Wonkie believes one could not ask for a more accurate, brutal representation of the true state of South Africa than what was witnessed yesterday at Jacob Zuma’s parliamentary 2015 State of the Nation address. The comical event covered it all:
1. The pathetic, albeit scary, attempt by the national executive to muzzle citizens and journalists by illegally cutting mobile phone transmissions from within the parliamentary chamber. No doubt the ruling ANC party will justify this with some garbage rhetoric and find some lowly bearer to act as a scapegoat, but welcome South Africa, to the police state.
2. The television broadcast of SONA2015 itself reflects the state of the poor SABC leadership – convenient intermittent loss of audio and video footage, broadcasting the same voice overlapping itself so viewers can barely make out the content, zero coverage of the true chaos that was taking place on the floor. The best case scenario is that this was plain incompetence on the part of the SABC, the worst case of course, being that the ruling party is happily able to censor action against itself.
In the interests of transparency, below is a video of what actually took place in parliament when the EFF ‘leadership’ were forcibly removed:
Video courtesy: EWN
3. Most surprisingly, other than a few tweeters sitting on their high horses and all caught up with pomp and ceremony, many citizens were rooting for the likes of Julius Malema. Nobody really cares if the forum was inappropriate to raise questions about Zuma’s Nkandla home – perhaps on paper it was, however if one is unable to get resolution at the proper forums it could be argued that one is left with no choice but to adopt an unconventional, activist approach. After all, isn’t that how apartheid was ended?
4. Given that the opposition Democratic Alliance (DA) was asking questions based on point-of-order and privilege and they weren’t ejected from parliament, it is clear that the Baleka Mbete was acting with prejudice when it came to the EFF. Furthermore, disregarding rules and inviting armed police to remove members sets further precedent for the executive to do whatever they like when things aren’t going their way. But wait, given that there is already zero accountability in government they do that anyway so even that accurately reflects the state of the nation.
It should be pointed out, in fairness, that there is not much else the ANC could have done to control the situation. The EFF members would probably not have left willingly.
5. On to the actual address itself, it was as boring and content-free as usual (further evidenced by the number of MPs casually dozing off in the audience). Not that one expects detailed solutions in such a presentation, but some real leadership would be to clearly acknowledge the challenges for the gruesome messes that they are, and give some non-bureaucratic comfort that real action is going to be taken. Instead, South Africa gets the feeling another 5-year planning committee consisting of some pseudo-intellectual gnats will be assembled at great tax-payer expense, and that the only problem they will manage to resolve at the end of it will be how to keep the lights on in Nkandla.
6. As though viewing the parliamentary spectacle were not enough, Zuma also declared a leap forward in much-needed local land reform – by stating that foreign nationals will not be allowed to purchase land outright in South Africa. Sigh.
In short, a pessimist would suggest that this is a glimpse into South Africa’s rather lawless future. What do you think?
Share YOUR OPINION on the Jacob Zuma’s 2015 State of the Nation address.
PS: If you would like a transcript of the entire presidential State of the Nation speech, please visit The Presidency website.
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Related Wonkie articles on Jacob Zuma and the State of the Nation:
Share YOUR OPINION on the Jacob Zuma’s 2015 State of the Nation address.
I think this is a really sad state of affairs… I cannot believe that this beautiful country has degenerated into this sort of mess. Things should be addressed in the appropriate forums… one can only imagine how our country will be perceived by the international community when they see this video.
With all the corruption and garbage like e-tolling it’s no wonder so many of our young people with brains are leaving SA… I really don’t blame them for doing so. God help us!
Hopefully the international markets do react (although Wonkie is not hopeful) – what South African leadership desperately needs is a wake-up call.
If this wasn’t so tragic and ominous, it would be hilarious.
It’s like a Gr 8 school play gone wrong.
Is there any possibility of turning this around? I don’t think so, not with the ANC in the overall majority and voting as instructed and their supporters (who they don’t give a fig about, except for their votes) are voting like sheep.
This is a nightmare.
Well if people are dished out enough crap, eventually there is bound to be a violent backlash. Either that, or they turn into mushrooms.
Proudly South African – what a joke. I suspect forward thinking mobile South Africans may start seriously pursuing alternative places to call home and invest in their futures.
But where on earth would you be able to find free comedy of this quality Peter?
Wonkie the “quality” is diminishing rapidly. When we become a police state, much worse than what we had under the National Party, there will be no quality left.
Little do the ANC MPs, clapping and laughing at this spectacle, realise that when we become a police state, nobody will escape the excesses other than the extremely privileged, namely Zuma and his henchmen.
When Helen Suzman was the sole representative of the Progressive Party for thirteen lonely years she valiantly stood her ground, embarrassed many cabinet ministers when she got their answers to her questions but was never forced to leave the House. Many Nats admired her courage and fortitude even though they disagreed with her politically.
The ANC disrespects all opposition to its stupidity.
