Genesis — Midnight Reign

It’s November already…

Wed, 08 Nov 2023 00:00:00 +0200

I wanted to post more frequently but life happened and here we are. One world cup down another to go, what’s the bet we choke again?

Hello 2023

Thu, 29 Jun 2023 00:00:00 +0200

Wow, I can’t believe that it’s almost July already.

More to follow.

2020 – the year that wasn’t

Sat, 06 Feb 2021 00:00:00 +0200

Looking back at 2020, I can remember a very normal January. I watched 2 Super Rugby exhibition games at FNB stadium with 3 friends and had an absolute blast. After the game we all agreed that this should definitely become a tradition. As it turned out, fate would decree that this would not be the case. I am not sure if I will ever get to watch a live rugby match ever gain, the same goes for watching a movie in a cinema.

February was also a pretty normal month. The only clues we received about what would become the scariest year in over a century was articles in the media about a flu like virus that had broken out in a city in China. The articles talked about desperate efforts being made to contain an as of yet unnamed virus. Said virus would eventually be called Covid-19 – a novel Coronavirus. To the uninitiated novel means new.

Chinese New Year would see the virus spreading like a fire consuming a dry forest with howling winds added into the mix. The world looked on in disbelief as the virus spread to every corner of the globe – even Antarctica fell victim to this thing. In the future people who look back on this time will see how the leaders of the world failed their people so badly that they should’ve been charge with Genocide. In the United States Donald Trump would tell reporters that this was just a slightly worse case of the flu and that it would simply disappear. Four hundred thousand people died by the time Donald Trump left office after losing in the 2020 elections to Joe Biden. It was later discovered that he’d been told about the virus but had opted to do nothing about it.

Here in South Africa, during the course of March, a very serious Cyril Ramaphosa would call a press conference and place the country under what has become known as a hard lock down. Only people designated as essential would be allowed to go to work. Everyone else, would shelter in place. Alcohol and cigarettes were banned [South Africa being only the second country to ban cigarettes – the reason for this has never been discovered]. The bans lead to the creation of ‘secondary’ markets that almost a year later, are still thriving. The lock down did not have the desired effect of curbing the spread of the virus. But it did seriously damage the already fragile economy. Companies like Greyhound and Ster Kinekor have filed for business rescue – to name but a few.

Around the world incompetent and corrupt governments took full advantage of the chaos caused and furthered their agendas. Other countries leaders underestimated the effect of the virus and only took action when daily death tolls topped thousands. America currently has the highest number of infections followed by India, Brazil and The United Kingdom – the one thing that these countries all have in common is absolutely useless leaders – things have taken a turn in the USA as Trump lost the election and was replaced by Joe Biden who has signed a record number of executive orders in an effort to make america great again…

I started at a designated disaster recovery sight in March of 2020 which was great fun. While we worked our country struggled to cope with the virus and the effects of the lock down imposed by the president. Initially I believed that the ANC had turned a corner. Then reports started surfacing of how the funds that had been set aside to buy the required masks and gloves and hand sanitizers was being stolen. In one case a guy won a tender to supply PPE’s to someone. He was given over a hundred million rand. He then went and bought cars with the money. There were photos on the news of the cars being repossessed. Now I ask you – what kind of rotten soul steals money during a pandemic – money that is supposed to be used to buy equipment that will save peoples lives !!! If it were up to me, this crime would be seen/treated as treason and the punishment would be death.

Towards the end of May I was able to get my team set up to work from home. We started doing so in groups and by the end of May we were all working safely from our homes. This was not without its teething problems, but we got it done.

Under the ANC and the useless state owned enterprises we had other issues to deal with on top of the virus which was eventually classified as a global pandemic by the World Health Organization [WHO]. Load shedding reared it’s ugly head again. SAA which was in Business rescue was about to submit its turnaround strategy when the lock down kicked in. Eventually SAA was given yet another lifeline and is still around – I have no idea how the ANC can see that keeping SAA alive during a time when no one is flying anywhere – makes sense.

The remaining months of 2020 were consumed by work, going out masked up to do shopping and hearing about people who’d contracted the virus passing away. Some were able to shrug it off. As I write there are a number of Vaccines programs rolling out worldwide. A lot of people seem to think that this ‘thing’ will be over in a few months. I am not one of those people.

Almost all the major movies that were scheduled to roll out in 2020 either got bumped to 2021 where they will air on TV and in cinemas. Some of the best known directors like Cristopher Nolan took offense to this idea – seems they’d prefer people put their lives at risk and watch his movies in a cinema. His latest offering – tenet – is such a steaming pile of WTF that I only made 45 minutes into it before I started questioning my sanity.

On a personal note I had high hopes that 2021 would be not necessarily a significantly better year than 2020, but just a tad better. I was 2 weeks into the year when I woke with what I thought was the beginning of a stroke, but fortunately turned out to be a thing called Bells Palsy. It has been 3 weeks of not being able to blink my right eye, eating very slowly and on occasion having to tape my eye shut when I sleep. My recovery has been very slow, and I’ve learnt that the key is patience, LOTS of patience. My family and friends have been very supportive, something that I am extremely grateful for -even if some of them think my new ‘look’ is a vast improvement…

So, in closing. What is the new normal ? Will we carry on working from home ? Will masks and video calls become the way we live going forward ? The virus has reshaped the world, Billionaires have become even richer as they take advantage of Covid-19 some of them even using their wealth and private planes to skip the queue and get the vaccine before people who actually need it. The cult of Donald Trump is growing by the day as people consume the fake news he and his army/factory of trolls warp peoples minds. And yet, amongst all the chaos, the Prime Minister of New Zealand somehow managed to stop the spread of the virus in her country dead in its tracks [no pun intended]. She reacted promptly and New Zealand has passed through this storm relatively unscathed.

If you read this, I really hope that you’re safe and healthy.

This is the way.

Eskom boss gave daughter’s company R800-million contract – Report

Tue, 11 Jun 2019 00:00:00 +0200

so Eskom is granted an increase to help it out of the hole it dug itself into – all the while handing money out to flunkies for free ??????? on Friday, some Eskom saboteur switched the power of to a about 200 suburbs just for the fun of it. which means we don’t only have to live with the load shedding sword hanging over us but also the threat of some Eskom minion losing his cool and deciding to punish the very people that are going to have their increases wiped out by this increase ?? all these enquiries won’t CHANGE A THING – we’ve seen them before and we’ll see them again. They just air the dirty laundry, then pat themselves on the back for a job well done, cash in their pay check and then move onto the next mess. #fightthefuture

Load ‘Shedding ‘

Thu, 14 Feb 2019 00:00:00 +0200

It was a typical Sunday morning, hot, humid with a bit of cloud about. My phone pings, I take it out of my pocket, glance at the screen and am about to put it back in my pocket when I see the word – shedding in the message summary. I stare at the screen for a full minute before I unlock my phone and read the full message header. Eskom has declared stage 2 load shedding – this comes into effect at 1 o’ clock – I glance at the time, it’s about a quarter past 12. While I am shocked, I am not surprised. On the previous Thursday, CR gave his state of the nation and mentioned that Eskom would be split up – the room filled with cheers, people clapped, tweeted, blogged and breathed deeply, finally, something was happening with Eskom. The party died abruptly on Sunday as the power utility tumbled into stage 2, which would be followed rapidly by stage 4 [a stage we’ve never ever been at]. Since Sunday, SA has been in the grip of power outages that have left people stuck wherever they were when the power went off. Eskom is the master at creating debt and turning the lights off – often later than advised and for longer than advised. Once the absolute best and cheapest power generator of electricity on the African continent – it is now so deep in debt and so far behind with its rolling out of new power stations that comparing the past Eskom with the current Eskom just doesn’t make any sense. I have no doubt that the current situation is the result of load sabotage – because that’s the kind of mentality that prevails in SA today. The unions hold a gun to the ruling parties head and say give us what we want and we’ll get our members to vote for you. Our government has discovered a cure for the so called Midas touch – everything that they’ve touched, has turned into shit. You can call the last decade whatever you want – but the best description is: the lost decade. Where the ANC just sat back and let the rot run riot. This is an election year and new lies are being hauled out to ensure that the ANC stays in charge. Next week we’ll hear Tito deliver the budget and learn where money will go to and to patch which hole etc. We’ll here things like the fiscus has shortfall of and will be fixed by… SA has such great potential, but with political parties clamouring for their time at the money trough, and the people believing the lies they spew – what kind of future lies ahead ?

31 Jan 2019

Thu, 31 Jan 2019 00:00:00 +0200

The last day of the first month of the new Year heads towards sunset. This has been a very hot month with some incredibly powerful storms and some heavy rain. As I write, outside, the clouds are re-gathering as the next storm begins to build.

With the rain falling in abundance every Thursday afternoon which is when my garden service is supposed to come, I’ve had to mow the lawn myself. Whilst being very cathartic mowing in this heat is very energy draining. Before I hired the garden service, I used to mow at least once a week. Now, I’ve lost that fitness I acquired during those years.

Last year was a year of 2 very distinct halves for me. I hope that this year will be a better year, with some positive changes. I can’t help but feel that as each day passes the world is becoming a more and more chaotic. I also feel that the chaos that has settled in is guided by a hand that actually desires this chaos, they may even have gone as far as to engineer it…..

Tempus Fugit.

Decolonisation: The perpetuation of normalised racism?

Wed, 31 Oct 2018 00:00:00 +0200

Source: Daily Maverick 29 Oct 2018

The VBS heist shows the dots of corruption connect with a much more comprehensive critique of the shallowness with which we are seeking to redress the injustices of our colonial and apartheid past.

The VBS heist — arguably the most brazen bank fraud in South Africa’s history — was recently dismissed by listeners of a radio talk-in programme as a campaign by the white-controlled media to discredit the only black owned and managed bank. 23

The rubbishing of South Africa’s first black government was also said to be part of the agenda. The host of the radio show — Stephen Grootes — tried to reason with the callers. He pointed out that the media was hardly white controlled, that the editors of the main newspapers were black, that the Governor of the Reserve Bank that commissioned the report — The Great Bank Heist — was black, as was the report’s author, Terry Motau.

He also asked if the reporting was factually wrong and, if not, was the media not supposed to report the facts? But nothing he said weakened the “white conspiracy” position of the callers.

This got me thinking. My reflections led via…

the largely ignored question of why the ANC has so recently and enthusiastically accepted a critique of colonialism seen almost exclusively as a white crime, and,
having made the discovery, to become ardent supporters of a racialised decolonisation project that subsumed apartheid, and,
why, even long before this discovery, it had adopted racialised policies and practices at the same time as celebrating the non-racialism enshrined in our Constitution, as a Founding Provision, 4

… to what appears to be an all-embracing racism that has brought us to where we are today and keeps us locked out of a non-racial future.

Race is so deeply woven into and explosive of the South African social fabric that there is an urgent necessity for any analysis helping to forge the key to unlocking the racial prison that is today’s South Africa.

My understandings of the heist and, more particularly, of the unsupported insistence that any scandal attached to VBS is a racist invention by the white media against a black bank and government, includes the following.

It begins with a simple proposition put baldly for the sake of clarity: A black identity, rooted in a rigid dualism that sees everything as either black or white — respectively, good or bad — creates intolerable stress on any negative perception of blacks. (The search for an exclusive identity is now a dominant, worldwide feature. Why this should be so is not explored here.)

