It’s Official – The ANC and Zuma are in One Basket

The official ANC statement regarding the disastrous bungle by Jacob Zuma in replacing an experienced and trusted Minister of Finance with one whose record boasts of a catastrophic failure of his leadership as Mayor of Morofeng (ending in a riot and the burning down of his home as the best way, possibly the only way, for the citizens to get rid of him) has confirmed that Zuma is decisive and statesmanlike, only changing his decision after the heads of four of the major banks informed him of how badly he had erred, and with the support of the international financial community, which punished the country by wiping R189 billion off the Johannesburg Stock Exchange.  Of course, Zuma is godlike to many of the senior ANC functionaries, all of them almost certainly in his pocket and dependent on his presence as President for the grossly-overpaid positions they hold with barely any requirement of performance.  He must be God, for he certainly works in mysterious ways! 

This comes as no real surprise.  Zuma has committed bungle after bungle during his time as President, ever one of them covered up by lies and deception by those around him.  One can only assume that the rewards to the senior ANC fellowship must be huge – it would be difficult to imagine that they could hold onto such an incompetent figurehead in normal circumstances.  The great advantage of having had Zuma as President is that it has demonstrated beyond any doubt that the South African Constitution, widely touted by the ANC and its stooges as being the best in the world, is severely deficient in numerous aspects, not the least being its tendency to tolerate repeated flouting by the Executive – the very people charged with protecting it.  If the country is able to survive until Zuma’s next greatest bungle – or act of corruption – finally causes even the ANC to recognize that he is not capable of doing the job, the country may experience the good fortune of gaining a totally new set of leaders.

It will be good that the ANC does not recall Zuma, only to replace him with another, unknown, ANC clod.  It would be far better for Zuma to cling onto power until the ANC can be removed, by vote or by revolution a la Arab Spring, and be replaced by a new group, which will, no doubt, spend the first two years investigating the antics of the President and his multitudinous Ministers, and recovering the billions they have bled off the economy.  The ANC has shown, by its unwavering support of Jacob Zuma, even in the face of incontrovertible evidence of his corruption and incompetence, that there is no real difference between them and Jacob Zuma – he is clearly no more than the willing figurehead, the absorber of the anger of the thinking people, to distract them from the people really to blame for the mobile disaster that has brought the once-great country which, under Nelson Mandela, was able to attract the admiration and hope of the world, to its knees, and made it the epitome of the African basket case.

 

The Difference between Anti-Black and Pro-South Africa

It has been said that any negative comments regarding the BBEEE policy of the Government is counter-revolutionary and anti-Black.  Nothing could be further from the truth.

It is the duty of every South African to hold the actions and policies of the Government up to the light, to judge them according to their effect on South Africa and South Africa’s standing in the world, and to make this assessment known to those who are in a position to affect the policies and actions of the Government.  One’s civic duty as a citizen is not discharged by unthinking support of Jacob Zuma or the ANC, or of any other political Party or leader.  That uncritical support can only lead to a decline in the standard of performance of those Parties or leaders, possibly to the point where expressions of adoration of the Great Leader will become as commonplace and necessary as in North Korea.  Even though one may admire and support a Party or a leader, it remains one’s duty to call them to account fully for their actions and to provide feedback on those aspects that one does not like.  The execution of that duty is pro-South African, and should be recognized and valued as an honest attempt to assist the politicians to do the work for which they are elected.

It is a fact, although seldom recognized by the people, and least of all by those in power, that the Government is the property of the people.  Unfortunately, the ANC Government, as most other governments around the world, either does not know this, or they do not wish to acknowledge it.  They view the people as an unnecessary inconvenience, as a means to gain re-election every five years and so requiring the amount of attention to their welfare that is at the lowest level needed to gain that re-election, leaving them and their fellow politicians free to enjoy their life of luxury while they pander to their egos in Parliament and in the occasional Press conference or the five-yearly Party conferences.  The arrogance of Jacob Zuma in swapping an effective Minister of Finance for an unknown and demonstrably failed politician, in order to achieve his spending objectives is clear evidence of this, and he was supported in this arrogance by Jeff Radebe, previously viewed as an upright and intelligent politician, who declared that the President does not have to account to any other person for his choice of Ministers.

