'Sad reality' of BEE

The current recession should offer the country a cause for sombre reflection on the need to do the right things, President Jacob Zuma said on Saturday.

"We are required to do more in a climate unfavourable to us; a difficult economic climate not of our own choosing.

"(This is) a cause for sombre reflection on the need to do the right things to get our country back on track," Zuma said at a National Union of Mineworkers gala dinner in Midrand.

He said central to this was spending well over R700-billion allocated for infrastructure projects in the next decade.

"We are going to use the task team made up of labour, government and business to forge a partnership that will make this country withstand the current global economic turmoil, as we did in the so-called emerging markets crisis in 1998."

On transformation, Zuma said the mining sector must be a shining example of transformation in South Africa.

Soldier on with transformation

"It is clear that this fourth democratic government will have to build on the work of the previous administrations to soldier on with the transformation of the mining industry."

He said government would work with key stakeholders such as Num, to ensure that people benefit from the exploitation of mineral resources.

He said although Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment has taken place in the mining sector, the "sad reality" was that only a few have embraced its spirit.

"We have to do everything in our power to ensure than millions of our people benefit from these transactions."

He said one the biggest challenges that was highlighted during the party's election campaign was the role of communities in the mining activities that are taking place largely in Limpopo and the North West.

"It is clear that a significant section of our people feel that despite progressive legislation, the mining industry and government are not doing enough to ensure that they too, fully reap the benefits of the mining activities that are taking place."

The scrutiny of government

Meanwhile, Zuma said there was a need to "vigorously support and entrench" a culture of zero harm in the mining industry.

"The safety record of our mines has become a central issue that will be placed under the scrutiny of government. This situation cannot be tolerated anymore."

He said all stakeholders must work even harder to put an end to the escalating number of mine deaths.

A total of 68 miners have died since the beginning of the year, while 71 died at the same time last year.

"This is not a good picture at all," said Zuma.

Tycoon's billion rand offer to fight crime

The South African government under Thabo Mbeki rejected an offer of R1 billion from a leading South African businessman to help fight serious crime.

The same offer, to pour money into helicopters, computers and hi-tech equipment, is to be made to President Jacob Zuma, who has spoken out strongly on the need to fight crime.

The extraordinary offer to Mbeki and now to Zuma comes from one of South Africa's most successful entrepreneurs, Douw Steyn.

He has revealed to the Sunday Tribune that he wrote a lengthy dossier, now printed in book form, detailing how he believed South Africa should go about purging the scourge of crime.

He had been motivated in part by two bad experiences that led to his sister emigrating.

"I told him (Mbeki) I would sponsor a whole new approach to fighting crime. The first phase of a three-part programme would cost R1 billion and I would pay it."

All this was documented in Steyn's proposal.

"Mbeki told me I got it wrong. He said we didn't have a problem with crime in this country - the problem was that we had a perception of crime."

Steyn intends to repeat his offer to Zuma, who he has not met.

"Crime is a major problem in this country. I am still prepared to help the government, but please don't misread my motives. I don't want glory. The plan is to do all this in collaboration with the police."

Steyn said R1 billion would buy proper equipment to tackle the problem. "We are talking about buying satellite equipment, computers and helicopters for regular patrols - they would be available to police all over this country.

"The intention is to give them hi-tech facilities, which they don't really have now, to combat crime.

"They need to fight crime with special equipment, the best available. I propose to help fund a major assault on crime so that much of it can be eradicated.

"To do that, we would also need a specially created crime squad. And security guards should be given the right to shoot back.

"When criminals are caught, they should be locked away for a long time.

"My sister left this country because she had a few bad experiences of crime. Never mind letting criminals chase tourists away - they are chasing us away.

"It is a desperate situation and the government doesn't realise the damage it's doing."

Government spokesperson Themba Maseko did not know of any meeting between Steyn and Mbeki, and referred comments to Mukoni Ratshitanga, the spokesman for the former president.

Ratshitanga said that if Mbeki had pronounced on the matter, it would have been in his capacity as leader of the country. He could not comment on the content of material he had not seen.

Graham Wright, deputy chief executive of Business Against Crime, said the organisation could not comment on information to which it had not been privy.

"As far as we know, the government has made the fight against crime one of its top five priorities."

Steyn's warning to Mbeki was clear: "Crime is South Africa's main problem.

"It will be the end of this country as we know it unless it is tackled rigorously.

"If we do that, the rest will follow, and benefits such as investment, tourism and jobs, will flow from that. It is the most pressing issue facing us and we need to get it right. If we get this solved, tourists will flock to this country. It is a beautiful place and the whole world wants to come here.

"If all those visitors come, imagine the money they will bring in, the jobs they will create.

"Then there is the business investment which would increase vastly. We wouldn't have to create anything to achieve all this; it is here and waiting.

"We have a sunny, beautiful climate with low costs involved in flying to and around the country. People would come to have the most wonderful holidays.

"All that is preventing this from happening right now is a small group of hard-core criminals.

"They are not sophisticated, like the Mafia. And please don't tell me it's all because of social deprivation. A lot of people are starving in South Africa, but they don't go out and rob and murder."

Steyn said: "Of course, I knew Thabo from years ago. But by the time he got to be president, he seemed to have lost touch with reality."

'Zuma just another Mbeki'

The Democratic Alliance will not be deterred by "the ANC's plans" to disempower it through an orchestrated campaign to make the Western Cape "ungovernable", Premier Helen Zille said on Friday.

"We have been through this all before and survived. Upset by, and unable to accept, its defeat at the polls on 22 April, the ANC is trying to undermine the Western Cape government.

"It did the same thing when it lost control of the City of Cape Town in 2006," she wrote in her weekly newsletter as leader of the Democratic Alliance.

"Even so, we will continue to point out and loudly condemn the attempts to dislodge us from power or to reduce our functions, which we have a legitimate mandate to fulfil," she said.

Some of those moves came dressed in legal garb, and they took the form of greater centralisation of power.

"In fact, just three weeks into Jacob Zuma's presidency, there are disturbing signs that one of the most destructive trends of (former president) Thabo Mbeki's reign – towards the centralisation of power – is being revived and intensified," Zille said.

Mbeki sustained efforts to centralise power

That was ironic, given that one of the main reasons for the deep anger and resentment directed towards Mbeki by Zuma's faction, which led to Mbeki's defeat at Polokwane and eventual recall as president, was Mbeki's sustained efforts to centralise power – both in the ANC and the state.

Three developments were of concern.

Firstly, the Public Service and Administration Minister Richard Baloyi had promised to reintroduce the shelved Public Service Amendment Bill, which would create a "single public service".

Secondly, Sicelo Shiceka, the Minister of Governance and Traditional Affairs, had indicated that the future of the provinces hung in the balance.

He was part of a team busy finalising a report that, in his own words, was "looking at the future of provinces, whether they will exist or not".

Thirdly, the national government looked set to gain greater powers to intervene in provincial and local government through the Ministry of Performance Monitoring and Evaluation and the National Planning Commission, both of which were new and located in the Presidency.

"Coming so soon after Cabinet's decision to approve the draft Constitution 17th Amendment Bill, which empowers national government to usurp powers from local government, these are worrying developments."

If they came to fruition, they would rip up the foundations of the "three-sphere" system of government enshrined in the Constitution and make a mockery of the constitutional principle of co-operative government, Zille said.

Entrenching mediocrity

Stephen Mulholland

Simple logic of the type which seems beyond the grasp of such as the infantile and, one often suspects, mentally retarded ANC Youth League, the SA Students’ Congress and others of that ilk, suggests that using race as a criterion for university admissions can only result in damage to society.

