The Week That Was

Gerald Potash,

Hello again,

At last, things are happening. A top-shot ANC cadre fingered at the Zondo Commission received a proper jail sentence.  

Vincent Smith, once a powerful MP and a parliamentary chairperson, will be wearing orange overalls for the next 7 years. It’s taken a long time but he is already in jail and the message that sends is vital to our getting rid of this corrupt Party. His fraud and money laundering case has to do with BOSASA, a company specialising in giving services to the government. It also gave R2 million to Andile Ramaphosa, Cyril’s son and millions more to Vincent Smith. Andile seems to have come out of this extremely lightly ……..hopefully it was not a bribe that was passed on.

Now that there has been a successful prosecution can we expect more? Those seriously fingered by Zondo, like Jacob Zuma, must now be worrying.

It is highly questionable why Helen Zille wants the mayorship of Johannesburg.  Johannesburg is in a total shambles, it has no money and there isn’t enough time to fix all that is broken. Zille was given much publicity this weekend as she promised the DA could fix what the ANC had broken. The ANC is unhappy with the road sign put up by the DA for their campaigning and want it taken down.  I have copied this photo from News24 to indicate their problem, showing Premier Lesufi showering.    Zille has made it clear that they won’t be taking the sign down.

Notwithstanding the PM27 campaign, Patrice Motsepe announced that he does not want his brother-in-law’s position. He said he can contribute to SA without being President. This is the cartoon from Siwela in yesterday’s Citizen:

The expense of the 3-metre high, 8-kilometer long Cape Town Security wall, to be built to keep motorists safe on the N2, from essentially the airport to the city centre is attracting lots of press. This week our acting Police Minister, Firoz Cachalia wondered whether it wouldn’t be more effective to spend that kind of money on visible policing along that strip of road. He does not believe that the wall will stop too much of the criminality. Unfortunately, he has a point.

Things take long to mature in SA. Especially if you are waiting for a promise from Cyril. Has the SADF (Defence Force) moved into the high crime areas identified in his SONA address, more than a month ago to assist our police? Don’t be silly. Children are dying in gang-related cross-fire on the Cape Flats but the Army is not yet ready to help our poor, pathetic police. Dr Jack’s cartoon from the Burger newspaper from a few days ago pointed out the problems with the Defence Force that are not yet fixed. The bricks holding up the vehicle read: Poor oversight,  budget shortage, broken chain of command, poor training, low morale, poor discipline.

That’s why the army is not yet in the hotspots. But that gives the gangs time to move the drugs and illegal firearms.

Leo Brent Bozell 111, believes singing “Kill the boer” is hate speech. So does his boss, Donald Trump. At a talk given in Hermanus on Tuesday the US Ambassador warned that even though the US considers SA a strategic partner, Trump’s patience is wearing thin. The US is waiting for answers to questions posed a year ago that remains ignored.  Bozell also mentioned that our foreign policy is not well thought of in the States. Sending deep condolences when one of the most hideous terrorists in the world had been taken out, shows a poor judgement according to the Americans.

The Middle East war still is a main contributor to our news. What I don’t like is how many of the local journalists are not simply only anti-Israel but blatantly anti-West (America) as well. How can any proper thinking person support the terrorist regime in Iran that is anti-freedom and pro-female oppression?

The New York Times on Saturday had a long article with photos of Ramhosa’s visit to the White House. That is where Cyril says he was ambushed.       What the NYT did not mention was that less than two months ago an Iranian war ship did military maneuvers in our Cape waters at the behest of their close ally, SA.  Russian & Chinese ships were also involved, making it easy to identify our best buddies.  That Iranian ship has now been attacked and sunk by the Americans and is lying at the bottom of the ocean. 87 sailors died in that mid-ocean attack.

In the Burger editorial on Monday, Netanyahu gets blamed for everything; especially the lawlessness of the attacks in this war. No where does the editorial mention that Iran has broken every promise with regard to their long negotiated nuclear agreements. Then, the Iranians  have not stopped threatening Israel with total obliteration. 

What should Israel do? Sit back, do nothing and wait for the nuclear bombs to take out their whole country?

Our petrol price could go up by as much as R5.00 a litre from next month.

Naas Botha has emigrated.  He is living in America. He has two daughters doing well in University sport in the US and the Bothas are private people who did not discuss their move even with their next-door neighbours. Not even Brayton Paulse, who shared a spot with Naas on the popular TV SuperSport program knew about their move. Naas’s wife, Karen was a successful athlete and has a BA degree from a US university.

This past Sunday saw the 48th Cape Town Cycle Tour taking place in Cape Town. It was won by a SA’n, Ryan Gibbons, who has been competing in Europe for these last 10 years. Only 2 seconds separated the first 4 riders over the line. The weather was great and over 30,000 took part in the different race categories.

Unfortunately one local rider had a heart attach on the ride and died.

In the Johannesburg Open golf tournament Casey Jarvis came second. It was won by

Dan Bradbury (England) who made up 5 shots in the last round to win. He was also a young winner in 2022.

The coach was on the couch to watch the weekend sport. Richard was in his way to Korea and India (They have the best cricket team in the world after SA. But we choak and they don’t). The 6-nations Rugby test between Scotland and France was the best ever. Who ever heard of 90 points being scored in 80 minutes on a rugby field? Well, now we have and the underdogs won 50-40. What a game!

And the biggest surprise from the 6-Nations this past weekend was Italy beating England for the very first time.

Spurs lost 5-2 to Atletico Madrid last night. But you expected that.

As always,

Gerald