Legalize it...

...don't criticize it. As the Peter Tosh song goes.

Luckily for South Africans we are almost there due to the Constitutional Court agreeing that this is a private, personal choice.

Maybe now SARS can plug that 50 Billion hole in the budget if they can get the tax regime around dealing right and allow this indigenous plant to be commercialized.

Of course there are other benefits as well, but we want to know what will happen to the at least 180 000 persons in jail for smoking the reefer? A couple of pardons may be in order - first of which should go to Ras Gareth Prince for his exemplary work.

In the meantime, head on over to Fields of Green, unless you want to try your hand at home cultivation.

Overwhelming Majority a bit Iffy

Fascinating reading, provided you don't mind the numbers, but we made it easy.

"1994: Of the 23 063 910 eligible voters, 85.53 percent (19 726 610) voted while the remaining 14.47 percent (3 337 300) stayed away. The ANC received support from 53.01 percent (12 237 655) of the eligible voting population.

1999: Of the 25 411 573 eligible voters, 62.87 percent (15 977 142) voted while the remaining 37.13 percent (9 434 431) stayed away. The ANC received support from 41.72 percent (10 601 330) of the eligible voting population.

2004: Of the 27 994 712 eligible voters, 55.77 percent (15 612 671) voted while the remaining 44.23 percent (12 382 041) stayed away. The ANC received support from 38.87 percent (10 880 917) of the eligible voting population.

2009: Of the 30 224 145 eligible voters, 59.29 percent (17 919 966) voted while the remaining 40.71 percent (12 304 179) stayed away. The ANC received support from 38.55 percent (11 650 748) of the eligible voting population.

2014: Of the 31 434 035 eligible voters, 59.34 percent (18 654 457) voted while the remaining 40.66 percent (12 779 578) stayed away.

The ANC received support from 36,39 percent (11 436 921) of the eligible voting population."

The will of ‘the people’? Not really - Pretoria News | Opinion

Car guards and Contracts

I don't believe in car guards, that is to say I can see them when shopping and believe that they exist and appear with outstretched hand and idiot smile before me. But I do not believe in the concept.

When you park your car at a shopping centre with hundreds of other people coming and going, sometimes behind booms with the option to pay a fee, why should you have another person standing around looking after your car?

Do you not trust in the alarm/immobilizer and/or gear lock/steering lock already fitted and used?

If you are paying for the privilege of leaving your car unattended for an hour or two in any case, why pay someone else as well?

I know how to reverse and can see pretty well, so no need for directions either; most of the time the car guard is in my way when I am trying to leave.

A contract is not agreed upon by simply responding to a greeting from a stranger when you get out and lock your car, neither did you accept that the little help provided by waving arms and indicating that you are in fact reversing is a binding agreement, so why pay anything at all?

We are dealing with an unsolicited, unwanted, misleading and false sense of security. What will the stranger without any weapons do when someone really tries to steal your car or belongings? Wave his hands around? Blow a whistle? By that time it is already too late.

We don't need anyone at the shopping centres, but in the suburbs closer to homes or schools, or on highway on-ramps where people get hijacked. This would be a better deterrent than a silly sign to tell you it is a hijacking hotspot. That serves only to indicate to the criminals where to find easy pickings.

And the cherry on the cake for me? If you are planning to do any kind of guarding, you must be registered with a professional body and have a security grade by law.

Fifty bucks says that the stranger in the day-glo vest doesn't even know this, much less that he can provide proof.

Guptaprinzip

It appears that a new bread of ideology is being developed in South African politics, one where you are not responsible at all for any actions of your underlings, provided you didn't know.

Even if close to 200 of those same government officials were involved. 

The following from our friends at Wikipedia:

"The ideology of the Führerprinzip sees each organization as a hierarchy of leaders, where every leader (Führer, in German) has absolute responsibility in his own area, demands absolute obedience from those below him and answers only to his superiors. This required obedience and loyalty even over concerns of right and wrong."

