The Week That Was

Gerald Potash,

Hello again,

In my absence the Zondo Commission finally came to it’s completion and the final sections of what took 4 years and cost us R1 billion were handed to the President.

The conclusions are not pretty and Cyril is badly tainted as a wuss, for sitting by and doing nothing for years and years, and even for lying—well for being less than truthful—in certain answers given during his appearances at the Commission. What is abundantly clear from the Judge’s report is that Cyril sat at the elbow of JZ in ANC meetings where State capture was blatantly taking place but said and did nothing. Mondli Makanya, in City Press calls him an enabler.

Then Ray Soloman writes a damning critique in an opinion piece for IOL earlier this week on Cyril.  Click on this link to read it and let me know if you think Ramaphosa should also be jailed:  

https://www.iol.co.za/news/opinion/ramaphosa-why-did-we-not-see-it-coming-c4c106c3-857f-4d0b-b1f3-349b8025e82f

But Jacob Zuma is directly and throughout the nearly 5500 pages of the report, now public, shown to be the perfect kleptomaniac who ran the country at the behest of the Guptas, to the massively detrimental cost of all South Africans; mostly, of course to the expense of the poor. 

Then Judge Zondo also targets some very high-up big shots, like Dudu Myeni of SAA, Hlaudi Motsoeneng of the SABC, spy boss Arthur Fraser,  ex-cabinet Minister, Faith Mutambi and cadres like Ace Magashule & Duduzane Zuma among very many others, for serious interrogation by the NPA. Their spoils from the party that was such a “jol” must be repaid — plus long jail sentences. All the named suspects (and there are literally hundreds) are cadres very close to the ANC, mostly close to Accused No 1 himself which all goes to confirm what many of us have said for years and years, that this ANC is corrupt to it’s core.

The question is what now?                                                                

Will we see arrests? 

Or will things just slowly meander along, as before. Paul Hoffman makes the point that State capture is real, it is toxic and it must end.

Ramaposa has said nothing. He has said he will say nothing for four months (that’s probably how long it would take me to read the almost 5500 pages too) but I am not expecting much of a response. The best response that many of us can hope for is that this criminal clique that masquerades as a political party gets soundly beaten in the next election and that these crooks get their comeuppance if not before that then soon thereafter.

But I am not holding my breath.

So many big-shots are shown to be thieves and liars that surely even the weaken NPA has enough evidence to see that the tainted Cabinet Ministers and their cronies get locked up and the key to the jail gets thrown away. The amount our Fiscus lost to the Guptas and other illegally benefiting cadres is actually calculated at R57,344,912,379.34c.  This is Zapiro’s take from The Daily Maverick on the Zondo Commission’s targeting of the ANC:

Don’t think that Accused No1 is doing nothing about this report. Surprise! He is going to the JSC (Judicial Services Commission) to have Zondo declared rogue and biased against him. He believes, or says that he believes that there is a conspiracy against him and that the Judge hates him. Zuma has lots of our money —while Arthur Fraser was in charge of the SSA (Secret Security Agency) Zuma was getting R4,5 million a month in cash from then Minister of Security, David Mahlobo, the Minister who was caught at a brothel, which he frequented regularly until the press published photos and asked questions. And the money that he gave to Zuma in cash was income over and above the salary and perks that JZ received as President of this country. So Accused No 1 has lots of money to waste and this move of his to appeal that Zondo is biased against him is not unexpected. 

Oh, David Mahlobo still sits in Ramaphosa’s Cabinet.

You already know that all that this will achieve is more waste of time and so Zuma’s Stalingrad tactic just goes on and on even though it has no prospect of success at all. 

In the meantime, Ramaphosa has also said nothing about the $4 million of foreign currency stolen from his farm that was “hidden” in his lounge furniture. There are all sorts of rumours floating around, some suggesting that these funds were to be used at the Party elective conference at the end of this year to bribe ANC cadres to keep Cyril in the presidency.

Why no word, Mr. President even after Arthur Fraser spilled the beans of the theft that took place 16 months ago?

And why no word then?

As for Fraser; he is really a nasty piece of work. Herman Mashaba, leader of the ActionSA political party had threatened Shamila Batohi that unless she, the NPA, laid charges within the next few days, he Mashaba will be bringing a private prosecution against Fraser, based entirely on the evidence as laid out in the Zondo Commission.

