Sipho and his mates decided to go on an affirmative shopping trip to the East London Museum. Clearly Sipho is a lover of the fine arts, and a veritable SBG (Sophisticated Black Gentleman) culture vulture to boot when it comes to all things aesthetic, otherwise he would rather have broken into something more humdrum like a shebeen or spaza shop, right? Well, what was going to be an innocent midnight sojourn gazing at Pierneef canvasses, with the concomitant artsy banter between him and his mates as to the great painter’s neo-impressionist broad stroke style, turned into something less edifying as suddenly, The Evil White Man’s Alarm went off!

Angry, hurt and dismayed at The Evil White Man’s attempts at keeping Sipho & co down, and willfully depriving them of appreciating magnificent Africana paintings, an enraged and artistically marginalized Sipho decided to hoof it out of there - somehow he just knew those unsophisticated philistine cops will never believe his wide-eyed explanations at simply wanting to enjoy art without the din and distraction of sweating, chattering museum crowds.

Once outside, a now panic-stricken Sipho was confronted with a six foot palisade fence. He heaved, pushed and shoved with all his might, but the bars just wouldn’t budge. In the distance he could hear the roaring engines of approaching security vehicles. Overcome with a growing sense of urgency, Sipho spotted a tree near the fence. At the sight of the tree, somewhere deep in the recesses of his reptilian brain stem an ancestral, evolutionary memory stirred. From that point on, nature took over as Sipho pulled in his head, emitted a simian grunt, arched his back and went down on all fours.

Quick as a flash, he morphed into the bipedal simian life form so very close to his beast-like nature and dexterously bounded up the tree. Just beyond the palisade fence was a ten foot chain link fence. Child’s play he joyously thought. Plus, the muti I got from that sangoma will give me super powers! Lets jump both fences in one go! Sipho hunched, braced himself and with an almighty effort he leaped.

Alas, the forces of natural science so carefully enumerated by  Newton conspired against our hapless tree dweller, and instead of the magnificent orang outang style leap, Sipho semi-jumped, semi-fell out of the tree in a rather unelegant arch. Crashing earthwards like a sack of mealies, his yellowed eyes widened as he felt a sharp stinging sensation rushing up from his smelly black pooper… “ma-wheeaa!!” he screamed in surprise. The searing pain felt exactly like that he experienced a year or so before, when his cell mate Bubba coerced him into “bending for a friend” on that fateful East London prison night. “Eissh hau eina eina eina” he whimpered. Not even Bubba had such a big schlong as the object which he now had impaled himself on, wondering quietly what Bubba would say at being upstaged…

Last we heard, Sipho, was slowly (very slowly) meandering the passages and wards of the Frere state hospital, playfully squirting horrified passers-by through a tiny hole he poked in his newly fitted colostomy bag. He can’t wait to be discharged to show off this cool new party trick.

BELOW: From the Despatch (East London)

This alleged thief had to be rushed to hospital last night after being impaled on a fence.

The incident took place at the East London museum.

The suspect is alleged to have broken down the back door to the museum. The alarm went off, giving him a fright, and he ran away.

He climbed a tree and then attempted to jump over the fence. However, he lost his footing and was impaled by one of the spikes on the fence.

The man was discovered by a tow truck driver who heard his cries.

The man was taken to Frere Hospital and it is understood that he is due to undergo surgery.

For two years I couldn’t get a water/electricity/tax bill from the city of Johannesburg. Water and electricity are socialist enterprises here. I didn’t have an account number, nor did I know how much to pay. I tried calling the bureaucrats, but no help there: they said they’d get back to me, but they didn’t.

On September 25th, they showed up to turn off my electricity for failure to pay. The city workers refused to show identification, wouldn’t say whose account they were turning off, and wouldn’t show any legal authorization to do so. In fact, they told me they didn’t have to speak a language I understood (English). I called the police. I have a videotape of these civil servants telling me they aren’t obligated to identify themselves, and that if I refused to allow them on the property they had the right to tear down my gate. When I asked one of them for anything that would show them to be city workers, he replied, “This isn’t America you know.” I know! I know!

I told him, “It’s not Nazi Germany, either.” He later chastised me for running down “Nazi Germany.” “I’m sorry,” I said, “I didn’t realize you were a Nazi.”

I went to the city hall and waited hours for someone to see me. I was finally told to make a plan to pay the account. I was willing. I had R7,000 (7,000 rand) cash on me. But the bureaucrats wouldn’t let me pay or make a plan. They had forgotten to transfer the account to my name, you see; it was still in the old owner’s name and the bill was going to the wrong address. I was ordered to wait until they changed it over and sent me a statement.

I pay a R700 deposit and go. Two days later they turn on the electricity. Two months later, and still no statement has arrived. I call and call. “I’ll call you back,” they say. They don’t. I keep calling. Finally I get a sour bureaucrat who tells me I’ll have to pay R9,000 immediately and the rest over six months. I asked about the year payment plan. That was discontinued in November. “But I wanted to pay in October and you people wouldn’t let me,” I protest. “That’s your problem,” she says.

Back at city hall, I see another woman who spends the entire time screaming at everyone who comes near her. She screams in the phone. She screams at the switchboard for “bothering” her with phone calls. She informs me that it’s my obligation to pay my account whether or not the city sends me a statement. It doesn’t matter if I don’t know the amount owed. It doesn’t matter if I don’t have an account number to which the money is to be credited. My obligation is to pay an unknown sum into an unknown account, and if I don’t get it right they’ll turn off my electricity.

I got off relatively easy, though. Today’s newspaper told of one man who received an account for R500,000 in water use. The man owns a well and doesn’t even use city water. When he went in to talk to the bureaucrats, they were very sympathetic. They told him to pay 50 percent now or have his electricity cut off.

