The Week That Was

Gerald Potash,

Hello again,

The ANC must be strongly criticised for supporting the rogue countries of this world. Iran, Russia, China, Cuba and Syria are amongst the regimes which treat their very own citizens scandalously. But they have our full and continuing support.  In Syria, after the dismissal of Assad conditions in the jails have been exposed for the first time. Assad had hundreds of thousands of his very own people tortured and brutally killed……simply for not supporting his corrupt regime. RW Johnson in a piece this week rates the depredation in Syria on a par with Nazi Germany. Mass graves are being uncovered with stacks of unnamed bodies. The situation is horrific. And SA stood proud to support Assad and Syria throughout his reign of terror.  SA voted against an investigation last year into the Syrian situation when it was brought before the UNO. 

Is the situation in Iran any better than in Syria?                                                                                      

We have just invited Iran to join BRICS, which they have done.

Our President also supports the Zimbabwean leader who election after election rigs the results and Ramaphosa stands with the leaders of Mozambique even though everyone knows that they have lost the very recent ‘election’.

What is going on in Mozambique, our neighbour, after their recent general elections is shocking and for very obvious reasons it has made headlines here all through the holiday season.  It is quite clear that the ruling party rigged the election results and the poor, unhappy, hungry citizens have taken the law into their own hands and have started wholesale rioting. Shops have been looted and burnt down, choas reigns and the Chinese stores are taking the brunt of the unrest. Thousands of prisoners have broken out of jail and it hasn’t taken long for many of the escapees to make their way into SA.  Anyway our borders are so poorly controlled that already many thousands of desperate Mozambiquans (and Zimbabweans) have already made their way into SA.   Our porous borders are a story for another time.

The poor Mozambiqueans are gatvol of their government’s corruption and are convinced the Chinese are behind what is going on. What is true is that China is stripping the country of its resources and the wealth that derives from that plundering is going straight into the pockets of the ruling Frelimo cadres and not going to the populous. More than 200 have died in deadly protests since the general elections just more than three months ago.

The civil society organisations in Mozambique have asked Cyril Ramaphosa to try to intervene in the violent political standoff. We have now sent a delegation to talk to the parties. 

SA  be warned. This kind or rioting could quite easily happen here. Our poor are not benefitting in any manifest manner from Government promises and mismanagement and corruption in government and municipalities continues with the cadres getting fatter and the poor starving.

The stories emanating in the press about our Deputy President, Paul Mashatile are intriguing. He, supposedly, an ANC stalwart joined with the Communist Party (SACP) at their rally just before the New Year and sang their songs with them accusing the ANC of treason. They are virulently anti the GNU (Government of National Unity) and want nothing to do with the DA which they consider a ‘white’ party and they want the current government to end. The communists have indicated to the tripartite alliance—the ANC, Communists & the Trade Unions—  that they will be contesting the next general election on their own and not with the ANC. That’s a first in the ANC’s 30 years in control. That will likely weaken the ANC even further and could have an affect on the GNU.

Mashatile’s grand lifestyle is often amplified in the press.

How long will Mashatile remain in his comfortable political position? Probably for as long as Ramaphosa remains President.

Panyaza Lesufi, Premier of Gateng is another of the ANC top-shots strongly and openly against the GNU and that means he is anti-Ramaphosa. But Cyril does nothing. This is Bene’s cartoon from the Citizen on Monday:

In spite of all the criticism Mashatile didn’t fare too badly in the annual Cabinet Ratings from the Mail & Guardian. Every year the M&G rate the cabinet members in their first edition for the year. Mashatile achieved a C-. With a cabinet of 34 I won’t give you all the ratings but it is interesting to note there is just one A and that is Patricia de Lille of the Good Party for Tourism. B’s went to Dean Macpherson, Public Works and Leon Schrieber, Home Affairs both DA members, Kgosientsho Ramogopa, Electricity and two others also scored Bs. M&G rated 4 ministers with E’s including the Justice Min. Thembi Simelane and Blade Nzimande the Science & Technology Min. The only F and it was an F- went to Angie Motshegka our Defence Minister.  John Steenhuisen–Agriculture rated a C- but the M&G’s review of his first 100 days in office seems very positive.

You probably are now not surprised to hear that we have had our very best tourism season ever.

Most locals are very happy with all the tourists about but the excess traffic does create tremendous traffic jams.

One of the stories that caught my eye after the new year was about the enormous number of teenage girls who had just given birth to children. It all started when the press made a hullabaloo about a 12 year-old who gave birth to a little boy on Christmas Day. The fellow who impregnated her is 28 years old and he has been charged with statutory rape. Then I read that 2716 girls between the ages of 10 and 14 had become become pregnant last year.  The truly distressing figure is that between April 2023 and May 2024  119 586 babies were born to girls 19 and younger. Is it because they are poor and then qualify for (the minuscule) government grants that they allow themselves such behaviour ? Probably it is simply lack of proper education. The Burger had this cartoon on Friday.

For those of you who don’t know Afrikaans anymore, the little girl asks the doctor is it a boy or is it a girl and he replies ‘It’s a national disaster’.

Some Republicans are already urging Trump to take decisive action with regard to SA.

It is likely that soon after Trump takes over in 10 daytime the US will impose trade sanctions on SA. Trump does not like Ramaphosa’s cozying up to Iran and having them joined BRICS.

Trump is likely to attend the G20 summit which is due to be held in Johannesburg towards the end of the year. That should make some very interesting news.

Most of the country, excepting the Johannesburg and surrounding areas has been free of electricity outages for 9 months. It’s great. Nothing in the fridge goes off and we can watch anything at all on TV anytime at all and in the summer heat our air-conditioners work. Hats off to the new Minister of electricity, Kgosientsho Ramokgopa. A part of his success must be in the amount of solar panels installed not only by businesses but also in private homes, where excess power can be sold back to the grid.  But the bad news is that our electricity prices are skyrocketing. We used to sell large amounts of electricity to our neighbouring countries and that has obviously come to an end, hence the steep hike in price.

Our rugby, cricket and even soccer is on the up. SA are the top rated rugby team in the world, our cricketers have qualified to play in the final of the cricket World Cup up in England in June by klapping Pakistan in two local test matches. In the final we will play against Australia at Lords. Even our Bafana Bafana football team is at last performing really well. Tottenham Hotspurs?

Well what can I say? Spurs have won only one league match in their last 8 games. The coach and I still watch the games together religiously but it isn’t been easy.

Last night late Spurs played the first leg of the Caraboa Cup at home against the top-of-the-league club, Liverpool. The pundits were expecting a “kaffirpak” but can you believe we won. And go into the second leg leading 1-0.

As always,

Gerald

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