But then Cope, Mosiuoa Lekota’s Party, beat him to it and laid criminal charges against Fraser at a Pretoria police station. This is Brandan’s take on the matter from Business Day:

One big story this week has been the death of 21 teenagers in a pub (tavern) in East London on Sunday night. This heartbreaking story has taken a whole week to fully unfold and for all to understand exactly what happened. Needless to say it has a great deal to do with our chronic lack of policing. Who serves liquor to 13-year olds? Why wasn’t the pub closed-down ages ago when there were multiple complaints about liquor being served illegally to underaged children? 

And where did the original story that they died in a stampede come from?

Our municipalities are in financial ruin. Only 16% of the more than 250 municipalities have a clean audit. The incompetence of the ANC needs no more illustration than this. Many of the municipal workers are extremely well paid and this simply adds to the picture of ANC management. It is virtually non-existent and is self serving.

It is noteworthy that most of the proper functioning municipalities are Western Cape based and are run by the DA. What a very noticeable difference!

We are experiencing power outages like never before. The Country yesterday moved to Stage 6 only for the second time ever. Pravin Gordhan claimed on Tuesday evening that the illegal strike that so contributed to our problems had been resolved. The trade unions disagreed.

The unions have used despicable (and highly dangerous) tactics to keep willing workers away. Petrol bombs to their homes, motor cars set alight and threatening phone calls have all been employed.       And you say we are not a gangster State?

This strike has severely curtailed the urgently required repairs that are needed for our very old power stations— to keep our lights on and our burglar alarms working.

These outages are horrible and they affect everyone.  Apart from that try getting into the city when the traffic lights aren’t working.

The Public Protector, suspended by Ramaphosa (you see he doesn’t do absolutely nothing) has been ordered to pay a former employee R1.5 million after that employee was unfairly dismissed for writing to Parliament requesting an investigation into her ability. He had also suggested that her financial management required investigation. Anyway he now has his job and satisfaction back and he has been paid for the time he was dismissed and unable to work.

We are expecting another serious fuel price hike next week and interest rates are set to rise again too. It is an extremely difficult time for consumers as prices rise almost from day to day even for the most basic food items like bread and cooking oil.

Have you noticed that there is never a shortage of news here in SA. No one, it seems talks news or politics in Sydney or if they do I didn’t hear any of it during my short stay. My plans in Oz were badly constrained by my getting Covid and very many of the arrangements I had made to see friends and recipients of this newsletter had to be cancelled because of my illness and my fear of spreading it.  But I am back and happy to have been able to get close to my Australian family again. 

Some observations about Oz:

Homes are terribly expensive. I questioned prices and what would cost R3.5 million here, would cost (in Rands) an equivalent of over R40 million for essentially the same home in Sydney. And believe me there are homes for twice that amount too. So if you are thinking of moving you better have a good job there or lots of bucks.

They don’t have power outages in Oz.

The coffee culture in Australia, which is also exploding here, is well established there and my ‘black americano’ here, is known as a ‘long black’ there. (A cheeky barrister at a food market here a little while ago told me he calls a black americano a Barrak Obama). Then, like here, lots of people are working from home which has enormous advantages.

Traffic, although sometimes very heavy is incredibly well controlled by a very strict and visible policing and the fear of losing “points”. And everywhere there are parks and open recreation areas. All perfectly clean without any rubbish lying about and safe even for children to walk to.

I did not see any shacks in Sydney.

I have happily caught up with my usual habits. A coffee catch-up with Johan, a game of bridge with Joan and early morning walks, every day with the coach. 

Sporting-wise I have little to report. I don’t like the Australian rugby (football) at all. Some things are just too difficult to adjust to and I was amazed at the enormous following their AFL has.

I missed two of the most memorable rugby games of the season, both took place here in Cape Town and I wasn’t even able to watch The Stormers beat the Bulls in the final of the UCR competition on their TVs.

What a deserved fuss our locals made of that historic win and last Saturday the team was given a bus trip through the centre of Town to allow the fans to congratulate them. I was back for that and DID watch it on TV.

As always,

Gerald