SA’s democracy a juvenile delinquent - Max du Preez

South Africa’s democracy comes of age in four weeks’ time. Well, only technically, because it will be 21 years old, not because it’s become mature.

If the behaviour of politicians in Parliament and the Western Cape and Gauteng provincial legislatures is a yardstick, our democracy is still a juvenile delinquent.

With our bitter history and complex demography we should at least have built a strong middle ground over the last 21 years; a basic, broad consensus of the centre.

We were well on our way during the first decade after 1994. Then we started faltering, and in December 2007 we stumbled, never to get going again.

That was the occasion where the ANC fell back on its baser instincts as a liberation movement in the bush: the Polokwane conference where Jacob Zuma was used as a battering ram to topple Thabo Mbeki and the sluice gates of cheap populism, abuse of power, self enrichment and corruption were opened wide.

A clash of personalities

It was there that the embryo of Economic Freedom Fighters was formed, even though Julius Malema then still swore that he would kill for Zuma.

The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree. Two years after the formation of the EFF it is clear that the party is merely a more populist version of the ANC, born out of a power struggle and a clash of personalities.

Both parties now compete to be regarded as the real custodian of the Freedom Charter - not the constitution of 1996, but a 60 year-old document. 

(The 1955 Charter contains pleas for the abolition of farm jails and Bantu Advisory Boards and declares that “people should not be robbed of their cattle”.)

The recent revelations and allegations of Malema’s abuse of power and of party funds and his manipulation of appointments and elections further prove that he is Zuma’s political offspring.

ANC and EFF merger? 

It was telling that the ANC in the Western Cape Legislature last week copied the EFF’s tactics in Parliament.

Two days after Marius Fransman and his troops thwarted the premier’s state of the province address through meaningless points of order, absurd statements and bad behaviour, the deputy leader of the SACP and deputy minister Jeremy Cronin wrote that the EFF had behaved exactly like the Nazi minority in the German Reichstag in 1928. The EFF, writes Cronin, wants to destroy the parliamentary system from within using its own methods, using tactics like “spurious points of order”. Well, there you have it.

The SACP’s burning hatred of the EFF stems from the fact that the EFF now parades as being more socialist than the SACP and can use Marxist rhetoric much more freely. 

I wouldn’t have said this a few months ago, but today it looks likely to me that the EFF will eventually merge with the ANC. Andile Mngxitama, who was fired as an EFF MP last week (and, unlike his former colleagues, was never an ANC member) says he has proof that such talks of toenadering are already happening.

This doesn’t mean the two parties will soon start sucking up to each other (although Zuma did that during his response to the state of the nation address, after Malema called him a “hooligan president”). It is normal to play hardball during negotiations.

If the ANC ends up with less than half of the votes in Johannesburg, Pretoria and Port Elizabeth at next year’s local election, coalition governments between the ANC and EFF are definitely on the cards.

Tree of Polokwane

The scary thought is that the ANC and EFF together represent 68% of representation in Parliament, which technically means they could change the constitution.

This would probably be an EFF precondition for a merger, especially concerning the constitutional guarantees of the sanctity of private property.

We live the shadow of the Tree of Polokwane.

We should chop down that tree and remove its roots.

Suspended EFF MP Khanyisile Lichfield-Tshabalala today addressed the media at a press conference called by Andile Mngxitama. The media had expected Mngxitama to speak but it was Tshabalala who read a joint statement from the embattled party leaders.

Litchfield-Tshabalala showed no fear as she levelled accusations against the EFF president Julius Malema and his deputy Floyd Shivhambu.

“Floyd Shivambu drives a top of the range Porsche. What is a socialist leader doing living like this,” she asked.

Tshabalala also claimed that Shivambu was a regular at designer fashion store Louis Vuitton.

“How can you spend over R200 000 while there are people unemployed?” she added.

She accused both leaders of living beyond their means and using the party’s credit card for purchases such as expensive alcohol at nightclubs.

She also asked how the party leader was able to fund a R4 million wedding on an MPs salary.

“We call for a lifestyle audit of our leaders,” she said.

She added that Malema and Shivambu were the only two EFF members who did not pay 10 percent of their salaries to the party.

Tshabalala referred to a Golf 6 which was registered privately, instead of in the name of the party.

She said the owner of the company was linked to Malema and that the company's address was Malema's.

"The car is being registered in the name of the EFF. Why after the fact? Why could it not be registered in the name of the EFF when it was bought?"

She claimed that VIPs were flown to Malema's wedding in multiple helicopters.

