‘Margaret Thatcher said whoever thinks that the ANC can rule South Africa is living in cloud-cuckoo-land’ - Moeletsi Mbeki

MOELETSI MBEKI: Wealth creation

Only a matter of time before the hand grenade explodes

Business Day
Published: 2011/02/10 07:01:41 AM

AFRICAN VOICES OF WISDOM: [01] [02] [03] [04] [05] [06] [07] [08] [09] [10] [11] [12] [13] [14] [15] [16] [17] [18] [19] [20] [21] [22] [23] [24] [25] [26] [27] [28] [29] [30] [31] [32] [33] [34]

I can predict when South Africa’s “Tunisia Day” will arrive. Tunisia Day is when the masses rise against the powers that be, as happened recently in Tunisia. The year will be 2020, give or take a couple of years.

The year 2020 is when China estimates that its minerals-intensive industrialisation phase will be concluded.

For South Africa, this will mean the ANC government will have to cut back on social grants, which it uses to placate the black poor and to get their votes. China’s industrialisation phase has forced up the prices of South Africa’s minerals, which has enabled the government to finance social welfare programmes.

The ANC inherited a flawed, complex society it barely understood; its tinkerings with it are turning it into an explosive cocktail.

Former British prime minister Margaret Thatcher once commented that whoever thought that the ANC could rule South Africa was living in cloud-cuckoo-land.

Why was she right? In 16 years of ANC rule, all the symptoms of a government out of its depth have grown worse:

• Life expectancy has slid from 65 to 53 since the ANC came to power.
  
  
• In 2007, South Africa became a net food importer for the first time.
  
  
• The elimination of agricultural subsidies led to a loss of 600 000 farmworkers’ jobs and the eviction from commercial farming of 2.4 million people between 1997 and 2007.
  
  
• The ANC stopped controlling the borders, leading to a flood of poor people into South Africa.

What should the ANC have done? When they took control of the government in 1994, ANC leaders should have identified South Africa’s strengths and weaknesses and decided how to use the strengths to minimise or rectify the weaknesses.

A wise government would have persuaded the skilled white and Indian population to devote some time – even an hour a week – to train blacks and coloureds.

Triumph of African Cultural Stupidity: Cultural 'Anti-Racist' Demands to Deny Africans Honest Feedback, to Improve their Competence

Denialism, Self-Delusion and the Non-Delivery Factor

Administrator, TAU-SA/TLU-SA
Vrydag, 05 November 2010 15:31

It is dawning on South Africa that there are two very separate and distinct mindsets at work in the country, and it seems never the twain will meet. Newspaper columns and letter pages, as well as talk shows and phone-ins, are replete with what “should be done” and ”why is this not done?” and the now over-used word “unbelievable”, from citizens aghast at the unfathomable behaviour of the ruling classes.

The logic of one mindset is not the logic of the other. Who would think that after the abysmal failure of the South African land redistribution programme, the government would continue with it, albeit under different guises? Who would believe that after wantonly destroying Zimbabwe and rendering his people to grinding penury, the South African government would ask the United Nations to lift sanctions against Zimbabwe’s president, a perpetrator of human rights atrocities? Who can fathom a government that month after month - indeed year after year - places advertisements for desperately-needed municipal staff, stipulating that they are “equal opportunity employers”, meaning skilled whites need not apply?

How is it that despite embarrassing service delivery failures, the wholesale plunder of taxpayers’ money by tenderpreneurs and government employees, the nepotism, the lowering of standards in health and education, the failing feeding schemes and the abuse of the social welfare system, the miscreants simply carry on as if nothing happened. There is no shame, no sense of accountability to those who pay them and indeed to South Africa as a nation. Indeed, when many are fired for incompetence, mismanagement or fraud, or all three, they go to court to demand huge payouts that they believe are their due! Denialism is at work here, and this brings us to an interesting explanation of this phenomenon now doing the Wikipedia rounds: the Dunning-Kruger effect.

Viva Barbarism.. The ANC's Long Walk to -- 'liberation before education comradeship' -- Freedom from responsibility continues...

Have we descended below worst kind of barbarism?

Aug 19, 2010, Sowetan
Flipside of Life, with Charles Mogale

LET'S get serious, for once. Last week South Africans saw the very worst possible savage barbarism visited on a couple of young women on the East Rand.

Long story short: the women took up jobs vacated by people who had been fired for going on an illegal strike at the OR Tambo International Airport.

They were apparently ambushed and caught by a bunch of yahoos on a train, stripped starkers and their clothes thrown out of the window.

Someone with a phone camera snapped away and the pictures ended up on the front page of a tabloid.

Now savagery does not go beyond that. The pity of it all is that if our past record is anything to go by, the perpetrators will never be arrested, let alone have their day in court and be convicted.

