Tag Archives: politics

Julius Malema should not have been convicted of hate speech

Julius Malema is a moron Let me be clear: I think Julius Malema is a complete tool. I can’t stand the man and I wish that the ANC would do something about him. He makes me afraid for our nation.

So I was pretty happy when I heard that he had been convicted of hate speech. But I’m conflicted. I disagree with the judgment…

Malema claimed that Jacob Zuma’s rape accuser was lying because she had not fled after the alleged rape:

“When a woman didn’t enjoy it, she leaves early in the morning. Those who had a nice time will wait until the sun comes out, request breakfast and ask for taxi money”.

I think that is an offensive, ignorant and downright deplorable statement to have made. If the ANC were at all responsible they would have fired him on the spot. They are not that type of organization and that is a problem for all of us.

That said, I really don’t believe that the state should be able to fine Malema for this statement. Anyone making statements like this should be judged by society.

When the state enforces what you can and can’t say then things start to go wrong.

There’s a little thing called freedom of speech. I think it is quite important.

The South African law on hate speech says:

No person may publish, propagate, advocate or communicate words based on one or more of the prohibited grounds, against any person, that could reasonably be construed to demonstrate a clear intention to –
(a) be hurtful;
(b) be harmful or to incite harm;
(c) promote or propagate hatred.

This is too paternalistic. Just imagine the impact on freedom of speech.

Malema should be ridiculed. The ANC should have fired him long ago. But he should not be fined by the government for saying something offensive.

Zuma’s empty election promises causing unrest

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AWB was better than ANC poster

The Economist has an article on Zuma, South Africa, and the recession.

Summary:

The current recession means that many of Zuma’s grand campaign promises are falling aside
This is causing serious problems among the impatient poor masses
It is also causing problems among his powerful left leaning COSATU and communist allies
The fact that Tito Mboweni is leaving (suspiciously timed) suggests that perhaps Zuma is giving in to pressure
It will be crucial to see if Zuma is able to “hold his left-wing allies in check” during the recession

In short, my take is this:

South Africa is full of poor people (40% of our population is below the poverty line).

These poor masses are impatient to improve their lot. They also believe that this is their right and will happen fast.

Many believe their current situation to be the direct result of past injustice
They have all been promised quick and drastic change by the ANC

With good governance and hard work their lot should improve – but only over time.

This is a problem because:

We do not have good governance. Especially at the extremely important municipal level we often have shockingly bad governance
The ANC promises unrealistic and quick results. Zuma made lots of mad promises during the campaign which are now falling by the wayside

So we have an already impatient, poor and jobless population being continually disappointed you surely have a recipe for unrest and possible disaster?

Tell people to vote against the ANC

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It seems to be established that you shouldn’t tell people who to vote for.

Bull.

You should vote DA or COPE.

There. I said it… Whatever you do, vote against this guy and his party.

malema-anc

It’s true that you shouldn’t intimidate or force people to vote your way. But, in my opinion, you should try to persuade them to vote the right way. That’s democracy.

It’s their vote, but your responsibility to get them to use it wisely!

The ANC are a corrupt, inept and dangerous in government. However, because of our country’s history the ANC are assured of an election victory again.

There are several reasons why you should still vote against the ANC:

To stop them from getting a 66% majority! That would allow them to change our constitution – something they have already threatened to do
To make your voice heard against the corrupt and inept government of the ANC. Votes against the ANC won’t be ignored forever
In some towns and provinces the opposition has a very good change of winning control from useless ANC local or provincial government

As for which opposition party to vote for, choose one that has policies you agree with. Surely you can’t agree with the ANC and their policies? They are nowhere near the party they once were.

I have strong feelings on who you should vote for – suffice it to say that if you vote DA or COPE you are doing your country a favor.

Make sure that you get out there and vote accordingly. And tell other people to do the same.

Julius Malema – threatening UCT

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Julius Malema is seriously frightening. The things he says, and the positive attention he gets for saying them make me sad about South Africa.

Yesterday he was at my old university, UCT, threatening to remove the management of the university once the ANC comes into power.