For those inclined to dismiss the dualism as being too simple, let me invite examination of: (a) the sleight of hand that gives “race”, an effective genetic reality, even when, as is most likely, “race” is accepted as being nothing more than a highly malleable social construct; and, (b) the crudities of the all-embracing, “racial” stereotypes that have become dominant; stereotypes that allow for no exceptions because to allow for any deviation is to destroy the stereotype: If you’re “white”, you’re inescapably doomed — or blessed — to be “white”, whatever that means.

Regarding the denial of the heist, it must be recalled that Grootes’ attempts to counter the denial with a string of facts made no difference. 21

Even allowing for the different meanings of and intensities attached to being ‘black’, by people who embrace blackness, the blackness of the bank heist must create a sense of unease and, therefore, a disposition to look for other explanations. 5

Like the rotten apple one advanced by the well-known political journalist Ranjeni Munusamy. In her view, the heist was the work limited to “a group of gluttonous people”. Or, listen to the Deputy Finance Minister, Mondli Gungubele, for a variation of the denial Grootes encountered: “There is nothing black about this [heist], this is theft… it’s criminal. There is no worse way to insult black excellence [than] associating black people with what has happened at VBS. It has nothing to do with black excellence and has everything to do with thuggery”.

Alternative, non-racial, stereotype-free explanations for the VBS heist and the rampant corruption it represents are available. It goes like this, in my version:

By the early 1990s, at the latest, the ANC had abandoned any idea of even a moderate Keynesian transformation. The ANC’s new commitment was not only to safeguard capitalism but to help it grow so as to facilitate the creation of black capitalists. Preserving capitalism necessarily also meant the perpetuation of individualism, inequality and poverty. This was the new context immortalised by the ANC’s then national spokesperson Smuts Ngonyama saying he hadn’t struggled to be poor, as justification for being part of a lucrative BEE deal.

Would-be black capitalists, in an environment promoting individual wealth, face a challenge: How to become a capitalist without capital? We now know the answers: BEE, access to public money and affirmative action. All three are utterly dependent on one thing: Race.

This is explicit in the case of BEE, which, under capitalism, can only be black elite empowerment. Affirmative action can take a number of forms. In its South African iteration, it is not only explicitly racial but gives a post-apartheid institutionalisation to all the colonial/apartheid-invented “races”. Finally, we have come to know access to public money as corruption.

All three of the challenges to becoming a capitalist without capital draw heavily on white guilt and various forms of the idea of transformation as reparations for the injustices of the past. Until a few years ago, these injustices were apartheid-linked. Then, thanks to the student uprisings, the ANC (re-)discovered colonialism. And, hey presto, an additional 300 or so years were added to supposedly white crimes and, thereby, a still further boost for the claims of black entitlement.

What needs emphasising is that the crimes of both colonialism and apartheid were very real; it’s the racial colour-coding that is sloppy and/or opportunist. Also meriting emphasis is that the routes taken to create what former president Thabo Mbeki called the “black bourgeoisie”, is, in essence, no different from what capitalists everywhere in the world have done since the birth of capitalism itself some centuries ago.

This is to say, corruption is no more a “black” condition than colonialism or apartheid were features inherent in a “white race”.

Nevertheless, the cry for decolonisation is an idea whose time has truly come: It simultaneously adds to both black grievance and white guilt. The absence of a proper idea of what decolonisation means in practice compounds the effect on both.

This lack of clarity makes it much easier for the black bourgeoisie to use colour as a most convenient cover for advancing their own class interests, and, moreover, to do so to the accompaniment of applause from a working class (including the unemployed and otherwise marginalised) that sees itself as black. Just as “white” slavery and then capitalism bought off the white working class with privileges by association.

“Race”, however, serves as more than a club beating white guilt to open access to wealth and status. Its additional — and crucial — role is a protective one: it provides moral legitimacy to otherwise illegal or immoral behaviour.

How else to explain the number of participants in State Capture that goes far beyond just Zuma and the Guptas? I suspect that, for most of the actual participants, as well as many black observers, race serves a self-protective purpose: Effectively: “We are only taking back what the whites stole from us”.

The VBS scandal, I’m suggesting, highlights the self-reinforcing role race plays today. Race is essential for the black bourgeoisie, whether real or aspirant. It is the circumstance of being capitalists without capital; or, small capitalists in a world of big capitalists; or, recent professionals having to confront old professionals on their road to the top that constitute the primary energy driving the use of race.

However, the more race is used the more it is normalised and the more it is normalised the more it is evoked when needed to defend actions taken in the name of transformative decolonisation. More specifically, race is used when economic sectors or institutions or professional bodies are accused of still being “white dominated”. The race card is invariably evoked as the first defence by those accused of corruption or other forms of impropriety: “I’m being attacked only because I’m black”.

No surprise, therefore:

when, in response to VBS being placed under curatorship, in March this year, Tshifhiwa Matodzi, the chairman of VBS, who allegedly stole R326-million, claimed it was all a racist plot. “In the end, we were faced with a well-organised and powerful system which does not tolerate growing black banks and black excellence”;
that this claim was supported by the Black Business Council, which dismissed the initial reporting on the bank as “intimidation” intended to “retard the growth of black-owned businesses”;
that Werksmans Attorneys were attacked for their report on the bank, that, according to a senior bank executive, embodies “the very essence of whitism”.

Apart from the fightback by powerful people fighting to keep themselves out of prison, race is, additionally, almost certainly behind the selectively unenthusiastic implementation of the justice system. When the lack of enthusiasm is not because the implementing officials are themselves involved in questionable activities, the ambivalence is because of an empathy, whether conscious or not, with those considered to be implementing their own, unilateral reparations against the white colonisers. This is probably why the ANC’s own Ethics Committee has been such a failure.

In summary: the more the three (race-based) solutions to being a capitalist without capital are used for illegal or socially disapproved purposes the greater is the use of race in legitimising those purposes; a legitimisation that includes inaction.

The good news is that this self-reinforcing use of race and racism is not impregnable.

First and foremost, what is required is a critique of the almost unchallenged notion that a race-based transformation is a necessity. Moreover, it is invariably just accepted that this transformation takes place within the very capitalism guaranteed to leave poverty and inequality untransformed, for the vast majority.

The logic of this transformation is that monopoly capitalism is fine provided only that it becomes “black” rather than “white”. CEOs and their obscene pay are similarly fine provided only that 80% of them are black. This is to say, capitalism can “empower” only capitalists and “affirm” only an elite.

Black Economic Empowerment, like affirmative action, even when at their most successful, are guaranteed to leave most black people poor, even those lucky enough to have jobs. Apart from the fact that inequality is a global feature of capitalism, we already have more than 25 years of our own experience to confirm this reality.

BEE/affirmative action are a perfect scam. Not only do they enrich a tiny elite — almost two-thirds of the richest 10% of South African households are black — but they use the permanence of black poverty/white success to justify both their continued existence and, indeed, their demands that the legislation be enforced with even greater vigour.

This is a Left understanding of the marriage between capitalism and BEE/affirmative action. Exposing the role of race in these nuptials is therefore an urgent task that falls to the still largely silent Left.

It should be noted in passing that this strategic intervention against systemic corruption must also address the connection between outsourcing and corruption. Outsourcing virtually invites corruption by companies all essentially offering the same services at the same price. Corruption offers the often needed “competitive advantage”; public contracts always being “highly lucrative” makes the chase worthwhile. The alternative of “in-sourcing” reduces the market for corruption.

The required strategic intervention against corruption is by no means restricted to socialists. A critique of racism remains central to that strategy. However, the critique must be a principled one that does not leave the exposure of black racism to white racists.

One link between race and racism seems to be strangely neglected. Decolonisation is emptied of its energy without a White Enemy. Most conveniently for the decolonisers, they have an obliging Other. White guilt makes it very easy for them to be attacked. Many of the white beneficiaries and defenders of apartheid are still alive. But, people — deemed by others to be white — seem ready to take on the guilt arising all the way back to 1652! This is an extraordinary perversion of a natural justice all of us take for granted.

Thus, for instance, when Floyd Shivambu angrily reminded his accusers that he was not responsible for whatever his brother might have done, they backed off. But the “white race”, in its entirety, is expected to accept — and does largely accept — responsibility for the actions of people from the 17th century; people about whom they are likely to have as much knowledge as they do of the Man in the Moon.

Lawyers, regardless of colour, ought to be reminding everyone that the law — rightly — does not allow for such never-ending, transgenerational guilt, regardless of what might be its popular appeal.

It would be nice to think that the VBS heist may yet become recognised as a decisive turning point. The heist shows how a black identity makes it difficult to acknowledge a black owned and controlled bank shamelessly robbing black clients. That the clients were desperately poor, adds to the difficulty.

The heist further offers an understanding of the extent to which a black identity is mainly driven and sustained by a racialised access to scarce resources. Making race the road to riches is legitimised by a racism normalised to render all white people inescapably and permanently guilty of the crimes of apartheid. The fortuitous and recent arrival of the ideology of decolonisation further fuels this legitimisation.

“Connecting the dots” has become a popular challenge. The VBS heist shows the dots of corruption connect with a much more comprehensive critique of the shallowness with which we are seeking to redress the injustices of our colonial and apartheid past.

What passes for “transformation” is its opposite: the permanence of an economic system in which transformation can never be more than elite empowerment. DM

Source: Decolonisation: The perpetuation of normalised racism?

#TitoMboweni #MTBS2018 #cANCer

Thu, 25 Oct 2018 00:00:00 +0200

I worked in markets when the Rand got slammed and Tito just sat there doing nothing. Speculators came in and had a field day with our currency. On Christmas eve 24 December 2011 Tito ‘hinted’ that the SARB might intervene and the bloodbath stopped. But by this point the local market had been slammed and a lot of importers had panic bought cover that would hurt for a long time to come. I had hoped that the appointment of Tito as FinMin would be a turning point for SA after all the $hit Zuma put SA through. But instead of a humble approach to fixing a hole that the cANCer has dug SA into, an arrogant cocky cowboy stepped up to the podium and proceeded to release a LOT of hot air.

Tito I know that you’ll never see these words as you’re too busy eating avocado sandwiches and patting yourself on the back for a ‘job well done’ yesterday. I take offence at the suggestion of anything being for ‘Mahala’ we pay so many different taxes and you chuckle heads just BURN the money or give it away. The term ‘Civil Servants’ is an oxymoron – we all know how ‘hard’ these uncivilised servants ‘work’ – the ANC vote buying program has become to big to hide now. ignorANCe and arrogANCe go hand in hand. The only thing that is free is the air that we breathe and that’s because you can’t figure out a way to charge us for it. Sanral and the JRA are the WORST part of the roads agencies.

The ANC made a deal with the devil and now WE the TAX paying slaves have to cough, YOU stand there and heap insults on us when you should be on your knees thanking us for keeping this economy going. You can skin e-tolls any way you like, but we all know that it’s a scam. You found a way to impose yet ANOTHER informal tax and rushed it into production. It blows my mind that you can’t fix holes in the roads, keep the lights on, unblock drains, fix the street lights – etc. but when it comes to stealing money, you guys are WORLD LEADERS. Then you sit there and frown when you count the tax money and realise that oops there isn’t enough to go around, so we’re gonna have to increase VAT the petrol price, Rates, the cost of electricity etc. etc. etc.

