 “This means that recourse to this legal excuse to avoid public discussion of an issue – a favourite ploy of politicians – is no longer valid and those using it can be called to account.” RSA Newspapers no longer bound by 'sub judice' law |
Dan Rather, shortly after 9/11 described media censorship as follows:“there was a time in South Africa that people would put flaming tires around peoples' necks if they dissented. And in some ways the fear is that you will be necklaced here, you will have a flaming tire of lack of patriotism put around your neck. Now it is that fear that keeps journalists from asking the toughest of the tough questions.... And again, I am humbled to say, I do not except myself from this criticism. What we are talking about here - whether one wants to recognise it or not, or call it by its proper name or not - is a form of self-censorship.”In that context, I suggest reading the following two reports, James Myburgh's Racial Lunacy in the Police (A policewoman who was refused a promotion because she was white); and IOL's Police Angered by Community Justice (township residents tired of waiting on an inneficient and incompetent police force, -- hired upon racial quotas, as opposed to merit -- to protect them from criminals; resort to vigilante justice bundu courts).Remember the White Refugee Petition?: the inneficiency and incompetence of the SAPS is a direct result of BEE and AA, and furthermore, a violation of the Social Contract, in that the Helen Suzman Foundation's studies on Affirmative Action Labour Policies showed that a majority of South African citizens want Labour Policies to be based ON MERIT, NOT COLOUR/RACE.
Excerpts: Why We Are White Refugees Petition to Federal Court Justices, Canada:
[4.12] In a report, The South African Police Service: An Organisation on the Brink of Collapse, by Ivan Myers, an SAPS specialist; that documents the collapse of the SAPS, causes and consequences; he states among others:
[4.12.1] Many communities are not very cooperative with the police because they perceive the police as a joke, when they see the polices inability to exercise literacy skills, and the police's general reluctance to respond to complaints.
[4.12.2] It is interesting to note that Ask Afrika's Orange Index gave the SA Police Service a 0% rating whilst private security companies achieved a 60.71% rating. What is even more disturbing is that Chicken Licken outlets achieved a service rating of 53.57% which, if it was feasible would make it appropriate to report crime at your nearest Chicken Licken outlet.
[4.12.3] Most cases are shoddily investigated from the outset and suspects are released due to lack of evidence associated with the poor investigation techniques of the police. The courts continually criticize the Service for the manner in which they conduct their investigations, yet nothing is done. The reason is quite simple; the Service has lost the capacity to do anything about it as all the skilled detectives have left the Service or have been placed out of their fields of expertise leaving the blind to lead the blind.
[4.12.4] Crime Statistics, especially in the Western Cape are the be-all and end-all of policing. Statistics are easily manipulated on the computer system. Where a station has a high rate of Robberies for example then the charges are altered to theft off person. Attempted rape is recorded as indecent assault etc. In many instances ... the public are turned away from reporting serious crimes thereby no record of the crime is on the system and a reduction is shown.
[4.12.5] Corruption and Morale: Corruption in South Africa and in particular the SAPS has become a cultural norm that is prevalent across the African continent. Endeavours to curb corruption or report malpractices by conscientious members of the Service are met with scorn and claims of racism at best. When malpractices are reported the individual making the report can expect a future of misery and endless departmental charges and eventual dismissal.
[4.13] South African Citizens Views on Affirmative Action, and Black Economic Empowerment Laws: A report released by the Helen Suzman Foundation, Who Needs Affirmative Action?, Focus Survey, 19 Sept. 2000, provides evidence of three surveys done, which document that the majority (over 60% of South Africans of all colours, support merit, over AA or BEE):
[4.13.1] A 1994 Post Election Survey on Affirmative Action revealed that 61% of all voters, including 52% of Africans wanted to see appointments made strictly on merit, "even if some people do not make progress as a result".