I get angry when I read some of the things this fool says. I get sad when I see how many people in our country agree with his statements…

Quotes from his speech at UCT yesterday:

“Forces that are opposed to our revolution are still here. We must change the management of this university and also the lecturers.”
“Don’t provoke us, it is us (ANC) who brought the nonsensical apartheid regime down. No opposition (party) will ever defeat the ANC. We want them all to combine so that we can defeat them”

Julius Malema: 100% for Zuma, 20% for woodwork

DA launches a Obama style online campaign

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The DA is trying to emulate some of the success that Barack Obama had online during his election campaign.

He set up highly effective online resources and managed to mobilize a LOT of support online. South Africa obviously isn’t as conducive to using the internet, but it’s still a great idea.

The DA have just launched a social network (like a mini Facebook – complete with profile page and wall!) called Contribue to Change. You can easily register on the site and:

Connect with other DA supports in your area and around the country
Find out about events in your region
Get lots of information on how to help the DA in this crucial election
Join groups for particular causes, activities and events

I recommend that you at least take a look. Even joining is very easy and you aren’t actually expected to do anything more.

The site itself works fairly well. It’s driven by WordPress (the same software that runs this blog) with a social networking plugin called Buddypress. Most features work perfectly with a few clunky areas here and there (like the avatars which just don’t work for me).

Give it a look. Here’s a link to my profile page.

This is a super important election for South Africa.

We really, really all need to get out and vote against the ANC (DA is an excellent choice, but against the ANC is important).

I won’t get into too much detail now, but here are 3 big reasons to get involved:

If the ANC get a two thirds majority then JZ can do anything he wants. Including passing a law that he can’t be prosecuted. I’m not kidding – that is what the ANC say they will do
We need a strong opposition in SA. Now that the ANC has split we have a very good opportunity to build a strong opposition to the completely inept and at least partially corrupt ANC government
There is an excellent chance that the DA can win the Western Cape from the ANC and make a great difference to a great province.

ANC gets nailed in the Western Cape

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The Economist has this article summarizing for the rest of the world what is going on with ANC and COPE. Specifically what kicked off the article was the ass-kicking handed to the ANC by COPE and DA in the Western Cape.

One of my point-form summaries:

27 Western Cape seats were recently contested in the Western Cape
- The ANC had held all of them, but lost all but 3
- The ANC didn’t contest 12 of the seats (through incompetence) so they outright lost 12 of the 15 that they did contest
- COPE won 10 of the seats and the DA won 9

The formation of COPE has much to do with “personal interests and ambitions”
- It is observed that COPE was formed by those who were squeezed out of power when Zuma came in
- These are the same people who thought the ANC was fine until they lost power

Either way, COPE should benefit South Africa by:
1. Offering black voters more choice
2. Weakening the hapless ANC

Swaziland – not ideal

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The Economist has this short article on what a circus Swaziland is. The tiny country (population 1m) that we hardly ever even notice is badly run by King Mswati III who wields absolute power.

Here are some facts from the article:

All political parties are banned in Swaziland
The leader of the opposition (People’s United Democratic Movement) is behind bars
Most of the country is dirt poor and ravaged by AIDS but the King and his family live a fabulously lavish lifestyle

The place is an absolute dog show, but you won’t hear a peep of criticism from our leaders.

Stones in glass houses perhaps?

Obama is about promise McCain about Country

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Wired has this interesting article showing word clouds of the different speeches at the recent Democratic and Republican conventions. Basically words used most often are largest in word clouds – they make an interesting way of seeing what was spoken about. For instance this is a word cloud for Michelle Obama’s speech about her husband. Predictably the word ‘Barack’ is most common but the words ‘work’, ‘people’ and ‘like’ are common too.

Michelle Obama’s speech at the Democratic convention

Check out the article for the other word clouds, below I have listed the speakers and their most common words. Pretty interesting.

Hillary Clinton: America, going, Obama
Joe Biden: Barack, Obama, change, John
Barack Obama: promise, America, McCain
John McCain: country, Americans, fight
George W. Bush: John
Sarah Palin: America, country, McCain