Just as the National Party’s discriminatory approach to education favouring whites over all others led inevitably to the loss to society of the latent talents and energies of millions of its people, so such discrimination will now lead to distortions in our young democracy.

For example, at the University of Cape Town the medical school demands that black students score an average of 74% in the National Senior Certificate, coloureds 78%, Indians 88% and whites 91%.

Now it does not take genius to grasp that over time this will result in a small number of brilliant white doctors being produced while those of other races will always be regarded as not being quite up to scratch.

It is one matter to enforce quotas on rugby and cricket teams which, by the way, the very recipients of such favouritism resent as it casts doubt on their own abilities. No one wants to be a token. Just ask those young men. They want to be selected on merit.

Such is the hypocrisy of our new elite who favour such racist discrimination, that when they or their loved ones need medical help they want only the best and, of course, they can afford it having made billions out of BEE or, at the least, handsome rewards from politics.

When they are in need, considerations of race go out the window. When the light-fingered and intemperate (in more ways than one) Manto Tshabalala-Msimang had her liver transplant one can be sure that she was not the slightest bit interested in the race of her medical team.

Such is the inanity of these neo-apartheid practices that in one instance an Indian girl was rejected by UCT on the grounds that she was white. Hendrik Verwoerd must be smiling in his grave.

Race has nothing to do with the ability to practice medicine. Recently a black radiologist inserted needles deep into my spine in a delicate procedure in which he used considerable expertise to train highly sophisticated scanning instruments on precisely the points he needed to inject.

Thankfully there are some sane voices in this debate. For example, according to Cape Town Alive, UCT philosophy head Prof David Benatar said it is disadvantage itself, not race, that should be the qualifying factor – even if the majority are black.

He added: “The very classifications that were regarded as ludicrous then are now deemed vital to ‘redress’.”

Eminent educationist Prof Jonathan Jansen is equally outspoken, describing UCT’s policy as perpetuating apartheid philosophy. He says UCT is “oversimplifying this, waving the race card 15 years after democracy.”

He points out that “more and more students coming to UCT are black middle-class kids who went to Rondebosch Boys or Bishops and had all the benefits of private education.”

So according to UCT’s racist design, a poor white kid who struggles through a government school achieving a 90% pass will be excluded from the medical school in favour of a black kid whose parents could afford to send him to a privileged private school and who managed to scrape by on 74%.

And seeing that UCT has regressed to neo-apartheid values, how would they treat the kids of Tokyo Sexwale, the BEE billionaire who could one day be our President and who is married to what our race classification describes as a “white” woman.

What will UCT demand of the Sexwale kids? Do they have the guts to answer that question?

Friday Boogie Woogie

One of the best, most addicting singles ever to hit the planet! A great song to dance to and the video is awesome, a good-time 1940's big band romp.

Christina Aguilera - Candyman (Untagged)

Entire sex industry should be criminalised

The question of legalising prostitution in South Africa for the World Cup is becoming increasingly pertinent in view of compelling evidence.

On July 7, 2000, Germany was announced as the host nation for the 2006 world cup finals. In 2002, prostitution was legalised in preparation for the tournament. This pattern is currently being repeated in South Africa.

The "Report of the Act Regulating the Legal Situation of Prostitutes (Prostitution Act)" published by the German Federal Ministry for Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth states that: "In 2006, the issues of trafficking in human beings and forced prostitution drew great media attention in the context of the Fifa Football World Cup. At home and abroad, not least on account of the distorted reporting on the matter, supporters of a general ban on prostitution criticised both Germany's attitude to prostitution and the Prostitution Act.

"For example, the Prostitution Act was accused of not having improved the prostitutes' social and legal position, and of promoting prostitution and favouring brothel operators and pimps. In addition, the Prostitution Act, as it was claimed, made it more difficult to combat trafficking in human beings and forced prostitution."

These discussions - along with its obligation to report to the German Bundestag - encouraged the German federal government to revisit the goals of the Prostitution Act. The goals were:

• For prostitution to no longer be considered immoral;
  
  
• To ensure that prostitutes could take legal action to enforce their pay;
  
  
• To facilitate access to social insurance;
  
  
• To remove the breeding ground for prostitution-related crime;
  
  
• To make it easier for prostitutes to leave prostitution; and
  
  
• To improve working conditions (which pose as few health risks as possible).
  

The "Report on the Prostitution Act" summarised the federal government's conclusions as follows: "The federal government believes that the Prostitution Act has only to a limited degree achieved the goals intended by the legislator.

• Although it has been possible to create the legal framework to enable contracts of employment to be concluded that are subject to social insurance, few have as yet made use of this option. The Prostitution Act has thus, up to now, also not been able to make actual, measurable improvements to prostitutes' social protection.
  
  
• As regards improving prostitutes' work conditions, hardly any measurable, positive impact has been observed. At most there are tentative signs that point in this direction. It is especially in this area that no short-term improvements that could benefit the prostitutes are to be expected.
  

The Prostitution Act has not recognisably improved the prostitutes' means for leaving prostitution.

• There are as yet no viable indications that the Prostitution Act has reduced crime. The Prostitution Act has as yet contributed very little in terms of improving transparency in the world of prostitution.
  

On the other hand, the fears that were partly linked to the Prostitution Act have not proved true, in particular in the area of fighting crime. The Prostitution Act has not made it more difficult to prosecute trafficking in human beings, forced prostitution and other prostitution-related violence."

Since South Africa won the right to host the 2010 World Cup tournament, various officials and organisations have been lobbying for the decriminalisation of prostitution - ostensibly to secure the "human rights" of women trapped in sexual slavery.

The terrible abuse and sexual exploitation of women and children trapped in prostitution have been a blight on our nation for many years. Why the urgency now to decriminalise the sex industry - a policy the overwhelming body of international evidence shows does not help women and children in prostitution?

The answer lies in the fact that this morally reprehensible, but lucrative trade in human flesh, stands to make crime syndicates, sex traffickers and corrupt officials millions of rands and underscores the point that legalised prostitution has nothing to do with the human rights of women and children - and all to do with the money it will generate for these human parasites.

Significantly, research drawn from nations such as Australia, New Zealand, Germany and the Netherlands shows that decriminalising or legalising prostitution does not improve or ensure the human rights and dignity of women and girls trapped in prostitution.

At the most basic level, an expansion of the sex industry in its current forms will be accompanied by increased incidences of violence.

Since legalisation, violence against women in prostitution does not seem to have decreased in the Netherlands or Victoria. There are even suggestions that it has increased. (Jeffreys 1997, Daley 2001). The only people who benefited from this policy are organised crime figures, sex traffickers and pimps.

Tragically, legalised prostitution in these nations has removed barriers and thrown the door open to international sex traffickers to operate with impunity.

As a result, there has been an explosion in legal and illegal street prostitution, child prostitution, drug dealing and money laundering.

The mayor of Amsterdam, Job Cohen, has admitted that this policy has failed in the Netherlands. Organised crime dominates the sex industry.

On May 18, Adam Walters reported in The Daily Telegraph that illegal brothels were exploding across Sydney in Australia, amid accusations that all levels of government were doing little to drive them out of business.

It has been claimed "tough" new laws have failed to prevent unprotected sex, slavery and corruption. An investigation by The Daily Telegraph revealed illegal brothels and escort services outnumbered licensed establishments by four to one - and the gap is growing.

The Adult Business Association (ABA) estimates the number of illegal sex services in the metropolitan area exceeds 400. "It's out of control," association spokesman Chris Seage said.