Helen Suzman was certainly a breed apart from our current batch Tony. One can only hope there will be some consequences following #SONA2015 for both the ANC and the opposition. For Wonkie, the biggest collapse in “quality” is the complete lack of accountability in government (for anything!)… without that re-established and soon, we are headed for a lawless state.
I agree that questions remain unanswered, but what happened last night was disrespectful to everyone. Whatever we think of JZ (which is not much), he is the leader of the country and the policies he plans on implementing, will affect the whole country. Last night was not the time and place for the opposition parties to throw their toys out of the cot. On the other hand, it did reveal some strategies of the ruling parties which points to the police state that we are becoming, censorship, SABC conveniently having poor comms, etc.
It will be interesting to see what the consequences are of yesterday’s events – for the ANC, the speaker, as well as the EFF. That will be the ultimate indicator, Wonkie believes, of whether this democracy will remain intact.
JZ should first and formost remember that yes he is the president of this country but only because he was elected to that position. He is still a public servant even if the most senior in the country. All he needed to do last year already was answering the question on the mind of all South Africans with brains: “When are you going to pay back the money”. Instead he appoints one committee after the other until he gets one that will tell him he does not have to pay back the money and at the same time do his atmost best to remove Thuli and everybody else who speaks their minds and disagree with him. This includes at this stage Juju M. He obviously sees himself as another Mugabe who has the right to milk the country dry and enriching himself to the cost of poor people. His people, the black poor people who is losing jobs. The loadshedding has cost more people their jobs. And now he is giving more money to Eskom instead of telling the management of Eskom to “Pay back the money” they have use to gives themselves salaries in the millions and bonusses of millions. All the money that the taxpayers is again giving to Eskom will again be used for bonusses to the management. Nkandla and Eskom is but two of the many many MANY things that is wrong with Zuma’s leadership. We urgently need a new president, who really honestly truly cares about the people and want to make SA one of thee best countries in the world.
Annatjie, unfortunately the poor governance, zero accountability policy (which the ANC in particular seems to hold in high esteem), and corruption will likely get a sizable chunk of the Eskom allocated monies. Wonkie wonders, however, whether the situation will ever improve without some substantial activism by the opposition (including the likes of the honourable Mr Malema).
If one take chances to serious things donor that thing so I don’t blame what happen yesterday to our fellow dishounarable members
What a tragicomedy! ZA reminds me of “Humpty Dumpty……”
Indeed OutOfAfrica, and everyone is focusing on that juicy tender to put Humpty back together again!
Gee Wonkie, with or without tenders, most things have failed in ZA over the past years ; and Humpty is now beyond repair. I am afraid it is now lights out for the nation.
Only 2 EFF members were instructed to leave the Parliament but they were all ejected
not at all surprised, can expect anything from those with no finesse, and only concerned about their own well being , The writing about sinking SA has been on the wall for a long time already, and if the cANCer continues to rule we need a miracle to recover to become a self sustainable country. Currently we negotiate with deceitful countries that are only interested in SA for strategic and minerals reasons. We are already in a lot of debt to them, the crunch will come when they want payment of all the loans and purchases. As far as the address of the nation is concerned there is nothing substantial the same old story just different subjects.
You have to admit though, it was certainly the most entertaining State of The Nation that’s been aired to date.
I know that this forum is about the address itself but I think that the reason for the cell phone jamming may not be as sinister as most people think.
Actually there could be a valid security reason for cell phone jamming at this venue. Most IED’s (bombs) are triggered by cell phone. Remember the PAGAD incidents a few years back? Security were probably just being cautious. After all there were some very unpopular people present!
Good point Ray, however, if the application had been made to the regulator in advance on that basis I doubt there would be as much of an issue.
Judging by the events of the day, the ANC (correctly) anticipated disturbance of the proceedings by the EFF and were trying to do some advance damage control. The same applies to the ejecting Julius and his compatriots from the chamber – all indications are that the action by the speaker was premeditated.
Wonkie, even premeditation does not warrant the assaults and thuggery of the SAPS members both inside and outside the house where one EFF member was even admitted to hospital and an SABC female journalist was also manhandled.
Baleka Mbete should have castigated those policemen for their heavyhandedness. Her failure to do so revealed her compliance in the most atrocious disrespect of parliament our country has ever witnessed
Direct Democracy with Recall of politicians by the voters before the end of their terms http://www.directdemocracy.org.za
Zuma must step down and let another candidate take over. We want leaders that sets example. He’s not a good reflection to the society at large.
We need to learn better experiences from elders not bad…
Let opposition parties not go to the parliament with their own personal agendas in order to
help the country to go forward.
But as for now it is clear that oppositions are against the president of the country which it is
really not taking the country anywhere.
It is an unfortunate that in this country the poor will remain the poorest and the rich will
remain the richest.
The MP’s that causing Havock in the parliament some their kids are schooling in UK and others are in the best school around the country.
Can we stop the fight of my tax that is bringing the chaos.
Let South Africa not turned to country of war because of positions.It is clear that if you moved out from the ruling party and you go and join nor open your new party then you have seen a lope hole of making money in by having feelings of maybe one day you will become a corrupt president of this country.
