Gerald Potash,
Hello again,
Cyril is at it again. He is organising a talk-shop. A “National Dialogue” starting in August. To quote Ivor Vegter in the Daily Friend “If there is one person who is all talk and no action, it is Cyril Ramphosa. Vegter goes on to say that SA needs urgent reform and bold action, and not another round of dialogue that goes nowhere.
Now Cyril is getting 31 “experts” to have the chat. What does a 29-year-old deaf beauty queen know about creating jobs? Can she advance ideas of getting graduates jobs? There are two religious leaders in the chat group. What do they or the poets and writers asked to join the group know about the highly disputed and exorbitantly costly National Heath Bill?… And what does an aerospace expert know about curtailing our horrid crime figures? Cyril is trying to build a legacy but this is just a waste of time and money. It is going to cost R700-million.
You will recall that Ramaphosa has previously organised a talk-shop. It was called the Zondo Commission. It lasted for years and more than 200 ANC cadres were fingered by the Judge in his final report. Not one of those fingered have been arrested or even charged for what they stole. That commission cost the State R1 billion.
A total waste of money.
Justice Malala in the Finacial Mail writes that Ramaphosa is a nice guy but he never gets anything done. I couldn’t have said it better than that. This week’s Financial Mail headlines Malala’s article: ‘Ramaphosa a man without a plan’.
John Steenhuisen makes the point that the GNU will be dead in the water by the next election in 2029 if it doesn’t create jobs.
Zapiro in the Daily Maverick got it exactly right with this cartoon, didn’t he?
Our biggest problem is that we are the world champions of unemployment. 46.1% percent is the figure for young people–15 to 35-year-olds– without work. In that category 8.8 million youngsters are unemployed.
On Monday we celebrated Youth Day. It is a public holiday to remember the children gunned down in Soweto on 16th June, 1976 for standing up against Apartheid. The school kids were protesting against the government’s plan to impose Afrikaans as the medium of instruction in all Black schools. This sad cartoon from Siwela in the Citizen on Tuesday also brought that history into sharp current perspective:
Nothing works well in this country and it is squarely the fault of the ANC who have had unfettered power for 30 years. Even now, in the GNU the ANC-appointed Ministers are too many and are often embarrassing. It is the Cabinet ministers from the other parties that are performing well in the Government of National Unity.
Our Minister of Defence is an example of an ANC Minister doing what we have almost come to expect. Our soldiers in their peace-keeping mission in the DRC were under-trained and under-resourced and 13 of them died there before Angie Motshekga (Defrence Minister) arranged to bring them all back. They were supposed to have left several weeks ago, but SA didn’t have the money or their own airplane to fetch them. So, our Minister arranged to bring them home to a hero’s welcome.
Well, the crowd of family and well-wishers stood waiting and waiting only to discover that they were waiting at the wrong airport for the soldiers to arrive. But even had they been at Waterkloof, where the plane landed, they would have had to have waited for10 hours later than the expected arrival time.
Motshekga knew nothing of the delay or the cause of it. She is the Defence Minister who arranged the whole thing!
This lady earns well over R2- million a year in salary.
A second group of soldiers arrived back on Sunday and then a third group of soldiers arrived back home on Monday afternoon.
The Sunday Times this weekend reported on the (ANC) appointment of a senior official landing a top job at the North West Parks & Tourism board. This person is out on bail where she is being charged for corruption, financial mismanagement and other nefarious deeds. But cadres look after cadres and back she goes to a top job with a hefty salary.
This is just typically ANC.
Rob Hersov at the recent BizNews conference indicated that he was coming to the end of his activism. That’s a pity. I am saddened because he is not afraid to stand up and call a spade a spade. In his speech at the Alec Hogg symposium he told the audience that the ANC is being funded with Iranian money through MTN. Will the Middle East war end this funding relationship?
Watch this space.
Hersov gave his reasons for suspending his political activism, saying his family is scared by his high-profile attacks on the ANC who are nothing but crooks and thieves. Pressure from his wife and kids.
Ending his talk he suggested that Ramaphosa should step down immediately. Hersov believes that anyway, Cyril is going to be remembered as the President who switched off the lights. The sooner he goes the better.
The question then is….Who will replace him?
The choices are every bit as bad as the incumbent, maybe even be worse. Who would you pick between Fikile Mbalula, Paul Mashatile or Ronald Lamola (whom Hersov calls an idiot for his attitude towards Iran & Hamas) to lead this country. Except, of course, with the ANC’s shrinking popularity they probably won’t lead anything but the ANC.
If one of those does become the leader, then all I can say is, they deserve him.
The President’s plane needs a major service (400,000 kls) but Armscor is broke and the service is delayed. Iran would probably have sent the money but right now they have other problems to worry about.
So hopefully he will fly less and save us all money.
The cricket at Lords was something to remember for a very long time.The SA Proteas team came into this test match very much as the underdogs. It was the knock out final for ICC World Cup. And we beat Australia! What a test. Drama down to the the wire and this time we didn’t ‘choke’. After some nasty sledging from the Ausie fielders during that slow but very deliberate batting from the Protea batsmen the very nicest moment in the test, to my mind, was when Markram was eventually out, with just a few runs needed to score to win, when several of the Ausie fielders came up to pat him on the back as he left the field. That’s sportsmanship!