Despite the introduction of legislation 18 months ago to ease the burden of proof for councils that want to close illegal brothels, the ABA said they continued to thrive. Alarmingly, the crisis in Australia is being repeated in other major First World countries that have legalised or decriminalised prostitution.

Bonnie Erbe, contributing editor at US News & World Report, wrote in the June 15 2006 Seattle Post-Intelligencer article headed "Cry Foul on World Cup Prostitution" that "Germany is one of several European nations where prostitution is legal. Germany came late to this game, in 2002.

"In only four years, it built up a work force of 400 000-strong for its multibillion-dollar annual prostitution business. My admiration for relaxed European attitudes towards sex comes to an excruciatingly cacophonous halt on the issue of legalised prostitution.

"Women's-rights activists believe the German government's sanctioning of sex services for world cup visitors will drive the illicit international trade in sex trafficking. This, in turn, could force thousands of unwilling women into prostitution. "Whether women enter the sex trade willingly or not, no government should sanction prostitution. By its very nature, prostitution is demeaning to women and encourages antisocial, some would say depraved, behaviour by men. ...German officials... should ban prostitution altogether. Sanctioning of sex services for World Cup visitors will drive the illicit international trade in sex trafficking."

Gunilla Ekberg, special adviser to the Swedish division for gender equality in the Ministry of Industry, Employment and Communications, wrote an article titled "The Swedish Law That Prohibits the Purchase of Sexual Services: Best Practices for Prevention of Prostitution and Trafficking in Human Beings."

Published in the October 2004 issue of Violence Against Women, it said: "In Sweden, prostitution is officially acknowledged as a form of male sexual violence against women and children.

"One of the cornerstones of Swedish policies against prostitution and trafficking in human beings is the focus on the root cause - the recognition that without men's demand for and use of women and girls for sexual exploitation, the global prostitution industry would not be able to flourish and expand.

"Prostitution is a serious problem to society at large.

"Therefore, prostituted women and children are seen as victims of male violence. Instead, they have a right to assistance to escape prostitution."

We agree and call for the criminalising of the entire sex industry with particular focus on men who solicit and buy sex, procurers, pimps and sex traffickers. This must be accompanied by government-supported exit programmes to help women and girls escape prostitution.

Malema's plan for Zille

ANC Youth League leader Julius Malema says he plans to encourage "young black people" from the Eastern Cape to move to the Western Cape in a bid to disrupt Helen Zille's "whites-only" plan for the province.

Malema insisted that the chances of reconciliation with the Premier of the Western Cape are simply nonexistent.

"We will never make up with Helen Zille — she is an enemy of the revolution... she's a racist and will remain a racist," the Cape Times quoted the firebrand leader as saying.

"She has a racist agenda of making the Western Cape a province for whites only. If she had a way as premier to declare (which) people she wants in the province... for sure by now she would have declared the Western Cape for whites only."

Malema went on to reveal his plans to "disappoint" Zille.

"As the youth league we are going to encourage many young people, especially those staying the Eastern Cape, to start applying for houses and sites in the Western Cape, so that we have more blacks and Africans going to the Western Cape... to disappoint (Zille)," he explained.

Malema's opposite number in Zille's Democratic Alliance, Khume Ramulifho, had a chance to respond to the latest outburst.

"Julius is not aware of the population of the Western Cape... that about 60 percent is coloured. How does it become racism every time the DA says something? Maybe we need to engage Julius on his understanding of racism," Ramulifho said.

Zuma hiding Zim report?

NGOs on Thursday accused President Jacob Zuma's office of covering up the existence of a damning report by retired generals about the role of the military in post-election violence in Zimbabwe last year.

SA Government Yet to Release Violence Report

Zuma's office has rejected requests to release the document, saying it did not exist as the generals commissioned by former president Thabo Mbeki to investigate abuses never reported to him in writing.

Piers Pigou, the director of the SA History Archives (SAHA), said he believed the presidency was lying.

"It makes no sense that these people would provide Mbeki with only oral testimony. We think the presidency is setting itself up to be questioned. It is very sad."

Pigou said though violence and fear levels in Zimbabwe had since decreased, light should be shed on last year's rein of terror to prompt a transformation of the military and prevent future abuses.

Human rights groups accused President Robert Mugabe of unleashing a systematic campaign of violence on opposition supporters after his Zanu-PF lost control of Parliament to the Movement for Democratic Change in elections in March 2008.

MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai claimed at least 100 of his supporters were killed.

Mbeki, the Southern African Development Community's mediator in Zimbabwe, in May last year tasked six retired generals to assess the extent of the army's involvement in the political crisis.

The generals conducted fact-finding missions in May and June but Mbeki never released their findings. Neither did his successor, Kgalema Motlanthe.

The SAHA, the Southern Africa Litigation Centre and the SA Centre for Survivors of Torture as well as the Democratic Alliance have invoked the Promotion of Access to Information Act to force Zuma to release the document.

But Pigou said Frank Chikane, the director general in the presidency under Mbeki, and Trevor Fowler, who currently holds the post, produced affidavits saying no report or supporting documentation exits and the generals reported only orally to Mbeki.

The NGOs insist however that the generals produced a report that painted a "devastating" picture of state-sponsored violence that shifted Mbeki's perceptions on the situation in Zimbabwe.

"The report is believed to have been hard-hitting and instrumental in the evolution of subsequent negotiations leading to the September Global Political Agreement" on power-sharing between Zanu-PF and the MDC, they said in a statement.

The DA's parliamentary leader Athol Trollip said on Thursday he has had no formal reply to his application but would find it "very difficult to believe and even unacceptable" that the generals had not produced a written report.

Trollip said he had been told by a human rights activist interviewed by the generals that they handed Mbeki a thorough and "hard-hitting" report on state-sponsored violence.

The NGOs said Zuma should send the generals back to probe reports of continued intimidation and harassment by Zimbabwean security and intelligence forces intended to undermine the country's fragile unity government formed in February.

The Zapiro show the SABC wouldn't let you see

M&G plays Zapiro's satire

SABC: M&G stole our video

SABC to probe satire leak

SABC lays charges of 'theft' over Zapiro doccie

The Special Assignment episode that was yanked from the SABC broadcasting schedule has been made available by the Mail and Guardian.

A frame grab from the Special Assignment documentary on political satire shows President Jacob Zuma singing Umshini Wam. The M&G Online can now bring you the documentary that the SABC has been sitting on since before the elections in April.

An SABC programme on political satire has been downloaded 3500 times since it was posted on the Mail & Guardian's website at 2.30pm on Wednesday.

"It's almost brought the site down due to the number of hits we're getting. It's still loading, just very slowly," said M&G Online technical manager Jason Norwood-Young.

On Tuesday night the SABC backed off airing the Special Assignment episode, the second time it had done so.

"We were expecting a fair amount of interest, but probably spread out more. I thought it would be big tomorrow [Thursday] but it's obviously picked up quickly."

The documentary appears on the website without narration or voiceover, suggesting that what had been posted may not be the final version of the show.

It has interviews with Zapiro, the pen-name of cartoonist Jonathan Shapiro, and ANC spokesperson Jesse Duarte.

Perhaps most significantly, it shows a Zapiro cartoon of then-ANC president Jacob Zuma about to rape a depiction of 'Lady Justice' while she is held down by his political allies. That cartoon unleashed a storm of controversy at the time of its publication, as Zuma was involved in a court bid to have his corruption charges dropped.

