The Week That Was

Gerald Potash,

Hello again,

I got back home to reading all about Julius Malema and the 10th anniversary celebration that the EFF organised in the Ellis Park Stadium where almost 100,000 members of his Party, all decked out in red came together to celebrate. 

(Question: How do you fill a large stadium?

Answer: Give them free red T-shirts and a lunch box—but I do wonder who paid for all of them.)

Towards the end of proceedings they, at their leader’s behest raucously sang together: ‘Kill the Boer, kill the farmer’.

Lots has been written of the whole shindig and how very Hitler-like Malema is. His salutes, his bearing, his bark. It is scary. What makes it even more scary is that neither Ramaphosa nor Cele, the Police Minister have said a word to censure the blatant (and illegal) racism. Not even mentioning that Malema had demanded that his followers “shoot to kill”. Some writers have justified these chants as merely chants only intended to recall the pain that the non- whites suffered under Apartheid. 

It seems likely that whereas the ANC will probably poll less than 45% in next year’s General Election the EFF is likely to poll 15% or more. That probability will then mean that a coalition between these two parties will result in top cabinet jobs going to EFF members in an ANC/EFF coalition. Can you even imagine a cabinet with Mashatile as President and Malema his Deputy? Unfortunately that is becoming quite a possibility. Brandan, in his cartoon in Business Day went even further and pointed to the massive (illegal?) funding Malema is receiving from the very well-known alleged cigarette smuggler, Adriano Mazzotti. Malema’s performance was theatrical when he was raised electrically on a platform so that he could be even more visible to those in the stadium:

What makes this story even worse is that one day after the Malema performance an established respected white farmer, Theo Bekker in Grootvlei, Mpumalanga had his neck slit by four teenagers. His wife was brutally tortured but was able to identify two of the culprits before she  dropped into a coma. As more and more farmers get murdered so the target for the killers get smaller and Malema’s chanting gets more concerning.  Those who murder are not farmers. 

Elon Musk is not afraid to express an opinion!  In X (Twitter to you) and also in an article in the New York Times he comes out highly critical of the singing of Kill the Boer. AfriForum, having failed in court to have the song banned in SA, have now appealed that judgement and the DA have referred the matter to the UNO to declare the singing thereof illegal and declared “hate speech”.

While I was away Ramaphosa again went to Russia with a few African leaders. Not too many. They went to support Putin and his illegal bombing of an independent State and his abduction program of young Ukrainian children to brain wash them in Russia. For that the ICC issued a warrant for his arrest. What further hurts is that our veteran journalist, Peter Fabricius the foreign correspondent from Daily Maverick was banned from attending and reporting how heartily Cyril sang in support of Putin at the meeting in St. Petersburg. Press censorship!  And Cyril accepted that.

When one sees who accompanied Cyril on his trip to Russia as advisers it is sad to note that Supra Mahumapelo, the fervent Jacob Zuma supporter, and Obed Bapela, he who allowed Omar Al Bashir to fly out of SA with an arrest warrant out for him for his gross acts of genocide, were Ramaphosa’s two key advisors.

The Cape Town taxi strike is just another disgusting result of poor management and corrupt practices that have been allowed to creep into normal society by corrupt, inept administration and poor policing.  Now, when the criminality gets interrupted by well-meaning authorities violence erupts and the economy suffers and mayhem ensues. 

A taxi war has broken out in our city. The taxis in Cape Town (and not only here) are a law unto themselves. They drive disgustingly dangerously every single day and red traffic lights or driving in the correct lanes mean absolutely nothing to them as they weave dangerously in and out of traffic. At last the Cape Town City Council is doing something about it and has started impounding errant unlicensed and unroadworthy taxis and chaos has ensured. The taxis bosses have called a sudden strike.  Workers are now forced to walk miles to work or simply stay at home because Uber has joined the strike; and remember that our train services have been so vandalised that they hardly can be used at all (except I believe on part of the coastal route from the city to Fish Hoek which is now operational again.) Then busses get petrol bombed, often causing personal injury, and businesses suffer immeasurably because staff can’t get to work. On Monday 4556 school children could not attend classes because they had no way to get to school.

