The Day The South African Revolution Began

 

One day and twenty-five years ago Nelson Mandela walked out of prison a free man to lead South Africa to freedom and democracy. He became the country’s first democratically elected president a few years later. One day and twenty-five years after Madiba was freed, freedom and democracy and all the privileges and rights that come with it, formally began to die a slow death. After the 2015 South African Parliament was declared open, the House’s official opposition, the DA (Democratic Alliance) raised a point of order. Cellphones, media networks and other reporting tools were blocked. Mmusi Maimane reminded the House that this was a vital ingredient of providing feeds of information to the rest of the nation.

What Maimane could have said, but was not obliged to say, was that the country’s national broadcaster, the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) is controlled by one man.

The speaker of the house, Baleka Mbete, was obliged to “look into the matter.”

The SABC did not show the country’s people what happened in Parliament later. But, no matter, those who could, saw what happened.

The leader of the South African revolution to rid the country of kleptocracy, corruption, abuse of power and incompetence under Jacob Zuma and his, not the country’s African National Congress, is ironically, the Economic Freedom Fighter’s (EFF) commander in chief, Julius Sello Malema. One of the country’s independent op-ed sites, Daily Maverick, named Malema as South Africa’s person of the year in 2014. I disagree. I mentioned this before, standing head and shoulders above many other civic-minded South Africans are the nation’s Public Protector, Thuli Madonsela and Imtiaz Sooliman, the founding leader of one of the world’s most proactive charity organisations, The Gift of the Givers.

It was indeed the current president who prophesied that Malema will be the country’s future leader. Unless Zuma resigns soon, this becomes a possibility. True to his promise to the country, Malema and EFF party members raised various points to address the outstanding business of Jacob Zuma’s misappropriation of the country’s resources and gross manipulation of its fiscus. The leader of the DA (Democratic Alliance & official opposition), Helen Zille remains adamant that over 700 charges of corruption and theft be reinstated against Jacob Zuma.

The ANC’s speaker, Baleka Mbete, ordered Malema and his right hand man, Floyd Shivambu, to “leave the house.” They refused to leave parliament, and at that stage they had not broken any rules. They were swiftly escorted out of the house by “security operatives.” The DA’s parliamentary leader, Mmusi Maimane, raised this matter with the speaker and was shown the middle finger. He promptly led his party out of the house. Helen Zille followed. It was Nelson Mandela who once told the nation’s people that if they felt the incumbent government was not doing the job that they were elected to do then the people must use their vote to remove the ANC from power. Sadly, this did not happen in 2014, but violent service delivery protests by dissatisfied citizens (or not) continue daily.

This is because the ANC under Jacob Zuma has failed to deliver adequate services and endangered the rights to freedom and dignity of most South Africans who chose to put their faith in the ANC and the legacy left by Madiba. Zuma has stubbornly refused to account to the people that elected him. Those that continue to support him are now on the cliff of the abyss because it is quite clear that he will not aid them, or serve them. He answers only to himself. and BBBEE (Broad Based Black Economic Empowerment, a devious acronym for the successful implementation of the communist Joe Slovo’s Sunset Clause which was implemented before Nelson Mandela took office.

Just before the Democratic Alliance staged their walk out, the Inkatha Freedom Party’s Mangosuthu Buthelezi rose to speak. The House’s elder statesman voiced his disgust at how this once dignified and austere place of political business on behalf of the people of South Africa had degenerated to what it has become today. This old man rarely speaks these days, but when he does, he still offers words of wisdom. And when he rose, out of order, to speak, I believed that the writing was on the wall.

Parliament in South Africa is today nothing more than a house of Lords and Dames who answer to one man only.

It was Buthelezi and his IFP (Inkatha Freedom Party) who objected to the implementation of the Sunset Clause and proposed a fairer, sensible, equitable and democratic federal option similar to those that exist in Germany, Australia and the United States of America today. I was part of that movement then, but left shortly after the country’s historic elections were concluded mainly because I began to sense that nationalism, in this case Zulu nationalism, was beginning to take hold within the IFP. By dint of its very name, nationalism, on an unexpected scale, has planted its roots within the ANC. It is a danger to democracy.

Disgusted, the United Democratic Movement’s Bantu Holomisa also left the house. Chief Gatsha Buthelezi is Prime Minister to the King of the Zulu Nation. He no longer has power over the Zulu King Goodwill Zwelethini who has thrown his lot in with Jacob Zuma who resides not far from the King at Nkandla.Zuma has promised this king riches beyond his wildest regal dreams. Bantu Holomisa was once ousted from the ANC for showing dissent against corrupt practices which started under former president Thabo Mbeki. Holomisa remains a close confidant and friend to the Mandela family.