In defence of the cartoon, Zapiro says: "Many of the things I had said in that cartoon had been said in print for months... but when that image appeared all hell broke loose."

Zapiro is currently being sued by Zuma for libel. Zuma contends the cartoons are an attack on his dignity.

Duarte appears to defend the Zuma's legal action and his large damages claim.

"There's no value one can put to human rights and human dignity. So executing the highest possible punitive measure is important.

"It is not okay to draw Jacob Zuma with a shower on his head."

Zapiro began depicting Zuma with a shower on his head following his acquittal on a rape charge in 2006. Zuma testified that he had had unprotected sex with an HIV-positive woman and took a shower afterwards to minimise the risk of HIV infection.

"Jonathan Shapiro took a comment in a court case out of context, and began to put a derogatory image of the president of the ANC with a shower coming out of his head and thought it would be funny," Duarte said.

The programme was suspended for a second time on Tuesday evening. In a short statement released an hour before the show was scheduled to be broadcast, SABC spokesman Kaizer Kganyago said: "Tonight's episode of Special Assignment will not be aired owing to the fact that due process with regards to consultation has not been concluded.

"Because of the problems encountered previously with this particular episode, the acting group CEO Mr Gab Mampone in his capacity as editor-in-chief will need to make the final sign-off."

In a statement issued on Wednesday, Congress of the People KwaZulu-Natal weighed in on the controversy with a condemnation of the programme's suspension.

"Why has it become a political blasphemy to criticise or cartoon (President) Jacob Zuma, (SA Communist Party general secretary) Blade Nzimande, the Congress of SA Trade Unions and the SACP?" asked spokesperson Siyanda Mhlongo.

"That is why we have many people switching to commercial [television] because the SABC is now an ideological instrument of the ruling party. It is controlled and manipulated by the ANC."

Watch the uncut Special Assignment episode on the M&G website - see what all the fuss is about - watch the video

SABC gags 'Z-News'... again
SABC to air Zapiro show

MK veterans threaten racist recession with militant action

The Umkhonto we Sizwe Veterans Association has threatened to march against ATMs, toy shops stocking Monopoly, and the counterrevolutionary market indicators on the television news if the economy does not apologise for slipping into recession and reverse its slide. "The economy has gone racist," said a spokesman. "It must be crushed."

South Africa's economy officially slipped into recession on Wednesday after Charlize Theron failed to send her monthly remittance cheque of $1,000 to her family in Benoni, choosing instead to spend the money on a pony.

This morning the Umkhonto we Sizwe Veterans Association attacked the economy for what it described as a counterrevolutionary and racist act.

The Veterans Association, which represents veterans of South Africa's liberation struggle, said it did not hold the pass at Thermopylae, charge the Russian canons at Balaclava or assassinate Hitler so that its members could be abused by a "rabid stock exchange and a racist currency".

"Democracy is in danger," explained MKVA spokesman Field Marshal Caligula Ngonyama, saying that by "democracy" he meant Jacob Zuma's pension.

He said "gigantic battalions of awesome military might", comprising 37 men who may or may not have been members of MK, plus another dozen who would be offered coffee and a rusk for joining the march, would occupy key economic installations.

"These include ATMs, which is where all money comes from, as well as any shop selling the board game Monopoly," he said.

He said it was also unacceptable that the economy flaunted its decline on the news every night, and said the MKVA would "crush" the nightly economic indicators.

"Last week one of our cadres threw a brick through his television to crush the economic indicators, but the next night they came back on his neighbour's television," said Ngonyama.

"This suggests that the market indicators do not live in the television per se but are actually mobilized from a central camp or headquarters, and this is where we will strike."

He said once the Veterans had worked out how numbers got into televisions they would triangulate their origin, identify the racist and counterrevolutionary headquarters, and then throw a brick at it.

http://www.hayibo.com/

Gang raids Woolworths warehouse

Woolworths clothing store warehouse was raided by about 16 armed robbers late last night in Nelson Mandela Bay.

The thieves escaped with a truckload of goods and a firearm.

Police spokesman Inspector Alwin Labans said the Woolworths warehouse in Swartkops Street, North End, was robbed at about 8.30 last night.

“Three armed men entered the warehouse. They forced an employee to lie on the ground. They then brought in other workers from outside and made them all lie down.
“Shortly afterwards, about 13 other guys entered the warehouse in a four-ton truck. They started loading clothes, perfume and other items,” Labans said.

They also robbed a security guard of his firearm.

“We are asking the community to assist us with any information they might have that could lead to an arrest,” he said.

Eskom’s R1.3 trillion nuclear plans will bankrupt SA

By pushing ahead with its nuclear plans, South African power utility Eskom will bankrupt this country environmental lobbyists Earthlife Africa said today

Accusing Eskom of an “uneconomic U-turn” on its nuclear plans, Earthlife Africa questioned the utility’s ability to fund its 1.3 trillion rand capital expenditure programme.

“In just over six months, Eskom has changed its mind on nuclear power.

In December 2008, Eskom considered nuclear power to be too expensive. In May 2009, Eskom released plans to build nuclear plants,” said Earthlife Africa energy policy officer Tristen Taylor.

South Africa this week outlined tentative dates for a renewed rollout of nuclear power stations with proposed plans indicating it could start preparing the first of three sites as early as January 2011.

Three nuclear plants, each with a generation capacity of 4,000MW, would be brought into operation every two years starting July 2018 through to July 2022.

Eskom currently operates Africa’s sole nuclear power plant with a total capacity of 1,800 MW.

But nuclear power remains the most expensive form of electricity generation.

As Earthlife Africa pointed out, it also comes with inherent safety risks, and produces highly radioactive waste that must be dealt with for hundreds, if not thousands, of generations.

The costs of generating electricity from nuclear power exceed that of coal, natural gas, geothermal, wind, solar thermal, and landfill gas.

“Where Eskom hopes to find the money for this expensive project is beyond comprehension,” said Taylor.

Currently, Eskom does not have a funding model to support its current capex programme of 340 billion rand, and its recent application to the National Energy Regulator of South Africa is about seeking a 34% tariff increase to meet rising primary energy and maintenance costs, not to cover its planned total 1.3 trillion rand capex programme, Earthlife said.

Recent reports suggest that Eskom will be seeking funding from the government for its nuclear programme, but Taylor warned that ordinary citizens would end up having to pay for an industry that produces radioactive waste, creates fewer jobs than any other form of electricity generation, and is the most expensive form of electricity generation. – I-Net Bridge

Something is rotten in the state of South Africa

We claim to be a democracy. We claim to cherish, above all else, the rights enshrined in our Constitution. But, when push comes to shove, no one, it would seem, is willing to stand up for those rights.

On 8 January 1985, Oliver Tambo advocated mass civil disobedience as a means to topple the illegitimate apartheid government.

"We must begin to use our accumulated strength to destroy the organs of government of the apartheid regime… we have now set out upon this path… towards rendering the country ungovernable."

He, together with those to whom he was speaking, knew that this disobedience wouldn't always be peaceful; that the highest price would have to be paid; that lives would be lost. And, in the interests of justice and the freedom of the country, this sacrifice was made.

But there is nothing illegitimate about the current government. It, including the government of the Western Cape, was democratically elected. The rules of engagement, therefore, are different.

Ignoring the Constitution

It is not acceptable to threaten violence if things are not going your way or if you happen to disagree with the decisions of the democratically-elected government. Not only is it not acceptable, it is unconstitutional.

Section 16 (2) of the Constitution states that freedom of expression does not extend to: "(1) propaganda for war; (2) incitement of imminent violence; or (3) advocacy of hatred that is based on race, ethnicity, gender or religion and that constitutes incitement to cause harm."

