Open letter to South Africa from foreign media

No fear No Favour No Outside Pressure........



RICHARD POPLAK          SOUTH AFRICA         22:32

The Daily Maverick is happy to publish this letter, addressed to the citizens of an increasingly maudlin South Africa. The contents provide a fine primer on what to expect in the next few days, and how we should behave while those days unfold. Oh, and don’t forget to floss—you’re on TV! By RICHARD POPLAK.

Dear South Africa,

Please get the fuck out of the way.

Wait, that probably came out wrong. Let us explain.

As you may have noted, we’re back! It’s been four long months since the Oscar Pistorious bail hearing thing, and just as we were forgetting just how crappy the Internet connections are in Johannestoria, the Mandela story breaks.

We feel that it is vital locals understand just how big a deal this is for us. In the real world—far away from your sleepy backwater—news works on a 24-hour cycle. That single shot of a hospital with people occasionally going into and out of the front door, while a reporter describes exactlywhat is happening—at length and in detail? That’s our bread and butter. It’s what we do.

And you need to get out of the way while we do it.

It’s nothing personal. In fact, we couldn’t do this successfully without you. In many cases, our footage is made more compelling by your presence. Specifically, we are fond of small black children praying and/or singing in unison. Equally telegenic are the Aryan ubermensch blonde kids also praying/singing, who help underscore the theme that Mandela united people of all races under a Rainbow umbrella.

Also very important, thematically speaking, are Mandela’s successors. We very much like the idea that your ex-president was “one of a kind”, and that despite his best efforts, the current batch of idiots prove that he was an exceptional presence, sui generis, and we don’t have to worry about someone else like him coming along in Africa ever again. We enjoy your leaders’ bumbling ways, their daft non-sequiturs, the glint of their Beijing-bought Breitlings. That “Vote ANC” truck parked outside the hospital? If that doesn’t speak to moral degeneration of the first order, what does? In other words, this story would lack a tragic arc without Jacob Zuma. May he keep on keeping on.

Then there’s the Mandela’s family. Really, where would we derive our soap operatic undertones if it weren’t for the infighting and the blinged-up brashness of that clan? We love subtly implying that a saint sired a generation of professional shoppers and no-goodnicks. In our biz, we call that “irony”. Makes for great copy.

In fact, we love everything about the country that doesn’t live up to Mandela’s legacy. We will take every opportunity to mention how everything you do flies in the face of everything Mandela would’ve wanted from his people—how you’re basically a nation of under-achieving screw-ups. All of this is fantastic, we thank you profusely for your individual and collective contributions to this essential storyline, and urge you to keep squandering your potential.

But like we said, we’re busy.

We need to be fed, constantly and without respite, big juicy mouthfuls of new information regarding every aspect of the story. Each piece of data, no matter how seemingly trivial or inane, is to us the rich, fatty gravy that we will slather over this one essential fact: the father of your nation is gravely ill, and we’re banking—literally, banking—on his not making it. The geraniums in the hospital planter, beating the chill of winter? Metaphor. Again—no detail too small.

Indeed, you need to brace yourselves. We’re about to engage in the single greatest orgy of industrial-grade mourning porn the world has ever known. Your little country will forever be honoured as the site that made the Princess Diana thing look like a restrained wake for a loathed spinster who perished alone on a desert island. Oh man, this is going to be big.

But that’s then. For the meantime, we need you to behave yourselves. We’re going to be pushy, and we make no apologies for it. This is the news—and news, after all, is the concrete foundation of democracy, a principle Mandela was willing to die for long before he was dying.

Note the solemn tone of our television reports. Ken the funereal passages published in our great papers. At times, the scramble for information may seem like a pursuit entirely free of dignity. But remember that watching a sausage get made can be a grisly process.

We would like to respect the fact that you’re going through a period of great sadness and protracted grieving. But we all need to be grown-ups about this.

So, we ask again, and this time with feeling:

Please. Get the fuck out of the way. DM

Photo: Policeman walk past media trucks outside a Pretoria hospital where former South African President Nelson Mandela is being treated June 12, 2013. REUTERS/Siphiwe Sibek

DAILY MAVERICK

COMMENTS BY SONNY

All the foreign press need is to get on this political bandwagon to nowhere and have their day in the Media.......

Let them all enjoy the ride - FOR MADIBA'S SAKE at least!

FUCK THEM ALL!!

AMEN.

OSSEWA BRANDWAG - SA 1938

http://www.nelsonmandela.org/omalley/index.php/site/q/03lv02424/04lv02730/05lv02996/06lv03000.htm

THE LEADER OF THE OSSEWA BRANDWAG

JOHANNES FREDERIK JANSE VAN RENSBURG

Johannes Frederik Janse van Rensburg (known as Hans) was born 24 Sept 1898 and died 25 Sept 1966 at Cape Town. His parents were Johannes Frederik Janse van Rensburg and his wife Louise DE VILLIERS. This Ossewabrandwag leader was the great grandchild of the Loyalist Johannes Frederik Janse van Rensburg.

He completed his schooling at Winburg in 1918 and then went and studied at the University of Stellenbosch, he obtained a MA degree in German. With the ecouragment of advocate Tielman Roos, he went and studied and obtained LL.B in Law at Pretoria.

