Mortal Kombat 2014 Round One: The ANC’s list process

No Fear No Favour no ANC............



RANJENI MUNUSAMY    SOUTH AFRICA   10 JUNE 2013  00:22

The ANC issued a strongly worded statement this weekend, saying it was “baseless and deliberate fabrication” that President Jacob Zuma’s foes within the organisation were being purged. The party claimed the newspaper which reported on anti-Zuma ANC members being marginalised was on “a campaign of misinformation and distortion” in an effort “to create a spectacle of disunity”. Trouble is, in two months begins the great race to get onto the ANC election list, and as high up as possible. This is what the tensions and battles raging in the provinces are all about – despite Luthuli House’s attempts to have us believe it’s all sunshine and butterflies in the ANC. By RANJENI MUNUSAMY.

A famous quote from former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher was, “Being powerful is like being a lady. If you have to tell people you are, you aren’t”. The same logic applies to the insistence by the ANC and its allies that they are united and that any reports about internal divisions are fabricated by the media. If there are genuinely no divisions, why should there have to be constant denials of conflict?

The default position in the alliance is to blame the media for reporting on the divisions, even though the source of information about internal strife is almost always from within the organisations in question. The ANC, SACP and Cosatu create the impression that the media goes out to actively seek information about their internal turmoil. But over the years, a tactic of the political warfare is to leak information in order to damage political foes and shore up support from sympathisers.

The Mail & Guardian reported last week that ANC members across the country who did not support President Jacob Zuma's re-election at the party’s Mangaung national conference were claiming they were being purged from party structures. While the sidelining of those who campaigned against the president’s second term in Limpopo and the North West provinces, as well as the ANC Youth League, is quite apparent, the paper cited how anti-Zuma members in other provinces were being marginalised.

The ANC came back with a fierce denial, claiming the paper was “on a campaign of misinformation and distortion”.

“In a desperate attempt to give credence to its ludicrous claims of purging, the paper seeks to draw non-existent linkages between charges brought by a court of law against comrades and so-called battles within the ANC. The African National Congress has consistently maintained that, as per our constitutional prescripts, everyone is innocent until proven guilty by a competent process of the law. The ANC continues to maintain this stance even in the case of our comrades mentioned in the article who find themselves in conflict with the law. How the Mail & Guardian views this as [a] purge simply baffles the mind and speaks of the ever-diminishing capacity to reason logically and coherently in the quest for sensationalism within the paper,” ANC spokesman Jackson Mthembu said.

“In the run-up to the General Elections in 2014, there shall be all manner of accusations which will be flung between political contenders. The Mail & Guardian is not a known political opponent of the African National Congress and thus manufactured, untrue and baseless articles such as this one, which have become characteristic of the Mail & Guardian, can only lead us to wonder what the real intention may be,” Mthembu said.

The only thing beyond doubt in Mthembu’s blustery statement is that the run-up to the 2014 national and provincial elections will be bloody and brutal. This will be more so in the ANC, as getting onto the ruling party’s candidate list has turned over the years into the fast track to political power and with it financial gain and access to resources.

The ANC announced after its national executive committee (NEC) meeting last month that it had approved former Johannesburg mayor Amos Masondo as its national coordinator of the 2014 election campaign. Senior NEC member Manne Dipico was approved as the ANC's national list coordinator and secretary general Gwede Mantashe will head a list committee.

There will be one national election list for positions in the 400-member Parliament and nine provincial lists for the legislatures. As with the race to be on the ANC’s NEC ahead of the Mangaung conference, there will be fierce jockeying to get on the election lists, and as high up as possible, as the MP (Member of Parliament) and MPL (Member of the Provincial Legislature) seats are determined by the number of votes the party receives. Those hoping to serve in the national Cabinet would want to be as near to the top of the national list as possible, as the president chooses the bulk of his executive from Parliament. (In terms of the Constitution, the president is only allowed to choose two non-MPs to serve in Cabinet.)

Unless the ANC decides otherwise, Zuma will be number one (probably how the alias for name-dropping came up) on the national list, with Cyril Ramaphosa likely to be second. These are about the only certainties on the list.

The ability to get nominated onto the list is dependent on two issues: how popular you are and which faction you belong to. The provincial executive committees also hold tremendous sway in the list process, which is why battles for dominance are being fought in the provinces. The NEC has decided that no provincial elective conference will be held until after the general elections in order to cool down the provincial leadership battles and prevent further fracturing.

While the ANC might be denying it is purging those in the anti-Zuma camp, the factional battles in the provinces are a precursor to the jostling for placement on the list. There is obviously uneasiness from those in the losing faction at Mangaung that their chances of getting onto the list are in danger as pro-Zuma members are in the pound seats and are in favour with the decision makers at Luthuli House.