And yet, in the past fortnight, four different groups have done just that.

The most disturbing was the press statement delivered by the MK veterans outside Luthuli House.

"Should Helen Zille not refrain from this anti-African and racist behaviour, we are not going to hesitate, but craft and launch a political programme aimed at rendering the Western Cape ungovernable, " said MKMVA chairperson Kebby Maphatsoe.

Another MK veteran, Ramatuku Maphutha, then declared that soldiers would be mobilised to march on Helen Zille's office: "They are always ready. It's either she vacates the office, or cooperates. We are prepared to sleep there if need be until we get an impressive response… We can render the Western Cape ungovernable within 24 hours."

This is not empty rhetoric. Both the MK veterans and the South African public are aware of the role that the veterans played in rendering the country 'ungovernable' during the apartheid era. If the word 'ungovernable' comes in shades of grey, then the veterans have done very little to distinguish between their version of 'ungovernable' and that advocated by Oliver Tambo at the height of the fight against the apartheid government.

Add to this the fact that the statement was delivered outside Luthuli House — thus creating an impression of endorsement from the ruling party — and the fact that the veterans have recently been awarded a higher profile in the Ministry of Defence, and the picture is a very worrying one indeed. The Ministry of Defence and Military Veterans has not, as yet, condemned the statement or distanced itself from it.

Now imagine, if you will, that another paramilitary group — rightwing Afrikaners or a military wing of the IFP — threatened to make a province ungovernable. Would the silence be quite as deafening?

Jumping on the bandwagon

Slightly less concerning — but only because the frequency of their threats of violence has made them mundane — was the ANC Youth League's declaration of war.

"If the fake racist girl Zille continues to speak hogwash like she has been doing during elections, we will take militant action against her, and demonstrate to her that she does not have monopoly over the Western Cape."

Just in case there is any confusion, a definition of militant action: engaged in fighting or warfare.

Jumping on the threat bandwagon, were ANCYL-wannabe groups the Young Communist League and the student organisation Cosas. The latter vowed to embark upon violent uncontrollable protest if Helen Zille didn't fire her Education MEC Donald Grant, while the YCL has threatened to make Unisa 'ungovernable' if Barney Pityana is not fired.

The fact that the YCL and Cosas yield very little real power is of no consequence. South Africa is cultivating an environment in which threats of violence go unpunished. By failing to condemn such behaviour and bring the perpetrators to book, our democratically-elected government is failing the people of South Africa.

There is a reason why our Constitutionally-enshrined right to freedom of expression excludes incitement of violence. Incitement of violence very often leads to violence. Now, if only someone had the guts to do something about it.

South Africa's reputation running on momentum...

For the next six weeks, Yorkton, Sask., will be a city of torment. Recent deaths will be questioned, clean bills of health doubted and old wounds revisited.

Since learning that a South African radiologist responsible for interpreting many of the town's life-or-death x-rays, ultrasounds, CT scans and mammograms was been suspended for a possible pattern of misdiagnosis, thousands of Yorkton-area residents have been waiting anxiously for the province to review every last bump, bruise and tumour Dr. Darius Tsatsi ever examined.

Over the next six weeks, radiologists throughout Western Canada will pore over all 70,000 images Dr. Tsatsi scrutinized since arriving in Saskatchewan in 2004 with “impeccable” South African medical credentials, according to Joe Kirwan, CEO of the local health authority.

But the case is about more than a single physician's failings. It has also exposed flaws in how the province deals with underperforming physicians and possible weaknesses in its heavy reliance on foreign-trained doctors.

Questions about the quality of Dr. Tsatsi's work, since he started plying his craft in Saskatchewan in 2004, first arose in 2006. The college scrutinizes the work of all its radiologists in three-year cycles. When doctors reviewed Dr. Tsatsi's diagnoses, they found “performance deficiencies that were sufficiently worrisome,” according to a summary of the case released by the college.

Normally, such a red flag would punt a physician into a competency hearing, but the South-Africa-trained radiologist pre-empted any inquiry by volunteering to take remedial training at McMaster University. The college consented, and Dr. Tsatsi spent three months brushing up on his radiology skills in Hamilton. Upon his return, however, nobody from McMaster bothered telling the College what Mr. Tsatsi had actually learned, according to Dr. Kendel.

In the absence of a report card, the College's governing council ordered a second review of Dr. Tsatsi's work. By the time a three-doctor team came back with a number of troubling findings earlier this month, two-and-a-half years had passed since his work first came under scrutiny.

Of 103 random case files dated May to November of 2008, “there was a much higher than expected variance from the way the three other radiologists would have interpreted them,” Dr. Kendel said.

The panel found five separate cases for which Dr. Tsatsi's diagnoses “could have put patients at risk of harm.”

On Wednesday, the College announced that Mr. Tsatsi had been suspended and that all 70,000 images-- everything from mammograms to X-rays -- would be reviewed.

Dr. Tsatsi's lawyer asked that the College delay a new competency hearing because he was studying for an impending radiology certification exam, a three-strikes test he had already failed twice. He has one more chance to pass.

But the request was denied.

The breadth of the review extends all the way to Premier Brad Wall's office. “I have family waiting for diagnostics, waiting for treatments,” Mr. Wall said last week. The Premier lives in Swift Current, which relied on Dr. Tsatsi when its lone radiologist was absent.

TIMELINE OF EVENTS

In 1976 Tsatsi qualified as a radiologist at the University of Cape Town, says his Facebook profile.

Early in 2004, he was the head of radiology at Dr George Mukhari Hospital in Ga-Rankuwa, as well as a professor at Medunsa.

Tsatsi was on the editorial committee of the South African Radiology Journal and worked at a private hospital in Mafikeng.

Summer of 2004 -- Dr. L. Darius Tsatsi Tsatsi moves to Canada works as locum in the Prince Albert Parkland Health Region.

Fall 2004 -- Tsatsi begins work as locum in Sunrise Health Region.

April 2005 -- Tsatsi employed as full-time radiologist at Sunrise.

Dec. 22, 2005 -- Prince Albert doctor raises concerns about Tsatsi's work during his locum in Prince Albert. This expression of concern prompted college's advisory committee on medical imaging to accelerate its scheduling of Tsatsi for review through its diagnostic imaging quality assurance program.

January 2006 -- College of Physicians and Surgeons of Saskatchewan's diagnostic imaging quality assurance committee expresses concerns over Tsatsi's practice following review of facility in Yorkton.

March 2006 -- The college appoints a competency committee to review Tsatsi's diagnostic skills and knowledge.

October 2006 -- The competency committee submits its report to the college council and Tsatsi. The report identifies some deficiencies in Tsatsi's diagnostic knowledge and skills involving CT scans. Committee did not identify concerns about his actual reading of images because the margin of error in terms of a clinical difference of opinion in the cases reviewed were generally within the range of what would be regarded as acceptable.

Winter 2006 -- Tsatsi's lawyer requests that he be permitted to voluntarily undergo remedial education rather than proceeding directly to a competency hearing.

January to December 2007 -- Tsatsi takes a number of courses in the United States to upgrade his skills.

January 2008 -- Tsatsi takes a three-month full-time secondment with the radiology department at McMaster University.

Spring 2008 -- College asks for feedback from McMaster faculty regarding Tsatsi remedial education.

June 2008 -- His performance assessment at McMaster combined with information that he failed the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada exams and his previous competency evaluation is presented at the college's council meeting. Council directs a further investigation.