This conduct is completely against the spirit of the Constitution, which has been widely touted, by people who do not seem to have the legal or political qualifications to do so, as ’the best Constitution in the world’.  This claim has been clearly demonstrated as incorrect, as the Constitution does not have the checks and balances necessary to counter the self-serving and corrupt practices that South Africans have come to expect from those in political power over the past twenty years.  Unfortunately, Jacob Zuma is Black, and any criticism made of him is perverted by those with an anti-white agenda to be anti-Black.  Again, nothing could be further from the truth.  Almost every White South African was delighted to have Nelson Mandela as President of the new South Africa.  He was not flawless, but most normal people were willing to overlook the flaws and to support him and his efforts to make South Africa a good place for all.  They believed that he was honest and good.   His policies were also not universally accepted, but any discussion on them related to the plusses and minuses of the policies, not to the fact that he was Black.  Unfortunately, Mandela’s successor was not able to jump over his Black shadow and be the President of all the people of South Africa.  His was not the great spirit of Mandela, and much of what he did reignited the Black-White divide.  Zuma and his cronies have worked hard to promote that divide, seeing in the holding up of a “White enemy” a means to divert the attention of their Black electorate from the increasingly visible failings of which they are guilty.  The policies of Black Empowerment have done much to embitter the Whites, not for the reason that they favor the Blacks, but because they have promoted the benefit of underqualified Blacks at the cost of the economy.  Where Mandela understood that the size of the economy could be increased to give the growth portion, and even a willingly-granted share of the rest, to the Blacks, his successors have adopted the view that the size of the economy is static, and that any increase in the fortunes of the Blacks must necessarily be taken from the Whites.  What Whites believed in 1994, that the new dispensation was a way to harness the undoubted capabilities inherent in the Black population to the benefit of all was ignored and, ultimately lost in the clutter of the socialist / populist rhetoric and policies of successive Presidents and Ministers who could not understand the basic laws of economics that govern every single person in a civilized society.  The communist countries of the world have shown convincingly that communism is not capable of providing a good life for all the citizens, yet the ANC has increasingly adopted communistic principles and practices, perhaps because the practice of those systems give them the opportunity to build huge personal fortunes by using their political connections, inevitably at the cost of the increasingly large numbers of poor, rather than as a product of their innate abilities.  Joe Slovo made the statement in 1995, when, in a television debate with Gordon Mulholland, he was asked why he thought that communism would succeed in South Africa when it had failed convincingly everywhere else.  His reply was that communism needed a base of capital to thrive.  Mulholland asked what would happen when that base was exhausted.  Slovo replied:  “When that happens, we’ll try another system!”

What the Whites do not like about the present Government in South Africa is not that it is Black, or that it supposedly represents the majority of the Black population, but that it is incompetent and corrupt.  Neither of those characteristics is inherently a quality of Blacks, or of any other population group.  Most Whites would be overjoyed to be able to support a Government of any Party or racial overtone, provided they could believe that the Government was truly and sensibly working for the good of all the people of South Africa.  Most of the Whites who harbored reservations about the capabilities of Blacks in 1994 have been convinced that Blacks are capable, competent and honest.  Unfortunately, the ANC has earned the disapprobation of those people in the time since Nelson Mandela has ceased stamping his qualities on the Party.  Increasingly, the questions that most Whites have regarding the ability of the ANC to govern have been adopted also by many thinking Blacks, of all stations in life, to the extent that a Black driver remarked recently to a foreign (Black) client that “Many of my friends are now convinced that Jacob Zuma and the ANC have started to worship Satan.”

One can only hope that the present crisis in South Africa will lead quickly to the voters learning that voting for personal handouts cannot produce a country in which all can thrive, in which each person is free to achieve his or her potential, unfettered by a political system that awards patronage to the favored few, or makes laws with the main purpose of buying the votes of the beneficiaries of those laws.  We would all love to live in a country where all the people can believe that their Government is working for all of them.  Most of all, Whites and Blacks would love to put in the effort required to build that country for the benefit of all.  There is a huge untapped reservoir of capability and goodwill, waiting for the right politicians to make South Africa a world leader, rather than a declining Third World economy, striving to meet the standards of Zimbabwe.

Meet Nicole Stuart – Author

Meet Nicole Stuart – Author

 

Nicole Stuart graduated with degrees in Commerce and Law, and, after gaining experience in banking, industry and commerce, started work with an international company as a Management Consultant.  She rose rapidly through the ranks, and was seconded to operations of the company in Australia, Britain, Germany, the United Kingdom and the United States of America for lengthy periods.  This gave her the opportunity to experience where and how others live and work as well as an insight into a wide array of businesses.  It also helped to lift the veil that obscures our views of other people, and revealed to her the ‘blinkers’ that so many people have, limiting their ability to see things the way they really are.

She has a voracious interest in how things work, as well as in writing, with a considerable fiction and non-fiction output, with over a hundred publications to her name.  She takes pride in basing her writings on a foundation of real life, finding existing conditions that pose real threats, and extrapolating them to produce exciting and entertaining reading, usually with the result that the reader asks “How would I have handled that?”

Her email address is:  NicoleAStuart@gmail.com, and her books can be viewed by clicking here.

