Tuesday, August 14, 2012
Outa prepares for e-toll court battle
Striking Lonmin workers meet
Monday, August 13, 2012
Breytenbach: NPA official faces grilling
Breytenbach: NPA official faces grilling
2012-08-13 17:40
Glynnis Breytenbach (File, Beeld)
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Johannesburg - An NPA official is expected to be cross-examined about suspended prosecutor Glynnis Breytenbach's laptop when her disciplinary inquiry resumes in Pretoria on Tuesday.
Khaya Xaba, a risk specialist at the National Prosecuting Authority, testified last Monday that he handed Breytenbach a letter of suspension on 30 April.
He was supposed to collect her work laptop, keys, and access discs at the same time.
However, Xaba and Breytenbach's attorney Gerhard Wagenaar disagreed about the handing over of the laptop.
Xaba allowed Breytenbach to keep the laptop so her IT specialist could delete files she claimed were of a personal nature from its hard drive. The laptop was handed to the NPA two days later.
Among the charges Breytenbach faces are gross insubordination and improper conduct, for allegedly not handing her work laptop to the NPA, and for having information on it deleted.
Breytenbach argued she did not hand over the computer because of fears about an invasion of her privacy and because she had not been given any information about the charges against her.
She argued that the deleted information had always been available on the NPA's server.
Breytenbach, who was suspended as regional head of the specialised commercial crime unit, has pleaded not guilty to 16 charges brought against her by the NPA, at the hearing at its offices in Silverton.
The NPA said it suspended Breytenbach for failing to act impartially in her investigation of a dispute between Imperial Crown Trading (ICT) and Sishen/Kumba Iron Ore over mining rights.
However, Breytenbach argued that acting National Director of Public Prosecutions Nomgcobo Jiba suspended her in an attempt to stop her from prosecuting former police crime intelligence boss Richard Mdluli on fraud and other charges.
Last year, Mdluli faced a raft of fraud and corruption charges relating to the alleged misuse of a secret crime intelligence fund to buy luxury vehicles. He also faced a charge of murder relating to the death of an ex-lover's husband.
These charges led to his initial suspension, but they were withdrawn and he was reinstated in December before being suspended again in May this year.
Mdluli appealed against his suspension in the Johannesburg Labour Court, but it decided that he should remain suspended until he had also filed an application for leave to appeal an interim order -- which was granted by the High Court in Pretoria on June 6, to Freedom Under Law -- that he be suspended and not be allowed to do police work.
Breytenbach is charged with bringing the NPA into disrepute by speaking to the media, either directly or via her attorney, without authorisation.
Another charge she faces is that of performing work outside the NPA, for allegedly renting out a flat and running a horse stabling business.
In an application for car finance in 2009, Breytenbach listed under "other income" that she earned R4000 a month for renting out a flat and stabling a horse.
Her counsel Wim Trengove SC pointed out in cross-examination that renting out a flat did not amount to performing remunerative work.
Breytenbach had stabled a horse for a friend's child which had cost her R2 500 a month, although the friend could only contribute R1000 towards this, he said.
Trengove called the reading of the car finance e-mail an abuse of Breytenbach's constitutional right to privacy of her communication, and accused the NPA of trawling through her e-mails to "rustle up" charges.
Trengove contended that Breytenbach had not been informed of the charges against her and was not given a chance to defend them before she was suspended.
Hercules Wasserman, acting senior manager of the NPA's integrity management unit, admitted under cross-examination that the first time Breytenbach received partial details of the allegations against her was on 18 April.
He admitted Breytenbach was not told of the full case against her.
Jiba made the decision to suspend her on 23 April, despite the fact that Wasserman had given Breytenbach until 25 April to respond to the allegations.
Her disciplinary resumes on Tuesday at 10:00.
- SAPA
Read more on: npa | glynnis breytenbach | nomgcobo jiba | richard mdluli
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Breytenbach's impartiality questioned
2012-08-15 22:39
Glynnis Breytenbach (Beeld)
Related LinksBreytenbach: Lawyer's influence questioned
Lawyer explains Breytenbach complaint
Tempers flare at Breytenbach hearing
Pretoria
- Prosecutor Glynnis Breytenbach "turned a blind eye" in investigating a mineral rights dispute, a witness told her disciplinary hearing on Wednesday.
"This was an absolute turning of a blind eye to anything ICT [Imperial Crown Trading] had to say," Ronald Mendelow said.
Mendelow, who is the lawyer for ICT, was testifying for the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA), at its offices in Silverton, Pretoria.
The NPA said it suspended Breytenbach for failing to act impartially in her investigation of a dispute between ICT and Sishen/Kumba Iron Ore over mineral rights.