The list process will be a high-stakes battle, as the lower down on the list a candidate is, the less his or her chance of becoming an MP or MPL. There will therefore be intensive lobbying and the possible re-emergence of factional slates to sway the process.

As much as the ANC is trying to write the turmoil off in the provinces now as an exaggeration by the media, it will not be able to do so in a few months when the battles break out in the open again. The pre-Mangaung factional conflict manifested violence, assassinations and court battles. While the contestations subsided after the conference, many of the factional tensions are still prevalent.

If Mantashe and his list committee want to dispel the notion that there is an anti-Zuma purge, they will try to encourage a mix of candidates from all the factions. But from the branches to the provincial executives is where the decisions will first have to be made, and no amount of media statements preaching ANC unity can change what goes on in these structures.

Like with the battles ahead of the Mangaung conference, ordinary South Africans will have to watch from the sidelines as the fierce battles rage to select the people who will decide South Africa’s future between 2014 and 2019. There is also the option of joining ANC branches to participate in the process, or to make sure an opposition party has enough votes to represent them.

The skirmishes within the ruling party will be the opening rounds of South Africa’s most fiercely fought battle since 1994. Whether it wants to admit it or not, the contestation within the party is as much of a threat to its dominance at the polls as challenges from the opposition.

And the ANC is yet to learn that denial will not make this problem go away.DM

DAILY MAVERICK

COMMENTS BY SONNY

The ANC is at its weakest since 27 April 1994.

Without their purging, intimidation and Communist propaganda and rhetoric they are doomed to implode!

TIME WILL BE THE WINNER OF THIS FINAL ROUND!

eThekwini municipality giving the ANC a bad name: Cosatu

No Fear No Favaour No bad service delivery(non) allowed.........



Sapa | 08 June, 2013 11:38

Durban beach front. File Photo

The eThekwini municipality is giving the ANC a bad name, Congress of South African Trade Unions Durban Central secretary Mlondi Manzini, said.

"They are not acting. They have failed the African National Congress and they shame us as the alliance," he told members of the SA Municipal Workers' Union (Samwu) at a protest march in Durban.

The municipality had failed to address issues in the metro police dating as far back as 2005, Manzini said.

"I am ashamed as an ANC member, how can they do this us, as the ANC and as the alliance?" he asked.

Samwu deputy regional secretary Pretty Shange said the city had failed to give older metro police the basic training which would enable them to progress to other positions.

She said scholar patrols needed to work more hours, and that the people who manned them needed to be appointed as permanent workers.

The union was also concerned about the victimisation of shop stewards who fought against corruption.

Marchers carried placards reading: "We demand decent salary with omnibus", and "We demand stability at the metro police."

They reacted angrily when mayor James Nxumalo was not available to accept their memorandum. It was accepted instead by his adviser Joe Nene.

City spokesman Thabo Mofokeng could not immediately comment.

Times Live

COMMENTS BY SONNY

When a President fails a country, everything else takes second place.

Durban is not worse than Johannesburg which has now started giving residents "Double Billed" water and electricity accounts.

Yes, when the meter readers fails to do their jobs on time or at all, the residents just get billing double for two months.

FACTS ARE THAT EVERYTHING JUST GET SWEPT UNDER THE ANC CARPET.

YOU CANNOT COMPLAIN, THEY JUST DON'T ANSWER THEIR "CLEINT SERVICE" TELEPHONE LINES!

SOUTH AFRICA IS IN THE DOLDRUMS BECAUSE OF THE ANC LEAD GOVERNMENT! 

http://cherisecox1.iblog.co.za/2011/02/03/cherise-cox-foresaken-hero/

POLICEWOMAN Cast Aside By Metro Police
Just another iBlog weblog
Cherise Cox Foresaken Hero
Cherise Cox is young South African woman, who from a very young age dreamed of being a policewoman. She wanted to make a difference to the crime in South Africa. Cherise excelled at school and was very athletic. After completing high school she joined the SAPS for a short period of time and then in 1993 she moved over to the Durban Matro Police. Right from day 1, Cherise made her difference, she put in long hours and never hesitated when it came to apprehending criminals. Cherise was  at the forefront of many stolen vehicle recoveries and arrests for violents crimes, she made such an impression she was charged with her own dog and was proud to become the first female dog handler in the Metro Police.

In August 2003, Cherise and her partner were patrolling in the jacobs area of Durban and responded to a call for a hi-jacking in progress. As they approached the scene, four armed men openned fire on them. Cherise jumped from her car, drew her firearm and returned fire. Cherise, not being very tall, streched up from behind her car, from where she was taking cover and fired a few rounds. Cherise felt her body jerk and the most excruciating pain she had ever felt. Falling to the ground, Cherise felt a warm sensation around her waist as her blood pumped from her body, she had been shot in the abdomen, the bullet had ripped into her as she streched over the car and her ill fitting bulletproof vest moved up on her body. In that few seconds, Cherise was not aware that the bullet had severed her femoral artery and femoral nerve, an injury that could take her life within minutes, as well as shattering her right hip.