 

If you don’t have an eBook Reader, you can use your computer, and download the .mobi Reader free of charge.  Click at Download the free Kindle reading app

 

Pravin Gordhan is to Compensate for Zuma's Blunder

After making a monumental error in firing Nhlanhla Nene as Finance Minister, bringing about a crash of the Rand against all other currencies and a collapse of world business confidence in South Africa, Jacob Zuma has now fired the unknown he put into the top ministerial position in his government and reinstalled Pravin Gordhan.  No doubt he is hoping that Gordhan will restore South Africa to the luster it once held in the eyes of the investment world.

There is some hope that this may work, to a small extent, but it is clear that huge and long-lasting damage has been done.  The world has now had solid evidence that South Africa is run at the whim of a capricious and solely self-interested man.  The only reason for the change back to what might be perceived as competent leadership of the Finance portfolio can be that Zuma was facing a revolt from his multitudinous Cabinet Ministers, all of whom, no doubt, understand that the huge salaries and perks they enjoy were finally on the line.  Zuma’s arrogance in making the announcement of Nene’s firing, and the subsequent comments by Minister Radebe that ‘the President is entitled in his discretion to appoint and replace Ministers’ must have long-term consequences throughout the international investment community, and his hasty back-stepping is almost as weak as his original decision.  Gordhan must have been involved in the discussions (if indeed there have been discussions) regarding the acquisition of the new Presidential aircraft and regarding the ongoing support of the Board of SAA in the face of the continued illegality of the racialist and economically retrogressive policies it is pursuing.  Gordhan was at the helm at the time that Zuma was bleeding the poor of the country dry to fund the monument to his ego that is Nkandla, as well as during the build-up to the undoubtedly corrupt Russian nuclear deal.  He held the portfolio at the time that Eskom was building down to the near-collapse of the electricity supply of the country.  He was instrumental in providing continuing funding to the frequently-insolvent SAA.  He was the head of the South African Revenue Services at a time that it was involved in corrupt and illegal activities.  It would be folly to assume that Gordhan will suddenly see the light and reform his ways to become the sort of honest politician that South Africa deserves.  It is much more likely that Zuma has grasped at the Gordhan straw for two reasons:  Gordhan has gained a reputation for his ability to squeeze the last drop of blood out of the diminishing taxpayer base, and he has some reputation at least for being one of the best of a series of incompetent Ministers of Finance. 

Unfortunately, the ability to squeeze tax out of the public is one of the least desirable qualities needed in the South African Government, particularly at a time of galloping collapse of the economy.  Remember the smirk on Gordhan’s face when he announced that the Budget had, for the first time, exceeded one trillion Rand?  It did not seem to occur to him that the removal of that huge sum of money from economic use, to be applied to buying the votes of the bloated and ineffective Civil Service and undertaking projects that would most easily bleed off funds to the ANC and the Party favorites, would hasten the economic decline that the ANC seems to have been determined to achieve.  Gordhan’s return to the post seems to be a warning to taxpayers that the squeeze will be tightened dramatically, if the questionable solvency of the country is to be retained, at least in the short term, until the miracle occurs that the ANC hopes will pull it back from the brink.  It seems also to be a warning, if such is still needed, to all businesspersons that the downward spiral of the country will continue, increasing in steepness year by year.  The move toward China and Russia will continue, at the cost of worsening relations with the West, from where most of the country’s foreign funding flows (for the present – the future in that regard seems bleak).  The move to favor Blacks in every way, regardless of their ability to contribute effectively to the economy, will continue, regardless of the very clear injunction in the Constitution to treat every South African equally, regardless of race.

The recent days have demonstrated very clearly that Jacob Zuma, and by implication, the ANC, are prepared to sacrifice South Africa, all South Africans, to feather their own nests.  They are willing to pursue their lunatic and discredited economic and social policies, regardless of their patently negative effects.  One can only hope that the investors who, in the past have been willing to overlook the many failings of the country in the interests of gaining an extra 1% on their money, perhaps influenced by the lingering view that the South Africa that Nelson Mandela aspired to still exists, will now see that the country is managed by a kleptocracy.  If those investors wish to support the dream of Mandela, they must understand that their best hope is to withhold investment in the country until economic sanity once again prevails.

 

Zuma – Preparing for a Dictatorship?

 

The sudden and, in retrospect, unsurprising move by President Jacob Zuma to remove the sole independent voice in his Cabinet from office, and replace him with a failed ex-Mayor of a minor town has had repercussions that even Zuma in his arrogance probably did not foresee.  Nhlanhla Nene was the sole voice of anything approaching reason in the top ranks of Government, a man who stood up to Zuma, to deny his supposed right to spend R4 billion on a Presidential aircraft, to refuse to endorse a transaction by South African Airways that would probably have driven that failed State entity to demand another R60 billion support from the State with the main motivation being to provide further self-enrichment opportunities for the favored of the ANC, and to deny Zuma the payoff opportunities that he is claimed to have negotiated in respect of the unaffordable build of the Russian-sourced nuclear power stations.  There are, no doubt, numerous other extravagances that were prevented by Nene, who seems to have been one of the very few ANC glitterati to understand economic principles, and who was prepared to be an honest man in the face of a seemingly unending stream of Zuma and ANC corruption.