So let us leave the honourable president alone he is fine with the way he runs this beautiful country.
Lucky, it is because of you and thousands of others like you that the country is in the poor state that it is in. Believing that your dishonourable president is fine in the way he runs the country, while he in fact is ruining it, means that you are happy that he stole R246 million of taxpayer’s money.
The original estimate for the upgrades at Nkandla was about R26 million but, because everybody involved grossly overcharged and Zuma brought in his own architect to add an additional more than R40 million for personal advantage, the final cost was unbelievably excessive. This is why the EFF demands that he pays back some of the money for the work done that was not security related.
Zuma appointed people to positions in the NPA to ensure that the more than 700 charges of corruption against him from his association with Schabir Shaik were dismissed and has subsequently appointed criminals like Richard Mdluli to a position where he could protect the president. The courts had to declare Mdluli’s appointment illegal.
Anwa Dramat was recently suspended as head of the Hawks because he got too close to the corruption surrounding Zuma and his cronies and will probably take early retirement with a good pension to keep his mouth shut. Similar suspensions occurred at SARS as Zuma’s possible tax evasion was probed. Protection of No.1 has become the highest priority of the countries security services.
The list goes on and on while the lights go off and off. The poor are becoming poorer and the country, once the most advanced in Africa, gradually sinks to a state where strikes, protests and criminality will bring about anarchy. The recent jack-boot tactics displayed in Parliament are the forerunner of us becoming a police state where nobody is safe from the excesses of a government determined to control the thoughts and actions of its citizens.
This is the Zuma that you admire.
Jacob Zuma has changed Sona to Sonar, to show the depths he has plunged the country to
Well done Baleka, well done Thandi.
When EFF shits it parliament it does not matter who removes them, State or Parliamentary security, should get the thugs out of the august house.
All those who hate Zuma, should remember that it was DA later followed by EFF that asked Parliament to probe Nkandla spending. Due process was followed that exonerated Msholozi.
The progressive people of SA will not be allowed by a few misguided elements who hate Zuma. SA is a democracy and minority grouping should learn to respect our chosen leader. If they can’t respect his (which is their choice) they should leave him alone and follow proper procedures (next election) to elect their preferred candidate. Viva Sholozi Viva, Viva Zuma Viva…..asijindi.
Isaac
It all comes back to what I said in the Spear blog. An overseas probe into the stability of Southern Africa with a view to investment and expansion , arrived at the conclusion that 39 out of 40 Southern Africans are moronic in the medical sense i.e. they have the mind of a teenager between 12 and 18. The mind does not progress any further. Do the maths using the ratio in the population of South Africa. The result is frightening. This is not as a result of education, but a genetic problem.
Wonkie’s video is proof of the overseas conclusion.
See these videos…… they seem to follow the science.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t1mgrTGeDPM
Thank you for your input, Ray. I rest my case.
Totally disagree with scorpio. Will he/she reveal their real name?
Jim, I anticipated a response similar to yours. The overseas findings are not MY findings. My son-in-law is a titled person in the upper echelons of Australia. He is affiliated with a number of world organisations and he sent me a summary of the result of the probe into Southern Africa. I am merely relating the findings on this blog. When I look around at vehicle driving standards (or the lack thereof), work ethics (I mediate with the government), the inability to carry out tasks with diligence, the antics of the ANC, and the behaviour of members in parliament in general, it is clear to me that the findings are a fair representation.
I am a Professional in more than one field and therefore use the name Scorpio in all newspaper and other articles when I wish to present my true thoughts in a matter.
• See the opportunity in every difficulty, not the difficulty In every opportunity.
• Money can’t buy you happiness …. But it does bring you a more pleasant form of misery
• My wife has a slight impediment in her speech. Every now and then she stops to breathe.
• May your troubles be less, may your blessings be more, and
may nothing but happiness come through your door.
• “When in doubt, just tell the truth”. Mark Twain.
• Selective morality is no better than total immorality.
• No problem can be solved from the same level of consciousness that created it.
• Stated way back in 1931 and it says it all…
“You cannot legislate the poor into freedom by legislating the wealthy out of freedom. What one person receives without working for, another person must work for without receiving. The government cannot give to anybody anything that the government does not first take from somebody else.
When half of the people get the idea that they do not have to work because the other half is going to take care of them, and when the other half gets the idea that it does no good to work because somebody else is going to get what they work for, that my dear friend, is about the end of any nation. You cannot multiply wealth by dividing it.”
~~~~ Dr. Adrian Rogers, 1931
• Nothing in all the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity. – Martin Luther King, Jr
• Ineptocracy (in-ep-toc’-ra-cy)
– a system of government where the least capable to lead are elected by the least capable of producing, and where the members of society least likely to sustain themselves or succeed, are rewarded with goods and services paid for by the confiscated wealth of a diminishing number of producers.