Shiceka 'declaring war on whites'

News 24/SAPA
2010-03-08 21:34

Johannesburg - Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs Minister Sicelo Shiceka's "declaration of war" against white South Africans shows his lack of understanding of the problems in the country's municipalities, the National Taxpayers' Union's North West branch said on Monday.

"Playing the racial card when 'the country is burning' will not improve your 'war zones' while all the people of this nation suffer," NTU North West chair Carin Visser wrote in an open letter to Shiceka.

Last week, Shiceka charged that white ratepayer associations had created "a parallel government" and were undermining municipalities’ ability to deliver services.

"They take the money and instead of paying municipalities they put it in a trust account.

"That undermines the ability of municipalities to deliver services."


'Ridiculous comparison'

Shiceka's office was not available on Monday to comment on the letter.

"We are being blamed for creating 'parallel structures of governance' next to completely dysfunctional structures. The comparison is ridiculous. Do you want us to accept raw sewage as a way of life?" asked Visser.

Ratepayers' associations had been formed because service delivery was in a chaotic state.

No Free Ride: Non-violent Rule of Law Service Delivery Protests

Non-violent Rule-of-Law service delivery protests focussed on solutions
[vs.]
Violent “liberation struggle” service delivery protests focussed on destruction

Fitting the Bill

Carte Blanche
19 April 2009 07:00

Date: 19 April 2009 07:00 ** Producer: Bernadette Cook Presenter: Bongani Bingwa ** Researcher: Wynand Grobler Show: Carte Blanche

Driving down this derelict and pot-holed road you'd be forgiven for thinking you're in Zimbabwe. But it's a familiar sight in towns around South Africa where infrastructure is crumbling due to a lack of maintenance.

Here in Sannieshof, in the North-West, municipal neglect has left Carien Visser angry.

Carien Visser (Sannieshof Ratepayers Association): "The worst stages of that was round about 2005 when we started experiencing no service delivery. Buildings and everything going dilapidated, no water, the sewerage running down our streets, faulty accounts, street surfaces going, our township outside without water, without sanitation."

Bongani Bingwa (Carte Blanche presenter): "This is the Sannieshof Hotel. If you are a visitor to this town you will most likely stay here. But instead of being greeted by pretty tourist sites you've got sewerage flowing down the main street."

A visit to the unkempt Sannieshof sewerage works soon revealed why.

Balfour Culture-of-Entitlement Protestors Take Aim At ANC's-Promises-Promises Pres. Zuma

The protesters demanded that Zuma return to the area to address deficient service delivery they had complained about to him when he visited the area after similar protests last year.

They demanded that Balfour be incorporated into Gauteng, warning that failure to do so could lead to "another Khutsong", referring to another township where violent protests were staged over provincial boundaries.

Siyathemba residents are also unhappy with the local gold mining company, Burnstone, which they accuse of not employing people from the area.

Dawie Mostert, Burnstone's vice-president for human capital, said they had employed 50 percent local workers, including contractors, and had spent R3,2 million on skills development and learnerships. In addition, they had paid for infrastructure upgrades in Balfour and provided skills to the local municipality.

"I don't know what people would like to achieve. One company cannot be the answer for all things in a community where up to 50 percent of people are unemployed," said Mostert.

The problem with South Africa: An Entitlement Culture of Corruption....

James Myburgh, Politicsweb
27 January 2010

ANC's cadre deployment policy was the “key reason for the collapse of local government”. “Deployed cadres are perceived to have crippled service delivery in many municipalities” the newspaper stated, noting that a culture of “patronage and nepotism” had become so rife in municipalities that they have become inaccessible and unaccountable. [Helen Zille: The truth about cadre deployment] [An Entitlement Culture of Corruption]

JOHANNESBURG -South Africa, as a country, is slowly sliding backwards. This is reflected in the poor state of services, the potholed roads, filthy rivers and pervasive corruption within the state. There would be hope for the future if school education was getting better, but the government matric results continue to be dismal.

If there is any progress at all, it is that these problems are now being recognized and acknowledged. However, knowing what to do about them - overwhelming as they are - is another matter. The good news, in a way, is that many of our problems have a common origin. The bad news is that unless it is identified and uprooted all the good intentions in the world will come to nought.

At the core of many of our problems today is the ethos that ‘transformation' has allowed to spread and take hold across our society.

Under Mbeki's leadership the ANC set about overturning the ‘racial imbalances' that were, it was claimed, a ‘legacy of colonialism and apartheid.' The analysis of the South African condition, on which the programme of transformation was based, drew heavily upon more generalised Leftist and African nationalist ideology of the 1960s and 1970s.

