Disaster Africa

Victoria Falls in Zimbabwe, Africa

2009-01-16T21:38:00.000-08:00

This is a spectacular view of Victoria Falls in Zimbabwe, Africa. This scene is one of the many reasons that I keep hope for my country. I continue to pray for the day when we read more about beautiful scenery and less about epidemics in Africa.

UCT defends 'extreme' admissions policy

2006-09-08T04:29:00.000-07:00

Sumayya Ismail | Johannesburg, South Africa
08 September 2006 11:47

Whether through employment or education, transformation and affirmative action strategies have become part of daily life in South Africa, and recent media attention on the admissions policies of the University of Cape Town (UCT) has raised some important questions. Specifically, are these measures vital to atone for the apartheid past or are they just another form of discrimination, aimed at a different group of people? Following a bout of letters published in Cape Town newspapers last week, Democratic Alliance leader Tony Leon attacked the university's policies in his column on SA Today, criticising its use of race as a primary admissions requirement to certain medical and law degrees. UCT assesses its undergraduate applicants based on a points system -- similar to that used by other South African tertiary institutions. Unlike other institutions, however, UCT's 2007 admission requirements clearly distinguish between different race groups in stipulating the number of points required for specific degrees. A BSc in physiotherapy, for instance, requires that black and coloured applicants obtain 34 points in order to be considered, while Indian applicants need to obtain 41 points and "Open" applicants need to obtain 43 points. An almost 10-point advantage for black and coloured applicants in some cases saw Leon chastising the university for "cravenly enacting the ANC's [African National Congress's] obsessive, race-based reclassification of South Africa". "I think there is a lot of pressure from government," Leon told the Mail & Guardian Online. "UCT goes way beyond … these measures are very extreme." "These are UCT's measures. We believe in them," UCT registrar Hugh Amoore affirmed, "Whether they happen to tie in with the transformation and affirmative action or agendas of the day is of secondary concern." 'Appropriate measures' Section 37 of the 1997 Higher Education Act states that in their admissions policies, all South African universities are required to comply with "appropriate measures for the redress of past inequalities", but they "may not unfairly discriminate in any way". "We believe that they [the admission requirements] pass constitutional muster," said Amoore, "[and] that the discrimination in them is fair and justifiable." Leon wrote, however, that through these measures "the university is actually carrying out government's programme with a zeal far in excess of the Act's section 37 (1)". "It is the mandate of each individual institution to publish and implement an admissions policy that is both fair and transparent," said Professor Duma Malaza, CEO of Higher Education South Africa. The M&G Online looked at the admission requirements of medical faculties of similar institutions and found that although previously disadvantaged race groups are preferred in most instances, UCT is the only university with such formal affirmative action measures written into the application process. Like UCT, the universities of the Witwatersrand, Free State and Pretoria also assess applicants based on a points system. However, at these institutions the same number of points is required for all applicants, regardless of race. They all maintain that applicants are judged academically, and no differentiation is made between racial groups. The University of KwaZulu-Natal, however, does work within a quota system. "But there is competition within the race groups," said admissions officer Deliwe Ikalila, with black students competing with each other, white students competing with each other, and so on. Those who reach the highest percentage in their matric results, in each of the four race groups, are accepted. Selection methods As well as attaining the required number of points, applicants to UCT's health sciences faculty are also expected to complete a questionnaire and take a national placement test that assesses their suitability for their chosen field of study. "These selection methods are the result of conscious policies to ensure, first, that those we admit are able to succeed and, secondly, that the resulting class will have significant numbers of African [black] and coloured students. "The UCT admissions policy of the year 2007 is an attempt to ensure we move to such a [equal opportunity] society," Amoore said, to which Leon responded by saying he "disagree[s] absolutely, profoundly and completely". "Categorisations using racial difference are very bad news for non-racialism," the DA leader said. Calling the university's policies a "crude racial system", he questioned whether children of Cabinet ministers who live in upmarket areas, attend private schools and happen to be black should qualify for these rewards. "There should be measures to help the best people who can benefit from the education system." Amoore said the university weighs past educational adversity at the level of racial groups as opposed to individuals, and its policies are based on this. Different requirements are set for applicants of different backgrounds "to compensate for generations of educational and socio-economic disadvantage". "It is too easy in the constitutional state in which we live to forget the ravages caused by the educational provisions of native affairs, bantu education and the Department of Education and care training, or of coloured affairs," Amoore said, "too easy to forget that even today most township schools and many rural schools still reflect this legacy in provision, in the qualifications and experience of the teachers, and in the socio-economic conditions [poverty] of their communities." 'Insult' But Leon was adamant in his weekly column that "not only does UCT's current approach to admissions not recognise individual worth, it [also] insults the gifted black student by negating her high marks and insisting that her place is not dependent on her particular effort or ability". "Without these policies, the MBChB class, for example, would be predominantly white and Indian; there would be very few black men and women doctors in the graduating class," Amoore said. With these measures in place, black students accounted for 72% of UCT's MBChB classes last year, but Amoore said that "institutionally we believe we need to do more". "It's not the job of a university to churn out exact proportions of the population," Leon told the M&G Online. The university "reinforces the baleful notion that some race groups are innately inferior to others, because they require special treatment", he wrote on SA Today. "Access to higher education is invariably controversial and politically fraught in contexts such as South Africa where parity in educational provision has not yet been achieved," Higher Education South Africa's Malaza explained. "Extraordinary measures are needed to achieve the kind of equity targets that will reflect … the demographics of our society." Numerous attempts to contact the Department of Education for comment on this matter failed.

*Source

Comment: They might as well put up a big sign that reads: "Blacks only".

Tourists warned against SA

2006-09-08T04:20:00.000-07:00

08/09/2006 11:36 - (SA)

Wellington - New Zealand's foreign ministry stepped up warnings
about travel to South Africa on Friday, saying crime was a serious
issue with muggings and hijackings prevalent.

The ministry's travel advisory on its website said there was "some
risk" in travelling to South Africa and advised visitors to be vigilant
at all times, especially at bus stations and airports where organised
gangs operated.

It specifically mentioned the key cities of Johannesburg, Durban and Pretoria.

It also warned of the danger of hiackings on roads leading to Kruger
Park and said visitors should only go to Table Mountain in groups to
minimise the risk of attack. - Sapa-dpa

*Source

SA nuke moves alarm US

2006-09-02T03:33:00.000-07:00

Nic Dawes
01 September 2006 08:16

Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma
South African support for Iran held firm this week as a United Nations deadline for Iran to suspend its uranium enrichment programme expired, potentially triggering sanctions by the UN Security Council or the United States and its allies.

A flurry of diplomatic activity followed last week’s visit to Pretoria by Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottak, and the renewed insistence by South Africa on Iran’s “inalienable right” to pursue nuclear energy for peaceful purposes.

Iran is high on the agenda of President Thabo Mbeki’s meeting next week with Russian President Vladimir Putin, the Department of Foreign Affairs announced this week.

Russia is the major supplier to Iran’s nuclear programme and is eager to broker a diplomatic solution to the crisis. It is part of the “P5+1” coalition of permanent members of the Security Council -- plus Germany, which has offered Iran economic incentives to halt its enrichment activities, but is hesitant about sanctions.

As the crisis escalated last week top US nuclear diplomat James Schulte met South Africa’s representative at the International Atomic Energy Agency, Abdul Minty, in Pretoria. He was followed this week by representatives of the EU 3 -- the British, French and German component of the P5+1. No details of either meeting have been released, but during his trip Schulte publicly called on the South African government to bring its influence to bear on Iran.

Citing South Africa’s 1991 decision to end its nuclear weapons programme he told University of Pretoria’s Centre for International Political Studies: “South Africa’s example and leadership position you to help Iran’s leaders to think hard about Iran’s future and to consider two different models: the first, North Korea -- nuclear-armed, but impoverished, isolated, insignificant; the second, South Africa -- nuclear weapons-free, but secure, dynamic and a respected player in your region and the world.

“The choice should be clear. You can help Iran’s leaders make the right one.”

South Africa’s response, guided by complex domestic and geopolitical considerations, contained little to please the US. Local officials stress that the International Atomic Energy Agency’s (IAEA) decision to report its concerns about Iran’s programme to the UN Security Council was -- in a departure from precedent -- reached by majority vote, not consensus. They say Iran has no legal obligation under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty to engage in further “confidence-building measures”.

Writing in the latest issue of ANC journal Umrabulo, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Aziz Pahad argues that the nuclear weapons states (the US, Britain, France, Russia and China) are undermining the “balance of rights and obligations” underpinning the treaty.

South Africa played a leading role during the 1995 negotiations that lead to the treaty’s extension. The major Western powers argued for it to remain in force indefinitely, while non-aligned countries, led by Indonesia, wanted it scrapped unless the nuclear powers agreed to disarm.

South African representatives crafted a compromise extending the treaty indefinitely in exchange for a commitment from the nuclear powers to disarmament measures, including the implementation of a comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, a deal on the handling of fissile material, and systematic efforts to eliminate nuclear weapons. Further revisions in 2000 added undertakings.

“There has been limited, if not minimal, progress,” Pahad writes. “In some areas there was, in fact, a reversal of these undertakings.”

During a treaty review last year South Africa sought a text balancing criticism of the nuclear weapons states’ failures with concerns about proliferation, particularly the contribution of “non-state actors” like the AQ Kahn smuggling network to the illegal spread of weapons technology.

Instead, Pahad stresses in apparent reference to George W Bush’s administration, proposals were made “to impose restrictions on the inalienable right to use nuclear energy for peaceful purposes [including] a cap on new enrichment and reprocessing facilities”.

South Africa’s sensitive diplomatic moves dovetail with the development of plans to expand the capacity of the local nuclear industry.

The timing of Friday’s announcement by Minister of Minerals and Energy Buyelwa Sonjica that South Africa was considering restarting uranium enrichment has not escaped Western diplomats. But the government insists that there is no connection between backing for Iran, activism around the Non-Proliferation Treaty and South Africa’s plans to expand its nuclear energy capability.

“We believe in multilateralism; that is the principle we are defending here,” one official said. But others in the government are privately irritated by US-led attempts to limit the use of highly enriched uranium for civil purposes and to further cap enrichment by non-nuclear weapons states.

Security of supply will become increasingly important as the proportion of nuclear power in the energy mix grows. Brazil, the South Africans point out, recently began enriching uranium.

Briefing editors in Pretoria this week, Minister of Public Enterprises Alec Erwin said a study was being conducted into the “full uranium value chain”, from fuel production to medical research.

Erwin stressed that enrichment would be for peaceful purposes. “South Africa has said unequivocally that we have withdrawn our capacity for weapons-grade enrichment. Whether we should now go back to enrichment for civilian uses is a matter we are going to have to study very carefully,” he said.

*Original source

Africa has no conscience

2006-08-30T00:44:00.000-07:00

Albert Brenner
August 28, 2006 10:00 AM EST

What makes a human being choose a specific course of action when faced with a moral choice? To give an example; what impels a man in Austria to fastidiously separate plastic from paper rubbish before disposal, and what impels a man in South Africa to rape and murder a baby? The cynicism of the world-weary will now raise its paw and state that all moral behavior is based on the avoidance of pain. This is true, for the most part. The fear of physical pain certainly still tops the list in ensuring compliance with socio-cultural norms and values. A person will definitely think twice about transgressing when faced with severe pain in the form of whipping or, ultimate pain in the form of being 'drawn and quartered'. The threat of physical pain surely goes a long way in ensuring moral compliance in primitive societies.

When this threat is gone, all hell breaks loose. This can be witnessed in South Africa where more people have been murdered (250 000+) after 1994, than all the people who met violent deaths in the whole of the country's 20th century history. South Africa boasts a staggering 50 murders and 43 child-rapes per day. Similar break-downs of law and order are evident when African dictators are toppled by new ones. The aftermath of hurricane Katrina in New Orleans also showed similar patterns of behavior.

The second, more civilized, inducement not to transgress is the fear of psycho-social and socio-cultural humiliation in front of one's peers. For example, the Austrian man's efforts (separating waste) are motivated by his assurance of not being humiliated by his peers when accused of being environmentally-unfriendly. Having always regarded themselves as Westerners, white South Africans ended Apartheid because they just couldn't stand the humiliation by their peers in the West anymore. In short: the West demanded adherence to human rights, and they complied.

It goes without saying that the peers in one civilization are not necessarily the same peers in another. China, for example, doesn't give a damn about democracy or human rights, but they enjoy favored trade nation status in America. Different strokes for different folks, it would seem. Thabo Mbeki's refusal to believe that AIDS is caused by a virus is a very good example of a non-existent fear of peer humiliation across cultures. Being African (Xhosa), the socio-cultural matrix of his society's belief-systems have zero relation to the high status the scientific world-view has in more advanced civilizations. In other words, he certainly has no fear of being humiliated in the West when postulating similar idiocies.

This also applies to moral sanctioning in Africa. Zimbabwe's Robert Mugabe and innumerable other African dictators have no compunction whatsoever to trample on western-induced norms and values (e.g. human rights) because these moral imperatives have never been part of their socio-cultural belief-systems. One cannot compare apples to pears, and African leaders certainly don't fear humiliation by those in the West who they do not regard as peers. Mandela's dismal failure to humiliate Mugabe is but one example of Africans looking at the same bearings on the same moral compass.

The West has always been the fiercest in safeguarding its most preciously held moral convictions. And given the West's soul-piercing introspection after moral regressions, it is no wonder that this civilization has, for the most part, progressed past the phase where fear of physical pain is the only guarantee of moral rectitude. "There can be no more poetry after Auswitsch", these words by the philosopher Theodor Adorno encapsulate the hell the West's conscience went though after the horrors of WWII. We instinctively cringe when we hear about rumors of torture like in Guantanamo Bay and Abu Ghraib. This is not so in other civilizations.

Getting back to Africa; has any African intellectual or political leader ever displayed the depth of moral anguish of an Adorno, when confronted with African horrors like, for example, the genocide in Rwanda, the mutilations in Liberia and the 2.4 million people who have been slaughtered in the Congo in the past 10 years? No. Having only the fear of physical pain to guide them, African dictators will only start criticizing their peers once their own physical security is threatened. This is the reason why African dictators cling to power with all their might; they will suffer physical pain (mostly death) when losing power.

This is not a problem in the West. It suffices to say that Western morality has never played a major part in any of the careers of 99% of African leaders and their people. Whether the morality of the West is the best, is obviously another story. Today's terrorist is tomorrow's freedom fighter (e.g. Mandela and Nazrallah), and the moral 'axis of evil' and 'coalition of the good' certainly stays in tune with the flux of time and the will of the powerful. But, the fortitude of the individual conscience will always be the cornerstone of all civilized behavior.

It is this entity which guarantees that the individual will think of the welfare of his fellow man, even if the consequences of his/her actions cannot be traced back to him/her. To give an example; why not rape a baby if you know the police will not catch you. South Africa has a 10% conviction rate for murder and a 4.3% conviction rate for rape. And why not partake in the mind-boggling corruption and graft that is part and parcel of Africa's mind-set? In short; why stop when you have no fear of physical pain or psychosocial and socio-cultural humiliation?

The third, and even more advanced, regulator of individual moral behavior is the fear of divine retribution – i.e. I'll suffer eternal pain when I join the after-life. This uniquely religious impulse is the motivating factor behind singularly self-less and self-sacrificing moral behavior. The individual with this conscience fears neither physical pain, nor public humiliation. And in combination with the Christian idea of brotherly love, this conscience is the stuff of legends, to put it bluntly.

The 'formation' of the Western conscience has a very long history. It started with the Biblical Adam and continued with Noah's righteousness, Socrates' refusal to bow to the non-questionable norm, Jesus' brotherly love, Luther's reaffirmation of human choice, the French Revolution, the abolition of slavery, de-colonization and the demolishing of Apartheid. All these paradigmatic moments have resulted in a conscience which is the most self-regulatory existence has ever seen. It is the reason why Hitler was defeated, it is the reason why white South Africans abolished Apartheid and it is the reason why whites didn't loot and shoot after hurricane Katrina.

The humanism of the liberal will now raise its hind-leg and state that human beings are inherently good (innocent) and that the fear of punishment actually causes morally 'bad' behavior. To give an example; liberal educators and psychologists firmly believe that a good smack on the bottom of a child who is sticking his fingers into a live power-socket, will lead to the child becoming a violent human being when he grows up. It suffices to say that all of recorded history has shown that human beings are not inherently good, and can therefore not be trusted do the 'right' (and sane) thing without some or other fear of pain to regulate their behavior. Yes Mbeki, AIDS is caused by a virus!

What regulates moral behavior in one civilization definitely does not regulate moral behavior in another. Does China really want to give universal suffrage and human right to its citizens, does India really want to uplift its lower classes and do African leaders really give a damn about the individual fates of their people? We would like to say yes, but that is only because we have the conscience of the West. And this conscience will also be our downfall.

Having stripped the God part from the true meaning of life ' Love God, and love your neighbor', we are stuck with the insecurities of a conscience solely motivated by loving our neighbor – i.e. the existential-humanism of postmodernism. Have we ever seriously asked ourselves the question whether our neighbor is also doing his utmost to love us as well? Even a cursory glance at the moral anarchy in post-1994 South Africa, clearly illustrates what is in store for the West in the next 50 -100 years. The loss of the regulatory power of the civilized conscience will cause such societal degeneration that serious inter-civilization and inter-racial conflict would be inevitable.

The individuals of other civilizations, Africans in particular, should seriously start asking themselves the question whether they are treating their neighbor, like they want to be treated themselves? The way Africans treat each other makes one ashamed to be human being. It is an open sore in the conscience of all that is civilized. And milking the conscience of the West for every tear that's is worth because Africans are slaughtering Africans on a daily basis, can never suffice as an excuse for the fact that Africa's conscience refuses to progress past the phase of fear of physical pain. What about moral pain? That pain which Africa causes the civilized world every time one switches on the TV and is forced to witness the horrors of primitive behavior unleashed. Grow up! Real pain comes from within. It is called a conscience.

*Original Source

Pretoria university and student body in stand-off

2006-08-12T02:35:00.000-07:00

Pretoria, South Africa
11 August 2006 03:31

The University of Pretoria's management and the Pan Africanist Movement of Azania (Pasma) refused to budge from their respective positions on Friday.

The student body said they would continue with their protest, while management said it would not reopen the campus unless violent protests came to end.

"The students have contravened the agreement we had with them on Tuesday, that there [would] be no violent protest on Thursday," said campus director Edwin Smith.

Pasma provincial spokesperson Vusi Mahlangu said the violence seen on campus on Thursday will be like a picnic if management continue with their arrogance and do not respond positively to its demands.

"We are prepared to meet them on the battlefield and allow blood to flow, should there be a need," Mahlangu said in a statement on Friday.

The university reported damage worth R40 000 caused when students threw stones and broke windows on campus on Thursday, said Smith.

Issues raised by students could not be resolved overnight, but management will continue holding talks with them, Smith said.

Pasma is protesting against the mid-year academic exclusion of more than 30% of students.

"We are not prepared to go back to the table until the University of Pretoria agrees that all excluded are brought back to the system while the negotiations continue," Mahlangu said.

The university must also reverse the decision of changing the campus into a community centre.

Smith responded: "Academic exclusions are instruments to ensure that the university is not bloated with undeserving students, but students who perform well.

"The students who are academically excluded are afforded a fair hearing to explain their performance to the university," said Smith. -- Sapa

*Original source: Mail and Guardian Online

Rage, rage against the dying of the light

2006-08-07T08:03:00.000-07:00

Dear Afriforum

Congratulations on the new campaign. May it be a huge success and a turning point in South Africa's history.

