YOUR OLD FART mANDELA TOOK AWAY THE ONLY FORM OF INCOME FOR RURAL PEOPLE{migrant labour system} resultng into the current massive hunger,poverty and suffering and you say you are concerned about poverty but this very same Mandela goes to the rural areas just to go brag about his wealth and abundancy.He didn`t even have the temerity to instruct his grandson to make the improvemet and development of their lives and farming skills a priority because you don`t care a damn about poor blacks but about “arme boers”and aliens.

That`s hy you went to o liv next to whites from exile and refuse to testify at the TRC about the attrocities and notoritieyou committed against blacks in exil and the ownships because to you we are rabbits and bstards that must be sho!!!!!!!!!

In fact, the sacrilege of a black government literally eating off the sweat, blood and toil of fellow black people is a worse affront to this nation than the situation was under a white government.

There is a distinct, obvious difference between alleviating poverty and using one’s power to alleviate poverty to glaze over the rightful, negative impressions that common, poor people WOULD have of the ANC by timing WHEN to give them food parcels for OBVIOUS, ulterior motives. In addition to that is the affront of using the provision of these food parcels as a means of blackmailing the common, poor folk to keep on voting a useless ANC government into power by threatening to withhold the food parcels from them IF they do not vote for the ANC.

This is a FAR cry from the white-washed stance of superiority over the past, apartheid dispensation, which you are trying to create on this blog. If we ALL stay truthful to the FACTS on the ground, no one wants apartheid back. On the SAME note, no one (uninfluenced by the threat of the removal of the privileges of receiving TIMED food parcels) wants the continuance of the current rape of this country by the hooligan elements in the current AND upcoming ANC government. Peradventure the ANC became the next oppositino party, God would have heard, & intervened on, the pleas of the clearly thinking masses who, in turn, will vote for CHANGE–FROM ANC governance to something else.

The truth be told, if the ANC could reign in its rogue elements NOW, no one would be whining, except the SAME, ANC rogue elements, and who cares about those? The less of them we had in society, so much the better. Unfortunately, if JUST one of them gets into a position of high responsibility by hook or crook, he soon surrounds himself with others of the same ilk, and within a short while, the whole leadership is full of rogues.

Eish!

YEE MAN! Intelligible voters don`t care a hoot about the skin colour of candidates when it comes to voting but scrutinise the Constitution of parties then look at their record to see if have they been doing things in line with their constitution then take it from there.

political rhetorics and propaganda have no role in elections.

Poor people are indeed voting for food, houses, and grants, Tim.
And and ANC government will continue to deliver these items to them (POST OR PRE ELECTION) because this is exactly what they are in need of. We are are a government that has the interest of the poor at heart, and we are declaring war on poverty and hunger.

Actually governments rely on “think tanks”to formulate strategies and plans and polcies except dictatorships lik ours that wants to be everything to all including dictating to think tanks and tht`s problematic.

So,ours is to remove them if we want to progress.The bone-of-contention here is centralisation because w will never solve any problems as long as we are governed under this system.

@Tim – if more people thought like you in South Africa we would all be in a better situation in this country. But then how can they uplift themselves and be productive when education seems so low on the priority list for the current leadership (And Tim stop writing in CAPITALS man please – it’s hard to read!)

CITIZENS HAS GOT TO BE CAREFUL OF ACCEPTING HANDOUTS FROM GOVERNMENTS SINCE YOU FORFEIT YOUR RIGHT TO CALL THAT GOVERNMENT TO ACCOUNT IF IT ERRS AND SO YOU BECOME A STATISTIC BECAUSE YOU VOTE OR FOOD,RDP HOUSE AND GRANTS!

A GOVERNMENT THAT EMPHASISES ON THOSE A LOT IS ALSONOT TO BE TRUSTED SINCE IT IS CHICANERY AND CHIVALRY!

The issue with the food parcel is that there is clear evidence that the ANC will not continue to dish them out after the elections. Go to the treasury’s websit and download last years mid year budget review and this years 2009/10 budget statement. Lookat allocations for the ‘Relief of social distress grant’ (used to fund food parcels) and you will find the following: in October 2008 Manuel approved an adjustment to this grant of R500million which meant that for the last six months of the financial ending (1 April) year Social Development would have 400% more to spend on food parcels in these six months than it had origionally allocated (R120 million) for the entire year. While this is in and of itself not a bad thing as these parcels are critical to families who are starving, the real issue is that for the 2009/10 financial year the allocation for this grant will only be R130 million or nearly 400% less than was available in the six months running up to the election. This means that the govt will not have the resources to sustain the delivery of food parcels at levels seen in the months before the election. Please explain why this is? how is this justified?

THAT`S THE NATURE OF POWER-HUNGRY DICTATORS!

I do not want to vote for a party who is seen to be the choice for whites just because the leadership of that party is white like I am, and I cannot vote for the ANC because I would never be comfortable in a party that so blatantly the corrupt within their own (brothers in arms against the struggle) to the detriment of millions, and only look after them come election time in order to win their vote for another 5 years.

I know that Africans are not as “stupid” as most whites like to think they are when it comes to politics, and the whites must come to accept that change has happened and we will never rule the country again, and even if a party supported by the majority of whites did ever get into power again there are enough checks and balances in the constitution that Mr. Mandela and his fellow countrymen fought so hard to put into place and which is slowly being eroded to suit the needs of powerful individuals in the ANC and not to empower the poor and downtrodden.

It is time that Political parties in South Africa began campaigning on the strengths of their policies, and stopped using the “race” card or the “fear” politics used to convince Africans we whites are out to drag them back into the days of Apartheid!

If a party has solid achievable policies that will make life better for all then people, African and white alike should be left to make upi their own minds about their vote and who to give it to. It is after all a powerful thing your vote and ytou should be allowed to use it without fear of intimidation or reprisals. It’s time both the ANC & the DA gave the citizens of South Africa the respect they deserve in being able to decide for themselves and decide correctly who they want to vote for, and if everyone voted for the ANC because they had great and achievable policies I say why not?

The DA actually has some really good policies as do the ID, as for COPE who knows what lies in store with them. I can agree with some of their policies but I would never be sure whether they are genuinely interested in the wellbeing of the country or are they playing revenge politics for now and will turn out to be even worse than the current governing party.

Lets face it, when Mr Zuma says the ANC will rule till Jesus comes again he is probably stating a fact, and I do not have a problem with the ANC ruling till the second coming, so long as it is done without crony-ism, graft, bribery, corruption, and fear mongering!

Can you imagine the wealth that this country has to offer all it’s people if it is governed properly, and instead showing the world African countries can be trusted with their money and their investments, because they will THROW money at us in the form of investment if we could show we can be trusted to give them a good return, but slowly we are going down that old route that all of Africa (bar Botswana) have gone before us. All because the brothers in arms cannot say NO when a corrupt brother/sister raises his/her ugly head.

I don’t think so!

I understand loyalty politics, but does it have to come at the expense of the poorest of the poor? I know the Nationalists were just as corrupt, don’t think I am pointing fingers only at the ANC, but the infrastructure was good and now I have had to buy four new tyres in the past year because my local municipality who now has a bigger base of taxpayers at it’s disposal are too busy frittering the money away on who knows what and not fixing the potholes that are becoming more and more along the road I live, and Polokwane in a long time no more a good old Afrikaner town!