The Week That Was

Gerald Potash,

Hello again,

We are getting used to political bombshells and two Sundays ago an enormous explosion caused by Lt.-General Makhwanazi shook the SA landscape and caused forceful reverberations throughout the country. Makhwanazi, a senior officer in the Police in KZN accused our police minister of being in cahoots with criminal syndicates and named several top cops of being beholden unto criminal gangs and drug cartels. These named police big-shots are hampering investigations and are getting files “lost” so that no further action can be taken. The episode left me worried about Mkhwanazi’s safety. In this country too often whistleblowers get ‘eliminated’.

Cyril’s reaction to this political bomb was typical of Cyril. Did he instantly fire the Minister as many of the Political Parties asked him to do?  Don’t be silly. First he did nothing then, when the press got too agitated he appointed a commission of enquiry to look into the matter. He then suspended the Minister and put the Minister on special leave, naturally, on full pay.  So, at least the Minister is suspended. Yes, it will cost and yes it will take months and it will be just like all the other commissions Cyril has appointed. This is another case of the ANC looking into corruption of its cadres so don’t expect anything to come of it. Did anything come of the Zondo Commission?                                                  

The Minister stays at home on full pay and his replacement (Prof. Firoz Cachalia, a law Prof at Wits) gets full pay too and the experts to help them sort out the mess also get well paid and……… the tax-payer pays and the poor get poorer.  That’s Cyril. Then the question to be asked, with others in the cabinet fingered why didn’t he shrink the cabinet when he had this golden opportunity? …..why?  Oh, yes, he is Cyril.

On Wednesday it was learnt that the Deputy Police Chief has been put on special leave pending the outcome of the Commission. I wonder if Cyril could put me on special leave with full pay, too.

There has been strong condemnation of Cyril this week. Barney Mohtmbothi in the Sunday Times writes that Cyril is presiding over a crime syndicate-as-government. Other journalists point out that incompetence and corruption is killing this country but Cyril does nothing other than appointing commissions to look into matters. After that nothing gets done. It is frustrating.                    It didn’t take the opposition Parties in parliament to call on Cyril to stop appointing unnecessary commissions of enquiry and rather use the SIU (Special Investigating Unit) to investigate this matter. Anyway, almost all of the Parties want the Police Minister, Senzo Mchunu fired.                                                                   The trust in our police is at an all-time low. The Financial Mail’s report from Justice Malala notes that in 2023 there were 27,494 reported murders in our country but only 10% of these cases received convictions. This is Siwela’s take on it from Wednesday’s Citizen:

Dawie’s op-Ed in Die Burger on Saturday points out that the ANC is bleeding members. In 1994, when Mandela was leading the party there were just more than 1.2 million paid up members. In December of last year the ANC membership had dropped to just 584,000. This figure  Dawie writes, is inflated because many of the KZN members are actually followers of Zuma’s MK Party. Dawie further points out that under Mandela and Mbeki support for the ANC grew, under Zuma and Ramaphosa support has waned.               To take this point even further RW Johnson in his article this week states that attacks on the BEE (Black Economic Empowerment) policy of the ANC causes a lack of investment and that is also causing a further shrinking of Party membership to 494,000, in October 2024.                                                   Johnson pleads for a large fundamental economic reform in this country to save SA. But my prediction is that the ANC will simply keep its head in the sand and we will continue sinking to become a failed State….. unless the ANC loses their majority in the next election. Here’s hoping.

American policy is hurting SA already and this before August 1  when the new tariffs come into law. Our motor industry has suffered an 82% drop in exports to the USA so far this year because of our destructive racist policies!   We stand to lose 370,000 jobs in our job market because of Trump’s hard line. As one American writer put it early this week: ‘What did you expect when SA sends delegations to Iran to commiserate with them after the Israeli/ American blitzes against their nuclear capabilities’?

Our last Ambassador to the USA was expelled as a persona non grata for being pro-the Arab terrorist groups, Hamas, Hezbollah & the Houthi’s. Then Cyril appointed Mcebisi Jonas, our Deputy Finance Minister and a former Chairman of MTN, the SA technology co. accused of syphoning money into and out of Iran, to become our spokesman in the US.  Well guess what?  The USA has refused him a visa. This happened months ago, why were we not told?                                                                                             In spite of their meeting in the White House I don’t think Donald Trumpn likes Cyril. I wonder why.        This cartoon from Brandan was in Business Day yesterday:

Cape Town was voted the best city in the world for the 8th successive year. Over 200,000 people took part this year The Telegraph’s City of the Year competition. Seville and Sydney were 2nd & 3rd.

The Springbok beat Italy in the final test quite easily 45-0 

As always,                                                                              

Gerald

PS.                                                                

The world champion is no more.                            

Esther, my wife and life partner for the last 53 years passed on last Thursday after the battle of her life with cancer.  She outlived all the Drs predictions and had a wonderful life for more than 7 years after she was given just 6 months to live with stage 4 lung cancer. She was a non-smoker. During her chemo treatment for her lung cancer she developed breast cancer, but she fought that too and recovered and lived virtually a normal life. Our heartfelt thanks to her Oncologist, who stood by her and introduced her to trial American drugs, that worked!………well, until last week. She was in daily contact with our children, both of whom are overseas and our grandchildren in Australia and in England and we are all going to miss her terribly. In our town of Somerset West we have some truly outstanding friends and our community has stood by me. The support we got from Bev (in Cape Town), Michelle and Claudette was more than anyone could ask for or even expect. That sort of close friendship is rare. That’s what friends are, but they did more. They really are special.  But then the whole community are special and everyone try to help to make her passing easier.            

I often referred to Esther as the world champion, because we were married for 53 years and I never won a fight…….. She remained unbeaten until last Thursday. We are going to miss her terribly. Even from her sick-bed she was in contact with us and gave us ideas & instructions. Our kids were with us for the funeral where they spoke beautifully about their mother. She was special and the children she brought up are very special, too. For her final three weeks of suffering Richard and Marilyn were at her bedside holding her hand day and night, telling her stories. Even when she went into her final coma they were with her. Stacey, Richard’s wife, our daughter in law flew in from Sydney for a week to say her goodbye. I am writing this with tears in my eyes and I ask for your forgiveness. 

Gerald