You have taken the first steps in the fight against South Africa's huge crime epidemic. Recent initiatives, such as your own, have done a lot to expose SA's staggering crime levels to the international community. However, merely writing about the problem and signing one or two petitions will neither be efficient enough to persuade the SA government to act decisively against crime, nor to cause an international outcry against the murders. The SA government will only get it's act together once it is forced to do so... and the international community will only start to support your efforts once they see that you are "seriously fighting for your lives".

We suggest that you take the following steps:

Hold a nationwide strike against crime. Special emphasis should be placed on big corporations such as ESKOM and SASOL.
March through Pretoria and stop at every embassy to hand over a declaration against crime and other media (such as documentaries) to the appropriate ambassadors. Include a request for diplomatic assistance with each of the handovers. Get local celebrities, that support the cause, to join in.
If the above do not yield the desired effects, increase the frequency and duration of such actions until you are satisfied that you have succeeded.

Such strikes should be held regardless of whether you have the appropriate permissions/clearances or not. What kind of message will it send to the outside world when the SA government is unwilling to act against crime, but willing to act against normal citizens?

Your friends
Website: http://disasterafrica.blogspot.com
E-mail: disasterafrica@hotmail.com

*This e-mail was sent to Afriforum, the civil rights movement of the Solidarity trade union. You can e-mail them at afriforum@solidariteit.co.za or visit their website.

Auditors find Kebble millions paid to ANC

2006-08-06T15:56:00.000-07:00

Mail & Guardian Online reporter and Sapa
Johannesburg, South Africa
06 August 2006

Forensic auditors have uncovered records of more than R25-million listed as having been paid to the ruling African National Congress (ANC) and its structures by Brett Kebble and companies linked to the slain magnet, the Sunday Independent reported.

However, the ANC says it has not been quizzed about any such alleged funds, according to the report.

The investigations by the auditors -- Umbono Financial Advisory Services and KPMG -- into the pillaging of shares and black economic empowerment (BEE) fraud uncovered details of a range of consultants' fees, loans and bonuses listed as paid by Kebble and his companies to a number of prominent individuals in the ANC and BEE circles, the report added.

Their reports also list apparent payments being made to the ANC totalling more than R25-million, including R5 570 000 to the ANC in the Western Cape, R930 000 to the ANC Youth League and R250 000 to the ANC in the Eastern Cape.

Of these payments, totalling R6 930 000, at least R1,4-million was paid by Consolidated Mining Management Services (CMMS), and investigators are probing whether Kebble also claimed the rest from CMMS.

The ANC also features on a list of payments apparently made at Kebble's instruction from a subsidiary company, Tuscan Mood, that is under close scrutiny by investigators, the Sunday Independent said. Tuscan Mood is listed as having paid the ANC R18 619 296.

ANC spokesperson Smuts Ngonyama told the newspaper the party had not been informed of any such official inquiries into donations made by Kebble or his companies to the party.

Several people who are prominent in ANC and business circles are also listed as having received payments from Kebble and his companies.

'Come clean'
The Democratic Alliance has urged the ANC to "come clean" on the allegations that it received millions of rands Kebble and his companies.

DA spokesperson Douglas Gibson said on Sunday many South Africans were impressed last week at President Thabo Mbeki's hard-hitting speech about social values. His condemnation of the "get rich at all costs" sickness was particularly impressive.

However, the ANC government is becoming known for never-ending sleaze, Gibson said.

It has never come clean about the so-called Oilgate scandal, former deputy president Jacob Zuma's problems are well known, the arms deal seems murky to say the least, and now there is the Kebble millions.

"It is time for the ANC to come clean. If they received an improper advantage with money which should have gone to the Kebble creditors, the ANC must pay it back.

"If they do not, President Mbeki's fine words will be revealed as nothing more than pious and pompous platitudes," Gibson said.

Crime in SA and the 2010 Soccer World Cup

2006-08-03T00:03:00.000-07:00

According to nationmaster.com, South Africa ...

has the most rapes (per capita) in the world
has the most murders with firearms (per capita) in the world
has the second most murders (per capita) in the world
has the fourth most robberies (per capita) in the world
is a transshipment center for illicit drugs and an attractive venue for money launderers due to increasing levels of organized crime and narcotics activity

Can FIFA honestly say that soccer fans will be safe during the 2010 World Cup?

Zim to set up new political school for cadres

2006-08-03T00:01:00.000-07:00

Harare, Zimbabwe
02 August 2006 12:01

Zimbabwe's ruling party is to set up a political school to train cadres along the lines of China's communist party, it was reported on Wednesday.

Elliot Manyika, Zanu-PF's national commissar, made the announcement following a lecture by visiting academics from the Communist Party of China (CPC), said the state-controlled Herald newspaper.

Manyika said Zanu-PF would draw on the experiences from the CPC and the good bilateral relations between the two parties to set up the school, the newspaper reported.

This is the first time there has been talk of a dedicated Zanu-PF party school, although President Robert Mugabe's government in 2001 launched a number of youth training camps he said were meant to teach young people patriotic values.

The camps have been mired in controversy following allegations that graduates were used to intimidate members of the opposition party. Many of them are reported to have closed down because of lack of food and supplies.

Manyika said students and academics had an important role to play in conducting research for Zanu-PF.

The authorities in Zimbabwe are vocal in their admiration of China, specifically following China's recent drive to invest in projects in the Southern African country, particularly mining.

Mugabe has encouraged businessmen and all Zimbabweans to look east for inspiration, instead of turning to former colonial power Britain and other Western powers who are critical of Zimbabwe's human rights record and land-reform programme. -- Sapa-dpa

Solidarity declares war on crime

2006-07-21T09:25:00.000-07:00

"Stop the murders", a campaign designed to force the South African government to act decisively against crime, was recently launched by Solidarity's civil rights wing, Afriforum.

The campaign follows the gory murder of a member of Solidarity, Frans Pieterse. The campaign's website (http://www.stopthemurders.co.za) describes the attack as follows:

"Mr. Pieterse was tortured for more than four hours. His attackers burnt him with boiling water, cut open his head and strangled him with a shoe-lace. The murderers also dripped molten plastic on Mr Pieterse's ten year old son, Gideon. The murder took place in the presence of Mr Pieterse's wife, Daleen, and his children Gideon and Anuscka(3)."

SA crime site 'hacked'

2006-07-21T08:52:00.000-07:00

A controversial website called Crime Expo SA, was 'hacked' during the past week, according to it's owner.

Mr. Neil Watson said that the site was broken into on Thursday and that someone "planted" a virus. The site is partially operational again, but it is said that the website will be fully operational in the near future.

According to mr. Watson, the site received more than 20 000 hits since it's launch on 4 July 2006.

South African politicians and the feel-good history of Africa

2006-07-20T04:15:00.000-07:00

Ever since the postmodern/poststructuralist French philosophers, Jacques Derrida and Michel Foucault, equated truth with art, the world has witnessed a plethora of revisionist attempts by the West to placate its self-induced feelings of guilt vis a vis its self-determined non-humanist treatment of other races and their places. It is therefore hardly surprising that the 'conquered' in history have grasped this self-recriminatory attitude with both hands (and feet), and are exploiting it like a hooker who has stumbled on a shipload full of gold-laden sailors on an around-the-world-in-eighty-days voyage. It goes without saying that modern popular culture is feasting on this cornucopian quagmire of bad conscience on the part the West.

Kevin Costner's Dances with Wolves showed us that cowboys were the barbaric eco-unfriendly murderers who slaughtered the nature-loving and peaceful Red Indians. Jane Seymour's Dr Quinn, Medicine Woman, showed us that Afro-Americans were actually part of the higher social strata in 19-century America. And Clive Owen's Arthur showed us that Guinevere was actually a tattooed kick-ass 5 ft 2 feminist killing-machine. Art is art, and one shouldn't take the extravagances of its dramatic-license too seriously. It is only when historical facts are blatantly distorted by powerful people, like politicians, that any intelligent person is morally obligated to take them by their delusionary collars and press their faces to the grindstone of implacable reality.

The 'most conquered' in recorded history will obviously spin the tallest tales. South Africa is currently the most virulent example of the feel-good fallacy characterizing the current politically-fashionable marathon to 'rewrite' history. Thabo (AIDS-is-not-caused-by-a-virus) Mbeki, the President of South Africa, is desperately trying to underpin his African Renaissance endeavor by firstly, stealing the limelight from the ancient Egyptian Empire who built the only meaningful non-Western and Non-Arab structures that made Africa part of verifiable history (anthropology/archeology). Secondly, he is having a whale of time in/by accusing the West (ala the Black Athena liberal idiocy) of deliberately whitening all the black faces that supposedly adorned all the vases, murals and paintings of the Macedonian, Greek and Roman Empires.

Even if we are forced to swallow the latter unsavory serving of historical un-truths, Mbeki is still left with the rather unenviable task of trying to explain why his hallowed Egyptian-linked forefathers mysteriously forgot the wheels and written language they used once they crossed the equator. This turn of politically-correct historical events is rather sad, but quite true. Mind you, isn't it curiously reminiscent of the fisherman who came back to tell his friends about the 'big one that got away'?

The best example of aestheticism leading truth by the nose is the recently-unveiled statue of King Ndebele in Pretoria, South Africa. This 'real-life' hero is credited with having known the evil intentions of the diabolical white settlers 200 years before he was actually supposed to have been born. Fiction is definitely more palatable than the truth in our 'everybody-is-a-victim' day and age!

It suffices to say that history is being taken for a very bumpy ride by those who have conveniently forgot that it is not a dish best served warm in order to stroke the egos of the faint-hearted. History is nobody's fool, and it will certainly not be bamboozled by the mesmerizing escapism offered by two French philosophers who have all but succeeded in selling guano as croutons to a civilization that has forgot that which has made it the most enlightened and advanced in the history of mankind. The truth, and nothing but the truth!

Albert Brenner

SA 2010 'far behind schedule'

2006-07-09T14:51:00.000-07:00

09/07/2006 21:34 - (SA)

Pieter Malan, Beeld

London - South Africa's preparations for the 2010 soccer World Cup tournament are far behind schedule, according to an article in the German weekly Der Spiegel.

The SA authorities are so disorganised that the left hand does not know what the right hand is doing, the newspaper reported.

In Germany, planning was so advanced four years before the 2006 World Cup tournament that the officials knew precisely which streets would be closed before matches, the weekly, the largest in Europe, reported at the weekend.

However, "in Johannesburg, Durban and Cape Town chaos and confusion are the order of the day at the moment," according to the article.

Der Spiegel reports that Delron Buckley, a South African playing in the Bundesliga, said South Africa was completely behind schedule and had not built or repaired anything.

Members of the German organising committee told the weekly they had had several visits from the SA delegation but that the South Africans would not listen to advice. "I have to start at the beginning every time," a German official said.

According to the report many German soccer officials are starting to believe that the only way to save the 2010 tournament would be to send members of the German committee to South Africa to get things in order.

This, apparently, is a view shared by some South Africans. According to the report, Mpumalanga premier Thabang Makwetla said during a recent visit to Germany the 2010 tournament would be "Germany's next tournament".

Der Spiegel reports that Danny Jordaan, the chief of the SA organising committee, professes, as could be expected, that everything is in order.

Jordaan told the publication that he did not want to elaborate upon the progress made in South Africa because he did not want to steal the limelight from the tournament in Germany while it was still in progress.

Fifa, the body controlling world soccer, should bear some of the blame because "they have created their own version of the reality," the report says.

Der Spiegel alleges that Fifa's progress reports about the 2010 tournament do not reflect the reality.

The reports refer to suburban train systems that are very popular but do not keep in mind that no other significant transport systems exist and that mini-buses are old and dangerous.

The SA authorities have also admitted that the planned Gautrain, an express train between Johannesburg and Pretoria, will not be completed by 2010.

And to make things worse, the South Africans are playing poor soccer and cannot really justify their participation in the 2010 tournament, according to the report.

*Original Source

Crime Expo SA: Good news and bad news

2006-07-06T05:42:00.000-07:00

The good news: the website is up-and-running at http://www.crimexposouthafrica.co.za .

The bad news: it seems that it is still under construction (at least partially).

Crime Barometer: What happened?

2006-07-06T03:46:00.000-07:00

According to the Afrikaans newspaper "Die Beeld" the Neil Watson "Crime Barometer" website's real domain name (www.crimexposouth-africa.co.za) was "kept secret" after it came to light that someone was trying to sabotage the registration of the website.

According to Watson, the website received 1280 hits on the first day. An additional 231 e-mails and 318 SMS messages were received. However, by the time of writing this article, the website was found to be "unreachable".

Any information regarding this issue can either be posted under the comments section or e-mailed to disasterafrica@hotmail.com.

Controversial website to expose crime

2006-06-26T03:34:00.000-07:00

South Africans are no strangers to crime, but even they are shocked by the recent spate of violence in their country. One South African, mr. Neil Watson, has had enough. He is the mastermind of a controversial website, entitled "Crime barometer of South Africa", which is due for launch on 4 July 2006.

Mr. Watson intends to raise awareness of crime in South Africa, especially among potential tourists. Despite some harsh criticism from government officials (some of which accused him of being unpatriotic) and several death threats, he is intent on fulfilling his plans for the website.

The website will contain cold, clinical information and statistics on crime in South Africa. Watson has warned that it will contain some graphic crime-scene images and is not intended for sensitive viewers.

China's Booming Energy Relations With Africa

2006-06-22T16:12:00.000-07:00

By Wenran Jiang, Jamestown 21/6/06
Jun 22, 2006, 10:11

Africa, on the other hand, has been left behind in the global quest for industrial modernization, economic prosperity and political stability. Yet, into Africa the Chinese are coming. They are coming for trade, investment and joint ventures, and they are consuming all the energy, minerals and other raw materials that the continent can offer.

An Evolution of Traditional Sino-African Ties

Africa's importance to China is reflected by Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao's ongoing tour of Africa. According to China's Ministry of Commerce, the seven countries on his itinerary—Egypt, Ghana, the Republic of Congo, Angola, South Africa, Tanzania and Uganda—have a combined trade volume of over US$20 billion with China, or 50.6 percent of total China-Africa trade last year. Only two months earlier, Chinese President Hu Jintao visited three other African states—Morocco, Nigeria and Kenya—following his trip to the United States and Saudi Arabia.

Such high-profile visits, a recurring practice over the past few years, have aroused speculation that Beijing's pursuit of great power status may include a new grand strategy regarding Africa. After all, top Chinese leaders have done the same extensive tours to Latin American countries since late 2004 when President Hu first visited Brazil, Argentina, Chile and Cuba. China's ties with African countries, however, can be traced back to the 1950s when newly emerging African states declared their independence. From the 1950s to 1970s, China developed close relations with many of these countries based primarily on shared ideological belief and political identity: anti-colonialism, national independence, economic self-reliance and Third World cooperation. Beijing provided substantial aid and other assistance to struggling African states in order to demonstrate that China was on the side of the Third World.

Things changed in the late 1970s. China's economic reforms gradually moved China away from its radical revolutionary worldview of the past. Beijing's open-door policy, primarily designed to attract foreign trade, investment and joint-venture opportunities from Western countries and to facilitate China's entry into the World Trade Organization, moved China much closer to a market economy where profits, not political agendas, drove most of the economic and trade activities. In this process, China's relations with African and other Third World countries have also evolved from anti-colonial brothers-in-arms to economic and trade partners based on market principles. Yet, many things have remained the same. Beijing continues to pay and train young African diplomats in the Chinese Foreign Ministry's prestigious Foreign Affairs University, a practice that has continued for many years; China continues to present itself as a member of the Third World; and since 1991, every Chinese foreign minister's first visit abroad each year has been to an African country. Beijing has even named 2006 the "Year of Africa," and it is getting ready to host a Sino-African summit toward the end of this year. Furthermore, according to Beijing's report to the People's Congress, most of China's foreign aid—totaling 7.5 billion yuan ($950 million) last year—has gone to more than 50 African countries. In fact, Wen claimed that China has offered Africa more than $44 billion in aid over the past 50 years to finance 900 infrastructure projects (AP, June 18). Meanwhile, all signs indicate that China-African relations are entering a new phase centered on energy and raw materials.

The New Focus on Energy

China's relentless pursuit of economic development turned the country into a net petroleum importer in 1993, and by the turn of the new century, its dependency on foreign oil had jumped to about 40 percent of its demand. Beijing's new target is to quadruple its economy again by 2020, as it did from the late 1970s to the mid-1990s. To achieve this goal, however, China must rely even more on external energy supplies as the Middle Kingdom already burns through 6.3 million barrels of oil a day. Although still far behind the United States, which consumes some 20 million barrels a day, the International Energy Bureau projects that Chinese consumption will reach a daily level of 10 million barrels within the next two decades or so.

Thus, China's quest for energy and other resources has brought China to Africa with urgency. Chinese customs statistics reveal that from 2001 to 2005, China's trade with Africa increased 268 percent, slower only than the growth of China's trade with the Middle East in the same period (367 percent), but faster than China's trade growth with Latin America (238 percent), ASEAN (170 percent), European Union (184 percent) and North America (163 percent). In the first quarter of 2006, the Ministry of Commerce reported that China's trade with the seven countries on Premier Wen's current African touring list amounted to $6.56 billion dollars, a surge of 168.2 percent. It is not surprising, therefore, that in such a broad economic context, Africa has turned into a major energy supplier to China in recent years. Back in 2003, both President Hu and Premier Wen visited several oil-producing African states with Chinese energy company executives, and since then China has become involved in an increasing number of energy deals on the continent that bear a number of unique characteristics.

Energy Security with Chinese Characteristics

First, Beijing is willing to get into the "troubled zones" with bold investment and aid packages in exchange for energy. When Angola ended its 27-year civil war in 2002, few foreign countries and firms were willing to invest in the country. China, on the other hand, committed a $3 billion oil-backed credit line to rebuild the country's shattered infrastructure. Beijing also made Angola its largest foreign aid destination. Now, Angola is the second largest oil producer after Nigeria in sub-Saharan Africa, producing 1.4 million barrels per day with one-third of its oil exports—13 percent of total Chinese imports—going to China. In the first four months of this year, Angola was also the largest supplier of crude to the Chinese market after Saudi Arabia (AFP, June 20). Similar arrangements have been made with Nigeria and other countries as well.

Second, Chinese energy companies are committing large amounts of funding and labor for exploration and development rights in resource-rich countries. Sudan is one of the earliest and largest overseas energy projects by China's major energy companies. Chinese operations in Sudan include investment, development, pipeline building and a large number of Chinese labor deployments. Today, China has $4 billion of investment in the country. The China National Petroleum Corp. (CNPC) has a 40 percent controlling stake in Greater Nile Petroleum that dominates Sudan's oilfields. Last year, China purchased more than half of Sudan's oil exports, and earlier this year, China National Offshore Oil Corp. (CNOOC) announced that it had bought a 45 percent stake in a Nigerian oil-and-gas field for $2.27 billion and also purchased 35 percent of an exploration license in the Niger Delta for $60 million. Chinese companies have made similar investments in Angola and other countries.

Third, Chinese energy companies enter into joint-ventures with national governments, state-controlled energy companies or individual enterprises in order to establish a long-term local presence. It appears that the Chinese companies are often willing to outbid their competitors in major contracts awarded by African governments because their concerns are not in short-term returns but rather in strategic positioning for the future.

Fourth, China does not take into consideration the particular concerns of the United States or other Western countries when selecting energy cooperation partners and has a different set of standards on how to advance political reform and human rights in Africa. Most notoriously, China has been willing to engage in energy deals with the Sudanese government despite the ongoing crisis in Darfur. Likewise, China has just reached an energy and mining deal worth $1.3 billion with Zimbabwe. In exchange for building three coal-fired thermal power stations, Zimbabwe is likely to repay the Chinese investment with its rich deposits of platinum, gold, coal nickel and diamonds (The Guardian, June 16).

A Model for Future Cooperation or a Return to the Past?