• I contend that for a nation to try to tax itself into prosperity is like a man standing in a bucket and trying to lift himself up by the handle. — Winston Churchill
• Plato felt that a democracy was really only applicable in an environment where all men were educated equally, recognizing that in a less developed society, democracy would lead to dominance by the lowest common denominator, and therefore collapse.
“The arc of the moral universe bends slowly, but it bends toward justice” Martin Luther King
Recalling the words of Ayn Rand, the Russian-American philosopher of the late 20th century the issue encapsulates how an assault on free individual choice and personal merit can have sad outcomes. They are the result of confiscating from a productive minority (whether that entails the confiscation of wealth, money, equity, opportunities or jobs in the name of “restitution” or “transformation”) in favour of a largely inept or incompetent employee corps appointed on race.
Rand contended that political coercion of such a nature invariably results in a cost to society. She wrote:
“when you see –
• that trading is done not by consent, but by compulsion;
• that in order to produce, you need to obtain permission from men who produce nothing;
• that money flows to those who deal not in goods, but favours;
• that men get richer by graft and pull than by work – and your laws don’t protect you against them, but protect them against you;
• that corruption gets rewarded and honesty becomes self sacrifice –
you may know that your society is doomed.”
To argue with a person who has renounced the use of reason is like administering medicine to the dead – Thomas Paine
Will Scorpio stop rehashing what others have said it looks like plagiarism.
Get a life, Garth. The above is being passed around the internet. I deemed it fit to share it with those on this blog given the topic of conversation. Plagiarism? I fear your knowledge of the use of a computer is sadly lacking. Have you heard of ‘cut and paste’? Look it up – that is what I have done. I have ‘rehashed’ nothing other than transfer information from one document to another. Where possible, the original writer of the email has given credit where credit is due.
Are my other contributions to this blog ‘plagiarism’ because those very views of mine may have appeared in other publications, written by me? Are my 134 music compositions used across the globe plagiarism because three or four notes in sequence might have been composed by one of the Great Masters of the 17th and 18th centuries?
Your response should prove interesting.
Garth, here’s plagiarism for you using ‘cut and paste’. Have just received an email from a British client who heads an SA company in London.
I was blown away by your amazing musical talents – listened to the Copperfield piece (what a wonderful tribute to your friend) as well as the stunning instrumental ocean piece that I also found on ytube. Thank you so much for sharing, made my day!
I also support you Isaack! Well done Hounarable Mbete and well done Hounarable Modise
I really support what you did and today I see respect and order in the parliament.
Oooh is so amazing to hear that the so called Guptas is also financially assisting the very same blaming ANC / Goverment.Therefore is like in my own opinion one cannot talk of corrupt organization whereas you also corrupt.Meaning who ever party that is going to be a president of this country will continue with this element of corruption. So let’s forget
Lucky, you will not be so lucky when you actually have to pay for the corruption committed by your government. You probably don’t mind that the companies that give employment to jobless blacks are currently paying through their noses for government corruption.
Corruption is a worldwide phenomenon but only good governments fight it.
You believe that if Mmusi Maimane was to be elected as president of the country he would also be corrupt. Any hint of corruption would have DA voters baying for his blood and he would be prosecuted and sent to jail.
The Americans booted out Richard Nixon after the Watergate scandal, South Africans should do the same with the many criminal elements in government as well as the public sector irrespective of their colour, sex or political affiliation.
Please do not comment when you cannot read or write.
I am not convinced that the gvt will fight corruption, as they would have to fight most of themselves. Dont think they want to loose their well paid positions,
peace, you are quite right. The ANC claims to be attempting to fight corruption yet action is only taken against the smallfry. The upper echelon of the ANC are obviously exempt. Which senior ANC politician has appeared in court for giving patronage to an ANC supporter, or family member, who then made a killing through being awarded an illegal tender for which he had no ability to deliver?
Bheki Cele was fingered by the Public Protector for corruption in the R1.7 billion property leasing scandal, yet he is now a deputy minister.
Jackie Selebi was prosecuted for corruption by the NPA and did go to jail for a while because the ANC could not interfere in the face of public outrage. Vusi Pikoli, then head of the NPA, lost his job because of his commitment to fighting crime without fear or favour.
Thuli Madonsela will almost certainly not be given a second 7 year term next year but will be replaced by a Lawrence Mushwana equivalent incapable of ever finding fault with the ANC.
The current e-toll saga is no different to the Arms Deal saga. Kapsch will not be the only beneficiary, the cabinet will most certainly profit excessively which is why they refuse to accept a simpler, cheaper means to pay for the overcharged upgrades to roads already paid for by the taxpayers more than 20 years ago.
Corruption is here to stay. Many voters vote for the ANC in the hope that one day they will also have their time to feed.
The real problem at SONA was not the behavior of EFF. It was that JZ has not agreed to pay back the money. Problem if he does agree he is admitting to corruption and should resign, pay back the money and get out of politics. Alternately if he does not pay back the money he is guilty of subverting justice and he should step down.
