Koos Kombuis skryf in ‘n rubriek in Rapport dat hy geskok is om van Amerika se geldelike probleme te hoor. Hy wonder wat die VSA se val vir die res van die wêreld sal beteken. Die einde van kapitalisme? ‘n Terugkeer na die denke van die Bushdinastie? “Wat is ons voorland: ’n geleidelike herstel en terugkeer van die waardes wat ons tot dusver as vanselfsprekend aanvaar het, of ’n totaal nuwe era van wêreldwye anargie en hopeloosheid?” vra hy:
Amerika? Bankrot? Het ons reg gehoor?
Ek was laas so geskok toe ek die eerste keer hoor my skoonpa is nie regtig ’n miljoenêr nie. (Ek sou steeds met sy dogter getrou het as ek dit geweet het, natuurlik, maar dalk eers ’n jaar of twee later.)
Mamphela Ramphele, author of Laying Ghosts to Rest, argues that the uprisings in the Middle East and North Africa confirm that “societies that ignore the aspirations of their people, especially young, energetic people, are societies at risk”.
According to Ramphele, South Africa should take note of this fact as “our young democracy is much more vulnerable and at greater risk than those established Middle Eastern countries”:
Cosatu general secretary Zwelinzima Vavi has referred to ours as a “predatory state on the way to becoming a banana republic”.
The recently released Diagnostic Report of the National Planning Commission confirms the same underlying challenges that threaten to drag us into decline.
In the following article on Politicsweb, Rhoda Kadalie argues that the West’s preoccupation with Israel has meant that human rights violations in other parts of the world have gone under the radar:
Soon after the royal wedding between Kate Middleton and Prince William, President Obama dropped a bombshell. Not wanting to steal their thunder, on 2nd May the Commander in Chief gave the order for the CIA and the US Navy SEALS to capture the world’s most notorious terrorist, Osama Bin Laden.
The capture was riveting – the stuff of movies. Executed with military precision, America’s security forces descended upon Bin Laden’s compound with stealth black hawk helicopters and within 40 minutes took custody of his body. Soon after the assassination, Obama was quick to reassure the Muslim world that Bin Laden had been buried at sea according to Muslim rites.
Who cares about a man whose acolytes brutally killed Daniel Pearl in February 2002, while filming the barbaric deed? With no regard to Jewish custom, they slit his throat, beheaded him and cut him up into ten pieces. Why give a toss about a war criminal who master-minded the deaths of thousands of people indiscriminately? Bin Laden’s fanatic Al Qaeda followers have killed thousands of Christians, Hindus and Muslims alike, held many Americans hostage, and tortured them with no regard to their religious beliefs.
In an affidavit deposed by Mamphela Ramphele for the non-profit legal advocacy Freedom Under Law (FUL), Judge John Hlophe has been accused of being “dishonest, untruthful, malicious, vindictive and driven by a political motive”. The group is asking for him to be disciplined and possibly removed from his position as Judge President.
In 2008, Hlophe was accused of trying to influence court favour in the case for President Jacob Zuma in arms-deal related cases. Ramphele, author of Laying Ghosts to Rest, says that Hlope’s conduct is “unbecoming of a judge and calculated to bring the administration of justice in South Africa into disrepute.”
Embattled Western Cape Judge President John Hlophe is facing a new “gross misconduct” complaint – this time from non-profit legal advocacy group Freedom Under Law (Ful), which wants Hlophe to be disciplined and possibly removed as a judge for what they’ve called “scandalous public utterances” about judges of the Constitutional Court.
The organisation says Hlophe is “not fit to serve the public as a judge”.
Mamphela Ramphele, author of Laying Ghosts to Rest, analyses the identity politics of the recent government elections and the power struggle over national symbols like Nelson Mandela. She argues that Mandela, the icon, belongs to all South Africans and that his legacy is bigger than any one political party:
The contest for power in the run-up to the May 18 local elections raised a very sensitive issue of the ownership of national symbols, including former president Nelson Mandela.
I had hoped that the issue would go away with the settling of the dust of political campaigning, but it is disturbing to see the persistent statements that might undermine our constitutional commitment to a society “united in its diversity”.
The secretary-general of the ANC, Gwede Mantashe, made a disconcerting statement on Justice Malala’s e.tv show last weekend that Helen Zille, as DA leader, should not be opportunistic and use Mandela’s legacy to project an image of the DA as a party living Mandela’s ideals.