Cherise did not give up, she continued to fire at the suspects fatally injuring one of them seconds before her service pistol jammed, something that had happened many times before, but never whilst she was under heavy fire by someone who had the full intention of killing her. Another suspect gave himself up and was arrested. Ironically one can say it was “Cherise’s lucky day”, there was an ambulance around the corner from the scene, they rushed to her aid and managed to stem the bleeding. A doctor happened to be passing by and stopped to see if he could assist, if not for him, Cherise would have bled to death on the side of the road. She was rushed to St Augustines hospital and from there on her nightmare began.

Back at the scene the violent crimes unit had secured the area and were piecing together the events with the help of Cherise’s partner as well as the second suspect, Simphiwe Shezi who was the leader of the so called and wanted “Shezi gang” and who was now in custody. Not to be taken lightly, Shezi and his gang were well trained and extremely violent. Detective Inspector Bruce McInnes (retired) had been after Shezi and his gang for sometime and had in fact been tipped off about a cash-in-transit van that was going to be robbed near the Southway Shopping Mall, the mercedese they were hi-jacking was to be used in this robbery as a battering ram. Shezi knew he was going down for his crimes and decided that he was taking others with him. He had no idea if Constable Cherise Cox was dead or alive so he was very anxious to make a deal. He did not hesitate to tell Detective Inspector McInnes where they had obtained two firearms, one at the scene and was later identified as the one that severly injured Cherise Cox and another that was later recovered from  the gang’s lair.

He was horrified, Shezi explained how these had been purchased by the dead suspect from two Metro Police Officers. These two policemen, Thembinkosi Mthethwa and Stembiso Zimu had claimed they were robbed of their firearms on the 30 July the same year, just two weeks before Cherise was shot. These policemen claimed the robbers had sped off in a white golf registration number ND 527 890, a vehicle that was reported to have been hi-jacket two weeks previously, niether could identify any of the robbers or what clothes they were wearing although they had been face to face. These supposed robbers also left behind the policemen’s celphones and two way radios. They also left behind the police vehicle. No attempt was made to follow or apprehend the robbers. Only after there was suspicion shown in the matter, there was suddenly a few notes appeared on the statements of these two police men claiming that the robbers had taken the police vehicle keys as well. This is clearly written in a different handwriting with a different pen and was not signed by the two policemen.

All the while this investigation was taking place, Cherise was in hospital fighting for her life. To date, Cherise has undergone more than 20 major operations and many more minor ones, it took 9 months for the wound in her abdomen to close up and had to learn to walk again due to the severed nerve. In short Cherise has had the following,

Total Colectomy, 2 x ileuostomy, and hernia repairs. She suffers with “dumping”  Syndrome and short bowel Syndrome. Everything she eats and drinks comes straight out of the permanent ileuostomy bag, causing severe dehydration which in turn results in Renal Failure. She has 80% weakness in her right leg and suffers from Severe Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. When I met Cherise for the first time in January 2011, it was in the surgical ward of St Augustines hospital, where she had been admitted for Severe Dehydration, while there she had surgery to repair a port in her chest as it was disconnected. She was released from the hospital on the friday and was rushed to Umhlanga hospital ICU with double Pneumonia the following monday where she has spent the past two weeks. Cherise is badly scarred and no plastic surgeon in South Africa wil even look at her case. The truth of the matter as sad as it may be is that Cherise is going to pay for being a hero with her life. Honestly speaking I feel she already has, because the past 7 years have not been kind to her, although being alive, she has not lived the life of a 30 odd year old should live. Sshe has suffered and will continue to do so until the end which could be tomorrow or next year, who knows

Now many of you will think that this is a horrific story, but to say the least, this is only the tip of the ice-burg. Never mind the fact that Cherise was shot with a service pistol that was sold to a criminal by a collegue, although wearing a bulletproof vest that didnt fit her. She has basically been cast aside by the Durban Metro Police Department and the Durban Town Management. Cherise was medically borded due to her injuries, yet the workmans compensation will not payout any claims as the doctors that treat her cannot possibily sign her condition off as stable. Her income was reduced to R4000.00 per month yet her medical bills mount to between R6000.00 and R8000.00 per month. Her Post Traumatic Stress Disorder is not caused by her tragic shooting or the injuries, pain and suffering she has endured since then, “according to the Metro Police that is”, so she is left to cover this medication and treatment out of her own pocket. There is never any response from the Durban City Manager Mr Mike Sutcliffe, everything is hidden and swept under the mat.  The accused Shezi was sentenced to prison where he receives medical care in a Private hospital if he is ill, at no cost to him. The two policemen who sold their firearms are still employed by the Metro Police and are earning their normal salaries, and have never been charged despite the fact that Shezi was willing to testify to the fact that they had sold the firearms. He was never interviewed by the Metro Police or Mike Sutcliffe as they claimed they did not want to interfere with a violent case. The Durban City Management, Metro Police Department, Department of Labour and the government in general have turned away and cast aside this young hero. She put her life on the line to serve and protect and that bullet fired from a “collegues” firearm has taken that life away.