YOU wanted to be in charge, now that you are, you are struggling to carry away all the stolen loot.

Apartheid isn’t dead, it’s just under new management.

A new hope

Sat, 17 Feb 2018 00:00:00 +0200

Its just after 5 o’ clock in the morning on February 17th 2018. Last night our new President Cyril Ramaphosa gave his first State of the Nation address. For the first time in nearly a decade, South Africans are filled with hope. The Jacob Zuma era, is over. 9 years of lying, stealing, bullshitting and laughing at the nation he swore to protect and defend, are over. Like with removal of Robert Mugabe, I keep wanting to pinch myself just to check that this is real, that it isn’t some dream that I’ll wake up from and discover that these 2 major events didn’t happen. Mugabe tore Zimbabwe apart for 37 years, Zuma tore SA apart for 9. Now both countries are rebuilding. Zimbabwe has quite a journey ahead of it as does South Africa. But eat least the journeys have begun.

I will never understand why dictators choose to rape and loot their own countries as opposed to building them up. I suppose it’s true that absolute power does indeed corrupt absolutely. Men of weak character are easily addicted to power and all the so called benefits that comes with having power. And as time passes, they seem to see their actions as being in the best interests of their countries and the people over which they rule. When the time comes for them to step down, their addiction to power is such that they just can’t let go.

But for now, there are 2 less of these vile creatures in power. Hopefully other countries infested with this blight will see what’s happened here and in Zimbabwe and strive to remove the shackles placed on them by corrupt leaders and the supporters that keep in them power. Maybe one day, this continent from Cape to Cairo will be one where democracy reigns and everyone is free at last.

One can only hope.

Time to draw a line in the sand, because that’s all that’s left

Tue, 11 Jul 2017 00:00:00 +0200

These are not my words, but they struck a chord with me especially in light of what’s happening here in South Africa and what is being debated by the ruling part whose only goal ahead of the elections in 2019 is to stay in power no matter what it costs.

I can confirm the veracity of the story laid out below. It comes a week after the Vice President Emmerson Mnangagwa gave investors in South Africa who pledged $4 billion in new investment, an assurance that land invasions were over and property rights would be respected. This was the immediate response to that statement – which I believe is Government Policy and the only explanation I can give for this behavior is faction fighting within Zanu PF itself. Whatever the reason, from every perspective – natural justice, constitutional law, human rights, common sense, the national interest – this behavior is totally unacceptable and the Bishop and his thugs MUST be brought to book and the Smart family restored to their homes.

Eddie Cross

MP for Bulawayo South

OPINION

The Bishop and the land grab

Ben Freeth |

05 July 2017

Ben Freeth tells the story of the takeover of the Smart family’s farm east of Harare

Zimbabwe: Jambanja by Bishop Trevor Manhanga

Another high profile cleric takes over a white-owned farm and evicts farm workers

I spent several hours with three shell-shocked generations of the Smart family last week who have been violently evicted from their farm in the Rusape district east of Harare by a top cleric, Bishop Trevor Manhanga, Presiding Bishop of the Pentecostal Assemblies of Zimbabwe church.

The handling of the on-going eviction story of the Smart family and their workers by this prominent bishop is fundamental to understanding where we are – and more particularly where the church is – in our dealing with justice and injustice in Zimbabwe today. I encourage this report to be sent to Christians and church leaders both inside and outside Zimbabwe. The church ought to be the moral conscience of the nation, and it needs to act immediately.

The facts of the case – very briefly – as relayed by the Smarts and others are as follows:

The Smart family bought Lesbury and other farms in the Rusape district and developed them over the last 80 years. By the year 2000, they had bought approximately 8,000 hectares of land which they were farming very productively.

Soon after the land invasions began in 2000, they came to an agreement with government, offering 90 percent of their land to government and retaining 700 hectares – of which only 120 hectares is arable. No compensation was paid for the land they gave up, but the government agreed that they could continue cropping on the remaining 120 hectares left to them.

The Tandi people who traditionally reside in the district have a good relationship with the Smarts as neighbours and they have coexisted very successfully.

In 2016, approximately fifteen years after the government agreed that the Smarts could continue farming on their much reduced land area, Bishop Manhanga arrived with an offer letter – but no demarcation map – and said he was taking over 100 hectares of the remaining 700 hectares of Lesbury. [An offer letter is a letter signed by the Minister of Lands offering a certain piece of “acquired” land to a “beneficiary.” This piece of paper gives the offer letter holder carte blanche to do what it takes to force the owners of the property out of their home/s and take –with no compensation- many of their movable assets as well, including tractors, implements, seed, fertilizer, chemicals, diesel, etc.]

The Bishop returned under cover of darkness and, together with the lands officer, painted trees to demarcate what he wanted, but failed to come to the Smarts to tell them what he had demarcated for himself. It appears that he also demarcated the homesteads for himself.

On subsequent visits, Bishop Manhanga told the Smarts that he was sick and tired of white people and threatened the Smarts with jambanja. [A jambanja involves barricading farmers and farm workers into their homes, lighting fires, threats of violence, actual violence, including often vicious beatings and depriving animals of food and water for days on end, or even brutalising them.]

Bishop Manhanga then sent a wooden cabin with his workers to establish a presence on the farm.

The Smarts’ workers were angry that their homes and livelihoods were being threatened by the Bishop and, of their own volition, immediately took the cabin down and sent it back.

An expensive Toyota Land Cruiser

Towards the end of 2016, Bishop Manhanga arrived in a new, very expensive black Toyota Land Cruiser with the number plate “PAOZ 1”. (The Bishop is evidently “number 1” in the Pentecostal Assemblies of Zimbabwe church and was using a church vehicle to carry out his jambanja). He erected a new cabin in front of the Smarts’ homestead gate. It was a weekend and the Smarts’ workers had just been paid. When one of the workers hit the farm assembly siren button, a running battle began with the Smarts’ workers and the Bishop’s workers over re-erection of the cabin.

The police immediately arrested Rob Smart and his son, Darryn, and put them in a jail cell in Rusape police station where they were forced to sleep on the cold concrete. Rob is 71 years old.

Over the next few months it became clear to the Smarts that Bishop Manhanga and Inspector Nyakawedzwa of the Rusape police were working together. The Bishop was referred to as “boss” by the Inspector and from there on the Smarts had to answer charge after charge in the magistrates’ court – none of which they have been convicted of. This harassment by the police has all been instigated by the Bishop.

On one occasion in April 2017, when the Smarts were not present on the farm, the Bishop got into an altercation with the Smarts’ workers and in driving off, Bishop Manhanga smashed into an old lady called Servilia, knocking her over and leaving her bruised on the side of the road.

Inspector Nyakawedzwa came out immediately and tried to arrest Rob Smart on charges of intent to cause grievous bodily harm to Bishop Manhanga. Fortunately the Smarts’ lawyer intervened and the inspector discovered the truth of the situation. However, the Bishop was not arrested for knocking over the old lady or failing to assist her.

Since the Tandi people do not want the Bishop on Lesbury farm, one of their community leaders, Peter Tandi, has taken the Bishop to court, seeking that the acquisition of Lesbury farm be declared unlawful. The case is still before the court and lawyers are confident that no eviction can therefore take place.

On May 31, 2017 however, the messenger of the court arrived on the farm to hand an eviction notice to Rob Smart. Rob had not received a summons and had never been asked to appear in court over this eviction. He contacted his lawyer who told him that the process was flawed as there should be a court case where he could present his arguments if eviction was imminent.

Shortly afterwards, when Rob Smart was not present, police arrived. They broke into the office and ransacked it, even breaking into the safe. When the workers tried to resist, teargas was fired.

The riot squad arrives

After the police left, Rob returned to his house but police officers arrived again in force with 16 riot police, all heavily armed, as well as numerous other policemen and thugs. They ransacked Rob’s and his son Darryn’s houses. Police officers took Rob’s mobile phone so he couldn’t make calls to his lawyer or anyone else, or take photos and video the damage that was being done. His phone still hasn’t been returned to him.

When they came to Darryn’s house, Darryn demanded to see the paperwork that allowed them to evict him, insisting there was no eviction order for him, but police said they didn’t need paperwork.

Darryn’s small sons became hysterical as policemen barged in. They didn’t even manage to take any of their prized Lego or their much loved teddy bears before retreating into the hills on the farm for safety. It was clear to Darryn that the police knew what they were doing on the Bishop’s behest was wrong because some of the officers actually apologised before the Smarts were forced to flee.

From the hills where they were hiding out, the Smarts heard numerous shots fired by police. Some of their workers fled into the hills to join them and told them that the police were also evicting them from their houses. A number of them had been wounded. They said the Smarts must retreat further into the hills as the police were after them. Even old women were hit by police and the thugs.

The police finally left at 8 pm after 10 hours of shocking violence and brutality.

The Smarts managed to sneak back to their homes that night to find their possessions smashed or stolen. They heard that the messenger of court herself had been seen taking the children’s toys and packing them into her car.

The next day Bishop Manhanga sent a thug called Munjati to the farm, together with other thugs who were all armed with guns. A tyre was shot out on one of the Smarts’ vehicles while they were trying to retrieve their possessions before getting off the farm. The thugs also dragged large logs across the road to block entry to the property.

Animals denied food

The Smarts were unable to even feed their animals and when members of the ZNSPCA came out from Harare to the farm, they were forced to leave without gaining access to the animals.

Eventually Veterinarians for Animal Welfare in Zimbabwe (VAWZ) managed to rescue the two horses, but all of the 100 chickens had died and the families’ pet cats could not be found.

Although it’s now mid winter in Zimbabwe and the Rusape area is very cold at night, the Smarts’ workers have been forced to sleep out in the open in the hills because they are too afraid to return to the farm. Food that was sent to the farm for the workers was taken by Bishop Manhanga’s thugs. The school that the Smarts built, which accommodated 250 children, has been closed down and the farmer workers’ children now have no access to education.

The maize contracted under the Government’s “Command Agriculture” scheme and grown by the Smarts cannot be reaped by them. Over 50,000 kgs of tobacco also remain on the farm, as well as all the tools of the farming trade. The Smarts are unable to even set foot back on the farm for fear of being shot by the Bishop’s men.

The farm supports a very large number of people as the workers look after not only their own families but also their extended families since more than 95 percent of the population is unemployed. The workers need to be paid – and they know the Bishop will not do so.

So why is this different from the thousands of other evictions that have taken place since 2000 when the farm invasions began? Why is it a litmus test for Zimbabwe as a whole?

The difference in this case is that it is a standing and very influential bishop who is taking the property. He is a former President of the Evangelical Fellowship of Zimbabwe – the church body of which most other churches are members.

The church should be the moral compass

Individual churches – and the church as a whole – should be the moral conscience of a nation. Accordingly, they have to decide whether the conduct of the Bishop is in keeping with Christian values and God’s commandments.

The church cannot continue to stand on the side lines when one of its own leaders is now inextricably involved in the very activity of greed and lawlessness that has created so much poverty and heartache in Zimbabwe.

If the church, by its silence, decides that the Bishop has not acted wrongly, it opens the door for a continuation of this kind of barbarity.