In the past few years, the demands from China and other developing economies for oil and natural gas have become the major factor, although not the only one, that has driven up world energy prices. Chinese energy companies' extensive activities in Africa, Latin America, the Middle East and Central Asia in search of oil and gas assets have created anxiety regarding the world's future supply of energy. Discussions of a new "great game"—a term traditionally associated with competition among major world powers for the control of Eurasian oil resources since the late nineteenth century—have become frequent among observers of energy security.

Today, Africa supplies China with nearly a third of its oil imports. Beijing's extensive engagement and its ascending status in Africa also raises important questions on the nature of China's involvement in the continent as well as Beijing's long-term objectives in the region. Critics charge that China has pursued mercantilist policies in the region for pure economic benefits without human rights or environmental concerns. Due to China's support, they argue, the Sudanese government has been able to continue its genocidal policy in the Darfur region, and the Mugabe regime has been able to survive and carry on its abuses of human rights in Zimbabwe.

Officially, Beijing rejects the criticism with two arguments. The first is China's trademark policy of non-interference in domestic affairs. As Premier Wen stated, "We believe that people in different regions and countries, including those in Africa, have their right and ability to handle their own issues" (South China Morning Post, June 19). The second is China's emphasis that its involvement in Africa is different from the colonialism of the past, and that an affluent China is now putting money back into the local African economy. As Chinese leaders like to say, it is a win-win situation.

With China speedily expanding its activities in Africa, international concerns over Chinese behavior are also deepening and calls for Beijing to be a more responsible world power are becoming stronger. There are also indications that Chinese policy makers, academics, NGOs and even enterprises are beginning to reflect upon China's role in Africa. Many African countries are benefiting from a "China boom," but they would be better served if Beijing were to take further steps in balancing between economic interests and the welfare of the African people. Only by doing so would China be able to demonstrate to the world that its arrival in Africa is indeed different from the old colonial powers.

*Original source

SA minister defends crime remark

2006-06-21T07:07:00.000-07:00

South African Security Minister Charles Nqakula has defended a controversial remark in which he accused people of "whinging" about crime.

On Tuesday, Mr Nqakula reiterated that his remark had been directed at certain opposition MPs, and not the public.

"I was politicking - they were politicking. I would never say people who complain about crime should leave the country," he said.

South Africa has one of the world's highest rates of violent crime.

Mr Nqakula has been under pressure since the publication earlier this month of remarks in which he said people who complained about crime could leave the country.

"They can continue to whinge until they're blue in the face, they can continue to be as negative as they want to, or they can simply leave this country so that all of the peace-loving South Africans, good South African people who want to make this a successful country, continue with their work."

A day later Darryl Worth, an MP from the opposition Democratic Alliance, spoke of a "tsunami of crime" during a debate in parliament.

'Insulated'

Mr Nqakula replied by saying that opposition members were only now belatedly seeing "the ugly face of crime".

"Apartheid so insulated them, that they did not see crime at all," he said, referring to the fact that most DA members are from the white minority that was privileged under apartheid.

"So they think therefore that our country is tottering under such a wave of crime that they refer to it as a tsunami."

Community Police Forums, as well as opposition groups, were among those who reacted with shock to what they saw as a cavalier attitude by the minister towards a serious crisis facing the country.

Sam Mangena, of a Community Police Forum in the Pretoria township of Mamelodi, told the Pretoria News newspaper that criminals, and not whingers, were the problem.

"They are the ones who are hurting our people. They should be the ones to leave the country. The perpetrators have to go away," said Mr Mangena.

Apparently trying to debunk the myth that only wealthy white people have cause to complain about crime, the Mail & Guardian newspaper ran a report by Hazel Makuzeni, a resident of Cape Town's poor Khayelitsha township, on how she was robbed at gunpoint while walking to the station on her way to work.

"A gun was pressed against my chest, hard, and I was ordered to hand over my cell phone and my backpack," Ms Makuzeni wrote.

"Then the two young men simply turned away and robbed another woman who was coming behind me. I heard her cries, but I couldn't do anything."

The response from the police, according to Ms Makuzeni's account, was: "Hayi sisi, [no, sister], these things happen."
Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/africa/5102578.stm

Published: 2006/06/21 13:25:07 GMT

© BBC MMVI

De Lille aims verbal barrels at China

2006-06-21T05:10:00.000-07:00

Donwald Pressly | Cape Town, South Africa

21 June 2006 12:26

South African President Thabo Mbeki should take China "to task" over its weak human rights record at home and abroad, said opposition Independent Democrats leader Patricia de Lille.

She said on Wednesday -- coinciding with the official three-day visit of the Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao, who is meeting Mbeki at Tuynhuys in Cape Town on Wednesday -- that while Chinese investment in Africa has taken place at a time when many of the continent's countries have achieved record growth rates, there are costs to the relationship.

The types of African governments that were the first to do business with the Chinese were in most cases "the biggest violators of human rights" and were shunned by African democracies. She charged that China has blocked the punishment of Zimbabwe's government -- led by President Robert Mugabe -- for his so-called "clean-up" campaign, which deprived an estimated 700 000 people "of their homes or jobs, or both".

De Lille, who has led campaigns against government corruption in South Africa, including in the country's arms deal, said China has little respect for human rights at home and the idea of China having a strong foothold in Africa "represents a grave threat to the African renaissance and our vision of true upliftment of all our people".

She argued that China has repeatedly protected its African business partners against punishment by the United Nations. As a member of the Security Council it had "threatened to use its veto" to prevent sanctions against Sudan, "whose government has committed genocide in Darfur and continues to supply the Sudanese Government with arms".

De Lille said China had "propped up the murderous Liberian president Charles Taylor, which drew out that country's devastating civil war", while in Angola, where the government continues to persecute journalists and ignore the poor and democracy, the Chinese Government has handed over R2-billion worth of aid in exchange for oil rights.

"Sadly, because of his refusal to meet Tibet's Dalai Lama, who was kicked out of his homeland by the Chinese in a similar manner as to how our president's own family was exiled by the National Party, President Mbeki has already lost some of the culture of human rights that was so loved by Madiba [former South African President Nelson Mandela]," said De Lille.

"In a continent where wave upon wave of colonialism and neo-colonialism has devastated our beautiful cultures and natural environment, we can simply not afford to be subjugated by another colonial power," she said.

Mbeki should deal with the South African concerns over "the massive" trade surplus China enjoys "over us", said De Lille, noting that in 2005 South Africa imported over R18-billion in goods and exported only a little over R5,5-billion, which "needs to be corrected over the next few years".

"In just two years we have already lost over 25 000 jobs in the South African textile industry. Because our clothing imports from China are directly responsible for this, we need to fix a quota of imports at a maximum of 25%," said De Lille.

China 's violations of human rights at home and its business dealings with rogue African states "should be lambasted by the South African government, using the newly established Human Rights Council, of which China is a member, as the proper platform". -- I-Net Bridge

*Original source

China exploits Africa

2006-06-12T08:39:00.000-07:00

Backgound information:

China's meddlesome history
Over the past few decades China has been actively involved in African conflicts and politics. The range of their activities includes the supply of arms and training to terrorists and militia during conflicts (such as the South African Border War), active manipulation of elections (provision of signal-jamming equipment and election T-shirts to Mugabe's Zanu-PF) and supporting nefarious regimes, especially that of Mugabe's Zimbabwe.

Worrysome trend
China's support of marxist militarists, autocrats and dictators seems to be motivated by more than their shared ideologies. After aiding them to take complete control of a country, China becomes their main trade-partners, thereby gaining mostly uncontested access to that country's mineral wealth and other valuable resources. Two such recent examples is that of South Africa (the ANC tripartite-alliance enjoys a two-thirds majority vote) and Zimbabwe (Mugabe's Zanu-PF has absolute power).

China, the worlds fastest growing economy, needs to sustain economic growth with the acquisition of minerals. Exploiting Africa seems to be a cheap-and-easy way of doing so.

Dire consequences
The consequences of China's growing stronghold over African countries is significant. The obvious is grossly incompetent, inhumane totalitarian regimes. The second is the expansion of China's political influence on world matters, which can be expected to advance even more if African countries manage to lay their hands on more seats in the UN. The wealth that China gains through the exploitation of African countries may also be applied to "buy" themselves more political power or to exploit more countries.

Zimbabwe signs China energy deal

2006-06-12T06:19:00.000-07:00

China has signed a $1.3bn deal with Zimbabwe to help relieve an acute shortage of energy.

The Herald newspaper says Chinese companies will build
new coal mines and three thermal power stations in the Zambezi valley
on the Zambian border.

In exchange, Zimbabwe will provide China with chrome.
Zimbabwe's Vice President, Joyce Mujuru, attended the signing ceremony
in Beijing.

Zimbabwean industry suffers from hours of power cuts every day.

"Right now we are beginning to experience power
shortages in the country," the state-owned Herald newspaper quoted
Vice-President Mujuru as saying.

Zimbabwean officials and representatives of the China Machine-Building International Corporation (CMEC) signed the deal

Railways

President Robert Mugabe, who has been shunned by Western
countries in recent years, embarked last year on a policy of
strengthening ties with China.

Chinese companies are also to rebuild Zimbabwe's rail network and provide trains and buses.

Zimbabwe is suffering from shortages of food, fuel and
foreign currency. In April, inflation passed 1,000% per annum for the
first time.

President Robert Mugabe blames domestic and foreign
enemies for the problems, while his critics point to the collapse of
agricultural exports following a controversial land reform programme.

The country is struggling to pay civil servants and is
thought to owe money to neighbours such as South Africa and Mozambique
from whom it has been importing electricity and fuel.

*Original source (BBC)

See also: "China arms sales 'fuel conflicts'"

Zimbabwe demolition images shown

2006-05-31T00:21:00.000-07:00

Amnesty International has released images showing the destruction caused in Zimbabwe by the government's policy of forceful house demolitions in 2005.

The satellite images show the destruction of one settlement near Harare, which had contained some 850 structures before last May.

The human rights group says the photos are irrefutable evidence how entire communities were obliterated.

The UN says some 700,000 people were directly affected by the demolitions.

These images... are a graphic indictment of the Zimbabwean government's policies
Kolawole Olaniyan
Amnesty International

The Zimbabwean government launched Operation Murambatsvina (Restore Order), saying that informal settlements around the capital were not desirable and their residents should return to the rural areas.

'Horrifying transition'

Amnesty commissioned the satellite images to demonstrate the complete destruction of one particular area, Porta Farm, a large informal settlement some 20km (12 miles) west of the capital, Harare.

It also showed detailed video footage showing the forced evictions and destruction in June.

Porta Farm was established 16 years ago and contained about 850 structures, including schools, a children's centre and a mosque.

Amnesty says that last June, in the middle of winter, armed police arrived with bulldozers.

Porta Farm - that had been home to up to 20,000 people - was destroyed and the residents evicted.

Amnesty says that the images - taken last month - show the horrifying transition of an area from a vibrant community to rubble and shrubs in the space of less than a year.

"These satellite images are irrefutable evidence... that the Zimbabwean government has obliterated entire communities, completely erased them from the map, as if they never existed," Amnesty's Africa Programme director Kolawole Olaniyan said.
Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/africa/5032156.stm

Published: 2006/05/31 03:13:04 GMT

© BBC MMVI

Original Source

'Big Brother' Bills on agenda

2006-05-29T10:05:00.000-07:00

Published in: Legalbrief Africa
Date: Mon 29 May 2006
Category: African Focus
Issue No: 182

South Africa and Zimbabwe are both coming under fire over proposed legislation that will allow the government to monitor private e-mail and telephone communications, writes E-Brief News.

The laws are aimed at fighting crime, say both governments. South Africa's biggest cellphone operator, Vodacom, has been vociferous in its criticism of the Regulation of Interception of Communications and Provision of Communication-related Information Bill which requires cellphone operators to monitor and intercept communications. It warns the Bill is impractical and places an onerous and expensive burden on the industry and clients. The Bill requires cellphone operators Vodacom, MTN and Cell C to put in place systems for the interception of cellphone communications, and to keep detailed information of all their clients, as well as phones and SIM cards, says a report on The Citizen site. Companies could face fines of R100 000 a day for non-compliance. But Vodacom CE Alan Knott-Craig said although Vodacom was willing to bear this cost if the law required it, it was practically impossible to obtain the names, addresses and ID numbers of all prepaid customers and to verify this information. There were about 20 million South Africans using pre-paid cellphones, most of whom worked in the informal sector and lived in far-flung rural areas, said Knott-Craig.
Full report on The Citizen site
The Bill

The outcome might be that 20 million prepaid users are barred from networks, noted Knott-Craig in a Business Day report. "Most of those don't have the luxury of living in homes with addresses that made any sense, or they're employed in the informal sector," he is quoted as saying. "Getting that information is a task that would be difficult for a government, never mind a company," he said.
Full Business Day report

The Bill will impose fines of R100 000 for each day cellphone service providers fail to obtain and keep information on their clients, according to State law adviser Ina Botha. In turn, says a report on the News24 site, customers who sold or gave away their cellphones or SIM cards could be imprisoned for up to 12 months for failing to obtain and relay the recipient's personal information to a service provider. The information obtained in this fashion would be stored on a central electronic database, making it easier for law enforcement agencies to trace all previous owners of a phone or SIM card.
Full report on News24 site

Zimbabwe has also unveiled its proposed law to give it the authority to monitor phone calls and mail – including e-mail – to protect national security and fight crime. Rights groups said the Bill, proposed in a Government Gazette on Saturday, was part of a crackdown to stifle criticism over a severe economic crisis many blame on the policies of President Robert Mugabe. The Interception of Communications Bill would give the Communications Minister authority to monitor the phone calls and mail of anyone suspected of threatening national security or involvement in criminal activities in the country, says a report on the News24 site. The government said the proposed Bill is similar to laws in other countries and will be put in place to fight international crime and terrorism.
Full report on the News24 site

*Original source

SA running out of options over Zimbabwe crisis

2006-05-28T00:14:00.000-07:00

Carole Landry | Johannesburg, South Africa
28 May 2006 08:04

South Africa is running out of ideas on how to pull Zimbabwe out of its crisis, turning to the United Nations to take the lead after a series of failures in tackling its biggest foreign policy headache.

President Thabo Mbeki is now pinning his hopes on outgoing UN Secretary General Kofi Annan to resolve the Zimbabwean imbroglio, although Harare has rejected UN intervention.

"This reflects the growing frustration of President Mbeki in trying to address the crisis in Zimbabwe," said analyst Chris Maroleng of the Pretoria-based Institute for Security Studies.

"It is a very opportune time for President Mbeki to try to hand over the reins to somebody else, given that there has been little progress with South African-led initiatives."

Mbeki seized upon his visit last week to London to disclose in a Financial Times interview that Annan would be visiting Harare in July or August to inject new impetus into efforts to help Zimbabwe.

"We all await the outcome of the intervention of the secretary general of the UN with regard to Zimbabwe," Mbeki said.

But President Robert Mugabe's spokesperson George Charamba flatly declared that "Zimbabwe is not a UN issue" and that an invitation to Annan to visit following last year's slum demolitions campaign was no longer valid.

A similar attempt last year by the African Union to enlist former Mozambican leader Joaquim Chissano as an outside mediator was also rejected out-of-hand by Mugabe, who has ruled Zimbabwe since independence from Britain 26 years ago.

South African attempts to mediate talks between Mugabe and the opposition have broken down, partly due to squabbling within the Movement for Democratic Change party which split into two factions earlier this year.

Mbeki's government late last year offered a $500-million loan to Zimbabwe on condition that Mugabe take steps to ensure economic recovery and political stability.

Harare refused to take the money and Mugabe instead announced plans to take a majority ownership stake in mines, including platinum ones partly owned by South African giant Implats, the world's second-largest producer.

Overall, South Africa has watched helplessly as Zimbabwe has descended into political and economic disarray.

Three elections since 2000 have been deemed undemocratic by Western governments which have slapped a travel ban on Mugabe and his inner circle and branded the regime as a pariah.

A seven-year economic recession has sent living standards in a freefall, with about 70% of Zimbabweans unemployed as inflation crossed the 1 000% threshold earlier this month.

About two million Zimbabweans, according to unofficial estimates, have crossed the border into South Africa in search of means to survive.

South Africa's failure to halt Zimbabwe's descent into hardship should serve as a message to Zimbabweans that they must seek their own home-grown solutions to the country's problems, said Sehlare Makgetlaneng, of the Africa Institute of South Africa.

"The resolution of Zimbabwe's problems is the task of the people of Zimbabwe. The opposition and civil society should not expect much from outside players," said Makgetlaneng.

The opposition has called for mass protests in June or July, blaming Mugabe for the country's economic meltdown that has resulted in severe shortages of basic goods such as maize, sugar and fuel.

Pretoria-based analysts see mounting pressure within the ruling Zanu-PF party for a leadership change that would pave the way for Zimbabwe to break out of isolation.

"There is a need for Mugabe to be replaced. There is no doubt about this," said Makgetlaneng.

"There is no quick fix," said Maroleng about prospects for a solution.

"This is going to be a long drawn-out process that will go into the next term of the South African presidency." - Sapa-AFP

Original source

Sky news on Farm murders

2006-05-24T13:19:00.000-07:00

You might have noticed a bit of a hiatus in our blogging activities. That's because we have been monitoring recent developments and are awaiting further developments before we deliver our comments on those. Meanwhile, a bit of good news for our regular readers:

Sky news recently reported on the Farm Murders ("Plaasmoorde") in South Africa. It seems that the world media are at long last opening their eyes to what is already "old news" to readers of this blog. A video-clip can be found here.

The gory regime of the ANC

2006-04-25T02:42:00.000-07:00

South Africa again made the headlines these past few days. Once again, a spate of brutal murders plagued the country. Areas that were previously considered to be "safer-spots" in South Africa suffered the most horrendous acts of vile barbarism.

Once again, people had to identify the mutilated bodies of friends and family. Again, people had to stand beside an open grave. Again, they had to return home to the photo's, smells and memories of a murdered loved one... crying themselves to sleep and waking up to the recurring nightmare that is called "the New South Africa".

White South Africans are especially despondent about the situation. Unfortunately, there is little or no evidence to support any hope that the violence might subside.

The ANC, that controls the country with an almighty two-thirds majority vote, is either too incompetent to deal with the problem or they are intentionally ignoring it, thus allowing it to continue.

One third of the South African voters-roll did not vote for the ANC and another portion did not bother to cast their vote (mostly because they believed that it would prove to be futile). The Afrikaners, a minority group who falls mostly under the latter category, are claiming a nation state where they can enjoy the freedom of an autonomous government and their own judicial system.

Why is it that the ANC ignores these people's claims, despite the fact that they are legitimate under both UN regulations and the South African constitution? Why is the ANC forcing these people to live under their rule, under such horrific conditions?

By doing this, they are undeniably oppressing the Afrikaners. Furthermore, they are effectively executing a gradual and systematic genocide by forcing Afrikaners to immigrate or to accept the ANC's rule and stay in South Africa, in which case they stand a good chance of being murdered.

'Does any grievance now justify any violence?'

2006-04-21T05:28:00.000-07:00

Cape Town, South Africa
21 April 2006 01:30
Democratic Alliance leader Tony Leon has castigated the government for refusing to acknowledge the reality of crime and not doing enough to address the issue.

President Thabo Mbeki and senior leaders of the African National Congress do not understand because they are almost completely insulated from crime, he said in his weekly newsletter on the DA website on Friday.

Leon cited a litany of recent murders, including that of actor Brett Goldin and his friend Richard Bloom in Cape Town last weekend. "This terrible crime has sent a shudder throughout South Africa and around the world.

"The awful reality is that Brett and Richard are not alone among the recent victims of South Africa's crime wave," he said.

