Lindiwe Mazibuko, spokesperson for the DA announced that they will be laying charges against lawyer Michael Hulley for what they allege to be illegal possession of tape recordings. This follows a decision by the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) to drop charges against ANC president Jacob Zuma earlier this week.
Vicious rumours by the dark forces alleged that Mr Julius Malema was on his knees in tears crying “Why won’t they leave precious alone – oh my precious, precioooous. Why don’t they believe me when I say Mr Zuma will be president no matter what? Why?!”
In other election news, April fool seems to have continued well past April 1st this year. Spoof Anti-ANC election posters were reported to have been put up in Rosebank, a suburb of Johannesburg. Zuma posters were said to read: “Bush and I have something in common”; “Justice is the name of my next wife”, and “Let us shower you with education“. Even some legitimate ANC election posters were vandalised by some grafitti artists:
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Ha ha! Another excellent Wonkie cartoon. Poor old Helen, sucking the hind t** again.
Bu naw NPA should e ashame of the selves cos they are just a bunch of stupids who are looking for a shortway out of thie mess, dam cant some one make sense to them.
If females stop being “hopeful” “trusting” optimists, civilization would become extinct.
Women can do without men but can men cope without women ?
Not the man who is very clean and showers regularly.
now that we know who the next president is can we move on with our lives helen zille
ROFL…way to start the long weekend wonkie!..btw..cute and very pc bunny!..sign of the times!
Hi Elizabeth
You miss the point. The NPA didn’t say he was innocent, they said that people messed up with procedures. That’s like the cop who catches you at 160km / hour on the highway but you prove that his speed trap isn’t working perfectly and get off the fine. But you were still speeding.
Jacob Zuma remains niether innocent nor guilty. Just out of court for the time being again.
I’d like to know how Mo Shaik knew he’d be let off so long before a public announcement. And how did they get the tapes? And why did Shabir pay Jacob Zuma over R4m? And did McCarthy and Ngcuka screw up and if so, will they be prosecuted?
Don’t write Helen off, she’s one of the anchors of democratic opposition. The whole point of opposition in a democracy is to find holes in the ruling party’s game. No-one tells opposition leaders in other countries to back off. Why should they here?
Let’s be careful not to shoot the messenger.
Well said Rastus. I couldn’t agree more
Rastus, maybe Mo paid somebody for the tapes before he handed them over to Hulley. Somebody in the NIA saw another opportunity to make some bucks – typical ANC goon. I believe it was someone previously in the Mbeki camp now trying to suck up to Zuma. Wont it be hilarious that in spite of all the sinister goings on Zuma gets beaten at the polls!!
I’ve always liked an optimist!
No, Jacob Zuma is our President. It is what it is – a cock up and embarassment to some, paradise and justice to many.
The questions that are key in future are as follows:
1. Will the splintered opposition parties put their egos aside to form one sizable and therefore hopefully effective opposition party?
2. Can we ever trust the NPA and any other state institution again? (Did we ever pre or post ’94? Maybe for a while under the one and only Nelson Mandela)
3. Will the DA finally realise that a white leader in a black majority country is never going to persuade enough people to vote for the opposition?
4. Can Jacob Zuma lead the fight against crime when he remains under suspicion / cleared by friends in the NPA (tick your preferred answer)?
5. Will the leaders of South Africa’s largest businesses stand up and say something about crime, corruption and nepotism or will they just continue to worry about their golf games, offshore cash, Mercs and perks? The silence from big business is deafening. Let Desmond Tutu do the work, we’ll clap from the sidelines … anonymously … can’t compromise that nice government contract can we?
Happy Easter!
Maybe the Easter Bunny will bring me my machine gun.
Just a figure of speech guys … relax already.
In 1994, despite all the massive divisions of South Africa’s apartheid past. we stood together, united as THE RAINBOW NATION.
Can anyone ever forget that iconic image of Madiba and Francois Pienaar holding aloft the 1995 Rugby World Cup?
Since then we have slid downhill, choosing every time to divide and factionalize, rather than uniting for the overall good of our country.
