February 29 to March 6 2008

JZ no friend of the poor

Jacob Zuma’s claim in his affidavit to the Mauritius Supreme Court that he has been victimised by the [Thabo] Mbeki camp because of his ‘passion” for the ‘masses and the poor” is a big lie. Out of desperation and ignorance, many people have swallowed it.

Despite serious contradictions between their supposedly socialist outlook and Zuma’s blatant right-wing orientation, Zwelinzima Vavi and Blade Nzimande have also argued that a Zuma presidency will be pro-working class.

Zuma has assured big business repeatedly that should he become the next president of South Africa, there will be no departure from market fundamentalism.

When the baloney about Zuma — whose Zulu middle name means ‘master of deception” — being pro-poor first emerged, journalist Max du Preez asked: ‘When did Zuma become a friend of the poor? The day he got fired?”

First as KwaZulu-Natal’s finance minister and then as deputy president, he was complicit in the government’s anti-poor policies. And in his new capacity as ANC president he has defended government’s economic policies at every turn.

Are these policies only harmful if Mbeki is at the helm?

Instead of wasting more of our meagre resources trying to quash his inevitable prosecution, Zuma should give up his obsession with becoming the country’s next president. Judging by the prima facie evidence against him, a conviction looks highly possible.

Any further attempt, therefore, to argue that the polygamous ‘Comrade JZ” is a friend of the poor, or to paint him red, should be passionately countered. — Percy Ngonyama, New Germany, Durban

Presumably to justify his poor leadership, Zuma told the BBC it was impossible to conceive of a hundred Nelson Mandelas ‘out there” in South Africa.

I disagree. But given the current ANC, which now bears little or no resemblance to the organisation that articulated its principles in the 1950s, I suspect any aspirant ‘Mandela” would be quickly banished. — Peter Auld, Sandton

Zuma will have difficulty maintaining unity in the ANC. He got into power by manipulating the emotions and expectations of the people, portraying himself as a victim of the ‘political conspiracy”.

But the corruption case against him is beginning to expose him as a guilty party. Some of his supporters will feel uneasy about him going to Mauritius to prevent the National Prosecuting Authority from getting his diary — it weakens his image domestically and abroad. A BBC interviewer has asked him if he is a crook, a question he failed to answer adequately.

Also, Kgalema Motlanthe is beginning to emerge as the master of the ANC by skilfully manipulating its divisions. He is the real architect of Mbeki’s fall, particularly by the way he handled the hoax emails.

At Polokwane he openly said that the law must take its course on Zuma. Mbeki revealed that he is in constant contact with Motlanthe and Gwede Mantashe is closer to him than to Zuma.

Zuma and Motlanthe were united against a common opponent, not by principle.

Many intellectuals, ministers and provincial leaders would prefer Motlanthe to Zuma. Hold a referendum and most South Africans would also choose him. — Kagiso Pakkies, Bethlehem

Obama is a no-brainer

Kristin Palitza (February 22) suggests there is strategic merit in wishing a Clinton candidacy over Barack Obama — Hilary has a better chance against John McCain.

There is evidence to the contrary — polls show Obama the stronger contender against McCain in the Red states.

Also, Palitza paints McCain as the quintessential conservative Republican, when his sudden rise to front-runner status is mired by the consistent rejection of him by the vast majority of conservatives in the Republican primaries. Their votes have been going to Mike Huckabee.

They see McCain as too far left of the Republican mainstream. Ironically, other Republicans reluctantly accept a McCain candidacy on the same strategic premise Palitza favours Clinton — they rightly believe he has a better chance against a rejuvenated Democratic Party base than the theocratic Huckabee.

However, should a conservative candidate run as an independent à la Ross Perot, February polls in some of the staunchest Red states (Texas and Tennessee) suggest almost half the Republican base would dump McCain.

The Republican Party has not been this divided in more than 30 years. Disillusioned about their party’s future and disappointed by the lack of a strong, Republican-valued presidential candidate, conservative voters are not likely to rush to the polls in November unless something or someone galvanises them.

There is no Democrat duo Republicans hate more than the Clintons. The prospect of another Clinton administration would motivate even the most ardent anti-McCain Republican to endure blizzards and sandstorms to get to the polling booth in November.

Even if Democrat supporters make their choice on strategy considerations and not on values or issues, Obama is a no-brainer. Rest assured, the Republicans are hoping it is Clinton. — Wayne Richmond, Hillcrest

Time for Bob to go

President Robert Mugabe has had enough time to govern Zimbabwe, but has failed.

He uses his birthday party to buy votes instead of donating money to help Aids orphans or improve the economy.

The ruling party has lost many supporters. There is no food. White farmers lost their land because of Mugabe’s land policies, but the new owners have settled on the land without doing anything.

The opposition parties are afraid to hold rallies because there is no democracy and freedom. Zimbabwe has the highest rate of inflation in the world and a high rate of unemployment
.
If Mugabe is given another term, nothing will change because he will not work with the opposition parties, the SADC or the international community.

Mugabe has realised his legacy has been destroyed both in his own country and the outside world and he is not prepared to let anyone from his own party or the opposition take power from him.