Other incidents include several people murdered in recent days in a gang war in Cape Town, last month's murder of the four-year-old granddaughter of Transvaal Judge President Bernard Ngoepe, the murder of renowned South African Broadcasting Corporation producer Ken Kirsten, and three workers at a laundry in Vereeniging who were murdered in January and their bodies stuffed into a washing machine.

"Last week in KwaZulu-Natal, an elderly couple was attacked on their farm by a group of armed thugs who burnt the 82-year-old farmer's feet so badly with scalding water that his soles came off.

"What kind of society has ours become? Does any grievance now justify any violence?

"And where is the outrage and the concern of the government at this moment of crisis for our communities and our people?" Leon asked.

He accused Mbeki of attacking those who speak openly about crime.

Instead of railing against racists -- real and imagined -- Mbeki and the rest of Cabinet should spend less time roaming the world and a little more time tending the fences at home, which have been breached by the army of violent criminals performing acts of gratuitous violence almost at will.

"There is no doubt that global issues such as peace in Israel/Palestine and the reform of the United Nations are important.

"But ask the average South African whether he would prefer the president to concentrate his time on those issues, or to secure his neighbourhood or township from the scourge of criminality, and for his wife and daughter to be free from the fear of rape -- and the answer is, as they say, a no-brainer.

"But the president and the senior leaders of the ANC do not understand, because they are almost completely insulated from crime. They surround themselves with bodyguards and VIP protection officers.

"President Mbeki himself has more protection officers, and travels with more security vehicles, than any president in our country's history.

"The big men and women of government live in a safe and luxurious bubble and have no idea what ordinary South Africans go through every day," Leon said.

Minister in the Presidency Essop Pahad even dismissed crime as nothing more than "an ever-handy swart gevaar tactic".

"Perhaps he should visit victims of crime -- white and black -- and repeat that comment to them."

The reality is that crime haunts black communities just as much as, if not more than, other communities.

The ANC boasts of statistics that indicate a steady decline in murder and some other categories of crimes.

"But government refuses to acknowledge the reality beyond the numbers, the fear that stalks our streets and homes, the danger that those of us who must live without VIP protection must face."

Leon said even reinstating the death penalty for particularly heinous crimes would not be enough. "It is almost useless to talk about sentencing when less than 10% of violent crimes result in a conviction.

"More than the death penalty, what South Africa desperately needs is bold leadership in the fight against crime.

"But the president and the ANC have responded with evasion and indifference. How many more must die before they take notice, and act?" he said. -- Sapa

New discussion forum

2006-04-11T15:48:00.000-07:00

We have once again created a discussion forum. Air your views here! Feel free to e-mail us with your comments or criticism.

Zimbabweans have 'shortest lives'

2006-04-08T08:39:00.000-07:00

Life in Zimbabwe is shorter than anywhere else in the world, with neither men nor women expected to live until 40, a new UN report says.

Zimbabwe's women have an average life expectancy of 34 years and men on average do not live past 37, it said.

The World Health Organisation report said women's life expectancy had fallen by two years in the last 12 months.

Correspondents say poverty because of the crumbling economy and deaths from Aids are responsible for the decline.

Zimbabwean women have the lowest life expectancy of women anywhere in the world, according to the report.

Women in the country are also more likely than men to be infected by the HIV virus.
'Economic meltdown'

According to the report, all 10 countries with the world's lowest life expectancy were in Africa.

People in Swaziland and Sierra Leone are also expected to die before they reach the age of 40, the report said.

Japan was said to have the highest life expectancy in the world, with people there living on average until 82.

According to the BBC's Africa editor, David Bamford, the latest figures are extraordinary for a country like Zimbabwe, which until 20 years ago, had a relatively high standard of living for Africa.

The HIV/Aids epidemic sweeping across southern Africa cannot alone be blamed for this - especially as recent figures show a slight drop in HIV infection rates in Zimbabwe.

Our correspondent says the key reason behind the drop in Zimbabwe's average life expectancy is the fall in the standard of living, triggered by an economic crisis.

Zimbabwe's economy has shrunk by an estimated 40% in the last seven years under President Robert Mugabe. Story from BBC NEWS: http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/africa/4890508.stm Published: 2006/04/08 10:35:56 GMT © BBC MMVI

Africa's Killing Fields

2006-04-05T03:52:00.000-07:00

The British magazine, "The Sunday Times", shocked the British public this Sunday when it published an excellent article entitled "Farms of Fear". The magazine's frontpage featured a full-sized photo of an Afrikaner family of farmers, along with their personal security guard. The photo is accompanied by a big, bold heading which reads: "AFRICA'S KILLING FIELDS".

The article will significantly contribute towards raising awareness among the British population of the Farm-murder dilemma. The author, Brian Moynahan, definately did an outstanding job. We look forward to any follow-up articles that his pen might produce, since there is a lot more that needs to be told.

Read the article here
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2099-2100080,00.html

SA bars Aids group from UN talks

2006-04-03T05:09:00.000-07:00

South African HIV campaign group Treatment Action Campaign says the health minister has excluded it from a United Nations discussion on HIV/Aids.

The UN's envoy on Aids in Africa has expressed support for the TAC.

South Africa is thought to have between 5m and 6m of people living with HIV - the highest in the world - representing over 12% of the population.

The TAC has often clashed with Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang over her approach to Aids.

Health ministry spokesmen were not immediately available for comment.

"TAC and the Aids Law Project [at the University of the Witwatersrand] have learnt that we have been excluded from accreditation by the United Nations General Assembly Special Session on Aids (UNGASS)," a TAC statement said.

TAC enjoys credibility with everyone - apart from the South African government
Stephen Lewis, UN special envoy
"We suspect that this occurred because the South African government objected to our participation."

The statement said TAC and ALP had been on a list of organisations submitted by UNAids - the UN agency dealing with HIV/Aids - for participation in the general assembly session.

National governments have a right of veto over this list.

"We suspect that TAC and the ALP were excluded by the South African government," the TAC said.

TAC spokesman Mark Heywood later told the South African Press Association the minister herself was responsible for the ban, since other senior officials he had spoken to had no knowledge of the decision.

'Outrageous'

UN special envoy on HIV/Aids in Africa Stephen Lewis said it was "absolutely outrageous" that the TAC had been excluded from the global gathering.

"The TAC is the single most credible non-governmental Aids organisation in the world," he said.

"It carries enormous credibility with NGOs and governments and enjoys credibility with everyone - apart from the South African government."

The TAC has led the campaign for South African government clinics to provide free anti-retroviral drugs, which help people with HIV to live healthy lives.

Under such pressure, the government began supplying ARV drugs at some clinics in 2004, but deep differences remain between the TAC and the government, principally over the health ministry's support for vitamin supplements as a means of treating HIV.

Mrs Tshabalala-Msimang has suggested that those with HIV should eat more beetroot and garlic.

Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/africa/4872296.stm

Published: 2006/04/03 11:35:49 GMT

© BBC MMVI

Are communists running the country?

2006-03-25T14:11:00.000-08:00

A summary on communism's influence on the Republic of South Africa's current government.

Click here to download the first draft in PDF format.

And the Oscar goes to...

2006-03-09T10:32:00.000-08:00

Zuma trial: More sordid details
09/03/2006 11:59 - (SA)

Johannesburg - An ANC court docked six months pay off two men who had sex with Jacob Zuma's rape accuser - not because the court found she had been raped, but because she was a child.

The Johannesburg High Court heard on Thursday that one of the men to this day denies he had sex with her when she was in her early teens and feels he was dealt "rough justice".

These details emerged from a draft of an autobiography that the defence handed in as evidence, to the shock of the woman, at the start of the trial.

The woman insists that they had sex with her without her consent but the court heard that the ANC court, conducted in exile, said that she had agreed to sex.

Both men were members of the exile community at the time and were in their 20s and 30s.

One of the men, who'd been living in her parent's house, said her mother had "given her to him", by allowing her to walk around the house improperly dressed.

'Even if I was a prostitute he wouldn't have the right'

The woman also said that the man's girlfriend had beaten her and that he hadn't intervened. At one stage he stood at the door and said "that's enough".

The woman, who alleges Zuma raped her on November 2 last year, said her mother was devastated to hear that the man (living in her house) had had sex with her and would never have allowed it.

"I very clearly remember my mother saying he has no right to do it and that even if I was a prostitute he would not have the right."

The ANC court was established after the women close to her got to hear that the man had forced himself on her.

When 16 pages of the autobiography were produced on Thursday, the court fell dead silent, with only the turning of pages in reporter's notebooks audible.

The few people present for the in camera hearing leant forward to catch every word.

The case continues.

Source: News24

*How did Zuma's defence get a hold of this 'evidence'? Surely it didn't just appear out of the blue!

What is that other word for 'autobiography' again? Oh! Right! 'Diary'. Regardless of whether this is the case, one feels that Zuma should get a standing ovation at the next Oscar's for his current production, entitled "Trial by Media". Wait a minute... that's the tag to his other trial... the corrupt armsdeal scandal!

A stroke of genius!

2006-03-07T01:22:00.000-08:00

Click on the image to read this unique take on hijackings in South Africa...

SA Heritage council spends R4.5m on trip to Ghana

2006-03-04T09:15:00.000-08:00

An emissary of South Africa's National Heritage Council recently spent R4.5 000 000 on a luxurious trip to Ghana. The emissary, which consisted only of a small group of officials, flew business class and also stayed in a five star hotel.

The apparent cause for this trip was to study Ghana's "cultural policy". The study produced a whopping half-page report.

This trip follows closely on the heels of a recent political scandal in which South Africa's deputy-president, Phumzile Mlambo Ngcuka, spent more than R750 000 state money on a glamorous trip for her-and-her-family to Dubai.

*A big "thank you" to the reader who e-mailed this to us. Apparently this is a shortened translation of an article that appeared today on the PRAAG website.

Zimbabwe 'running out of wheat'

2006-03-04T09:10:00.000-08:00

Zimbabwe has only two weeks of wheat supply left, while citizens are faced with soaring bread prices, Zimbabwe's main milling organisation has said.

The cost of bread has risen by 30%, pushing Zimbabwe's inflation rate to more than 600%.

Zimbabwe has been in economic decline since President Robert Mugabe began seizing white-owned farms in 2000.

The government is reported to have put its security forces on alert in the rising discontent leads to protests.

David Govere, deputy chairman of the Millers Association, told AFP news agency the scarcity of wheat has meant a reduction in supplies to bakeries.

"Due to depleted stocks, GMB [state-run food distributor Grain Marketing Board] is now giving us 400 tons of wheat a week, down from 600 tons," he is quoted as saying.

Shortages of wheat could force bakers to import flour from South Africa, which could lead to more price rises.

A loaf of bread in Zimbabwe currently costs $66,000 Zimbabwean (66 US cents), having risen 30% in just one week.

President Mugabe denies that his land reform programme has contributed to the crisis, blaming the effects of drought instead.

Zimbabwe's opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) says the situation is becoming unbearable.

"It's terrible right now because of shortages," Arthur Mutambara, leader of one of two factions of the MDC.

"Fuel is not available, commodities are unaffordable, unemployment 80%, inflation above 600%.

"It's a travesty of justice that the country has been so run down by Robert Mugabe's regime."

Food aid

Zimbabwe's leading millers - National Foods, Blue Ribbon and Victoria Foods - have shut production at most of their mills because of the wheat shortage, according to AFP.

International aid agencies say about 4.3m out of Zimbabwe's 13m people will require food aid until the next harvest in May.

The country has suffered increasing food shortages, rising unemployment and runaway inflation since the government began redistributing seized white-owned farms six years ago.

Economists say the rate of inflation could reach 1,000% by April.
Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/africa/4773876.stm

Published: 2006/03/04 12:51:41 GMT

© BBC MMVI

"Failed states" fail because of too much government power

2006-03-01T15:06:00.000-08:00

Alvaro Vargas Llosa

(Not too little as contended by Foreign Policy and the Fund for Peace)

A recently published index by Foreign Policy and the Fund for Peace ranks countries that are considered "failed states." These areas pose a serious threat to world security, say the researchers, because of an absence of state power. But this view is false, says Alvaro Vargas Llosa of the Centre on Global Prosperity. He contends that it is precisely the presence of centralised power and the lack of individual-based rights that creates insecurity in these countries.

Consider:

# The Ivory Coast tops the index, but its problems are not due to a lack of centralised power; indeed, the centralisation of the state has created various factions vying for control.

# The Democratic Republic of Congo, which ranks second, was a highly-centralised dictatorship for three decades under Mobuto; in 1997, his replacement, Kabila, still retains a centralised power structure.

# Rwanda and Burundi, which rank 12th and 17th respectively, are other examples of stratification caused by too much state power; after the Hutus gained independence in Rwanda, they used government power to oppress the Tutsis, who eventually came to power and forced the Hutus to flee to the Congo.
# Venezuela, which ranks 21st, is another example of too much state power; the government owns the oil, which accounts for 85 per cent of the country's exports.

Also among the "failed states" is Peru, where excessive government regulation and taxation have created a black market that comprises about 70 per cent of the economy.

Foreign Policy correctly warns, "2 billion people live in insecure states." However, it is too much government, not too little, that accounts for such instability.

Source: Alvaro Vargas Llosa, The Failure of States, The Independent Institute, September 8, 2005.

For text: http://www.independent.org/newsroom/article.asp?id=1564

For Failed States Index: http://www.foreignpolicy.com/story/cms.php?story_id=3100

For more on International: Culture and Political Systems: http://www.ncpa.org/iss/int/

FMF Policy Bulletin/ 20 September 2005

http://www.freemarketfoundation.com

*The ANC in South Africa enjoys a two-third majority vote, which gives them absolute power.

DA renews call for arms-deal inquiry

2006-02-28T00:04:00.000-08:00

Cape Town, South Africa
27 February 2006 03:16
The Democratic Alliance has renewed its call on President Thabo Mbeki to appoint a judicial commission of inquiry into certain aspects of the arms deal.

DA public accounts spokesperson Eddie Trent said on Monday he has again written to Mbeki "in an attempt to jog his memory" of an alleged meeting he had with French arms company Thomson-CSF senior executives in Paris in 1998 when he was deputy president.

Trent said he wrote the letter in view of Mbeki's statement in an interview with the Sunday Independent newspaper that he "honestly cannot recall" whether he met the senior executives during a highly sensitive stage of the arms-procurement process.

"I have also sent him the contents of two encrypted faxes which appear to confirm that such a meeting did in fact take place, in a complete violation of normally accepted tender procedures."

In his letter to Mbeki, Trent said the first of these faxes was from Pierre Moynot to M Denis and B de Bollardiere, all Thomson-CSF employees.

In this fax, dated November 28 1997, reference was made to the "person responsible for the shortlist".

The fax also referred to the fact that this person "repeated that he had obtained the assurance from the deputy president that we would be awarded the combat system and sensors".

The second fax was from B de Bollardiere (senior vice-president of Thomson-CSF) to the then South African ambassador to France, Barbara Masekela.

In this fax, De Bollardiere thanked Masekela for arranging a meeting between the "deputy president of your government, Mr Thabo Mbeki, with Messrs Jean-Paul Perrier, Michel Denis, and myself".

Trent asked Mbeki to clarify whether any assurance was given to Thomson-CSF that it would be awarded the corvette combat suite contract, and whether a meeting of the nature referred to in the second fax did in fact take place.

"If indeed the contents of these documents are either false or misleading, it would appear to be in the national interest that they should be publicly disputed," he wrote.

"Despite the government's protestations to the contrary, there are still a number of outstanding questions relating to the arms deal.

"I would therefore like to repeat my call for you to establish a judicial commission of inquiry to investigate firstly the outstanding issues surrounding executive interference in the drafting of the auditor general's arms deal report, and secondly the information contained in the faxes referred to above," Trent wrote. -- Sapa

Source: Mail & Guardian

'We always vote but our lives don't improve'

2006-02-28T00:01:00.000-08:00

Durban, South Africa
28 February 2006 07:38
The rural community of Ndwedwe, north of Durban, has no electricity, running water and tarred roads, says an area headman.

"We were promised development a long time ago. Government officials always come and address us with the chief, especially during the elections, but nothing happens," Shangase headman Phenyamadoda Mchunu says while waiting on a dusty road to catch a taxi.

"We wash ourselves in the [Mdloti] river. The women also wash their clothes in the river. The water is dirty; it's easy to get sick."

The community, which mainly lives in mud rondavels, often enquires about the slow pace of delivery, but they are told there is no money.

"[Minister of Finance] Trevor Manuel has just presented his Budget. We know money has been made available by the government, but it does not reach us. The question is what happens to it."

Mchunu says he sees no point in voting in the local government elections on Wednesday.

"Tell me one reason why I should vote. We always vote but our lives don't improve," he says, wiping his brow in the early-morning heat.

Unlike Mchunu, other community members say they will not forfeit their vote.

Sikhathi Makhanya, of Thafamasi, says: "I am going to vote so that the people I elect can hear my grievances. That is the right we fought for."

Makhanya says many feel the area is being neglected by the municipality and its councillors.

"Our councillor is too lazy to visit us and hear our needs. All she does is drive around to council meetings.

"She gets money for nothing," he says to the laughter of a small group of men sitting around him on wooden benches.

There are many elderly who qualify for government grants but do not receive them.

"Social department officials have never visited our old people who are unable to walk long distances to the public offices. Their families are starving because the government has neglected them."

A few hundred metres from Makhanya's home lives another Makhanya family.

Albert Makhanya and his wife are both unemployed and live with their three children. If lucky, they earn R10 a day from selling peanuts and crisps.

"We were promised proper houses by the government since 2002. We have registered about three times to get a house.

"When [Nelson] Mandela was president, he was asked by a listener on Ukhozi FM what happened to all the promises. He answered sometimes you have to lie in order to get a woman."

However, Albert says he will cast his ballot in the hope that it will bring him a brighter future. -- Sapa

Source: http://www.mg.co.za/

Turning the financial screw on the Afrikaner

2006-02-21T02:37:00.000-08:00

Johan van Vlaams, MajorityRights.com, Original article

I have just read an article about SA Nedbank’s new discount share scheme that only targets black South Africans.

Black South African citizens are defined by the SA Financial Sector Charter as Africans, Indians and coloureds. This condition is in all Nedbank’s ads for the Eyethu Investment Scheme. Questions about how, in case of doubt, the bank will determine which would-be clients are undesirably white stay unanswered. The question is not theoretical. Many coloureds have a light skin (in Afrikaans). Any that receive a white classification, however, will find that they aren’t even allowed to invest their money in a favourable way. It is racism and reminiscent of the yellow stars in Nazi Germany, with the difference that whites don’t need a star to be recognised in South Africa.

The scheme also reminds us, if we needed reminding, that the ANC’s policies such as Black Economic Empowerment (BEE) and Affirmative Action (AA) are Marxist by nature. The idea is to transfer wealth from white to black rather than generate new wealth to empower black South Africans. Whites who still have a job pay double the taxes of blacks at same the income level. The ANC, meanwhile, demands that 85% of all jobs go to blacks - not as an average for the whole country but even in those regions with a white majority. In many job ads one reads “BEE only”. South African companies argue that it is the South African ANC government that forces them into this. But nothing can diminish their moral complicity in the new racism against whites.

The South African People’s (race) Registration Law, dating from the apartheid era, is officially abolished, of course. But it is in widespread use all the same and applies, for example, to education. The result of such universal discrimination is economically devastating not only for the whites but, since white productivity is strangled, for South Africa as a whole.

Over and above all this economic warfare against the Afrikaner, is a determined culture war. The ANC is intensely anti-Afrikaans, although somewhat hilariously it dares to claim the opposite, even ”wishing the Afrikaners much success” on the recent anniversary (in Afrikaans) of the founding of their own language in 1875. But that’s just typical ANC window-dressing.