"[Breytenbach] shows no interest at all in the progress of that investigation... which is really part-and-parcel of the same investigation," Mendelow said.
Breytenbach denied this.
The investigation she allegedly ignored involved a complaint made by the department of mineral resources (DMR) against Sishen.
The DMR accused Sishen of fraud in how it submitted an application for mineral rights.
Instead, Breytenbach focused only on investigating Sishen's complaint that ICT had forged a title deed in its application for prospecting rights, Mendelow said.
"This was clearly a one-sided investigation intent only on nailing ICT."
Mendelow said he had visited the Hawks officer investigating the DMR complaint in February this year and found only one affidavit in the file. Mendelow said the officer told him no prosecutor had contacted him to give him instructions.
The DMR complaint had "been left in the dark to mould".
He said Breytenbach should have taken responsibility for the DMR case, as it was the flipside of the Sishen case.
This led to arguments about whether Breytenbach should allocate herself cases, or whether she should only take on a case after being approached by investigating officers.
Breytenbach's counsel Wim Trengove said: "There is no basis in the evidence for an assertion that she should have assumed responsibility for the complaint that the police didn't bring to her."
He later added: "The DMR case never landed on her desk."
According to an affidavit by Breytenbach, the DMR investigation was allocated to another prosecutor.
Standard practice
Earlier in the day, Mendelow said Breytenbach had worked too closely with Sishen's lawyer Mike Hellens.
"The legal representatives of a complainant should be kept at arm's length," he said.
Mendelow sent a letter of complaint about Breytenbach to the then National Director of Public Prosecutions, Menzi Simelane, on 31 October last year, alleging she favoured Sishen in her probe and had an improper relationship with Hellens.
"Not only was advocate Hellens... drafting the key documents for the prosecution, he was also drafting various key... letters for the police unit," Mendelow said.
Hellens helped draft affidavits used by the police in their investigations.
Breytenbach said it was standard practice in a complex commercial case to call on the help of lawyers who were party to the case. However, Mendelow said the matter was not complex, but a relatively simple fraud case.
The dispute involves a 21.4% mining right in the Sishen iron ore mine in the Northern Cape.
Sishen Iron Ore Company, a subsidiary of Kumba Iron Ore Limited, which owns the rest of the rights in the Sishen mine, applied for the 21.4% stake.
However, ICT also applied for a prospecting right in the 21.4% stake, and was granted it. This led to a court battle involving Kumba, ICT and the mineral resources department.
The High Court in Pretoria then granted Kumba Iron Ore exclusive rights to the Sishen mine. However, in May this year the court granted ICT and the mineral resources department leave to appeal the ruling.
The matter was pending before the Supreme Court of Appeal.
Breytenbach was suspended as regional head of the NPA's specialised commercial crime unit on April 30 this year.
She has argued that acting National Director of Public Prosecutions Nomgcobo Jiba suspended her in an attempt to stop her from prosecuting former police crime intelligence boss Richard Mdluli on fraud and other charges.
Breytenbach has pleaded not guilty to 16 charges brought against her by the NPA.
The hearing continues at 09:00 on Thursday.
- SAPA
Read more on: npa | glynnis breytenbach
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Drama at Breytenbach hearing
August 17 2012 at 01:48pm
By SAPA
INDEPENDENT NEWSPAPERS
Pretoria -
The chairman in Glynnis Breytenbach's disciplinary inquiry recused himself on Friday after accusing the NPA of letting a witness run its case.
“I'm convinced that this application... it comes from Mr Mendelow,” chairman Sandile July said.
“I have never heard (of) a situation where a complainant would be in charge of a hearing, telling the employer how the hearing should go.”
He was referring to Ronald Mendelow, a lawyer for Imperial Crown Trading (ICT), who had testified from Tuesday to Thursday at the National Prosecuting Authority's (NPA) offices in Silverton, Pretoria.
On Thursday, the NPA said it would apply for the removal of July. July said on Friday he would recuse himself.
NPA counsel William Mokhari said July had to be removed as the firm he worked for, Werksmans, had represented steel company ArcelorMittal SA and that this could create a perception of bias.
The NPA said it suspended Breytenbach for failing to act impartially in her investigation of a dispute between ICT and Sishen/Kumba Iron Ore over mining rights in the Northern Cape.
The mining rights in question used to belong to ArcelorMittal SA, which had an interest in who would take over the rights.
Mendelow sent a letter of complaint about Breytenbach to the then National Director of Public Prosecutions Menzi Simelane on October 31 last year, alleging she favoured Sishen in her probe.
