THUNDER AND LIGHTNING
IN CAPE TOWN - Friday 29 May 2009
‘Did you hear that?’ asked
a petrified Nellie at 6am on Thursday morning. ‘It
sounded like a gunshot.’
I, of course, did not hear a thing and we went blissfully
back to sleep.
By 7.30am, the reason why newspapers are
going out of business was once more clearly demonstrated.
The web was ablaze with stunning photos of the freak thunder
and lightning storm that rocked the mother city in the
early hours.
And, these pics were all sent in by normal Capetonians
on their way to work.
There is just no way that journalists
would be able to capture such moments and have it published
almost instantly.
The pics below were taken by News24 readers
Karen Coetzee and Warren Tyler.
Meanwhile, according to climatologist
Candice McKechnie, Capetonians can say goodbye to sunny
weather and bring out the heaters and blankets this weekend,
since icy weather, gale-force winds and widespread snow
are expected in the high-lying parts of the Western Cape.
McKechnie said, however, that we can expect
less rain than with the previous cold front two weeks
ago, when up to 50mm of rain fell within 24 hours in certain
places.
"This cold front will bring icy temperatures, snow,
and a gale-force wind, but not much heavy rain. “
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DEPOSIT AND WITHDRAWAL
FEES FOR ALL - Thursday 28 May 2009
If, like millions of others, and me, you
barely make it through the month, I am sure that you have
on occasion gone to the ATM on the 23rd to draw your last
R500.
Only to get an embarrassing ‘insufficient funds’
slip.
Bank charges.
Banks are ordinary businesses that deal
in commodities.
They deal in money.
They make a profit by selling the use of your money to
others, at a price.
Then of course they share a miniscule portion of their
profits with you, and call it interest.
In essence, they buy and sell money.
Just like Pick & Pay buys and sells
foodstuff or Fruit & Veg City sells, well, fruit and
veg.
Imagine one day you get to the till at
Fruit & Veg City and you are charged a ‘fruit
and veg withdrawal fee.’
Or Pick & Pay starts charging their suppliers a ‘grocery
deposit fee.’
Why then are banks allowed to get away
with cash deposit and withdrawal fees?
Logic tells me that robbers target banks
because of the high amounts of cash on the premises, and
that banks have to insure their cash. The more heists
and robberies there are, the higher the premium rises
for this insurance.
So instead of digging into their vast profits to foot
this bill, they decided to charge you and me.
Robbers also target delivery trucks and
supermarkets, jewelry stores and almost any other business
where they can lay their hands on cash, or goods that
they are able to sell for cash.
In fact these outlets have to deal with something banks
don’t really have to deal with on a large scale,
VIZ shoplifting and staff pilferage.
Prepare yourself for all kinds of deposit
and withdrawal fees, soon at a store near you.
Or a petrol station, a chemist, a butcher, a restaurant,
a liquor store…….
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THE
REALISTIC, PRACTICAL VIGILANTE - Wednesday 27 May 2009
You live in South Africa.
Every day you see on TV and read in the newspapers about
the many murders and robberies in our country.
You read about people being robbed of all their possessions
by intruders while they themselves are asleep in their
home.
You hear about others who are raped and
murdered because they were unfortunate enough to wake
up while the intruders were emptying out their home.
So, if you were at home quietly watching
TV, your wife had gone out for the evening, and you suddenly
heard your wife screaming at the gate.
Realistically, what would you do?
Frantically call the police?
Knowing that they will respond in about six hours if you
are lucky.
Shout for help hoping the neighbors would
respond?
They would probably think you are shouting because the
Bulls scored another try.
The practical thing to do would be to
do what a man in Kwa-Zulu Natal did.
A 22-year-old would-be robber confronted
a woman on a farm on the Old Wartburg Road and grabbed
her by the shirt as she was closing the farm gate after
returning from the city on Saturday around 23:00, said
Senior Superintendent Henry Budhram in a statement.
The 42-year-old woman screamed for help.