Bloemfontein - Seven young schoolchildren were allegedly repeatedly beaten on their backs by a teacher with a fan belt - as they helplessly hung in the air. Shortly afterward, they had to pack their bags and together recite the Lord’s Prayer in Tswana.

Teacher Dikeledi Moshe, 49, was arrested and appeared in the Bultfontein Magistrate’s Court on Thursday on a charge of assault.

She allegedly ruthlessly beat the seven children with a car part this week at a farm school near Dealesville in the Free State. She was released on bail of R1 000. The case was postponed to September 22.

The seven pupils all live on the farm Meerlandsvlei, where their parents work. The Rankunyane Primary School, which is attended by about 25 children, is 25km from the farm. Moshe is the only teacher, and had two classes.

Elisa Maditjane, whose 10-year-old son was one of the victims allegedly assaulted with a fan belt, said she was shocked and had cried when the children came home from school on Tuesday with bruises on their backs.

The children said Moshe was in one classroom while they were in the other. They were talking and making a noise, until she looked through the window and told them to quieten down.

When they did not, she allegedly came into the class and shouted at the children, “You don’t learn!” With the fan belt in her hand, she ordered one child to come closer. He tried to get away. The teacher then allegedly ordered of the bigger children to hold him.

The children demonstrated on Thursday how they were picked up, one by one, and held while Moshe beat them repeatedly with the fan belt. Four bigger children would pick up the children and let them hang upside down in the air while she beat them. Farm owner Hannes Linde said he was shocked when he saw the children.

As the skills shortage in South Africa worsens and the exodus of white artisans, engineers and maths teachers continues, racial affirmative action dominates all job adverts. Suppose you are a highly experienced white technician or project manager. You are looking for a job. In the careers section of a Sunday paper you see an advertisement for vacancies in your field. Then you see the words “employment equity” or “equity plan” or “designated groups” followed by the words, “Should you not receive communication within 2 weeks of the closing date, please accept that your application was unsuccessful.” You can be pretty sure any application from you would go straight into the bin. These words actually seem to mean: “White men need not apply.”

So you had better continue turning the pages of the careers section until you come to job advertisements from Australia or the Middle East. Apply there.

Now consider advertisements not for jobs but customers. Suppose a school was advertising for pupils, and said, “All of our teachers are affirmative action appointees”. How many parents would choose to send their children there?

How many people would choose to be represented in court by affirmative action lawyers? More important, how many poor people in the townships suffering bad water supply and sanitation would choose affirmative action engineers?

The ANC elite calls for affirmative action for the services other people receive but not for the services it receives. The Minister of Education does not send her son to a school where there are affirmative action teachers; she sends him to Bishops, a rich private school with mostly white teachers. Jacob Zuma did not choose an affirmative action lawyer to represent him.

Racial affirmative action is bad for whites and blacks. It is driving skilled whites abroad, demoralising blacks and harming the economy. It does not address the legacy of apartheid; it perpetuates it.

So how should we address our inequalities of the past? Just follow the example of the ANC elite who always choose services for themselves purely on merit. Allow all black parents to emulate the Minister of Education and send their children to the schools they think have the best teachers.

Andrew Kenny’s column appears in The Citizen every Tuesday.

By K. Myers of the Irish Independent

No. It will not do. Even as we see African states refusing to take action to restore something resembling civilisation in Zimbabwe, the begging bowl for Ethiopia is being passed around to us, yet again. It is nearly 25 years since Ethiopia’s (and Bob Geldof’s) famous Feed The World campaign, and in that time Ethiopia’s population has grown from 33.5 million to 78 million
today.

So why on earth should I do anything to encourage further catastrophic demographic growth in that country? Where is the logic? There is none. To be sure, there are two things saying that logic doesn’t count. One is my conscience, and the other is the picture, yet again, of another wide-eyed child, yet again, gazing, yet again, at the camera, which yet again, captures the tragedy of . . .

Sorry. My conscience has toured this territory on foot and financially. Unlike most of you, I have been to Ethiopia; like most of you, I have stumped up the loot to charities to stop starvation there. The wide-eyed boy-child we saved, 20 years or so ago, is now a priapic, Kalashnikov-bearing hearty - siring children whenever the whim takes him.

There is, no doubt a good argument why we should prolong this predatory and dysfunctional economic, social and sexual system; but I do not know what it is. There is, on the other hand, every reason not to write a column like this. It will win no friends, and will provoke the self-righteous wrath of, well, the self-righteous, letter-writing wrathful, a species which never fails to contaminate almost every debate in Irish life with its sneers and its moral superiority. It will also probably enrage some of the finest men in Irish life, like John O’Shea, of Goal; and the Finucane brothers, men whom I admire enormously. So be it.

But, please, please, you self-righteously wrathful, spare me mention of our own Famine, with this or that lazy analogy. There is no comparison. Within 20 years of the Famine, the Irish population was down by 30pc. Over the equivalent period, thanks to western food, the Mercedes 10-wheel truck and the Lockheed Hercules, Ethiopia’s has more than doubled. Alas, that wretched country is not alone in its madness. Somewhere, over the rainbow, lies Somalia, another fine land of violent, Kalashnikov-toting, khat-chewing, girl-circumcising, permanently tumescent layabouts.

Indeed, we now have almost an entire continent of sexually hyperactive indigents, with tens of millions of people who only survive because of help from the outside world. This dependency has not stimulated political prudence or commonsense. Indeed, voodoo idiocy seems to be in the ascendant, with the next president of South Africa being a firm believer in the efficacy of a little tap water on the post-coital penis as a sure preventative against infection. Needless to say, poverty, hunger and societal meltdown have not prevented idiotic wars involving Tigre, Uganda, Congo, Sudan, Somalia, Eritrea, et cetera.

