Zuma- Complicit in Genocide?

The actions of President Jacob Zuma and his Cabinet in attempting to grant immunity to the President of Sudan in his attempt to escape arrest under a Warrant issued by the International Criminal Court on a charge of having committed genocide by ordering the actions that killed 300 000 of his countrymen, is a clear indication of their support of an internationally-wanted criminal.  Their actions in having failed to take the necessary steps to prevent his escape from justice is a breach of their duties under the Treaty of Rome, the establishment of which South Africa supported at a time when we all believed in rightness and justice, a breach of the law ratifying South Africa’s signature to that treaty, a breach of international law, a breach of the Constitution, and a breach of the binding judgment of the High Court.  It is a slap in the face of the international community, and a flagrant contravention of a United Nations Security Council Resolution.

It has been clear for years that Jacob Zuma is an outlaw President.  He has repeatedly ignored the Orders of the High Court and of a Chapter Nine institution, the Public Protector, which was set up in the Constitution to protect the nation against the criminal and otherwise illegal activities of the Executive.  His co-opting of his Cabinet colleagues to support these activities are a disgrace for the nation, and a clear statement of the collapse of the rule of law in South Africa.  It is also a clear description of the sort of people we have in the highest office.  Zuma’s actions in regard to the President of Sudan constitute an undeniable case for his immediate removal from office.  What President Richard Nixon did at Watergate is a tiny fraction of what Zuma has done.

The crimes which the President of Sudan is accused are not the petty theft of a quarter of a billion Rand of public money to build his own house, or the ignoring of the binding findings of constitutionally-constituted bodies or Courts of Law.  They are the cold-blooded murder of a large part of the population of his country, a crime committed in his clambering to gain the power and wealth of the office he now holds by force, violence and deceit.

The association of people like the President of Sudan, the President of Zimbabwe and the President of South Africa tells any who doubt, that the African Union is a Buddy’s Club dedicated to the protection of its members.  The African Union, by adopting the notion that a Head of State is above the law of any country, their own included, as well as above important and binding treaties such as the Treaty of Rome, has admitted that it does not consider its prime function to be the protection of the citizens of it member nations, but the maintenance in power of the evil ad criminal Presidents who get together to discuss how best to exploit their nations.  No sane person can believe that the African Union deserves any respect, as long as the presidents mentioned above are part of it, and certainly not while Robert Mugabe remains the President of the organization.

What should come out of this fiasco?

The first result should, and probably will be the castigation of South Africa as an outlaw State.  This should go so far as to have sanctions instituted against the country.  The allowing free of the Sudanese President should be seen as a clear notification to the world that South Africa is a State that, at least, supports and condones terrorism and genocide, that turns a blind eye to imperative legal commitments to bodies that it originally supported.  The sanctions could well take the form of a prohibition on international travel by Zuma and his Cabinet henchmen.  It may extend to financial and trade sanctions against the country.  Within South Africa, these actions should promote a vote of no confidence in the President and the people who have brought this international opprobrium on the country.  It should precipitate criminal actions for contempt of Court against Zuma, the Minister of Home Affairs, the Minister of Defence and several other senior and junior officials for their part in letting this criminal go free.  It should bring local, as well as international criminal actions against Zuma and his colleague for their role in the matter.  And it should bring about the downfall of the ANC, which has shown convincingly it scorn for the laws of the country, and of its citizens.

The results of the day’s activities will redound to South Africa’s detriment for years to come.  They will be a turning point for South Africa, second only to the fall of the Apartheid Government.  They will be felt by every citizen of the country, and they will be disastrous for the land of Nelson Mandela, the man who might well go down in history as the last honest President of this benighted land.

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.

Is Jacob Zuma a Humorist?

Jacob Zuma has proved conclusively that he is the world’s greatest humorist. 

1.    He has opened the World Economic Forum in South Africa.

2.    He has given advice to the world leaders on the development of an economy.

3.    He has stated that the greatest priority of people in Government must be the creation of jobs.

4.    He has said that his Government is fighting corruption at all levels.

5.    He has stated that a good education system is essential for the development of an economy.

6.    He has explained that Africa is enjoying the fastest economic growth of all continents.

7.    He has said, with a laugh, that African Presidents should obey the Constitution of their country.

All of this against a background of:

1.    His refusal to pay back any money on the R246 000 000 State subsidy for his private mansion at Nkandla, a desperately poor area, although the Public Protector has stated unequivocally that he and his family have benefited unjustly from that funding, in contravention of the Constitution.  His refusal comes after a year of squirming, of finding compliant Ministers and State employees to declare that a swimming pool is a security measure, that a costly auditorium is required for the security of visitors to his homestead (ignoring the fact that he has three official residences, the repair of the fencing of one of which cost R30 000 000 last year!), as well as justifying other excesses.  All this for a President who is paid a salary of more than ten times the average salary for a State President!

2.    The payoff of several senior investigative officials amounting to tens of millions of Rands.  These officials were dismissed from top positions after it was found that they were not qualified for the position bestowed on them by Zuma.  One of these was paid a retrenchment of more than ten times his annual salary after he had been in the job of head of the National Prosecuting Authority for less than a year, including many months of suspension on full pay.  It seems that the way to become wealthy is to get a State top job, threaten to tear the lid off Zuma’s activities, and then be dismissed with a huge payoff!

3.    The crashing Rand dropping 2% in one day, with more to come when the ratings agencies publish their downgrade of South Africa from ‘marginal’ to ‘junk’.

4.    The worst growth rate of the economy since 2003.  The annualized GDP growth for the first quarter of 2015 was 1.3%.

5.    The rankling of South Africa as third worst in the world misery index, beaten only by Argentina and Venezuela.

6.    The lowest business confidence index in five years.  Business confidence has never been rosy in South Africa since Zuma became President, but the latest result is a new low.

7.    The announcement that the unemployment rate is now above 26% on the official figures, with the real rate being over 69%.  Youth unemployment now stands at 51%, notwithstanding the Government plan to create five million new jobs by 2019.  If one strips out new Government jobs, employment creation has been negative since Zuma came to power.  Government employs over 49% of all salaried persons.

8.    The denial that South Africans are xenophobic, despite eleven foreign shop-owners being killed, and dozens of their stores being torched.

9.    The trial of a senior Police officer on multiple counts, including one of murdering his girlfriend’s lover.  This Police officer was charged with these crimes after a high-profile arrest, and the charges were then withdrawn after, rumor has it, he threatened to spill the beans on some of Zuma’s activities in using the Crime Intelligence Service to spy on political enemies, including several ANC ‘comrades’ who, in Zuma’s twisted world, were gaining the popularity needed to unseat him.  Uneasy sits the head that wears the crown.

10.  The growing flight of foreign investment capital of the country.  Even the most foolhardy investors are reading the writing on the wall.  South Africa is flying full-speed into the wall.

11.  The publication of a book by a noted foreign financial journalist predicting that the South African economy would crash within two years. (RW Johnson - How Long Can South Africa Survive? (Jonathan Ball Publications))’

12.  The statement by a senior official of FIFA that the South African Government had sanctioned the payment of a ten million dollar bribe to secure the 2010 Soccer World Cup, with denials by the South African Minister of Sport being refuted.  The bribe was paid over, in traditional South African fashion, in the form of bundles of $10 000 each in a briefcase in a Paris hotel.  The first real story about a bribe being paid related to $20 000 000 being transported from Dusseldorf to the Geneva bank account of a top South African politician.  The politician has since dared anyone to provide proof that any corruption took place, carefully avoiding the numerous requests by the German Police for assistance from the South African Police, after they had found a document agreeing the terms of the bribe in the German company’s records.  The South African Police terminated the investigation, claiming that they had insufficient evidence (ignoring the six million pages of documents in their possession) and the fact that they would have to request the cooperation of the German Police (which thy had studiously ignored for the years).

One has to admire his thick skin!