More and more ANC voters are starting to realise the validity of your view. The diehard supporters of the ANC that accept corruption and all the other horrors that accompany ANC misrule align themselves with criminality.
Zuma himself appointed his own architect to ensure that his own recommendations were accommodated and any of these alterations incorporated in his wishlist should be for his account and not for the much maligned taxpayer.
These taxpayers are considered as cash cows to fund the excesses of the corruption driven masses that believe that they have no need to better themselves since the taxpayers will always support their needs while they continue to vote in favour of their disbarment from the benefits they really need.
The protesters that burn libraries and schools are symbolic of the depravity that exists to vote for a government and then complain, for more than 20 years, that they don’t have a voice. Their vote is their voice, they alone can change their circumstances.
…….and just when you thought things couldn’t get worse….
Krynaauwslust is a 4400 hectare farm near Vrede in the Freestate. The
Freestate government has committed to spend R570 000 000.00 on a dairy farm
on Krynaauwslust through a BEE company named Estina.
Some of the expenses :
* R2.6 million for the gate
* R119 million for the actual dairy buildings
* R2.5 million for spanners and tools
* R6 million for dairy cows, etc etc.
According to a very glossy, drummed up report by the Freestate Premier, Ace
Magashule, Krynaauwslust will deliver 100 000 litres of milk per day out of
the 370 dairy cows they bought. Or to be exact : 270 liters per cow per
day. That is BLOODY AMAZIING! Because that is more than 10 times the
average that a dairy cow produces per day.
If you drive to Krynaauwslust right now, you would smell something in the
air. It is the carcasses of cows dying from hunger that are dumped in the
ravine on the farm. About 65 are dead already.
The BEE company is legit and registered to this address : Block A, Grayston
Ridge Office Park in Sandton.
When you pay a visit this address, you will find some other interesting
people also have offices in that block. Namely:
1. Duduzane Zuma: Our beloved president`s son.
2. Mabengela Pty (Ltd) : Our beloved Gupta family`s company.
3. Thsepo Magashule: Our beloved Freestate Premier`s son.
How much more blatant a reason do you need to impeach him?
This is shocking, but what can you and I do about it, apart from our vote ?
Let each of us pass these messages on a worldwide basis ; as the RSA cannot sustain this flagrant and blatant fraud ; theft ; robbery ; lies ; corruption and bullsh*t any longer by the ANC government !!!!
It’s a pity that your platform is only anti-ANC and Zuma. Shame on you and your cohorts who are just not objective.
Isaac, you might not have noticed that this current Wonkie is called ‘Shocking Untelevised Footage! #SONA2015’. It specifically relates to the unbelievable display of the criminality and brutish thuggery the ANC, under the rule of Zuma, displayed at SONA.
You view Zuma and the ANC as beyond reproach and that they are permitted to do anything in order to retain power, while they slowly bring the country to its knees by destroying everything that once worked well or had value.
Scorpio’s comment on Krynaauwslust is just one of the multiple examples of corruption and waste which Free State Premier Ace Magashule is proud to announce.
Your blinkers are preventing you from seeing that you are going to suffer the same as the rest of us when the country collapses due to the ANC’s misrule and corruption.
Isaac, take a good look at your government and their misconduct. Yes, your government – I and ‘my cohorts’ did not vote your government in. It was you and ‘your cohorts’ that did, and it is you and your cohorts who are going to feel it the most when the country implodes in the not too distant future. Incidentally, to the best of my knowledge, you did not vote Zuma in – he voted himself in at Polokwane.
Who is carrying out gross misconduct? The ANC or my cohorts and I. We (and our ancestors), who designed and orchestrated the building this country have a right to complain about a political party, who we did not vote for, destroying all our hard work. It took 300 years to build and 20 years to destroy. You may claim you built the country. Yes I agree – you were manual labour. Get yourself educated on land ownership in RSA. Nobody took anything away from you. The ‘settlers’ settled on unoccupied land. We did not steal it from you. But you claim we must give back that which was not yours in the first place. Were you in Cape Town when we colonised it? No. Were you in Port Natal (Durban) when we colonised it? No. It was your people who moved towards where we were settled. And lastly – it is my cohorts and I who are battling to keep this country together. Not you and yours. But sadly, we will probably lose the battle in the end. That is why our young have settled overseas.
Very well said, Scorpio; I hope Isaac felt the sting.
I am not ignorant of the disadvantages/damage apartheid created for the black and coloured communities, but that is no excuse to remain a victim of history and thereby impede one’s own progress. After all, many of the so-called settlers in ZA escaped persecution and other of life’s traumas and started a new life here, with almost nothing. They built and did not destroy. It is the legacy of their hard labour that Isaac and his cohorts inherited – and destroyed. Instead of continuing to justify their resentment and play the blame game, it is high time they get over themselves.
Scorpio, Just because some hackneyed sayings are being quoted from the internet they are still plagiarism. Get Original and stop boring us with (1) long, long, very long crap and (2) the tired and oft repeated plagiarisms many (most) of which are more crap.