This is because he knows that if he hands over power, he will be put on trial in The Hague like former Liberian leader Charles Taylor.
It is time for Zimbabweans to vote for another party for the sake of peace, freedom, democracy and employment. — Mbulaheni Tangananalo and Vusani Ramadzhia, Muraleni Village, Limpopo

Double standards

Irvin Khoza was asked a straightforward question by a journalist, which certainly did not warrant such a moronic response. And Fikile Moya’s justification of his use of the k-word (February 22) was incredibly stupid and insensitive.

How could he defend such a word in a country where some demented soul can indiscriminately kill people in a squatter settlement simply because, in his mind, they’re ‘kaffirs”?

Moya makes the further pathetic assertion that ‘there are those black folk who still harbour the dream of sex across the colour bar just so that they can feel they have ‘achieved’ something worthwhile”. The majority of black folk do not feel this way; I know of no one who harbours such aspirations.

And who says it is right for blacks to use the k-word but not whites? It is disgusting double standards like this that are taking our continent backwards. Every time I see the Zimbabwean police using excessive force against their own people, like the apartheid police used to do, I’m reminded of people like Moya.

Moya says Khoza should perhaps have used the expression ‘onyela batho otshaba makgoa”, while failing to explain the meaning of this. Batho means ‘people” or ‘humanity”, thus implying that makgoa (meaning ‘whites”) are not human.

The expression you suggest Khoza should have used is itself racist!

Do not suppose, Mr Moya, that your privileged social standing excludes you from the insult — you, too, are black my friend.

The white supremacists who popularised this term in this country would not use it selectively. They would have called you and Khoza kaffirs, too. — Benedict (Black and Proud)

It’s the foul ‘onyelo-flinging” propensity that needs burying, Mr Moya. I would rather Khoza gave the public an answer to the question he was asked than grossly and divertingly ‘blamestorming” (a tactic you fell for by the bucketful). — Freedom Chatterer
Think properly

Think properly
before you put
your foot in
your (own) mouth
or that of another

Think properly
not in the name of
being correct politically
or toeing the line
but for our children’s sake

Think properly
violent-mouthed K-soccer man
of the dreadful apartheid k-word
Think properly
— David Kapp

Beware the rule of piety

Our fundamental freedoms, enshrined in the Bill of Rights, are under attack. First we had the pledge foisted on schoolchildren; now there is the risible Bill of Responsibility.

The DNA of an interfering clergy is writ large on these erosions of civil liberties. In 2006 Chief Rabbi Warren Goldstein proposed a ‘Bill of Morals”, which implicitly denounced the Bill of Rights as an immoral text. Thankfully, that spurious idea seems to have been stillborn. But the ubiquitous Goldstein has resurfaced, being hailed on e.tv as the ‘brains” behind the pledge, and the oleaginous clergyman was at the launch of the Bill of Responsibility.

The pledge and Bill are antithetical to the culture of civil liberties in which our Constitution is grounded. Children will be expected mindlessly to recite wads of maudlin homily, in much the same way as they grind out religious texts.

The very notion of schooling is predicated on fostering critical minds, not the production of lobotomised zombies.

Our hard-won freedoms are being replaced by the rule of piety and iron, guns and bibles, under which the apartheid regime operated.

We must not allow the clergy to usurp the role of the legislators. — Laurence Berman, Pretoria

Wonderland

It might be impolite to point out to the government and ‘new” ANC that their war against poverty is often contradicted by their policies.

Nic Dawes (February 22) says ‘onerous [black] empowerment rules” for new prospecting and mining licences are a major reason why our mining industry is failing to cash in on the ‘biggest commodities boom in living memory”.

New mines would create jobs, but BEE serves as a deterrent. So, to create a handful of super-rich black mine-owners, black workers remain unemployed, with poverty their daily bread.

Alice, Wonderland is South Africa. — Jeff Rudin, Cape Town

In brief

Yolandi Groenewald and Adriaan Basson’s report on Coega’s corrupt crustacean complex (Febuary 22) was balanced, angled and pitched just right — great environmental journalism. You could almost see the businessmen and consultants tripping over themselves to stammer out contradictions and repolish spin. — Brent Johnson, Cape Town

Kevin Davie (‘Trevor Obama or Barack Manuel?”, February 22) has laid it out in words of one syllable: we should be grateful for Trevor Manuel and should all put pressure on the powers that be to keep him near the centre. — Denise Peters, Scarborough

Re the assault by taxi drivers on a miniskirt-clad woman: can these Neanderthals really be claiming to be the keepers of moral conscience? Observe their daily habits in cutting off law-abiding road users and speeding, with none of the occupants wearing seatbelts. — Bruce Andales, Fairie Glen, Pretoria

The power crisis is a major opportunity to move to cleaner energy sources, decrease our contribution to global climate change and dismantle Eskom’s monopoly. Eskom has failed the nation. Why does the government continue to put all its eggs in this one basket? — Shingi Middelmann, Kensington, Johannesburg

The ANC said in Parliament in 1999 that ‘the criminal element should be the only ones who worry about the Scorpions”. What has changed? We must put pressure on government to explain the reasons for disbanding the unit. — Terry Morley, Muizenberg