Politics.za

A deal has been reached between Mayor Zille and MEC for Local Government Richard Diyanti that will see the DA coalition retain control of the executive mayoral committee. In return two new subcouncils are to be created with extra ward committees. I assume those new subcouncils will be ANC controlled.

This seems to be quite a PR victory for the DA who managed to successfully go toe to toe with the ANC.

The biggest losers though are the ID. If the DA and ANC start working more closely together they will be completely left out in the cold. When (if?) the floor crossing period opens again I expect them to take a serious hit. Which is why they’re trying to take credit for the ANC backing down, as can be seen in this quote from ID caucus leader Simon Grindrod:

“We are glad that the ANC heeded our call to ‘immediately halt this power grab’,” says Grindrod.

The Independent Democrats(ID) continues to have issues with their own councillors in the Western Cape. After the resignation (and re-election as a DA member) by Sheval Arendse the also expelled Achmat Williams but he has now won an interdict allowing him to return to his seat. I’m not sure if he will return officially as part of the ID (but certainly not listening to ID leadership) or as an independent member.

However it seems the ID has even more troubles to worry about:

But Grindrod has said that at least five councillors have been reprimanded by the party’s leadership for not doing their work in their communities and who were siding with those who face party disciplinary action.

ID councillor David Sasman, a former party whip, failed to turn up at his disciplinary hearing on Friday on charges that include criticising the party’s leadership, not attending caucus meetings and failing to do his work.

If new elections were to be hypothetically held tomorrow I wonder how the ID would do?

Education Director-General Duncan Hindle has decided one of the the best ways to solve the shortage of qualified maths and sciences teachers is to import them from Zimbabwe.

Which makes the SA governments criticism of the UK government for doing the same thing by recruiting SA teachers just a little bit more hypocriticial.

I’ll be honest with you, I thought the DA led ‘March for Democracy’ was not a very effective idea. The DA knows that any protest action will have no effect (the ANC doesn’t respond when it’s own voters when they protest and they’ve been protesting a lot lately) so the march was little more than a well attended press conference.

The post-march sniping from the DA about the ANC organising competing taxi protests made it even worse. Firstly taxi protests are not new in Cape Town, especially illegal ones a they’ve happened with regularity over the past few years and I have no doubt they will increase in frequency as government clamps down on unsafe taxi and begins (hopefully) the rollout of the taxi recapitalisation program. There’s also the fact that that besides Cape Town there were protests in other cities , and the protests have continued to happen.

Because of the aforementioned recapitalisation program the taxi industry and the ANC led government are not exactly best friends at the moment. In fact I wouldn’t be suprised that had the ANC actually asked the taxi industry to strike during the march, the taxi bosses would have turned around and done their best to transport even more DA supporters to the march. There’s also the fact that Mayor Zille has had discussions with Minister for Local Government Sydney Mufamadi earlier this morning which left her “warmly encouraged”, a marked change from the rhetoric heard at the march.

The accusations of ANC/taxi industry collusion from the DA in my opinion just make the DA look like they’re playing the victim card, an image I feel they should be getting away from. And please for love of all that is good will the DA please keep Tony Leon away from a microphone till he has learned some Xhosa/Zulu/Sotho.

Nelson Mandela’s handlers need to start picking better lawyers for our venerated ex-president. If the one isn’t taking his name and slapping it on and selling whatever he can, the other is stealing from the Zambian government.

You know despite the fact that crime continues to be a big issue in South Africa, sometimes a story comes out that makes you feel like police are actually trying. A story like this:

A man wanted for a cash-in-transit heist in Brackenhurst, Alberton, was arrested on Sunday, said Ekurhuleni metro police spokesperson Inspector Jimmy Maboko.

Metro police were stopping cars at random while monitoring the funeral procession of an alleged cash heist kingpin in the Katlehong township near Germiston.

While checking people through the morpho-touch fingerprinting machine, it emerged the 27-year-old was wanted in connection with the heist.

Now that’s the kinda cajone’s we need. Give whoever organised that operation a promotion!

I just received this bit of scam email in my inbox not five minutes ago.