"Moments later her husband, 47, who
was inside the house, heard the screams and went to investigate."
The intruder then confronted him on the
veranda.
The farmer drew his gun and fired three shots at the man,
killing him.
Very practical.
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HIGH TECH TOKOLOSHE -
Tuesday 26 May 2009
My article
on the mythical tokoloshe, a small human-like creature
that gets up to all kinds of mischief, seems to have gotten
neurologists all worked up.
Kwa-Zulu Natal’s Dr Anand Moodley
and Canadian neurologist Dr Neil Fournier suggest that
the tokoloshe may have its roots in the primordial neurology
of the human brain.
The tokoloshe, in African mythology, is a diminutive human-like
creature with a large head and big eyes, often blamed
for mischief or evil deeds.
In the latest edition of the SA Medical
Journal Moodley and Fournier said the key to the tokoloshe
could lie in a part of the brain called the indusium griseum,
two thin strips of grey matter that had no known function
in adults.
They said neuroscientists had suggested
the indusium griseum could be the "embryonic equivalent",
in a foetus, of the hippocampus in the adult brain.
In adults, the hippocampus housed short-term
and spatial memory, including a somatotopic or map-like
"representation" of the person's body.
The hippocampus was particularly susceptible
to overstimulation by the brain's electrical signals.
Stimulation of the indusium griseum in an adult, they
said, could therefore conceivably result in a throwback
to a self-image of a tiny person stored by the foetus
on that part of the brain.
What this means is that the person who
sees a tokoloshe, is actually seeing a picture of themself
as an embryo, that was stored in the brain when they were
in fact still just an embryo.
"The outcome would be visual hallucinations
of a small humanoid with a large head, big eyes and a
small body," they said.
No wonder they are so afraid.
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COPE NOT COPING - Monday
25 May 2009
A couple of months before the elections,
I got a call from a friend who claimed that his friend
had a ‘connection’ at COPE, at that there
was a lucrative opportunity for an events company to get
in with ‘the new party.’
I could recognise the potential of such
a contract, but I have done work for government before.
In fact I did work for the ANC on three separate occasions.
For one of these jobs, I got paid six months after the
job.
With the second one they told me after
the job was done that they could not afford to pay the
full amount agreed on, as ‘other departments’
had failed to deliver their part of the bargain, and because
of the that the desired result was not achieved.
With the last one I did not get paid at
all, and they avoided my calls and ignored my invoices
and emails.
So, I was reluctant to get involved with
a new party, but I was desperate at the time and went
along to a meeting.
I was told to submit a proposal, and two weeks later I
got a call to set up a meeting.
I was told that the first job would be as soon as a week
later.
The meeting was scheduled to take place
at the Spur in Kenilworth. The venue further raised my
suspicions.
Why at Spur?
Is that all they can afford?
Why not at their offices?
Did they have an office?
On the day, fifteen minutes before the
meeting was scheduled to take place, I got an sms saying
that the meeting was postponed, as the COPE representative
was tied up at another meeting.
I never heard from them again.
Now, Nellie is very critical of what she
calls my ‘refusal to learn from my mistakes’,
and insists that my habit of ‘only seeing the good
in people’ will be, or is, my downfall.
She is also very fond of the term ‘everything happens
for a reason.’
When we learnt from the media yesterday
that COPE’s media team had stopped working after
the elections because they did not get paid, she spared
me the ‘I told you so’s’.
Instead she just looked at me coyly, with a victorious
grin on her face.
_____________________________
GREEN TEA AND SUPERGLUE
- Friday 22 May 2009
THE TEA
Medical experts at Germany’s Heidelberg University
recommend the use of a compound of green tea in vaginal
creams to help inhibit sexual transmission of the aids
virus.
A study has found that green tea is capable of neutralizing
a protein in sperm, which serves as a vector for viral
transmission during sex.
The polyphenal or vegetable tannin found
in green tea degrades what is known as a semen-derived
enhancer of virus infection, or SEVI, described in the
study as "an important infectivity factor of HIV".