[4.13.2] A 1996 Survey on Affirmative Action found that only 23% of voters took a hardline position in favour of affirmative action, whereas 54% were clearly opposed believing either that "There should be special training of African/blacks but the best applicants for jobs should be appointed whoever they are," or that "There should be no such policies and jobs must go strictly on merit." A middle group of 22% believed that "preference should be given to African/blacks, but if others are better qualified, they should get the job." Thus 76% regarded merit, not race, as the overriding criterion.
[4.13.3] A June/July 2000 Affirmative Action Survey, found that 22% took a hardline position in favour of affirmative action, while 56% took a hardline position against it, with a middle group declining to 19%.
If you agree, Please sign the Petition!
Racial lunacy in the police
James Myburgh, Politics Web
24 November 2009
 Focus on the SA Police Services (SAPS): |
JOHANNESBURG - In November 2006 the South African Police Service adopted an "Employment Equity Plan" for the period from 2007 to 2010 (see report). The document made clear that the overriding goal of the police's top brass was ensuring that the institution reflected, at all levels, the racial proportions of the national population.
It boasted that "stringent measures" had already been put in place to ensure compliance, by senior management, with these "numeric targets" in recruitment, promotions and appointments. And, it mooted the possibility of re-introducing "severance packages" to accelerate the clearing out of racial minorities from the organisation.
The document embodied the racial lunacy of the Mbeki-era. Crime was rampant. South Africans were living in a state of fear. The police force was crippled by a shortage of expertise. And in the midst of all this, the SAPS leadership remained obsessed only with the pursuit of an odious racial ideal.
Recently, the Solidarity trade union launched a new series of legal challenges against a number of incidents of racial discrimination that resulted from this policy. In almost all of the cases, the union states, the police leadership preferred to keep positions vacant rather than appoint qualified white applicants to fill them.
These cases are designed to test the legality of certain extreme forms of race-based ‘affirmative action.' They may also succeed in highlighting the ongoing personal and institutional costs of racial discrimination and exclusion.
The first of them was heard in the Johannesburg Labour Court last week. Captain Renate Barnard was recommended twice for promotion in 2005 and 2006 but her promotion was blocked by the then national commissioner of police, Jackie Selebi.
Testifying on behalf of the SAPS Senior Superintendent Johannes Phetolo Ramothoka said that Selebi "wanted to ensure that all units" adhered to the "equity plans" of the organisation. "White females were already over-represented by five at salary level nine" he stated, "so her appointment would have meant an over representivity of white females on that level."
In turn, Barnard broke down in tears as she testified about how she found all avenues of promotion closed to her. She told the court that all she ever wanted to do was serve in the police, and was totally committed to her work. "I want to ask management, what must I do more to get a promotion? I sacrificed my family to do my job properly. I am a top performer."
It seems that the racial policies of the SAPS may well have served as a cover for other agendas. It was suggested in court that the (former MK?) soldiers redeployed from the SANDF to the SAPS in 2004 and 2005 - after a twelve week conversion course - have subsequently received preference in promotions. Barnard testified that members of the police who had joined from the defence force were all now superintendents or senior superintendents. She and many other career police officers meanwhile - both white and black - remained stuck at the rank of captain.
Selebi's refusal to promote experienced and committed police officers also stands in marked contrast to his enjoyment, or so it is alleged in his corruption trial, of the company of rich white crooks.
This then is an important story, and a very revealing one. One cannot understand the institutional rot that set in during the Mbeki period without reference to the racial obsessions, and all the attendant pathologies, of that era. The success or failure of the new Zuma administration will depend, to a significant degree, on whether it can move away from them.
The story has also been extensively reported on in the English-language South African press, and no journalist could be unaware of it. Why then, has it received so little coverage in the foreign media?
There appears to be a deep reluctance by foreign correspondents to report on cases of discrimination against racial minorities in Southern Africa. One possible reason for this is that a disturbing number of Western intellectuals regard such measures as fully justified even when it crosses over, as it did in Zimbabwe, into outright persecution.