Apart from her medcal bills mounting, Cherise also has to live, pay her bond, car and food, never mind just survive. There is a support page for Cherise on Facebook with banking details for anyone who would like to assist her in any way, no matter how small. Cherise is looked after by her brother and an elderly relative as she cannot afford a private nurse and her medical aid and nor will the Durban City Management provide her with one. Cherise cannot afford an attorney to take the matter further so she is at the mercy of the public, including you and me.

I have been one of the fortunate ones to have personally met with Cherise and can say without any doubt that she is worth any effort anyone is willing to put in to make the remaining time of her life comfortable. There will be more articles here with regards to the Durban City Management and the Metro Police including a full report on 133 firearms that were discovered as missing from the Metro Police many of which have never been reported to the SAPS.

This entry was posted on Thursday, February 3rd, 2011 at 1:05 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

One Response to “Cherise Cox Foresaken Hero”

YOU WILL BE REMEMBERED - R.I.P.  SALUTE

Heist accused a top spy

No fear No Favour No Criminal Cops please........




GRAEME HOSKEN | 07 June, 2013 00:44

A suspect, under heavy police guard, lies on the road after a foiled cash-in-transit heist
Image by: SUPPLIED

A policeman being investigated for several deadly cash-in-transit robberies involving more than R30-million is responsible for gathering crime intelligence on threats against President Jacob Zuma and the top echelons of government.

The Times can today reveal that Captain Morris "KGB" Tshabalala, - who yesterday appeared in the Sasolburg Magistrate's Court in connection with the February 16 attack on a Protea Coin cash-in-transit van - is part of an elite team that is partly responsible for protecting the country's leaders.

Tshabalala, 39, and his colleague, Sergeant Willby Molefe, 41, who appeared alongside four other accused, are stationed within the covert section of police crime intelligence.

Three guards were injured in the Sasolburg, Free State, attack and an estimated R3-million was stolen.

A seasoned police officer, Tshabalala has top security clearance that allows him access to some of the state's most classified information - which investigators believe he might have used to help plan at least seven cash-in-transit robberies.

Tshabalala has been involved in numerous high-level intelligence operations, including helping to foil the planned right-wing terror attack on the ANC's 2012 elective conference in Mangaung.

He was also, according to police sources, instrumental in the criminal investigation of former crime intelligence boss Lieutenant-General Richard Mdluli (who is the subject of an internal disciplinary hearing).

Tshabalala was, according to sources, instrumental in solving the complex case against cash-in-transit heist mastermind Collins Chauke a few years ago.

Police arrested Tshabalala hours before he could compete in the Comrades Marathon on Sunday. He appeared, in leg irons, in court yesterday on three counts of attempted murder, armed robbery and possession of unlicensed firearms and ammunition.

The Sasolburg court room was heavily guarded and packed to capacity with crime intelligence officers in support of the policemen.

Tshabalala, still wearing a grey Comrades Marathon jacket; Molefe and their co-accused, Sipho Nkosi, Mapotswe Moloi, Lehlogonolo Tlekelele and Sipho Motsamayi, were remanded until Thursday for a formal bail application.

Information obtained by The Times from independent sources reveals that the Asset Forfeiture Unit has joined a specialised team from the Hawks investigating Tshabalala and his co-accused.

The team was formed after a high-level meeting between national police commissioner General Riah Phiyega and senior staff of several cash-management companies this week.

According to cash-management industry insiders, Tshabalala is suspected of having used his position to plan and carry out heists.

The Asset Forfeiture Unit will investigate what happened to the more than R30-million that the six are suspected of stealing in heists in Gauteng, Eastern Cape and the Free State.

In one of the Gauteng heists carried out in 2010, a member of the Johannesburg dog unit was killed.

Detectives close to the investigation described Tshabalala and his colleagues as a law unto themselves.

"They are like God who has become the devil. They operate on their own terms and account to no one. They are untouchable," said a detective.

"Our fear is that, like so many other similar cases against so many other crime intelligence officers, this investigation will go nowhere," he said.

Another detective confirmed that Tshabalala's job included assessments of threats against the president and cabinet members.

"The clearance level they have is top-secret. They have access to information that is limited to a handful of people. It is precisely this that makes the allegations around what these policemen did so serious.

"The ramifications of what they are alleged to have done are huge and if proved true will pose a critical threat to the safety of this country."

Hawks spokesman Captain Paul Ramaloko would not comment on the intelligence operations Tshabalala or Molefe were involved in.