September 2008 -- College council appoints a second competency review committee, which does a random audit of 103 diagnostic imaging cases that were examined and interpreted by Tsatsi between May 28 and Nov. 14, 2008. Significant clinical differences were identified and a recommendation made to college for a historical retrospective review of all of his work.

May 13, 2009 -- College council advises health region of its concerns relating to potential patient safety issues.

May 14, 2009 -- Health Region officials meet with Tsatsi and suspend his hospital privileges. A copy of the report is faxed to the Ministry of Health. Tsatsi also voluntarily agrees not to practise in Saskatchewan until this matter is resolved.

May 15, 2009 -- College notified Ministry of Health. Health Minister Don McMorris apprised of the situation. Regulatory, regional and provincial health officials spend weekend putting together an action plan to re-evaluate 70,000 diagnostic images and contact patients.

May 19, 2009 -- Health region and the college hold a news conference to advise the public of the situation. Prince Albert Parkland also issues a public advisory.

Rape of the innocents

A TRANSKEI man has been arrested after he allegedly raped six young schoolgirls, the youngest of whom was four years old. Four of the girls were attacked on one day at the beginning of the month in the village of Ngudle, just outside Tsomo.

Police arrested the suspect last week at his parents’ home in the same village. His detention came after the four-year-old Grade R child told her parents about the alleged sex attack.

The mother of one of the alleged victims said she cried when her five-year-old daughter told her in detail what the suspect had allegedly done to them. And she sobbed yesterday as she explained how her daughter told her what happened when the man put her on top of a sofa in his room.

“She said the man took turns to rape about four of them while the room was locked.”

On the day the four- year-old complained to her parents, one of the victims’ moms tracked down other parents whose children were allegedly raped by the suspect. By the end of that day, six children had come forward in total, alleging they had all been sexually assaulted by the suspect, but not necessarily at the same time.

The oldest alleged victim was eight years old and in Grade 3.

“They told us that this man would kneel in front of them and raped them while the others were looking. The four-year-old told us exactly that,” said one mom. “They loved this man because he was giving them sweets and chocolates. He just lured them knowing what his plans were.”

The children were taken to Cofimvaba Hospital for examination.

Villagers and some teachers suspect that the children were allegedly raped after school and sometimes over weekends.

“The children have been receiving counselling from social workers and we are trying by all means to make sure that they forget about what has happened,” said Ngewu.

Queenstown police spokesperson Captain Zamikhaya Qinisile confirmed the suspect had been arrested and would appear in the Cofimvaba Magistrate’s Court tomorrow where he will face six counts of rape.

Nurse busted selling baby formula

More deceit, manipulation, and bullshit ! Integrity is virtually unknown amongst blacks. Nurse bust selling baby formula that should be free for poor mothers

Control of milk stock investigated

THE Times has bust a staff member at a Soweto clinic discovered selling government-issued baby milk formula to an HIV-positive mother who should have received it free.

While tiny babies were being fed watered-down maize meal and black tea during this month’s formula shortage, the woman, known as “Sister Thandi”, was allegedly selling the little stock left at the Chiawelo Clinic for R150 for a six-pack.

Sister Thandi was fired yesterday following The Times’ investigation.

FIRED: ‘Sister Thandi’ sold government-issued milk formula to a mother

Gauteng health MEC Qedani Mahlangu apologised this week to mothers who, for more than a week, could not feed their babies because the department had failed to pay formula supplier Nestlé for six months. Nestlé stopped delivering baby formula to clinics and state hospitals last month.

On Friday, The Times visited Chiawelo Clinic and found a 28-year-old HIV-positive mother, whom we cannot name, desperately in search of formula for her two-month-old baby. She had been feeding her tiny son black tea.

The woman said she had bought formula from another employee at the Chiawelo Clinic in April, despite knowing that she should not have to pay for it.

After being turned away by a clinic nurse who claimed that there was no milk, she was approached by one of the clinic staff and told that, if she had money, “they could make a plan”.

HIV-positive mother buys baby-milk formula, which she should have received free, at the Chiawelo Clinic, in Soweto

HIV-positive mothers risk passing on the virus to their babies through their breast milk and rely on free formula from state clinics and hospitals to feed their children.

Last month, when the HIV-positive mother asked the clinic employee, whose name she does not know, how much she had to pay for formula, she was told R150.

On Monday, The Times accompanied the young mother to the clinic to buy more formula and Sister Thandi told her that she could not sell it to her while “the other people were around”. She was told to “come tomorrow”.

At 8.30am yesterday, the 28-year-old mother joined the queue to receive formula at Chiawelo Clinic’s maternity ward.

When her turn came, she approached Sister Thandi and paid for six 400g tins of Nan Pelargon.

She did not have her clinic card with her and, in normal circumstances, would have been denied formula.

“I went to her office and told her I wanted to buy the milk. I paid her the R150. No questions were asked and within five minutes I got it.”

The Times phoned the provincial health department to report the irregularity and an official, who introduced herself as Gugu, was sent to the clinic.

Gugu, who refused to reveal her surname but said she was from the “district office”, confronted Sister Thandi in the clinic, which The Times was barred from entering.

She confirmed that the formula bought yesterday was from government stock and should have been given free to poor HIV- positive mothers.

Gauteng health department spokesman John Louw, said Sister Thandi was an Aids counsellor at the clinic and was employed by a non-government organisation contracted by the health department. He refused to name the organisation.

He said Sister Thandi was taken to the police station by clinic security officers and a charge of theft was laid.

When her organisation was told of her trade in formula, Louw said, it dismissed her immediately.

Radical fingerprint plan for school kids

Home Affairs unveils new strategy to curb ID fraud

CHILDREN at primary schools across the country will be fingerprinted in a move to combat identity fraud — if a radical plan by the department of home affairs gets the all-clear.

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South African identity documents and passports have come under increased scrutiny by the international community because of the ease with which criminals can obtain them.

Briefing the media yesterday in Pretoria, newly appointed Home Affairs Minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma said the nation’s population register was in a mess and needed to be “cleaned up”.

“Every child below the age of 16 will be registered at school. We are trying to check at what age we can take fingerprints because we want, as an interim measure, to take fingerprints before the age of 16 so that we can put those fingerprints in our population register,” she said.

“We will be going into primary schools, and this campaign will take us two to three years,” Dlamini-Zuma said.

“We need to clean up the system so as to determine who is South African when people apply for ID and travel documents.”

But senior researcher at the Institute for Security Studies, Johan Burger, advised that Dlamini- Zuma should be “wary” of implementing such a programme.

He said: “I find that a little difficult to accept because there is a stigma attached to fingerprints being taken at primary school level. Fingerprints are associated with criminals.

“This will lead to [children] thinking that they will be associated with criminals and, in that sense, I think that this action will be taking the fight against crime too far.”

However, Burger did concede that there was a need for a more comprehensive database of fingerprints.

“The crime situation is frightening and we can no longer support the issue of confidentiality, but we need to think carefully when it comes to children,” he said.

Dlamini-Zuma warned that, because of corruption in her department, the country’s population register was compromised and had no standing in the international community.

“You can’t be sure that someone carrying a South African ID [is] 100 percent South African and deserves to carry that ID.

“When someone has a birth certificate that says they were born in South Africa, you cannot be sure that they were indeed born in SA. Some countries now demand visas when we did not need visas before and it’s because they can no longer be sure that when someone produces a passport at a point of entry in their countries that they are, indeed, South Africans … internationally our passports have become suspect,” Dlamini-Zuma said.

