SA rocks... that's the fact

I attended an AGM of the South African National Editors’ Forum (Sanef) in Durban on Saturday.

Later that day Sanef had its annual Nat Nakasa Award ceremony. The event was attended by the likes of President Jacob Zuma and CEOs of Cell C (whose network has rendered me almost unreachable) and Standard Bank.

It was the Cell C CEO Lars Reichelt, a foreign national who’s been here for three months, who raised an important point about people’s perception of our country. He said when he accepted the CEO position people back home warned him about relocating to a “very dangerous” South Africa. But Reichelt said all these fears were unfounded as SA had proved to be an awesome country. The man couldn’t stop singing SA’s praises, adding that the real problem was the PR (public relations) aspect, in terms of marketing and selling the country.

This reminded me of British motoring guru Jeremy Clarkson saying in his column that the perception of crime in the country, especially in Joburg, is blown out of proportion. This, according to me, raises a serious question whether we are eternal pessimists who fail to see any good in our country. My answer is that some concerns, such as crime and rape, are valid and that we ought to express our views on this freely, without seeking to cover them up for the sake of the image of SA.

The problem arises when certain South Africans make it their mission to portray our country as a generally horrible nation. Yes we have a few criminal and bad elements, but overall SA is a beautiful, vibrant and exciting country. Let’s do our bit by making our rainbow nation, despite its challenges, work. SA rocks… period!

Madiba-Zuma combination - did it work?

Nelson Mandela and Jacob Zuma at an ANC rally in the Eastern Cape. Picture: Daily Dispatch.


THERE was a brouhaha when former president and liberation icon Nelson Mandela openly endorsed and ruling party's election campaign ahead of the April 22.


So dear bloggers and citizens of the interactive space let's have your views on Madiba's decision to back the ANC of President Jacob Zuma. Was it the right thing or the wrong thing to do? What impact do you think Mandela's backing of the ANC had on the outcome of the election?



Do you think Madiba willingly or reluctantly endorsed the governing party? Let's talk... what's on your mind? Come one, spit it out in the name of freedom of expression...

ANC lost race, now sees racism

Democratic Alliance leader Helen Zille. Picture: Sourced from the Democratic Alliance's website

SO the ANC and its allies are saying racist elements voted DA into power in the Western Cape.

Simply put this is mumbo jumbo of highest order. The DA wrestled the Cape from the ruling party in a democratic process. The ANC must blame itself for losing the province… the party was too busy engaged in internal fighting instead of coming up with a winning election stratagem.

Of course the DA is mainly backed by white folk, but that does not mean they are all driven by racism in their support of the DA. The same applies to the ANC – its supporters are mainly black. It does not mean that all ANC supporters hate white people. In a nutshell, the ANC is in power by virtue of its overwhelming black support in a country whose population is overwhelmingly black. So voting along racial lines is a reality and it’s everyone’s democratic right to do so.

The coloured folk hold the key in the Western Cape. So, it’s obvious most of them voted for DA to be in government in that province. Does their choice make them racists? No, they just had it with the ruling party and decided to give the DA a chance. Whether coloured folk consider themselves to be white or black is another issue!

The ANC’s youth wing keeps on saying DA leader and Western Cape Premier Helen Zille is racist. Can we please have some proof of this serious allegation? Young Communist League national secretary Buti Manamela charges that Zille wants to turn the province into Orania, that little explicitly racist Afrikaner enclave in the Northern Cape. Manamela what informs such an outrageous statement?

The ANC must come to terms with reality… the DA won fair and square in the Western Cape. The ANC lost the race, now sees racism!

Mandela Day deserves backing

Former President Nelson Mandela and Human Settlements Minister Tokyo Sexwale. Picture: Cedric Mboyisa

It’s about time we had a day dedicated to our Jesus Christ, former President Nelson Mandela. We all ought to be fully behind the Mandela Day campaign.

I dare to say no man or woman in the history of this rainbow nation has played a greater role than our own Madiba. Just like Jesus, he was born to save us from the shackles of poverty, suppression and destruction. We are forever indebted to Mandela. It’s our duty, and that of future generations, to preserve his name for eternities. Mandela belongs to all of us, not just the ruling party. Had it not been for Mandela we could have had bloodshed, civil war and ethnic cleansing of some sort in our country.

God bless Mandela. Let his birthday be declared Mandela Day, not only in South Africa but all over the world. There is no one like Madiba. He is a true icon and an inspirational giant.

ANC to rule until Jesus comes back?

Will the ANC rule until Jesus Christ come back or will the Son of Man come too soon for the ruling party?

There’s no doubt that the ANC enjoys an overwhelming monopoly on South African politics. In the April 22 general elections it emerged runaway winners taking 65.9% of the votes. So the question arises… are the country’s opposition parties effective in getting their message across to the electorate?

If truth be told only the Democratic Alliance is proving to be a force to be reckoned with. Other smaller opposition parties, such as the United Democratic Movement and African Christian Democratic Party, are simply making up the numbers. With such fragmented opposition parties, the ruling party will always be laughing all the way to power election after election.

The ANC also has its liberation credentials to thank for its continued decisive backing. Although the ruling party has to be credited for changing SA for better since 1994, the same party has failed quite a number of rural and township communities. My village, Gcilima in KwaZulu-Natal, is in a shocking state in terms of development. But amazingly the villagers continue to vote for the ANC. Why is this? It is because opposition parties are not making adequate efforts to attract votes from rural areas.

