silence them in their legitimate work.

We also note the breathtaking hubris displayed by Shivambu and ANC Youth League President Julius Malema in their response to the letter of complaint. Shivambu and Malema clearly have no respect for the media and the rights afforded to the media by the Constitution of South Africa. Such a response serves only to reinforce the position that the motive for leaking the so-called dossier was not a legitimate concern, but an insolent effort to intimidate and bully a journalist who had exposed embarrassing information about the youth league president.

We urge the ANC as a whole to reaffirm its commitment to media freedom and other constitutional rights we enjoy as a country.

Blog Roll

http://thoughtleader.co.za/siphohlongwane
http://rwrant.co.za
http://vocfm.co.za/blogs/munadia/
http://vocfm.co.za/blogs/shafiqmorton/
http://blogs.news24.com/needpoint
http://capetowngirl.co.za
http://thoughtleader.co.za/sentletsediakanyo
http://thoughtleader.co.za/davidjsmith
http://letterdash.com/one-eye-only
http://boyuninterrupted.blogspot.com
http://amandasevasti.com
http://blog.empyrean.co.za/
http://letterdash.com/brencro
http://6000.co.za
http://chrisroper.co.za
http://pieftw.com
http://hamishpillay.wordpress.com
http://memoirs4kimya.blogspot.com
http://thoughtleader.co.za/azadessa
http://watkykjy.co.za
http://fredhatman.co.za
http://thelifeanddeathchronicles.blogspot.com/
http://blogs.timeslive.co.za/common-dialogue/
http://clivesimpkins.blogs.com/
http://mashadutoit.wordpress.com
http://nicharalambous.com
http://sarocks.co.za
http://blogs.timeslive.co.za/stompies/
http://helenmoffett.book.co.za/blog/
http://01universe.blogspot.com
http://groundwork.wordpress.com
http://www.iwrotethisforyou.me
http://fionasnyckers.book.co.za
http://attentiontodetail.wordpress.com
http://blogs.women24.com/editor
http://www.missmillib.blogspot.com
http://snowgoose.co.za
http://dreamfoundry.co.za
http://www.vanoodle.blogspot.com
http://www.exmi.co.za
http://cat-dubai.blogspot.com
http://alistairfairweather.com
http://www.zanedickens.com
http://www.nickhuntdavis.com
http://guysa.blogspot.com
http://book.co.za
http://baldy.co.za
http://skinnylaminx.com
http://blogs.african-writing.com/zukiswa
http://www.mielie.wordpress.com
http://blogs.timeslive.co.za/gatherer/
http://thoughtleader.co.za/sarahbritten
http://stii.co.za
http://blogs.news24.com/FSB_AP
http://twistedkoeksuster.blogspot.com
http://whensmokegetsinyoureyes.blogspot.com/
http://trinklebean.wordpress.com
http://commentry.wordpress.com/
http://matthewbuckland.com
http://blogs.news24.com/colour-me-fran
http://gormendizer.co.za
http://helenmoffett.book.co.za/blog/
http://www.harassedmom.co.za
http://ravingfans.co.za
http://khadijapatel.co.za
http://simon.co.za/speakza
http://gnatj.com
http://moralfibre.co.za
http://www.exmi.co.za
http://fsi.org.za/
http://synapses.co.za
http://www.macgeek.co.za

“… and how Jacob Zuma handles the situation will set the tone around graft, corruption and gifts of gratitude for the rest of his term of office …”

Sb’u Ndebele, by all accounts, did a wonderful job of fostering the creation of small businesses in KwaZulu Natal. It was all part of Vukuzakhe, the Emerging Contractors Development Programme. And the contractors wanted to thank him for turning some of them into millionaires.

Obviously, Sb’u Ndebele, would like to keep such a wonderful expression of gratitude. But even though he says there is no conflict of interest, he is not sure about the protocols involved and has shuffled the decision to his boss. Why he couldn’t make the decision himself says a lot about where government ministers minds are on the issue of corruption. If this was seen by him as corrupt the answer was easy. A simple yes or no was all that was required, and then live with the consequences (including the car and cattle) if he chose wrong,

He has now made his issue Jacob Zuma’s issue, and how Jacob Zuma handles the situation will set the tone around graft, corruption and gifts of gratitude for the rest of his term of office.