"I will neither deny nor confirm the information. What I can say is that, given the seriousness of the charges, both policemen have been suspended immediately without pay," he said.

South African Police Union president Mpho Kwinika confirmed that Tshabalala was involved in assessing threats against the state and the president.

"These are high-level operatives, dealing with highly classified information," he said.

Kwinika, however, voiced serious concerns about the motive of the investigation.

"While we are disappointed by the allegations [and] we are not saying that they did not commit these crimes, we are concerned by what appears to be the sinister motive driving the investigation.

"Given his involvement in the Mdluli investigation, we strongly believe there is more to this than what meets the eye and sincerely hope that this is not a purge of good policemen," Kwinika said.

Tshabalala's wife, who refused to give her first name, said outside court yesterday: "We are fine. We have never been more confident and are convinced that this is nothing more than a ploy, which will be revealed in court."

THREE RUNGS ON THE SECRECY LADDER

• Top Secret: Captain Morris Tshabalala has the highest security clearance.

He has access to classified information involving the president and cabinet ministers. When dealing with threats to the state, people with this level of clearance have practically unlimited access to intelligence.

This clearance level allows computer access to any South African's personal details - including banking, medical and travel records;

• Secret: The second-highest clearance level allows access to a limited amount of classified information;
• Confidential: The lowest security clearance, allows access to information in connection with crimes not deemed to involve major security threats.

Times Live

COMMENTS BY SONNY

How times have changed.

Top cops in the Intelligence arena are so well screened that they turn out to be professional Robbers?

The cliche' of It takes a criminal to catch a criminal appears to be false.

Criminals join the SAPS to stay out of Jail.

Or do they really?

Their Boss Richard Mdluli must have been a good example of leadership skills.

If the above facts are correct then TSHABALALA must have been working with Comm Bushy Engelbrecht on the Collin Chauke cases.

Are these officers 'fall men' as the allegations would appear.

This could be another 'Third Force' within the SAPS like those responsible for the cover-up in the BOEREMAG TRIAL late last year.

The Manaung Trial may also expose some unethical police tactical flaws.

'Satanic' South Africa

No fear No Favour No Lucifer pleaze..........................

GREG NICOLSON      south africa  7 june 2013 01:12

Reports of Satanism linked to gruesome crimes in South Africa beggar belief, but does it exist to the extent suggested by media, where does it come from and how does it fit into the broader narrative of South Africa? By GREG NICOLSON.

According to a testimony at the Palm Ridge Magistrate’s Court, that’s the Bible verse that convinced youths to allegedly drug, bind, and set alight Kirsty Theologo and a friend in petrol last October.

Participator-turned-state-witness Lester Moody, who admitted to using drugs heavily, said the group decided Theologo was Johannesburg’s “great prostitute” during a game where one asks questions and burns tissue paper with matches to see the answer. It was decided the “whore of Babylon” would be sacrificed. “Drinking her blood, eating her flesh and burning her with fire” would be rewarded with “power, wisdom, fame and money” thought the youths.

Satanism sounds too farcical to believe – too similar to The Craft orStigmata and distant from facts and motives. Sceptics view it as an excuse used to sensationalise murders that are likely linked to poverty, violence in society, broken families, and psychopathic characters. Yet, media reports suggest it’s a key motive for a number of murders and Satanism is indeed practiced by South Africans, in particular youth.

In May, a 14-year-old boy allegedly murdered four family members in Johannesburg’s East Rand. Reportedly, he was fueled by drugs and Satanism. “This guy said he is a satanist. If he kills he is sacrificing his family for the boss,” told a neighbour. “He said it came from his mind and told him to kill them because of the full moon.” Those killings came after 14-year-old Keamogetswe Sefularo was allegedly murdered in Mohlakeng Johannesburg by Satanists who reportedly drank her blood.

Satanism has a history in South Africa. University of the Witwatersrand media studies lecturer (and Daily Maverick columnist) Nicky Falkof says in the 1980s and 90s, towards the end of Apartheid, white South Africa was gripped by paranoia and Satanism fell into the racially-based fears that characterised the era. Both the English and Afrikaans press had a relatively consistent position, says Falkof in “Satan has come to Rietfontein: Race in South Africa’s Satanic Panic”, treating it “as a legitimate and real threat to white South Africa”.

Satanism was racialised. “Both white and black youth were implicated in the scare but only white youth retained access to its supernatural elements. Where black youngsters were concerned, the possibility of Satanism only opened another channel for state mediation in their lives, while for many young white people, Satanism became another mechanism of enforcing orthodoxy and the political compliance that went with it,” writes Falkof.