Maybe what worked for Germany does not work for South Africa, even though the same '...obedience and loyalty even over concerns of right and wrong.' seems to have taken hold, but in a different, warped way.

We can call this the Guptaprinzip, and define it as blind faith that your underlings will do the right thing, and if they don't then you are not responsible, if you didn't know.

Thus you don't have to take responsibility or admit that your department is broken, so long as a scape goat can be found that is responsible.

What really makes for fun reading is the government claim now that the Waterkloof Air Force Base is not a national key point, but a strategic military base. It is the busiest SAAF airbase in the country which hosts 21 Squadron responsible for VIP transport - including the presidents own jet. But no, that means it is only strategic, whereas his house in Nkandla is a national key point.

How does these two disparate facts agree in any ones mind? The Guptaprinzip applies once again, because we said so.

Because we allowed the Gupta family access and provided transport and protection without telling customs, it does not mean that they were given preferential treatment or that we are fallible or make mistakes, or that there will be any repercussions, because we didn't know, see?

I am reminded of a Shaggy song, that can apply even in this situation, it wasn't me, I didn't know, I wasn't told - therefore I am blameless.

The Guptaprinzip.

Hof toe, want die einde is naby

We will qoute this story verbatim, it is just too weird.

 

Hoofregter Mogoeng Mogoeng het gister ’n “uiters dringende aansoek” ontvang vir ’n bevel deur die konstitusionele hof om ’n “ondersoekende taakspan” aan te stel na die bewering dat die wêreld op 21 Desember gaan vergaan.

Daar is ook “’n dringende behoefte” dat ’n nuwe staatsdepartement gevestig word om voorbereidings vir volgende Vrydag te tref.

Dit kan die departement van die “paranormale en esoteriese wetenskappe” genoem word, voer Robert Sefatsa (38) van Soweto aan in sy stukke, wat by Mogoeng ingedien is.

Hy sê volgens die Maja-kalender val die oordeelsdag op 21 Desember en dit vereis dat Suid-Afrika en alle lande ter wêreld op ’n gereedheidsgrondslag geplaas word.

Hy meen ’n kommissie van ondersoek na die Maja-kalender moet uit onder andere geoloë, statistici, astronome, ekonome en buite-ruimtelike tegnoloë bestaan. Dit moet binne 120 uur aangestel word om die regering oor die Maja-kalender in te lig.

Voorts moet ’n taakspan in gereedheid gebring word om aspekte soos lug- en seelogistiek, ontruiming en hervestiging te kan koördineer as die wêreld inderdaad op 21 Desember vergaan. Sefatsa vra ook dat alle staats- en private instellings gedwing word om betyds “evaluasies” te doen in geval van “’n kosmiese oorgang”.

Mogoeng oorweeg die aansoek.

 

Not a scam or a joke..click the link.

Hof toe, want die einde is naby

Calvinistic Tribalism

The Marikana tragedy and the ongoing strikes in the mining industry has highlighted a recurring issue in South Africa.

If you read the history of Southern Africa, there has always been wars and arguments over land and resources, the Mfecane lasted 25 years and resulted in an almost complete depopulation of large areas of land.

Then the missionaries came and further fomented and ingrained the tribal identity/hate in the region to the point that we now have smaller tribes of a much bigger variety.

Whether along the traditional ethnic, linguistic, racial or the newer political or trade union lines; we still have the same tribal mentality which was fucked up beyond repair by the silver-tongued missionaries.

I blame them for their misguided attempts at stamping out the traditional beliefs and the results that we are still experiencing.

I cannot be bothered to look up the verse, but you know the one: 'If you are not with us, you are against us.'

This ridiculous black and white mentality has been taught so that it is no longer a sin to take up arms and kill those that oppose you in any way. That is why we have fights and arguments, violent strikes and killings.

Coupled with the traditional tribal beliefs, is it any wonder that people get murdered?

