Gerald Potash
Hello again,
On Friday the Constitutional Court handed down a judgement in the matter where Jacob Zuma had appealed his being sentenced for contempt of court and for being being given jail time. He wanted rescission of that judgement. He lost his rescission attempt and that should be the very end of the matter. After all there is no court higher than our Constitutional Court. The majority judgement told him in no uncertain terms that this exercise of his had been a monumental waste of judicial resources and that they saw through his “litigious skulduggery”.
But this man’s Stalingrad-tactics knows no end and he is now taking the matter to the African Human Rights Commission. Really? Since when do they have jurisdiction over our courts? That court only has jurisdiction over States and SA has never signed the protocol which gives that court jurisdiction in our country. So it looks like again this is simply another time and money wasting exercise.
Cyril came under criticism for “authorising” Zuma’s medical parole but in a TV interview early this week he denied that he had anything to do with it. He told the reporter that he had only heard about it after Fraser had granted the order. Do you believe that?
Anyway the Financial Mail points out that Fraser is just the “fall guy” in getting Zuma out of jail and so keeping the huge KZ-N ANC-faction in the party before the important municipal elections, scheduled for November 1st.
Oh, the rescission judgement was satisfyingly pleasing and beautifully clear. Zuma was castigated for playing hot and cold with the courts and changing facts to suit the occasion. I actually listened as the judge delivered her verdict en ek het lekker gekry. (I thoroughly enjoyed it.)
On Sunday Dr Jack & Curtis had this cartoon of Lady Justice clamping the conviction on JZ in City Press:
Zuma was back in court on Tuesday, or rather his legal team was, to apply to have the chief prosecutor, Billy Downer removed from the case where he is Accused No 1 in the Arms Deal bribery matter. That case goes back nearly 20 years. This is another time wasting, money wasting effort by Zuma to delay justice and so hope to stay out of jail, but here too, in my opinion he has little chance of success. His crowd-funding to cover his legal costs had better start working because these cases with top advocates do not come cheap.
This past weekend was voting registration day for voters ahead of our municipal elections in just a few weeks time. All the political parties —I could not believe that there are 500 of them—were out canvassing, particularly urging young voters to go and register. Cyril was all over Soweto, naturally, and he was given a tough time. The residents are seriously gatvol at the lack of service delivery. They complained about Eskom or the rather their lack of electricity—It is interesting to note that Eskom has just written-off R3.4 billion owing by Sowetan residents—I wonder why now! These residents also complained about the lack of a regular water supply and the dismal state of their roads and the fact that they never ever see their municipal representatives.
Welcome to the real SA, Cyril.
The smallest number ever of “new” voters registered this past weekend so we can expect a low voter turn out on November, 1.
Making news this week was the court appearance of Bathamile Dlamini a former cabinet minister and still the current chairperson of the ANC’s Woman’s League. What was she there for? Lying under oath.
She is facing perjury charges.
Then the spokesman for the ANC, he whose face and voice is heard so regularly defending his party on TV and radio, Pule Mabe, is under a cloud having been exposed for financially benefiting from government contracts.
So what’s new?
He is a loyal cadre, isn’t he?
Oh and Minister, Zizi Kodwa when asked about his motor vehicle suddenly remembered it was bought with a loan that he intends to pay back.
The whole of the ANC is crooked. Even Cyril calls them Accused No 1 when it comes to corruption.
The very harshest criticism I have ever heard of the ANC, and those who lead it, was delivered in a short speech given to the Biz News Investment Conference organised by Alec Hogg.
The speaker was Rob Hersov, his background is impeccable and he didn’t mince his words. The crux of his assessment; Don’t invest your money here. Nobody is, so don’t you get clever with these thieves who are running the country.
He called out the ANC and said big shots like Dlamini-Zuma, who so very nearly became our President, is not a nice person. Then people in the cabinet are just plain stupid. He gives examples, like Fikile Mbalula, our Min of Transport with whom he has dealings since, he Hersov is developing an international airfield in the Cape. You can read, or even watch his speech by clicking on this link:
Slowly, very slowly the law is catching-up with some of the corruption culprits. This we the week the SIU was granted an order to freeze R7.9 million held in bank accounts of companies who were irregularly given contacts by the Gauteng health department. The hospital that these companies “upgraded” has largely remained unused even during the Covid crisis.