"A leader who steals from the poor to feed his lifestyle cannot be a revolutionary," she said.

The Automobile Association warned on Tuesday that the recent drop in the fuel price might increase to 68cents per litre

File photo: Boxer Ngwenya. 
(Credit: Independent Media)

“International fuel prices have climbed by over 20 percent since the last week of January,” the AA said in a statement.

“A spike in the Rand/US Dollar exchange rate has also put pressure on the fuel price, with current data predicting a March price increase for petrol of around 68 cents a litre, with diesel and illuminating paraffin up by approximately 45 and 48 cents a litre respectively.”

In the first week of February, the price of all grades of petrol dropped by 93 cents a litre.

In early January the price of 93 and 95 octane petrol decreased by R1.27 and R1.23 a litre.

Unless there were substantial improvements in both the exchange rate and international petroleum prices, motorists could be faced with a fuel price hike at the end of the month.

“It's too early to tell whether the uptick in fuel prices is mere volatility or a sign that the bottom of the cycle has been reached,” the AA said.

ANC Chairperson Baleka Mbete says EFF are pawns of the West who want to take over SA. Mbete said ANC deployees must work hard. “If we don’t work we will continue to have cockroaches like Malema roaming all over the place”.

Baleka Mbete called on ANC branches to prepare themselves to fight the EFF in provincial legislatures and municipalities. (Paul Botes, M&G)

ANC national chairperson Baleka Mbete dug into the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) during her address to the party’s North West provincial congress on Saturday, accusing the opposition party of working with some western countries in their quest to take over South Africa. 

She further called on ANC branches to prepare themselves to fight the EFF in provincial legislatures and municipalities, where she said the EFF planned to move on to next. 

Mbete, who is also the Speaker of the National Assembly, delivered a keynote address to North West’s eighth provincial congress in her capacity as one of the ANC’s top six officials, but appeared to struggle to leave behind the drama that ensued under her watch at last Thursday’s state of the nation address (Sona), when EFF MPs were roughed up and forced out of Parliament by security personnel. This after EFF MPs demanded that President Jacob Zuma answer some questions, particularly on the upgrades at his private Nkandla home, before delivering the annual address.  

That action, said Mbete, is part of EFF’s plan to unseat Zuma’s government. “They want to – in their words – collapse Parliament so they can force this country to an early election. They want to take this country so that they must take over the mines and share them with friends they were seen gallivanting with in Europe,” she said. “My question is where will we be when they do that? Who do they think they are?”   

Mbete expressed delight at the manner in which EFF MPs were removed from the National Assembly. “The President finally delivered his address after we have had actually a beautiful opportunity to deal with those irritants”.    

She also urged branches to get ready to face EFF head-on at local level, fuelling an excited response from delegates who said they were all set for action. “Don’t ever think what’s happening in Parliament has got nothing to do with you in branches. Those thugs there are going to come to provinces to run a similar campaign, not only in legislatures but also in municipalities,” she said. “You must teach our children not to be misled by those wearing red overalls. Those people (EFF) are not working with people of this country alone, they are pawns in a bigger scheme of things where some western governments are involved”. 

She said western countries – that she did not name – had an issue with Zuma running the country because he was “a stubborn, rural man from Nkandla who is stubborn and committed to ANC policies. How can a rural man sit with them on international structures?” she asked.   

She then accused the media of working with those who want Zuma to leave his job and sustaining the narrative that the ANC has done nothing since it began leading the government.   

As part of her strategy to weaken EFF, Mbete said ANC deployees must work hard. “If we don’t work we will continue to have cockroaches like Malema roaming all over the place”.   

Mbete told North West delegates that the ANC and its MPs “knew everything” EFF had planned for Thursday’s state of the nation address because they were tired of being caught by surprise. “We knew everything, including what the red overalls discussed. We knew who was going to stand first and what they were going to say”. 

This could explain why Mbete had a readily available, brief, written question on Nkandla that she read out on Thursday night.   

In her long speech to the North West congress Mbete also made time to speak against corruption, claiming in the process that she didn’t know anything about tenders. “There is something called tender. I don’t know how it works, but it has really brought out the worst in us”. The ANC was not being given enough credit, she said, for its corruption fighting efforts. 

“It is not that the ANC arrived and introduced corruption. After 1994 it became clear that there was a culture of having a smart way of eating money. It’s the ANC that decided this corruption must be dealt with,” she said.   