In Marikana the police were opposed to the strikers, they instantly became enemies due to this stupid and idiotic 'us versus them' mentality. The strikes that turn violent do so for exactly this same reason. Once opposed, even if you are in the wrong, you have to retaliate.

Without a huge, concerted effort to recognise and accept differences, I doubt that we will make any headway and the killings will continue.
 

Can, but will?

The latest campaign posters of the ANC seems to be hinting an equal bit Obama and desperation.

Together We Can !

Notice how the Comrades have moved from a specific promise (better life for all) to a more generic 'We Can..'.

But based on their track record, will they?

Anyone can do anything, but will they? And can does not imply being good at it either, as has been proven more than once.

And we cannot help but be a bit cynical about the 'Together build better Communities' bit either.

'Comrades, if the people do not vote and complain about little things like electricity and water, then we say to them: You did not vote, so we can not build your better community, because we were supposed to do it together, see?' 

But when the communities want their own representatives, or less corruption in the municipalities, more service from the people they elected, the ANC comes back and says, that 'The Honorable Comrade is being deployed, we do not work together to see what you want, we tell you because you voted and gave us the power, see?'

(We suppose they had a few extra letters left over from chanting A-N-C at the Scrabble meetings to decide which ridiculous excuse they will use for the next corruption/spying/powerplay expose and thought to use them on the posters, the rest came easy...)

Don't shoot the Boner

Rather give him a bitch slap and tell him to wake up, or at least have his coffee a bit earlier in the day before acting rashly.

Throwing tickets in a river does not accomplish anything and is very far from constructive debate and not much of a protest either. That is of course if you did do the same and the supposed 'river' wasn't actually your loo.

We would suggest next time that the press gets called so that at least the act can be captured on film and a relevant sound bite added so that you are not misquoted or taken out of context, as happened in this case.

The article in question and the interview with Bono actually reads:

"I was a kid and I'd sing songs I remember my uncles singing . . . rebel songs about the early days of the Irish Republican Army," he said, proceeding to sing a song whose lyrics spoke of carrying guns and readying them for action.
"We sang this and it's fair to say it's folk music . . . as this was the struggle of some people that sang it over some time," he told the newspaper.
But the rocker went on to say such songs shouldn't be sung in the wrong context.
"Would you want to sing that in a certain community? It's pretty dumb," he said.
"It's about where and when you sing those songs. There's a rule for that kind of music."

So that brings us once again to the context question. We fully support the banning of the Shoot the Boer song, from public gatherings and public forms and spaces. Purely from a practical viewpoint as well as a reasonable compromise.

As much as we don't see a place for it in post-Apartheid South Africa, it will not be possible to police in any way otherwise. Public gatherings and places are accessible to all and therefore there will be a certain deterrent, but you cannot control what is being said behind private doors.

Allowing songs such as these in a private space is not much worse than what is already being discussed over the fire at any AWB or Boeremag gathering. It cannot be denied that there are certain things that you will discuss and talk about with your friends, you also use certain terms that you would not repeat to your colleagues, boss or parents.

It is only the definition of what is private versus public space which can be debated in this case, which is pretty obvious and with very little leeway for interpretation.

Then the Boners who think that their grand act of throwing little pieces of paper into water will also be silenced so that we do not have to hear them whine, and then apologise for misunderstanding.

Night of the Long Bullshit

With Madiba in hospital and the world press waiting to see what happens next, we are sure that the same old crap has been going around on email again.


We also reckon that the guys at Stormfront are having a field day, if it wasn't that they were out shopping for candles and canned food.

But to get back to the title of this post, The Night of the Long Knives, or operation Hummingbird as it is also known, already took place under Nazi rule in Germany in the 1930's, so even the name is a rehash. If you prefer the other term, Uhuru, it is either a reggae band from Jamaica or the Swahili word for freedom.

You must have received the email at least once, telling the story about how the Swart Gevaar! are waiting for Madiba to pass away before rising up and slaughtering all the white people, woman and children included.