Broad brush-strokes, to be sure. But broad brush-strokes are often the way that history paints its gaudier, if more decisive, chapters. Japan, China, Russia, Korea, Poland, Germany, Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia in the 20th century have endured worse broad brush-strokes than almost any part of Africa. They are now — one way or another — virtually all giving aid to or investing in Africa, whereas Africa, with its vast savannahs and its lush pastures, is giving almost nothing to anyone, apart from AIDS.

Meanwhile, Africa’s peoples are outstripping their resources, and causing catastrophic ecological degradation. By 2050, the population of Ethiopia will be 177 million: the equivalent of France, Germany and Benelux today, but located on the parched and increasingly protein-free wastelands of the Great Rift Valley.

So, how much sense does it make for us actively to increase the adult population of what is already a vastly over-populated, environmentally devastated and economically dependent country? How much morality is there in saving an Ethiopian child from starvation today, for it to survive to a life of brutal circumcision, poverty, hunger, violence and sexual abuse, resulting in another half-dozen such wide-eyed children, with comparably jolly little lives ahead of them? Of course, it might make you feel better, which is a prime reason for so much charity. But that is not good enough.

For self-serving generosity has been one of the curses of Africa. It has sustained political systems which would otherwise have collapsed. It prolonged the Eritrean-Ethiopian war by nearly a decade. It is inspiring Bill Gates’ programme to rid the continent of malaria, when, in the almost complete absence of personal self-discipline, that disease is one of the most efficacious forms of population-control now operating. If his programme is successful, tens of millions of children who would otherwise have died in infancy will survive to adulthood, he boasts.

Oh good: then what? I know. Let them all come here. Yes, that’s an idea.

Being transported from the Melkbosstrand area through to Cape town at a cost of about R4 million rand. The boat is impressive in size out of the water, but guess in the water very small considering it was the Capes notorious storms that sent this boat sand surfing in the first place.

NAIROBI (AFP) - A baby hippopotamus that survived the
tsunami waves on the Kenyan coast has formed a strong
bond with a giant male century-old tortoise in an animal
facility in the port city of Mombassa , officials said

The hippopotamus, nicknamed Owen and weighing about
300 kilograms (650 pounds), was swept down Sabaki
River into the Indian Ocean , then forced back to shore
when tsunami waves struck the Kenyan coast on
December 26, before wildlife rangers rescued him.

‘It is incredible. A-less-than-a-year-old hippo has adopted a
male tortoise, about a century old, and the tortoise seems to
be very happy with being a ‘mother’,’ ecologist Paula Kahumbu,
who is in charge of Lafarge Park , told AFP.

‘After it was swept away and lost its mother, the hippo was traumatized.
It had to look for something to be a surrogate mother.
Fortunately , it landed on the tortoise and established a strong bond.
They swim, eat and sleep together,’ the ecologist added.
‘The hippo follows the tortoise exactly the way it followed its mother.
If somebody approaches the tortoise, the hippo becomes aggressive,
as if protecting its biological mother,’ Kahumbu added.

‘The hippo is a young baby, he was left at a very tender age and
by nature, hippos are social animals that like to stay with their
mothers for four years,’ he explained.

‘Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take,
but by the moments that take our breath away.’

This is a real story that shows that our differences don’t matter
much when we need the comfort of another.
We could all learn a lesson from these two creatures.
‘Look beyond the differences and find a way to walk the path together.’

Is this a glimpse of what South Africans can expect in the near future?

Black Power Farm is now used as a headquarters for the war veterans in the area.

First Zimbabwe, next South Africa. Graffiti on a wall in Mafeking, North Western Province of South Africa.

The Zimbabwean exodus continues and South Africa is a half way house, all hope to have their immigration applications approved. We watch as they walk down the same paths, come to the same conclusions, Mugabe has crippled Zimbabwe, reducing most of its people to beggars or barterers and black marketeers. The ultimate irony is that, whether by accident or design, it has taken 28 years for them to prove the racist detractors correct when they prophesied that the incoming Zanu-PF government would be incapable of governing the country.

Mud races refuse to use toilets even when made available - they prefer to go around crapping on the ground. Forty-eight percent of India still squat down and crap whenever and wherever the urge strikes. Everywhere you drive in South Africa, you will be treated by the sight of Africans pissing on side walks, against trees, fences and walls, or defecating in full view of passers by. Even buildings, offices and shopping malls reek of urine & faecal matter, especially in underground parking lots and even elevators are turned into urinals.

Regular outbreaks of typhoid and cholera is the order of the day, as jungle bunnies fail to wash their hands and will often use their bare hands to wipe their butts with. Consequently many South Africans unwittingly ingest large amounts of faecal matter on a daily basis as they eat food cooked and served by filthy simians in restaurants & fast food takeaways. South African drinking water feature e.coli levels thousands of times higher than the internationally accepted norm, as collapsing black-mismanaged municipalities either fail to treat the water with appropriate chemical processes, or purposely pump raw sewage into dams like the Hartebeespoort, Vaal and other major dams. In October 2007, more than 200 MILLION litres of raw sewage was pumped into the Apies, Hennops and Pienaars rivers in and around Johannesburg due to power failures.

Numerous horror stories abound: for example, the Edendale hospital in Natal had their incinerator furnaces break down, and so for months on end, hazardous human waste including not only faecal matter, but tissue such as amputated limbs, cancerous organs cut from patients, dead foetuses, afterbirth and the entire gamut of horrific bits & pieces were thrown in the nearby Duzi river. Further downstream a number of fish farms noticed their stock becoming rather fat and well-nourished, and seafood lovers happily munched away on yummy fish dishes until someone blew the whistle on what amounted to a cannibalistic food chain which came full circle…and gave new meaning to the term “you are what you eat”.