The most publicised example of this was Britain’s decision to add South Africans to its list of foreign nationals needing visas to enter the UK.

In February, South Africa joined Bolivia, Lesotho, Swaziland and Venezuela as countries whose nationals need visas to visit the UK.

This decision has affected about 420,000 South Africans who visit that country each year.

Dlamini-Zuma said she will negotiate with the UK once the population register is cleaned up.

“The ball is in our court. We have to renegotiate, but not now. We have to clean our home first before we renegotiate,” Dlamini-Zuma said.

The minister vowed that she was also going to be tough on crime within her department .

“It’s not a secret that whilst the majority of people at Home Affairs do their work honestly and diligently, there is a critical mass of people who are corrupt. That is why we find our documents not being secure.

“The wholesale selling of identity documents is unpatriotic, it shows you don’t care for your country, you are ready to undermine the security of your country and you are not proud of yourself as a South African,” Dlamini-Zuma said.

Cape refugees 'cheated UN'

Why are we not surprised? Fooled by deceit, manipulation, and bullshit. Help these scavengers and they stab you in the back. They were given shelter, food, electricity, hospital treatment, even court lifelines were set up for them. From the beginning of June to September last year, the city had spent more than R120 million on catering for the displaced foreigners and this is how they repay you for having an interest in their safety and future. These parasites have done nothing but complain, always 'unhappy' about what was provided for them. 'Unhappy?' show them 'unhappy', bring on the pangas, chop them up, burn them! Talk about biting the hand that feeds you. Give them a finger and they take an arm! The UN is getting its just deserts. Go home kwere kwere, fokof kaffir!

City urges court: Kick out xenophobia cheats

Some xenophobia refugees in Cape Town cheated the United Nations of relief funds in 2008, according to an affidavit filed in the Cape High Court.

The affidavit, by city housing director Hans Smit, forms the basis of an application for the eviction of just under 400 people from the Bluewaters safety site on the Cape Flats.

They are the last refugees remaining on city-owned property.

Smit said the UN High Commissioner for Refugees had given financial assistance to people displaced by 2008's wave of xenophobic violence, for relocation or reintegration in the communities they left.

This had been R1 500 for single people, and R3 000 for families of more than one person, paid in instalments.

The payments were made to "DFNs" (displaced foreign nationals) only when they left the city-run safety camps.

"Shortly after the implementation of the scheme it was discovered that it was being abused by some DFNs who, by altering their names, fraudulently procured the payment of allowances to them repeatedly," Smit said.

"In addition, it was discovered that some DFNs were returning to live in the camps even after they had collected their relocation allowances."

When this emerged, administration of the payments was taken away from the staff of the Cape Town Refugee Centre, an NGO, and transferred to the city's camp managers.

The eviction application lists 236 refugees at Bluewaters by name, and asks for an order against them as well as anyone else living there.

City spokesperson Pieter Cronje said the names listed on the order were those of the adults. Children brought the number at the site to 397.

Smit said in his affidavit that the city gave them notice in October 2008 it wanted them off the property, meant to be a holiday camp for members of the public.

About 20 000 displaced people had already been reintegrated into the communities they had been living in, but the Bluewaters group had "steadfastly refused to move".

He said that by refusing to reintegrate or relocate, they were trying to gain an unfair advantage over people on the city's housing waiting list, which had a backlog of 400 000.

Giving them houses would set a bad precedent, he said.

From the beginning of June to September 2008, the city had spent more than R120-million on catering for the displaced foreigners, Smit said.

South Africa goes into recession

The South African economy has gone into recession for the first time since 1992, following a sharp slowdown in the manufacturing and mining sectors.

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GDP Drops By 6.4 Percent in First Quarter
Read the Stats SA report
Economists Warn of Recession Shock

Africa's biggest economy contracted at an annualised rate of 6.4% between January and March, compared with the same period a year earlier.

It was the biggest decline since 1984 and followed an annualised 1.8% fall in the previous three months.

The construction sector, however, was boosted by the upcoming World Cup.

South Africa is benefiting from a huge programme of government investment ahead of the football tournament in 2010.

Rate cut expected

A recession is generally defined as being two quarters of negative growth.

"It's far worse than we expected," said Elna Moolman, economist at Barnard Jacobs Mellet.

"It confirms the recession in the economy and certainly increases concerns about overall growth for 2009, given such a bad start for the year."

The Reserve Bank of South Africa is due to announce its latest decision on interest rates on Thursday.

It is now expected to cut rates by a full percentage point from the current level of 8.5%.

It has started holding its meetings every month instead of every other month to allow it to act more quickly.

The central bank has reduced rates from a level of 12% in December.

Recovery predicted

Statistics South Africa, which calculated the latest figures, said the slowdown in manufacturing and the mining and quarrying sector had been primarily responsible for the contraction.

Mining firms have been hit by falling demand for their products as a result of the global economic slowdown.

The government has predicted that there will be another quarter of negative growth to come before the economy recovers.

"Looking ahead, we expect another quarterly contraction for the second quarter, but this is expected to be smaller," said National Treasury Director General Lesetja Kganyago.

The weak economy presents particular problems for the new President Jacob Zuma, who has promised to create jobs and fight poverty.

"It's easy to budget and make plans in a boom phase," said Johan Rossouw, chief economist at Vector Securities and Derivatives.

"Now it's a different kettle of fish. It is definitely going to make things tougher."

'Blame ANC for recession'

The opposition Democratic Alliance on Tuesday blamed the ANC government for South Africa's first recession since the end of apartheid.

"This not only confirms that our economy is now in a full-blown recession, but also that the ANC government has not taken the necessary steps to ensure that we survive the worst effects of the global economic crisis," DA MP Dion George said in a statement.

The country's growth rate contracted by 6.4 percent in the first quarter of 2009, compared to the fourth quarter of 2008, when it shrunk by 1.8 percent.

The two consecutive quarters of negative growth put South Africa in its first recession in 17 years.

"In light of this larger than expected contraction of the economy it is now more clear than ever that government, labour and business need to work together to find solutions to the economy's woes," said George.

"These include lowering wage expectations, targeted assistance to certain labour-intensive industries to ensure that we retain much-needed jobs, and government needs to 'unpick' the numerous constraints that stifle business productivity, expansion and job creation."

He called on the Reserve Bank to cut interest rates by at least 100 basis points as "a much-needed measure to stimulate domestic demand, and get the economy going again".

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SA Government Yet to Release Violence Report

The South African government is yet to release what is suspected to be a highly controversial report, compiled by a group of retired army generals on the role Zimbabwe's security forces played in the post election violence last year.

South Africa's official opposition party, the Democratic Alliance (DA), has now called for the Presidency, under the new leadership of Jacob Zuma, to release the details of the report, which was conducted a year ago.

The army generals were appointed by former President Thabo Mbeki as part of South Africa's mediation team, sent to 'resolve' the political crisis in Zimbabwe. The army generals compiled the report, which was submitted to the Presidency, but the report was never released to the public despite numerous requests from civil society groups. At the time, Mbeki failed to provide any reason for the government's refusal to release the report

"This report could go a long way in shedding the much-needed light on the many human rights violations that characterised Zimbabwe's elections last year," said DA parliamentary leader Athol Trollip this week.

The Mbeki administration was harshly criticised for how it handled the Zimbabwe crisis, with Mbeki being castigated on many occasions for his policy of 'quiet diplomacy'. The new administration under Zuma is now hoped to take a different approach to the crisis across the border, but the DA has said such differences are yet to be seen.