Julius Malema has an axe to grind.

He, too, was thrown out of the ANC by the country’s deputy president Cyril Ramaphosa who, thanks to BBBEE, is now one of the country’s wealthiest men. While Malema was disruptive within his own party as leader of the ANC Youth League, the official line is that he was banished for threatening to overthrow the Botswana government. South Africa’s neighbour is one of the most stable nations in the world. While it has its faults, it is a far cry from Robert Mugabe’s Zimbabwe. South Africa is on that path that Mugabe dictated. For as long as Zuma stays in power, and his State of the Nation Speech has given such clues, South Africa has reached that fork in the road. Veteran political journalist, Max du Preez, recently made a big push for Cyril Ramaphosa to become the country’s next president. Given his legendary history with BBBEE and his present reticence towards Jacob Zuma, I no longer believe this is a wise choice

If there are members within the ANC in the half-empty house who would much rather see freedom and democracy, equality and economic opportunities for all South Africans flourish, then this is the time they need to act. They need to recall Zuma tonight. But this will not happen. If Zuma remains in power, the DA will, I repeat, will win at least three of the country’s main metropolitan regions; the Nelson Mandela Bay Metropolis (Port Elizabeth), Johannesburg, and the country’s legislative capital, Pretoria, in next year’s municipal elections. The DA already controls Cape Town and is not likely to lose it. Yet.

Elsewhere, because it remains strongholds for the ANC, Bloemfontein and Ethekweni (Durban) will remain in Zuma’s hands. But it is in the rural areas where the revolution will ignite. Julius Malema’s EFF, without doing too much, are likely to win several towns, because as we say in Cape Town, the people are gatvol – they have nothing and they have had enough and have lost patience with Zuma’s regime. His predictably short speech was a vacuous and disrespectful litany of empty promises and lies. This president dared to laugh. Several times. He even excused failure to deliver and used the country’s treasured national soccer team, Bafana Bafana shamelessly to make his point. He has that much power. Or has he?

The country’s state-owned energy network, Eskom, is on the brink of collapse. South Africa is now importing power from its smaller neighbour, Namibia. The country’s electricity grid is hovering dangerously close to Level 3, and closer to a complete Black Out. While Zuma continues to lie to the country, the DA is forced to regroup. They want charges of corruption and theft against Zuma to be reinstated. They will continue to work towards this on behalf of their constituents. What is Malema and the EFF doing? And what will they do next? They have so far met the promises they made to their constituents. Their plan is to usurp all organs of state and nationalise all forms of private enterprise, including banks and mines. They plan to forcibly take over farms and other entrepreneurial and vital businesses currently owned by “white” South Africans. The recent Soweto riots in which Sowetans and policemen looted foreign owned dry goods stores. is but a curtain raiser.

Wise questions have been asked. The EFF are not likely to succeed in delivering their threats, not promises, because, after all, they do not have the power to do this. But how have all revolutions of the past begun? How did Lenin succeed in overthrowing the mighty Tzar? How did Hitler rise to power? How did the American revolution and many other African revolutions begin and end? It started with a rumour and a whisper, then it became a murmur. It erupted into a mass revolt of the people. It did not always begin in Parliament. Here, in South Africa, it has. Jacob Zuma is addressing a house which does not represent the people of South Africa. I firmly believe he has addressed Parliament for the last time. It lost all legitimacy tonight.

I am wondering tonight what the rest of the world makes of the chaos in South Africa’s parliament tonight.

The Wall Street Journal wasted no time in reporting to their readers. Correctly, they reported that South Africa’s Parliament disrupted into chaos, but didn’t link the security forces’ actions to any particular opposition party. They did, however, refer to “Mr Malema’s” polite question to Jacob Zuma;

“We want the president to answer a simple question: when is he paying back the money?”

It was a legitimate question and well within Malema’s right as a Member of Parliament to ask. The matter of Jacob Zuma’s extravagance in regard to his sprawling, but crumbling Nkandla homestead remains outstanding since last August as the ANC proceeded to dither from one session to the next. Millions of South Africans are without adequate housing or shelter. And those who have that luxury pay a hard and high price while Zuma and his cronies allow themselves a long list of unearned and undeserved privileges. In view of former American President Richard Nixon’s paranoia which cost him his job and Bill Clinton’s indiscretions in the Oval Office and elsewhere, Zuma’s crimes against the people of South Africa are heinous by comparison. The Democratic Alliance wants Zuma to be tried in a court of law, never mind merely paying back money. I want this man imprisoned for a lot longer than the minimum sentence for corruption of fifteen years. Simply put, he disgusts me.