In 1994, the ANC presidential candidate was Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela, a living saint respected and loved by the entire world. But, with Madiba out of the picture the once-proud ANC has been wrenched apart by factional divisions, until at Polokwane it allowed itself to be was effectively hijacked by the Zuma/Malema/Vavi gang.
The opposition has fared little-better. It is splintered – the constituencies of the five or six opposition parties appear, rather ironically, to still be largely determined by the racial and tribal divisions of the Apartheid era.
South Africa stands at the cross-roads – and Fifteen years into the NEW South Africa can we still afford this lunacy?
At this critical moment in time the long-suffering South African electorate is presented with two unpalatable options:
Vote for the ANC faction led by the Zuma/Malema/Vavi gang and see the country become another Zimbabwe
… or select a party by sticking a pin into a list comprising Cope, the DA, the ID, the IFP, the UDM, the ACDP, or whatever – knowing that the best any of these parties can hope to achieve is perhaps 15% of the national vote.
At this critical moment in time, can South Africa afford the “luxury” of 5 or 6 political parties with fundamentally similar policies and support pegged at 15%?
I may have it wrong, but this sounds to me like the national interest taking a back seat to the self-interest of the politicians.
Right now our country stands at the edge of a precipice. Surely the time has come for all true, patriotic South Africans of all persuasions to say, “Enough and No More.”
The ordinary people of South Africa are crying out for salvation from the prospect of a Zuma presidency. The call for a Rainbow Coalition is becoming ever-louder, because right now a unified opposition would realistically expect to receive around 40% or more of the vote.
Please show your support for a Rainbow Coalition by signing the online petition on
http://www.thepetitionsite.com/1/rainbow-coalition
Most importantly, a Rainbow Coalition would offer those millions of ANC voters who are equally terrified at the prospect of a Zuma presidency with the kind of realistic and viable alternative they have been crying out for. This could push the anti-Zuma vote well beyond the 50% mark, making a Rainbow Coalition government a genuine possibility.
So, fellow South Africans, let us grab this opportunity with both hands. It is at times of crisis that great leaders emerge.
Who will heed the call to unite the parties behind the Rainbow Coalition? Who will lead us to the Promised Land?
Time is critically short. When you logon to sign the petition on please also suggest which great South African you feel should become the vital catalyst for change in our Beloved Country.
http://www.thepetitionsite.com/1/rainbow-coalition
Rastus? A tiger may change his trics, but never his spots. So you are now Rastus?
HA-HAA…I SURVIVED THE MEDIA`S APRIL FOOL STORIES BY NOT COMING ANYWHERE NEAR ANYTHING ABOUT NEWS.
IT SEEMS INDIVIDUALS DON`T PAY ANY ATTENTION TO THIS DAY ANYMORE SINCE I NEVER COME CROSS ANYTHING CONNECTED TO IT BUT PEOPLE GOIN ABOU THEIR EVERYDAY LIVES NORMALLY.
AS FOR ZILLE`S COMMeNtS THAT SHE INTEND To TAP ON BLACK VOTER BASE AND HER FOLLWING APATHY SHE MUT REGARD HER INTENTION AS PIP-DREAM SINCE HE PREDECESSOR WORKEd DAMN HARD OR FIVE YARS TRYING TO ACHIEVE THE SAMe GOAL BUT TO NO AVAIL.He travelled the length and breadth of this country`s black dwellings trying to woo black votes but the fact that the DA failed to get majority in parliament shows that the DA is taboo to blacks.
as fo the charges against hulley i commend the da here since he committed crime by being in possession of private property without the owners permission
The ‘last-gasp’ Zille Roadshow
I salute Helen Zille for her brave efforts – but the reality is that the DA’s image will never allow them to be a significant player (and the same, unfortunately, can be said about all current opposition parties).
I have been actively pursuing the idea of trying to trigger a realignment of opposition parties for the past 10 days and have established contact with thousands of people across the nation. From the many responses I have received one gets the impression that hopelessness and dejection have taken over. Opponents of Zuma have no rallying point – just this collection of political minnows with no realistic hope of changing the outcome.