Afrikaner Buks van Rensburg has written an interesting essay (in English) about this cultural genocide, and about the Judenräte mentality (called Afrikaner decadence) of much of the Afrikaner intellectuals. There only is one aspect on which I disagree with Mr van Rensburg. Those Afrikaners who have decided to fully Anglicise have in fact already made their choice - they are just waiting for the right moment to join the white emigration, and to leave South Africa for ever.

So what, besides simple racial revenge, is the cause of such malignity towards Afrikaners?

The Afrikaners are, in fact, the only possible source of white resistance against the ANC’s economic plundering … and, therefore, the Afrikaners must suffer the complete undermining of their institutions, from primary and secondary schools to universities and businesses. I don’t know if any MR readers will remember the Volkskas, the bank built from the pennies brought to school by impoverished Afrikaner kids in the 1920’s and 30’s. Now it is defunct. Afrikaner farmers must submit themselves to the discriminatory practices of the Land Bank and the other government-related institutions mandated to “assist” farmers. They are assistance towards ruin, of course - and worse - by land reform and invasions apparently driven by the agendas of foreign NGO’s as much by ANC warlords.

So no one should be surprised if the mainstream Afrikaner view is that white apartheid has simply been replaced by black racism. How do you expect people to think when they have been deceived into a world where not merit but only the colour of your skin matters (in Afrikaans).

At worst deception, at best window-dressing is a seminal feature of South African economic and political life. A good deal of it no doubt serves the purpose of self-deception as far as the ANC is concerned. But the really critical component is deceiving the rest of the financial and political world. The Reserve Bank (SARB), for example, silences criticism with wonderfully rosy statements about macro-economic stability and strong growth. However, you might find this article by Mandla Maleka more trustworthy. Mandla was, by the way, named by Reuters among the top ten SA economists in 2002 and 2004, and was director at the SA National Treasury etc, etc.

They can’t both be right. Oh yes, South Africa is reported to have been upgraded by three rating agencies on the back of strong growth and a disciplined approach to economic thinking. But it is growth based on greed, and the discipline is a phantom. Whites are squeezed on every front and blacks just can’t be got to save - despite the highest real interest yields in the world.

The light will finally go out in South Africa the day the world community realises this … if it is not also bent on self-deception. For example, you can read an expert analysis of South Africa’s Jekyll and Hyde economy here. But … why does Reuters contrive to overlook black racism when it is so manifestly the key to understanding what’s going on?

DA questions cost of SA's support for Iran

2006-01-30T07:15:00.000-08:00

Cape Town, South Africa
30 January 2006 03:49

South African support for Iran -- and Iran's opposition to a plan to have it referred to the United Nations Security Council over its nuclear programme -- is a decision that will not come "without a significant cost", says opposition Democratic Alliance chief whip Douglas Gibson.

The DA MP said in a statement on Monday: "There is a very real possibility that by supporting Iran, that the government now runs the risk of alienating a significant section of world opinion and precisely those countries which are our biggest trading partners."

It was reported in national South African newspapers on Monday that Iran's Foreign Minister, Manouchehr Mottaki, made a surprise visit to South Africa where he appeared to win guarded South African support -- together with Cuban and Malaysian support -- to oppose Western plans to refer Iran to the Security Council about its nuclear programme.

South Africa, Cuba and Malaysia's foreign ministers were at Hermanus at the weekend to discuss an upcoming Non-Aligned Movement summit.

Gibson said: "It appears that President [Thabo] Mbeki has decided that supporting Iran is worth the cost of alienating some of South Africa's most important strategic allies, such as Germany, France, Britain, the United States and the European Union itself."

German Chancellor Angela Merkel has adopted "a very determined stance" against nuclear proliferation generally, and Iranian nuclear ambitions specifically. She has accused Iran of having crossed a "red line".

Gibson said further: "Without the support of these vitally important countries, there is little chance that South Africa will be able to achieve the level of economic growth that is critical to roll back unemployment.

"The reality is that those states most directly affected by Iran's nuclear programme, including Saudi Arabia, Israel and the United States, are firmly opposed to an Iranian nuclear capacity for the simple reason that it directly affects their national security.

"In recent times, Iran has done little to indicate to the world that it is a responsible actor in world affairs, as its belligerent attitude to Israel's existence has so clearly illustrated.

"Therefore, the excuse given by the South African government and Iran's other allies that everybody is entitled to a nuclear programme under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty for peaceful purposes does not hold much water.

"In the midst of this complex geopolitical context, South Africa has to tread carefully. South Africa would be much better served to move beyond its policy of accommodation with Tehran, no matter its actions and join the broader global community in sending a message to Iran that it cannot embark on provocative actions such as unilaterally removing the seals on its facilities for enriching uranium and expect to get away with it.

"Bitter historical experience has shown that the government has made a habit of choosing to support the pariahs of the world, including Sudan, Libya and Zimbabwe.

"It is therefore high time that we learned from past mistakes and used our considerable moral authority on the question of nuclear disarmament for the greater good of international peace and stability, rather than simply protecting at any cost an increasingly dangerous actor on the international stage," Gibson stated. -- I-Net Bridge

The Threat From South Africa

2006-01-28T15:04:00.000-08:00

By Cliff Kincaid | March 16, 2005

President Bush has issued a statement on "Ten Years of Democracy in South Africa," conveniently ignoring the fact that South African President Thabo Mbeki is a Marxist who has surrounded himself with followers of radical Islam. The other curious omission is that while the president complimented "South Africa's commitment to progress at home and around the world," evidence is emerging that South Africa has played a role in nuclear weapons proliferation, including to Iran. The evidence is contained in a hot new book, Iran's Nuclear Option: Tehran's Quest for the Atom Bomb, by journalist Al Venter.

Some people forget that the white government of South Africa produced 6 atomic bombs. Those were reportedly destroyed when a black majority government took over. But remnants of South Africa's nuclear program remained. The white government had cooperated with Israel but that cooperation was terminated after Nelson Mandela was elected president of South Africa. That's apparently when the Iranian mullahs stepped in.

Venter, an international correspondent for nearly 30 years, was presented with an ethical dilemma in 1997 when he met with Dr. Waldo Stumpf, head of South Africa's nuclear program. He says Stumph told him a story-off the record-about the atomic energy minister for Iran arriving with a shopping list of nuclear materials for a nuclear bomb. At the time, Venter was working for the Jane's Information Group. He was shocked by the story of Iran's search for a nuclear bomb but was constrained in telling it because it had been given to him off the record. He considered it a story that could change the course of history. "The world has a right to know," he concluded.

After consulting with his editor, who said it was a matter of conscience, Venter went public with an article in Jane's International Defense Review, causing an international sensation. Newspapers in France and Britain picked up the story and Venter was denounced in South Africa. Another journalist confirmed the story, but Nelson Mandela, then South African president, assured the Clinton Administration that no such meeting had taken place. On December 4, 1997, then-State Department spokesman James Rubin accepted the South African explanation and expressed "high confidence" in South Africa's commitment to nuclear non-proliferation. Venter says that if his story had been taken more seriously back then, in 1997, the problems we are facing in Iran today might have been avoided. But the Clinton Administration was determined to give South Africa a pass. And it looks like the Bush Administration is continuing the same policy, even while raising the alarm about the Iranian nuclear program.

Venter says that South Africa under Mandela and now Mbeki is actively assisting the Iranian nuclear program. His book contains examples of such cooperation, such as assistance to Iran by South African scientists and arms companies. And he says that Mbeki, like Mandela, has surrounded himself with followers of radical Islam who see the U.S. as the main enemy.

The Washington Post and New York Times have recently run stories about an Iranian nuclear connection to Pakistan's top nuclear expert, A. Q. Khan, dating back to 1987. As the Times indicated, however, Iran appears to have taken up only parts of the deal offered by the Khan network. It looks like Iran had another place to turn-South Africa.

http://www.aim.org/media_monitor/A2760_0_2_0_C/

Afrikaner nation's claim to an own state

2006-01-25T00:17:00.000-08:00

Here is an interesting chronology on the Afrikaner's claim to an own autonomous state:

http://www.praag.org/chronologie.afrikaner_nation.htm

The farce of "Reconciliation Day"

2006-01-19T15:29:00.000-08:00

- and the mounting pressure on South African whites

"I would not be surprised if eventually we all have to line up and have our ID books stamped, or something, to prove that we attended a "Reconciliation Day' ceremony."

___________________________________________________________

Shaun Willcock

December 16 is "Reconciliation Day" in South Africa. It is a public holiday. In the "good old days", before South Africa was taken over by Nelson Mandela's racist, Communist-controlled African National Congress (ANC) and driven into the ground, when the country was still well-governed by conservative Afrikaners, December 16 was known as "The Day of the Vow". It was a day held sacred in the hearts of Afrikaners, for way back in December 1838, as the pioneering Voortrekkers faced what looked like probable extinction at the hands of the mighty Zulu army, they took a vow that if God would grant them victory, they would for ever afterwards keep the day of the victory sacred, as a day of thanksgiving for their deliverance.

And sure enough, on December 16, although vastly outnumbered by Zulu warriors, those hardy Afrikaners were mightily victorious at what became known as the Battle of Blood River: a defining moment in South Africa's turbulent history. When the Zulus finally fled, some 3000 lay dead, but not one Trekker had been killed. The Scriptures do not support their contention that future generations of Afrikaners were bound before God to keep the day sacred, although it is certainly very true that God did indeed give them victory that day, not because they were God's special people but because He in His sovereignty had purposed for them to be victorious, and to go on to eventually govern this mighty country.

However, when the ANC came to power, they could not stomach the fact that the Afrikaners continued to commemorate the Battle of Blood River on December 16, the Day of the Vow: a commemoration of a great victory by vastly outnumbered white settlers over the most powerful black nation in Africa. And so the ANC determined to do something about it. Their solution? To declare December 16 a public holiday to be called "Reconciliation Day", thereby claiming the day for all South Africans, and also rubbing the noses of the Afrikaners in the dirt, by very subtly declaring, as it were, "You are now expected, by your new masters, to accept that your own leaders, and the Afrikaner nation in general, oppressed the black people of this country, and you are now required to quit honouring your own heroes and your own history and your own victories, and instead you are now going to be forced to 'reconcile' with your black neighbours whom you so wronged."

For let there be no doubt about this: the ANC's so-called "Reconciliation Day" is nothing less than another opportunity for the ANC leaders to berate the Afrikaners, and whites in general, year after year; to accuse them of not doing enough for the blacks; of not being willing to "share their wealth" and to "embrace change" in SA; and to demand that they not only ignore their own history, but actually express sorrow for it in fact; and to accept the re-writing of history which the ANC is undertaking all the time, portraying the whites as the personification of evil and the blacks as the oppressed, suffering good guys. Bottom line: this whole concept of "reconciliation" is a lie, a farce, it isn't happening and as things stand now it can't truly happen, because the ANC is demanding reconciliation on its terms: "We blacks are all the innocent victims here; you whites are the bad guys; you must change, you must make amends for what your forefathers supposedly did, you must come to us on our terms, grovelling at our feet and humbly accepting whatever crumbs we deign to toss your way." And another reason why "reconciliation" is a farce, is because whites are being told to "reconcile" with Communist terrorists, people who conducted an armed revolution, who bombed and tortured and necklaced* people to get their way and come to power. Whites are expected to be "reconciled" with these unrepentant thugs!

Well, ever since the ANC's "Reconciliation Day" came into effect, many Afrikaners have ignored all this nonsense, and have quietly continued with their old "Day of the Vow" celebrations anyway. And this makes the ANC powers-that-be spitting mad. Every year, various top-ranking government ministers use the opportunity of "Reconciliation Day" to criticise and vilify the whites. As in Zimbabwe and every other African country after its "independence" from white rule, whites in SA have become the convenient scapegoats behind which the ANC seeks to hide its own ineptitude and incompetence, its utter inability to properly govern this country, and its own deep-seated racist prejudices.

This year, whites were treated to the vitriol of Essop Pahad, the Minister in the Presidency. He said that white South Africans who fail to attend national reconciliation celebrations or national holidays, represent an entrenchment of racist attitudes and prejudices. "Whenever we mark our national days," he said, "you will find that perhaps well in excess of 90% of people who attend these events are Africans. We have to address the question as to why significant sections of our population do not find it interesting, convenient or necessary enough to attend these functions... as part of the process of creating a non-racial South Africa" (The Witness, December 16, 2005).

It is easy enough to answer his speech (and we will overlook for now his reference to black South Africans as "Africans", the implication being that white South Africans are not Africans): 1) The reason why over 90% of those who attend the celebrations of SA's national days are black, is because probably at least 90% of the ANC is black, and because it is an organisation committed to black advancement, and because it is blatantly anti-white in its attitudes and its policies. Why on earth would whites attend such rallies, when they well know that the ANC uses those occasions to berate them, criticise them, belittle them, blame everything on them? Whites no longer feel that they have any place in SA, any future. They are pushed aside, attacked, hated, condemned, their history, culture, language, etc., are all crushed and derided, their wives and children raped, their husbands and grandfathers tortured and murdered. Plus, of course, large numbers of whites are still conservative and anti-Communist, and hold the ANC and its Communist masters in contempt. In a word, they have nothing to celebrate! 2) The reason why most white South Africans would not attend political rallies, etc., held on national days, even if they liked the ANC (and most whites will never like the ANC), is because there is a huge difference between blacks and whites in this regard. The heavily-politicised blacks actually appear to enjoy flocking to huge open-air rallies, and sitting for hours in the baking sun listening to lengthy speeches by their political leaders. The whites, on the other hand, have no tradition, no history of doing such a thing, not even when there was a white government! For them, a national holiday is a day for sitting quietly at home with their families, or going to the beach or a dam, to swim, fish, or just relax in the sun.

But the pressure is on. The ANC, like its Marxist buddies throughout the continent, could very well eventually reach the stage where attendance at their rallies will be compulsory. All over Africa, the masses have to sit through endless speeches by their political leaders, and woe betide them if they do not show up! It may come here too. I would not be surprised if eventually we all have to line up and have our ID books stamped, or something, to prove that we attended.

In his own speech on "Reconciliation Day", President Thabo Mbeki, addressing a crowd gathered at "Freedom Park" in Pretoria to mark the national day, said: "We need to confront what may be an uncomfortable question, whether as South Africans, black and white, we are under the same flag and under the same anthem marching separately - even pretending at times that the other does not exist" (Weekend Witness, December 17, 2005). The new flag we can live with - at least it is fairly non-political. The new anthem - for Christians at least - is a different matter, as it is the revolutionary anthem of the ANC and of various other terrorist organisations that came to power in southern Africa through the barrel of a gun. That, plus its pseudo-Christian lyrics, make it unacceptable to Christians in SA.

But yes indeed, we are marching separately. What, though, is the reason for this? It is the ANC government's own racist attitude towards white South Africans, doing all in its power to reduce them to second-class citizens in the land of their birth, and thus enforcing a new form of apartheid, where black South Africans enjoy all the privileges of citizenship, and white South Africans count for nothing. Mbeki went on: "We clearly need to ask ourselves whether we have done what we need to do to overcome the stereotypes that were entrenched over many years by racist policies of the past, or [whether] we still quietly pander to those stereotypes." Of course he was referring to whites.

It is always the whites who are expected to change, the whites who are the bad guys, the whites who are the racists. And by constantly harping on about these things, Mbeki and the ANC do a great job of hiding the fact that they, themselves, are the real racists. It is the ANC's own deeply racist policies that are driving white South Africans out of the country, and reducing those who remain to insignificance. It is the ANC's own prejudices and lies which cause blacks to stereotype all whites as racists.

Mbeki went on to add that South Africans must break down the racial walls that divide them, and then said that wealth distribution represents one such wall, and the rich became rich through the sweat and toil of others, many of whom remain poor. Mbeki in the past has defined "the rich" as white and "the poor" as black. In other words, then, what he was saying was that the wealthy white South Africans must redistribute their wealth to the poor black South Africans. This is classic Marxist economics, of course. "Wealth redistribution" means, in ANC doublespeak, taking what whites have earned and giving it to blacks. It has already begun, of course, with the farm expropriations. Note too how he conveniently overlooks the fact that today in SA, vast numbers of blacks have become obscenely wealthy - including himself.

The pressure is on. For over eleven years, since the ANC took power, whites have been increasingly and deliberately marginalised. The ANC has made it very clear that they are not welcome here, unless they toe the ANC line. The ANC, in line with Marxist organisations everywhere, believes that the entire country must be turned into one vast slave labour camp, where the entire population, zombie-like, follows every dictate of the leaders, believes every statement they make, accepts their version of history, never questions their utterances, and (in the case of the whites) like a dog that is kicked by its owner, comes grovelling back with the attitude of, "We are not worthy of your benign rule. We deserve to be ground underfoot, for we are such curs, and we have behaved so badly, and all we ask is to be allowed to sit whimpering at your feet, where we belong." This is their goal, and they are going all out to achieve it. For whites in South Africa, it's been an incredibly rocky ride, and it's going to get even rockier. Make no mistake about it.

10-Jan-2006 08:30

* For non-South African readers: the "necklace" was a method of execution used by the so-called "liberation movement" whereby mostly black town councillors seen as collaborators, those suspected of being traitors and so on, had a petrol-filled tyre placed around their necks which was then ignited. Approximately 400 people were burnt alive in this way.

Shaun Willcock is a minister of the Gospel, and lives in South Africa.

www.praag.org

The legacy of Nelson Mandela

2006-01-05T12:52:00.000-08:00

"I don’t differentiate between terrorism and war. I can’t see the difference between a stealth bomber and a suicide bomber. Both are prepared to take innocent lives for political purposes, and historically the way you deal with threats of violence is to get to the root of it. You can take many examples — for instance, Nelson Mandela in South Africa. Mrs Thatcher called him a terrorist, and indeed he was. I spoke in Trafalgar Square in 1964 at the time of the Rivonia trial, when he was imprisoned for violent campaigns against the apartheid regime. The next time I met him he had a Nobel Peace Prize and was President of South Africa." - Tony Ben

It is ironic that someone who is directly responsible for the deaths of several innocent civilians, someone who committed several acts of terrorism (and never denounced violence), who wrote a book on "How to be a good communist" and who are friends with several communist dictators (like Fidel Castro and Robert Mugabe) who are responsible for several human rights offences, should also happen to be the proud owner of the Nobel Peace Prize.

Here is why Disaster Africa does not share the world-media's petrarchan love of this self-proclaimed communist and terrorist:

'Madiba magic' pre-1994 (Rivonia and Churchstreet bombings):

'Madiba magic' post-1994 (Farm murders):

Sources:
http://home.wanadoo.nl/rhodesia/goodcom.html
http://secure.mediaresearch.org/news/mediawatch/1990/mw19900701stud.html
http://www.rense.com/general56/ssu.htm
http://www.africancrisis.org/default2.asp

Opposition hails AU report on Zimbabwe

2006-01-05T12:49:00.000-08:00

Cape Town, South Africa
04 January 2006 05:55

An African Union (AU) report condemning Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe's human rights record has been hailed by South Africa's official opposition Democratic Alliance (DA).

The report of the African Union's Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights -- meeting in Banjul, The Gambia -- has urged Mugabe to allow an AU delegation to go on a fact-finding mission to his country.

It also expressed concern at the continuing violations and the deteriorations of the human rights situation in Zimbabwe. It said there was a "growing culture of impunity".

The report referred to the violations of fundamental and collective rights resulting from forced evictions being carried out by the Zimbabwe government.

The commission found that Mugabe's government was responsible for violating the African Union charter -- which Zimbabwe had signed -- and the United Nations declaration of human rights.

In a statement on Wednesday, DA national chairperson Joe Seremane, a member of Parliament, said there was a growing consensus among the African community of nations "that human rights, accountability and good governance must be placed above the politics of tyranny".

Seremane noted that the report called for an end to internal displacements caused by government evictions, the repeal of several repressive laws and free access for international aid groups.