But what about other race groups and foreigners? If you skim the news there has been more violence against people from other African countries than other Race Groups, no matter what the Freedom Front (there's that word again) wants you to believe about farm murders. Will there be special attention or special dispensation? What if you don't want to join, do you also get murdered then and another embassy have to get involved?

Now, have you seen your gardener, domestic or factory worker skulking around with a panga or AK47 today? Just watch out tomorrow, and the next, and the next and so on, until Madiba gets out of hospital.

Because the moment he does not and gets driven away in a hearse, the Swart Gevaar! will come. (Unless they have to quickly pop home to go and fetch the panga because it started getting ridiculous carrying it around. And they will probably ask you for extra taxi fare as there is no way that any taxi driver will allow free rides, no matter the purpose.)

Pathetic as it may sound, some people believe it, but let's consider for a bit.

At this point Mandela is a trending topic on Twitter, the CNN regularly switches over to Milpark hospital, Google is awash and the whole world is watching. Then if he should pass away, we will have a state funeral with more coverage than when Princess Diana died.

With that kind of exposure, what will be the result if the Swart Gevaar! does rise up and kill all the white people?

Foreign Investment will go down the drain, who will want to invest when your CEO gets killed when he sets foot at the office? The JSE will crash bigger than 1929 as all of a sudden in one day or week there are no more leaders in the big international listed companies.

The Rand is also the most actively traded emerging market currency in the world, what would happen if it were to drop to R50 or R100 to the dollar?

Sure, the events in Rwanda can be taken as an example, but the death toll is estimated at 800 000 over a period of three months and it did not happen at a time when the whole world was watching, neither did they have a World Cup in the last year with an estimated 860 000 tourist entering the country every month. The figures speak for themselves, and then the white race in South Africa are around 4.6 Million.

So do you really think that the logistics are possible with a government that can't even fix potholes but have to rely on an insurance company to do so? When the Major of Johannesburg tells everyone that there is no billing crisis when 8% of all invoices sent are queried? When it takes months before a real crisis with acid mine drainage that threatens a World Heritage Site is still awaiting the final report?

And then we have one last question: Why kill and murder off your tax paying residents that ensures your Breitling watch gets you to the exclusive Sandton restaurant on time in your luxury car to feast on Cristal and oysters at their expense?

Isn't it so much easier to just fleece them every month and raise the petrol price and other taxes every so often?

Playing with Numbers

More blacks live in homes which are fully paid for than any other race group, the SA Institute of Race Relations said on Monday. (Now before the Ghost of Terblanche gets all in a knot and Pieter Mulder calls up Mr. Constand, read on a bit.)

The study conducted by the SAIRR found some 60 percent of black households in the country had fully paid-up the homes in which they lived in 2009, compared to 46 percent for other race groups. (Can we be more specific here? 46% average across or for all other Race groups?)

The institute said the higher home ownership figures for blacks could be explained by the transfer of government-subsidised houses. (Thus only fully paid for in theory...)

In the country's two most affluent provinces, Gauteng and the Western Cape, 34 and 42 percent of households respectively had fully paid off their homes.

The less wealthy Eastern Cape and Limpopo had higher home ownership figures, with 71 percent of households in both provinces having paid off their homes.

"The total number of households that owned and had fully paid off their homes, out of a total of 13.8 million South African households, was just over 56 percent. Out of the total fully paid homes, male-headed households made up 56 percent and female 44 percent." Seventy percent of all households headed by women had fully paid off their homes, while only half the households headed by men had fully paid up theirs. - Sapa

If you are fully confused about the numbers now, allow us to make it worse.

The author states in the first sentence that "more blacks...than any other race group" but the rest of the figures do not reflect this except for the blanket statement of 46%.

The next question we have then is the breakdown of the 46% and how it is made up. Can we not use the standard of 'per 100 000'? Then you can really compare, as it will be shack with shacks.