And please stop using cut and paste, that is lazy and quite juvenile. Before you start questioning my credentials, I was using computers before most people were in nappies. I have 30 years experience in programming and have a degree in computer science and another in English (that’s why I have seen all your shit before). So lets no longer copy other peoples work. Lets keep our comments short and stop boring us. Just get on with the main task of debunking politicians and other hacks.
Garth, please speak for yourself and not for “us”.
To all your credentials I suggest you add GRUMPY OLD MAN.
It is not your place to tell other Wonkie’ites how or what to write.
Garth remember we don’t understand things the same way.Therefore others likes to provoke other peoples feelings so please stay calm and show those your humanity.To me this is a good chart were people are reading other people’s mind politically.So please don’t loose temper till you feel like using strong words.I thank you may God bless this world!AMEN.
Garth, I reiterate that I have the right to place on this blog that which I feel is of interest. Should I bore you with my list of educational qualifications to which, at 64, I continue to add? Should I bore you even more with my rather long list of life achievements, some of which may surprise you? At least at 64, I still have my sense of humour and light heartedness despite the ailments that come with my age. And I might add that I still work and study up to 20 hours a day.
OutofAfrica, I was tempted in a previous blog to ask Garth whether he is a Grumpy Old Man but decided against it. Thanks, you did that for me.
One man’s meat is another man’s poison.
Misperceptions do not an argument make.
Can’t we stop all this mudslinging? It lowers the tone that we expect in Wonkie
All this mudslinging does a very good job of taking our eyes off the main topic. So who needs the government to do that anymore?
Garth, ‘cut and paste’ in its original form is certainly not juvenile. It was originally a procedure I had to learn to master in recording studios. Recordings were all taken down on tape reels in those days. It was a procedure carried out in music or speech recording editing whereby an error or section of the recording needed to be removed for whatever reason. This entailed first listening to and then marking in chalk on the tape the approximate area of the section required to be edited out. The reels on professional tape recorders ran at 15 inches of tape per second as opposed to a cassette cartridge which runs at one and seven eighths inches per second. One would line up the first chalk mark with the recording heads of the machine, rocking the two reels back and forth manually while listening to a series of strange noises to pinpoint the exact spot where the edit should commence. The tape was marked again and placed on a wooden cutting block and spliced at the exact spot at a 45 degree angle. The same was done to the other end of the edited piece of tape but with the 45 degree splice at an opposite angle. The original tape would then be joined together again with the two 45 degree cuts meeting each other and using special ‘sticky tape’ to join the two. This was known in the industry as cutting and pasting.
Just some boring info for you…..
Tony, I missed your comment before writing the above. My sincere apologies, Wonkie, if I have offended anyone with my apparent boring contributions. The two contributions where I quoted from emails received, in my opinion, were of interest generally. The one highlighted yet another example of ANC corruption and the other was various quotes on the reasons for the failure of governance. The latter was there in the hopes of getting through to blinded ANC supporters.
It must be agreed that 2014 was both troublesome and stressful for many of us. To observe this wonderful country that both we and our ancestors built just falling apart at the hands of the ANC is disturbing to say the least.
A matter that irks me greatly about ANC policy: Why is it that, in our exams, I have to attain a minimum of 80% pass rate, yet my Yellow T-Shirt colleagues only need 30%?
The Yellow T-Shirts qualify and practice not knowing 70% of what they are supposed to be doing.
Sorry Wonkie, I do try to sit on my Scorpio Tail, but it gives me piles.
Scorpio, most of us that contribute to this site have the same sentiments that you do.
We hate seeing the country crumble and the fact that virtually everything that we considered as normal services have been slowly destroyed. Those that dispute our views will one day realise how their own dreams have been destroyed but by the time that they discover their loss it might be too late to recover that loss.
21 years ago many of us had very high hopes of a new beginning, a society where we would all live eventually in harmony and prosperity. It lasted for only a few years until massive corruption took over and the decline set in.
To all those that actually believe that we have reached Utopia, think again, you are the big losers. Good education brings enlightenment and the way to see the road to advance to your ultimate personal goals. Poor education stultifies your thinking and denies you your successes, the desire might remain but the ability will evade you forever.
Voting with your hearts and not with your heads has brought us all to this failing point. A revision of your personal sentiments is the only counter to possible oblivion.
Many will scorn the educated view believing that they themselves must have their time to reap the benefits of other’s labours. When we go the route of Zimbabwe and can no longer feed our population, we will not be able to call on that northern neighbour for assistance and we might all perish.