You don’t get that in football.
This cricket victory at Lords reminds us how very unifying sport can be.
As always,
Gerald
| Email: gpotash1@gmail.com Phone: +27 82 557 5775 |
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Hi Guys,
Your database appears to have been hacked. I am being bombarded with emails which are purportedly from you, but in a foreign language.
Apologies to all we were hacked/attacked again but I think we’re back in business.
Gerald,
A momentous article written with such accuracy. As you roam across (both left and right) various social media sites, listen to MSM channels and read news articles, what you are saying is indeed accurate.
The SANDF ‘welcome home’ showing was embarrassing for South Africa.
I need to stop there. 😟
Hi Gerald, great article as always. As a matter of interest, I thought Zim was the holder of 3 world titles? Highest unemployment ( over 90%) in the world, worst economy in the world and worst currency in the world
The Bantu started destroying South Africa way before 1994……
THE TRUE STORY OF 16 JUNE 1976
June 16, 1976, was an ordinary and normal workday. It was a cold but clear, sunny winter’s day. At that time, I was working in Soweto as a 24-year-old Social Worker Supervisor for the West Rand Administration Board, and my office was in Diepkloof, near Baragwanath Hospital. The hospital is located on the outskirts of Soweto. There were quite a few white social workers employed in Soweto, and also many Black social workers who had offices in their respective areas within Soweto. Our direct head was Dr. Neville Edelstein, who was also the first person, and the first white person, murdered in Soweto on June 16, 1976.
I had several Black social workers under my supervision, whose offices were in areas such as Klipspruit, Chiawelo, Dlamini, Pimville, Senoane, Orlando East and Orlando West, Dube, Jabulani, Moroka, and Jabavu.
On June 16, 1976, I arrived at my office in Diepkloof as usual at 8 AM. After completing some administrative tasks, I had to drive to Jabulani around 10:30 AM to deliver a check to that office. At that point, everything was calm, and everyone, as far as I could tell, was busy with their daily tasks. It was about 11 AM when I was driving back to my Diepkloof office, passing through Jabavu, where I noticed Black children in their school uniforms—typically black dresses, grey trousers, and white shirts—running in groups that looked like swarms along the road and between houses. They weren’t waving any placards or giving any indication as to why they were acting this way. A short distance to my right, a light brown sedan, which looked like a Ford, was driving with four men who appeared to be South African Police officers in their blue uniforms. They were driving in the same direction as me but between the houses at a high speed. Something didn’t feel right to me. Fortunately, I was wearing a black leather jacket that came up high on my neck, with black leather gloves and sunglasses to shield from the sun. Because I was driving against the sun, no one from outside could see that I was a white woman. We were always instructed not to stop or pull over. That’s how I managed to reach my office in Diepkloof unharmed through the surging mass of children.
After I returned to my office in Diepkloof, I immediately went to the Chief Town Manager’s office, which was next to mine, and told him what I had seen. After a while, he came back to me and recommended that I leave the area immediately, asking another Town Manager to escort me out of Soweto. It was 12 PM, and I went to my flat in Hillbrow, where I lived. Since there were no cell phones at that time, I had no idea what else was unfolding in Soweto. I also didn’t have a TV or a radio.
I was never able to return to my office in Diepkloof to resume my work as a Social Worker.
Afterward, I had to report to the salary office in Eloff Street Extension, Johannesburg.
That afternoon, around 5 PM, a colleague who also worked in Soweto arrived at my flat and informed me that Soweto was burning and that there was total chaos.
On the morning of June 16, 1976, this colleague had also traveled to Soweto from his residence in Roodepoort, as usual, where he worked as a Town Manager, also for the West Rand Administration Board in Zola. Around 12 PM, they also received instructions to leave the area, and he managed to load some of his work files into his car.
Needless to say, he was also never able to return to his office in Zola. I can only add that the orderly system, where white Town Managers had successfully managed Soweto for many years, ceased to exist after June 16, 1976. If a Soweto resident wanted to see a Town Manager, who were now replaced by Black Town Managers, they had to pay a fee to make an appointment, which, of course, went into the manager’s pocket. This is not hearsay, but facts of what took place there.
During the unrest, the Zola office was completely destroyed. The Black people came with chains and pulled down the buildings, and the large built-in safe was also destroyed. Over time, they carried away all the roof sheets and bricks, and a few months after the unrest, we drove past the area, and where there was once a large, neat, well-maintained complex with buildings, a vegetable market, and parking for cars, there was only grass and weeds and nothing else.
The formerly neat Diepkloof office complex and gardens, with their beautifully light-blue painted walls, which had been my workplace for so many years, remained standing, but the building that once housed the library was taken over by Black people who made it their living quarters. The buildings were dirty, there was no garden, and what stayed with me were the black handprints around the doorframes on the outside.
Other town offices in Soweto were also plundered and destroyed.
Before the unrest, rumors circulated among us white people who worked in Soweto that “trouble” was expected, but we had no indication of when it was expected or what form it would take.