“As an expression of the paranoias that dogged white mass culture in the last years of apartheid, as a screen for the repression of the real and radical threats to continued white dominance, the belief in a satanic conspiracy maintained apartheid’s work of racial separation and kept black and white youth in their place, fulfilling the pre-ordained positions given to them by the system’s racial obsessions: whites as conformist bearers of morality, civilization and reason, blacks as infectious, pathological and preternaturally damaged,” she concludes.

Before this, there were ideas around sangomas and muti murders, but white South Africans’ involvement reflected practices in the UK and Europe, says Falkof. The “imported panic” featured key attributes familiar to European and American Satanism – the colour black, upside crosses, the use of wine, and slaughtering cats. But when Apartheid ended, the press coverage on white Satanism did too.

Current media, however, paints it as a crime wave. In 2010, the government’s Tsireledzani report on human trafficking found that satanic cults operate across the country, with the main “operational centre” in Krugersdorp. They are well financed, usually white and count prominent members of society as members. When sacrifices are required, children are preferred. “Respondents believe that victims are either recruited by cult members or purchased from criminal syndicates that specialise in human trafficking: these syndicates are said to be mostly Nigerian. Alternatively, satanic cults will kidnap victims often from rural areas. Other targets are street children and prostitutes, probably because they are less likely to be missed and reported to the police. If the ritualistic killing requires a man, gay men in bars are targeted and sedated to overcome physical resistance,” claimed the report.

The investigation offers information from “respondents” but apart from claiming to have seen a video of satanic sacrifice, offers no hard evidence. Critiquing the claims, Chandré Gould, Marlise Richter and Ingrid Palmery from the Institute of Security Studies said it suffered from “lack of evidence and methodological integrity”. The report’s claims that Satanism is predominantly practiced by whites also differs with media reports which paint it as a subculture among black youth.

Smangaliso Mkhatshwa, head of the Moral Regeneration Movement, advised caution when approaching the issue. There’s a lack of scientific research to support the existence of Satanism as a religion, he said, and it’s hard to separate individual cases of violence as stemming from a religious belief as opposed to other issues. Both the Old and New Testament of the Bible mention such aspects of behaviour but don’t support the view that Satanism has been a distinctive ideology. What’s particularly concerning, said Mkhatshwa over the phone, is if people want to practice Satanism as an established religion.

Dr Kobus Jonker, who headed the SAPS’s Occult-Related Crimes Unit, is a common source of information on the issue. When contacted by Daily Maverick, he said he was too busy with his homeopathy practice, but he explained the issue in a past interview with Vice. “People jump on band wagons and see the devil behind every bush and that’s also wrong. It can be very dangerous, so I don’t do that. The Cult Unit was mainly for occult crimes which would involve cult leaders who are generally very charismatic. They run the satanic sects and tell their followers that they must go desecrate graves and go kill people for sacrifices and that sort of thing. South African Satanists concentrate more on committing crimes. That’s not the case with American and British sects. They are more concerned with LaVey’s teachings and the religious side of devil worship. You will rarely find them committing any of the horrible murders committed here in South Africa by the local sects,” said Jonker, who blamed the practice on the common breakdown of the family unit and children being left to their own devices.

This new breed of Satanism, according to Falkof, is totally different to that of the 1980s. “Now when we compare this to what’s going on currently we see a very different beast indeed. There are similarities – the devil, Bibles, dangerous women, weird rituals – but in most cases, news reporting on ‘Satanism’ is more or less the same as news reporting on ‘muti’ or ‘witchcraft’,” says Falkof. “The spectre of that old fear remains in name at least but it’s been subsumed into a larger South African occult. The best example of this is the way that most satanic tales these days involve not the murder of cats, associated with European witches, but rather endless oceans of chicken blood, which have powerful connotations of muti and local magic.”

Asked whether she believes the hype, Falkof says she doesn’t. Satanist acts of violence, however, may operate based on an individual’s perception of, rather than a proven, satanic conspiracy. “Whether or not ‘they’ exist is almost beside the point when it comes to individuals adopting the language and iconography. If you hear enough about this stuff and start to define yourself as the mythical ‘satanist’, and perform his/her practices, then are you one or aren’t you one? Does it matter how ‘real’ the thing is if peoplethink it’s real?” asks Falkof.

But rather than Satanists floating in the dark, she suggests the practice might be linked to the pulse of South Africa. The natural decline in Rainbow Nation rhetoric has been replaced not only by tragedies – Marikana, Anene Booysens, Reeva Steenkamp – but also a disenchantment with the ANC government, corruption, employment and service delivery. In short, dreams have been dashed.