And speaking of which, what counts as a home? Does the 60% include shacks and are they thus fully paid up? We can only hope not.

With around 50 million people in SA of which 79.4% are black, that gives us 10.96 million black households with 1 732 604 still living in shacks according to the same SAIRR.

Now the 2001 census data reflects the following:

The percentage of Black African households that have a flush or chemical toilet is 41.9%. Refuse is removed from 45.3% of Black African households by the municipality at least once a week, and 11.0% have no rubbish disposal. Some 17.9% of Black Africans have running water inside their dwelling, 51.7% have running water on their property, and 80.2% have access to running water. The percentage of Black African households using electricity for cooking is 39.3%, for heating, 37.2%, and for lighting, 62.0%. - wikipedia

60% have houses that are paid, but not all of them have a flush toilet, refuse removal, nor running water or electricity. So what is actually the good news?

Very pretty piece of writing, but it does not address all the issues.

Just a quick gloss over some facts that attempt to make the government look good and ourselves content, but without proper in-depth analysis of anything else that is important.

We can move into a tent and thus count as a household with a fully paid home, but would that really be acceptable?

Super Strikas

Not the comic as nothing is funny about thugs leaving babies to die.

We can't help but think that in this case the striking is more akin to blackmail of the worst kind than a geniune request for more money.

A person earning R10 000 will only get R160 extra on the 1.6% being fought over, so it will take a while to get back the R5000 they will be docked if on strike for two weeks. So what gives?

Of course COSATU is the main instigator, but they are also part of the Tripartite Alliance, which makes them playing on both sides - a clear conflict of interest if ever there was one.

What if they are flexing muscles in order to show the ANC who is boss? Can we even consider this? The strike as a cover to demand not more money for the workers they claim to represent, but to get more of a say in the policy decisions and economic direction of the country?

COSATU blowing their vuvuzela and shouting about the power they have from the top of the dung heap. Look what we can do, make the country ungovernable, kill innocent people, listen to us!

Truly scary, and a thought we think should be considered and perhaps become a parliamentary question - which will not happen as COSATU is not a political party but merely an alliance partner, perfect cover for getting away with the worst abuses without the responsibility.

Being on strike is one thing, but picketing and protesting while preventing volunteers from saving lives which you do not care for is something else altogether. Go home, but do not kill in the name of money.

BEE en die Bybel

there has been talk about a sunset clause, about making the so-called born-free's exempt and various other ideas when a mention was needed in the press or political points to be scored.

but seeing that according to the lies we tell the Census people, just under 80% of the population is Christain, we would need to turn to another source to see what it says.

Genesis 4:15 '...Wie vir Kain vermoor, sal sewe maal gestraf word.'

of course, there is some interpretation and what it comes down to is that if you kill your brother you should/will be punished as well as your children and their children until seven generations has passed.

so if we believe that BEE is punishment or even not, brother killing went on during the Apartheid era. (brother in this case being another person, another human being with no regard to race or colour.)

thus the 'punishment' of BEE will have a specific end, not through the government, but a higher power and it cannot be regulated by the government either because the generational time frame would be different for each person who was guilty.

the unpopular implication is of course that thus BEE is also sanctioned in the bible and based upon biblical precedent.

just try and tell Pieter Mulder this one.

What would you do with Gautrain's R13bn?

(Back when it was only that...)

To put the cost of the new Gautrain development into perspective, Singh and Associates Strategic Solutions has come up with a few suggestions on what could be done with the R13bn extra the development will now cost (as opposed to the initially expected R7bn).
*Instead of a train you could buy some top of the range S-class Mercedes Benz and park them nose to tail to form a "train" that would be long enough to go around the world.
*Since most South Africans use minibus taxis instead of S-Class Mercedes Benz, you could run a fleet of taxis, free of charge to commuters, from Johannesburg to Pretoria with a taxi leaving each town every two minutes, maintain them at the AA rate of R2.50 per km, replace all the taxis every month and you would only run out of money after 50 years.
*You could add 44 more lanes to the M1 highway.
*If you prefer to walk, a good bricklayer, if he made little brick tiles using stacks of 30 R100 notes, could lay a blue paved walkway, 1m wide from Johannesburg to Pretoria. We would have R400 000 left over to pay the bricklayer for his work, which should only take half as long to finish as the Gautrain.
*Or if you want smart people to figure this out you could pay for a university degree for every single 19 year old Gauteng resident and ask them what to do with the money.

