A new order is needed

30/06/2008 08:29  - (SA)

Jon Qwelane

This country has never been in worse shape, even under the hated control of the equally disgusting Nats!

A true "state of the nation" review would shock many people:

Turmoil abounds in the ranks of the judiciary, where judges are at one another's throats.
The police service is a hopeless mess: the chief of the police is on trial for payola and for defeating the ends of justice. In short, he is accused of flouting the very laws he is supposed to uphold. Just the other day, the police were firing at each other, after some had used official vehicles to blockade a national highway.
The head of the prosecuting authority has, in effect, been dismissed and there is an unconvincing hearing to determine whether he is the right man for the job.
The head of the intelligence services has been dismissed.
The public information system that is the SABC is a circus of a shambles; its shenanigans are simply unspeakable.
The head of the health services continues to talk twaddle about HIV/Aids.
Education is in a sorry state, and the authorities are keeping mum about the crippling illiteracy of the country's youth: only this week it was revealed that many children use SMS-speak to write answers to examination questions (I suppose something like "da gr8 lakes in da Afrika cntnt is cool, hey!").
Savagery of unparalleled proportions since 1994 is being meted out to immigrants from Africa.
Unemployment is at its highest ever, and the cost of living is astronomically high.

One could go on and on, ever conscious of the snipers waiting to pounce with their question: "What is your solution?"

Solution

We have never had it so bad, and even those who normally claim - falsely, of course - that I "hate" their president would be hard-pressed to deny this self-evident truth. And I am not lamenting the demise of the past order when I say, as I do here, that even under apartheid things overall were not as bad as this.

Politically correct "logic" will claim that I am not being truthful but, believe me, lots of people out there are saying apartheid was "much better compared to what we are going through right now".

But what do you say about the restive state of our judiciary? And what confidence will a visitor to this country have in the policing of our communities, when the law enforcement officers themselves go out to break the laws with impunity?

There are those in this land who brag that they are building "world-class" facilities and institutions, but where in the world is a commissioner of police on trial for graft - and the head of state renews his employment contract regardless?

The solution to all this mess, methinks, is in a new order altogether. And yes, I have heard your condemnations loud and clear: I will be voting next year, and I will also encourage a whole lot of other people to do the same.

As I have said before, the men and women with the bombs may have been good liberators, but hard experience convinces me that they are not necessarily good governors.

Jon Qwelane's column is published each week on News24, courtesy of Jon Qwelane and the editor of Sunday Sun, which originally carried the article.

 

source

No right to self-defence

24/06/2008 13:00  - (SA)

Blood Doll, News24 User

A report posted on News24 today states that a Rustenburg man will be charged with attempted murder and murder. This after he had wounded one intruder and killed another who had invaded his home and tied up his young daughters and domestic worker.

The question is this: has South Africa denigrated from the land of milk and honey into the land of crime and irony? You can now be charged with murder for defending those you love and that which is yours.

This is not a new occurrence, of course. The new dispensation has placed the rights of the criminal over those of law abiding citizens since its inception. That baby should have been thrown out with the bathwater. It seems its views of equality has become somewhat skewed; for at one stage human rights were the backbone of the ANC government's constitution, the unalienable right of every individual to live without bias or oppression.

It seems those rights also extend to animals, if not more so. They shoot horses, don't they? So, why may we not shoot the animals that rape our children and invade our homes? Has self defence and the right to security been omitted from their so-called Freedom Charter? It seems so.

Setting a prededent

The right to rape and pillage seems to have taken precedence and us, as law abiding citizens, have but one right - to do nothing. The government has turned us into voyeurs, forcing us to watch some sick snuff movie with those we love as the participants. Thanks, Thabo.

It seems ironic that the government can spend billions of rands on weapons to defend our country's borders against and unseen enemy yet it will not allow us, the tax-payer who funded it, to do the very same: to defend our borders. Moreover, our enemy is not an imaginary or future threat; they are very real and they're invading our borders, our homes, now. And, thanks to our government's derisory laws, we are left helpless.

Not one to regard the Americans as doyens of civil society, I have to admit sometimes they get it right. The state of Ohio has just passed a bill, Senate Bill 184, aptly referred to as the "Castle Doctrine". It purports to: "...establish a presumption that a person acted in self-defence when shooting someone who unlawfully enters his or her home or occupied vehicle."

Does that sound familiar? Of course it does, it happens everyday in good old SA. The UK has a similar if watered down version called the Intruder Law. This is exactly the type of legislation we need in this beautiful country to avoid law abiding citizens from being charged as common criminals just because we defended our own.