In its report on Solidarity's press conference Reuters, for one, took it upon itself to try and rationalise away the racial policies of the SAPS. The Reuters handbook states that "As Reuters journalists, we never identify with any side in an issue, a conflict or a dispute" and that "Reuters journalists do not express their opinions in news stories." Thus, its reports will often qualify a statement of the blindingly obvious as being the expression of the view of one side or the other. Reuters' reports on Zimbabwe, for example, commonly state that "critics" blame the economic collapse in that country on Zanu-PF policies such as the "seizures of white-owned farms."
In its report on the initial Solidarity announcement, however, this principle was thrown out the window. Reuters simply regurgitated, as unquestionable fact, two stock claims of African nationalist propaganda. The article stated that the police's "affirmative action quotas" were "established to address the wrongs of apartheid"; and that the "legacy" of white minority rule "can still be seen, with whites continuing to occupy a disproportionately large number of senior positions in government and the private sector."
But while many Western journalists and commissioning editors may instinctively support ‘affirmative action quotas' in South Africa this does not fully explain the deep aversion to publishing stories on the consequences. American and British readers may be delighted (or appalled) at the way Renate Barnard was treated, but why keep them in the dark about this matter?
The problem is perhaps that most left-leaning Western intellectuals regard opposition to racism as central to their sense of self. This principle has often co-existed with a complete identification with the cause of black African liberation.
It is in the maltreatment of Africa's racial minorities by newly ascendant black nationalist regimes that these two core beliefs collide. The honest response would be to acknowledge this clash, and weigh the one belief against the other.
Instead, the usual pattern is for such intellectuals to wage an ideological war of position against this discomforting reality. The existence of discrimination is ignored or denied. When it can not be denied it is euphemised. When it can no longer be euphemised it is rationalised. And when it can no longer be rationalised that minority's moral claim to equal treatment is aggressively derided.
It is a great pity that the West has chosen to turn a blind eye in the way that it has. Some of the worst elements in our society take great comfort from that fact.
Source: PoliticsWeb
Police angered by 'community justice'
November 23 2009 at 10:30PM
By Mary-Anne Gontsana and Quinton Mtyala
Police fear "bundu courts" have been revived, claiming the lives of four suspected criminals at the hands of vigilantes in the community.
Over the weekend there were three incidences in Khayelitsha where young men were stoned to death and in Tygerdal, Goodwood, a man was beaten to death. In all the cases, members of the community are believed to have taken the law into their own hands.
Khayelitsha police station commander Aaron Mlenga decried the reappearance of the "bundu courts", first established in the struggle against apartheid to deal with collaborators: "The community is requested to come forward with information to assist the police in the apprehension of these groupings. We need to rid our area of vigilante groups and make our streets safe for our children again."
On Friday morning, the body of a man believed to be in his late 20s was discovered next to a container, used to store refuse, next to Lansdowne Road, adjacent to the RR-section in Site B, Khayelitsha.
When the Cape Times visited the area last night few people were willing to talk but one young woman said the man's crime was believed to have been attempted murder at the nearby BM-section.
"The man lived in Makhaza (Khayelitsha) and his crime was that he had set alight another man's wife. A group of residents from BM-Section, hearing about the incidence which happened on Thursday chased after him and assaulted him with all sorts of weapons," said the woman.
The man's limp body was dragged down Lansdowne Road to RR-Section, across the road from the Mew Hall and where he was struck with further blows to his head.
"I could see that he was still alive when the mob brought him here, he managed to open his eyes. But one man struck a heavy blow to his head and that's when he seemed dead. He was no longer breathing," said the woman.
Khayelitsha police spokesperson Mthokozisi Gama said: "We are still investigating but so far we have managed to arrest three suspects for the different incidents aged 52, 37 and 48. They will appear in the Khayelitsha Magistrate's court soon,"
He added police would maintain a zero tolerance approach against the community members because all they were doing was contributing to crime.
Source: IOL
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