July said the NPA had not called for his removal because of his links to Werksmans.
He said he had told both parties of Werksman's work for ArcelorMittal, and that he had explained he was not involved in that case in any way.
At the start of the hearing on July 23, both parties said this would not be a problem.
July said Mendelow wanted him removed because he had asked questions during Mendelow's testimony on Wednesday.
“This has everything to do with the questions I asked on August 14 when Mr Mendelow was testifying,” July said.
He said the affidavit filed by the NPA calling for his removal mentioned questions he had asked. He said the affidavit's facts were incorrect and that he might challenge it.
He said his questions had made Mendelow uncomfortable.
“I hope this hearing going forward is not going to be controlled by people who happen to be complainants and then tell the employer how to run the disciplinary,” July said.
It was his right and responsibility as chairman to show an interest, he said.
Breytenbach's counsel, Wim Trengove SC called the NPA's application a “travesty of justice” in “a long line of abuses by the NPA”.
He said July had been gentle with Mendelow.
“Your role was... extraordinarily gentle and tolerant of a witness who came here, took control of his own evidence, and gave us a lecture over three days of how the suspect in a serious criminal case believes the investigation against him should be undertaken,” Trengove said.
He called on the NPA to drop the case against Breytenbach.
“It is time for the national director of public prosecutions to acknowledge that this has been a mistake, for them to reinstate Ms Breytenbach and terminate this inquiry.”
A new chairman would be appointed soon, Mokhari said.
July was the second chairman, after Barry Madolo recused himself.
Mohari said Madolo had recused himself when he learned of Breytenbach's defence in the case.
Breytenbach said acting National Director of Public Prosecutions Nomgcobo Jiba suspended her in an attempt to stop her from prosecuting former police crime intelligence boss Richard Mdluli on fraud and other charges.
Madolo had sat in a meeting with senior NPA management where Mdluli had been discussed, Mokhari said.
Breytenbach was suspended as regional head of the NPA's specialised commercial crime unit on April 30.
She has pleaded not guilty to all 16 charges laid against her by the NPA.
It was not immediately known when the inquiry would resume. - Sapa
Friday, August 10, 2012
Three reasons South Africa will fail.
"Once optimistic, now deeply disenchanted – it is difficult to believe that so much could be destroyed by so few in so little time. Africa’s most successful economy ever will in time become its greatest failure." Claudia Meads
Three reasons South Africa will fail.
09 August 2012, 10:52 Claudia Meads
Ex British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher once said anybody who thought the ANC could govern country was living in cloud-cuckoo-land. Could anybody, at the time she said it, have imagined that nobody would deliver a more vivid demonstration of her claim, than the ANC itself.
In fact, delivering an account of the ANC’s failures, in as little as seventeen years, will likely take as many years – for not a day passes that South Africans are not bombarded with reams of inanities, clearly depicting the state-of-disaster South Africa has become, under the ANC’s governance.
Indeed, I herewith challenge anybody to name anything-, even if it is just one item of success that can be directly contributed to the ANC government – for if you can actually find something, you will be presented with thousands of failures in return. Where else, in the known universe, would such an entity remain in government..? Oops, I forgot.., Zimbabwe...
In passing: let me remind you, the ANC had little to do with the 2010 Soccer World Cup – it was managed from Europe; Sepp Blatter (a Swiss national) simply seized South Africa for a month. The Gautrain was conceived and designed in Europe. The SKA is simply foreign technology in a remote place and so on.
Sport in South Africa survives, not because of the ANC, but despite the ANC. Since 1994, South Africa has only performed in a sustainable manner, in water-sports, golf and rugby.
The ANC stuck its middle-finger down the throat of South African Soccer and demanded the 2010 SWC present an almost exclusively non-white team – the result was the greatest embarrassment in the history of the sport: i.e. the host being eliminated in the first round. In a bender of divine justice, similar to Jesse Owen’s achievements at the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin, was delivered the clearest signal conceivable to the fascism of South Africa’s current black-nationalist regime – this time, a crushing defeat at the “hands” of a near lily-white team...
Kindly do not quote, as a ‘post ‘94 ANC achievement', anything to do with SARS and/or tax. The ANC does NOT generate tax money – it consumes it, seemingly in a glutinous destructive rage.
While there are places elsewhere in Africa nearing double percentage-point growth-rates, the South African economy is staggering along at less than 2% growth – a figure vehemently disputed by some, saying that in real terms, the South African economy is currently shrinking; e.g. all the signs point at it, citing time-on-time unemployment figures and -other key economic determinants.