The DA said South African President Thabo Mbeki must take stock of these findings and adjust South Africa's strategy for dealing with Zimbabwe accordingly.

"We must use whatever diplomatic means are at our disposal, whether multilaterally through the AU and United Nations, or unilaterally, to pressure the Mugabe regime into ceasing its attacks on human rights and the rule of law. South Africa must unequivocally condemn the human rights abuses as well as the muzzling of the media and free political activity in Zimbabwe, even if only to affirm our own democratic values. If we fail to do so we will have failed the people of Zimbabwe, as well as ourselves," said Seremane. - I-Net Bridge

ANC 'has thrown away moral compass'

2006-01-05T12:44:00.000-08:00

Donwald Pressly | Cape Town, South Africa
05 January 2006 04:20

The decision to allow former deputy president Jacob Zuma to campaign for the ruling African National Congress in the upcoming local government poll is "deeply hypocritical", said the official opposition Democratic Alliance on Thursday.

It was reacting to a statement from ANC secretary general Kgalema Motlanthe, who said Zuma would be allowed to campaign as a member of the ANC.

Acting DA leader Joe Seremane said on Thursday that Motlanthe's statement "confirms once again that the governing party has thrown away its moral compass".

Also on Thursday -- at a press conference concerning this weekend's launch of the ANC's local government election campaign on Sunday -- ANC deputy secretary general Sankie Mthembi-Mahanyele said there was "no contradiction" between earlier statements about Zuma and "Comrade Jacob Zuma's participation in the local government election".

Although the position being taken about Zuma remains blurred, it is apparent that he can canvass and participate in campaigns -- but may not pronounce from a public podium.

Motlanthe was merely quoted as saying that Zuma would campaign under stringent conditions.

Meanwhile, Seremane said South African President Thabo Mbeki had stated previously that corruption in municipalities should be rooted out and had condemned the self-seeking spirit in the ANC.

"Given that Zuma is facing serious corruption charges, which have already cost him his position as deputy president [of South Africa], the decision to allow him to campaign is entirely hypocritical."

Motlanthe's announcement raises questions too about how seriously the ANC leadership regards the rape charge against Zuma and it casts doubt on the sincerity of the ruling movement's rhetoric on moral regeneration "and other such high-sounding posturing".

"Zuma's appearance on the campaign trail will only serve to remind voters of the moral decay that runs through the ANC, from its senior ranks down to its mayors and councillors. It will also promote a culture of tolerance toward corruption and maladministration in our country," said Seremane.

Zuma will be in court on February 13 -- just 10 days after Mbeki delivers his State of the Nation address at the opening of Parliament -- to defend himself against an allegation that he raped a 31-year-old woman in his Johannesburg home in November.

He will face two counts of corruption resulting from a finding by Durban High Court Judge Hilary Squires that he had a "generally corrupt relationship" with his financial adviser Schabir Shaik, who was found guilty of corruption last year.

Zuma's corruption trial begins on July 31.

Shortly after the his appearance in a magistrate's court on the rape charge last year, the national working committee of the ANC recommended to the national executive committee "that he should not act or pronounce in the capacity of deputy president of the ANC for the duration of this trial".

Zuma was dismissed as deputy president of South Africa in June last year, but remains the ruling movement's second-in-command. -- I-Net Bridge

Who is in charge of fighting crime?

2006-01-04T02:34:00.000-08:00

Johannesburg, South Africa
03 January 2006 02:25
A "lacklustre" performance by Minister of Safety and Security Charles Nqakula and the "disappearance from the radar" of National Police Commissioner Jackie Selebi have left the Democratic Alliance wondering who is in charge of fighting crime, the party said in a statement on Tuesday.

DA MP Roy Jankielsohn, the party's spokesperson for safety and security, said 2005 was a bad year for Nqakula, and Selebi disappeared from the limelight.

"It is never clear who is leading the fight against crime," Jankielsohn said, adding "there is a glaring lack of political leadership."

This lack of leadership is one of 10 safety and security issues that the party will be focusing on this year.

The others include police personnel policies, police equipment, the Firearms Control Act, parliamentary accountability, crime statistics, police corruption and misconduct and the improvement of the criminal justice system.

Jankielsohn is concerned that the African National Congress "both inside and outside the SAPS [South African Police Service]" might be using the police for political purposes.

"The recent investigation into the Zuma rape charge, including constant leaks to the press from unnamed sources within the SAPS, smacked of a political cat-and-mouse game. The infighting within the ruling party has spilled over into our law-enforcement agencies and has become a threat to national security in South Africa."

One clear threat, Jankielsohn said, is South Africa's "porous borders".

"The security vacuum in rural areas, especially along our borders, must not be allowed to develop further."

He said that it is especially attacks from Lesotho that are of the greatest concern.

"If other governments are not able to restrain their citizens from committing crimes in South Africa, the SAPS, with the support of the South African National Defence Force, should be able to carry out hot pursuit operations to retrieve South African property and apprehend perpetrators of crimes."

The DA highlighted what it calls "critical vacancies".

"Currently shortages of crime-prevention personnel required to ensure optimal staffing are sitting at 46% (2 235) in Gauteng, 49% (940) in the Free State, and 45% (2 724) in KwaZulu-Natal. There is also a 28% (1 372) shortage of detectives in Gauteng and a 19% (541) shortage of detectives in the Western Cape."

The party said there are a further 122 vacancies at the forensic crime laboratory and 152 vacancies at the criminal record centre.

"Although government continues to make promises regarding the recruitment of additional police officials and the training of additional detectives, it should never have allowed this situation to develop in the first place," Jankielsohn said.

He said the DA will be focusing on these issues in Parliament. -- Sapa

Farm attacks: Farmer executed

2005-12-23T14:52:00.000-08:00

Roedtan - A local farmer was forced to kneel next to his bakkie at the gate to the farm Doringfontein before being shot in the forehead. Hennie van Vuuren, 53, had minutes before found his wife Celia's blood-spattered body when he arrived at the farm after having dropped off workers. Celia, 53, had been shot dead in the garden in front of their house at about 18:0 on Wednesday. The attackers did not take anything. TLU spokesperson Dries Joubert described the attacks on farmers as "low-intensity war". "The fact that nothing was stolen, proves once and for all that the police are wrong in claiming that the motive is crime." The chair of the Roedtan South farmers' association, Hendrik Botha, said he and Van Vuuren had been at an auction and year-end function earlier in the day. According to Botha, Van Vuuren had tried to flee the attackers after he'd found Celia's body. "But they shot at him and hit him in the leg through the bakkie's door," Botha said. It is not clear what happened afterwards, but it is believed that the farm's electronic gate opened too slowly for Botha to escape the killers. "Hennie was pulled from the bakkie at the gate, forced to stand on his knees - in a similar manner to being executed - and shot in the forehead. "We found his body next to the bakkie," a shocked Botha said. "This was no farm robbery," said Botha. "It was murder, plain and simple." Agri SA's Kiewiet Ferreira said given attacks on farmers, it was becoming increasingly difficult to convince them not to take the law into their own hands.

Source: News24.Com URL: http://www.news24.com/News24/South_Africa/News/0,,2-7-1442_1851610,00.html

Robbers are winning

2005-12-20T06:39:00.000-08:00

Organised gangs of robbers had a lucrative time the past months with their cash in-transit robberies and the robbing of shopping complexes. During November eighteen malls were robbed while ten in-transit robberies took place. These were only the reported robberies. The robberies were so well planned that the question again arises if the defence force is not involved. The fact that R4 rifles were used in some of the attacks increases the possibility of armed forces being involved. Political parties said outright that members of the previous armed forces of the ANC and APLA are involved.

Meanwhile the police said it is not their task to protect malls and money-carrying vehicles in transit. The official opposition suggested that the police force re-employ previous expert police officers. The party's spokesperson, John Moodey, said only experienced officers can control the upsurge in robberies. Many experienced white officers were dismissed or left the service out of frustration. The new generation of police officers are not experienced enough and their training is questionable. Apparently the police force still rids itself of experienced whites. The Appeals Court even criticised the police commissioner for upgrading a post and then getting rid of the person who holds the post. Today we reap the bitter fruits of this discrimination. Management is poor and the police force cannot control the upsurge in crime. The infrastructure is crumbling and many officers are not crime-orientated. They attach more value to the painting of Old Republican Flags in the Northern province than persecuting murder gangs.

http://www.realiteit.co.za

16 December - The covenant of Bloedrivier.

2005-12-17T18:22:00.000-08:00

"It is the evening of 9 December 1838. The recently elected commandant general Andries Pretorius, with 464 Voortrekkers, some servants and wagon drivers, three British settlers and some 120 “tame” Zulus draw a laager at Wasbank, near the current Dundee. They are on their way to uMgundgundlovu, capital of the Zulu king, Dingane to try and break the might of the Zulu force that has caused them so much heartache and sorrow. First the Voortrekker leader Piet Retief and his men were murdered after land negotiations on 6 February 1838 and then hundreds of Voortrekkers and their servants died at Blaaukrantz and Weenen, killed by the Zulu force.

Sarel Cilliers takes the lead and the handful of men solemnly promise that:

If He would protect them and deliver the enemy into their hands, they would build a House in His name and that the day of their triumph would be known unto the last generation because it would be commemorated in His honour;

What followed is familiar to most of the older generation of Afrikaners. The battle of Blood River that took place on the banks of the Ncome River on 16 December 1838, was, according to most historians a turning point in the history of South Africa. The Voortrekkers in their ‘fortified’ laager and with their front-loading rifles and 2-3 cannons repelled wave after wave of Zulus whose force consisted of between 9 000 and 12 000 men. By 11:00 that morning the Zulu forces began to pull back. By this time they had already lost 3 000 warriors on the battlefield while only three Voortrekkers were wounded.

It was an absolute miracle to the Voortrekkers – an act of mercy from God and even though the Zulus were not totally defeated, their victory initiated the way to an independent state for the Voortrekkers in Natal.

Throughout the years historians and others have analysed, criticized and looked at the occurrences of 16 December from different perspectives. Today, while our country’s history is being “re-written”, Afrikaner historians are blamed of distorting and fabricating the facts. Despite this, very little in Afrikaner history draws as much attention as the Covenant of Blood River.

For more information about the Blood River site, please contact Cecilia Kruger or Estelle Pretorius at the Voortreker Monument (012) 326 6770.
For more information about the commemoration of the Covenant on site or at the Voortrekker Monument please contact Deon van Onselen at the same number"
Covenant of Blood River

Even to this day, Afrikaners (also known as Boers, who are decendants of the old Voortrekkers) commemorate this day, viewing the 'ritual' not only as a fulfillment of their duties, but also as a renewal of the covenant of 1838. History repeats itself, as the Boers are in the same situation they were in during 1838. The gruesome torture, rape and murder of Boer men, women and babies are commonplace in South Africa. Violent crimes are not only a plague in the country, but also in metropolitan areas. South Africa is ranked as the country with both the highest murder rate and rape rate in the world. The Boers are indeed in the same position they were in in 1838.

The SA government, an (ANC) autocratic government who are the allies of Robert Mugabe (Iran, China, India, Russia and also Zimbabwe's Zanu-PF, who are notorious for land evictions and other human right infringements), are currently attempting to "erase" the day of the covenant by euphemistically renaming it to "Reconciliation Day". (Note the reporter's biased reporting).

Desperate attempts of the South African government to try and discredit the covenant of Bloedrivier should be shunned and disregarded with the utmost of discontent that their fallacies deserve.

To all the people of South Africa (Especially the Boers):
May you find the freedom that you have longed for for so long!

Sources:
http://www.voortrekkermon.org.za/Bloedrivier/BREnglish/B01.02_The%20Covenant.htm
http://www.mg.co.za/articlepage.aspx?area=/breaking_news/breaking_news__national&articleid=259404
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boer

WHY SA IS THE COUNTRY WITH THE HIGHEST AIDS PREVELANCE RATE

2005-12-02T16:28:00.000-08:00

As shown in this cartoon, SA is the country that has been hit the worst by the AIDS epidemic. It is, however, not a random stroke of bad luck but rather a deadly combination of ignorance, incompetence and bad governance (by the ANC) that lead to this disaster.

What is more disturbing, as mentioned in one of our earlier articles, is that the SA government is actually telling AIDS sufferers that ARV's is overkill and that they should rather use vitamins! The SA minister of health, Manto Tshabalala Msimang even proclaimed that AIDS can be cured by using garlic. Read "Do the ANC benefit if AIDS-sufferers die sooner"?.

SA 'accepting Aids as reality'

2005-11-30T13:49:00.000-08:00

Nearly half of South Africans aged 15 and older find nothing wrong with marrying an HIV-positive person and would not have a problem having sex with them.

This is according to the Nelson Mandela Foundation-commissioned Second South African HIV Prevalence, Incidence, Behaviour and Communications Survey released on Wednesday, on the eve of World Aids Day.

"These results suggest that South Africans are accepting HIV/Aids as a reality in South Africa and that stigmatisation in society is becoming less of a factor, especially in urban areas," said principal investigator Olive Shisana, CEO of the Human Sciences Research Council.

The study found that 90,7% of South Africans polled were willing to care for HIV-positive family members and that 79,8% were against the exclusion of HIV-positive children from schools.

Although South Africans acknowledged the government's efforts in dealing with HIV/Aids, a significant number were unhappy with the financial and human resources allocated to dealing with the scourge.

However, only 47% of male, employed respondents and 44,2% of working women -- 50% of them blacks and coloureds, and less than 40% whites and Indians -- were willing to pay an Aids tax.

A "worrying trend" is confusion among older South Africans about whether HIV cause Aids, the effectiveness of condoms in curbing infections, and the purpose of anti-retroviral (ARV) treatment.

It is unlikely this could be attributed to the debate over the effectiveness of ARVs between vitamin salesman Matthias Rath and the Treatment Action Campaign, said Warren Parker, of the Centre for Aids Development Research and Evaluation. While this could be a contributing factor, the cause is more likely "general misunderstanding", he said.

The study found that 66% of those interviewed did not think they were at risk of being infected -- because they were faithful to one partner, trusted their partner and always used condoms.

However, some of these respondents were later found to be HIV-positive in tests conducted as part of the study.

"Put it in another way, over two million people who are HIV-positive in South Africa do not think they are at risk. This means they may be unaware of their risk of potentially infecting others," said Shisana. -- Sapa

DA opposes air-force training deal with Zim

2005-11-21T05:25:00.000-08:00

21 November 2005 02:49

The opposition Democratic Alliance party has urged the government not to use Zimbabwean flying instructors to train South African Air Force (SAAF) pilots.

"The proposal is severely flawed on a number of accounts," said DA defence spokesperson Rafeek Shah, questioning if Zimbabwean Air Force instructors have sufficient knowledge of, or experience with, SAAF aircraft.

"They, for example, have no experience of our most basic trainer aircraft, the Astra Pilatus," he said in a statement released on Monday.

His concerns followed a military agreement signed last Thursday between Zimbabwe and South Africa under which Zimbabwean flying instructors will train SAAF pilots.

"Given that there are not even enough trained South African personnel to train pilots on the forthcoming Hawks, it is highly unlikely that the Zimbabweans will be able to offer training assistance on these aircraft, let alone the even more sophisticated Gripen fighter jets," Shah said.

He said these fighters, part of the country's controversial arms-acquisition process, have highly sophisticated avionics, "much more advanced than anything the Zimbabweans would have been exposed to".

He said there is every chance that as a result of this agreement, the South African taxpayer will have to pay for Zimbabwean pilots to be trained on the new jets in order to train South African cadets.

"It is morally bankrupt for South Africa to recruit instructors from the Zimbabwean military given its appalling human rights record. It is truly bizarre that instead of sending a clear message that human rights abuses will not be tolerated, we have chosen to enter even closer cooperation," he said. -- Sapa

SA to work with Zimbabwe's spies

2005-11-18T11:23:00.000-08:00

South African and Zimbabwe have signed an agreement to increase co-operation on defence and security matters.

The two neighbours undertook to share security information and to co-operate in enforcing immigration laws.

After the signing, South Africa's intelligence minister scolded a journalist who raised questions about Zimbabwe's record on human rights.

Details of the deal were not released but Zimbabwe's secret police is accused of torturing opposition activists.

South Africa is a key player in attempts to negotiate an end to Zimbabwe's political crisis.

President Thabo Mbeki has been criticised at home and abroad for not putting more pressure on President Robert Mugabe's government to end abuses.

Zimbabwe prayers

"This week's historic meeting further consolidates a long-standing socio-political and economic relationship between our two countries," South African Intelligence Minister Ronnie Kasrils said at the signing of the agreement in Cape Town on Thursday.

After the signing, a journalist asked Mr Kasrils how South Africa, with a "good human rights track record", could sign agreements with Zimbabwe, which had a "poor human rights record".

Mr Kasrils apologised to his Zimbabwean counterpart, Didymus Mutasa, for the question.

"We have very strong ties with our neighbour and we are indebted to our neighbour for achieving freedom and liberty," Mr Kasrils said.

Mr Mutasa suggested praying for the journalist.

"Lord forgive him for he does not know what he is saying," Mr Mutasa said.

Numerous activists from the opposition Movement for Democratic Change have said they have been detained and assaulted by Zimbabwe's secret police - the Central Intelligence Organisation.

Thursday's agreement also provides for South Africa pilots and instructors to be trained in Zimbabwe.

'Failure'

Also on Thursday, Zimbabwean and international human rights groups called on the African Union to speak out against human rights abuses in Zimbabwe.

"The silence of African leaders on Zimbabwe represents a failure to honour their commitments to the human rights of ordinary Africans," said a statement from a human rights coalition that includes Amnesty International, Zimbabwe's Centre on Housing Rights and Evictions and Zimbabwe Lawyers or Human Rights.

"Hundreds of thousands of Zimbabweans have seen their homes demolished. Now desperate, displaced and homeless people are being denied the aid they so badly need - and forced evictions and demolitions continue to take place."

The UN says 700,000 people were affected by a Zimbabwe government clampdown on illegal housing and trading earlier this year.

Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/africa/4448858.stm

Published: 2005/11/18 11:19:11 GMT

© BBC MMV

*This is the extent of South Africa's unholy alliance with Robert Mugabe's terror-regime.

Tensions brewing over "Taal".

2005-10-30T23:48:00.000-08:00

Multiple student protests could be seen on south african university campuses during the past few weeks. The cause of these protests are the result of the ANC government's ridiculous policy of anglicization, which have led to several Afrikaans universities undemocratically being forced to convert to English-medium. Some of the universities that are being forced to convert is TUKS (Pretoria), KOVSIES (Bloemfontein) and Stellenbosch.

The ANC and it's pet newspaper firm, NASPERS, claims that this is being done to promote "multilingualism", to provide for a "broader array of cultures, languages and races" and because "handbooks are only in available in English". All of these arguments, however, is nothing but ill-conceived excuses for a campaign of blatant discrimination against the already marginilised Afrikaners. For the ANC, this is one of the final steps in a campaign designed to annihilate the Afrikaners.

According to a 2001 census, Afrikaans is the third-most spoken language in South Africa, whereas English only slurs in at sixth place. Other languages, such as Sotho and Zulu, do not currently have the ability to be used as academic languages. This leaves Afrikaans and English as the only two academic languages. Afrikaans is also widely spoken and understood by groups other than the Afrikaners: most of the indigenous blacks are able to speak and understand Afrikaans better than English. If the ANC's real intentions were to "provide for a broader array of cultures", then surely they would have been promoting Afrikaans as language of instruction as opposed to their current course of action.

Furthermore, it is a well documented fact that mother-tongue education is much more effective than that of a second language. This was also evident in the years preceding the 1994 elections: Afrikaans universities were highly acclaimed research institutions and delivered some of the world's finest professionals, whether handbooks were in English or not.

Thus, it is clear that the mentioned ANC-excuses are invalid and do not bear any truth.

