SA and the AU

The announcement that South Africa will fund the operations of the African Union to the tune of R700 million per annum comes at an interesting time. 

The AU leaders have shown great annoyance at the fact that the leader of Sudan, the subject of an international Warrant of Arrest issued by the International Criminal Court on a charge of genocide, should be arrested by South Africa, a signatory to an international agreement binding it to give effect to that warrant.  They have proclaimed that the ICC is intent on bringing African leaders to trial, ignoring all other nations.  They appear to ignore the fact that Angela Merkel and David Cameron are not known to have committed genocide, or to have killed 300 000 of their own people, or to have spent R246 000 000 of public money on their own properties in contravention of their obligations under the Constitution.  They seem to be oblivious to the lack of a civil war in Europe or the United States, in which tens of thousands of citizens are displaced, forcing them to flee to other countries.  They do not seem to understand that criminal charges are brought only in regard to large-scale criminal conduct.

At the same time, Zimbabwe has announced that it is redeeming Zimbabwe dollars at the rate of 175 000 million Zimbabwe dollars for US$5.  The AU is acting at the direction of its President, Robert Mugabe, a dictator who was responsible for the killing of about 45 000 Zimbabwe citizens, and the man who managed to bring the economically powerful nation of Zimbabwe (formerly Rhodesia, named after the man who set the basis for the economic growth of that country, but who has now become an object of hatred and mirth by Mugabe and his sidekicks, Zuma and Malema), to its knees.  A noteworthy achievement of the man who is now the President of the African Union, is the achievement of an inflation rate of five hundred billion per cent!  Is it possible that the people who claim to be the leaders of Africa can look up to this man?  Can they be so blind, so brainwashed, that they cannot see that what he did to his own country will inevitably be the result of following his insane propaganda?  The answer, apparently, is that they do not understand the linkage between the causes and the results that are there for all to see, that they are intent on following the Mugabe route to destruction.

There might appear to be some foundation for the desire of the AU to renege on the obligations of the treaty under which the African, and other, nations agree to hand over those suspected of criminal behavior to an unbiased and just Court for trial for their crimes!

Africa has long been known as a homeland of criminal leaders of nations.  It is almost not possible to list the names of five leaders of African nations without including at least one who is guilty of serious crimes against humanity or against the Constitution of their own countries – Mugabe, Gaddafi, Amin, Bhokassa, Zuma, Mobutu, the list is endless.  The announcement by the AU that the places occupied by the leaders of its constituent nations are subject to diplomatic immunity, effectively removing any meeting of the AU on South African soil from the jurisdiction of the South African Courts and the operation of South African law, is surely unconstitutional, and sets an extremely dangerous precedent.  It will, if applied as seems to be likely also to the South African President, put him above the law, as he already seems to view himself.  It will place all of those parasites out of the reach of international laws that were put in place to protect the citizens of their respective countries, and of their neighbor countries from the consequences of the unbridled power that they arrange for themselves.  It has long been apparent that any leader of a movement who comes to power as a result of violence, whether by military coup or terrorist action, is not capable of abiding by the laws of a civilized nation.  Such people have accepted that might is right, and they have difficulty in transforming their beliefs and understanding of how the world works in a civilized society, in which even the leaders, and most importantly the leaders, are subject to a set of laws which should control their excesses.  It can be no surprise that, even now after more than twenty years of ‘democracy’ in South Africa, members of the ANC, of Cosatu and its affiliated Trade Unions, and of several other ‘struggle-derived’ Parties settle their disagreements by murder and violence, that Jacob Zuma can feel free to rig a series of investigative bodies to come to the conclusion that he does not have to ‘pay back the money’ spent by the taxpayer on his home at Nkandla, that Thabo Mbeki can sit in a Commission of Enquiry into the Arms Deal, in which he and the Speaker of the House of Parliament colluded to prevent any discussion or investigation by the body set up to prevent an abuse of power by the Executive, and deny that any wrongdoing took place, when the Police hold over five million pages of evidence, and the German Police investigation was stopped by a steadfast refusal by Mbeki’s Government to cooperate..  A declaration by the African Union Heads of State that any of their number is immune to prosecution will, after all, only be a recognition of the de facto state of affairs, and make it unnecessary for the individuals concerned to go through the wearisome process of denial of charges and the rigging of investigations into their conduct.

And all the time, the South African economy, teetering on the edge of being downgraded to junk status, in which it will join the States headed by the enlightened Members of the august body of Leaders of African States attending a meeting of the African Union, people like Mugabe, will agree to fund to the tune of seven hundred million Rands per year that body of parasites, the meeting place of people like Mugabe, Gaddafi and Zuma, while eleven million children go to school each day without a decent meal, while thirteen million of its citizens live below the breadline, while ESKOM demands another fifty-six billion Rands of funding to correct the bungles it has made under ANC direction, and while the ANC continues to bleed the country dry.

As should be the case with ESKOM and with SAA, the ANC and the AU should be required to show that it is capable of using the funds paid to them by the taxpayer correctly, efficiently and honestly, before they become entitled to demand more.  They should show clearly and publicly that they use the money for the benefit of the citizens, in a manner that is approved by the taxpayers, before they ask for more.  They should realize that the taxpayer is not a public well with an inexhaustible supply, to be plundered and wasted to soothe the egos of the criminals and the incompetents who, unfortunately, seem to make up the bulk of the members of the spending elite.  If they do not do that, those taxpayers will be forced to follow the example of the Trades Unions and go on strike.  They must understand that the real power of a nation is I the hands of the people.