The post-Polokwane-‘07 regime has managed to chase away 70% of the Foreign Direct Investment in less than two-and-a-half years (the effects now catching up with the economy). The crippling effects of near insane increases in energy costs – while the country is tiptoeing on the edge of the abyss of rolling black-outs (likely a struggling economy’s death knell), Escom is partying up a (lightning)-storm and giving its executives record salaries and increases.
In summary – the ANC’s modus operandi is simple: take from the white minority and pay the black majority to keep them in power. I am not the first one to raise this actuality, great minds like Moeletsi Mbeki, have done it before. While the aforementioned mores is justified by a near demonic entitlement – viz, as Adolf Hitler presented a “biblical promise” of a thousand-year rule, the ANC delivered the same psychotic delusions, with their “we will rule till Jesus comes” lunacy – a folly that has crippled South Africa at every level of functionality, yet in a rage of overwhelming delusion the ANC continues to celebrate “victory” (even presenting a fictional “battle” that never even happened).
A delusional rage that is slurped up by the largely illiterate- and/or unemployed masses who firmly believe it is their birthright to “take from white people” – spurred on by their spear-dangling DIC-tator, who earlier this year pledged to [verbatim quote] “aggressively” [unquote] remove white South African’s share of the economy, a share that is current less than 20% (of the economy). But as history will attest, the parasitic rage of the communist-vampire will not stop, until its host is sucked bone dry – that is before the monster turns on itself...
As one of the most obese governments on earth, the relevant ANC officials live in a TAX-(funded) HEAVEN, consisting of high-speed convoys-of-destruction featuring Europe’s finest vehicles, private airliners flying in fuel-gulping dual formations to convey a single person to the other side of the earth, seven-course-meals on demand, even an entire private town to be built in honour of the functionally Illiterate Spear-of-the-Nation and his King-Solomon-like bevy of “traditional” wives (one can only image, in horrid trepidation, what the gate-pillars will resemble) and so on.
All of this, while the vast majority of the people who keep the ANC in government, live on less than what one of them splurge out on a suit (often while on a tax-sponsored frenzy in 5th Avenue New York; also known as the land of the “evil imperialist”) – paid for by tax-payers who largely do not even vote for them. A situation so desperate, the USA (in turn) has to rush over to the country (e.g. led by Hillary Clinton’s current visit), to rescue South Africa’s education system and to deliver the critical commonsense (currently lacking) to create real jobs in South Africa, while “The Spear” is frolicking around exotic islands.
Kindly note: the USA has a GDP/capita that is nearly five times (5 x) greater than that of South Africa. Yet the despotic nationalist (ANC) regime, keeps ululating to the whims of the little yellow-and-red flagged critters (i.e. China) – with a GDP/capita that is (more than) 30% LESS than even that of South Africa. Frightening is it not..?
Very few people in South Africa understand the fundamental concept of “TAX”. Tax is not simply an unconditional payment. The only “unconditional” payments are THEFT.
Tax money is handed to a government in good faith – by-and-large, if not exclusively, to deliver collective services that cannot-, or cannot efficiently be achieved by individual entities.
A simple example is street light – one person cannot put up street lights, as everybody uses the street, so money is placed in a ‘pool’ and it is used for collective services. Anything else is THEFT – tax money belongs to the PUBLIC, notably the de facto tax-paying public (e.g. NOT those “tax-payers” who work for the state, the government, municipalities, state-owned-, or semi-state-owned companies, BEE-companies surviving on state-tenders, etc – they simply regurgitate tax-money). The tax-regime conceptually functions/exists in exactly the same manner as that of the body-corporate of a sectional title community/building.
The inconvenient reality is: should the tax-paying community of a country decide to stop paying tax, there is fundamentally nothing the government can do – largely as the ‘government’ needs the very same income to acquire its wherewithal. I.o.w. basically a self-perpetuating incongruity.
Governments will naturally NEVER admit this absolute vulnerability and will use a plethora of methods to intimidate-, indoctrinate (etc) people to continue to pay tax. Imagine a government jailing all its tax-payers – it can NEVER happen.
The South African case must be a tax-base that is one of the most unique in the world. I do not have the exact figures, but South Africa must be the only place on earth, where MORE THAN 80% of the bona fide tax-paying public (refer to the exclusions in brackets in the relevant paragraph above) do not vote for the ruling party. While the vast majority, who vote for the ruling party, contribute little (if not essentially nothing) to the tax-income of the country – viz. one relevant figure I do have: around 70% of the people who vote for the ANC are unemployed.
Shall I remind you that the most prolific country that the world has ever seen – the USA (a place that is younger than South Africa and one that has travelled further than any known being), was built on the ethos – ‘NO TAXATION WITHOUT REPRESENTATION’.