But, I ask myself what would the great Nelson Mandela, have done.

While in other functioning democracies, or dictatorships, the state maintains its power over their people through a strong contingent of security networks, police services and armed forces, South Africa does not have this. Twelve year old guerilla soldiers elsewhere in Africa are able to kill South African soldiers without much effort. The South African Police Forces (SAPS) is in disarray. Such insecurity plants the seeds of a revolution. It was in Russia and Germany that the armed forces jumped ship and joined their revolutions. George Washington and his legions defeated the mighty British Empire. When the lessons of history are not learned and observed, it has a nasty habit of repeating itself, it matters not where in the world it happens. And it matters not why.

The South African Revolution has begun.

The Gloves are well and truly Off

Watch this space…

Down with Racism

I abhor racism. Always have, always will.

Interestingly, in my recent past, I, too, have been accused of racism.

A social media activist accused me of racism when I confronted him directly, cheek by jowell, over the irresponsibility of calling on consumers to boycott a growing retailer which essentially sells products that are good for us.

His small band of protesters showed no understanding of the consequences of such actions. Or if they did, they showed no concern.

At the root, the protesters were calling for boycotts of any business linked with the State of Israel. Blind with self-loathing, he accused me of racism when I enquired whether the protesters were adequately fed for their efforts. Yes, I know, but I said it on purpose. The consequences of such actions, I argued at the time, would lead to job losses at the local retailer for the very people who need it most.

And while people on the outskirts of Los Angeles, the people of Ferguson and other racially categorised ‘townships’ in South Africa go about their business of campaigning for their human rights and delivery of essential services, there is much looting of shops and small businesses. Hard-working bread winners and self-empowered foreigners who have fled worse acts of racial violence, are once more the victims.

Turning to Israel, my accuser was not prepared to understand that,  I too, am against the occupation and bombing of Palestine.

My argument, though, was that large-scale boycotts of the economic state of Israel would not hurt the inventive and financially savvy Jews so famously characterised by Shakespeare in his play, The Merchant of Venice, and derided by non other than Adolf Hitler himself.

Such boycotts would hurt the Palestinians on whom the Israelis rely on for labour which in turn, admittedly, profits the Israelis. However, jobs put food on the table, and help clothe and educate the Palestinian children who have shown time and time again that they are equal to the task of empowering themselves with books and pens, rather than suicide bombing packs, kalishnikov’s and AK-47’s.

I’d much rather feed the hungry and needy than encourage resentment and still more suffering.

As a mature, warm at heart, middle-aged man, usually timid, I stood my ground in the pecking order of manners and all the things our grandmothers and fathers once taught us. Just for once, I wanted to be accorded the respect of my age. A young student, brandishing the now famous red beret of the promised revolution of fraud, theft and hatred, rather than spiritual enlightenment and economic freedom in South Africa, did not budge from our narrow path. And so we collided.

And then the expected expletives rolled from his tongue. Such words are not for dear ears, but it referred to racial categorisation and the threat of coming to get me. An empty threat to a fearless man who hates racism in any form in which it manifests itself.

The longer we remain silent, and the longer we remain ashamed of talking about it, the worse it becomes as leaders; capitalists, socialists, atheists, church leaders, Imams, Rabbi’s, activists and politicians exploit the very fears and needs that are meant to unify us rather than drive us further apart.

Down with racism.

BJ Vorster, PW Botha and the Broederbond

(from A Brief History of Dictatorships)

During political uprisings in South Africa after the assassination of HF Vewoerd, his successor, BJ Vorster sharpened the apartheid government’s control over the country with increased police presence, aided by the country’s militia, not unlike that seen during Hitler’s brutal repression of German Jews before the outbreak of the second World War.

Vorster’s brutality against ‘black’ South Africans had echo’s of Mussolini’s Black Shirts and his henchmen’s intimidatory tactics of interrogation were similar to those used by Franco’s military supporters and employees.

Fast forward to the present day, we see similarities in the way governments restore law and order. Such as in South Africa where most civil unrest is the result of non-delivery of housing and municipal services, and in Ferguson in the USA where protesters suspect that police killings of civilians are racist.