It is inconceivable to me that there are still so many anti-vaxxers about. On Saturday hundreds of them gathered on the Sea Point promenade to protest! About staying alive? As at yesterday we only had 9.3% of the population fully vaccinated.
Last week 100% of the new critically ill Covid patients on ventilators at Groote Schuur Hospital had not been vaccinated even once.
Bees have not only killed a well-known lady in the Free State this week, but also ended the life of 63 of our rare, and diminishing in number, African penguins. I have never thought of bees as being dangerous but these sad occurrences are fortunately extremely rare.
Today SAA takes to the skies after 18 long months of in-fighting to try to sort out the financial mess that this SOE, like so many others under control of the ANC, has become.
Their planes are old, the staff is dissatisfied and the money to keep the airline going still hasn’t been fully obtained. The ‘positive’ for the airline is that Gidon Novick is directly involved and with his experience, if anyone can make it work, he will.
But for my next flights I will be flying with other airlines.
The ‘red list’ which keeps British visitors from coming to our shores has the tourist industry and our government up in arms. 8 countries with worse Covid records than ours have last week been taken off the list and SA’s remaining on the list disadvantages any visitors from the UK coming here. The UK is our biggest tourist market and the economic damage this is causing is devastating. Health experts have called their action irrational and there is now a concerted effort to get our Tourism Minister, the bumbling Lindiwe Sisulu, to get going to get parity with those off the list. This is Brandan’s view of the travel ban from Business Day:
On Tuesday I toured. Jerrold grew up here and we are very friendly with his folks, Ike & Isa. Almost 30 years ago he and Tracy left for America. They were back with daughter Shelly and her boyfriend (both engineers) and wanted a tour of the Winelands. We did everything from the scarecrows at Mooiberge to Victor Verster prison (now renamed the Drakenstein prison) from where Nelson Mandela walked to freedom after being in jail for 27 years. We truly covered all the bases from shopping to coffee stops and a highlight, wine and cheese tastings. I am not sure who enjoyed the day more. What a lovely day and how much I have missed telling my stories because of this Covid pandemic.
The Bloemfontein High Court has come down hard on the Dept of Tourism for focusing only on black-owned tourist businesses to benefit from the Government grants to try to alleviate some of the hardships from the Covid pandemic. This country remains racist under this ANC government. Thank G-d for the independent judiciary.
Because of my tour I was not able to attend Paul Hoffman’s talk at the CT Press Club on Tuesday. What he said has been well reported in the press and he is activating most aggressively for what this country needs most urgently; and that is a Chapter 9 institution to act independently against corruption. That Ch 9 institution will be free of government control (or interference).
Here’s hoping.
Corruption under the Ramaphosa leadership, it seems, has not decreased and might well have increased and action is needed now. The SIU (Special Investigating Unit) has complained that 63 officials fingered in the R3 billion procurement corruption for PPE (personal protective equipment) have not been disciplined. Hoffman has threatened the government that he will go to court to force them to comply if no action is taken before the end of the year.
Watch this space.
Springbok rugby has become boring and predictable and has gone seriously backwards and all that could be clearly recognised while watching the Wallabies giving our Boks another lesson on Saturday. Their 4 tries to our 1 says all you need to know about the test. To put the performance into even clearer perspective one must admit that this is not, by any stretch of the imagination, a great Wallaby team. In three days time we play the All Blacks and I am soberly fearful of that encounter.
Spurs lost on Sunday. It was a depressing experience watching them getting thrashed by London neighbours, Chelsea. If the coach hadn’t been with me on the couch watching I may well have switched off and gone to bed early. What a poor performance.
I repeat:
It’s hard to be a Spurs fan and it’s getting very hard to be a Springbok supporter too.
As always,
Gerald
| Email: gpotash1@gmail.com Phone: +27 82 557 5775 |
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Cyril is he. You guys talk like Ramaphosa is a good guy. Zuma is identified by his surname. Pathetic. Ramaphosaa allegedly worth $500 million with a farm stocked with imported cattle doesn’t want Zuma in gaol in case he is next. We do they find these guys.