Mbete also called for younger ANC members to give the party’s veterans an opportunity to lead. “There’s a tendency of marginalising veterans in the ANC. Let us value the history that is vested in this group of people”.   

The ANC in the North West will today nominate and probably elect additional members to serve on the provincial executive committee.

Zuma is corruption 'champion' - Malema

(File: Sapa)

President Jacob Zuma is a "champion of corruption", EFF leader Julius Malema said on Friday.

Briefing journalists in Cape Town a day after he and his fellow EFF MPs were forcibly evicted from Parliament during Zuma's State of the Nation address, he said more than R60bn had disappeared in South Africa through corrupt activities, and there was no accountability.

"Why should there be accountability when you've got a sitting president himself being a champion of corruption?"

ANC politicians were "hell bent" on maintaining the status quo because they were benefiting from corruption.

"Why would you want a most clever president, who is not corrupt, because the most stupid president, who is corrupt, will never hold you accountable for your corrupt activities.

"Because he knows that he himself is corrupt. So it's not like these people in the ANC do not see that their president is corrupt. They are aware, but because they are a group of corrupt people, they are unable to call each other to order."

Malema referred to what he called a corruption crisis in South Africa, including "profit shifting and transfer pricing".

He suggested the solution lay in transferring the land owned by whites to the country's indigenous people.

"[It is] a crisis that should be confronted through a very clear passing of legislation which will transfer property into the hands of our people, and change the colonial patterns of property ownership in South Africa.

"But the ANC has been very scared to take that decision because they are leading and representing those who exploit us."

On the electricity crisis at Eskom, he said government lacked the capacity to solve the problem because of corruption.

"The current government lacks the capacity to deliver electricity, and when asked questions they blame it on apartheid."

Yet the ANC had published a document in the early 1990s titled "Ready to Govern".

Malema said they should have seen then that there was a crisis coming.

"They are talking about apartheid because they are unable to confront those who are given a responsibility to build power stations for us.

"They are unable to do so because they are in business with those people. They have got a generally corrupt relationship with people who are given tenders to build power stations, and as a result they are unable to intervene."

Malema then turned his attention to the judiciary, saying it was worrisome that some judges - not the majority of them - were "part of this corruption".

He said the EFF was concerned about the judiciary.

"Everything else in South Africa has been corrupted. Everything, including the church, has been corrupted. The only thing that is still showing some signs of neutrality and objectivity is the judiciary.

"If we lose the judiciary, we are gone."

DJ Gareth Cliff and government spokesman in #Sona2015 Twitter war

Mayihlome Tshwete
Image by: Pic: KARL ROGERS © Business Day Wanted

Gareth Cliff. 
Image by: Photo: Waldo Swiegers. (C) Sunday Times.

The build-up to the State of the Nation Address didn't only bring out the ugly within the EFF, and rival parties against President Jacob Zuma. There was also a brutal twar between Gareth Cliff and Home Affairs spokesman Mayihlome Tshwete minutes before Zuma stepped up to deliver his speech. 

It all began when Cliff, whose comments have ruffled many a feather, took on Tshwete (another who's adept at slugging it out on the microblogging site), who had said, "It's about time we start behaving like we govern this country, being nice and liberal hasn't worked".

Cliff replied, calling him an "underachiever", and wondering why he was feeling "more entitled than usual today".

Twitter timelines quickly resembled an abattoir, as neither wanted to surrender.

This is how it played out:

• @MTshwete: "@GarethCliff entitlement is what happens when a minority believes their pleasures outweighs the grievances of the masses".

• @GarethCliff: "@MTshwete I don't know if your opinion is representative of anyone but yourself. I speak for neither a majority nor minority".

• @GarethCliff: "@MTshwete and by the way... Belonging to the ANC political elite does mean you're in a minority, and oligarchy".

• @MTshwete: "@GarethCliff I would swap that any day with your economic of privilege of generations who benefitted from crimes against humanity".

• @GarethCliff:" @MTshwete I wouldn't".

• @MTshwete: "@GarethCliff we want what you have, economic freedom. Then we can go around celebrating people's deaths".

• @GarethCliff: "@MTshwete There's a lot I have that you want, and surprisingly little of it is material. Don't be so insecure publicly, it's undignified".

• @MTshwete: "@GarethCliff :) I am grossly insecure, financially & otherwise, & it's mostly because people like u perpetuate the racism of your fathers".

• @MTshwete: "@GarethCliff how Africans achieve whatever they achieve don't sit there waiting your approval . Stop being an authority on these issues".