The ANC and their lapdogs are not interested in "multilingualism", but rather in "monolingualism" or anglicization. This is done with the purely political motive of marginalising the already oppressed Afrikaners and to weaken their collective intellectual capital. The English-Only movement serves to justify racist and anti-Afrikaner biases under the cover of "transformation". (PASMA, a black student movement affiliated with the ANC and the SACP, recently threatened to "kill all whites" and "clash with Afrikaner students". They also chanted slogans such as "One language of instruction - English" during an illegal riot on the TUKS campus.)

Rightfully, the Afrikaners have finally liberated and are now fighting the imperialist ANC (for whom these universities is just another beacon of Afrikanerdom to be conquered), by taking to the streets in protest against the ANC's oppressive regime. Even Afrikaners who used to be ardent ANC-supporters, such as Breyten Breytenbach and Max du Preez, have now turned their backs on the ANC, signing a petition against the anglicization of these universities. It is becoming evident that Afrikaners are losing patience with the ANC... that tensions are cooking close to boiling point.

*"Taal" is the Afrikaans word for "language". Afrikaners passionately refer to the "taalstryd" or the "language struggle".

The slaughter continues...

2005-10-14T07:02:00.000-07:00

1800 South African farmers killed by blacks since 1994.
Soon, it will be 2000 …
… If nothing is done.

No cut-off is likely for undisguised racial discrimination

2005-10-04T23:48:00.000-07:00

The new Broad-Based Economic Empowerment Act sets up a Black Economic Empowerment Advisory Council funded by the DTI and chaired by President Mbeki, to advise government and assess progress with transformation charters and other measures. The Act moves away from 'historically disadvantaged' to 'black', defined as African, Coloured and Indian. This excludes White women and could lead to exclusion of other categories in future. Free Market Foundation's Leon Louw says the current deluge of new controls and stifling regulations completely smothers any prospect of broad-based economic empowerment. The Freedom Front Plus wants government to announce a cut-off for the undisguised racial discrimination of affirmative action. Labour department's Snuki Zikalala responds that the process will only be reviewed once government is satisfied that all racial imbalances have been addressed and SA is fully transformed. (Cit 7.1, BT 11.1)

http://www.freemarketfoundation.com/

Boer genocide...

2005-08-12T15:25:00.000-07:00

by the hands of Britain, 105 years ago:

by the hands of the ANC, today:

http://www.boer.co.za/boerwar/hellkamp.htm
http://www.stopboergenocide.com

TAU SA: "THERE WILL BE NO SECOND CHANCE"

2005-08-12T15:17:00.000-07:00

SOUTH AFRICA BULLETIN

from the headquarters of

TAU SA

www.rights2property.com

Tel + 27 12 804 8031, Fax + 27 12 804 2014

12 August 2005

THERE WILL BE NO SECOND CHANCE

The newspaper headline “Land Shock” encapsulated in essence the cumulative hot air, socialistic demands and racist resentment which characterized the land reform summit held over five days at taxpayers’ expense during the last week in July this year. The results of the summit were pre-ordained – we knew the Minister of Land Affairs would ruminate on abolishing the “willing seller, willing buyer” principle - the linchpin of rural property security in South Africa, that the chattering land-grab classes would reiterate their ideological claims, and that the commercial farming sector would present logical and reasoned arguments to a summit which was clearly not listening.

The conference can be seen as a prelude to more and more assaults on the commercial farming sector in South Africa. The reiteration of clauses in the communist-contrived “Freedom Charter” of fifty years ago (the land shall belong to those who work it) was given prominent play, and it is clear the summit was to prepare South Africa for a Zimbabwe-style grab of productive commercial farms in the not too distant future.

The most ominous revelation was the SA State President Thabo Mbeki’s statement - reported on the BBC’s website (but not widely disseminated in South Africa) - that the Zimbabwe land grab was delayed “so that negotiations for South Africa’s liberation would succeed”. Mbeki said that when South Africa was negotiating its ‘transition to democracy’ (at the time Zimbabwe started its land grab), the Organisation of African Unity had asked Zimbabwe to stop the programme as it would ‘frighten the apartheid government in South Africa’.

In essence, Mbeki is telling us that the wholesale land theft which was to proceed in Zimbabwe was put on the back burner so as not to frighten South Africa’s whites who were in the process of surrendering their sovereignty on the false premise of power-sharing. This masterful sleight of hand worked, of course, and it is evidence of Mbeki’s supreme self-assurance that he would tell the world of this now, when his own government is relentlessly harassing and hobbling South Africa’s commercial farming sector.

The summit revealed the stark chasm which exists between the realists and the ideologues in South Africa, the last country in Africa to produce enough food for its own people. Given the vivid examples of Africa’s inability to feed itself - Zimbabwe, Niger, Chad, Sudan, Angola, Mozambique are but a few - one would think that those governing South Africa would be more sober in their land reform goals. But logic in the Western sense plays no part in the thinking of a government which is prepared to hand over R6 billion of taxpayers’ money to the heinous tyrant now destroying his country, Zimbabwe. This lack of logic could be seen in the ludicrous demands, vicious accusations and lying propaganda which emanated from the land summit.

LIES, PROPAGANDA AND HATE SPEECH

To listen to some of the delegates, it would seem the whole purpose of the summit was not only to destroy South African commercial agriculture, but to insult white farmers as well. The vitriol with which some delegates hurled their insolence was shocking, and this racial resentment seems to be very close to the surface in modern-day South Africa. Farmers were verbally harangued by Blade Nzimande of the SA Communist Party. He said farm workers were killed by regularly being run over by tractors, and that farmers killed people by throwing them to lions. (A well known case concerning a man eaten by lions involved a white building contractor and two of his black assistants!).

So-called freedom songs were sung accompanied by the revolutionary cry “Amandla” (power), and the crowd were swept up by the hate speech from speaker after speaker. This resentment is a symptom of the huge inferiority complexes inherent in the ruling classes. They know they are incompetent, they know their continent is - as the London Economist put it - “useless”, and they blame everyone but themselves.

South Africa is at a crossroads. If the demands and malice of the summit prevail, then this country as we know it will be destroyed. There will indeed be no second chance. Once the agricultural sector is on the ropes, those who have been driven from their farms will not come back, as whites will never go back to a Zimbabwe under Robert Mugabe.

Lies and myths were propagated yet again, despite being disproved a thousand times.

This TAU bulletin and other agricultural bodies have rebutted the falsehoods ad infinitum, yet they are regularly repeated.

Some of the myths surrounding land reform in South Africa were outlined by Mr. Willie Lewies, Deputy President of TAU SA, at the Land Summit.

In South Africa, a minority of white landowners control the land while the majority are homeless and live in misery.

The truth is the State owns 23% of all land, 13% is communal ground (that is belonging to tribes), 60% is in private hands (and this includes all races) while 4% has been redistributed. Further, the most fertile land is in the traditional black areas of the country but due to subsistence farming methods and over-population, there is little surplus production.

Land reform will spread property ownership equitably, and will increase food production, employment and income.

The opposite is true. So far land redistribution has resulted in most transferred farms falling into ruin. Food production, employment and income have not resulted. In truth, production has been lost. To date, the government has not performed a scientific audit on the results of its land redistribution programme in terms of increased food production and employment. Private researchers have shown by empirical example that handover farms have collapsed.

The land was stolen from the indigenous population and thus land reform is simply a return of productive land to those who originally owned it.

When whites arrived in South Africa in 1652, there was no productive farming to speak of. Subsistence agriculture may have existed in parts of the country, but in many areas there were few or no blacks. Numerous scientific studies have been done to prove this fact, but let us quote the Encyclopaedia Britannica of 1911 under the section Transvaal: “ In 1904, the first population census of the old Transvaal revealed there were 297,277 Whites and 937,127 non-Whites in that region. Of these non-whites, some 135 042 were not from the Transvaal but were only on the Witwatersrand “to work in the gold and other mines” and thus only 77% of all blacks in the Transvaal were actually born there.”

Continues the Britannica: “There were 314,797 blacks in the Zoutpansberg and other northern districts. These people belonged to the Bantu race and none of them has any claim to be indigenous and, save the Bavenda, all are immigrants since circa 1817 – 1820 when the greater part of the then inhabitants were exterminated by the Zulu chief Mozilikatze (see History).”

We can write books about the legitimate origins of commercial farming in South Africa. Those in power however are not listening. They are driven by ideology and in some instances hatred. Will the world sit by and allow those in power to destroy the last remaining working country in Africa? Does the world want another Zimbabwe, another Niger? South Africa’s commercial farming sector appeals to the world to wake up and monitor the deliberate efforts by the SA government and its cohorts to drive South Africa’s white farmers off their land, thus bringing the spectre of famine ever closer.

Darkest days yet to come for the dark continent...

2005-08-11T04:30:00.000-07:00

Well, well, well... I guess it was only a matter of time. People like Jan Lampbrecht, Deirdre Fields, Jani Allen, Adriana Stuijt, Dan Roodt and Emmanuel McLittle (and MANY others) have been warning the world for quite some time that South Africa would be following in Zimbabwe's footsteps. They have been telling the world that the ANC are Mugabe's biggest fans, and that the ANC would follow in the footsteps of Zimbabwe's Zanu-PF.

For those of you who are still in the dark and wondering what this rant is about, should read the BBC's article, titled "SA 'to learn from Zimbabwe'". South Africa's new deputy president have unequivocally declared her great admiration for Zimbabwe's disasterous land reform policy, and expressed her desire to follow Mugabe's example.

Brace yourselve's for a disaster of monumental proportions. Why? South Africa's population stands at 44 344 136, against Zimbabwe's 12 160 782 (according to the CIA World Factbook). And what is to stop South Africa from going down the same road? Better polititians? I don't think so. The ruling party, the ANC, admires Mugabe, therefore they are not better. In fact, they tend to be worse. Better economic policy, maybe? Alas, the South African economy was built and is maintained by the white minority in South Africa. If they leave, their intellectual capital and money goes with.

So, what can the rest of the world expect if this disaster takes place? A few million immigrants (legal or not) from the country with the highest crime rate (also world champs in the rape and murder category), the highest AIDS infection rate in the world, and well, possibly the lowest average voters IQ, since they voted for the culprits who are now running South Africa into the ground.

SA 'to learn from' land seizures

2005-08-11T04:28:00.000-07:00

South Africa's new deputy president has been condemned after saying that the country should "learn lessons" on fast land reform from Zimbabwe.

The opposition Democratic Alliance (DA) said Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka's comments were "irresponsible".

The eviction of almost all of Zimbabwe's 4,000 white farmers is widely seen as having led to the country's economic crisis.

South Africa recently said it would move to speed up land reform.

Some 80% of agricultural land is owned by white South Africans, who make up only 10% of the population - the legacy of apartheid laws.

Since the African National Congress won power in all-race elections in 1994, it has not seized white-owned land but has pursued a policy of "willing buyer, willing seller".

'Oomph'

But Ms Mlambo-Ngcuka said this had been "too slow and too structured."

"There needs to be a bit of oomph. That's why we may need the skills of Zimbabwe to help us," she said.

Zimbabwe offers a textbook example of ways in which land reform should not be carried out
Kraai van Niekerk
Democratic Alliance

At the same time as the Zimbabwe government moved to speed up its own land reform in 2000, thousands of government supporters forcibly occupied white-owned farms, leading to several deaths, many rapes and countless beatings of black farm-workers.

The government denied opposition accusations that it had orchestrated these land invasions.

"Zimbabwe offers a textbook example of ways in which land reform should not be carried out," said DA agriculture spokesman Kraai van Niekerk.

He said existing laws were sufficient to redistribute land and blamed delays on government inefficiency.

At a summit on land reform held last month, government officials said they would do more to speed up the redistribution of land from white to black farmers.

Since 1994, only 4% of land has been acquired by the government from private owners for redistribution purposes, and unused state land has also been redistributed.

Ms Mlambo-Ngcuka was appointed deputy president in June after her predecessor, Jacob Zuma, was implicated in corruption allegations.

Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/africa/4140990.stm

Afrikaner innovation vs. crime

2005-08-09T13:34:00.000-07:00

Since the ANC's rise to power in 1994, crime has become one of South Africa's most lucrative industries. Rapists, murderers, drug - and hijacking syndicates are experiencing what can be best described as their heyday. According to the CIA World Factbook, South Africa has become a "transshipment center for heroin, hashish, marijuana, and cocaine; cocaine consumption on the rise; world's largest market for illicit methaqualone, usually imported illegally from India through various east African countries; illicit cultivation of marijuana; attractive venue for money launderers given the increasing level of organized criminal and narcotics activity in the region".

The Afrikaners (which includes some English-speaking Afrikaners), are now forced to protect themselves due to a poor (and often hostile) police service. They often find creative and innovative ways to combat crime.

One such example is that of the special automobile flamethrower, which is used to barbeque budding hijackers to a crisp. Yes, South Africa is notorious for it's unusually high highjacking statistics (about 15000 hijackings yearly - bearing in mind that South Africa is about twice the size of Texas).

Another problem in South Africa is that of rape. Just 'Google' the term "rape capital", and see the results for yourself. An Afrikaner woman, Sonette Ehlers, got fed up and decided to invent a tampon that "bites" an attacker's penis. Yes, the tampon makes use of microscopic sized hooks that attaches itself to the attacker's member. Apparently an attacker would not be able to remove the device by himself - the device can only be removed surgically, and under sedation.

It is a disturbing thought that people have to resort to such extreme measures to protect themselves. For Afrikaners, living in the terror-stricken crime capital of the world have become part of their daily lives. But, as many Afrikaners are often heard saying: "What else can one expect of a country that is ruled by terrorists?"

TAU SA: STAND TAKEN REGARDING THE NATIONAL LAND SUMMIT

2005-07-27T14:34:00.000-07:00

TAU SA: STAND TAKEN REGARDING THE NATIONAL LAND SUMMIT:

27 – 31 JULY 2005

The Union’s Executive Committee decided to attend the National Land Summit facilitated by the Department of Agriculture and Land Affairs at NASREC, Expo Centre, Rand Show Grounds, South Africa, as from 27 -30 July 2005 on certain terms.

TAU SA is attending and is participating in the proceedings of the Summit on the following pre-conditions:

1. TAU SA is participating in the National Land Summit by the auspices of its General Council and is therefore directly liable to the Council;

2. TAU SA is representing the concerns of commercial agriculture and the interests of its members;

3. TAU SA is not attending the Summit to join in events to celebrate the Freedom Charter;

4. TAU SA is participating in the deliberations in an exclusive way by taking part in discussions only, not in any other way of communication and also only by enhancing the principles by which it approaches agriculture;

5. TAU SA will not be approving any recommendations unless it has been condoned by TAU SA’s General Council and the Council has confirmed it as such in an explicit, written statement.

Mr Willem Lewies, Deputy President of TAU SA and Chairman of the TAU SA Property Rights Committee, presented the following speech at 14:00 at the National Land Summit today:

THE STATEMENT OF THE TAU SA ON LAND AND AGRARIAN REFORM

DELIVERED AT THE NATIONAL LAND SUMMIT AT NASREC, JOHANNESBURG ON 27^TH JULY 2005.

Mr Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen

The TAU SA takes this opportunity to present the case of Commercial Agriculture and Land Reform to this Summit. The principles at stake are that of productive and sustainable agriculture to ensure food security in an economy based on private property rights and market forces, by farmers well acquainted with the ecology and environment of the South African region.

According to Government “(T)he main objective of the Summit is to find solutions to the Land and Agrarian problems and challenges …related to Land Redistribution and Restitution, Agrarian Reform, Land use and Human Settlement.” The moral issue raised is that of rights that imply that “South Africa belongs to all who live in it, black and white, and that people shall share in the wealth of the country.”

Land Reform includes Land Redistribution and Restitution, Agrarian Reform, Land use and Human Settlement, which is also AgriBEE.

AIM

The aim of this presentation is to enlighten the Land Summit regarding the risks and dangers of Land Reform in the agricultural sector if implemented in an unscientific and irrational way without considering the context of sound economic principles.

MYTHS OF LAND REFORM

The myths on which Land Reform, as applied in the agricultural sector are based, create unstable ground for agriculture. These myths are propagated in rural communities and through public media.

Ø Myth no 1: In South Africa a minority of white landowners have all the land, leaving the majority of people without access to it and in miserable conditions;

Ø Myth no 2: The white landowners do not adequately cultivate their properties, thereby harming agricultural production and contributing to the fact that the majority of the population live in hunger and misery;

Ø Myth no 3; There is a great disparity in the distribution of wealth making the rich even richer and the poor even poorer, therefore the farmers are an untapped source of income;

Ø Myth no 4: Land reform will spread property ownership and increase production, employment, and the income of those who live in the rural areas;

Ø Myth no 5: Land Reform in South Africa is a prerequisite for economic growth and is not against free economy;

Ø Myth no 6: It is irresponsible to go ahead with the aims of this Summit otherwise there will be a general revolt of the poor masses leading South Africa into a social revolution with grave political, social and economic consequences.

These myths are based on the restructuring of the agricultural and economic history of South Africa to fit the purpose of the so called democratic political revolution. The re-writing of the history of land and property rights in the idiom of Socialism is now the main aim for the redistribution of land and to support Land Reform policy, irrespective of the facts and figures of the past. It’s also true that reality will prove these myths wrong and unfounded.

CONCEPTS IN CONTEXT

The context in which Land Reform is applied, is within a construct of the present government’s ideological and political position. This construct is defined in the following terms:

Ø Research by TAU SA on Land Reform shows that “Land Reform is the elimination of large and medium properties, of the system of wage compensation, and of share cropping. The corollary result is the elevation of the manual labourer to the status of independent tiller of a single family or even collective property, as in most land reform programmes”. This is in general the case with arable land.

Ø The implementation of the Land Reform programme in accordance with the ideological predisposition of Land Restitution and the BBBEE policy of the SA Government, will impact on the sustainability of food production, food security and competitiveness of Commercial Agriculture in the globalised economies, in an environment of food insecurity and economic decay in the Southern African region.

The agricultural and economical framework of commercial agriculture in regard to the need for agricultural produce is defined in the following terms;

Ø Commercial Agriculture is a high-risk and climatologically sensitive and responsible industry with a high strategic profile that impacts on the basic existence of every person by delivering sustenance to combat under-nourishment, malnutrition and famine and secure health on a sustainable competitive and commercial basis in globalised economies.

The interaction between these distinguished components as indicated emphasizes that the implications of the application of Land Reform should be determined by scientific and feasibility studies and put in a geo-political context.

Ø “Food security exists when all people, at all times, have physical and economic access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food to meet their dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life.” (World Food Summit in 1996),

The essence of commercial agriculture in South Africa is to provide food security in an economic and sustainable way, in a destabilised political and economic environment.

THE GEO-POLITICAL ENVIRONMENT

The following external force fields impacts on the sustainability of commercial agriculture (Research by Intersearch):

Poverty: Ben Roberts of the Human Sciences Research Council indicated that the aids pandemic had the potential to “severely undermine the likelihood of attaining many of the millennium goals, including the poverty target”. He argued that 70% of people in southern Africa live below the poverty line on less than $2 (R13) a day and 40% on less than $1 a day. Poverty continues to rise with 27% from 315 million to 400 million by 2015

Famine: Traditionally, famine was a result of drought. Now, HIV/AIDS has replaced drought as the main cause of famine. The Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO) calls it the “loss of intergenerational knowledge” and the result is the loss of local knowledge of agro-ecology and farming practices. This knowledge is usually transferred from mother to daughter, but “with the death of parents, the transfer of knowledge about seeds and cropping patterns is lost.” This short-circuits in knowledge transfer, cuts the vital link of societal survival. It seems that chronic food shortages could become part of the regional scene in the next ten years.