Falkof quotes other academics on the state of flux and draws it back to Satanism: “I think then perhaps what the upsurge of Satanism stories in the last few years signifies is a symptom of this social fear, this sense that things are ‘sliding out of control’ and that we can’t trust those in charge to keep us afloat. I think those sorts of fears often manifest in occult paranoia because the world begins to seem unmanageable. And, related to that, in a way it’s easier to have a clear enemy; the other nifty task that Satanism scares perform is that they polarise things, they create a good vs. evil story that’s very easy to digest.” DM

Read more:

• The Satan Particle in Daily Maverick

Photo: Actors dressed as devils perform during the "gathering of the devils" ahead of Saint Nicholas Day in Podkoren December 1, 2010. REUTERS/Bor Slana

Daily Maverick

Satanic, Barbaric, Xenophobic, MURDEROUS and CORRUPT!!

WHO SHOULD WE THAN?

LUCIFER AND HIS DISCIPLES OF COURSE!

....." OH LUCIFER, TAKE YOUR DISCIPLES AND THEIR FALSE STRUCTURES AND GODS AND SMITE THEM!".....

LET US HAVE OUR DEMOCRACY WE FOUGHT SO HARD FOR!!

AMEN

DA to donate R1m to Outa

No fear No Favour No Pretenses.............

Freight transport will be given a discount on the e-toll system. Picture: Lesego Ngobeni/EWN

Alex Eliseev | one hour ago  SOUTH AFRICA  7 JUNE 2013  09:00
JOHANNESBURG - The Democratic Alliance (DA) announced on Friday it would donate a R1 million to the Opposition to Urban Tolling Alliance (Outa) to boost its legal battle against e-tolling.

This week Outa made an urgent appeal for funds saying it received notice from its lawyers and may have to abandon its case against roads agency Sanral.

The organisation said it needed to find R1 million in three weeks.

The DA's Mmusi Maimane said, “We thought that the residents of Gauteng have spoken and Outa’s been at the forefront of the fight against tolling and we thought that as a political party it’s helpful and important for us to be able to contribute to this issue.”

Outa's Wayne Duvenage said they are overwhelmed by the response from the public and now the DA.

He added that by last night they had raised R500,000.

“This has been the most incredible 24 hours in Outa’s life. When we put that call out on Wednesday we were really in a predicament to raise a R1 million in three weeks and we were always behind in raising funds and we really wanted to take a strong winnable cause to court.”

Meanwhile, Sanral claims Outa has been exposed as a front for the DA.

DIALOGUE ON E-TOLLS

Earlier on Friday Deputy President Kgalema Motlanthe's office said just because e-tolling is launching soon doesn't mean dialogue about the project should grind to a halt.

Motlanthe is due to meet church leaders in Pretoria to discuss their public challenge against the multibillion system.

Motlanthe's spokesperson Thabo Masebe said churches were part of initial meetings chaired by the deputy president.

“We can’t stop talking to people, it is important to talk to people because there might be misunderstandings on the basis of how we communicate.”

The Supreme Court of Appeal is due to hear the next phase of Outa's legal challenge on 25 September.

Meanwhile, Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) and the churches are some of the organisations who are opposed to the controversial system.

Last week, Cosatu led a drive-slow in Gauteng against e-tolling.

The trade union federation believes the system will have a negative impact on the working class.

E-tolling is due to be launched within weeks, regardless of the pending court case. 

EYE WITNESS NEWS


COMMENTS BY SONNY


The Opposition to Urban Tolling Alliance (Outa) has received donations totalling R1,500.000.00 overnight.

They must be doing somerthing right.

GOD PROTECT JUSTICE IN SOUTH AFRICA.

Analysis: Poolitics should be beneath the ANC

No fear No Favour No Phooh flowing on the steps of Provincial Parliament..........



STEPHEN GROOTES          SOUTH AFRICA 6 JUNE 2013         01:40

As a political instrument, what my toddler commonly refers to as poo has a certain quality to it. It's easy to manipulate, readily available, slightly pongy, and really, really hard to throw back. There are certain drawbacks though. You have to handle it yourself, or get someone else to do it for you. While it washes off quickly, it's obvious if you've been using it, and there's a distinct lowering of the tone whenever you touch it. But such are our politicians that there's very little prospect of this week's scatological Olympics in the Western Cape being the last such event in our electoral calender. And, as much as it pains us to report, it's not the first time lavatorial content has been used in such a way either. But it is clear now that if we thought the last elections were bad, the next ones are going to actually be much worse. By STEPHEN GROOTES.

The week got off to a bad start, when what's been described as ANC Youth League members dropped off a spread of number two on the steps of the Western Cape Legislature. They're upset about unenclosed toilets in the Khayalitsha area, as part of a saga that goes back to well before the 2011 Local Government Elections. Things took a nastier turn on Tuesday, when people being described as protestors, or activists, threw buckets of the same stuff (although presumably not a strict DNA match) on cars carrying Helen Zille.

Immediately, the ANC Youth League in the Western Cape condemned that, saying they where "disgusted" by the attack. And then, for good measure, claimed they had nothing to do with Monday's Legislature attack.