If Jacob Zuma allows Sb’u Ndebele to keep the car he is implicitly supporting corruption and graft. Firstly, he is seemingly flying in the face of a Cabinet code of ethics rule. Secondly, he is re-enforcing the perception (no conviction is a perception, Mrs Zille) that he is corrupt and that he tolerates corruption from his comrades. Thirdly, every election promise would have to be seen in the light of reneging on one of the biggest promises made, so soon after taking office; in other words, Jacob Zuma is not to be trusted.

Left or Right? High road or low road? (Mateusz Atroszko)

A lot hinges on this decision for Jacob Zuma. Let’s hope, for his sake and the country’s, that he makes the correct one. Unfortunately for Sb’u Ndebele, the future vision should not include he or his wife driving around in a new Mercedes.

¹ For our foreign readers, the Ndebele are a people of Northern South Africa and Southern Zimbabwe. Links compliments of Wikipedia.

Helen Zille and teh ANC Alliance Locking Horns (Benjamin Earwicker)

Lets’s look at the important bits of the letter that seemed to have raise the ire of the ANC and alliance:

“… And, more significantly, the ANC’s leader, Jacob Zuma, is a self-confessed womanizer with deeply sexist views, who put all his wives at risk by having unprotected sex with an HIV-positive woman. Even after this the ANC women’s league strongly endorsed his Presidential campaign. Their professions of support for women’s rights ring hollow indeed against this background. …”

Calling the country’s President a self-confessed womanizer with deeply sexist views is probably going over the top and should not be part of a media release. The observation about putting ‘all his wives at risk’ is reasonable and a simple statement of fact; but more in keeping with a conversation than a media release. The rest of the letter is an attempt to justify the composition of the Western Cape Provincial Cabinet and is along the lines of what the DA normally say.

Did the content of the letter justify the fury unleashed by the ANC and cohorts? Probably not. But, the continued hounding of Jacob Zuma (we talked about this previously) has exacerbated the situation and escalated the name calling to this point (excerpts from the ANC Youth League statement):

“… the racist girl Helen Zille …”

“… her stupid and sexist decision …”

“… all male cabinet of useless people, majority of whom are her boyfriends and concubines so that she can continue to sleep around with them …”

“… fake racist girl who was dropped on a head as child …”

This comes across as just plain childish. If children reacted in this way they would be sent to their rooms to think about things. That said, though, it has become very personal and I would not be surprised if Helen Zille did not make a(nother) call to the DA’s lawyers. Statements of this type are what we have come to expect from the ANC Youth League. It paints a woeful picture of the potential future leaders of the country.

Interestingly, we have not heard much from Jacob Zuma about the subject. He has let others do the dirty for him while he (in his inauguration speech) talked about working alongside the opposition. Is this a dignified silence or a calculated ploy to paint Helen Zille as a monster.

So, Helen Zille, it is time to back down for a bit and be more of a Premier and less of the leader of the National opposition. Let other members of your party do the politicking and dirty work. You are now the Premier of ALL the people in the Western Cape and not just those who voted for you. Help them realize their dreams they had on voting day. In the same way, Jacob Zuma is president of all the people of South Africa. He needs some time to get going.

What is YOUR take on all of this. Add a comment.

African National Congress Youth League

“HELEN ZILLE CONTNUES TO EXCEL AS NUMBER ONE RACIST AND DISTRACTOR OF GENDER STRUGGLES

The ANC YL is disgusted by remarks attributed to the racist girl Helen Zille, who when failing to defend her stupid and sexist decision to appoint predominantly white males into her cabinet, attacks the President of the Republic of South Africa. The ANC YL calls on Helen Zille to respect the office of the President of the Republic of South Africa and stop making stupid and degrading remarks against President Jacob Zuma. Zille has appointed an all male cabinet of useless people, majority of whom are her boyfriends and concubines so that she can continue to sleep around with them, yet she claims to have the moral authority to question our President.