Before the unrest, one of the Black social workers whose office was also in Diepkloof was very defiant. She was almost never at the office at 8 AM to perform her duties and sometimes only arrived after 10 AM, while the Black clients, who were mostly elderly Black people, had to sit and wait for her outside in the sun. I confronted her about this many times and also discussed the matter with Dr. Edelstein. He didn’t want to and didn’t do anything about it. When I confronted her one morning about her tardiness, she simply replied that she didn’t have a car like me to be at work on time every day, even though she didn’t live far from the Diepkloof office. At that time, she was on the same salary scale as me, and no tax was deducted from her annual bonus. Tax was, however, deducted from my bonus. To my question of why she didn’t get herself a car, she replied that because she was Black, they wouldn’t sell her a car. I snapped at her that this was an absolute lie and that she knew it well. She then turned around and left my office.
Dr. Edelstein (56 years old) worked in Soweto for 18 years until his death, first as a social worker/philanthropist and later as Chief Social Worker at the West Rand Administration Board. He earned his doctorate with his study and research on Black youth in Soweto. He dedicated his life to the upliftment of the Black youth of Soweto and refused to see anything wrong in them. His daughter later said, “he loved the people of Soweto almost like he did his own family.” What I know of him was his ritual to first go to the Synagogue every morning and then to his office in Jabavu in Soweto. On the morning of his death, he opened a project/program at the Protected Workshop in Orlando East. When he heard there were problems at the Jabavu office, where his office was also located, he rushed there despite warnings and pleas from his/my colleagues not to go. Upon arrival, he saw the unruly young Black people but still entered the office. A Black social worker was present, and apparently, despite her pleas not to harm Dr. Edelstein, they shouted, “Bleeding white k*****! Today you are going to die,” and proceeded to drag him from under his desk, where he had hidden, and brutally hacked him to death outside. To my knowledge, he was known to the Black youths, as he had worked with them daily for many years. It was reported in the media that had they supposedly known it was him, they would not have committed such an act. A note they left by Dr. Edelstein’s body read: “Beware Afrikaans is the most dangerous drug for our future.” The Black youths who hacked him to death knew Dr. Edelstein and knew that he was not “Afrikaans.”
The “Afrikaans” story is also a hoax. Afrikaans as a subject in Black schools was voluntary, and no one in any Black school was forced to take Afrikaans as a subject or have any subject forced upon them in Afrikaans. There were white Afrikaans-speaking teachers in Black schools who offered their respective subjects in English. I also want to add that all reports, interviews, and so forth, from Town Managers or Social Workers or any other profession in Soweto, were in English. At no point was Afrikaans forced upon Black people in Soweto.
No white Social Workers and Town Managers could resume their work in Soweto. We were all transferred to other departments and into other positions without any explanation. Our posts in Soweto were simply replaced by Black Social Workers and Town Managers. In retrospect, it is clear that a softening process was already underway in 1976, which led to the handover in 1994, and where we are now under total Black control. White people were already being pushed out of their workplaces and replaced by Black people in those years, just as the situation is today.
The following is a commentary by a political expert.
Because of the shortage of qualified Black teachers, white women teachers were sent to the schools. Most of them were Afrikaans speakers, but all, of course, spoke English. Many of them were already teaching in English. The story that was spread around the world that Afrikaans was “forced” on Black pupils is absolute nonsense. No one was forced to learn anything other than what they chose to learn. Afrikaans as a subject was listed with other subjects from which to choose. If you didn’t want to learn Afrikaans, no one forced you to do so.
It should be remembered that before the National Party came to power in 1948, there was no formal education system for Black people. So those in South Africa and overseas who complain about “Bantu education” should remember that for thousands of years while they lived in Africa, none of the Black tribes created an education system. It was the whites who brought modern education to South Africa. Firstly, it was the British missionaries who opened a few schools, then white farmers set up schools on their farms for the children of their workers, but until the Verwoerd government came to power, there was no formal education whatsoever for Black people. So to those Black critics who complain about Bantu education, we ask: what education system did you create for your own people? The answer is none.
Protests against education in Afrikaans broke out at seven Soweto schools. In six of them, however, no subjects were taught in Afrikaans. Before long, 20,000 students went on a rampage through the streets, burning, destroying, killing, and looting. Other whites working in Soweto, including women, were surrounded and assaulted. One white official (J.N.B. Esterhuizen) was stopped in his car and hacked to death! Police detachments were sent in to restore order but achieved little. They were attacked by stone-throwing crowds, which also set police dogs alight.
At one of the riot scenes, a large group surrounded and closed in on a few policemen. The police opened fire, and several hundred rioters, including rioting children, were shot in the mayhem which spread to the rest of the country and continued for months. (Die Burger, June 16, 2000).
This gratuitous violence gave the world the opportunity to brand South Africa as a “brutal police state,” and a host of new international punishment measures were imposed on the country, which sanctions lasted until the late eighties. All of this was based on a false story, sent around the world by an antagonistic media. Will the truth of this day, June 16, in South Africa ever prevail, and will the truth about the real George Floyd ever prevail as America’s racial hysteria sends out an inflamed message to the world?