Yeah, right. Of course not. Because they're saintly beings, who know never to use the words "ungovernable" when fighting an election. And look, who belongs to the ANC Youth League in the Western Cape in the first place?  You're in a province where the ANC literally likes to stab itself in the back, you are in an organisation that has lost the right to run itself, and it's not like your last leader was someone who preached love and respect for Madam Zille in the first place.

The rights and wrongs of the Western Cape's toilet policy are likely to be thrown at us all for years to come. The actual facts got flushed away years ago. But it does seem clear at this stage that there are far fewer people having to use the bucket system in that province than in other provinces where the ANC rules. Now, Helen, don't get too excited - obviously you can't compare the economy of the Western Cape to, say, Limpopo. But it does seem odd that the ANC Youth League is not throwing crap at their own leaders in, say, Seshego. Or how about the area around Viljoenskroon, where hundreds of toilets were built, but never enclosed, by an ANC municipality? And there the local mayor, bless her tenderpreneurial socks, owned part of the company that was supposed be doing the enclosing.

While we're here, here's a fact to consider the next time you have a private six minutes. In India, according to the latest census 49.8% of the population go outside when they need to relieve themselves. That's like half. It's well over 500mn people. And it would be unthinkable for this kind of attack to happen there.

What this is all really about is next year's elections, isn’t it?

We can't just look at one province; we have to look at other developments as well. For years, Zille has been trying to change the playing field of our politics, to move from race and the liberation to service delivery. There's a reason why during elections you hear all about the DA's track record, and not as much criticism of the ANC anymore. Now this is starting to pay off.

If you are the ANC, and you desperately want to stop the DA electoral march, you then have two points of attack:

First, you have to sabotage the service delivery. You have to find every single example you can where the DA has not succeeded, and show it up as much as possible. And you have to do in a way that gets you on the front pages. And yes, throwing poo will do it.

But the problem is, there are such things as pesky media. And not everyone in South Africa is as unreasonable as you, so you can get caught. And this where the remote control of it all comes in. If you remember, back in the ANC's good old days, a young chap who was once important used to say all sorts of things, like "Whites are criminals" and that black female DA officials were tea-ladies. And the people who really mattered in the ANC would pretend to tut-tut while he told Soweto "The DA is for whites, the ANC is for you" and actually did nothing. Because he was on remote control, and thus the message could get out there, without you actually having to smell it yourself.

But that well-known Pedi lexicographer is no longer with us. And so now the politics has to be outsourced. In some cases it'll be people who were once ANC Youth League members, or even a councillor; in others, it'll be people who seem to wear the latest ANC T-shirt. And later, someone with a po-face will simply utter the typical South African refrain of "oh you can't prove it was an ANC member". They'll sound like any union leader as the streets of Joburg look like a particularly messy nuclear-waste site. But we'll all know that someone else is actually pulling the strings.

The other reason we know there is some panic at Luthuli House, is that the other possible card is already being played. It was, quite surprisingly, Gauteng Premier Nomvula Mokonyane who played it, telling her legislature that if the DA won Gauteng next year, they'd "put a pale male in charge here". This is her speaking as premier, you understand, not with her ANC hat on.

Because if you're losing, and the service delivery attack ain't gonna do it, well then you're gonna have to the play the pale man. It's really as simple as that.

However, these tactics are dangerous. Firstly, you can simply get busted. The smell of it all will still accrue to you. And that middle class vote that is so at play in these elections is not going to like these tactics at all. Secondly, it's really kind of beneath the ANC in so many ways. Once you get that kind of politics in your organisation, it's only a matter of time before someone uses those tactics in an internal dispute.

And this is what makes what must on some level be a conscious decision so interesting. Why would you use these tactics if they carry such a high risk? Again, we have to ask, what is the ANC getting from its polling data, why the early campaigning, the volunteers being set up, the entire shindig? What is it that is making so many people so worried? Is it just polling data, or just the fact the liberation dividend is running out?

Or perhaps something much more interesting? Like perhaps the guy on the election poster is actually becoming a liability. DM

Read more:

• The ANC’s scatological election campaign in Daily Maverick

Grootes is an Eyewitness News Reporter, and the host of the Midday Report on Talk Radio 702 and 567 Cape Talk

DAILY MAVERICK

COMMENTS BY SONNY

Once again, the ANC "Fat Catz" are resorting to dirty politics in Cape Town to try and keep the DA out of the National race to the 2014 elections!

The ruling part has in the past insisted that they will make the DA and CAPE TOWN in particular

ungovernable.

They promised to use the ANCYL and the ANC MK Vets to achieve their aims.

Is this how 'Democracy' works in a 'civilised SA Society?'

We should hope not.

Political parties should earn their votes and not intimidate the opposition into defeat!

The old Communist tactics of divide and rule does not belong in a civilised society at all!!

Guess who is behind this sorry state of AFFAIRS?

Who sabotaged the economy of Limpopo in the first place?