Writing in the online edition of the Proceedings
of the National Academy of Sciences, the researchers said
they "recently identified a peptide fraction in human
semen that consistently enhanced HIV-1 infection".
SEVIs capture viral elements and attach them to the surface
of target cells, enhancing cell fusion and decreasing
a cell's ability to repel viral threats.
Green tea, which originated in China and
is widely consumed in Asia, the Middle East and growing
numbers of western countries, is already popular for its
antioxidant qualities.
THE GLUE
Meanwhile, back in South Africa, in a cave in KwaZulu-Natal,
scientists believe they have found the earliest examples
of superglue, more than 70 000 years old. The glue, say
the scientists, is just as good as the stuff found in
hardware stores today.
They found it on stone tools recovered
from Sibudu cave, along the KwaZulu-Natal North Coast.
The tools are believed to have been spear or arrowheads
glued to wooden shafts, believed to have been used in
hunting an extinct beast known as Pelorovis Antiquus.
This bovine dwarfed the Cape Buffalo of today and had
a horn span of over 3m.
When academics tried to make a batch of
the stuff they were stunned.
"I thought I was stupid, I just couldn't get it right,"
said Lyn Wadley, an archaeologist at Wits University.
The ancient recipe included coarse red
ochre, acacia gum and even a bit of sand. Sometimes a
bit of animal fat was thrown in. Getting the right mix
was just the first step, as the prehistoric adhesive had
to be dried next to a fire.
Temperature control was crucial, Wadley found, as the
adhesives could burn or boil, forming air bubbles.
They had to be competent chemists, alchemists
and pyrotechnologists, Wadley stated.
She believes there is an overlap in the
mental abilities of modern humans and those who lived
in what is known as the middle Stone Age.
___________________________________
YOUR 47-MILLION-YEAR-OLD
ANCESTOR - Thursday 21 May 2009
Darwin’s Origin of Species,
published 150 years ago, bases the evolution of man on
a process of natural selection.
Roughly, from fish to dinosaurs to birds to mammals to
primates.
At least that’s how I understand it, but I admit
that I am not too knowledgeable on the subject.
The discovery of fossils has, over the
years, presented much evidence to support this theory,
but there has always been a missing link, from mammal
to primate.
On Tuesday this
week, scientists in New York unveiled the skeleton
of what they said could be the common ancestor to
humans, apes and other primates.
The tiny creature, officially known as Darwinius
masillae, but dubbed Ida, lived 47 million years
ago and is unusually well preserved, missing only
part of a leg.
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Half of the fossil was discovered in 1983
at the Messel Shale in Germany, famous for its regular
yield of interesting fossils like mini-horses, bats and
a tapir.
But, the discovers were unaware of it’s importance,
and it ended up lying in a drawer at the home of a private
collector.
The rest of the fossil was discovered last year, and the
other half was bought from the German collector for a
rumored $1m.
Although bearing a long tail, the fossil
shows several human characteristics, including an opposable
thumb, short arms and legs, and forward facing eyes.
Scientists have hailed Ida as ‘the
most complete primate fossil ever found.’
The remains of her last meal reveal that she was a herbivore.
Fruit, seeds and leaves were found in her stomach.
Modern primates are divided into two suborders.
The wet-nosed or non-human primates include bushbabies,
lorises and lemurs.
Dry-nosed or human primates include monkeys, apes and
humans.
A bone in Ida's ankle called the talus
is shaped like that of members of our own, anthropoid,
branch of the primates. Ida's nail-bearing fingers and
toes also confirm her to having been a primate.
Researchers believe she may be on our
evolutionary line dating from just after the split with
the lemurs and that this fossil is from "a transitional
species, showing characteristics from both the non-human
and human evolutionary lines," and that it could
actually be from a “stem group” from which
higher primates evolved.
Scientists now have to determine
whether Ida was wet or dry-nosed.