The ANC has left in its wake a plethora of ventures that could only be messed-up by the absolute hopeless – e.g. Telkom (how do you mess up an unmitigated monopoly that is near unconditionally guaranteed? Telkom is now such a desperate mess it wants to withdraw from the stock exchange), SAA (once the greatest airline in the world), Universities (once amongst the most revered academic institutions in the world – now manage little more than ILLITERATE GRADUATES, just ask the Law Society of South Africa), Hospitals (epic institutions that saw some the world’s greatest medical achievements – e.g. the first heart-transplant in history, now little more than macabre medieval slaughterhouses, crawling with Cuban hand-me-downs), etcetera, etcetera, etcetera...
THIS IS THE FIRST REASON SOUTH AFRICA WILL FAIL – the ANC takes money from hard-working people and have nothing to show for it.
It is however the latest governmental inanity, of grand proportions, that now warrants ‘special’ mention.
The South African Local Government Association (Salga) is an idiosyncratic oddity that is probably unique to South Africa. Few hard-working South Africans who make a bona fide contribution to the country’s economy have ever heard of this peculiar public entity. An entity created under Section 21 of the Companies Act (1973) – it is the Minister of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs’s [GOVSA] “Court Jester” and was formed in terms of the Organised Local Government Act 52 of 1997.
Salga represents local government on numerous intergovernmental forums such as the President's Coordinating Council, Minister and MEC’s forum, the Budget Forum, the National Council of Provinces and the Financial and Fiscal Commission. However, nobody really understands why Salga is necessary or what its value-adding mandate is – this however has not stopped its tax-leeching existence (either directly from a national government grant or indirectly from e.g. membership fees). It appears to be, in some ways, the ANC government’s own union – as bizarre as it sounds (not that peculiarities has ever stopped the ANC regime).
It is worth noting here that the Department of GOVSA is comfortably one of the greatest disasters in an already disastrous ANC government. It presides over rampant non-compliance, corruption of endemic proportions, collapsing- to non-existent infrastructure (including structures that collapsed almost upon completion, by virtue of entities like SGL Engineering, On-Point Engineers and such – distinguished by a certain “director” who took twenty-one years to fail Woodwork), absenteeism so vast it is impossible to quantify, incompetence beyond even the worst nightmare – often openly admitted with flagrant “so what" entitlement, fiscal losses of epic proportions, etc, etc, etc.
E.g. GOVSA (in March 2011) regarded 8 out of 32 unqualified audits as “...an improvement...” – i.e. one quarter – where else in the world would a three-quarters failure-rate be regarded as good enough..? Except naturally a place starting with “Z”...
GOVSA’s rampant disconnection from reality is eagerly led by another one of the ANC regime’s big spender - Richard Baloyi. He who spent R360 000 on car rentals, on 21 occasions, for "unavoidable" reasons – obviously a good enough reason, certainly at more than R17000 a shot. Following his impeccable example, his deputy Ayanda Dlodlo did the same on 18 occasions, at a cost of R205 000 – at more than R11000 a shot, she made sure she did not threaten her bosses score per ‘shot’...
Another (rare in this case) oddity in the ANC is auditor-general Terence Nombembe. Recently Nombembe delivered a report to parliament that estimated 70% of municipal officials were not qualified to perform their duties.
At this point, it worth pointing at Act no 12 of 2004 – The Prevention and Combating of Corrupt Actions – believe it or not, assented to, by a president of an ANC government, in April 2004 (not on the 1st, smart-****).
In CHAPTER 2 – named “OFFENCES IN RESPECT OF CORRUPT ACTIVITIES”, Part 2: “Offences in respect of corrupt activities relating to specific persons”, under the heading “Offences in respect of corrupt activities relating to public officers”, it states,
[verbatim – from line no 50] – “4. (1) Any – (a) public officer, who directly or indirectly, accepts or agrees or offers to accept any gratification from any other person, whether for the benefit of himself or herself or for the benefit of ANOTHER PERSON...”
Then,
“...in order to act, personally or by influencing another person so to act, in a manner...
(ii) that amounts to
(aa) the abuse of a position of authority;
(bb) a breach of trust; or
(cc) the violation of ... a set of rules;
(iii) designed to achieve an unjustified result...
is guilty of the offence of corrupt activities relating to public officers.
(2) ... "to act" in subsection (1) Includes –
(b) performing or not adequately performing any official functions...”
Not only is 70% incompetence an overwhelmingly unbelievable figure – in any ‘book’, anywhere on earth (bar perhaps Z...) – appointing- and/or allowing such a person to continue- and/or aiding- and/or assisting such a person, is by definition a corrupt activity (i.o.w. corruption).