By the late 1990s nationalisation was no longer a viable option for the ANC. But many of the other policies adopted ran along the old lines. Power was centralised as the party sought to extend its influence through state, parastatal and civil society institutions. Equality would be achieved essentially by the party taking control of everything: from appointments in the civil service, parastatals and schools, to the allocation of tenders, and the granting of mining and prospecting licenses. They would then be reallocated from the privileged white minority to a deprived black majority.

R1 Billion Tender for Sale in Dept. of Corrections Rigged Bidding Process: ‘Prisons boss in R2m bribe’

What are the chances that anyone will be seriously prosecuted and spend some time in the slammer? Pretty slim, considering South Africa's standing on Transparency International's Bribery Investigations and Corruption Reports...

The Eastern Cape provincial government has cancelled a R3,9 billion fleet management tender linked to the controversial Bosasa group of companies. The tender was awarded to Phakisa Fleet Solutions, which is a subsidiary of Bosasa, under controversial circumstances. Last month Bosasa was exposed for allegedly bribing top prison officials to secure contracts worth more than R1,7billion.

A report by the Special Investigating Unit released in Parliament revealed that one Correctional Services official allegedly accepted a house, cars, an overseas trip for his daughter and rugby season tickets to watch the Blue Bulls in exchange for awarding tenders.

The company, which was repeatedly defended by former Correctional Services minister Ngconde Balfour, received tenders worth close to R2billion for services in IT, security and prison meals, and in some cases it allegedly wrote tender specifications.

Last month Sowetan reported that Auditor-General Terrence Nombembe agreed to investigate the R3,9billion contract given to Phakisa to manage the Eastern Cape province’s 2900 car fleet...........

South Africa: 'Flawed Democracy' Slips in Governance Rankings

Which way is governance going on the African continent and particularly in South Africa? According to the newly released 2009 African Governance Report (AGR-II), put together by the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa, it seems that many of the continent’s newly-established democracies are suffering from an authoritarian hangover.

These figures should ring alarm bells. South Africa faces many governance challenges. These were highlighted in the country’s 2007 African Peer Review Mechanism report, and include “unemployment rates; capacity constraints and poor service delivery; poverty and inequality; land reform; violence against women and children; HIV/Aids pandemic; corruption; crime; racism and xenophobia; and, managing diversity.”

Combined with the fact that South Africa has been making international and African headlines for all the wrong reasons lately (corruption trials of high-standing public figures, xenophobic attacks, refusal of a visa to the Dalai Lama, accusations of abuse of state organs), sinking rankings negatively affect its international image.

Warm Welcome to Post Apartheid SA: Crooked Crime Stats in the SA for Corruption-Gold Rush Olympics

“South Africa risks gaining a reputation as one of the most corrupt countries in the world if we do not nip the scourge in the bud. In the midst of abject poverty and hunger, greed and the speedy accumulation of wealth have become the most defining characteristics of South Africa's post-apartheid democracy.” -- Sunday Times Editorial, Nov 22, 2009 [» » Getting Away with Murder & Rape: RSA Wins Gold in Rapes & Silver in Murder at Crime Olympics » » SA's reputation in Europe is Cratering]

“Corruption in the public service is so rife, so endemic, so all-pervasive, that ordinary South Africans regard it as the normal way of doing things. In the municipalities, virtually no tender is awarded without some politician’s or official’s relative, friend or business associate being in on the game. If they are not, a bribe is paid. In queues for government services, even when dealing with the police, bribes change hands as a matter of course.”

“That culture starts at the top and permeates the whole system. Morality, values, have all disappeared. It is everyone for himself. That is why ministers believe they have a “right” to put extras in their official cars, such as television sets. It is the culture.”

“This is how the failed states of Nigeria, the DR Congo and others were born. The culture of bribery, lack of service delivery and impunity of public officials took hold. That is where we are headed unless something is done — soon.”
-- -- Justice Malala, Black Politicians Fiddle as SA Burns

SAIRR: The ANC's BEE & AA “policies are harmful to race relations, injurious to equality of opportunity, destructive of entrepreneurship..”

“We are looking for hard working teachers who believe in free market capitalism. . . . Multi-cultural specialists, ultra liberal zealots, and college-tainted oppression liberators need not apply.” AIPCS Principal's Philosophy

If the ANC 'care' about black people; why are they implementing BEE and AA policies, which emphasise, re-enforce and encourage black entitlement, victimhood, low black self esteem and dependency on the goverment?

If the ANC care about serving the people, according to the people's preference's; why do the ANC ignore the people's demands that labour policies should be based on merit, and not on race/colour?