Either way, she gives us a glimpse into
a time when the world was just taking its present shape.
Dinosaurs were extinct, the Himalayas were forming and
a huge range of mammals thrived in vast jungles.
______________________________________
INDIANS HAVE THE LAST
LAUGH - Wednesday 20 May 2009
GUIDE FOR INDIAN TRAVELLERS
To help Indians traveling to foreign countries for the
first time, the following guide is issued for when they
have to deal with the many awkward questions they are
bound to be asked everyday.
Q. What does that red dot on women's forehead mean?
A. Well, in ancient times, Indian men used to practice
archery skills with target practicing by aiming at their
wife's red dot. In fact, that is one of the reasons why
they had many wives. You see, once they mastered the art
of archery and hit the target....
Q. Does India have cars?
A. No. We ride elephants to work. The government is trying
to encourage ride-sharing schemes.
Q. Are all Indians vegetarian?
A. Yes. Even Bengal tigers are vegetarian in India.
Q. How come you speak English so well?
A. You see when the British were ruling India, they employed
Indians as servants. It took too long for the Indians
to learn English. So the British isolated an "English-language"
gene and infused their servants with it and since then
all babies born are born speaking English.
Q. Are you a Hindi?
A. Yes. I am spoken everyday in Northern India.
Q. Do you speak Hindu?
A. Yes, I also speak Jewish, Islam and Christianity.
Q. Is it true that everyone there is very
corrupt?
A. Yes, in fact, I had to bribe my parents so that they
would let me go to school.
Q. India is very hot, isn't it?
A. It is so hot there that all the water boils spontaneously.
That is why tea is such popular drink in India.
Q. Are there any business companies in
India?
A. No. All Indians live on the Gandhian principles of
self-sufficiency. We all make our own clothes and grow
our own food. That is why you see all these thin skinny
Indians -- it is a lot of hard work.
Q. Indians cannot eat beef, huh?
A. Cows provide milk, which is a very essential part of
Indian diet. So eating cows is forbidden. However in order
to decrease the population of the country, the government
is trying to encourage everyone to eat human meat.
Q. India is such a religious place. Do you meditate regularly?
A. Yes, sometimes I meditate for weeks without food and
drink. But it is difficult to keep my job, because I have
to miss work when I meditate like that. But the bosses
there do the same thing. That is why things are so inefficient
there.
Q. I saw on TV that people there walk
on burning coals. Why do they do that?
A. We don't have shoes. So we burn the bottom of our feet
to make it hard so that we can walk.
_______________________________
ARE WE LIVING IN THE
DARK AGES? - Tuesday 19 May 2009
A recent article about Christians protesting
outside Cape Town’s Sexpo at the Convention Center
makes me feel that I am living in the dark ages.
Spokesperson for the Christian Action
Network Taryn Hodgson said Christians believed sex was
a gift from God and should be expressed only within the
confines of marriage.
I can live with that being her opinion, as long as we
don’t threaten to burn at the stake or turn into
pillars of salt those who disagree.
Asked about the fact that male sexuality
was also on display she said the objectification of men's
bodies as well as women's had led to a culture of "seeing
sex as God" rather than as a gift from God.
At this point she loses me.
And then they got me really alarmed when
they handed out copies of a Christian Action newsletter
that condemned journalists for refusing to consider the
possibility that Aids was "a judgment of God and
a warning to promiscuous and adulterous individuals".
If this is true, expect a few thousand
pillars of salt, all inflicted with aids, and being burnt
at the stake, to pop up in and around the convention center
soon.
Sexpo organiser Silas Howarth said in
reaction to the protest that the event was a "health,
sexuality and lifestyle" show, and all we are doing
is to make people aware of ‘what was available out
there.”
Sex was ultimately a "normal, healthy thing",
he said.
Miss Nude South Africa, Bella Anderson,
who conducts lap-dancing workshops at the event, said
she hoped visitors to the event would leave more comfortable
with who they were, rather than worrying about what other
people said.
