The Week That Was

Gerald Potash,

Hello again,

On Saturday the ANC celebrated its 113th anniversary in Khayelitsha, Cape Town. All their big-shots were down here in the Cape and were out canvassing. The body-guards of Deputy President, Paul Mashatile (David Bullard calls them goons) managed to irritate a fellow while doing a house-call in the poor suburb and they got involved in a serious scuffle. Not for the first time; you may recall these guards (goons) not so long ago beat up a driver on the National road, with Mashatile sitting in his car with flashing lights watched the goings-on. That caused all sorts of problems for the Deputy-President.  Anyway, this rumpus made lots of press but Mashatile came out of it quite well by apologising meekly and everything then returned to calm. It didn’t take long for Zapiro to show us the ‘planned?’ Mashatile incident in his cartoon in the Daily Maverick:

In the Khayelitsha Stadium (which seats a mere 2000, not like the stadium where they celebrated a year ago which seats 43,000) Ramaphosa gave his “January 8” address. He tore into the EFF, MK and the Communist Party. Not too long ago not one of these parties even existed because they were all part of the ANC or like the Communists (SACP), they had an alliance with the ruling party. Ramaphosa also made it clear in his speech that even though there is a government of National Unity (GNU) the ANC is still in control. That, unfortunately is very true and the way he passed the Basic Education Law Amendment (BELA) act shows what a shrewd operator he is. It also shows that John Steenhuisen is not strong enough to stand up to him. I assume that if Steenhuisen of the DA takes matters too far the ANC could (heaven forbid) and would(?) join with the EFF and MK and so govern with them in a GNU. That is a frightening scenario.

Ramaphosa admitted that the local party branches had become weak and he criticised the break-away parties (EFF & MK) for undermining the government. He reiterated that the party must renew itself or they will die. He has been saying that for years and years but nothing ever happens and at each election the party gets weaker. He ended his speech sounding positive; claiming that State power would always be with the ANC. I hope that he is wrong. 

It does look as of the tide has turned against the ANC. Ramaphosa makes promises everytime he addresses the members but nothing ever comes of his promises. He is good at kicking the tin down the road but not too much else.                                                                                       

The WSJ (Wall Street Journal) this week ran an article on SA. Clearly the US is not happy with the ANC which has been too cozy for too long with the West’s enemies. They point out that the ANC has built a warm relationship with dictators and with Hamas, a terrorist organisation. The ANC has hosted multiple delegations from the terror group over the past 10 years here in SA. David Lepar writes that SA has become nothing but radical Islamic sympathisers. The WSJ expects Trump to take a strong stand in reversing this relationship with SA, if necessary through boycotts & trade sanctions. If Trump does take that line it will harm SA immeasurably.

Gayton McKenzie, our new Sports Minister was jailed for 15 years as a gang boss. He was released from prison after 7 years in 2005 and has become a successful business man and writer and has formed his own political party, the Patriotic Alliance. He joined the GNU and was given the sports portfolio. He gives his monthly salary to charity. Rob Hersov, the extremely erudite political commentator believes that Mckenzie will one day be president of this country.  What I do like about him is that he is not shy to speak his mind and does so, often. Last week he declared that he was unhappy that our national cricket team is arranging to go to Afganistan to prepare for their World Cup final against Australia in August. He doesn’t want our fellows there because Afghanistan don’t allow females to play sport.  Good for him!  On Monday he warned the national swimming officials that he would come down on them like a thunderstorm for exceeding their time in office, if they don’t immediately resign their positions. He takes no prisoners.

Corruption remains a major problem in this country and it is rapidly taking this country down the road of becoming a ‘failed State’. Paul Hoffman in a letter to Business Day yesterday points out that the looting of the public purse is only popular with the looters. He should have said popular with the cadres, but we all know what he means.  Those of you who are interested in knowing how we can end corruption should read Paul Hoffman’s (of Accountability Now) comprehensive article in Saturday’s Daily Maverick by clicking on this link                                                                                             :https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/opinionista/2025-01-10-the-engaged-citizens-guide-to-stopping-corruption-in-south-africa/

One of the stories dominating our media this week was that of the results of our matric school leavers. Those who wrote achieved the highest pass mark yet and the education dept is lyrical about the 87.3% of the scholars who passed. But reality is that probably more than 50% of those who first registered to go to school 10 years ago did not write the exams because they were no longer in school. We have the highest school drop-out figures in the world so these results are really nothing to get too excited about. Also our schooling system needs a serious system overhaul. Not enough students are taking maths and science as subjects and the subjects they choose are then not able to get them into a university. The zama-zama story has taken a sad turn. It has made news all over the world and you may well have seen the story on your local TV station. With all the publicity of the illegal, mostly immigrant, miners working underground in the old gold mines in Stilfontein, the police at last got involved. Two months ago, as they were getting involved the police cut all food to the mines. This week they brought up 216 survivors and 78 dead bodies. Those alive were all severely undernourished. There was so little food for them where they stayed– for up to three months at a time that some had taken to cannibalism.            When two of our cabinet ministers (Police & Mining) tried to address the distressed local community, some who had relatives underground, they were told to “voetsek”. Brendan had this cartoon in Business Day yesterday with Min. Gwede Mahtashe (Mineral Resources Minister) just looking on:

Jacob Zuma is worth a mention in almost single every newsletter I send out. He is incredible when it comes to wasting money on futile court cases, but those cases gets him publicity and plenty of it. Now he is threatening to sue the ANC for not allowing him back into the Party. He, who is the leader of the major opposition political party (MK) is wasting more money. He has given the ANC, in a letter of demand, until the end of the month to welcome him back into the party or he will begin court action to force them to do that. I would love to have all the money that Zuma has wasted on court actions that have failed.  Zuma also has a plan to acquire the ANC and he wants to re-establish the party “on it’s original mission”. One thing that Zuma does better than anyone is litigate.

The sport on the weekend was, well, good. The Stormers murdered the Sale Sharks from Manchester with 4 SAns in their team. Oom Dawie and I watched that game together over a little whiskey and there was much to cheer.  Then, a hard game to sit through; Spurs on Sunday. They were terrible. The coach and I on the couch struggled to make it through all the way to extrra time.  Playing a team of amateurs in the 3rd round of the FA Cup, they struggled. Extra time had to be played. With 80% possession Spurs just couldn’t finish. Eventually, they won, but it wasn’t pretty. As you might have gathered, not a good performance. As I am writing this Arsenal are playing Spurs in a league match (late game) and are leading 2-1. Its been a really wonderful game with some outstanding moves from both sides but Spurs just losing. 
 It really was a very different Spurs from the mid-week match.

As always,                                                                                      

Gerald