The unconstitutional detention of political prisoners without trial was reminiscent of the pogroms carried out by Franco, Mussolini, Hitler and even Chile’s Pinochet. It is also repeated by the American regime at Guantanamo Bay and the Zionist military against suspected terrorists deemed enemies of the state.

But it all pales into insignificance when viewing the horrors being carried out by Boko Haram in Nigeria, Al Shabaab in Kenya and surrounding nations and the Islamic State in no more than four autonomous regions in and around Iraq, Syria and Kurdistan.

South African prime minister BJ Vorster’s brutal, iron-fisted rule culminated in Soweto 1976 and the killing of Black Consciousness leader Steve Biko, lover of discredited South African politician, Dr Mamphela Ramphele. Biko’s murder was exposed by courageous South African journalists, notably the Rand Daily Mail’s Helen Zille, current leader of South Africa’s official opposition, the Democratic Alliance.

To date, the rabble-rousing of Julius Malema and his Economic Freedom Fighters has been quickly stifled by the South African Police Services, even within the chambers of the Gauteng province’s legislative chambers.

The SAPS killed over thirty protesting miners at Marikana during August, 2012.  This national tragedy is now the subject of a lengthy commission of inquiry. One of Malema’s own commissars, Dali Mpofu, is leading the enquiries on behalf of the slain miners and their grieving survivors. He is representing them with costs. Not pro bono.

When Vorster was scandalously exposed and succeeded by PW Botha, the new state president of the Republic re-emphasised the dangers of communism to excuse increased militarization within and beyond South Africa’s borders, particularly in the derogatorily named black townships. While Cuba’s Fidel Castro resolutely supported Angola’s long-serving and corrupt president, Jose Eduardo dos Santos with a physical military presence in Angola, Botha’s military machine, one of the world’s strongest during the nineteen-eighties, was helped by the Republican regime of former Hollywood actor, Ronald Reagan.

Britain’s prime minister, Margaret Thatcher, had a sympathetic ear for PW Botha’s aggressive cause, strongly advocating against the imposition of economic sanctions against South Africa and famously branding its political saviour, Nelson Mandela, a “terrorist”.

Much to the disagreement of many South Africans who are understandably blind of the true facts of South African and world history, particularly in the Middle East today, Nelson Mandela and PW Botha had something in common. Indeed, during the precursors towards democratic rule in South African, the imprisoned Mandela had met the stubborn Botha on a few occasions and famously remarked that in spite of political and ideological differences and much to the consternation of his comrades, he remarked that Botha was a man of integrity and one with whom he could do business.

Mandela’s loathing of Botha’s successor, FW de Klerk, however, is well-known. What is less-known is his unease at entering into an unholy alliance with the South African Communist Party which continues to this day. Mandela did not at all agree with communist ideologies and its underlying motives towards the accession of political power.

While Julius Malema today calls for nationalisation across all sectors, Mandela was quick to revoke his own outspoken advocacy of state control of the country’s economy once he learned of its impracticalities.

While Mandela remained imprisoned, PW Botha ruled with impunity, imposing indefinite States of Emergency and delegating sweeping unconstitutional powers towards his security forces.

All of South Africa’s apartheid prime ministers and state presidents, including FW de Klerk, were members of a secret society named the Broederbond (the Brotherhood). It was the preserve of ‘white’ Afrikaners who established themselves as leaders and organisers in business, industry, government, politics and even the Church.

Former foreign affairs minister, Pik Botha, once remarked that the attendance of cell meetings of the Broederbond across the country were conditional on the swearing of an oath of secrecy.

Today’s political and business élite consist of card-carrying members of the African National Congress, the South African Communist Party and the Congress of South African Trade Unions. Their prominence in the corridors of political power and acquisition of financial wealth, running into the billions, is helped by a spurious piece of legislation passed by Parliament’s majority several years ago. Much like the exclusivity of the National Party’s secret offshoot, the Broad-based Black Economic Empowerment Act excludes the majority of South Africans.

It was former United States President Lyndon B Johnson who when speaking on the subject of controlling political enemies, famously remarked that he would much rather have his foes “pissing outside of the tent” rather than “pissing into it”.

One of the leading beneficiaries of BBBEE, Cyril Ramaphosa, expelled former ANC Youth League leader, Julius Malema, from the ANC a few years ago. Having already richly rewarded himself financially, the former trade union leader is now the Deputy State President of the Republic of South Africa.

And Malema? His bladder filled with Johnny Walker Blue Label and Chivas Regal, Julius Malema is wantonly pissing into the ANC’s political tent.

Next week: Hitler and Churchill.