This column has warned several times in the past years of the inevitable outcome of allowing a man like Zuma free reign.  It has spoken of his deep admiration for Robert Mugabe, whose main achievement has been the destruction of the once-strong Zimbabwean economy in the process of amassing enormous wealth for himself.  Mugabe has retained power, even in the face of his dismal economic and democratic performance, by buying the support of power brokers and a band of thugs, and Zuma has copied this pattern, taking the ANC with him.  It has warned of the political manipulation by Zuma in the process of escaping 749 criminal charges, of defeating an unequivocal finding by the Public Protector that he enriched himself in the construction of his homestead at Nkandla at a cost to the taxpayers of over R240 million.  It has spoken of his clear determination to place himself above the Courts in ignoring the Order to hand over the Spy Tapes, and in ignoring the clear Order of the High Court to place a wanted criminal, Omar al Bashir, under arrest, by assisting him to flee South Africa.  It has discussed the statement by the Speaker of the House of Assembly, an Office charged with the clear duty under the Constitution to ensure that the Executive is held to account for their conduct.  That stooge of Zuma, clearly in awe of the man who is the fountainhead of her fortunes, stated clearly that the President is above the Rules of Parliament.  She has also breached the Constitution in bringing into Parliament a Police force to expel the entire elected membership of the Economic Freedom Fighters, regardless of the fact that a good proportion of those Members of Parliament had committed no breach of the Rules.  She is guilty of an act not very far from a coup d’etat in instructing a military-style force to stifle the legitimate demands of a duly elected political Party to obtain an explanation from a rogue President of his alleged corruption.  It has discussed the building of a security force of some 7 000 people around the President, people who are solely accountable to him and who cannot be overseen by any democratically-representative body.  It is difficult to envisage a need for a private security force of that size except in the context of an illegitimate grasp of absolute power.

And, in all of this, the ANC has been heavily complicit.  Numerous examples have been publicized of the positioning of the ANC to benefit from large State contracts, ranging from a stake gained in Mitsubishi, prior to that company being awarded a lucrative contract to supply electricity generation turbines  to Eskom, against the strong recommendation of a panel of Eskom experts, to the gaining of a stake in Shell South Africa, prior to that company being awarded an ‘exploration license’ to drill the fraccing wells in the Karoo, against the advice of numerous national and international experts in the field.

Where is all this going?

The answer lies in the fact that Jacob Zuma’s tenure as President will come to an end in 2019, even if, by some miracle, the ANC retains a majority in the election in that year.  It is clear that neither the ANC nor Jacob Zuma will willingly forego the huge cash flow that presently comes to them as a result of their political dominance, nor will they willingly hand over the power to investigate their actions since 1994 to any of the increasingly hostile Opposition Parties, whose first action will be to prosecute and jail those that can be shown to be corrupt, and to use the funds recovered from them to rebuild the economy to something near to what it should have been.  Following the Mugabe model, if the ANC is not able to gain a majority sufficiently large to amend the Constitution to permit Zuma a lifetime Presidency, the next alternative will be to declare a state of emergency, to permit Zuma and his stooges to retain control of the country and the seemingly unending flow of wealth that it can bring.  The Dictator to whom we will all answer will be Jacob Zuma, a man who will be placed above all criticism.

This is not fantasy.  Look at the people Jacob Zuma admires, and from whom he has learnt.  The list is large.  Muammar al Gaddafi, Mao Tze Dung, Robert Mugabe, Adolph Hitler, Josef Stalin, Idi Amin, Shaka Zulu are prominent on that list.  And every one of them gained and held onto power by brutality, by seizing power by subterfuge and by force.  Every one of them gained huge wealth at the cost of their countrymen.  And every one of them brought their countries to their knees, leaving behind a legacy of destitution, despair and destruction of the ideals of democracy that men like Nelson Mandela gave their lives to build.

The citizens of the world must be aware that a force for evil is reaching fruition in South Africa, a force that has the potential to destroy the freedom of so many citizens of the world that has been built, at huge cost, since the Second World War.  They must take action now to make their concerns known, by depriving every part of the Zuma Empire of the flow of funds that is his sole reason for being there.  They must broadcast their concern to everyone who will listen, to ensure that the lies being spread by the South African Government are not swallowed as the truth.  Zuma and the ANC present a problem to the world that is at least as serious as that posed by the Apartheid system.