What the country needs to break the ANC monopoly is a party that offers real alternative, not just opposition parties obsessed with attacking individuals instead of dealing with issues of substance. Current opposition parties are complicit in keeping the ANC in power with such a convincing majority. The electorate must start moving away from voting along racial lines.

So unless there is a dramatic change in our political landscape, it seems Jesus will find the ANC in power upon his second coming.

Mshini wami just not presidential

ANC leader Jacob Zuma belts out his trademark song Mshini Wami on the last day of the 2007 Polokwane conference. Picture: Cedric Mboyisa

Awulethe uMshini Wami (“Bring Me My Machine Gun”) is synonymous with ANC leader Jacob Zuma.

The liberation song characterised Zuma's ascendancy to the party's top position. He used it as he faced his “trials and tribulations” en route to trouncing former president Thabo Mbeki in Polokwane. It was clear that JZ's trademark song was aimed at those perceived to be behind a plot to derail his political ambitions. JZ even added his bit to the liberation song, saying Musa Ukungibambezela (“Stop delaying or deferring me”).

Former ANC chairman Mosioua “Terror” Lekota and others disapproved of Mshini Wami, saying it was more like a war cry and irrelevant in the current dispensation. But JZ and his supporters continued singing it anyway, especially at ANC rallies and events. In fact JZ has become some sort of a superstar for his peculiar rendition of the popular liberation song.

But methinks that Zuma, the President, ought not to sing such a song. Mshini Wami is clearly an ANC song, and should be sung in events or at gatherings associated with the ruling party. It's totally unpresidential for Zuma to belt out this song in his capacity as the head of state. It does not matter whether Mr President is egged on by or prompted by people, as was the case when he recently visited Bafana Bafana, to sing or join in singing Mshini Wami.

So please, Mr President don't sing Mshini Wami in your capacity as the SA's first citizen. But you can have a blast singing it as the leader of the ruling party.

From accused to President

Former President Thabo Mbeki and President Jacob Zuma at the tension-filled 2007 ANC Polokwane conference. Picture: Cedric Mboyisa

Some thought it would never happen. Perhaps it is one of the most remarkable political comebacks that the country has ever seen.

Rewind to June 2005, it seemed near impossible that one Jacob Zuma would be President one day. Here is the man dismissed as the country’s Deputy President after Judge Hilary Squires convicted his former financial advisor Schabir Shaik of fraud. The two were found to have had a relationship which could be summed up as being a “mutually beneficial symbiosis”. To this day it remains a mystery why Zuma was never charged with Shaik. One wonders whether this was merely a mistake on the part of the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA), or whether it was a ploy to keep Zuma out of the dock while subjecting him to a court of public opinion. We all know that the NPA (through former boss Bulelani Ngcuka, he of tapegate) had earlier professed to have a prima facie case against Zuma. In law, if you have a prima facie case the next step is to prosecute, without fear or favour if I may add. Yet in its weird wisdom the NPA chose to charge Zuma with corruption, relating to the controversial multi-billion rand arms deal, after the conviction of Shaik.

The man from Nkandla seemed to be well on his way out. His rape trial seemed to be a final nail in his political coffin. Only a handful of the high-profile ANC figures chose to been seen publicly supporting him. Many opted to avoid him like a plague, because at the time former president Thabo Mbeki had considerable power and influence as the leader of the ruling party. It was an open secret that the two comrades had become foes. Zuma’s corruption trial and rape acquittal provided him and his supporters with ammunition to stage a spectacular comeback which would in two years result in an embarrassing dethroning of Mbeki. The gloves were off; it was Mbeki the intellectual versus Zuma the uneducated strategist.

Then Polokwane happened. We are where we are today because of the December 2007 ANC conference. The ANC delegates from nine provinces made it unambiguously clear that Zuma would become the head of state, irrespective of his on-and-off corruption trial. With Mbeki out of the way, the Zumates went about consolidating power in the ruling party.

No doubt, the big target of the Zuma ANC cleansing project was Mbeki. The opportunity to get rid of Mbeki duly presented itself when Judge Chris Nicholson inferred that Robert Mugabe’s ally had had a hand in the criminal prosecution of his nemesis, Zuma. The ANC national executive committee wasted no time in “recalling” Mbeki just a few months shy of his second presidential five-year term. Although the Supreme Court of Appeal rubbished Nicholson’s judgment, it later emerged that indeed known Mbekites (in the form of Ngcuka and former Scorpions boss Leonard McCarthy) had actually manipulated and abused legal process to victimise Zuma and undermine his presidential ambitions.

We will never know whether Zuma is corrupt or not. This is all thanks to some rogue elements in the NPA who made it impossible, although this is debatable, to prosecute Zuma due to the irreparably tainted nature of his discontinued prosecution. Even if the NPA had opted to continue its prosecution of Zuma, in all likelihood the damning spy tapes would have got him off the hook through a permanent stay of prosecution application. What we have now is a President who is neither guilty nor innocent.

So now it is up to Zuma to prove that he is a true leadership material, despite his many flaws. Whether we like it or not, we have to accept and respect the outcome of a democratic process. The electorate put Zuma in power in an emphatic fashion. But can he deliver? Is he really a champion of the poor he purports to be? Will he tirelessly fight corruption as he has promised? Is he good for SA?