_______________________________
BEETROOT AND GARLIC FOR
AFRICA - Monday 18 May 2009
I mentioned before that friends of mine,
who were exiled members of Umkhonto we Sizwe, claim that
Manto had an affair with Thabo in those years, and this
is why she was appointed minister of health, despite her
criminal record for stealing blankets and heaters from
a hospital, and her reputation of being a drunk.
Like many, I was relieved when she was
moved from health when Mbeki was ousted, and I was overjoyed
when Zuma left her out of his cabinet altogether.
South Africa is one of only ten countries
in the world where the rate for mother child mortality
was actually getting worse, and experts agree that Manto’s
stance on Aids directly contributed to this increase.
The number of mothers and children dying has increased
during Manto’s ten-year stint as health minister.
It seems though that Manto has connections
way beyond the borders of South Africa, as she has now
been appointed African Union Goodwill Ambassador and Champion
for the Improvement of Maternal and Child Health in Africa
beyond 2015.
Maybe Thabo is still looking out for his
girlfriend and used his influence in the AU to get her
the job?
Beetroot and Garlic for Africa!
______________________________
SERVICE DELIVERY: REALITY
CHECK - Friday 15 May 2009
The reason why the site was not updated
on Thursday is that at about 10h30 on Wednesday morning
the power in the entire complex suddenly went out.
The supervisor, who had not bothered to inform tenants,
told me that they were effecting an essential upgrade,
and that the power would be restored at 16h00.
Pretty soon the laptop battery and the cell phone battery
died.
I could not work and I could not communicate.
I was pissed off!
I then decided that this was a good time
to do the chores that Nellie has been nagging about since
we moved in.
Hang the pictures and chandeliers, fit the plugs for the
lamps, fix the TV cable that was lying on the floor from
the lounge to the bedroom etc etc.
I took out my toolbox and the various fittings before
realising that all these jobs required the use of a POWER
drill.
I then decided to prepare everything to
make supper when the lights came on.
I could not defrost the meat or even boil water to prepare
the sauce.
‘Have a shower’ I thought, but by then the
water was cold.
By the time that Nellie came home at 18h00
though, I had managed to crumb and spice the schnitzels,
the potatoes were peeled and cut, the broccoli and cauliflower
was ready in the microwave dish, the cheese was grated
and the mushrooms were lying ready to jump into the pan.
Still no power.
By 20h00 we drove to Macdonald’s
for horrible big Macs.
It was a bad night, and a worse morning.
No TV, no radio, no sago pudding in bed, no coffee or
shower in the morning and brushing hair and putting on
makeup by candlelight for Nellie while I lay fuming in
bed waiting for the sun to rise.
My thoughts turned to service delivery.
I was only without electricity for 26 hours.
With Cape Town readying herself for 'A Beast of a
Storm' that is expected to hit the Mother City this
weekend, my heart goes out to the masses who daily have
to live without electricity, running water, sanitation
and refuse removal.
Is this why only 17% of the population
pay taxes? Or is it because only 17% of the population
pay taxes?
AMANDLA –
AWETHU (NGAWETHU)
POWER – TO US (TO THE PEOPLE)
and running water, and sanitation, and
refuse removal, and.....
______________________________
NEW MAYOR FOR CAPE TOWN:
DANIEL PLATO Wednesday 13 May 2009
I don’t know anything about newly
appointed Cape Town mayor Dan Plato, so of course I Googled
him, but there is not much information about him on the
web either.
On Monday night the DA’s caucus
made the decision to name Plato as the successor to Helen
Zille.
Amid wide expectations that acting mayor Grant Hoskins
of the ACDP would continue as deputy mayor, Ian Nielsen
was named as Plato’s deputy.
The DA has accused the ACDP of approaching
other parties in the government coalition to form a front
against the DA. The party also alleges that provincial
ACDP leader Pauline Cupido had decided not to work with
the provincial government when she withheld her vote to
support Zille as the premier candidate.