Act no 12, 2004, gives the prosecuting authority the power to imprison somebody for life (take note Woodwork students – start practicing your ‘Boeremag’ anthems, you could be sharing a close proximity with some unlikely friends – till Jesus comes...).
Following Terence Nombembe revelation, the cabinet instructed COVSA’s Minister (Richard Baloyi) to ensure municipalities employ suitably qualified financial officers – a somewhat impotent response to what is potentially a very serious matter, nevertheless..,
Into the fray steps Salga’s CEO Xolile George, to quickly expose cabinet’s ‘response’ for what it really is – viz ineffectual lip-service.
Nobody (that matters) really knows who Xolile George is, but he quickly poured ice cold water (midst country-wide snowfalls for the first time in recorded history) on the instruction from cabinet, by saying that the inefficient workers were contractual obligations for the municipalities and cannot be let go. He then proceeded to say: “...Our appetite is not to fire people but to capacitate them...”
STAGGERING..!
I trust Xolile George can grasp that he is potentially an accessory to corruption. But I guess he does not grasp this verity and nor do the ANC. In fact the entire ANC regime is not only impervious to the extent- and de facto meaning of corruption, it is wholly oblivious. The examples are overwhelming – I have merely elaborated on one ‘interesting’ example.
THE SECOND REASON SOUTH AFRICA WILL FAIL under the ANC – it has “incapacitated” itself to address incompetence, corruption and alike.
The thrid reason is courtesy of one the greatest literary minds of our time – Ilana Mercer (a citizen of the USA, notably so, as the ANC’s destruction of South Africa is increasingly being recognised on the global stage).
As a classical liberal writer she has written one of the greatest- and probably most complete dissertations on post-Apartheid South Africa – in many ways, of Apartheid South Africa. Her book "Into the Cannibal's Pot: Lessons For America From Post-Apartheid South Africa." is a script that is a minimum requirement for ANYBODY who values a future in South Africa (and for that matter the USA) – notably for their children- and theirs. Read it – I urge you.
She has written a number of essays on South Africa (particularly post-1994 South Africa), but for the purposes here, I will refer to her article titled “Clueless in South Africa with Mrs. Obama”
It touches on the ANC’s obligatory sophism – viz “BLAME WHITES FOR EVERYTHING”, from sun-spots to old-age homes...
Ilana cites Jim Peron, a US expat, as she notes, “...idealism drove him to decamp to post-apartheid South Africa...”. Peron says: "Every time something goes wrong (and that happens constantly), the same litany of excuses is recited. 'We inherited this problem from the corrupt apartheid regime.’...”
She follows by stating “...There's one pesky problem with this particular blame-game: South Africa's flourishing criminal class consists mainly of youngsters who've come of age and blossomed under black rule...”
Then she states another inconvenient verity: “...minority-ruled South Africa, with all its problems, offered Africans more than any other country on the Dark Continent...”.
As such she further notes another uncomfortable fact “...While black Africa and East Europe circled the drain due to communism, South Africa was experiencing an economic explosion, courtesy of the National Party's relatively conservative economics. An oasis in the African desert, South Africa's... ...economy grew at an annual rate of six percent during the 1960s...”.
Presenting more substance not fitting well into the ANC’s “sheep-suit” that blames everything on WHITE APARTHEID, Ilana notes:
“...In his submission to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, F. W. de Klerk, who received a Nobel Peace prize for surrendering South Africa to the ANC, corrected the record.
Apartheid was not only about white privilege but also about development and redistribution of income from whites to blacks. The economy had grown by an average of 3.5 percent per year under apartheid, the black school population grew by 250 percent in the first twenty-five years of apartheid, and the black share of total personal income had nearly doubled from twenty percent in the mid-1970s to thirty seven percent in 1995, while that of whites declined from seventy one to forty nine percent." As bad as the Bantu Education system was, it vastly improved black literacy.
Twelve years into the Nationalist government's rule, the rate of literacy among the Bantu of South Africa was already higher than that of any other state in Africa, or that of India...”
It is worth noting that the gains in the literacy of black South Africans during almost five decades of apartheid, has been all but eradicated by the ANC regime, in as little as one-and-a-half decades.
Then she gives a brief overview of the vast improvements in health-care and life-expectancy of black South Africans under apartheid. A day will come when history will show that the apartheid government took better care of black people than the regime elected under (so-called) “democracy”.
She concludes by saying “...By staving off crime and communism, the apartheid regime, a vast repressive apparatus though it was, saved black South Africans from an even worse moral and material fate...”