I would suggest that the church has to ask three questions because Zimbabweans require answers:

1. Is it acceptable for people to take homes and livelihoods because the government says it can? In this case we also need to ask: has the Bishop got other homes? To this the answer is clearly yes. He has at least two homes and a cottage in and around the city of Mutare, as well as a small farm and a home in Harare in the upmarket suburb of Highlands. He may have more. Why is acceptable for him to take other people’s homes, particularly those of people with no other homes, and leave people without jobs or incomes? Does the church believe this to be right?

2. Has the Bishop acted lawfully? It seems clear to me that he hasn’t – even under Zimbabwe law. With the connivance of the police, it appears he has taken the law into his own hands and evicted hundreds of people without eviction orders and a proper court process, in a manner that is violent and wrong. The church needs to pronounce on whether it believes Bishop Manhanga has acted lawfully.

3. Even if the church believes the Bishop has followed Zimbabwean law, does the church believe that Zimbabwean law is in conformity with God’s law? Is eviction on the basis of race acceptable? Is the taking of property without paying for it something the church in Zimbabwe believes is right? Does God’s law not trump Zimbabwean law when it says “thou shalt not covet” (tenth commandment) and “thou shalt not steal” (eighth commandment)? The Bishop has demonstrably coveted what is not his – and then stolen it.

Interestingly, many individuals in Zimbabwe have already castigated Bishop Manhanga’s actions on Facebook, for example: “Bishop Manhanga, please save us this disgrace. You have sacrificed your integrity on the altar of greed” – Lloyd Nyarota.

The church has a duty to answer these questions. It cannot remain silent on these burning issues indefinitely.

Ben Freeth is Executive Director of the Mike Campbell Foundation, Zimbabwe

Alien: Covenant

Sun, 21 May 2017 00:00:00 +0200

So yesterday I watched the new Alien movie. After the mess that was Prometheus, I hoped that this one would put the franchise back on track. Being both a huge fan of the franchise and Ridley Scott. To give you some context, I am a huge fan of movies overall, and have a very basic way of determining if I liked a movie or not. The way I do this is to examine how I feel within the first few minutes of leaving the theater – assuming no one ruined the experience by talking, using their phone or eating popcorn with their mouths open through said movie. as the credits began to roll on AC, I felt disappointed with the direction the director and writers had elected to take the movie in. There are no spoilers here – just in case you were wondering.

There is a huge disconnection between the very first Alien movie and Prometheus made wider with AC. Often, with prequels, we’ve seen writers and directors struggle to get into the heads of their predecessors and guide the ship so to speak. The end of AC may be able to save the prequel series if a third movie is made. But for now, I think I’ll re-watch the originals and enjoy them just like I did all those years ago, when I watched them on video – at least now, I can watch them in all their blu ray glory.

You’ve been drinking water all wrong – new study proves we’re all sheep

Sun, 16 Oct 2016 00:00:00 +0200

Source: You’ve been drinking water all wrong – new study proves we’re all sheep

It seems we’ve given up our ability to rely on our basic human instincts.

Running around all day? Water. Exercising? Water. Hungover? Water. Sitting at your desk burning less than a calorie all day long? WATER!We are constantly told to up our water intake. Mainly to improve our skin and general health, but as a general rule of thumb, water has become the modern nomad’s muti.

Yet, in a recent unprecedented twist of Poseidon, Medical News Today reported that a new study published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, begs to differ.

Researchers asked study participants to rate the level of effort it took for them to swallow water under two conditions: after exercising (when they were naturally thirsty) and later in the day when they were properly hydrated (not particularly thirsty).

“If we just do what our body demands us to we’ll probably get it right – just drink according to thirst rather than an elaborate schedule.”

The majority of participants rated the effort level to be 3 times higher when asked to over-consume water. This showed a sort of water resistance, said Associate Professor Farrell.

“This was compatible with our notion that the swallowing reflex becomes inhibited once enough water has been drunk.”

The study shows that our brains don’t respond to drinking water when we’re not thirsty. In fact, the prefrontal cortex showed an increased activity level when drinking water out of thirst, rather than out of habit.

Co-author of the study Michael Farrell says, “If we just do what our body demands us to we’ll probably get it right – just drink according to thirst rather than an elaborate schedule.”

Can you also feel that sensation beneath your feet? That of your world crumbling?

After it has been hammered into our consciousness for years that 8 glasses of water a day is essential to one’s very life form, this feels like a massive anti-climax.

All this “news” does, in fact, is prove that we speak mehhhhhh, instead of any of the other local South African 11 languages. That’s sheep.

Have we become emotionless slaves?

I am currently watching this series, Humans. It’s set in an imagined world where synths (synthetic humanoid) run the labour world, a world which eerily resembles the very modern world we find ourselves in, in 2016.

No carships as predicted by Back To The Future Part 2; and humans are still consuming solids, luckily – only, it is prepared by emotionless synths. Slavery without feelings, basically.

Read more: Should sex robots be banned?

Aside from still bleeding, synth status might just soon be reached for humans as we continue along this road of blind-sheepness. And it has to do with constantly being told that primal behaviour, is wrong.

We have been conditioned to have our thoughts thunked for us. (No that’s not an actual word, but you’ll believe anything WON’T you?!)

The issue of trust and value in one’s own reliance on instinct is called into question here. We have a few billion years of relying on human instinct, yet it’s still not quite enough proof to us.

This lack of trust is evident in our constant struggle, like trying to come up with new ways to execute basic, primal tasks like eating and drinking.

What’s next? Oh, wait. I can see it now on the cover of some glossy: “Have you been pooping wrong all these years?”

Fine, tell me I use products incorrectly (labels can be complete gibberish) – but excreting incorrectly?

I think it’s safest to bet on yourself rather than companies who have a massive commercial interest in making you feel bad for doing what comes natural to you. (Except when ‘what comes natural to you’ means running around hospitals naked).

Forcing yourself to do something, as a general rule, should be some indication that all is not good in the hood.

By Marisa Crous – 13 October 2016

Assisting the ANC to reflect on the 2016 Election results

Sat, 27 Aug 2016 00:00:00 +0200

Source: Opinion News24 on 8 August 2016

The decline in the number of votes the ANC received is due to a number of factors. I hear that the ANC would like to ‘’reflect’’ on these issues. As a result I decided to assist them in this journey of ‘’reflection’’.

Zuma planet
Zuma lives on his own planet in a galaxy, “far, far, away” from the people. For so long the ruling party has been out of touch with reality as they continue to simply refuse to listen to the concerns of South Africa’s citizens. Instead of acknowledging and addressing the issues raised, the ruling party would revert to blaming everyone else but the ANC. The ANC blamed the CIA, cowards, elements and the opposition while simply ignoring the fact that South African’s were watching daily on their TV screens as the country continued to fall apart. Zuma, has also surrounded himself with “yes men and women”, who will not tell the emperor he has no clothes on

The Public Protector’s report
The reckless war that the ANC waged to limit the damage that the Public Protector’s report resulted in South African’s being disappointed in the ruling party. The manner in which the abused, defended and insulted the public protector and activists who wanted justice for South Africa, indicated that there was an attempt to cover up corruption in plain sight. Remember when Nkandla was declared a national key point and the public was informed no one could take pictures of Nkandla… This was another example of how his survival had become more important to the ANC than the preservation and advancement of the institutions of our democracy.

It is a well-known fact that the ANC has been very arrogant in their election campaign but these are the factors that stood out for me as a Johannesburg resident:

-ANC Mind your language
The ANC said they will rule till Jesus comes. That was very offensive and it was utter arrogance. It simply meant that the ANC believed that due to liberation, we owed them the black vote.

– The lavish lifestyle and government spending
The upgrades to Nkandla and his proposed R4bn jet. It was clear that Zuma had no conception that this is not actually his money to waste.

– The Finance minister game of musical chairs a.k.a Nenegate
Nenegate cost the economy billions while the ANC carried on as if nothing major had happened, indicating to the country they’re lack of understanding regarding economics and the personal power games played by the ANC while leading this country.
Zuma’s actions raised the country’s debt servicing costs by between R1.5bn and R2bn a year with more to come.

– The ConCourt ruling
Failure to recall Zuma and company after the Constitutional Court ruling. This is a team that is constantly embroiled in corruption or nepotism one way or the other. The latest corruption scandal involves Nomvula Mokonyane and the Lesotho highlands project.

-The mess and violence of the ANC councillor candidate lists.

– Dabbing.
Whose idea was this anyway? I suspect it was Fikile Mbalula’s idea. The ANC leaders “rocking out” like teenagers to hip hop-inspired dance moves. This dance is associated with sheer arrogance in the hip hop culture. The approach for popular movements was on the basis that the party believed that this could possibly translate into votes because the youth would feel that the party wanted to speak directly to them however, this was not the case. Most people actually thought that the ANC does not take this election or the country seriously.

– Using the campaign slogan “Asinavalo” meaning ”we have no fear”.

The question then on our minds was how you the ANC have no fear when:
-There are 2000 new HIV infections in South Africa.
-The unemployment rate increased from 25.2% in 2013 to 26.7% in 2016.
– The forecast by the reserve bank is 0% growth in the economy of South Africa.
– Youth unemployment numbers exceed 31.5% in Gauteng. Meaning there are about 869 000 unemployed Johannesburg residents and at least 750 people in Johannesburg are added daily to this list yet the ANC had no fear.
– No fear when South Africa has one of the highest crime rates in the world in a country that is not at war.
-A rape crisis that has escalated since the UN ranked South Africa first for rapes per capita for the period 1998–2000 with a conviction rate of 14% .We have currently have 147 cases of rape reported per day while the ANC has no fear.
This confirmed the fact that the ANC did not take our problems seriously.

-Defending the rot till the cows come home.
Zuma had the audacity to campaign with Marius Fransman claiming he had been reinstated as the provincial chair while secretary general Gwede Mantashe, said Fransman was yet to go through the disciplinary process. This confirmed the poor communication in the ANC. Someone was certainly not listening to somebody and we were no longer prepared to be involved and affected by the ANC’s constant tug of war.

-Hlaudi and the censorship
It was clear that Hlaudi was a Zuma ally as he continued to behave like a reckless dictator at the SABC leading to countless protests, court action and censorship. Then the accusations of nepotism within the SABC were reported to the public. Hlaudi’s arrogance indicated to the country that key state companies were not being run efficiently due to Zuma placing his key allies in strategic positions while the government has to constantly bail out these state companies.

– Zuma’s conduct during the campaign trail:
Zuma continued to disrespect South Africans while undermining our intelligence by stating :’’ ‘Vote ANC or else ancestors will punish you, you’ll have bad luck forever’’ and ‘’Without the ANC in charge, SA will descend into violence’’. It was clear that we were slowly becoming another failed African state. The ANC underestimated urban South Africans a.k.a clever blacks, by assuming that they’re vote were purely based on race as opposed to shared issues and concerns. In Zuma’s campaign trail he used ethnicity, racism and religion which remains one of the most effective tools with which to kill societies and start endless wars.

-The 1 Billion Rand figure.
The party’s head of elections Nomvula Mokonyane, disclosed the estimate figure to the media, 1 Billion Rand was spent on the election campaign by the ANC only to have the party deny it 5 days later. Treasurer General Zweli Mkhize refuted the claim but has refused to be drawn on the exact figure. There ANC has no credibility. 1 Billion Rand could have created jobs for this country and that is what upset the man on the street.