When other users chipped in and told the pair to "tolerate" each other, Tshwete said "we have, he [Cliff] hasn't"

EFF's Shivambu says: Next time we will be armed

(Greg Nicolson via Twitter)

Economic Freedom Fighters MP Floyd Shivambu on Thursday evening warned the EFF will be armed the next time parliamentary protection officers confront them.

"They obviously manhandled all of us. Next time, we will be armed," he said as he walked to the steps of the National Assembly in the rain.

He joined a group of EFF MPs and supporters dancing and chanting "pay back the money".

EFF leader Julius Malema and some of his MPs had earlier interrupted President Jacob Zuma's State of the Nation address to Parliament.

After being repeatedly asked to leave the House, they were eventually removed by security officers.

Malema told journalists: "We have got it on good authority that those were the presidential protection unit. We are not going anywhere. We are part of their Parliament."

He accused government of responding to political issues not with "political answers but security apparatus".

National Council of Provinces chairperson Thandi Modise explained the presiding officers had a right to call in security.

Fist fights broke out between EFF MPs and parliamentary officers, both in the Chamber and outside in the corridor.

The EFF's hard hats flew across the benches as the MPs were removed.

"They started with [Godrich Gardee]. They hit him first," said EFF Western Cape chairperson Bernard Joseph.

EFF MP Emmanuel Mtileni said officers manhandled him.

"They grabbed me, they even moered [hit] me," he said, pointing to his cheekbone.

Officers dragged the MPs towards the Old Assembly and linked hands to bar journalists from going down the stairs.

Mtileni remonstrated with riot police, saying "How can you do that to us? Zuma stole your money too. How can you hit us?"

EFF spokesperson Mbuyiseni Ndlozi said he was grabbed by the throat.

"I don't know whether they choked me but they cut my voice for a while," he said.

According to Ndlozi, some of his colleagues were injured.

Foreigners won't be allowed to own South African land - they can lease it

(Shutterstock)

Foreign nationals will not be allowed to own land in South Africa, but will be for long term lease, President Jacob Zuma said on Thursday.

In his State of the Nation address he said a bill in this regard will be submitted this year.

On land reform he said more than 36 00 land claims have been launched nationally and the cut off date is 2019.

"We are also exploring the 50-50 policy framework on rights for people who live and work on farms."

Zuma said 50 farming enterprises will be identified as pilot projects.

"In terms of our new proposed laws, a ceiling will be set on 12 000 hectares.

In future foreigners "will not be able to own land in South Africa" but could lease it, Zuma said.

Although this policy position has been mulled over by the ruling party, it was widely expected until tonight that foreigners would be restricted only.

The ANC recent suggested - through its secretary general Gwede Mantashe - the local farmers would be restricted to 12 000 hectare farm holdings, but the abolition of foreign land ownership in future was a surprise announcement.

Zuma also said the office of the Valuer General would be up and running in the year ahead. This would mark the end to the "willing-buyer, willing-seller" process of land reform.

The office would be involved in valuing land for expropriation from farmers, it is envisaged, although Zuma did not go into details in his state of the nation speech.

Ebola cases on the rise for 2nd month - World Health Organization

(File: Sapa)

The number of new Ebola cases in West Africa rose for the second week running after a previous falls, including a "sharp increase" in Guinea, the World Health Organisation said on Wednesday.

Nearly 9 000 people have died from the epidemic, the WHO said while admitting that it was impossible to give a precise number as the outcomes of some cases remained unknown.

All but 15 of the fatalities have happened in the worst-affected West African countries of Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea.

In the week up to 8 February a total of 144 new cases were registered, compared to 124 the previous week.

"Guinea reported a sharp increase in incidence, with 65 new confirmed cases compared with 39 the week before," the WHO said in its report.

Transmission also remains "widespread" in Sierra Leone, which reported 76 new confirmed cases.

Liberia again reported a low number of new confirmed cases, just three over the week in question.

Last week Britain's Wellcome Trust said that clinical trials it was funding for a new Ebola treatment in Liberia had been halted due to the fall in new cases.

Ebola, one of the deadliest viruses known to man, is spread through direct contact with the bodily fluids of an infected person showing symptoms such as fever or vomiting.

People caring for the sick or handling corpses are at highest risk, and the disease is best contained by limiting exposure through patient isolation and safe burials.

A drop in new cases in recent weeks had given rise to optimism that the worst was over, before the WHO last week reported the first rise for 2015 in the weekly number of cases in all three countries.