What
I have been able to learn about Plato is that he
is the councilor for Belhar, and he has been a ward
councilor since 1996.
In the past few months he had undertaken duties
as mayoral committee member in the mayor's office.
Previously he was mayoral committee member for housing.
He is also known as a confidante of Zille's, and
for his efficiency and calmness.
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While searching for information on Plato,
I realised that I in fact had no idea what the duties
of a mayor actually are, so I informed myself and decided
to share this with you,
just in case I am not alone in my ignorance.
The mayor is responsible for ensuring
that the resources at the disposal of the municipality
are used in a way that best meets the variety of needs
of local citizens. The Executive Mayor or Executive Committee
must:
· Identify
the variety of needs that exist in the municipality.
· Review and evaluate those
needs in order of priority.
· Develop strategies, programmes
and services to address priority needs.
· When formulating strategies,
applicable national and provincial development plans must
be taken into account. These strategies, along with revenue
and expenditure estimates, must be recommended to the
municipal council.
· Recommend the best methods,
including partnerships and other approaches, to deliver
those strategies, programmes and services for the maximum
benefit of the community.
________________________________
I WARM EVER SO SLIGHTLY
TO JACOB ZUMA - Tuesday 12 May 2009
Before the allegations of fraud, bribery
and corruption against Jacob Zuma surfaced, I had a fairly
positive opinion of the man.
Like most others I was concerned about the allegations
because we all know that where there is smoke there is
usually fire. Unless of course someone had plugged in
a smoke machine, as Zuma has always claimed.
Be that as it may, the man is now my president
and I am certainly not going to run away.
We will probably never know the truth about the allegations,
so I have decided to give the man a chance. I don’t
really have a choice do I?
I don’t know much about many of
the new cabinet ministers, but I am concerned about some
of them.
High on my list is the appointment of
Angie Motshekga as Minister of Basic Education.
This is after all the woman who, in defense of Julius
Malema, said that one does not need an education to be
a leader. Is this what she is going to teach our children?
The appointment of Blade Nzimande as the
Minister of Higher Education is another that I find worrying,
as is the shifting of Barbara Hogan to public enterprises,
Jeff Radebe to justice and Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula to
correctional services.
On the other hand, I am relieved to see
that Zuma found no place in his cabinet for Ngconde Balfour,
Brigitte Mabandla and Charles Nqakula.
I
am ecstatic and warmimg ever so slightly to Jacob
Zuma for leaving out the double-barreled, drunken,
thieving, murdering, militant, arrogant and ignorant
duo of Winnie Madikezela-Mandela and Manto Tshabalala-Msimang. |
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THE PLEASURE CRUISE TO
HEAVEN: PART THREE - Monday 11 May 2009
THE COST OF LIVING
No matter what your view is, in this day
and age living comes at a cost.
Irrespective of the downfall of communism or the shortfalls
of capitalism, it’s a reality.
Living comes at a cost.
Your independence and its relatives, happiness
and fulfilment, is directly related to the amount of money
that you have, and money has to be earned.
This is one of the pillars of ‘equipping
your child to have a reasonable chance of realising an
independent, fulfilled and happy life.’
If your parents did not equip you in this way, tough shit.
Get off your butt, stop bitching and start equipping yourself
now.
Its never too late and no one else is going to do it for
you. No friend, no rich relative, no husband or wife,
and certainly no Zuma, Zille or Obama.
I have heard two explanations for the
abbreviation LSM.
The first and official one is Living Standards Measurement,
but this is something that is used by others to put you
in a box.
LifeStyle Management on the other hand
is something that you are in control of.
You are free to choose your own lifestyle, with the relevant
cost of living.
Your own effort will then determine your
ultimate success.
Traditionally there are two ways to invest
your effort in order to earn a living.
Either way you will have to invest some of your time.
Some look at this as a sacrifice or even an infringement
on your freedom.
The reality is that it is an essential element of living
and without your own money you don’t stand a chance
in hell of achieving that happy and fulfilled life.
