“… 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.

Newspaper (sanja gjenero)

Where do they receive their news from? Newspapers? Cellphones? Word of mouth? Radio? Television? Internet? How reliable is this form of news? Do they have access to sufficient different sources of news? Can this time be used for more than just assimilating the news? Is there an educational opportunity here?

The basis of all the politically stable and economically growing countries is education and the free flow of ideas. And good newspapers enhance that flow of ideas. Maybe this could be a source of revenue for people whereby they create small community based newspapers that concentrate on the community and local news, without a partisan bias.