At last someone is doing something about this untenable situation which causes so much trouble everywhere. The Western Cape authority gives an example of how to act, but is it too late? They have made it clear that the law is the law and taxi drivers will not be allowed to get away with their criminality. Some taxi drivers do not have permits to operate and some don’t even have driving licences. The criminality of the taxi gangs in burning busses and blocking roads is the price we in the Cape are currently paying for the lack of policing that we have been suffering for years.

Taxi bosses rule and not only in the Cape. There are photos in the weekend press of trucks backed-up for 7.5 kilometres trying to deliver coal to Richard’s Bay for export ……….because the train lines are unusable. They have been vandalised, stolen, sold. Has even one perpetrator been brought to court?  

But for us in the Cape having the busy N2 blocked (as it was this week) is a problem for us living outside of the city. And some of the stoning on the highway (causing hospitalisation to at least one known commuter) along the route into the city is a cause for serious concern when traffic is flowing. This week the busy N2 has been blocked off at certain times of the day. Going into the city or even to the airport from our side, Somerset West, is dangerous and not recommended. More active policing and prosecuting is the only real remedy.

Already the effect of the strike on our hospitals, old age homes and schools, let alone coffee shops, is devastating.

But our mayor is strong. He has made it quite clear that we are all equal under the law and taxi drivers/ bosses will not get special treatment as they have requested.

The real trouble is that it is only in Cape Town where authority has stood up to the on-going bullying of the taxi industry. The taxi bosses seem to do as they like elsewhere.

This week there has been lots written about Paul Mashatile and his grand living style……..for which he pays…. nothing. But what has now come under the spotlight, since his free-loading off “stinking rich dubious characters” is the wealth of his son and son-in-law and the manner in which they have become so wealthy. It’s not difficult to guess, really. It is alleged that huge contracts were obtained, money was paid, no work was done. It’s an old ANC story but let’s hope that this one gets to court and the illegally obtained funds get returned. 

If so……where will Mashatile sleep? He may actually have to buy himself a house. This is Carlos’s view of the situation from News24:

Lots of news has been devoted to the government inviting top businessmen to help to restore the economic equilibrium in the country. It’s not the first time Ramaphosa has tried this trick and nothing much came of it the first time so let’s see what happens this time.However there does seem to be much willingness, given the government’s suitable Co-operation, on the part of many senior businessmen.

Iqbal Survé’s businesses bank accounts will be closed on the 21st of this month. This matter has been brewing for years and all our commercial banks have made it clear that they will not do business with Sekunjalo or Ayo Technology. These apart from his newspaper companies in the IOL stable (Cape Times, Argus, Pretoria News, Star, Mercury etc) are all going to have to make drastic plans pretty smartly if they are to survive. 

My short stay in London was great. I had limited time to make contact with old acquaintances because of my tight schedule that the 3Ms had set for me. The little guy was/is on school vacation and I was there to help keep him entertained while Marilyn and Michael were at work. But there was plenty of time for play and where is it better to play than in London —-where everything works? We got to the world’s biggest athletics event ever, we got to four London soccer venues —Max is on a project to go to all 92 football stadiums in the UK—I managed to do four stadiums with him and generally I got to see close family I hadn’t seen for quite a while.

Oh, not surprisingly I even sneaked in three memorable coffee catch-ups with Jonny & Anita, Hymie & Bernard and Rob. No guessing……they are all ex-Cape Town, have been in London for very many years and will never return except perhaps for the short family visit.

One hears very little SA news in the UK and it’s possibly the same all over the world. On the world stage SA is really not a big player or of major interest.

Once back home the coach and I watched the Scotland France rugby Test and well done to the Scots for a great win. Then much later on Saturday evening the Boks put on a good performance to beat Argentina again. Our squad for the World Cup, next month, has just been selected and it is about as strong as it can be.

Here’s hoping.

Spurs beat a top Turkish team 5-1 in their final friendly and it seems the new manager is ready for the season to get started with or without Harry Kane.

As always,                                                                                     

Gerald