Just imagine the menu at your local seafood restaurant…grilled trout with brain tumour stuffing…baked catfish with gallstone gravy…smoked salmon smothered in lung cancer biopsy medallions…fried halibut served with boiled ovarian cysts, gangrenous galleon seafood cocktail…
HMMM YUMMY!

Also in Natal somewhere, black roadside vendors were doing a roaring trade in fish, crabs and crayfish, selling oversized crustaceans to an eager public, until by accident it was discovered that these delicacies were actually bred in pit latrines at the nearby squatter camp…perhaps the Jews have pretty good sense with their kosher food laws!

Due to the high number of HIV/AIDS related deaths, cemeteries all over the country are overflowing. There has been numerous incidents of illegal burial grounds, or incompetent town planners allowing expansion of bone yards into regions where the underground water table is shallow. As a consequence, the water table rises close to the surface, immersing rotting corpses in their graves and allowing dangerous bacteria to contaminate water. One example of this is the Panorama cemetery in Roodepoort.

Many a “clever dick” South African sick & tired of actual worms slithering out of their drinking water taps, have taken to sinking boreholes in their back yards so as to avoid having to drink the contaminated municipal water, yet are unwittingly ingesting much more dangerous water polluted with what is colloquially known as “skwatta juice” - blood, urine, bile and other nasty human liquids which ooze out of corpses lying in their watery tombs and into the water table, or flow unfiltered from the thousands of squatter camps into the municipal water works - especially during power failures.

A 30-year-old man was shot dead by police as a gang of five gunmen attempted to rob a cash-in-transit van in Sandringham in Johannesburg on Wednesday, Gauteng police said.

Inspector Moses Maphakela said security guards from a cash-in-transit company stopped at a Shell garage in George Avenue to collect money around 11am on Wednesday.
When they walked towards the garage safe they were approached by five armed men, all wearing blue overalls.

The security guards opened fire on the armed men who then scattered to take shelter from the bullets. Police who were patrolling the area saw the incident and stopped. When police approached the armed men they opened fire on the officers.

The police returned fire and wounded one man who soon died on the scene. Police recovered a 9mm pistol from his body. The other four men managed to get into their maroon Volkswagen Polo Playa and flee the scene.

Nothing was taken from the garage or from the van. No one else was injured during the shooting. Police were searching for the other four men. A case of attempted armed robbery was being investigated, said Maphakela. - Sapa

Durban - A Pietermaritzburg policeman arrested for allegedly sexually assaulting a woman at a satellite police station is expected to be served with formal suspension papers this week, the Witness newspaper reported on Monday.

An unemployed 32-year-old woman claimed that she had gone to the Copesville satellite police station to call an ambulance for her sick three-month-old baby boy, when the police inspector allegedly demanded sex from her. Her baby later died and would be buried on Wednesday.

The police inspector was due to make his second court appearance on September 10. He was previously granted R1 000 bail. The woman told the newspaper the incident took place in the station’s reception area early in August.

“I told him that I don’t sleep around, but he kept insisting on having sex with me. He later loosened his belt and unzipped his trousers to expose his private parts.” She said his alleged advances continued for about an hour while she held her baby. It was only when the ambulance arrived that the officer stopped. But paramedics were too late and said the baby had died minutes earlier. A case was later opened and the officer was arrested.

Black savages burn free ride buses

About 5 000 protesters set 10 Putco buses alight early on Monday on the Moloto road in Cullinan, Gauteng police said.

Sergeant Miranda Scoltz said the protesters burnt the buses in Cullinan following confusion about tickets.

“Apparently they got the wrong information about the tickets. Putco buses sent out a message stating that no tickets were on sale, so they could use the buses for free, but someone sent out the wrong message.”

No one was injured and no arrests had been made. The Moloto road in Cullinan leading to Umhlanga was closed to traffic. - Sapa

‘Teacher who extorted money from pupil must be sacked’
08/08/2008 17:22:10

The mother of a 10-year-old Johannesburg girl, who was extorted and threatened, allegedly by her teacher says the man must be sacked.

The teacher is accused of threatening the 10-year-old and demanding money from her. Authorities say the man allegedly told the grade 4 pupil he would rape or kill her if she did not steal money from her grandparents for him.

Police arrested the teacher at the school in Marlboro in northern Johannesburg. The girl’s mother says it appears the extortion and intimidation started months ago.

Jewish landlord stabbed to death, thrown from 10th floor by Nigerians

Darren Aberman (25) an estate agent and property developer visited the apartment of his tenant in Braamfontein last week Wednesday. The Nigerian tenant, most likely a drug dealer like all his Nigerian homies, was in arrears with the rent. After ducking & diving Aberman for weeks, the determined landlord went to the flat to confront his tenant. This proved to be extremely unwise. The Nigerian let Aberman into the apartment, pulled out a knife and mercilessly slashed him to death. Next, he threw the bleeding Aberman off the balcony of his 10th floor flat.

Police are investigating and as usual, no suspects have been arrested. What is odd, is the seeming media blackout on this story. Not a single one of the major online news websites (IOL or News24) breathed a word about the story. If one Googles the term “Darren Aberman” several links show up to subscriber-protected stories on The Star and The Mercury, and the gist of the story can be obtained in the Google link. What is odd is that IOL’s main newsfeed is derived from the aforementioned newspapers, yet nothing was published on the “free to air” news sites. Is this the beginning of a more serious clampdown of black on White hate crimes, in preparation to lure unsuspecting 2010 World Cup tourists to SA?