Earlier this week, a United States diplomatic cable leaked to the press via WikiLeaks suggested that former SA president Thabo Mbeki was intimately involved in the formation of COPE. However, if there is one agreement to be made amongst Cope’s warring factions, it is that Thabo Mbeki did not help drafting the party’s policies. The misadventures continue:
Cope’s warring factions are united in rejecting reports that former president Thabo Mbeki helped draft the party’s policies.
On Thursday senior members of both the Mosiuoa Lekota and Mbhazima Shilowa factions were adamant that there was no substance to a secret US diplomatic note, reportedly from WikiLeaks, that claimed Mbeki was behind the formation of the breakaway party.
Sipho Ngwema, speaking for Shilowa’s faction, said Mbeki’s reported involvement in Cope remained an urban legend.
The most common reported crime against our children is rape, writes Mamphela Ramphele. South Africans have opened a Pandora’s Box in the lives of our children – and it’s time to work to close it again:
The quality of every nation is measured by the way in which it treats its children. White Ribbon Campaign, an advocacy group against child abuse, estimates that, out of South Africa’s 18.5 million children, nine million have been abused.
This statistic should be seen against the fact that we are a society with a human rights-based constitution in which the rights of the child are enshrined in our Bill of Rights.
Two weeks ago, a 15-year-old girl was reported to have had sex with two boys, a 16-year-old and a 14-year-old, in full public view of her fellow pupils on the grounds of Jules High School in Gauteng. She was reported to have been drinking alcohol and it was suggested her drink had been spiked. To add insult to injury, some of the pupils who were watching took cellphone footage of the proceedings and shared it far and wide.
South African academic and businesswoman Mamphela Ramphele says that the mining industry is a vital component to South Africa’s economic makeup – it remains one of the largest source of employment and is the largest contributor to black economic empowerment. All this and more suggests that the state will want to capitalize on the industry’s benefits to its citizens and the economy, instead it is the cause of much bickering and finger-pointing by government, trade unions and political parties. Things would be a lot better if they just “mined” their own business
The mining industry in SA is undoubtedly at the crossroads, having faced some severe headwinds over the past decade – many of which are showing no signs of easing up. If left unchallenged these storms have the potential to blow the industry off course from the undoubted potential it has for meaningful wealth creation and distribution.
It’s been a while since the Sunday Times named Julius Malema as the mampara of the week… but he’s baaa-ack! Along with his pal Fikile Mbalula, deputy minister of police, who apparently didn’t have the ANC NGC all to themselves:
You had to feel for Julius Malema this week. He really, honestly believed he could roll into the ANC’s NGC and call the shots.
Well, the shots ricocheted and he was caught in the crossfire.
The tragic death of 10 Cape Town school children was a chilling reminder to many of the general unruliness of the taxi industry. Rhoda Kadalie sees the incident as a reflection of a much bigger problem – a pervasive lawlessness within government that stems from the ranks of law enforcement right through to the highest of our eleceted officials:
NOTHING has cracked my maternal heart as much as the accident in Cape Town’s Blackheath last week, in which 10 children died as a train ploughed into the minibus taxi that illegally crossed a railway line. The taxi driver allegedly overtook a number of cars and tried to slip through the boom — fully aware that a train was on its way.
Western Cape transport MEC Robin Carlisle is rightly angry about the lawlessness of our taxis, but he, and the government generally, are not doing enough to curb the anarchy on our roads. Just travel on Main Road going to Cape Town on any given day. Taxi drivers routinely jump red lights, overtake left, right and centre, defy the rules of the road and threaten others when they show their annoyance. They have no respect for road rules because they know law enforcement seldom applies to them. Instead, law enforcement energies are concentrating on making easy money by fining drivers in the suburbs for exceeding the speed limit by 10 or 20km/h.
Koos Kombuis skryf in ‘n rubriek in Rapport dat hy geskok is om van Amerika se geldelike probleme te hoor. Hy wonder wat die VSA se val vir die res van die wêreld sal beteken. Die einde van kapitalisme? ‘n Terugkeer na die denke van die Bushdinastie? “Wat is ons voorland: ’n geleidelike herstel en terugkeer van die waardes wat ons tot dusver as vanselfsprekend aanvaar het, of ’n totaal nuwe era van wêreldwye anargie en hopeloosheid?” vra hy:
