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.

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!