Rapid Rise to Power

Van Rensburg was born just prior to the outbreak of the Anglo-Boer War and this tragic event played a significant role in the formation of his life. The subsequent policy of Anglicization of the Boers had its negative impact on him. After his studies at the University of Stellenbosch where he was very much influenced by his German mentor Dr E. Friedlaender, he went and qualified as a solicitor. In 1924 he became the private secretary to Roos the minister of Justice. In 1925 he became the adviser to the Attorney-General. In 1930 he obtained his doctoral degree at the University of Stellenbosch. In 1933 he became the Secretary of Justice. In this capacity he visited many overseas countries and met Adolf HITLER, Hermann GORRING and other German leaders. Van Rensburg admired the German language and the discipline he observed, as well as the dynamic leadership of Adolf Hitler. He had an attraction to the ideals of national-socialism.

Hans van Rensburg got married in 1925 to Catharina Johanna JOUBERT and they had a son, Jacobus Marthinus and a daughter.

German Nazi's gives impetus for Afrikaner Nationalism

On 1 December 1936, Hans at the young age of 38 years he was appointed the Administrator of the Free State. He was also climbing at the same time the ladder of the military establishment, at the commencement of the Second World War he was a Colonel of the Free State Sixth Brigade. He felt uneasy when Jan SMUTS became Prime Minister, Smuts had very strong British leanings. Van Rensburg was offered the leadership of the Ossewa-Brandwag. This was a movement which rose out of the commemoration of the Great Trek and the focus became more Afrikaner nationalistic. Note their emblem above. They also emphasised the autrocities of the Anglo-Boer War. The war between the British and Germans gave hope to the Afrikaner to have the yoke of the British taken off their shoulders, and ultimately having their own independent republic restored. Van Rensburg resigned towards the latter part of 1940 as Administrator and became the commandant-general of the OB on 15 January 1941. This was a volk movement but soon with the early German success it became more militant in its ambitions. They formed their own private army and was working for a 'sjambokracy'. The OB eventually had a fallout with the political wing of the Afrikaners, they were starting to interfere in what was considered the political domain, subsequently the OB declined in numbers. With the victory of the National Party in 1948 the OB was no longer a major force, van Rensburg remained its leader until 1952. See photo below and note the variation in salute.

The Biggest Mass Movement of Afrikaner Nationalism

To have witnessed gathering of the OB with 20,000 people gathering at Rustenburg, and 30,000 at Springs was no small movement. The OB reached 300,000 membership. There were three factors according to Marx which brought about this mass movment of Afrikaner Nationalism. The Afrikaners had just experienced their second great trek to the cities and they were divorced from the land, this was a calling firstly tovolkseenheid' that is national unity. Secondly they were united in their rejection of participating in the Second World War against Germany. Thirdly they wanted to re-esablish a Republic, which the centenial commemoration of the Great Trek in 1938 sparked. The emphasis was more on Afrikaner Nationalism than Nazi ideology. They promoted getting together at 'braaivleis' barbecues, the promoted 'jukskei' 'n Boer game, and then worked at cultural events, and folk songs etc.

The open Nazi propogators were led by Oswald PIROW, and he had his own movement called "Nuwe Orde" which was a fascist movement.

See Photo of the Cape Leadership of the Ossewabrandwag, note the young later Prime Minister and President - John VORSTER and PW BOTHA. In the Transvaal the Ossewabrandwag operated two organisations: One was a cultural organisation and the other was the Stormjaers the later one was focused on performing deeds of sabotage. In the Cape the Stormjaers was not accepted.

(bottom row – second & third from left – PW Botha & JB Vorster)

Press Reports of van Rensburg's Speeches

See van Rensburg making a public speech.(77k) Visser p 16,17 reproduces the following press releases:

"The aim of the Ossewabrandwag is to found a one-party, authoritarian and disciplined state wherein the people will not be allowed to say, rwite or do as they please to the detriment of the People and the Government" Eastern Province Herald, 29 May 1942.

""The Stormjaers must be regarded as animals but as soldiers of the future republic" Die Burger, 3 August 1942

"The Ossewabrandwag is of the opinion that a German victory is an obvious condition for and Afrikaner republic to come into existence. Liberation can happen only as a result of a German victory" Die Vaderland, 8 August 1942

"The national authoritarian state will arise in South Africa with the aid of the Ossewabrandwag and the returning soldiers ... If they stand together, democracy will be in a sorry state." Die Vaderland, 22 March 1943

After the victory of the National Pary in 1948, the OB became marginalised. Van Rensburg remained its leader until 1952. Subsequently hy served as adviser to some government bodies with regarding group areas, in Cape Town and also Port Elizabeth. In 1962 he bowed out of public life and went to live on his farm, "Mooi Eiland", Parys, his OB supporters gave this farm to him as a present. He remained a member of the board of SANLAM, SANTAM en Federale Mynbou. Van Rensburg without a doubt was a very popular leader he died on 25 September 1966 at Cape Town, and the state gave him a burial with full military honour on 1st October 1966 at Pretoria.

Source:

www.geocities.com/Athens/Rhodes/1266/historical-LeaderOssewaBrandawag.htm

COMMENTS 

PART OF SOUTH AFRICA'S PRESENT PROBLEMS.