Responding to a parliamentary question by the opposition Democratic Alliance, the Minister of Safety and Security revealed that despite being found guilty of serious and violent crimes, at least 31 police officers were returned to active duty.

Out of 13 officers found guilty of murder, one received a written warning and six received fines.The rest were fined with suspended sentences. Three police officers with rape convictions were fined, while another got a suspended sentence.

The disciplinary hearings of fourteen other officers convicted on corruption and armed robbery charges resulted in them being returning to the police service. They received written warnings and fines. Police spokesman Superintendent Eugene Opperman said members of the SAPS faced automatic dismissal if they were found guilty of crimes outside the department and were then sentenced to serve jail time.

He added that internal hearings determined whether officers found guilty of an offence, but not sentenced to jail time, should retain their position or not. “You must remember that the Labour Relations Act is also applicable in the police service,” he said.

But this stance does not sit well with opposition politicians. “It is horrendous that South Africa has police members (who are) found guilty of crimes for which you and I would be jailed,” said the DA’s Dianne Kohler-Barnard.

The DA has called it ironic that criminal activity within the SAPS, proven in court, has not drawn the attention of the African National Congress as has the alleged corruption within the Scorpions. This while hard-pressed taxpayers are footing the bill for the salaries of criminally convicted policemen and women.

A total of R90 million in taxpayers’ money has been paid out to suspended members of the South African Police Service in the last three years, said the Democratic Alliance. According to the party, the amount covered 12 723 working days.

One of the worst cases involved the case of a Senior Superintendent in the visible policing division who was suspended for 638 days on full pay. The DA has said it would demand answers from the Minister of Safety and Security, Charles Nqakula, on the matter. “It is inexplicable that dirty cops should stay in service on full pay,” the DA said. The DA also criticised the SAPS’s disciplinary processes, saying that the inability of the police service to deal appropriately with conduct issues could damage public faith in the police.

“If the SAPS is seen to let people off, then it serves as a disincentive for members of the public to lodge complaints against SAPS members, or even report crimes. “If the SAPS want to fight crime, they must get their own house in order first,” said the DA.

Source from http://www.citizen.co.za

Some time ago there was some discussion around the airlines that might have to raise their tariffs to compensate for the increase in fuel costs. Some airlines also came out and indicated that they will be raising tickets accordingly, but that they will be trying to keep the increases to a minimum.

SAA stepped out and said that they will not be raising ticket costs in the near future, as they have not yet been affected by the increase in fuel costs.

The very same day on our way home, my wife and I were having a discussion about how fuel costs really was getting out of hand, and what we can do to use less and conserve. The statement by SAA came into the conversation, and one of my remarks was that I’ll put a waiver out, that very soon the tax payer will have to foot the bill for the fuel costs they are not recovering with their tickets.

Lo and behold, not two days later and I read an article right here on News24, about how they want the government to bail them out with a R5.7bn loan of, no doubt, hard earned taxpayers money. One of their officials also goes ahead, and acknowledges that the escalating oil prices are in fact eating into its profits.

SAA already has other big loans which they can probably not service, and now wants government to hand over our money, so that they can pay for their debt. All this while you hear about SAA executives being paid bonuses and other incentives bigger than what 100 average families put together earn in a year, much less poor families who get paid below the minimum wages as set out by government.

Fixing debt with debt

I’m willing to place another bet, that SAA will get the loan and that they will never pay back the R5.7bn and that in another year or so they will ask for further funding either from government or private institutions (which we will never hear about of course) and that at the end of their current financial year they will pay out enormous amounts of money to people who they say did a good job.

Don’t tell me about them actually asking their shareholders for the loan. Government is their only shareholder. All the money the government has comes from tax we pay, directly or indirectly. Thus they are lending SAA our money. Money that will never be paid back, never be used to fix up roads we travel on, won’t be used to clean our streets and parks or be used to build houses for people living in dangerous structures.

I have always been taught that you can never fight debt with more debt; it’s even being preached all over the news right now. So unless I don’t quite understand what is happening here. Why should my tax money be used to fund a corrupt company who lets its employees steal people’s luggage?

And yes, even if the thieves are not employed by SAA themselves, they still pay their employers, which indirectly means that they condone what is going on by not getting another service provider.

With prices in the country doubling every few days, the official inflation rate is running at more than 2 million percent — and at least four times faster in reality, according to The Economist.

That has forced the central bank to print ever larger denominations. The largest denomination banknote in mid-July was 50 billion Zimbabwean dollars — then worth about 70 U.S. cents.

But with residents forced to carry baskets full of currency to buy a loaf of bread, the supply of the zimdollar — the Zimbabwean dollar — has been dwindling. What’s more, the German company that was providing Zimbabwe with the paper for its banknotes canceled its contract.

The runaway inflation has caused unusual hardships for the country:
·  A minibus driver taking commuters into the capital of Harare charges one price in the morning — and a higher price for the trip home in the evening.
·  Some Zimbabweans haven’t bothered to bend over and pick up a banknote worth hundreds of thousands of local dollars lying on the pavement, The Economist reports.
·  Restaurants and shops raise their prices several times a day.
·  A civil servant paid in Zimbabwean dollars earns the equivalent of less than $2 a month — enough to buy two loaves of bread, which in late July cost 200 billion zimdollars in Harare.
·  Zimbabweans spend their local dollars as fast as possible or change them into hard currency on the black market.
·  Gasoline and rents are now paid largely in U.S. dollars or the South African rand, and rents are increasingly paid for in groceries.
·  An estimated 80 percent of the work force is unemployed, and many with jobs don’t earn enough to pay for bus fare to their workplaces, The Associated Press reports. About a third of the citizens are dependent on foreign food aid.