And that means that you will never be free
Working for a boss, means that you will
be investing almost half of your life to earning a living,
your income would be subject to you putting in the hours,
and your income will generally be based on your time invested
rather than the result of your effort.
Working for yourself means that your can
determine your own working hours and your effort could
result in a residual income which in turn allows you to
eventually invest less time.
The choice is yours, but remember that
there is more to life than earning a living.
Much more.
The key is, once more, to find the balance.
You are also absolutely free to choose
whether to adjust your lifestyle to match your income,
or your income to match your lifestyle.
_____________________________
IN DEFENSE OF MAX DU
PREEZ - Thursday 7 May 2009
Many saw Max du Preez as an activist during
the struggle against Apartheid.
He was in fact, and still is, just a very brave journalist,
as he showed when he earned the wrath of the ANC post
1994.
He got into a lot of trouble when he did a piece labeling
Thabo Mbeki A Womanizer.
At the time the ANC said that they accepted his ‘declaration
of war against the movement.’
Max du Preez is a journalist who does
not pull his punches, nor does he concern himself with
being politically correct. He speaks his mind.
In 1988, he founded the weekly newspaper
Vrye Weekblad – the only Afrikaans anti-apartheid
newspaper South Africa.
The ground-breaking newspaper, which among other investigations
exposed the Apartheid death squads, faced constant harassment
and expensive law suits, forcing its eventually closure
in 1994.
In that first year –1988 –
the newspaper’s offices were bombed and he received
death threats because of the paper’s anti-apartheid
stance.
Later he was sentenced to six-months in prison for quoting
Joe Slovo, then leader of the SA Communists Party and
a banned person.
After 1994 Max worked for the SABC, but
in 1999 he was fired for gross insubordination when he
objected to a documentary that was barred from being shown.
He was then the executive editor for Special Assignment,
a program that he launched and produced.
After decades of journalism, du Preez's
passion has shifted to uncovering stories about South
Africa 's past. His documentary film on King Moshoeshoe
aired on South African television in 2004. He has published
four books including Louis Luyt – Unauthorised;
Pale Native – Memories of a Renegade Reporter ,
which was short listed for the 2004 Nielsen Book Data
Booksellers' Choice Award and was a runner-up for The
Sunday Times Alan Paton Award; Of Lovers, Warriors and
Prophets; and Oranje Blanje Blues .
Among his awards are the Outstanding Young South African
Award by the Junior Chamber of Commerce, the Pringle Award
by the South African Society of Journalists, the Louis
M Lyons Award by the Nieman Fellows at Harvard University,
and an honorary degree by the University of Cape Town
.
You can read his article in response to
the readers’ comments to his piece on Zuma here.
_________________________________
THE GOOSE AND THE GANDER
- Wednesday 6 May 2009
It was bound to happen.
Charges against Jacob Zuma were dropped when Bulelani
Ngcuka ruled "...that there was prima facie evidence
of corruption, but insufficient to win the case in court".
The NPA then recharged him after apparently
collecting more evidence, but then on 12 September 2008,
Judge Chris Nicholson ruled that Zuma's corruption charges
were unlawful on procedural grounds in that the National
Directorate of Public Prosecutions did not give Zuma a
chance to make representations before deciding to recharge
him.
Brothers Shaheen and Rashdeen Rudolph
were arrested in October 2008 after being fingered by
state witnesses as kingpins in a 2006 robbery.
On March 25 2006, robbers armed with AK-47
assault rifles boarded a SA Airways plane at OR Tambo
Airport and stole R72m in foreign currency.
The state later withdrew the charges against the brothers,
but has since reinstated the case against them.
On Tuesday the two brought an application
in the Kempton Park Magistrate’s court to halt their
prosecutions.
They claim that they qualify on the same grounds advanced
by Jacob Zuma for his stay of prosecution.
The Rudolphs were contending that, like with Zuma, the
State should have sought their representations before
prosecuting them again.
The case was postponed to July 6.