Dear Beloved,

I am wife of Sacked Deputy President of South Africa, Mr. Jacob Zuma.

It is out of desperation that I am sending you this mail. My Husband and I need your assistance in fronting for us as owner of funds that are his which might come under investigation soon if the fund’s ownership is not changed soonest. As my Husband’s finances are increasingly becoming the source of investigation by our distractors.

The source of these fund’s which my Husband earnings would not validate, will further sink him into the cesspool dug by our enemies.

It is because of the dire strait we find ourselves that we resolved to reach you and ask for your assistance in this matter.

We are averse to letting those we know here into this deal because we are no longer sure of who our friends are. You will be handsomely rewarded if you choose to help us partnerhip in this project. I will be expecting to hear from you and will disclose further details to you upon your response. Do well not to disclose the contents of this mail to anyone.

Best Regards,
Mrs.S Zuma.

It’s got to be tough continually being under investigation by ‘distractors’. I mean how can you concentrate while you’re watching the latest episode of Generations when a bunch of distractors are jumping around in the living room. Damn distractors!

Following the release of the damning SABC blacklist report which blasted SABC news chief Dr Snuki Zikalala for his , SABC CEO Dali Mpofu is doing the only logical thing: calling in whistleblower presenter John Perlman for a disciplinary hearing. Granted Zikalala is also being called for a hearing but considering the statements of support emanating from the SABC board room from Zikalala I have a feeling it won’t be so much a disciplinary hearing as a friendly chat over some single malt scotch on the rocks and a solemn promise from Snuki that next time he implements a blacklist he’ll make sure not to keep it a secret.

Perlman is being dragged on the carpet because he had the sheer audacity to contradict SABC spokesman Kaizer Kganyago live on air over the existence of the blacklist and has therefore brought the SABC into ‘disrepute’. The move is obviously a ploy to get any other employees of the SABC to keep their traps shut lest they be called upon to grovel for forgiveness at Auckland Park.

Mpofu, as is becoming typical for him, brings out a few of the typical “Help I’m being oppressed!” canards that he has become so fond of. Observe his more recent quotes on the matter, where he calls the criticism over the black list

blood-lust of the right-wing lobby and its fellow travellers in the mass media

Which is absolutely hilarious when one realises that Mpofu obviously considers the Mail & Guardian, who defeated the SABC in court when they tried to block the publication of the report, to be part of the right-wing media. The fact of the matter is that the vast majority of the criticim of the Thabo Mbeki (the reason why the blacklist is in purpose) is coming from the left side of the political spectrum. Here’s another hilarious quote:

With our quality of media, this problematic material would feed into a frenzy…

What a fantasticly condescending statement. Mpofu basically insinuates that all other media is of such low quality (the SABC of course being the only high quality media outlet in the country) that they are not responsible enough to publish the black list report which is why it should be locked away in SABC archives never to be seen again by humnan eyes. But it wouldn’t be Dali Mpofu if there wasn’t at least one accusation of racism thrown in

This battle is not about one or other commentator or a ‘blacklist’ or Zikalala. It is about wresting control of the SABC, of the hearts and minds and ultimately, of the country, from us barbarians. Well folks, it is over for good. The savage natives are in charge, and democratically so.

Now of course no one thinks Dali is a savage native. He’s too fond of designer suits and multi-million Rand BEE deals for that. So let’s just call him what he is: a ruling party apparatchik and little more than that.

Yikes! The Eastern Cape provincial government can not account for 88.5% of it’s budget. Of the total budget of R34.1 billion for 2005/6, R30.2 billion is unaccounted for.

Still fresh after putting the spotlight on transport issues Trevor Manuel has decided to lay his skeptical gaze on housing. Now this is actually quite interesting as Manuel seems to be publicly casting doubt over the achievements of a fellow minister. I’m sure Minister of Housing Lindiwe Sisulu would have liked to have held up the estimates of close to two million houses supposedly built for the poor as an achievement but Manuel has come out pretty quickly not only casting doubt over the actual number of houses built but also asking why government spending has doubled on housing but delivery has slowed.