The government has now taken steps to deal with the currency crisis, knocking 10 zeroes off the inflated currency. New banknotes are being issued, and on Aug. 1, 10 billion zimdollars became one zimdollar.

President Robert Mugabe’s critics blame his land reform program, which sought to seize land from white commercial farmers, for much of the nation’s economic crisis. It has also been attributed in varying degrees to government economic mismanagement, government prohibitions on relief efforts from foreign non-governmental organizations, a drought affecting the entire region, and the HIV/AIDS epidemic.

Mugabe has repeatedly blamed sanctions imposed on Zimbabwe by the European Union and the United States for the state of Zimbabwe’s economy.

The Economist notes that Zimbabwe’s hyperinflation has not attained Hungary’s level after World War II, when inflation reached 42 quadrillion percent a month, “but it could yet get there.”

I am glad to see that the “Two Sisters” (Helen Zille and Patricia de Lille) are starting to see eye to eye and working together for a possible brighter future Not a ripple on the surface, but down in the engine room a lot of work is taking place.

The Toyota plant in Prospecton, KwaMakhutha, Isipingo and Umlazi will all be without power for a few days because the thieves made off with an electricity transmitting tower’s mounting bolts and structural members.

The 50 meter high transmission tower collapsed, causing further inconvenience when high-voltage cables fell on to Umbumbulu Road, between Lotus Park and Isipingo.

Although the police have opened a sabotage case, metal theft for its scrap value is suspected to be the cause of the incident.

The eThekwini Municipality has warned that thousands of affected residents could be without power for up to a week.

The electricity department’s said it would cost about R2 million to temporarily re-erect the tower.

One of eight transmission towers at the airport was pulled over on Sunday to reach the equipment that contains a lot of copper. The thieves escaped in an airport tractor.

The transmission towers, which are within a 4km radius from the airport, help incoming aircraft to land safely on one of the two runways by sending radio signals from the airport to the aircraft.

The robbery brought the airport’s security, which will have to operate in heavy traffic during the Soccer World Cup in 2010, under scrutiny.

1 dinner, 2 beers, 1 mineral water-
Z$1.243 billion…back in March 08, now about 4 billion if not more.

Bear in mind that the Zimbabwe regime lopped off several zeros from their worthless currency some two years ago…what is presently going on there makes the 1920’s German Weimar Republic look tame by comparison. In fact, such inflation is a WORLD record - not even the worst Third World tinpot dictatorships of South America EVER managed to slide so low.

Z$ 300 Million for one beer and counting.

So much for hard currency!

one hundred million just to buy a single bread roll.

The native people of this area are most likely the laziest people on earth and they have not proper employment, nor are many fit for anything above parking lot attendants or street sweepers. This is not due to lack of opportunity, it is due to lack of interest in anything other than laying around. I realize this might sound a bit harsh for someone who has not been an eye witness to the happenings here.

For years the streets have being loaded with loafers and beggars, looters, con-men (and women),  prostitutes and robbers. They have a name for a very common crime here - “smash and grab” - imagine sitting in your car at a traffic light and someone comes right up to your car, smashes your window, grabs whatever you might have on the seat or dash board, grabs your cell phone out of your hand and they are away before you can even shout for help. This has been going on since the end of the ”apartheid.”

They don’t work - they lay around all day doing nothing. They are hustlers and hookers - drinkers and drug addicts. Here is a question - What “jobs” are these people worried about loosing?

Some 17 Xhosa-women were tortured while witchdoctors allegedly ‘harvested’ their wombs and genitals at the Mzamza village  which is located right next to the East Coast Casino at Bizana. Most of the women and girls who were so cruelly tortured to death worked at the nearby Casino.

GENITALS  WERE REMOVED WHILE VICTIMS WERE ALIVE… local witchdoctors have a standing order for ‘female genitals and wombs’ needed in their ‘traditional medicine’. They had thus unleashed a reign of terror, rape and murder in the village next to the East Coast Casino — where at least seventeen and possibly eighteen women were murdered in this very cruel fashion.

Police also confirm that, according to witchcraft-tradition, these women’s genitals and wombs also were removed while the victims were still alive to provide the ’strongest medicine’. Police are continuing with their investigations.

Rivers of raw sewage leaked on the main beach after a major failure in a pump station on Friday, dampening beach activities.

At least four storm-water pipes started spewing sewage and other toilet-related matter onto the sand.

A few bored-looking lifeguards herded the public from the usually busy beach as foul-smelling water and waste poured from a storm-water drain into a small river and then ran into the sea.

Two other leaky storm-water drains also spilled toilet paper and waste water into the sea, creating a milky brown effluent that was quickly caught by the current.

This is according to the regional crime statistics that were released on the South African Police Services website. The national crime statistics were released two weeks ago.

The statistics indicate that business robberies increased in 34 of the 43 policing areas in the greater Durban area.

Despite a decrease of 7%, KwaMashu still had the highest number of murders in the region and Umlazi had the most attempted murder cases, despite a decrease of 23%.

Pinetown had the most hijackings and the number of such incidents in the suburb increased by 29%.

House robberies increased in most suburbs (31 out of 43 areas) in the greater Durban region. Umlazi had the most house robberies, followed closely by Pinetown and Verulam.

The high unemployment rate and the increase in the cost of living is certainly having an effect on the crime situation.”

Furthermore, 63% were verbally abused by a police officer and 47% were threatened with physical violence by an officer of the law.

These shocking findings are revealed in a book, Selling Sex in Cape Town. The publication was distributed this month by the Institute for Security Studies (ISS) and the Sexworkers Education & Advocacy Taskforce (Sweat).

