The Week That Was

Gerald Potash,

Hello again

The news of the day, of the week, of the year is the ruling by the Constitutional Court, last Friday, that the Parliamentary clearing of President Ramaphosa in the Phala Phala matter, where millions of Rands were stolen from Cyril’s farm, and his reactions thereafter must be referred to an impeachment committee for investigation.  This could have very serious consequences for Cyril. 

This cartoon from Dr Jack in Die Burger yesterday is potent:

Translation:

The spook of Phala Phala asks Cyril whether he thought that he had disappeared. A you can see the spook is uncovering lots of cash in Ramaphosa’s bed.

At last it seems, with the ANC having lost its overall parliamentary majority,  they are no longer able to weasel their way out of tight corners.  The Con Court’s ruling is correct and the judgement was perfectly clear.  Our constitution affirms that we are all equal before the law and we must all be treated the same.

On Monday evening on a TV address to the Nation (yes, he was late—but not very late) Cyril told us that he had done nothing wrong and he will not resign but that he is taking the Constitutional Court’s ruling on review. He claims to be confident and believes he will win his case. 

If Cyril goes who will take over? 

The Deputy President, Paul Mashatile has dark corruption clouds hanging over his multi-million Rand homes and he doesn’t seem anything like a President.  And Sec-Gen Fikile Mbalula, with his big mouth, is even worse. Either of these as President is simply too ghastly to comprehend.

Mondli Makanya, in the Sunday Times this week refers to Ramaphosa’s time in office and it is not flattering. He uses these examples:

Ramaphosa sitting passively at Zuma’s side while the country was being robbed blind, his connection to the Marikana massacre, his limp-wristed leadership exacerbating a spineless backbone by keeping seriously tainted cadres in cabinet. But all his failings will become less remembered if/when Ramaphosa is in fact impeached.  What I haven’t gleaned yet is that if he impeached is he likely then to face criminal charges?

Two political parties have formally lodged motions of no confidence in Ramaphosa. They are the ATM (African Transformation Movement) and the MK Party and the EFF (as expected) has called on Ramaphosa to resign.     The DA has indicated that it will let the matter takes its course but they will be on the side of the law.  The new leader of the main opposition party, Geordin Hill-Lewis says that he has had several calls from ANC leaders to save Ramaphosa and so save the GNU, but to him and his Party accountability is the most important thing. He stressed that he wants to sweep all and any wrongdoing under the carpet.  Pressure is mounting on Cyril for sure.

Last week Cyril visited Emerson Mnangagwa, the President (Dictator) of Zimbabwe. No one seems to know anything about the visit except that one of the “guests” standing next to Cyril on a photograph is a criminal wanted by the SAn police in connection with money laundering charges to the tune of R800 million. Two other invitees present at the “secret meeting” are also shady characters. What did the two presidents talk about? Why is it secret? Who paid for the trip? Us taxpayers? The DA are asking whether those shady fellows were there to help fund the ANC?

Paul Hoffman of Accountability Now has written a very informative letter explaining the problems before Ramaphosa. Not least of these is that he is running a business, his farm—for profit, and this is contrary to the Constitution for a President. Ramaphosa also did not follow the script when the money was stolen. And why was the money left on the couch? And why didn’t he report it to the proper channels? Also he is out of time to take the matter on review. I wish Hoffman SC could handle Ramaphosa in court.

We have our municipal elections on the 4th of Nov, a day before Guy Fawkes day and Justice Malala, writing in the Financial Mail believes there will be fireworks but the fire will be the losses of the ANC.  I expect our results to be like the UK’s Labour Party losses in the recent elections there. Let’s hope he’s right!

Two top cops, Major General  Feroz Khan of the Hawks and Major General Ebrahim Kadwa, the senior crime intelligence officer, spent last weekend in prison. They were arrested on illegal trading of metals and are also facing money-laundering charges. That’s good news indeed. But it does go to show how rotten our police force is.  

Today the Daily Maverick has photos of more than 20 top cops already (recently) charged.  The photos include Brigadiers,  Major Generals, National Commissioners,  Colonels, Captains and even a Sargent. It is disgusting and singly the fault of our poor leadership.  For this alone Ramaphosa and Zuma should be indicted.  The police Minister has been suspended but is still on full pay because Cyril does have the balls to fire him.

Siwela’s cartoon from the Citizen doesn’t label the middle cadre. He is the police top-cops:

SA faces a very real and growing problem:  Xenophobia. With the hundreds of thousands of foreigners who cross over our porous borders (mostly without papers) and who are here illegally. Many are competent and eager and they take jobs away from our citizens.

(Our formal unemployment figures have reached a new high this week: 32.7% with 345,000 jobs being shed in the first quarter of this year). There are violent backlashes concerning foreigners and the government is slow to arrest the problem. Nigeria, Ghana and Mozambique have lodged diplomatic protests with Pretoria over the treatment of their nationals who suffer, often physically.  According to Business Day each xenophobic outbreak is more physical and worse than the one before.

To handle xenophobia you need a police force. Our police are clearly compromised and unable to even know where to begin in handling this problem.

The Western Cape has suffered its worst storm that I can remember. Continuous rain, thunder like we are not used to, strong winds (up to more than 100 k/h) and freezing temperatures caused damage and flooding right across the region. Deaths from falling trees, townships houses (and even some in the suburbs) literally under water, cars being swept down tarred roads in Gordon’s Bay. …..the destruction is unimaginable. This was good for the dams but little else.  Most schools closed on Monday and all schools here were closed on  Tuesday due to the danger.  Dennis, that character of note even cancelled our gathering at the Cape Town Press Club where Prof Jonathan Jansen spoke and was critical of the government’s education curriculum for schools .

On Friday night the Stormers played in Ulster and that game was drawn 38-38.

Then the coach was on the couch with me to watch the final game in the rugby Under 20 competition on Saturday. We played a New Zealand team, who after an impressive, animated Hakka played exceptionally well. In a very tight game that (deservedly) ended in a 29-29 draw, SA U20’s clinched the title. Same weekend and another high scoring rugby game drawn.  What are the chances?

On Monday night Spurs played Leeds. I watched till the every end. A draw. Not good enough. Just two games to go.  Will Spurs go down next season?   

As always,
Gerald