-The merchandise, celebs, the parties.
While the ANC made a poor choice of selecting more celebrities with no moral fiber or political stance. I do wish to understand how the ANC was led to believe that designer clothes and celebrities who lead a ‘’fake’’ life that does not inspire our youth would have led to a higher number of votes. We were simply made to watch them play with our future.

-The use of ethnicity and racism within the ANC
The Vhuwani and Pretoria protests indicated that something is very wrong in the ANC. If a president could not manage and unite his party, how would he unite the country?

Undermining the opposition:
The EFF and the DA have managed to attract new voters, especially the youth and the middle class in a manner which the ANC cannot even begin to imagine. Good luck on figuring that out ANC.

Another huge campaign error for the ruling party was to allow Fikile Mbalula to become a tweleb. As the country watched his social media profile, the level of professionalism continued to erode and we all wondered if the comrades took their jobs seriously.

The last point was the fact that it was clear that the ANC chose to simply ignore the pre-election polls. The ANC was informed that they were leading by a small margin in Johannesburg and Tshwane yet they chose to ignore this.

Reflecting on the results
I would like to wish the ANC well in reflecting on the 2016 election results. There is not much to reflect on in my opinion. You simply need to listen and return by all means possible from the Zuma planet and repent through your actions.
Remember that the people give power. You need to respect the people dear ANC. In the words of Richard Poplak, I would like to end by saying:They are coming for you, President Zuma. The people are coming.

Author: Maseko See

R.I.P.

Thu, 31 Mar 2016 00:00:00 +0200

If my opinion offends you, don’t unfriend me, tell me, I can deal with it.

Pete, I wish you nothing but the best in life dude.

This chapter – is now closed.

Max Du Preez ‘sanitises history’ – I disagree

Wed, 27 Jan 2016 00:00:00 +0200

SA has so much potential, that is being squandered by very very poor leadership.

A united SA could be a true powerhouse on this continent – we have it all, the brains, the brawn and the resources – what we lack, is the political will, to see that every single person, has a roof over their heads, a hot meal in their stomachs and a hot shower every day.

Instead, the current leadership has chosen to lash the minority for the sins of the past and use them at every opportunity as the blame for all that ails SA. And introduce more laws than any other country in the world – to protect the majority from the minority.

Apartheid was a system created by evil men to ensure an impossible future. BUT IT’S GONE NOW, only the dust and the skeletons remain. BUT, a new form of apart-hate is taking root as the ANC, run by Zuma, is fast becoming a dictatorship as it changes laws, ignores it own courts and hires and fires people and does not deem it necessary to explain the rationale behind decisions that kick our economy in a place that really hurts it.

It’s time we voted with our brains and not our prejudices. It’s time we held the government accountable for the reckless manner in which it conducts itself. Before they usher in a new dark age, like Mugabe did in Zimbabwe.

It’s time we stopped fighting and started building, building a future for EVERYONE, not just those on the gravy train. You can’t CHANGE the past, but you CAN learn from it.

2015

Tue, 05 Jan 2016 00:00:00 +0200

It’s the fifth day of January 2016.

2015 was a blur of a year. It was a year of stark contrasts. From movies that set records, and one that is continuing to shatter records. A disappointing cricket world cup, and a not so bad rugby world cup. The end of winter and the start of a very long heatwave, which shows no signs of letting up. Rain has fallen, but not in the quantities we need or the places we need it the most. Drought threatens.

I believe that the world is in the mess it’s in because we elected politicians instead of leaders, and those ‘leaders’ have lead the world down down a very dark path. Wars and rumors of wars abound.

In South Africa our genius of a president fired the minister of finance because he was doing such a great job – this act wiped a shit load of money off our countries worth. Then after begging the genius, he recalled an old favorite, redeployed the new guy, and plugged yet another hole that he’d hammered into the dam wall. Our currency soared to record lows and is still there.

South Africa faces a local election in a few months time, I’m hoping, but am not optimistic that the mindless masses that usually cast their vote in favor of the ANC will by now realise that the party they voted for, is now being run [into the ground] by a dictator – his every word and action only serve to reinforce this fact. I spent a week in George last year. It was quite an amazing experience. It’s hard to believe that one can travel to a first world country, that’s in YOUR OWN country – the only difference being is that it’s run by a different political party. Then I got home, back to the traffic chaos and the rubbish that is pretty much everywhere.

The Yanks will also go the polls as it’s time to elect a new president – I haven’t really followed this ‘race’ as I am very disappointed by the lame duck that currently sits in that chair – I had very high hopes for Obama.

This year, there are a lot of movies coming out, a lot of them are superhero movies and oddly enough, most of them are about superhero wars – ironic, art imitating life ?

I read a lot of good books last year, spent some time by the sea, followed the news with a growing sense of horror, dropped my Kindle in the sea [and fixed it courtesy of some good advice from my sister in law and a guy who posted a fix that sounded like a load of crap, but wasn’t].

2016 is going to be a tough one, on every possible front. Here’s hoping that we’ll emerge from it, alive and better people, and with a lot less dictator scum on our planet.

If you’re reading this – may the force be with you my friend.

Malema sends warning to whites

Wed, 28 Oct 2015 00:00:00 +0200

Yesterday saw the EFF marching and handing over a list of demands – you can read them in the link below. At 12 o’ clock there was a mass exodus of people out of Sandton as this was where the march was due to end. Anyone who works in Sandton will tell you that the exit that started at 12 yesterday, was chaotic to say the least. Sandton early this morning, was littered with the remnants of the march.

Malema is obviously a very intelligent person and is very articulate. But he is very much the opportunist and just as lazy as those he seeks to unseat. Since being sworn in, he and his gang of sycophants have not done a single days work that has actually been of benefit to our wounded country. His soldiers have gridlocked parliament and have been thrown out of parliament almost every time the ANC is stupid+ enough to hold a session.

The whole student fees must fall we want everything for free debacle, hit the ANC in its tiny little balls. As its top brass made a run for it when things got ugly during the mini budget speech. Their actions serving only to embolden Malema like a shark smelling blood in the water.

What is most disturbing of all, is that the rhetoric of both the ANC and the EFF is now distinctly racist in nature as next years local elections hurtle towards us and aimed at their favorite punching bag – the white folks. What they fail to realise is that the ‘whites’ generate most of the taxes that are stolen or handed out as grants to the very people who will then ensure that the ANC stay in power. But I digress.

Malema is appealing to the crowd the same way his role model Mugabe did – by promising them things that he can’t deliver, or, if he delivers them, it’s game over for South Africa. He is the worst of both Mugabe and Zuma, in a MUCH younger body.

The bitter irony here is that all the ANC has to do to remedy the situation, is deliver on its promises. But it is so concerned about staying in power, that it will literally do ANYTHING to stay in power. It has formed alliances with both China and Russia in an effort to ensure [I believe] that if the shit hits the fan, the commies will come running to protect their new BFF.

Russia and China and both shining lights when it comes to how not to treat your people, and it seems both the ANC and the EFF want to emulate this practice in SA.

Sadly, apart-hate isn’t dead, it’s just under new management, and has stolen so much money, that the only way to keep the proverbial lights on, is to hike every single tax in sight.

So we are now officially an oppressed minority.

Fight the future – live FREE or DIE.

Source

The Self Destruct Button

Wed, 28 Oct 2015 00:00:00 +0200

In the past two weeks we have seen Zanu PF virtually tearing itself apart and in the process it is sealing the fate of the country. I have never seen the country in such a state of despair and despondency. Last week I was on a plane to Kenya and spoke to a businessman who was on his way to a lodge on the Zambezi in Zambia to spend a few days fishing and relaxing. He said to me that he simply had to get away. He has closed his factory and put it onto a care and maintenance basis as they could not cope with the power outages.

We have a new Minister of Indigenisation and I think he has been smoking Mbanje. He has announced a series of meetings with people to discuss his strategy – he plans a massive “levy” (tax) on business to fund the acquisition of a majority controlling stake in all “foreign” owned business. The new levy, coming on top of a myriad of other levies and taxes, will cripple existing firms who are going to be forced to pay (indigenous firms are exempt) and you can imagine the excitement at the feeding trough as locally politically connected individuals get an opportunity to take control of successful business enterprise at no cost to themselves.

The company owners so dispossessed, will take their money and run, because we are dollarized they will not be as badly off as the commercial farmers have been, but they will still only get a small fraction of the real value of their life’s work and have to start afresh somewhere else. You think I am being alarmist, think again. Whoever imagined that the State here would forcibly and illegally take over some $30 billion in farm assets, without compensation and in the process destroy the leading agricultural industry in Africa? But they have done it.

What is left of the formal economy will simply close down – unable to borrow money because no one trusts the new “owners” and in any event – what sort of security will they have in a politically volatile State where at the whim of a politician, your legal rights can be completely disregarded, assets pillaged without adequate of legal compensation. The Minister will argue that this is legal – it is the “law” even though it violates the constitution and every possible aspect of natural justice.

To compound the problems created by this new drive to implement the original intentions of the indigenisation laws, the advice given to Mr. Mugabe when he paid a State visit to China that he must set up an orderly, planned succession for the post of the President; must change his economic policies because they are “not catching fish”; and must repair his fractured relations with the major western powers, are simply being ignored. Instead he continues to play games, like a senile old man, with everyone. One minute he is pushing Mr. Mnangagwa forward, the next its Mr. Mpoko, then it’s his wife who seems to take center stage and the bizarre spectacle of Grace at a rally in the Eastern Highlands handing out tractors and groceries in such quantities that many could not carry them home, is just absurd.

As the center of power in Zimbabwe, which has dominated and controlled the country since 1980, disintegrates, no new center is being established in an orderly way, instead we have a crude form or war lordism – factions which seek to secure their grip on power for themselves, even though they have no constituency or legitimacy. This is a completely different game to the one that was played between Zanu PF and the MDC up to 2013, this is much more deadly and involves people on all sides with weapons and money and completely unprincipled avarice.

Suddenly the one thing that has held this country together seems at risk – our social, political and physical stability. Although we have been a State at war with itself for 35 years, only now have elements come into play with the means and the determination to take whatever steps are required to assume control of what is left of Zimbabwe. Like a pack of hyenas seeking to take a carcass away from an elderly lion.

In 1976 I felt the same way about Rhodesia. I was a senior executive in a very large organisation led by a brilliant Board of Directors. The war was intensifying and there was no sign of any change of heart by any of our political leaders. Ian Smith was totally in charge, totally determined to fight on. The Nationalist leadership inside and outside the country simply wanted him to carry on fighting, knowing full well that in the end they would win and take over what was left. Thinking Rhodesians could see no future and the flight of tens of thousands was underway to other countries.

I went to My Chairman for advice and he said to me “Eddie, the only thing you and I can do is come to work tomorrow and carry out our responsibilities to the best of our ability”. I was deeply disappointed in the advice but as I matured, I recognised the wisdom and I did just what he advised.

In this present situation – much worse that in 1976 or 2008, there is little we can do to change the course of events. You can take flight and pack up and leave for greener pastures where life is more predictable and safe. Or you can do what we have done, determine that as Africans, as citizens of Zimbabwe, we have every right to stay and to operate here and to make our views known. I was regarded in 1976 as an “enemy of the State” for my political and economic views. The same can be said of me today, but I am not going to change or flee to safer climes. Instead I choose to do what Willy Margolis advised nearly 50 years ago – go about your business and do it to the best of your ability.