THIS IS THE THIRD REASON SOUTH WILL FAIL under the ANC regime – viz the convenient proxy apartheid offers for reality...
Wednesday, August 8, 2012
MPs: medical parole a sham
MPs: medical parole a sham
THABO MOKONE | 08 August, 2012 00:
1943 Comments
Jackie Selebi. File photo.
Image by: The Times
Members of parliament yesterday slammed the government's release of Jackie Selebi, saying it tainted the credibility of the medical parole system.
EmailPrintMPs told Correctional Services Minister Sibusiso Ndebele that the release had not been transparent.
Selebi was released from Pretoria Central Prison on the recommendation of the 11-member Medical Parole Advisory Board so that he could receive treatment for kidney failure.
At the time of his release, Selebi had served only 229 days of the 15-year sentence handed down by the Johannesburg High Court for corruption.
Questions over his release persist, with critics suggesting he enjoyed preferential treatment because of his political credentials.
DA MP James Selfe said Selebi's release could not be divorced from that of fraudster Schabir Shaik, who was said to be "terminally ill".
"The real problem that we face in this system is around the credibility of the medical parole system as a whole . because what we have is a very clear situation of a particularly high-profile member of the ruling party who is as fit as a fiddle and swans around Durban playing golf and living the high life.
"So when another high-profile member of the ruling party is released on medical parole, you have a credibility problem. The person on the street does not believe that the system works properly," Selfe said.
Another MP, Bushy Mnguni of COPE, said the legitimacy of medical parole had become tainted.
"We must try to resuscitate [it] and to make it fair," said Mnguni.
But the national commissioner of Correctional Services, Tom Moyane, defended Selebi's parole, saying it had followed the law to the letter.
He said the parole board, a statutory body of the department led by Dr Victor Ramathesele, had overseen the entire process to release Selebi.
"In this particular instance, I believe we have done what is acceptable by law, and within the parameters of ethics within which we practise," said Moyane.
"I would like to believe that had it not been because of the profile of the individual, it could have been something different . but I say that the treatment of inmates is equal before all correctional officials in our department."
Moyane said that in the same month Selebi was released, the parole board had considered 12 requests for medical parole, including from three applicants who had died while their documentation was being processed.
No application had been received from Clive Derby-Lewis, who is serving life for the murder of SACP leader Chris Hani, Moyane said.
Derby-Lewis's wife, Gaye, has told The Times she would apply for her husband to be released on medical parole on the grounds that he has prostate cancer
Monday, August 6, 2012
The Public Protector needs protecting
The Public Protector needs protecting
Jack Bloom
06 August 2012
Jack Bloom says Thuli Madonsela's office lacks the resources to handle the volume of complaints
Public Protector Thuli Madonsela is undoubtedly a public asset. She strives to be independent and objective, unlike her predecessor who mostly fudged things that could embarrass the ruling party.
She is also energetic and conscientious. I was mightily impressed when she personally phoned me late Friday afternoon to clarify a point in a referred matter.
Complaints lodged with her office have jumped since she took over, from 12 435 in 2008/9 to 20 218 in 2011/12.
This is a good sign that people have confidence that she will investigate fearlessly and put things right. Her reputation is boosted by high profile cases like the scandalous R1.78 billion police headquarters deal.
Madonsela's report on this led ultimately to the dismissal of Public Works Minister Gwen Mahlangu-Nkabinde and National Police Commissioner Bheki Cele.
The vast majority of cases, however, are from aggrieved individuals. Her office investigates improper conduct, or maladministration, defined as "when public power is exercised outside the boundaries of the Constitution or law".
The problem is that her office is vastly under-resourced to handle all the complaints.
Each investigator processes on average 254 cases a month. The backlog is more than 9 500 cases, many from the previous year.
Early last year I referred a case of the head of emergency services in Gauteng apparently using an emergency vehicle illegally.
This should have been sorted out quite speedily, but has still not been finalised.
There are unacceptable delays in many important cases. Another issue is the lack of follow-up.
In August 2010 a damning report found that Abalozi Security got a lucrative contract with the Gauteng Roads and Transport Department without it going out to tender.
R71 million was paid to this company which was partly owned by General Siphiwe Nyanda, who later became Communications Minister.
It was a giant rip-off, as a replacement security company now does the job far more cheaply.
The Protector's report made recommendations that were to be monitored over a period of six months.
President Jacob Zuma was supposed to direct the Gauteng premier to investigate improper conduct that led to the award of the Abalozi contract.
A general investigation was also recommended into all contracts of more than a million rand that were awarded without tender to see if there was systemic abuse.
Two years later none of this has happened, which nullifies everything the Protector's office has done in this matter.