If the fake racist girl Zille continues to speak hogwash like she has been doing during elections, we will take militant action against her, and demonstrate to her that she does not have monopoly over the Western Cape. The fake racist girl who was dropped on a head as child should understand that South Africa will never be a Mickey-mouse Republic like she wants to portray it. An absolute majority of South Africans support President Jacob Zuma and will find it very disgusting for a fake racist apartheid agent to continue undermining the highest office in South Africa.”

Here is a link to the original document that has subsequently been withdrawn from the ANC Youth League website. Interestingly, the file name reflects the press release from passing of Ivy Matsepe-Cassaburri, and may be an indication of the haste (and anger) with which the Helen Zille press release was prepared and posted.

What size table will be needed for the enlarged Cabinet? (Svilen Mushkatov)

The USA has fifteen cabinet members plus an additional seven co-opted members who do not head up their own departments, but rather external agencies like the Environmental Protection Agency and the Office of the Vice President. Brazil has twenty three cabinet members (plus an additional nine cabinet level appointees, including head of the central bank and Chief of Staff). The UK has twenty three (plus half-a-dozen others).

Second impression is that their is a lot of ‘reward for support’ going on. Blade Nzimande, Ebrahim Patel and Fikile Mbalula all represent constituencies that played a large part in Zuma’s elevation to power. The old question is whether or not these three ministers (and others) are ‘fit-for-purpose’. Or is this another case where personal loyalty is more important than the good of the nation?

Third, why was Barbara Hogan moved from the Health Ministry? Is party disloyalty more important than efficiency of the health services? On the other hand, Aaron Motsoaledi and Molefi Sefularo are unknown quantities and unknown to most South Africans. Are they doctors? What qualifies them ahead of Barbara Hogan? Let’s give them time.

Fourth, Manual’s move into the Presidency and the creation of the National Planning Commission seems, on the surface, to be a way of appeasing the business community and the international world. But does it really? It smacks a little of communist style central planning bureaus.

Fifth, what is Pieter Mulder doing in the cabinet? Is this some pre-planning for the next election and a way of drawing the Afrikaner into the ANC fold? Or is it, cynically, a ruse that is to cover accelerated land reform that will require an insider to quell the angry farmers?

Sixth. Tokyo Sexwale. If he can bring a business overview and implementation focus to the provision of housing, he will have added tremendously to the ANC’s commitment to the electorate. The downside is that he does have large business holdings and even if he remains absolutely peachy clean, the sense of impropriety is only an whisper away. Will he resign his chairmanship of his own corporation so their can be no conflicts of interest?

Seventh and last: are the Education, Education, Energy and Mineral ministries going to result in the splitting of the respective departments? And the resultant creation of new top-level positions within the new departments? If so, they need to be very much more efficient than present. All this extra cost in a time of austerity is not going to go down well with the electorate.

Jacob Zuma, as is his nature, has tried to appease everyone with his appointments. The reality is that a large number of the ministers are new in the job, or have new and different responsibilities. We need to wait a while to see what they actually produce.

How is the African National Congress going to Swim against the stream? (Ilker)

The ANC has not been in opposition (except at the Local Government level in some towns and cities across South Africa) for 15 years. The style of opposition that it provided 15 years ago is not the style that is required in the modern democratic South Africa. There is no need for the violence and retaliation that marked the last years of apartheid. There is no need for using the trade unions to cause civil disturbances. There is no need for trumped up charges. There is no need for drawn out legal wranglings over every piece of legislation. The DA will have been elected to power in the Western Cape through a democratic election with universal suffrage and therefore deserve an ANC opposition that reflects, and is in-keeping with, a modern democratic state.