Sweat is a non-governmental organisation fighting for the rights of sex workers. The research was done between 2006 and 2008.

According to the book, there are at least 250 sex workers on Cape Town’s streets and about 960 in 103 brothels or private homes.

Only sex workers between 18 and 54 were questioned, and it was found that police were more tolerant towards sex workers in brothels.

Prostitution illegal

Meanwhile, Western Cape police said they could not comment on the research, but added that prostitution was illegal and guilty parties would be prosecuted.

Nicolé Fick, a Sweat researcher who worked on the book, said sex workers only wanted to be treated with decency when they were arrested. They usually pay fines from between R50 and R500.

“The moment they speak out about police treatment, they are victimised. That is why they no longer want to lay complaints against the police, but bring them to our offices. The police are their biggest fear.”

We are all terrified at what they are going to destroy next……..I mean they are actually ploughing down brick and mortar houses and one white family with twin boys of 10 had no chance of salvaging anything when100 riot police came in with AK47’s and bulldozers and demolished their beautiful house - 5 bedrooms and pine ceilings - because it was “too close to the airport”, so we are feeling extremely insecure right now.

You know - I am aware that this does not help you sleep at night, but if you do not know - how can you help? Even if you put us in your own mental ring of light and send your guardian angels to be with us - that is a help - but I feel so cut off from you all knowing I cannot tell you what’s going on here simply because you will feel uncomfortable. There is no ways we can leave here so that is not an option.

I ask that you all pray for us in the way that you know how, and let me know that you are thinking of us and sending out positive vibes… that’s all. You can’t just be in denial and pretend/believe it’s not going on.

To be frank with you, it’s genocide in the making and if you do not believe me, read the Genocide Report by Amnesty International which says we are - IN level 7 - (level 8 is after it’s happened and everyone is in denial).

If you don’t want me to tell you these things-how bad it is,”then it means you have not dealt with your own fear, but it does not help me to think you are turning your back on our situation. We need you, please, to get the news OUT that we are all in a fearfully dangerous situation here. Too many people turn their backs and say - oh well, that’s what happens in Africa. This Government has GONE MAD and you need to help us publicize our plight— or how can we be rescued? It’s a reality! The petrol queues are a reality, the pall of smoke all around our city is a reality, the thousands of homeless people sleeping outside in 0 Celsius with no food, water, shelter and bedding are a reality. Today a family approached me, brother of the gardener’s wife with two small children. Their home was trashed and they will have to sleep outside. We already support 8 adult people and a child on this property, and electricity is going up next month by 250% as is water.

How can I take on another family of 4 —–and yet how can I turn them away to sleep out in the open?

I am not asking you for money or a ticket out of here - I am asking you to FACE the fact that we are in deep and terrible danger and want you please to pass on our news and pictures. So PLEASE don’t just press the delete button! Help best in the way that you know how.

Do face the reality of what is going on here and help us SEND OUT THE WORD.. The more people who know about it, the more chance we have of the United Nations coming to our aid. Please don’t ignore or deny what’s happening. Some would like to be protected from the truth BUT then, if we are eliminated, how would you feel? “If only we knew how bad it really was we could have helped in some way”.

[I know we chose to stay here and that some feel we deserve what’s coming to us]

For now,— we ourselves have food, shelter, a little fuel and a bit of money for the next meal - but what is going to happen next? Will they start on our houses? All property is going to belong to the State now. I want to send out my Title Deeds to one of you because if they get a hold of those, I can’t fight for my rights.

Censorship!—-We no longer have SW radio [which told us everything that was happening] because the Government jammed it out of existence,” we don’t have any reporters, and no one is allowed to photograph. If we had reporters here, they would have an absolute field day. Even the pro-Government Herald has written that people are shocked, stunned, bewildered and blown mindless by the wanton destruction of many folks homes, which are supposed to be ‘illegal’ but for which a huge percentage actually do have licenses.

Please! - do have some compassion and HELP by sending out the articles and personal reports so that something can/may be done. “I am one. I cannot do everything, —but I can do something.. And because I cannot do everything, I will not refuse to do the something that I can do. What I can do, I should do. And what I should do, by the grace of God, I will do.” - Edward Everett Hale

So here we have it, at last. It has been a while coming, but come it has.

Not that it has been unexpected. It was bound to happen eventually,
in one way or another.

Many very astute and able writers have been trying - for some considerable time - to show how South Africa has been slowly descending into the abyss.

The pessimism, even despair, which has silently pervaded South African society over the last decade or so, is now gaining increasing momentum even amongst those who celebrated the most after the release of Nelson Mandela.

Now we begin to see the true colours of our Rainbow Nation; colours that were once purposefully and skillfully hidden behind shimmering nebulae of rhetoric and political razzle-dazzle are now being glimpsed more often as the perceived need for global political respectability is, more and more, discarded as the ANC and its puppet masters gain in confidence and arrogance.

Today, the legislation to disband the elite crime-fighting unit known as the Scorpions has been tabled in Parliament.

The Scorpions have proven to be a formidable and largely untouchable crime-fighting force that has shown little or no favour and has appeared to be indefatigable in the pursuit of those who would place themselves above the law. They have been a very necessary foil to the poorly performing South African Police Service.

Why the ANC has bothered to involve Parliament escapes me. South Africa is a dictatorship of the elected majority party, with absolutely no prospect of any realistic challenge to the current status quo being mounted through the ballot box anytime in the next couple of generations.

The ANC might as well come clean and rule by decree. It would save them and the rest of the world time, effort and embarrassment over the increasingly amateurish attempts to legitimize their fumbling realizations of their ambitions.

The signs have around for a long time.

• The selection of a party leader – soon to be the country’s President - who is awaiting trial on corruption and related charges investigated and brought by the Scorpions.

• The blatant and public protection by the current President of the country – with the tacit approval of the ANC - of the national Police Commissioner who faces serious charges investigated and brought by the Scorpions.

• The blatant and unashamed protection of numerous public officials and office holders who have either admitted or have been convicted of innumerable offenses ranging from drunk driving through fraud, embezzlement and worse.

• The blasé and indifferent approach to, and acceptance of, crime levels unparalleled outside of war zones such as Iraq. (An example – it is generally accepted that a rape occurs in South Africa every 23 seconds. Do the math – 1.4 million rapes per annum in a population estimated at around 45-50 million people).

• The awesome drift from reality embodied in the continuing and, until very recently, unquestioning support of rogue and repressive states such as Zimbabwe and Burma – behaviour which has led to the ridicule and scorn of the rest of the world, to say nothing of the loss of life and liberty of those poor unfortunates living in those countries.

And these are but a very few of the straws that have been blowing in the wind in recent years.

The Scorpions are but a single example of the lengths to which the ANC, COSATU and the South African Communist Party (all members of the tri-partite alliance which rules South Africa but of which only the ANC presents itself for election before the people of the country) are prepared to go in order to exclude themselves from scrutiny by both the courts and the electorate.

When will the people of South Africa – as well as the rest of the world – awaken to the fact of the immense confidence trick being played upon them at their expense?

Do we have to wait for the raids on the newspapers and televisions stations to become more frequent? Will we only realise our plight when the Internet and blogs are monitored, controlled and restricted? Will we have to wait for the situation in Zimbabwe to become a reality for South Africa (and so memorably and eloquently expressed by the unknown Zimbabwean who voiced it by saying “We have freedom of expression; we just don’t have freedom after expression”)?

The writing is on the wall. We ignore it at our peril. We run the risk of a bovine-like acceptance of the denial and corruption of the hopes and aspirations of an entire country already brutalised in the not-too-distant past. Or, simultaneously, we run the risk of opening the door to hotheads and armed reactionaries eager to turn back the clock.

The government has drawn strong criticism over the figures, which it releases only once a year, with many parties and experts accusing the state of manipulating the statistics to suit its agendas.

Apparently the  crime statistics were compiled in strict accordance with the latest cutting-edge astrological charts, factoring in data gleaned from the entrails of a sacrificial goose, combined with the prevailing body temperature of Jacob Zuma.

According to Corleone-Selebi, last year had seen a marked decrease in certain contact crimes, including dwarf-tossing, water-balloon throwing, and bear-bating.

Everything else was up or unchanged.

However he dismissed suggestions that South Africa’s murder rate was out of control, saying that South Africans had become “morbidly obsessed with the negative aspects of homicide.

We aren’t denying that 18,000 South Africans are murdered every year,” he said.

But the thing that everyone is refusing to see is that while 18,000 citizens are murdered each year, over 47 million citizens aren’t murdered each year.

If you look at it holistically, the future is very bright indeed. Except, obviously, for the 18,000 people who are going to be murdered in 2009.

But for the rest of us, it’s really coming up roses.

He apologized to journalists for not being able to show them the raw data used to compile the statistics, saying that the relevant filing cabinet had been stolen by thieves dressed in police uniforms, carrying police firearms, and drawing police salaries.

Pornographic movies will now be shown on a little television set next to a petrol pump at all major garages, so that you can watch someone else get screwed while you fill-up.

Then on the other hand filling up at petrol stations and driving off paying is quite popular now days in Cape Town. Many a pump station now requires cash payments before loading off their precious fuel into your tank.

Hijackers are using pool acid to attack motorists, KwaZulu-Natal police warned.

In a recent case in Rivonia, a motorist had stopped at a traffic light when a well-dressed man approached the car.

He used a syringe and sprayed pool acid on the victim’s face. He suffered severe burns.

Motorists should be careful and not wind down their windows for anyone and keep all doors locked. It is important to always be alert.

Johannesburg - Only an act of God will prevent the 2010 World Cup finals being hosted in South Africa.

That was the reassurance given on Tuesday by the chief executive officer of the 2010 Soccer World Cup Local Organising Committee (LOC). Danny Jordaan

Jordaan was furious over reports in the local media quoting Fifa president Sepp Blatter as saying he had a Plan B in case South Africa was not ready to host the 2010 showpiece.

Well maybe we should host the 2010, just to allow the world to see what has become of South Africa.

While there were some concerns over security and infrastructure, Blatter believes in South Africa as the tournament host.

The 2009 Confederations Cup in South Africa will be the ultimate test run and if it wasn’t satisfactory, it would be time to look for alternatives, Blatter was cited as saying.

“However, it sped off along the M1 when approached by police.”

On the Xavier off-ramp, the vehicle collided head-on with a Renault Cleo with five occupants.
All five people in the Renault died at the scene.

Three people in the Toyota also died at the scene. Two were taken to Baragwanath and Milpark hospitals in critical conditions.

Police are investigating a case of culpable homicide.

This new locking system invented in South Africa is patent pending!

Get this, The SABC sends out letters of final demand for TV license fees. Even the dead are not exempt from not paying up, failing which you are blacklisted, as if you care for a TV in your final resting place. Inspectors apparently are going around checking you have a valid license. Should you have a death, or are just plain stupid you might venture into this informal settlement and ask a resident or two to produce a legal TV license.

Cape Towns world cup stadium has hit a snag, the money has run low, yet another blunder from ruling municipality. Rates increases are on the rise but fat cat corrupt politicians need increases and bonuses as a priority first.

Hopefully the stadium will be ready in time, only time will tell which is running out at this snail pace construction site.