In the case of Rhodesia it was Henry Kissinger, in September 1 976, who came into the situation and brought about the essential changes that were necessary to eventually end the war and bring us to Independence. In a way the same situation exists today but it is unlikely, even impossible, that any major Western State would choose to expend precious political and economic power on trying to break the deadlock here. The motivation is just not there.

It is only South Africa and the former “Front Line States” in the SADC that have the power and the reason to take action to prevent this country from self destruction the way Kissinger and Mbeki did in 1976 and 2007. Will they do so? I doubt because of the nature of political leadership in the region and the character of intergovernmental relations in Africa.

If that is the case then we had better prepare for tough times ahead. The self destruct button is firmly in the hands of those who are fully prepared to use it and if they do, the consequences for all of us are going to be tough medicine.

Eddie Cross

Harare 21^st October 2015

Received by email from: EG Cross egcross@africaonline.co.zw

Freedom of Expression ??

Mon, 12 Oct 2015 00:00:00 +0200

Not in South Africa. News24 has closed the door and for reasons that are beyond me I’ve been banned off Daily Maverick – so it seems you don’t get a warning or your comment deleted, they just shut you down for good, which is ironic beyond my ability to express – as they themselves as so vocal about their right to express their opinions.

And to think I recommended them to just about everyone I know…

Apartheid was legalised corruption

Mon, 05 Oct 2015 00:00:00 +0200

South African public discourse is rightly preoccupied with corruption, particularly this week after the anti-corruption marches in Joburg and Cape Town.

Our discussions and responses, as robust as we would like to believe they are, exhibit significant gaps which, by their existence, are to the benefit of the status quo.

The biggest of these is the perception that corruption is particularly a post-1994 public sector phenomenon, which is inaccurate.

Our discourse, even in the way in which we teach the history of apartheid, conveniently seldom articulates apartheid as grand corruption, which it was in every way. And this is how we end up with many confident assertions that things were better then and that the apartheid administration was cleaner than the current administration.

While I believe we shouldn’t compare ourselves with apartheid, a time so deliberately and calculatingly atrocious and on such a grand scale that almost anything would be better, it is this inability or unwillingness to accept apartheid as corruption that informs a lot of apartheid nostalgia, even by self-styled lovers of justice, because it is unfathomable that what they are hankering for is a time of corruption.

In a recent Business Day column, Hennie van Vuuren wrote: “The baffling silence on apartheid corruption benefits the powerful and carpetbaggers in the new and old elite. Any attempt to pick at this issue is a threat to the status quo and thus a threat to the interests of politicians and businesspeople across the political spectrum.”

Moreover, the silence on apartheid and the manner in which it was legalised corruption is intentional, and to break it would not only implicate those who benefited from it, but demand a recognition of the humanity of the people who were broken to achieve it.

Part of the way we talk about contemporary corruption relies on the often racist “face of corruption” fat-cat trope. This is in stark contrast to the grand corruption of the apartheid era, which apparently had no face or beneficiaries – that’s a lie. That many white people benefited and continue to benefit and then use the “we didn’t know” defence is terrifying (the National Party was adept at covering up the extent of its criminality and theft, particularly when it came to defence and property).

As we try to grapple with current levels of corruption, our discourse has to stop the lie that the previous dispensation was a shining example of clean governance. It was a corruption so grand it seemed invisible.

By:

Gugulethu Mhlungu –

Source

It was a corruption so grand it seemed invisible – this about sums up the above article for me. I for one do not believe that the evils of the past should be erased or forgotten about. Apartheid was a system devised by men who were either determined to stay ass in the butter or feared becoming an oppressed minority.

Western Cape turning into new Orania – Joemat-Pettersson

Western Cape needs to be freed – minister

The above links are from articles that appeared on news24 over the weekend 3/4 October. The ANC’s rhetoric is fast becoming something that concerns me, as it doesn’t sound like a party that interested in keeping SA as a democracy.

Apart-hate isn’t dead, it’s just under new management. The Looting and the Lying has reached EPIC proportions. Now there’s talk of JZ serving a third term….

Gugulethu, News24 used to allow us peasants the opportunity to comment on articles like yours, but they shot themselves in the head and then turned off this feature – so this is my reply to you and your ‘article’ – pull your head out of your ass, SA is in a very bad place – and set to get a lot worse if people don’t wake up to just how bad the party that replaced the Nats is. The heady days if Madiba are gone, courtesy of Jacob Zuma and his team of flunkies we are a democracy in name only. The ANC is allying itself with the communists as it knows its hold on power is slipping and will need their backing when it eventually loses. And if you think the answer is Julius Malema – then you need a brain scan.

United we can do so much more than we can divided – and divided is exactly how the ANC wants us, so that when we vote, we vote with our Anger, our Fears and Prejudices – and not our brains.

How government plans to legalise corruption: Helen Zille

Tue, 21 Jul 2015 00:00:00 +0200

Western Cape premier and former Democratic Alliance (DA) leader, Helen Zille says that government wants to turn “empowerment” into legalised corruption under new Draft Preferential Procurement Regulations.

The premier launched a weekly newsletter called Inside Government earlier in July and has published a new blog slating the proposed legislation, which she says will collapse the economy:

One of the challenges of daily life in government is the weekly avalanche of documents that must be read, analysed and commented on. Among them are draft Policy papers, Bills, Regulations, “Instructions” and other documents from national government.

Each must be dissected and “deconstructed” to ensure we understand its relevance and comment within the prescribed deadline – which is sometimes very short.

This week, the new Draft Preferential Procurement Regulations were among the many documents that crossed my desk. But when I see formulae like these – that are actually supposed to explain the regulations – my eyes glaze over:

I have learnt that the more incomprehensible a document is, the more alert one must be. As it turned out, these equations are to an understanding of Jacob Zuma’s “radical economic transformation agenda” what the Rosetta Stone is to the interpretation of hieroglyphics.

I knew the formulae were very important, but I don’t have the mathematical skills to interpret them. That is what chief financial officers are for. Our CFO reads equations and statistics easier than words, and interpreted the impact of the draft regulations as follows:

“Applying the proposed 50/50 preference system to our 80/20 purchases and the proposed 80/20 preference system to our 90/10 purchases, implies that we could be paying a premium of 100% instead of 25% for half of our goods and services and a premium of 25% instead of 11.1% for the other half of our goods and services.”

He explained that the formulae hadn’t changed, but the factors had. And this would make a big difference.

His explanation didn’t help me much. I knew the regulations would make supposedly “broad-based” black economic empowerment (BBBEE) requirements much more rigid, and far more expensive. But I wanted a specific, practical example.

So my CFO explained the difference between the current preferential procurement system, and the proposed new system, using a simple example.

He wrote back:

“Current practise: Bidder A, with no BBBEE status, quotes R10 for a bar of soap, while Bidder B with full BBBEE status quotes R12. The bid is awarded to Bidder B and government pays a 20% or R2 premium to advance economic empowerment in this instance.

Proposed practise: Bidder A, with no BBBEE status, quotes R10 for a bar of soap, while Bidder B with full BBBEE status quotes R19. The bid is awarded to Bidder B and government pays a 90% or R9 premium to advance economic empowerment in this instance.

De-coded, the circular also provides for the BBBEE premium on purchases between R10-million and R50-million, to rise to a maximum of 25% from the current 11,1% .”

And then in CFO speak – which tends to extreme under-statement – he said: “the difference in premiums impacts severely on the monies available for goods and services.”

I’ll say. What it means is that for certain categories of purchases – tenders under R10-million – we could be paying almost double for goods and services on the basis of the BBBEE points awarded.

Firms that have the highest rating will get enough “bonus” points to enable them to double the best market price of a firm with no rating, and still get the contract.

There is a sliding scale between firms with no BBBEE status and those with “full” status. If they attain only half the BBBEE status, we will pay 50% more.

So this is what Jacob Zuma’s radical economic transformation policy will mean: more cronies getting more tenders, and charging the state almost double the market value. And anyone who criticizes this will be labelled “racist”.

Fortunately, more and more South Africans are seeing through this ruse. They know that the “BBBEE” certification under the Zuma government has little to do with genuine broad based empowerment (which we fully support) and everything to do with the enrichment of “the network”. Zuma looks after them, and they look after him.

Let’s be blunt: the new draft regulations, if they are accepted, will legalise wholesale corruption at an even grander scale than we are currently witnessing.

The current inner circle of “preferred bidders” – inevitably with close ANC connections – will become even richer, while the poor, who depend most on efficient and effective government services, will suffer dire consequences. Government will pay double the price for the same service. The people will have to pay more for less.

How long will people still be fooled by the ANC’s BBBEE rhetoric as we enter secret nuclear deals worth an estimated R1-trillion, spend almost R1-billion on train coaches that are apparently too tall for safe use on our rail network, and select the most expensive and inefficient method to toll our roads?

The result will be “Eskom”, multiplied many times across the economy: a multi-billion Rand deficit accompanied by an inability to provide basic services. The rich can “make a plan” (such as buying generators). The poor can’t. They sit in the cold and dark, and have to steal electricity that has become unaffordable. And behind the rhetoric of a “turn-around strategy” Eskom’s deficit just grows.

We should no longer mince our words: this system will cause the collapse of the South African economy. It will not result in broad-based economic inclusion. It will re-enrich those who are already well entrenched; it will not lead to economic growth.

On the contrary, it will destroy growth and jobs because it creates perverse incentives, rewarding inefficiency and uncompetitive pricing. And as government’s capacity to procure goods and services shrinks, many firms will go out of business. People will lose their jobs, while the pre-selected few flourish.

Fortunately we have a constitution. I cannot see how the new draft regulations will meet the requirement of Section 195 (1) b (amongst others): that “efficient, economic and effective use of resources must be promoted”. And lawful “discrimination” to redress past injustices, still has to pass the test of “rationality” and “fairness”.

We support rational and fair broad-based empowerment. Both the City of Cape Town and the Western Cape Government have an ‘open’ and transparent bid adjudication process. This prevents corruption and allows for fair competition in the bidding process.

More BBBEE companies have been empowered through our competitive process than was the case during the ANC’s crony-based tenure in Cape Town and the Province. We have been able to procure better services and products at reasonable rates, providing the public better value for its money. At the same time the BBBEE companies become competitive in the broader economy.

We must take a stand against the new draft proposals from national government, even though we know that the Zuma ANC will respond by “playing the race card” all the way to the 2016 local government election.

But more people now know what is really going on than ever before. We are not heading for “radical economic transformation”. We are heading for “radical economic collapse” if we endorse these proposals.

Next year South Africans will have to decide whether they want to continue endorsing legalized corruption – and growing impoverishment – or whether it is time for change. In a democracy, the voters get the government they choose and it is the government the majority deserves.

Article Source:

Politics and Economics under a Rent Seeking Regime by Eddie Cross

Mon, 20 Jul 2015 00:00:00 +0200

The Chief Executive of an organisation made an appointment to see the Vice President, Emmerson Mnangagwa this week. He was told to come to the office at 08.30hrs and was there on time. When he got into the office the person through whom he had made the appointment asked him if he had brought “the envelope”. The CEO said no and that he was not going to pay to see the Vice President. He waited two hours and a Secretary told him to go downstairs and see someone who would get him into the VP – he walked down and when he got there he decided that enough is enough and he just kept going.