This is why many corruption-busting exercises fail. Reports are done, and then nothing happens because of a lack of political will to implement recommendations.
It was only sustained public pressure that eventually forced Zuma to act against Gwen Mahlangu-Nkabinde and Bheki Cele.
But many other cases just fade from public view.
Madonsela has powers to obtain information, but does not have real power to compel the president to act on her reports.
This is the glaring gap in the Public Protector's anti-corruption efforts.
We should treasure Madonsela while we can as she serves her non-renewable seven year term.
It is highly likely that government will try to ensure that her successor is more pliant.
Meanwhile, they will starve her office of resources and quietly evade many of her recommendations.
Jack Bloom MPL is DA caucus leader in the Gauteng legislature. This article first appeared in The Citizen.
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SA: Statement by Hugh Glenister, asking the NCOP to look into redrafted SAPS
SA: Statement by Hugh Glenister, asking the NCOP to look into redrafted SAPS Amendment Bill (10/07/2012)
STATEMENT
Published 10 Jul 2012
Private businessman, Hugh Glenister, who won the Constitutional Court’s 2011 ‘Glenister Judgement’ deeming the legislation that established anti-graft unit, the ‘Hawks’, to be unconstitutional, has requested that the National Council of Provinces, the Public Protector and the SA Human Rights Commission look into the redrafted SAPS Amendment Bill, which he believes constitutes an inadequate amendment of the legislation to meet the requirements of the Court.
On 22 June, Glenister and his legal counsel sent a letter to the offices of the Public Protector and the SA Human Rights Commission urging them to launch an investigation into the manner in which executive and legislative branches of government were attempting to implement the Constitutional Court’s order pertaining to the judgement.
Given the Public Protector’s authority and constitutional duty to intervene in matters threatening the ability of her office to strengthen constitutional democracy, Glenister believes the controversy surrounding the Hawks and the “superficial changes” to the SAPS Amendment Bill to fall within her mandate.
Following a second written request to the Public Protector on 5 July, Glenister’s counsel has called on the NCOP to look into the matter, given the significant amendments that they made to the Protection of State Information Bill in May this year.
“We would like the Committee on Security and Constitutional Development to consider the redrafted bill in light of the Constitutional Court’s judgement and to make amendments that ensure an independent unit not easily susceptible to political interference or pressure, and able to effectively fulfil its mandate of fighting corruption,” adds Glenister.
His counsel, Advocate Paul Hoffman says that the parliamentary Committee on Police, responsible for amending the legislation, largely ignored the recommendations of the 22 oral presentations made during the public participation process in April.
21 of the 22 submissions said that it was inappropriate to house the Hawks within the SAPS, as it they felt it would compromise the unit’s ability to conduct investigations without being influenced by political agendas.
“Public confidence in the SAPS is at an all-time low and the unit has been plagued by allegations of corruption from within, how will we be able to fight corruption off of this platform?” he adds.
Glenister urges these organisations to consider his requests ahead of the court-imposed deadline to remedy the legislation by 18 September.
Edited by: Creamer Media Reporter
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R100 000 anti-corruption challenge for youth
2012-04-04 16:00
Related Links
Hawks inadequate - Glenister
Govt still studying Hawks ruling
Hawks to be restructured
Cape Town - Lobbyist Hugh Glenister said on Wednesday he plans to award R100 000 to a southern African who can offer the best remedy for developing an anti-corruption framework for specialist police unit, the Hawks.
His competition invites anyone under the age of 30, or a university, to submit their "best practice" implementation of a Constitutional Court ruling, which forced Parliament to remedy the Hawks' lack of independence by September.
Last March, in a case largely initiated by Glenister, the Constitutional Court ruled that chapter 6A of the SA Police Service Act be sent back to Parliament for amendment because it made the Hawks vulnerable to political interference.
The court suspended its order of constitutional invalidity for that period to allow for the amendment to the law. Public hearings are scheduled for April 23 and 24.
‘Youth most affected by corruption’
Glenister said the only way to fight corruption was to allow all levels of society to have their say.
"Corruption is a disease that affects every single one of us, no matter your age, profession, location or economic dispensation," he said.
"Most of all, it affects young adults, because they are the ones that will be left to fix the mess that we have allowed to happen."
Competing teams and individuals have until July 31 to submit their proposed draft legislation and explanatory memorandums in English, using less than 5 000 words.
Submissions would be evaluated by a panel of retired South African judges.
If a university faculty won, it would receive R50 000 and give the remainder to its students deemed most deserving.
If an independent person was chosen, they would get R10 000 and the remainder would go to the best university submission.
The decision would be announced on September 30.
- SAPA
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