That is the REAL problem. Unite them and you have a viable alternative to the Zuma ANC. One opinion survey I read recently suggested 40% of the electorate are considering voting against him, but those votes will be split amongst a plethora of no-hopers.
The critical issue that those who want to throw in the towel right now are tending to ignore is that we don’t actually need to reach and persuade the ‘masses’ per se. The ‘upper-level’ 40% of ANC support is immediately reachable via email or sms. Persuade half of them to vote against Zuma and he would no longer have an outright majority.
And that equates to significantly less than half of the people who supported Mbeki in the run-up to Polokwane.
If we could pull this off it would probably only take a word from Mbeki and many of his people would jump ship and join the other side – simply because it would no longer be viewed as a totally hopeless cause.
As I see it, what needs to happen is as follows:
1) A credible facilitator (it would have to be Desmond Tutu) needs to urgently contact the opposition leaders and explain the above scenario to them.
2) He has to persuade them to sign a Declaration of Intent, whereby they all commit themselves to negotiate the formation of a single political party by the end of 2009
3) The promised new party should be based on the Rainbow Nation concept
– because that was South Africa’s “finest hour” – after that the country is perceived to have gone rapidly downhill
– it invokes a feelings of a common patriotism and allows the new party to immediately capture the moral high ground,
– it sparks the feel-good factor – memories of Madiba, winning the World Cup, etc – and
– it seems to resonate with everyone, across the board, regardless of which party they support.
4) All participating parties will, post election, form a single caucus in every structure where they are represented
The sceptics are right, time is too short to mount a proper campaign of any sort, but the momentum that could be quickly generated would be far more likely to impact positively on the result than Helen Zille visiting a host of out of the way places.
The bottom line is the need to mobilise the anti-Zuma forces and get them to vote. I believe that what I am proposing would have the best chance of achieving the desired result.
Any contribution that YOU, or your personal network of contacts can make towards achieving this end would obviously be deeply appreciated – not least by the country when we collectively look back on these tumultuous times.
Hi Bobo
I see you have finally surfaced again after answering none of my questions.
I’m surprised you haven’t savaged Ian whose writings should be at least racist, if not, treachery, imperialistic etc etc etc.
Ian, your idea is on the button. We cannot afford a splintered opposition. I fear though that the leaders of the opposition factions have egos bigger than their love of South Africa.
But it’s a cause worth trying. You have my vote.
Besides which Bobo, Rastus is so much harder to classify and then denigrate in racial terms. I thought you’d like it.
Ian!!!You have no idea what the heck you`re on about since nothing extraordinary happens in 1994 except the fact that we were all concerned about what it will bring ffor us!
Whites were worried about being subjugated and usurped and blacks were worried about not being liberated and emancipated since those leaders at codesa failed to brief them about what they were negotiating about and what they stood to gain!
That 1995 rugby world cup was a staged managed ploy to fool the uninitiated since we are not being told that Piennaar refused point-blank to shake hands with Mandela until persuaded by Pik Botha and this was shown in all the world`s papers.
Sorry Tim, I bow to your superior knowledge on the matter.
My own experience of that era was informed by the fact that I was working for the National Peace Accord structures. I mediated a number of conflicts during that period and witnessed some life-changing experiences. I saw amazing instances of reconciliation – life-long enemies finding each other. Personally, I found it an incredibly inspirational time.
For me, that was the only period in our country’s history when we were South Africans first… and white, black, pink, green or whatever second.
I have no first hand knowledge of the 1995 Rugby World Cup final. Like most South Africans of all races I watched it on television – with relief as Joel Stransky landed his match-winning drop-goal, and with pride as Francois and Mandela lifted the trophy. If Pik had to persuade Francois to shake hands with Madiba – great, Pik goes up in my estimation – and at least Francois was smart enough to see common sense.
What I’m proposing is a revival of the spirit of the Rainbow Nation as a strategy for uniting South Africa against Zuma’s ANC. Do you perhaps have a better solution to share with us?