No Sympathy

When will the trade unions learn that there are limits to what they can and cannot do?
Whenever there has been a strike organised by any of the big unions in South Africa, it turned ugly.
Whether it was torching buses, trashing the streets or killing co-workers, it seems that the unions does not realise what they are doing by their behaviour.
They are slowly eroding all the trust and goodwill that they managed to build up.
Eventually their rights will be reduced or limited and the workers who they are supposedly protecting or promoting will be worse off than before.
By not controlling the crowds that they organise, they are making themselves responsible for the crimes committed during their demonstrations; simply because people as a crowd will respond to whomever is inciting them.
The unions can claim a lack of responsibilty and try to distance themselves from the actions perpetrated, but they are still the organisers and originators. Ultimately it comes back to them.
And it will result in a lack of sympathy for the workers and leave them vulnerable in the end.

Strikers cause chaos in Pretoria city centre

March 24 2006 at 07:10AM
By Barry Bateman, Cornelia du Plooy and Janine Du Plessis

Chaos erupted in and around Pretoria city centre on Thursday when marauding security guards ran amok through the streets terrorising motorists and on-duty guards, vandalising property and torching a security patrol vehicle.
The SAPS and the Tshwane Metro Police, outnumbered and not in control, were left helpless as more than 10 000 strikers, wielding sticks, tree branches and other weapons, went on the rampage.
At least 10 people were injured when police used stun-grenades and fired rubber bullets at the mob outside the Security Industry Regulatory Authority (Sira) building in Belvedere Street, Arcadia.
Lawless: Striking security guards try to tip a patrol car on Schoeman Street in Pretoria.

Photo: Barry Bateman, Pretoria News

For you, Discount!

That's right my lani, special today only, tomorrow we audit and then I cannot sell anymore...
Please tell us that this does not only happen here but that there may be other countries with the same problem.
We cannot imagine that it is a peculiarity unique to this country.
Where does that leave you with the Firearms Control Act?
Sure thing, hand in your unlicensed, illegal firearm to eliminate the proliferation of these tools of death, then go and hire one from your local police station.
Good Grief!

Durban cops hire out their guns - reports

May 08 2006 at 07:38AM By Zukile Majova

Durban city manager Mike Sutcliffe has demanded an audit of Durban Metro Police firearms be presented to the eThekwini council amid reports that Durban Metro Police officers were hiring out or selling their firearms to criminals.
Metro police commanders were involved in a series of late night meetings at the weekend in a bid to avert a looming crisis in the 2 000-strong city police force.
The commanders in 10 stations in the Durban area were ordered to carry out an audit of all firearms in their stations, noting missing firearms and ammunition or weaponry not accounted for.
It was not known how many firearms were missing after the latest audit but an audit in 2000 had found that 128 firearms were missing. Of those 91 had been lost and 37 could not be accounted for.

Struggle Country

this is our land

it has not been easy, Shaka struggled to build an empire, the Voortrekkers struggled to get away from the mountain and the last generation struggled to abolish Apartheid.

but in the end we are all visitors here, from the mlungu that came from Europe, to the amaZulu from the north and the tourists flocking over for the sun.

we all share this beautiful country and try to carry on, no matter how hard it is, because we are Africans. all of us.

some days it is a struggle to stay sane, but we have learned how to open a bottle of beer, so we survive.

but what makes the country great?

listen to the stories and people, and learn.

then ask yourself why we carry on.

honestly, we don't know either.