I told him to tell the VP of this incident and that I was sure that he would be furious that someone was making money by “facilitating access”. I told him that was the right decision, but the problem is that this sort of “rent seeking” does not stop there.

Another friend, also a very senior executive said to me the other day that the major problem in Zimbabwe is the direct linkages that exist between business of all kinds and the ruling elite – nothing happens if it does not benefit key decision makers. Many accept this reality and simply accommodate the rent seekers and pay what is demanded. In doing so they demean both the beneficiary and the person making the payments.

I have just finished reading Fay Chung’s new book “The Second Chimurenga Revisited”. In this book she goes through a painful process of reliving the nightmare years in the Zanla Camps and the liberation war. For the first time I appreciated the background that has dominated the thinking of the men and women who came to power in 1980. The sense of entitlement and the need to hold onto power at all costs; the practice of eliminating those who contested them for power and control.

Besides being ill prepared for the responsibilities of government in 1980, they were a confused mixture of Marxist ideology, tribalism, traditional religion, military training and values and only the most scanty appreciation of what it took to manage a small, but sophisticated economy and a democratic system of government. Once they appreciated just what was involved in having control and access to State resources, they also fully appreciated that if they lost control at any time, the consequences would be serious for them and their extended families.

With their background training in East Germany, the Soviet Union and China they also came to power knowing that no aspect of national life could be allowed independence and self management and control. So once they had settled in a systematic attack was started on all institutions – the Trade Unions, business Associations, big business. All were deliberately infiltrated and it was made clear to business that if they wanted to get anywhere they had to have people who were “acceptable” in charge. Institutions that refused integration or subjugation were destabilized and eliminated. Every aspect of life was made to serve the State and the direct links between business and the political elite established.

If you were in the system you benefitted and loyalty was rewarded with patronage and wealth. Any attempt to break away from the system was met with savage retaliation so that when Amos Midzi found himself out of the inner circle and was suspended from the Zanu PF Party – he was instantly outside the golden triangle and could not pay even his children’s school fees. He committed suicide.

More than any other factor it is this link between politics and business that is now inhibiting the growth and development of the Zimbabwean economy. The fact that this process is then linked to rent seeking activity just exacerbates the situation. Rent seeking taking many forms from the incident involving getting an appointment with a Vice President to decision making and taking a cut out of every business deal.

It is clear here that the secret determination of salaries for senior executives in many spheres of activities (local authorities, pension funds, state controlled Boards) is directly linked to the need for control and influence over the individuals concerned and even sharing the proceeds. This is how the CEO of the Public Service Medical Aid Society came to get a salary of US$600 000 a month and the top four executives in the Broadcasting Board getting a package well over a million dollars a year despite the fact that the organisation could not pay staff.

At first the economy was able to carry this burden but as the demands for rentals rose and the management of the economy deteriorated, the combined effects simply became too much to bear and economic collapse and decline became endemic.

Big organisations that are State owned and controlled and have a significant cash flow (utilities) are an obvious target. So in South Africa you have ESKOM, a well managed and funded State owned company in 1994, able to supply cheap power to a growing economy. In the past 20 years Eskom has become a shadow of what it once was – aging infrastructure, inadequate maintenance, inept senior staff and massive rent seeking and corruption. Their latest project, a huge coal fired power station in the north west of the country, is 150% over budget, 5 years behind schedule and the Directors say they may not be able to get it operational. Mammoth failures on this scale are now crippling the South African economy – once the engine of African growth.

Rent seeking can take many forms – in Zimbabwe we have created a number of organisations that have been given the right to either tax residents for income or charge for their services. The list of such institutions that are essentially rent seekers and who are not creating any real value in return is long – the Environmental Management Agency, NOIC, Zinara, Zinwa, NSSA, the National Aids Council, Zimtrade are all absorbing revenue and delivering very little. Instead they become mainly concerned with making enough money to meet their inflated salaries and perks and enough surplus to respond to the political machine when called upon to pay their dues.

Then there is the situation where the Police are being allowed to raise money from their operations from fines other charges at road blocks. These are so routine, that they are accepted as the norm here even though such activities are unheard of elsewhere. The cost of such a system must be doubled or trebled to take account of corrupt activities.

This situation is now so serious that the regime can be described as a parasitic enterprise that is so demanding that it is paralyzing all forms of economic activity. Decisions are not being taken on key issues, demands for payments for all sorts of services are a daily occurrence. Can this system be reformed – I doubt it, it has to be destroyed to bring us freedom and progress.

Eddie Cross

Harare, 14^th July 2015

The Path We Travel by: Howard Feldman

Mon, 20 Jul 2015 00:00:00 +0200

To quote Robert Frost would be a little trite. But indeed two paths now diverge in our yellow wood, and South Africa has the choice as to which road to travel. The country has turned towards the ill-advised option, and we need to be very certain that this is direction of choice before journeying forward. Crossroads are often uncomfortable and the enormity of the decision can paralyze even the most experienced traveler. Only this is not the time for inaction, because lack of contemplation will lead us in the direction we are already facing.

We have been here before. August 15^th 1985. I was 17 and I recall my whole family gathering around the television as we awaited an announcement that would alter the course of the country, for the better. The time had finally arrived and although we were nervous (having been subject to the years of racist propaganda) we knew that South Africa had to change. We were not alone. More than 200 Million people from around the world believed that Nelson Mandela would be freed and that Apartheid would end, and tuned in to this speech. Only it didn’t. And PW Botha chose to walk into the abyss. The result would be a State of Emergency, detention without trial, brutality and bloodshed. He chose the wrong path and it would take the country years to recover.

And now, once again it is in the air. Change is needed and a new direction critical. South Africans have been assaulted by corruption, by Nkandla and e-Tolls, by Prasa and SAA, by crime and FIFA and Eskom. It has been abused by Government attacks on the Judiciary and by colossal and embarrassing inefficiency. The Education system, Healthcare and Home Affairs and the electricity crises bare testimony to a broken system. It is time to choose an alternative path before it is too late.

We have options. Nothing is broken beyond repair (except maybe the post office and maybe the SACP). All it takes is the simple recognition that things aren’t working and then we can decide how best to proceed. Some areas are easier than others. It is not difficult to acknowledge that the new Home Affairs visa decision is a debacle. Say sorry, reverse the ruling and all will be forgiven. Admit that Prasa (who some of us hadn’t even heard of until a few weeks ago) screwed up. Admit that the al-Bashir fiasco was a gargantuan folly and that the Judiciary is correct and untouchable and we will all breath easier. Stop lying to us about Eskom. Stop dancing around Nkandla and go back to the drawing board on e-Tolls. But start by agreeing that we are poised to travel the wrong path and that we need to cease from doing so before its too late (or have I already said that).

Our elected leaders need to act like adults. The energy spent on petty political in-fighting (and fashion) is also pretty unhelpful. Parliamentary antics inspire no one, and aside from the reassuring consolation that at least we have freedom of speech, it does little to aid progress. It’s time that we left the playground activities to the children and got serious about saving this country. Or as we say to our children – don’t make us tell you this again – grow up before it’s too late.

South Africans love South Africa. And it’s very irritating (to say the least) to have to witness the daily descent of our beloved country. There is no good reason that we need to be in the situation we are in and every good reason we shouldn’t be. It’s time to choose a new path to travel by, because when two paths diverge in a yellow wood, that’s the decision that will make all the difference.

Source

New Authors I’ve discovered

Wed, 08 Apr 2015 00:00:00 +0200

Tim Downs

Scott Sigler

Chris Golden

Tim Curran

Stephen Moss

Carsten Stroud

Peter Cawdron

Brian Harmon

Bob Mayer/Robert Doherty

Bobby Adair

W.J. Lundy

Brian Keene

David Moody

Jonathan Maberry

Deon Meyer

James Lovegrove

Jo Nesbo

What’s that smell ?

Wed, 08 Apr 2015 00:00:00 +0200

Oh, it’s Mugarbage and his Wife Disgrace.

Living in a Lunatic Asylum by Eddie Cross.

Wed, 08 Apr 2015 00:00:00 +0200

The man who created Singapore died a few days ago. I watched his son, now Prime Minister himself, give the eulogy at his father’s funeral, it was a brilliant speech, almost a sermon and deeply moving. At one stage he made the point that his father had been one of a generation who had struggled to bring their nations to independence from a colonial power (Britain in this case), then had to deal with all the usual post Independence conflicts and struggles in a multi ethnic society. His tribute to his father was that he took Singapore from a muddy backwater with a majority Chinese society, previously suppressed and discriminated against by the Malay majority during an ill fated Federation and created a non racial, progressive and hugely successful society.

He specifically mentioned those of his father’s generation who had failed to do this in their own countries.

Clearly the most extreme example of one such leader must be Robert Gabriel Mugabe. He took up the reins of power in a country that had a British colonial history, had been in a short lived Federation and where the majority had been discriminated against. But there the comparison ends, unlike Singapore, he inherited a country that was rich in natural resources, self sufficient in food and water and with a well educated, even sophisticated leadership, albeit a tiny minority. Its income per capita was the second highest in Africa with a diversified economy and reasonable infrastructure.

Today, 35 years later, Zimbabwe is one of the poorest countries in Africa, has double the percentage of its people living in absolute poverty, has seen over a third of its population migrate to other countries and is now unable to pay even a modest salary to its long suffering civil servants. On the index of economic and political freedom, Zimbabwe is well down in the bottom quintile of all nations, its average life expectancy is half that of Singapore, its income per capita just 2 per cent of Singapore’s $55 000 a year average income. Singapore is number 2 in the world on the Freedom Index.

It is all about leadership. That is the ability to make the right decisions at the right time, to exploit every opportunity that comes along and to act as a steward of national resources, especially the national income.

In Zimbabwe it’s a bit like living in a lunatic asylum, but only worse, because sometimes I think the patients are actually in charge. I never supported the Unilateral Declaration of Independence by Ian Smith in 1965. How could a tiny country like Rhodesia, take on the whole world and at the same time expect 3 per cent of its population to be able to suppress a 97 per cent majority in a hostile continent? It was doomed to failure and I was part of a small group of young leaders in 1973 that went to Mr. Smith and argued that he had to do a deal or face defeat. He rejected our analysis and was virtually removed from power in 1976 leaving his community and his country on auto pilot and leaving strangers to determine what sort of framework and leadership we had to work with after Independence in 1980.

Mr. Mugabe took over a small country without significant debt, the support of the whole world, an open cheque book when it came to external funding and a hard working, reasonably educated people. Zimbabwe had the most advanced agricultural system in the third world, had many strong institutions of research and development in key sectors and was strategically located in the center of what has become one of the main nodes of growth in the world. There were 17 PhD graduates from some of the best universities in the world in his first Cabinet.

What has gone wrong? Unlike Singapore we are a text book example of a monumental failure of leadership. Mr. Mugabe took over a police force that was honest, committed and well run. It is now nearly totally corrupt, unable to respond to even the most simple of crimes and it is hardly worth reporting a crime to, even when the cost has been very high. Worse, the police have become part of a repressive political machine that has denied the people of Zimbabwe their choice of leadership 5 times in the past 15 years.

He has taken an agricultural industry that once fed the nation at the lowest cost in Africa, practiced the most advanced forms of conservation and high technology on the continent, almost in the world in some sectors, employed a third of the labour force in the country and generated half its exports and even more of its industrial activity and simply smashed it to pieces. The editorial in yesterdays Sunday Mail stated Zambia is doing something right and Zimbabwe would do well to find out what it is and apply what it can to our local context. Extraordinary when you appreciate that the agricultural turn around in Zambia is mainly due to the arrival and settlement of several hundred Zimbabwean farmers who were essentially expelled from Zimbabwe and in the process lost their entire savings from a hundred years of enterprise.

He has failed to build a single power station, failed to construct a kilometer of new railway line or road, failed to plant a single new plantation of trees or fruit or coffee or tea. Instead he has built monuments to the dead at heroes acre in Harare and has allowed our social infrastructure to crumble and decay. He insists on assuming the Chancellorship of every University and capping every student every year, but allows his wife to accept a fraudulent PhD from the University of Zimbabwe.

Now, in the middle of perhaps the most serious political and economic crisis we have faced since Independence, he expels the former Vice President and his most loyal associate, Joyce Mujuru from the Party she has supported and worked for over 40 years. More seriously, she has the majority support of the membership and structures of the Party and will take what is left of Zanu PF out into the wilderness with her. It’s a completely irrational and nonsensical decision that defies all logic. More seriously it undermines the unity and cohesiveness of the country at a time when we need to get together to resolve our difficulties and put our house in order.

We need a national government and a new transitional arrangement to repair the damage done by three decades of lousy leadership and bad, corrupt government, I really do not think that anything less, will get us out of the mess we are in at present and time is not on our side. Recent decisions are no longer rational and this must be of concern to all of us, both inside and outside Zimbabwe.

Eddie Cross

Harare 6^th April 2015

Hobbit 3 in 3D and on Fast forward ??

Wed, 17 Dec 2014 00:00:00 +0200

I watched the final installment in the Hobbit series yesterday and was quite excited to do so. I didn’t watch the first one as the thought of another 3 year Peter Jackson special didn’t appeal to me. I watched a bit when it came out on disc and got hooked to the extent that I made sure I watched the second edition on the big screen in all of it’s 3D glory and loved it. Then number 3 rolled out in 3D and HFR or high frame rate.

What a mess. PJ got the application of 3D perfect in this edition with all the scenes being well lit. Then took a dump on it by filming it at twice the frame rate of previous editions. I’m no expert on this subject, but do watch a lot of movies and understand the basics like aspect ratios, surround sound etc. The standard frame rate is 24 frames per second. Hobbit 3 was shot at twice this. I honestly felt like I was watching a movie on fast forward.

After a while I actually gave up on trying to enjoy the movie and just wanted it to end. Today as I type this I’m trawling through my memories of the first 2 movies and am comparing them to my memories of the one I watched yesterday. Oddly enough the ones from yesterday as a gray blur. For the record I have an almost photographic memory.

Below is a link to a post by a guy who understands the technology much better than I do. I’m so glad he wrote it, as I thought I was losing my marbles. I totally agree with what he has to say.

Article that confirms I’m not mad

8 tips to manage the blues

Wed, 17 Dec 2014 00:00:00 +0200

The good news is that depression is highly treatable. Between 80 to 90% of all depressed people respond to medication and psychotherapy and experience some relief from depression symptoms.

But treatment does not stop with medication and psychotherapy. By making a few lifestyle changes, you can feel great more quickly. Why not try the following?

1. You don’t snooze, you lose
Insomnia is a common complaint amongst depressed people. The South African Memory Resource Centre suggests a number of useful tips to get you to the Land of Nod:

Discontinue unhealthy sleep habits. Don’t lie in bed for long periods if you cannot fall asleep. Your brain quickly associates your bed with lying awake and not being able to sleep. Break this habit by getting out of bed if no sleep occurs after about 10 minutes (do not watch the clock, but rather estimate the time). Carry out a non-interesting activity such as reading a boring book, until drowsiness returns and then go back to bed. Repeat this pattern until sleep takes place.

Follow the same routine at night before trying to sleep. Your mind and body will connect this routine with sleeping.
Don’t take any stimulants, such as coffee, before going to bed. Also steer clear of alcohol, as it doesn’t lead to a good night’s sleep.
Don’t eat a huge meal close to bedtime.
Your couch potato days are over. Get a bit of exercise and you will not only fall asleep more easily, but also sleep better.
Take a warm bath before bedtime.
Keep a notebook next to your bed and write down any worries that you may have before trying to sleep.
Daytime naps will make it more difficult for you to sleep at night.
Make sure that your bedroom is comfortable and dark and quiet.
Wake up the same time each day.

2. Get Active: Exercise
Exercise gets those endorphins into your bloodstream. These are the feel-good hormones. But when you feel depressed, really depressed, it’s difficult to motivate yourself to brush your teeth, let alone go for a walk or a run. But don’t get caught in this vicious cycle of feeling unmotivated and wanting to camp on the couch as it will make you feel more depressed. Once you’ve broken this cycle by exercising a little bit every day, you won’t believe the difference. Begin gradually (even 10 minutes will be OK as a start) and slowly increase the intensity and amount of time spent exercising.

3. Watch your eating plan
When you’re feeling depressed, you often either lose you appetite, or eat like a horse. This can make you feel even worse. Eat correctly and you can help to combat weight problems. But how?

If you are overweight, lose weight.
Eat at least five portions of fruit and vegetables daily (a portion size is a fist size).
Complex carbohydrates (wholewheat grains) should form the basis of every meal. These include porridge, wholewheat bread, brown rice, pasta and jacket potatoes.
Eat plant and animal protein foods (fish, meat, eggs poultry), but avoid excessive saturated fat intake. Do not eat red meat more than once or twice a week. Replace it with fish.
Limit your fat intake to less than six teaspoons per day.
Make sure that you drink at least six glasses of water per day

Eating a high carbohydrate diet (wholewheat bread, unsifted maize meal, brown rice) boosts the production of serotonin in the brain which makes you feel more positive. Eating plenty of protein (meat, fish, eggs, cheese, yoghurt, milk) to increase amino acid intake has the same effect.

In addition, B vitamins, especially B12, B6 and folic acid, can help combat psychological disturbances, so take a complete vitamin and mineral supplement. Essential fatty acids, especially omega-3, may also help, and the best source is salmon oil capsules. Foods rich in omega-3 are:

all types of fish and seafood, but particularly fatty fish such as salmon and snoek
fish oils (tuna, cod liver and salmon oils)
plant oils (flaxseed, canola, walnut, soya oils)
food fortified with omega-3 (eggs, milk and bread check the label)
salmon oil supplements

Alcohol and some drugs (recreational and prescription) can cause or worsen depression. This is possibly because it changes the balance of brain chemicals or the physical structure of the brain.

Too many changes in your insulin levels can lead to mood swings and fatigue. To avoid these you should:

rather eat five to six smaller meals per day than two to three big ones.
rather eat carbohydrates with a low glycaemic index (GI) than with a high GI.
*rather eat wholewheat pasta than white or wholewheat bread, rather Basmati rice or couscous than white or brown rice, rather fruit than sweets, rather oats porridge or bran cereals than other cereals.

What you eat and drink can interfere with your medication. Ask your doctor if there are any foods that need to be avoided. Some antidepressants can make you feel drowsy and alcohol will make matters worse. Alcohol could also slow the metabolism of some antidepressants.

4. Check your medicine cabinet
Many types of medication (including natural remedies) interfere with antidepressants as some could reduce the effect of your medication, others could even lead to poisoning. Make sure to tell your doctor what you are taking.

5. Learn to relax
Relaxation decreases tension and anxiety and improves sleep. Try meditation, yoga or specific relaxation exercises. Long, hot baths with aromatherapy oils or a massage will also do wonders.

6. Be gentle on yourself
You may need to expect less from yourself. Think again about what’s important to you and rather set small, realistic goals. Also postpone major plans and life changes such as changing jobs or starting a family.

Don’t be scared to ask for help. Delegate tasks and ask your support network to help with childcare, chores and other responsibilities. You will be able to return the favour when you are better.

7. Don’t try to do it all by yourself
Share your feelings with friends and family. Ask your doctor to refer you to a support group. The South African Depression and Anxiety Group has support groups throughout the country. They also have a telephonic counselling line.

8. Don’t give up hope
Don’t feel discouraged if you don’t feel better immediately. Treatment takes time and some antidepressants take a few weeks before they make you feel better. If you don’t see an improvement within six weeks of being on antidepressants, discuss your concerns with your doctor. He or she will be able to prescribe another antidepressant which might be more suitable.

If you stick to your treatment and follow these lifestyle guidelines, you are bound to feel better soon. – (Ilse Pauw, Health24, updated May 2010

Source

News24, Stats and freedom of speech

Wed, 05 Nov 2014 00:00:00 +0200

I’ve been posting on News24’s various sections for about 2 years now.

About a month ago, I noticed that my posts were disappearing. I’d post a comment, then refresh the page and the comment would disappear.

At the time of writing this post I’ve made 3558 comments had 147,746 likes and 8,473 dislikes.

I am at a loss as to why this has happened, and even tried to email them in this regard.

They are quite vocal about freedom of speech and scream quite loud when one of their own is attacked. But the rules don’t seem to apply to anyone posting on their website.

We live in scary times as the ANC uses the SABC as its mouthpiece, with rumors of the same happening at E-TV.

A famous man once said, I may not agree with what you have to say, but I will defend unto the the death, your right to say it. This may soon be how the truth makes its way out into our South African world.

If the ANC have their way, we’ll end up being a Communist sponsored dictatorship as Zuma shakes hands and does deals with China and Russia as they don’t tend to have a problem with tin pot African dictators.

Nelson Mandela was a great man, a true leader and a giant among men. Zuma is something that you’d scrape off the bottom of your shoe and has been all but invisible during his second term.

I pray that I’m wrong about my News24 suspicions and that it’s just a technical thing.

I also pray that our democracy can survive the cANCer.

BOHICA – Bend over here it comes again..

Wed, 05 Nov 2014 00:00:00 +0200

when the ANC took over they saw all this money sitting in a magic room marked – MAINTENANCE/UPKEEP

they pocketed the money and were happy when they went back and the magic room was once again filled with money.

many years passed and many ANC members visited the magic room and pocketed the money.

then one day it came to pass that holes appeared in the roads, the lights started going off and the water stopped flowing.

so they called a meeting and one among them said: eish.

there is no word in the ANC vocabulary for maintenance, like the taxi drivers they drive the taxi until it falls apart, then they climb out of it and run away.

the lack of regular maintenance is now catching up with them BIG TIME.

every second article in the news these days says we we need X billions for water, XX billions for eskom XY billions for SAA/SABC/SAPO the list goes on

the ANC’s sense of entitlement has filtered down to the masses

and now, as a consequence, the minority tax paying base may as well be slaves to the lazy ANC supporting masses who just WANT, but aren’t prepared to DO.

welcome to the TRUE NEW Sout Africa.

put your candles on standby and stock up on bottled water, you’re gonna need it.