The fiasco in Parliament would never have happened had JZ answered truthfully and had not tried to obfuscate the facts about Nkandla. But there are other issues here, education is a mess, the Govt has tried a number of remedies but no matter what is tried it cannot be fixed when teachers are not competent, when onions (I mean unions) are self serving and support a kleptocracy. Zimbabwe had one of the better educated populations in Africa but when all those better educated voted against their government, Mugabe saw the writing on the wall, a better educated class will not support ineffective government, The ANC have read Zimbabwe’s mistake and are not going to let it happen here. But they do need an educated class of people which they are determined will be their friends. Thus cadre deployment will pay for much of that, leaving the rest mainly unemployed, in poverty, and barely supported by social grants, who believe their lies and thus create a mass of voting fodder for the ANC. Nobody, not the DA, EFF, or the other parties will ever win an election. The rich get richer and the poor get ……… The ANC are/have created a new apartheid and if you live on the wrong side of that fence you have little chance. South Africa for many whites who live on the right side of the fence South Africa is a great place to live in, but many are slipping to the wrong side and many more are in danger of doing so. If you are black the only answer is to become a cadre and take advantage of the benefits. Asians and Coloureds only have a hope by becoming super educated graduates or becoming entrepreneurs.
The cost of the ‘security’ improvements to Nkandla constitute ‘Payment of employee debt’ in terms of the definition of gross income in the Income Tax Act. SARS should include in his taxable income the difference between the actual cost and the R100,000 allowed for security upgrades. If Zuma continues to sidestep the issue of repayment, the amount should be deemed income in his hands and be taxed.
The reshuffling in the upper echelons of SARS is a clear indication that Zuma intends to take control of SARS, much in the way he has taken control of the Dept of Justice. Both moves are to his own end. Not only does he have 700 pending charges against him, but he owes a large amount to SARS on customs for the importation of ANC t-shirts from China. Add the tax bill as per my first paragraph and the customs bill, he would have to sell Nkandla to settle his debt to SARS.
Sorry, Ladies and Gentlemen, I stand to be corrected on the R100,00 allowance for security upgrades. It is a figure in the back of my mind, but appears to be rather low given that the allowance is for Ministers of Parliament and presidents. Please correct me if I am wrong.
Cut and paste may be a technique used in the film or recording industry and no doubt is very exacting but it is also used in the computer business and every business using computers and involves the copying of text or pictures from one document to another. It is a very useful technique of great use to plagiarists or those old codgers without an original thought. By the way the process did not arise from anything else except junior play school.
Garth, have you taken your medication this morning? You seem a little confused. Your comments, totally out of context, do not warrant a response.
The Plagiarist Fiend strikes again. The following article by Alister Sparks should be of great interest to readers:
A DISTURBING number of people have asked me these past few days whether I think we are heading for a dictatorship. It is a troubling question. I am not given to hyperbole, but I have to admit that when armed police are called into the debating chamber of Parliament to evict an entire opposition party, and when the president makes it clear he doesn’t regard himself as accountable to the people, we have gone some way down that road.
Yet my answer has been a cautious no. Our once proud new democracy has certainly been grievously tainted, but I don’t believe we will become a full-blown dictatorship. First, because I don’t believe the shambolic Jacob Zuma administration has the discipline and capability of achieving such a goal. And, second, because I don’t believe that is what the broad body of the African National Congress (ANC) wants.
The ANC has stumbled into this mess because Zuma dragged it into the quicksand of corruption at the beginning of his tenure. In his desperate efforts to survive he has dragged more individuals and institutions in with him, to the point where all are now in a panic as they sink deeper into the mire. The instinctive response is to lash out.
I have been covering the political events of this country as a journalist for 64 years, from the regime of DF Malan to that of Zuma. I have watched the rise and fall of apartheid, and now I am watching the rise and decline of our non-racial democracy. What strikes me about these two parabolic arcs is how alike they are.
Certainly, the issues are very different, but the patterns of behaviour of the two regimes are strikingly similar. Both have been driven by ethno-nationalist parties that enjoyed unquestioning loyalty from dominant ethnic constituencies that saw their respective parties as their liberators from poverty, inequality and indignity. Both therefore found themselves in a situation of single-party dominance, where defeat at the ballot box was unthinkable. But each then ran into a political cul de sac of its own making, from which there was no easy exit, at which point frustration and authoritarianism set in.
Apartheid was the magic formula that hoisted the National Party (NP) to power, offering the underdog Afrikaner community liberation from the humiliation of the Anglo-Boer War defeat, the agony of poor-whiteism during the Great Depression, and the economic dominance of the English-speaking minority. What the Afrikaner leaders of the time didn’t recognise was that the Second World War, with the defeat of Adolf Hitler and the total discrediting of his concept of Rassenkunde, which had formed the basis of his eugenics policy leading to the Holocaust, had ended the western world’s long tolerance of racial segregation.
Recognising this, Hendrik Verwoerd rewrote the crude apartheid script into the more sophisticated concept of “separate development”, of each group being free in its own area. But as long ago as 1964, Laurence Gandar, then editor of the Rand Daily Mail, pointed out that the concept of partitioning the races into separate areas was impossible, as the national economy was already irrevocably integrated. There was no way “white” SA could ever have a white majority, so race discrimination could never be abolished under this system.
The intellectuals at Stellenbosch’s South African Bureau of Racial Affairs realised this as well. I have no doubt many NP leaders did, too, yet they clung to the fantasy as it was their lifeline to power.