Hazy

Legalcity.net posts this warning: The question of when you may use a firearm on an intruder is an extremely hazy one that even lawyers approach with caution. Generally, a firearm may not be fired in a municipal area although its use in self-defence is sometimes considered justifiable.

Note, however, that you would not necessarily be justified in shooting someone who enters your house illegally, even if you believe that the intruder is a thief who may harm you. The fact that a suspected thief or burglar runs away and refuses to heed your command to stop is not sufficient reason for you to shoot at him or her.

The right to defend oneself against threats both foreign and domestic have become a misnomer. Are you listening, Thabo Mbeki?

Perhaps if you stayed in the country a bit longer you'd notice the invasion.

source

'Kill for Zuma an insult to SA'

22/06/2008 21:04  - (SA) 

Johannesburg - The "kill for Zuma" statements made by African National Congress Youth League (ANCYL) president Julius Malema and Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) secretary-general Zwelinzima Vavi were an insult to the intelligence of voters, said former Pan Africanist Congress president Motsoko Pheko on Sunday.

Pheko said the electorate in the country had a constitutional right to choose political leaders without "fear or favour".

"The irresponsible statements must be condemned. Why is the killing of opponents in Zimbabwe, Somalia and Kenya wrong, but now should be correct in South Africa?" he asked.

"Our nation needs leaders with ideas and a national agenda that liberates people from poverty, and not bullies who are politically bankrupt and guided by egotism," he said.

Applause and cheering

On Saturday, Malema defended his controversial statement that the youth league would kill for ANC president Jacob Zuma.

Cosatu secretary-general Zwelinzima Vavi echoed the remarks on Saturday, SABC news reported.

"So, yes, because Jacob Zuma is one of us, and he is one of our leaders, for him, we are prepared to lay (down) our lives and to shoot and kill," he said to applause and cheering, reported the SABC.

Pheko questioned what would happen if political parties in the country killed for their leaders.

"If various political parties were to kill for leaders they love, what would remain of the country? Where would democracy and rule of law be?"

 

source

'We will kill for Zuma'

June 17 2008 at 07:04AM

ANC Youth League (ANCYL) president Julius Malema has vowed that the youth of South Africa would die in supporting ANC president Jacob Zuma.

"We are prepared to die for Zuma," Malema told a Free State rally. "We are prepared to take up arms and kill for Zuma," Malema added at the end of his speech, while the crowd clapped hands and laughed.

Earlier, Malema said there was no question that the ANC president would be the country's next president. He added that those who did not respect the current ANC leadership should go.

Malema said those in the party who have indicated that they would not be available for positions in the new government, under Zuma, should not wait but leave now.

He also reiterated that the Scorpions case against Zuma, expected to begin later this year in the Pietermaritzburg High Court, should be dropped.

"The future belongs to us. We do not want a situation where the state prosecutes its own president," Malema said.

He said the ANCYL was planning to assemble a legal team to try to get the case against Zuma thrown out of court.

source

100s object to expropriations

03/06/2008 20:15  - (SA) 

Bloemfontein - More than 300 objections to the proposed expropriation bill were handed to the portfolio committee on public works during public hearings in Grasslands on Tuesday .

"These are individual objections I hand over to you by members of the Free State Agriculture," said Dirk van Rensburg, chairman of the farming body's land-reform committee.

On Monday, nearly 900 objections by individuals were handed to the committee during a public hearing in Bethlehem.

According to Free State Agriculture, certain aspects of the bill are unconstitutional.

The Grasslands meeting was attended by farmers, almost half of those attending, and black Bloemspruit residents who claim to be victims of expropriation practices by the Mangaung local municipality.

Free State Democratic Alliance leader Roy Jankielsohn said he was happy to see the number of farmers who attended the meeting and by the input they gave.

However, he was concerned about wrong information contained in advertisements on venues and starting times for the hearings.

A black former plot owner told the committee he and other land owners in the area had "shot themselves in the foot" by electing black officials into power, after describing a "painful" experience of being "ripped off by fellow Africans".

Had lost five farms

A woman, also a former Grasslands plot owner, told the committee that she knew how "the xenophobia people" felt because she was now homeless.

"I have no residential address. People staying where I stayed, they have (a residential address)," she said, adding that she wanted to know how the meeting was going to "reverse it all".

Another woman said she had lost five farms due to the "lack of interest by government officials" and "lack of government action".

Committee chairperson Thandi Tobias urged the former plot owners to discuss their issues with the committee after the hearing.

She said it would be brought to the attention of the proper parliamentary committees.

source