"The spike in cases in Guinea and continued widespread transmission in Sierra Leone underline the considerable challenges that must still be overcome to get to zero cases," the WHO said in its latest report.

"The infrastructure, systems, and people needed to end the epidemic are now in place; response measures must now be fully implemented," it added.

The International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement on Wednesday denounced a series of violent attacks on its volunteers battling the deadly Ebola epidemic in Guinea.

The world's largest humanitarian network said the latest case involved two burial workers who were beaten up on Sunday by a mob in the western town of Forecariah.

BOBBY BROWN HAS BEEN TOLD TO PULL THE PLUG to allow his little girl to go and be with The Lord.

After a terrible few days for the Brown family, it is reported that there is not much left to do to save the life of Bobbi Kristina. 

According to TMZ, the doctors at Emory University Hospital told her father Bobby Brown it’s time to end life support and it is up to Brown when he wants to do so. 

The 21-year-old daughter of Whitney Houston and Bobby Brown has been in a medically induced coma since Saturday (Jan. 31), when she was found unconscious in her bathtub. 

Making today’s news even more upsetting -- today is Brown’s birthday. TMZ reports he does not want to make the decision until after the weekend, as he is still hopeful she can pull through. 

Our prayers are with the Brown family at this terrible time.

'Who made Thuli God?' Deputy Minister of Justice and Constitutional Development John Jeffery has slammed what he said was an attempt to turn the office of Public Protector Thuli Madonsela into a quasi-judicial body with immense powers.

"Surely the public protector is not a quasi-judicial body," he said. "[Her] powers are to investigate, and make findings and recommendations, and put them into the public domain. It is in the public domain that the action must be taken."

Speaking during a debate on Madonsela's powers hosted by the Law Society of SA at the University of Pretoria yesterday, Jeffery argued that the public protector would wield too much power if her findings were to be binding.

"[Madonsela] is essentially an investigator, prosecutor and judge all rolled into one. That is quite unheard of in our law.

"If [her] findings are binding, maybe we need to do away with a lot of the courts," he said.

Jeffery said he was surprised that there had been no debate on the powers of the public protector until the release of Madonsela's findings on the R246-million "security upgrading" of President Jacob Zuma's Nkandla homestead with public money.

He said Madonsela's predecessor, Selby Baqwa, had said that the Chapter 9 institution's findings were not legally binding.

With the exception of Madonsela, the panellists in the debate - retired Constitutional Court judge Zak Yacoob, Wits School of Law deputy head Mtende Mhango and the executive secretary of the Council for the Advancement of the SA Constitution, Lawson Naidoo - agreed that the public protector's findings were not legally binding.

Madonsela argued that a public protector's findings were binding - unless set aside by a court of law. The courts' duty, as was the protector's, was to the constitution, she said.

Yacoob qualified his opinion by saying that, although Madonsela's findings were not legally binding, the state was bound by the constitution to assist and protect Chapter 9 institutions.

"These institutions are not accountable to the government, as much as the government might wish it to were so; they are accountable to parliament and only to parliament," he said.

Naidoo said the country would be on "a slippery slope" if the executive ignored Madonsela's findings.

SOUTH AFRICA – We are receiving reports that talented South African music producer Bojo Mujo has died. He is best know for hits like Summer Rain, Hlonolofatsa and Thando Lwami among many others.

Bojo Mujo

His death comes as a double blow to the South African entertainment industry coming on the same day as the death of Zimbabwe born SABC Top Billing presenter Simba Mhere.

“He passed peacefully at Pretoria 5h00 AM after a short illness surrounded by family… Bojo Mujo’s first love was to make people dance. Although he is no longer with us, his music will live among his fans forever (sic),” his manager Sello Lehlake said.

Although Bojo Mujo’s music was widely consumed in townships and rural areas, his talent was seldom recognized especially in the mainstream media. But that seemed not to bother the multi-platinum seller.

“It does not bother me. Because I am not famous I have the freedom to go wherever I want. I get recognition through my sales and gigs. Fame means I can be in bad mood when I’m in public,” he told Tonight in 2009.

Just where did Bojo Mujo, aka Jack Lehlake, get his name from?

“In the Antonio Banderas film, Desperado, the baddie who turned out to be Antonio’s brother was named Bucho. I wanted the mojo that Bucho had and thought to myself that I was going to use that guy’s name in the future,” he said in a 2009 interview.

“In 2001, when I first became serious about recording music, I went under the name Bujo Mojo, but everyone got it wrong. They called me Bojo Mujo so I just stuck with it.”