Twelve people are standing trial in the
high court in Johannesburg for the crime.
Three others, Magdeline Moonsammy, Sean Soobramoney and
Ishmail Nazir, pleaded guilty in October 2008 under plea
agreements with the State.
And two others,, Themba Phuyitsi and Tebogo Nhlapo died
of natural causes while awaiting trial.
This ‘seeking representations’
thing is a part of the constitution that I don’t
really understand.
Do they have to come to you and say like ‘ Remember
those charges we dropped against you two years ago? Well,
we’d like to reinstate the case if that’s
ok with you?’
_______________________________
NO SURPRISES IN SELEBI
FIASCO - Tuesday 6 May 2006
It is common practice for ordinary criminals
in South Africa to bribe police officers or court orderlies
to steal files relating to charges brought against them.
When these files disappear it is virtually impossible
for the judiciary to prosecute them.
The NPA and SAPS have long been at loggerheads
so it comes as no surprise that important files in the
Jackie Selebi case have gone missing.
State prosecutor Gerrie Nel has now suggested
that the case be postponed to October or November, and
again it is no surprise that Selebi’s lawyer has
objected strongly to this.
Jaap Cilliers for the state has also told the court that
Selebi has had access to recently declassified information
relating to the case, that the Prosecution had still to
see.
Nel infers that police are not co-operating
with the NPA.
"Either they are loyal to him or the accused is still
in charge," he said.
Of course they are loyal to him and of
course he is still pulling the strings Gerrie.
What did you expect?
He was after all their boss for many years, and by the
looks of things he will remain their boss.
The SAPS see the NPA and the Scorpions
as the enemy.
There is no way that they are going to assist you.
In fact, they will do everything in their power to see
you fail.
Again.
Selebi faces two charges of corruption
and one of defeating the ends of justice relating to payments
he allegedly received from slain mining boss Brett Kebble
and his self-confessed drug lord associate Glen Agglioti,
who is accused of murdering Kebble.
____________________________
HELEN ZILLE HAS BALLS
- Monday 4 May 2009
Sometime ago, I wrote an article entitled
The President
that South Africa Needs.
In that article, using many nice words, I tried to say
that we need a leader who has balls.
In that article I also mentioned that the sight of Helen
Zille dancing on stage disillusioned me.
The picture that I have in my mind of a great leader does
not involve dancing on a stage.
Helen Zille is often criticized for her
"combative, adversarial micro-management" style,
and back in 2006, political rivals predicted that her
tenuous grasp on power as mayor of Cape Town would be
short-lived.
She proved them wrong on that one, and
her dogged campaign, savvy politicking and clear-headed
articulation of her vision for South Africa has seen the
DA not only winning the Western Cape, but broadening the
parties political base in communities beyond its traditional
support base across the country.
Her opponents have labeled her a ‘white
madam’, but she has been seen toyi-toying in Butterworth,
singing along to Koekie Loekie in Stellenbosch, and finding
time to talk to people from all communities in English,
Afrikaans and even Xhosa. She has been studying Xhosa
for the past six years.
We have seen many opposition parties fall
by the wayside and falling prey to a lethargy caused by
assumptions that the ANC was unshakeable.
Not so Helen Zille.
Helen Zille is so obviously in for the long haul and she
has shown that she is prepared to work tirelessly towards
a result far bigger than the present playing field.
During the election campaign, her aides confessed to having
to operate in shifts to keep up with her pace.
It has been said that the DA’s deliberate
emphasis on the leader was a campaign weakness that robbed
the party of opportunities to exploit other strong personalities
and regional interests.
I suppose that’s why the party has won more votes
than any opposition party ever.
Helen Zille has shown that she is a straight
talking, unapologetic and unembarrassed democrat, who
is not afraid of being accused of being un-PC.
Her ‘’combative adversarial micro-management
style” is beginning to sound like a very good thing.
She has shown that she has balls.
Kader Khan
t Editor
info@yummie.co.za