Could the ANC point out the problems of the DA provincial government in a way that is non-confrontational? Could the ANC compliment a DA provincial government when they do something well that is on the agenda of both parties? Could they, hopefully, not use the might of central government to ram through power grabbing or populist policies aimed at winning the next elections?

And finally, can there be a bit of quid pro quo? Could the DA limit some of the over the top rhetoric and attacks on the ANC, especially Jacob Zuma? Will the DA, likely to still be the official National opposition occasionally actually praise them, or maybe even just some of the ANC people in government.

Do the DA need to go to War against Jacob Zuma? (Kriss Szkurlatowski)

Let’s put aside whether Jacob Zuma is guilty or not guilty. Let’s put aside the legal and procedural convolutions that were gone through to arrive at the status quo. Let’s even put aside the likelihood of executive interference.

The real issue, from the DA perspective is that being re-active has never won an election. It is time for the DA to push the DA agenda regardless of the ANC (African National Congress), Cope (Congress of the People), ID (Independent Democrats) or any other party agenda. It seems, from the DA’s point of view, that it is easier to be known for what you are not or what you are against, rather than for what you actually stand for.

With the timing of the announcement, the ANC has managed to redirect the DA’s focus and effort away from the important tasks of positive campaigning and towards the less energy efficient sniping and bickering.

I don’t think that this constant (and almost vindictive) attack on Jacob Zuma and the ANC is not going to gain any votes. The people that agree with the process will probably vote DA (or another opposition party) anyway. The DA need to get into the suburbs and townships and go from door to door selling the vision of the DA. They should be counteracting the propaganda of the ANC, especially the parts about the return of apartheid and the fact that the DA is a ‘White Party’ (even if that may be partly true … the ‘White Party’ bit anyway).

It's a Dirty Game, is Politics (Shannon Pifko)

It is too easy to blame the ANC (African National Congress) for corruption, etc. or to blame the DA (Democratic Alliance) for being a white party (and therefore racist), or Cope (Congress of the People) for being disorganised and a watered down version of the ANC. And these are calls that are being made from all sides of the political landscape. Discussions between both party officials, and especially, party supporters, easily get off-track and end up in name calling. A wander around any number of online chat rooms and blog comment lists show how personal and deeply emotional the debate can get. Any semblance of civilised discussion, a comparison of competing policies and promotion of achievements gets lost in a pile of acrimony, finger-pointing and finally boasting and comparing certain parts of the male anatomy.

It seems that policy gets lost very quickly when power touches it. Even quicker when emotion is stacked up alongside the policy. It stands no chance then. It is quite sad that the breadth of policy and conscience is reduced to a simple binary selection – should I vote for this party or that? And that choice is emotional.

South African Flag - Less Important to ANC Cadres? (Matthew Bowden)

Is this wrong? I’m not sure. People to have the right to choose their own loyalties. Where it does become problematical is when the actions are at cross purposes to the words. If, hypothetically, the Chinese government provides funds for the ANC election campaign, and the Chinese government then asks for a favour from the ANC (who just happen to be the party in power), which results in South Africa’s international image being tarnished and the loss of the moral high ground, then there is loyalty towards the ANC that overrides that towards the country and which casts the country in a bad light. And is there any evidence that this not how it works? The foreign service is working overtime trying to repair the Dalai Lama mess.

Does it sit uncomfortably? Absolutely. Any decision could now be of paramount importance to the ANC but not in the interests of the country. Who knows which is the next issue that will be dealt with in this way? And with South Africa’s record in the corruption sphere, there is an inkling, a worry bubbling in the back of mind, that there are individuals making these decisions for their own profit.

Is there a mindset changed required within the ANC? Probably. Fifteen or twenty years ago it would have been OK to put the organisation first. The government was illegitimate but still representing the people of the country. Today we here the over-used phrases: “for the good of our people” and “government for all South Africans”. It rings a bit hollow if the country’s interests are being placed second.

The ANC and their comrades in government need to be clear where the lines between the two are. With a clear distinction between party and government and the concomitant distinction between party loyalists and citizens can ensure that the best decision are reached for each constituency.