Travelgate MPs promoted because it takes a thief to catch a thief

The government has defended its decision to promote four Members of Parliament implicated in the Travelgate corruption scandal to chair oversight committees, saying that "it takes a thief to catch a thief". Meanwhile President Jacob Zuma has promised to set up a toll-free presidential hotline that will allow citizens to be ignored in an entirely new way.

The decision to appoint four allegedly corrupt MPs to chair important watchdog committees has raised eyebrows among political commentators.

"It's not a big gesture," explained one, "but amongst those of us who are alert to subtle gestures involving eyebrows, it's a biggy."

He said it was "very unlikely" that Jacob Zuma's administration would be swayed by raised eyebrows, but said he would keep raising his own eyebrows until South Africans had clean government or his pair was shaved off by an ANC Youth League Re-Education Brigade, whichever happened first.

However, the government has defended its decision, saying that it appointed the four tainted MPs because "it takes a thief to catch a thief".

"Yes, Parliament does double as a semi-professional low-key money-laundering operation," explained spokesman Flipflops Kunene. "But obviously we need to limit this because our young democracy is rooted on the unshakable principal that the Comrades at the very top must be infinitely richer than the Comrades in the middle, who in turn must be infinitely richer than the Comrades at the bottom."

He explained that this system "gives the Comrades at the bottom something to be hopeful about whenever the election comes around, and keeps the Comrades at the top just paranoid enough to go to work every day to make sure they're not being undermined by undemocratic forces like auditors or tax collectors".

"It's a beautiful system, and it needs to be jealously guarded," he said.

Meanwhile the Presidency says it is working hard to perfect a new toll-free presidential hotline that will allow South Africans to complain directly to a recording of Jacob Zuma.

According to Presidency spokesman Hallelujah Mpundu, it was time to let South Africans feel that their voices were being heard, even if they weren't.

He said that the system would be able to record up to four messages a week, and that any complaints made by callers would be handed to "somebody who would file them".

Asked if they would be filed in a paper-shredder, Mpundu said, "It's possible."

However, he said, there had been some early setbacks in the recording process. He would not elaborate but a test call to the toll-free number reached a flustered-sounding Jacob Zuma saying, "You've reached the office of Jacob Zuma, please leave your…is this thing on? Julius, you're good with gadgets, please come here and…no, Julius, you're getting fish paste all over my machine, don't you wash your hands after you've eaten?"

www.hayibo.com

Tickets Sold Out For Super 14 Final

Bulls Country preparing itself for showdown

Tickets for Saturday’s Super 14-final between the Bulls and the Chiefs at Loftus have been sold out.

While some of us spent Saturday and Sunday snuggled up in bed, others braved the chilly weather in Blue Bulls country for a ticket to what promises to be a riveting Super 14 final between the Bulls and the Chiefs at Loftus Versfeld in Pretoria. Loftus has been transformed into a makeshift campsite since Saturday with pitched tents, ‘braaivleis’ fires and camping chairs. Young and old came prepared for hours of queuing, not even considering complaining about the long wait.

My main man Jan Ruggas

When Vodacom had to create a new campaign that focuses on Rugby, they chose to build it around the fan (you) and how the fan (you) are essentially the 23rd player on the team!

The name of the campaign, yes you guessed it; Player 23. To raise awareness for the campaign, Vodacom created the superficial character named Jan Ruggas, who teaches the viewer basic rugby moves, but with a Jan Ruggas adaptation. This includes the interception, the tight 5 and the infamous chip kick. The videos are awesome and because of them I am now a fan of Jan Ruggas. So much of fan that I even become a friend of his on FaceBook. To become a friend with my main man Jan Ruggas CLICK HERE. C’mon do it!



There’s nothing quite like boerewors, beers and beats! If you don’t believe me, become a believer by watching these classic videos of Jan Ruggas and see for yourself. View Player 23 videos - flippin cool

To visit the Player 23 website CLICK HERE.

SA 'Water scarcity' warnings again, still, whatever

The clock is ticking for South Africa's stretched water supply, and in another five years demand will have caught up with supply, according to a top official.

Jones Mnisi, acting chief operating officer at Johannesburg Water, the public utility overseeing supply in the country's economic hub, told a recent conference on water security that the tipping point where demand outstripped supply may not be far away.

South Africa is chronically water-stressed. Although growth has slowed, an expanding economy, a growing population, and increased evaporation caused by climate change are conspiring to put additional pressures on water resources.

Yet leading experts at the conference said the situation could be addressed if the country curbed demand and improved water quality to facilitate reuse.

A paper by the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) said South Africa's water surplus had been dangerously low since at least 2000 – four years after the country began buying bulk water from the multi-dam Lesotho Highlands Water Project, built on the Senqunyane River in neighbouring Lesotho.

Although the next phase of the project, expected to be in place in 2019, could relieve some of the pressure on South Africa's water supply, it was likely to be too late, said Chris Herold, chairman of the water division of the South African Institute of Civil Engineering (SAICE).

Quantity and quality

Experts said the quality and quantity of the water supply should be better managed, and called for more investment in infrastructure. "The national water resource strategy has assumed that water demand management will happen," said Herold, "On the implementation side, some of the local authorities have not come to the party."

Anthony Turton, a former researcher at the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research, who now works as a water management consultant, predicted that South Africa would soon have to start reusing effluent, which would entail revamping infrastructure, with waste treatment plants a priority.

Water treatment plants would have to produce effluent clean enough for reuse in the industrial sector, for example switching to buying cheaper, recycled water for cooling plants, he said.

This may be harder than it sounds. Turton pointed out that 12 waste-water treatment plants, none of which function properly, were dumping effluent into the Hartbeespoort Dam on the Crocodile River, 20km southwest of Johannesburg.

Water and sanitation remain contentious issues, and government has assured South Africans that it will commit more funds to improve water infrastructure, deploy personnel to local government to oversee operations, build capacity, and ensure proper financial management.

A recent progress report card on the UN Millennium Development Goals said the country was on track for achieving access to safe drinking water and sanitation by 2015.

Bag theft at OR Tambo Airport again, still, whatever

PASSENGERS off a South African Airways flight from London to Johannesburg’s OR Tambo International Airport found their luggage had been “stripped open” and items stolen after they landed yesterday.

65 bags a day lost at OR Tambo Airport

Johannesburg radio station Talk Radio 702 reported that “passengers claimed to have waited for over an hour, only to find their belongings were tampered with, and in some cases, scattered over the conveyer belt” at the city’s airport.

Solomon Mokgale, spokesman for the Airports Company South Africa, confirmed the incident.

A passenger reportedly claimed her luggage had been “broken open and items thrown out”. The unnamed woman said “probably 40 people were affected”.

“A number of passengers said a boy, who had been playing on the conveyer belt, saw people throwing items from the bags in the area below,” the report quoted her as saying.

But Mokgale told The Times that “one passenger reported an incident and was taken to South African Airways and lodged a claim”. He said Acsa would review closed-circuit TV footage to investigate the incident further.

“We need to determine where this bag was damaged. Was it here or at the point of origin? If there are people who were involved, they will be dealt with,” said Mokgale.

In January last year, SAA announced that in an effort to stop baggage theft, the airline would be contracting Swissport International to conduct its ground-handling services.

Swissport, which had contracts to handle baggage at London’s Heathrow airport and New York’s John F Kennedy, was intended to focus on OR Tambo, Cape Town, Durban, Port Elizabeth and East London International Airports.

SAA spokeswoman Robyn Chalmers said they had received one complaint about “baggage pilferage” yesterday which they would investigate today.