Immigration and Refugee Board Member William Davis, 27 August 2009 ruling in the case of Brandon Carl Huntley, found that:

[100] Reports emanating from the Institute for Race Relations (IRR) indicated that about a fifth of white South Africans had immigrated over the past 10 years with the main reasons given by immigrants were crime and affirmative action, so said Democratic Alliance leader Tony Leon in Cape Town. He accuses the ANC government of being indifferent to the lot of minorities, especially whites, and has expressed hostility to their interest.

Why We Are White Refugees Petition to Federal Court Justices, Canada [Sign Petition]:

[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%.

Race profile of graduates will ask questions of employment equity - 25th November 2009

‘With 40% of all graduates being white, it is absurd to insist that whites make up only 10% of the skilled labour force,’ said Lebone. ‘The Government should perhaps pour its energy into ensuring that all South Africans have a decent education, rather than wasting time on racial bean-counting,’ Lebone added.

SAIRR Today: Empowerment which disempowers - 25th November 2009

Although jobs are the only real answer to poverty, our Government's answer to poverty is not jobs but social grants. Although Jacob Zuma has said that there is ‘something wrong" in the fact that more than 14 million people depend on social grants, he is powerless to stop this other runaway train.

SAPS Beyond the Brink of Collapse... ANC Don't Care....

The following news Report, DA: Govt unconcerned about problems at SAPS and DA Press Release, New 2009 police data shows rot has set into Police Service; provide further evidence to Ivan Myers Report The South African Police Service - An Organisation on the Brink of Collapse, which stated among others:

Many communities are not very cooperative with the police in the first instance as they perceive the police as a joke when they view the physical attributes of some police men and women, their inability to exercise literacy skills and the polices general reluctance to respond to complaints.

It is interesting to note that Ask Afrika’s Orange Index gave the S A 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.

By placing thousands of additional ill-trained members on the streets in so called sectors will not resolve the problem as these members merely drive around aimlessly without the communities’ interests at heart. A solution to the problem would be to recruit people from the communities that they are meant to serve who are of good character and standing in the respective community. This will entail members of the Service having a vested interest in the well being of their own communities as well as being known by the community who will in turn be more cooperative with the members.

Providing context to Huntley's allegations, that:

.... filing a charge with the SAPS is a waste of time; .... the state & security forces's inability or unwillingness to protect him.”

ANC Cadre Deployment Key Reason for Crippling Municipality Service Delivery

ANC's cadre deployment policy was the “key reason for the collapse of local government”. “Deployed cadres are perceived to have crippled service delivery in many municipalities” the newspaper stated, noting that a culture of “patronage and nepotism” had become so rife in municipalities that they have become inaccessible and unaccountable. “The lack of values, principles or ethics ... indicates that there are officials and public representatives for whom public service is not a concern, but accruing wealth at the expense of the poor is..” -- Helen Zille, SA Today – The truth about cadre deployment [See also: An Entitlement Culture of Corruption]

The Petition to Federal Court Justices, Canada has the following to say about whether South African citizens want Local and National Goverment Officials to be appointed upon Ideological or Racial Loyaly; or on Merit:

[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%.

SAPS Specialist Report: SAPS: On the Brink of Collapse

The following news Report, Who's Behind Scorpions, SAPS hostility?; and the Investigative Report that follows The South African Police Service - An Organisation on the Brink of Collapse, which states among others:

Many communities are not very cooperative with the police in the first instance as they perceive the police as a joke when they view the physical attributes of some police men and women, their inability to exercise literacy skills and the polices general reluctance to respond to complaints.

It is interesting to note that Ask Afrika’s Orange Index gave the S A 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.

By placing thousands of additional ill-trained members on the streets in so called sectors will not resolve the problem as these members merely drive around aimlessly without the communities’ interests at heart. A solution to the problem would be to recruit people from the communities that they are meant to serve who are of good character and standing in the respective community. This will entail members of the Service having a vested interest in the well being of their own communities as well as being known by the community who will in turn be more cooperative with the members.

Provide context to Huntley's allegations, that:

.... filing a charge with the SAPS is a waste of time; .... the state & security forces's inability or unwillingness to protect him.”

An entitlement culture of corruption vs. A crazy rule of law boere culture...

Our Culture Helps Us Grow Our Beliefs; Our Beliefs Tell Us What Is the Right Thing To Do...

There are those who say Huntley is a liar and a racist; are they correct, or are they simply in denial about the cultural realities, Huntley's case expose....?

Between 30 and 40 newspaper clippings were presented as evidence of life in South Africa. “One article exhibited was published in [the Daily Sun in 2004] by Africa Ka Mahamba. [It was] entitled ‘Taking from whites is not a crime’,” Kaplan said.

The article quotes the leader of the “Uhuru cultural club” as telling youngsters who attended a Human Rights Day celebration to steal from whites because “it is the right thing to do”.