So the NP was stuck in its cul de sac. Apartheid was what kept it in power, yet it couldn’t be implemented, nor could it be abandoned. The NP stumbled along with various wondrous modifications to the formula, until at last FW de Klerk emerged with the intellectual insight and political courage to draw all the realist elements in his party into a new coalition able to confront the absolute necessity for change.
Now we have Zuma stumbling his own way into a political cul de sac. I have some sympathy for the dilemma which he, and the whole ANC, faced in the early 1990s. They returned from exile and prison with no money to accommodate thousands of jobless members and their families. They had to prepare for protracted negotiations and the even more costly national election that followed. Where to find the money? My assertion will surely be denied, but I have no doubt that this need was the underlying reason for the arms deal. Everyone knows the arms bazaar pays fat kickbacks. Fancy warships, submarines and jet fighters must have been far down the ANC’s crowded priority list, but it needed money urgently.
So did poor Zuma. He was deployed early on to end the civil war raging in KwaZulu-Natal, which, to the country’s eternal gratitude, he did. But it meant taking a ministerial job in the provincial legislature at a monthly salary of about R30,000 not enough for a man with many wives and a vast retinue of children and other dependant relatives.
So, as Schabir Shaik told Judge Hillary Squires at his own trial, Zuma came to him in desperation, saying he couldn’t come out on his salary and would have to leave politics and find a job. To which Shaik replied in words that said, in effect: “Don’t do that, boss, we’ll take care of you.”
And so Zuma took his first alleged step into the quicksand of corruption. Once he was elevated to the Presidency he set about ring-fencing himself into a protective circle of loyalists occupying every position and controlling every democratic institution that might threaten him with exposure and prosecution with the notable exception of the public protector.
It has meant the core of the administration has been sucked into that quicksand along with Zuma. They form a coalition of the useless, a gaggle of ANC toadies, South African Communist Party carpetbaggers and a broken Congress of South African Trade Unions, all pulling in different directions and going nowhere. Which is why Zuma’s state of the nation address was such a mishmash of unrelated issues.
So what does the future hold? Things can only get worse, especially on the economic front. The Treasury is already out of money and I reckon we will hit the wall around this time next year, with junk status ratings. That will be slap-bang in the run-up to local government elections.
But the key factor is that there are still good, sensible people in the ANC who know what needs to be done, just as there were “verligtes” in the old NP. If we are to be saved from a Grecian fate, the ANC will have to come up with its own De Klerk, who can build a new coalition to chart a positive course for recovery.
Alister Sparks is a former editor of the Rand Daily Mail.
Thanks, that was an interesting memory-refresher for those of us who are part of the ZA diaspora.
Lucky is one of the victims of ANC education that is why his comments are nonsense and incoherent
I agree that this country is heading for a collapse that nobody knows what might emerge but the future does not look hopeful. As an anthropologist I can already see certain minority groups adjusting to survival strategies as many are already doing as many have done in other mainly African countries and has many had to do under apartheid.
For the record I am not South Africa. As an African I am embarrassed by such blatant lack of respect for your legitimately elected President. Musi Maimane, for instance, you are a disgrace to all Africans who embrace the spirit of “ubuntu”. Call it freedom of speech or whatever, but uyinhlekisa, and you will never get anywhere, you are a disgrace. Lindiwe Mazibuko realised soon enough, that she was wayward, and left. I cannot say anything about Julius and Floyd (and their Red Army).
Musi Maimane, your personal hatred of JZ is so obnoxious, you have never acknowledged and referred to him, even in the august house as “Your Excellence President Zuma”.
The whole of Africa and the world admire the South African democracy yet you have no clue what it means. JZ was voted in after his party’s overwhelming victory. Despite your personal hatred of the man, the majority of South Africas adore JZ. So where is this sticking “vote of no confidence” motion of yours coming from. Maimane wena you are hollower than Juju who speaks him mind. As for you, you parrot what your Madam and her cohorts tell you……nxii uyanyanyisa. Musi, if you believe you are better than JZ (which is not) challenge him in the next Presidential election. (Actually you are lucky because he is serving his final term ……otherwise he can beat you, in the morning, afternoon, evening or night).
Musi, despite the way you have publicly disrespected JZ, he has remained cool, calm and collected. He has never insultef you in any way. You know what? In our eyes it makes you stupid and stinking.
I know that you will not have the courage to respond to this letter because you have no capacity to independently think on your own. Your handlers will respond for you by calling me names. All in all, I pity the woman who gave birth to you. She can’t be proud of you when she sees you display your despicable behaviour on TV.
I am not saying the Executive shoul not be made to account, but this should be done in a manner.
EISH! What have you been smoking Isaac?
OutofAfrica, in my younger days we would have said that Isaac has been smoking his socks and drinking his bathwater. He certainly has not been smoking “The Tree of Knowledge” as the hippies used to call that strange weed growing in their back gardens…
Isaac, I reiterate: Zuma voted himself in. Are you long term memory span challenged?
There are clearly two different sets of politics at work here.