Food Aid: Countries bordering South Africa are all dependent on food aid from countries with strong and stable economies and high volumes of food production. Food aid is the result of the failure agricultural policies based on Land Reform and the direct or indirect socialisation of land. Food aid has enslaved and destroyed agricultural production in most of the countries.

Work and job losses: 75% of the people in Africa are without proper jobs and without any possibility of getting jobs. Job losses occur in agriculture as the impact of Land Reform is experienced in rural areas. The average wworld trade in agriculture, the main exports from Africa has decreased from 5.3% in 1948 to 1.8% in 2003 and is still sliding.

Land; The issue of land in its essence must be defined within the context of the principles of food production. Land is experienced by some black people as the basis of their riches. Other black middle class see land as a culmination of their riches and a piece of land to build a house. Commercial farmers see land as a means of production. The re-distribution of land outside the context as a means of production and economic competitiveness of commercial agriculture within the markets, is at stake and will eventually be eroded by Land Reform. The essence is that the competitiveness based on the knowledgeable experience of the farmer is not negotiable and can not be replaced once it left the agricultural sector and his land.

The Right to Private property: The issue on the right to private property of commercial agriculture is the essence of land redistribution through Land Reform and AgriBEE. The principle of private property is the basis on which the productiveness and competitiveness of commercial agriculture and the value chain of food security exists.

It is within this geo-political framework that the impact of Land Reform on agricultural production and food security should be validated.

THE ECONOMICS OF LAND REFORM

"Good agricultural practices are our (Food and Agriculture Organisation) way of translating all the wishful thinking on sustainable agriculture into very concrete recommendations for countries and production systems - and also for consumers so they know what they're buying”. (FAO – 2001).

This lays down the basis for sustainable commercial agriculture as the essence of food security. Economic growth, know how and entrepreneurs with high technology and information driven agriculture practices will be the farmers of the future. South Africa is already losing knowledgeable farmers from their land as a result of the policies and practices by Government in the quest for Land Reform, which we know from research was a futile experience in many countries.

The Government expects the Land Reform Programme and restitution to be the central pivot to alleviate poverty. In the mean time the degradation of the agricultural sector will be in no position to contribute to the upliftment of the rural areas. The loss in information and human capital in agriculture to the number of 12 000 commercial farmers will impact on the viability of the sector.

Louise O. Fresco of the FAO said the world is more complex than in the past, and it is being made ever more so by globalisation. This also applies to the policy of Land Reform. The following factors are of importance:

Ø The human resource vacuum increases through transition and transformation of existing structures;

Ø Systematic regression of the abilities of good governance, infrastructure and capacity in more than 40 years reaches a point of no return;

Ø 70% to 80% exports of the region is in agricultural products and do not penetrate the international markets irrespective of the trade barriers that are lifted;

Ø Foreign aid to the estimate R350 billion is necessary to kick start Africa economies;

Ø Land claims lodged will require R 17 billion to settle and will distort the agri-economy if the willing buyer, willing seller principle is disregarded.

The financial implication of Land Reform that includes land redistribution is more than the GNP can bear. Commercial agriculture and land is too scarce and a valuable strategic resource to risk in such a socialistic venture. South Africa does not have the luxury in time and resources to rectify the results of an experiment gone wrong.

LAND REFORM AS A PROCESS

Of the 84 900 000 hectare of land approximately 26 000, 000 hectare of arable land will be redistributed through land restitution. Agri BEE will take another 26 505 000 hectare. This leaves us with 32 395 000 hectare arable land. This excludes the communal land that is already in the possession of the State, previously part of the National States and still the basis of subsistence farming. This is the land that has to deliver food security to South Africa and the southern African region.

The process of land restitution is based on land claims. In spite of the procedures laid down by law, land claims is a major issue for land owners because the right to private property is at stake. The landowner is excluded from the process of the land claim until it is published in the Government Gazette. The marginalisation of the farmer as proprietor until the last moment is a distortion of the right of private property.

The process of Land Reform also jeopardise the civil rights of the farmer if the implementation of the act is forced onto the farming community as a political process without supporting the economic viability of the agrarian communities. Land claims and the constant threat of AgriBEE impacts on the psychological and social structures of the rural communities and creates a society in imbalance.

More agricultural land is available on the free market and approximately 2003 farms have already been offered to the Department of Land Affairs for possession. In the mean time more claims are published on agricultural land. It is unlikely that the commercial productive farms will continue its production after the claimants have possessed the farm. The question arises if the claimants are farmers, potential farmers or only subsistence farmers. Will they sustain the optimal ecologically balanced production potential of the land? According to resent examples it is unlikely that commercial agriculture will benefit from this process.

The process of Land Reform should enhance the commercial production of food and provide the structures and environment for black emerging farmers without discriminating against white commercial farmers.

COMMERCIAL AGRICULTURE AND FOOD SECURITY

TAU SA hereby emphasises that the future success of South Africa’s commercial agriculture and sustainable food production in globalised economies, will be determined by international economic and financial standards and regulations, and not by South African standards and a Land Reform Programme. TAU SA maintains the point of view that free economic and market forces must determine the development of Economic Empowerment in the agricultural sector.

The test for successful agriculture is when food is produced in quantity and quality on a commercial basis to impact on the basic existence of every person by delivering sustenance to combat under-nourishment, malnutrition and famine and secure health on a sustainable competitive and commercial basis in globalised economies.

With the collapse of the economies of the neighbouring states and the regression of social services the South African economy will have to grow with 6% to 7 %. This is unlikely if the loss in human capital through an aggressive transformation process and policy continues and the burden on services in rural areas escalates. The influx of illegal foreigners and the unprotected borders will eventually restrict the growth and put more stress on commercial agricultural land. This scenario is not far fetched if all the existing factors intertwine with a high risk industry like agriculture.

The terrain of agriculture is a highly sensitive area, therefore:

The relation between commercial agriculture and sustainable food production and security is determined by the position of Government. On the intervention of government through Land Reform the following quote gives the necessary insight:

Ø “Plans aiming at a more or less equal distribution of the soil among the farming population are, under the conditions of the market economy, merely plans for granting privileges to a group of less efficient producers at the expense of the immense majority of consumers. The operation of the market tends to eliminate all those farmers whose cost of production is higher than the marginal cost needed for the production of that amount of farm products the consumers are ready to buy. It determines the size of farms as well as the methods of production applied. If the government interferes in order to make a different arrangement of the conditions of farming prevail, it raises the average price of farm products.” (Ludwig von Mises, Austrian Economist),

To preserve a sustainable commercial agriculture sector Government must re-think its position on Land Reform, agricultural production and food security in a globalised economy.

CONCLUSION

In conclusion TAU SA’s position on Land Reform can not change from the stance that Land Reform and the BBBEE framework for Agriculture will jeopardise the property rights, production and competitiveness of commercial agriculture in a sensitive and high risk industry to the detriment of food production and food security.

What will befall South Africa is summarised by the following quote if this Land Summit does not address these issues in a rational and scientific way:

“After decades of mismanagement and corruption, most African states become hollowed out. They are no longer instruments capable of serving the public good. Indeed, far from being able to provide aid and protection to their citizens African governments and the vampire-like politicians who run them are regarded by the populations they rule as yet another burden they have to bear in the struggle for survival” (Meredith, M.; 2005. p.668).

TAU SA - Tel: 012 804 8031

Fax: 012 804 2014

E-mail: eiendom@tlu.co.za

"So Bob, how much should we give you?"

2005-07-25T08:55:00.000-07:00

According to the BBC, Mugabe is now seeking financial aid from none other than communist

China

and

South Africa

. One can not help but ask why these two countries would pay to see Mugabe stay in power.

The ANC government of South Africa seems all too eager to assist Mugabe by financing his reign of terror. After all, they share a common ideology, namely ridding Africa of "white settlers". The ANC government of SA argues that it is in South Africa's financial interest to ensure that "Zimbabwe succeeds". But truthfully, this is by far one of the ANC's worst fallacies to date. Robert Mugabe's reign in Zimbabwe has been nothing but bad news for both the Zimbabwean and South African economies. Mbeki's silence on issues such as the Zimbabwean landgrabs and the recent demolition of more than 200 000 homesteads and shacks have had a very negative impact on foreign investment in South Africa.

China on the other hand, has a much more monetary motive: if Mugabe loses power over Zimbabwe, they lose control over Zimbabwe's mineral wealth (See: "Who funds Africa's opressors").

Both China and South Africa have clearly undermined the rest of the world's sanctions against the tyrant, Robert Mugabe. It is clear what the rest of the world needs to do: firstly, take more aggressive action against Mugabe, or bear whatever tragedy that takes place next in Zimbabwe, on their conscience. Secondly, realize that Mbeki's ANC are a bunch of communist tricksters who only pretend to care about human rights when it suits them (As mentioned, they clearly don't care about human rights, which is evident by their undermining of sanctions against the Mugabe regime).

Sources and related articles:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/africa/4712633.stm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/4692639.stm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/4031969.stm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/3804629.stm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/4713961.stm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/4713961.stm

Updated: Related articles
See Jan Lamprecht's www.africancrisis.org

An interview with Deirdre Fields, part 1

2005-07-20T00:50:00.000-07:00

American Dissident Voices broadcast for the week of June 12 - June 18, 2005
listen to the broadcast (mp3)
download the broadcast (mp3)
real audio download

by Kevin Alfred Strom

AS WE'VE DISCUSSED on this program several times before, there is an almost unknown genocide of White people happening right now in South Africa -- a country which once was a technologically advanced First World nation under White rule, but which is rapidly descending into chaos and savagery under Black rule.

Today we are pleased to welcome to our microphones Mrs. Deirdre Fields, who (ILLUSTRATION -- Two executioners of lives now in California but who is
Whites in South Africa: left, Nelson probably the premiere activist in the
Mandela; right, Joe Slovo, the former's United States on behalf of White
Jewish handler and mentor.) South Africans.

Kevin Alfred Strom: Welcome to the program, Deirdre.

Deirdre Fields: Thank you, Kevin; it's a great pleasure to be here.

KAS: It was wonderful to hear you speak so passionately and so well at the European American conference last month in New Orleans. My only complaint was that your speech should have been quite a bit longer.

DF: Well, I was lucky to get the time.

KAS: Can you tell us a little bit about your background and how you came to be so well-informed about South Africa?

DF: Well, I am a South African. I'm an Afrikaner. My ancestors go back to several very prominent leaders in South Africa. So I guess we've always been involved in politics. Actually, even one of my Mother's cousins was a cabinet minister for many years. So this has been very important to us. We've had that political awareness.

I studied politics myself; I have a degree in international politics. And, if you know the supreme players and the object of the game, one can easily make sense of what one observes taking place, and make accurate predictions, regardless of the efforts of the media and governments to muddy the waters.

I became particularly vocal when I began my overseas travels. I was so astounded at how little people knew about South Africa, and what total propaganda they had believed, and how misconceived their perceptions were –and I would of course set the record straight.

KAS: I can remember back in the 1970s the propaganda was almost incessant -- in every medium here in the US; newspapers, television, radio -- about the incredible "evil" of the so-called Apartheid regime in South Africa, the White government there. And most of these hosts and writers in the media considered the racial policies of that government to constitute a real emergency -- we had to "do something" to bring down this White government. Was it during this period that your awareness was developing?

DF: Absolutely. The whole world had sanctions against us. We were told how we were "oppressing our Blacks" and we looked at our accusers and asked "How are we oppressing them?" They had the highest living standard in the whole of Africa.

And the whole basis of the complaint was that we had "stolen the land from the Blacks." And that's erroneous. We did not. The Blacks were not there before us. The first White settlers arrived in 1652. This was under the aegis of the Dutch East India Company of Holland. At that time there were only Bushmen and Hottentots -- neither of which are Negroes. Bushmen are Sanids and Hottentots are Khoisanids; they are not Negroids. The Hottentots died out in 1715 and 1717 in two smallpox epidemics, and what is left of them exists only in the Colored [mixed] population; the Bushmen migrated to South West Africa (Namibia) where the Blacks are killing them today..

The first Blacks (the Nguni peoples) didn't come down to our part of Africa until the late 1700s, when they came from the Central African-Uganda area. Blacks really started to swarm into South Africa only after gold and diamonds were discovered. And that was due to Cecil Rhodes and his diamond and gold mining cronies who were importing Black labor from all over. These Blacks came in, worked on contract, and after, say, three years, they were just let loose. And this is how they came to be in South Africa. Today, the country belongs to them. This is a good lesson for both America and Europe: immigration of unrelated, dissimilar peoples into a white nation will eventually result in the whites being outbred, ousted from all power, and eventually being genocided. We whites, the smallest population group in the world, have to have safe homelands where we can be secure amongst ourselves, and have our genepool protected, intact and unpolluted. This is a basic requirement for survival. Failing this, extinction glares us in the eye.

Up until the handover to the ANC, there were something like nine different Black ethnic groups in South Africa, none of which gets on with the others.

Under the system of Grand Apartheid as devised by Dr. Verwoerd, we tried to give each one of those ethnic groups self-determination -- and we actually gave them parts of our territory in order to draw them out of the White mainland. We gave them homelands like Bophuthatswana [pop. 2.5 million], which was composed of Tswanas. They come from Botswana, which is a huge country on our borders. They were brought to a high degree of independence, and Bophuthatswana was the seventh richest country in Africa before they were reintegrated into South Africa when our country was handed over to the ANC. They then reabsorbed all these independent Black nations.
[ http://www.worldstatesmen.org/South_African_homelands.html ]

KAS: So, basically, South Africa had a policy of separate development -- but it was not a policy of genocide against Blacks.

DF: Oh, absolutely not -- in fact, quite the opposite. Their numbers burgeoned under White rule because they had the benefit of our White medicine. Also, we stopped them from hacking each other to pieces. That was largely successful, but not completely. Wherever they were in proximity to each other there was still conflict. Our South African surgeons were frequently the best in the world because they had practice that was unavailable anywhere else. In a place like Soweto -- a big Black township, although the different tribes lived in different sections, they would come into contact with each other, and attack one another.

KAS: Yes. I can remember, not only in the 70s but all the way through the 80s and part of the 90s, the endless demonstrations in front of the South African embassy. Even some celebrities, such as Amy Carter, would demonstrate there. And there was a sense of urgency, promoted I think mainly by the media. We were told it really was an "emergency." We had to bring down this "evil" White government.

However now we have a situation in which we hardly ever hear anything at all about South Africa in the media. Apparently, everything there must be fine. Since they voted in the new constitution 11 years ago, now that there is a Black ANC government, clearly there's no emergency anymore and everything is all right -- at least according to the so-called American media. Do you agree with that?

DF: Absolutely not. The beauty of the South African situation is that it shows up the hypocrisy of the New World Order. Yes, you're quite right, there was a sense of urgency that the "hateful" Apartheid regime needed to be removed, because we were "oppressing the Blacks."

Well, today, South Africa, especially Johannesburg, is the rape and murder capital of the world. There is terrific lawlessness. In fact, total lawlessness: You’re even afraid to call the police because you never know if the police are going to attack you or not. For a White person, it's particularly bad -- but it's extremely bad for the Blacks too. They have been unable to sustain the country; it's rapidly becoming a Third World country.

Soon after Mandela took power, we had this insurgence of Blacks from all over Africa -- so that we gained over 20 million people. They're squatters; they're on people's land. The ANC is not doing anything to protect the landowners, who are being murdered. There is a policy of genocide going on right now in South Africa which is almost totally ignored by the media.

KAS: That's a strong word to use -- genocide. What evidence is there that genocide is taking place and that genocide is the intention of the current rulers of South Africa?

DF: You had a youth leader of the ANC who adopted as his motto "Kill a farmer; kill a Boer." That was his motto. The ANC also uses the slogan “one settler, one bullet.”

KAS: Now 'Boer' means 'farmer' in Afrikaans, the language of many of the White South Africans, correct?

DF: Yes.

KAS: And ANC stands for African National Congress. That was the Black Marxist party which was handed power in 1994. And you're telling me that their actual open slogan used by one of their leaders was "Kill a farmer; kill a Boer"?

DF: Yes, absolutely. And since then there have been between 1,700 and 1,800 murders -- brutal murders -- of Afrikaner farmers. Now these murders are usually without any monetary motive. Some of the earlier ones we had pictures of, but since then there's been an ANC policy that pictures are not to be released and these stories are not to be covered because they "incite racial hatred" or whatever. Afrikaners have been protesting in the streets about this.
[ http://www.nationalvanguard.org/story.php?id=2677 ]

I'll just give you an example of what is happening: A farmer would go out to work his land. Then these terrorists would come to the farmhouse and attack the wife, kill her and sometimes rape her. And then they'd wait in the house until the children came home, and kill them. Then they'd wait again until the farmer himself came home, and they would murder him. And there were different degrees of atrocities. Sometimes they'd chop the head off, sometimes they'd chop the hands off. There was one poor person who had his hands cut off, and he was castrated, and then burned to death. They had babies -- six-month-old babies -- wrapped up in newspaper and then burnt alive. There's been a whole slew of murders of elderly Whites -- like one old farmer and his wife... they shot the man, who was probably trying to defend his wife; they got hold of her, tied her to a tree, and tortured her for hours on end with boiling water before they finally slit her throat.

KAS: Sick. And you say there is no monetary motive in some of these cases.

DF: Often they wouldn't take anything. Sometimes they'd take a boom box, or sometimes a TV or VCR. But usually nothing much.

In Natal, they broke into a house where everybody was sleeping. They murdered the father and mother and I think one of the children. And there was a young boy -- a teenager about 13. They held him and forced him to watch his parents being murdered. Then they made him open the safe, from which they stole the weapons. After that they took him in a little pickup truck out into the bundoo where there's nothing at all -- took him out and then thrust their AIDS-infected tongues in his mouth. And left him to find his own way back.
[ http://www.nationalvanguard.org/story.php?id=4778 ]

And there are so many rapes these days. If all things were equal, there should be a huge outcry about the lack of rights for women in South Africa, because we are now the rape capital of the world. This is not only for Whites, but for Blacks as well. AIDS is rampant, and the Blacks are very superstitious: The witch doctors have told them -- and they believe -- that if they rape a virgin, then they will be cleansed of their AIDS. So, they are doing this to children. Even little babies have been gang-raped. You'd think there would be an international outcry about this.
[ http://www.nationalvanguard.org/story.php?id=4075 ]

KAS: Who's behind these farm murders? Who's planning them? Who's encouraging them? And why do you call it genocide?

DF: It's genocide because Blacks are going after a group -- White people -- who are identifiable by their race, their skin color. And most of the farmers are Afrikaners. So they're going after that group specifically. This is also part of their plan to "redistribute" the land. This also happened in Rhodesia, which is now Zimbabwe. They drove off all the White farmers, but they didn't murder them as much as they're doing in South Africa. They basically just drove them off the land. And that has received some publicity. But in South Africa they're actually murdering them.
So if your skin is White you are a target. You have to be very careful. I have lost several friends already, who've been murdered there. If you have Blacks committing murder on Whites, on a specific group, then you have to say it's genocide. And nobody's doing anything about it.

In fact, I have a very interesting case that is quite damning of the ANC and their complicity in all this. It's the case of Rick Theron and his common law wife Estelle van Dyk, who had a farm where they retrained racehorses. When they bought the farm it had a couple of squatters on it, living in some of the outbuildings. But Theron and his wife really needed that space for their own servants. So they tried to negotiate with the squatters and get them off. After a time, they were actually successful, and the squatters moved.

Then the ANC came along, and told these squatters "You don't have to leave." And they brought them back onto the property in Government trucks! You can imagine what that did to the attitude of these invaders: "This is our place; you can't do anything about it."

Then there were cars driving around the property at all hours of the night, driving right past their house and making a noise. So the couple would complain. They would complain to the ANC. And they left a paper trail. All the time. Without any success.

The numbers of these squatters just burgeoned. They started pulling down the buildings that were there. They just took them apart, removing various parts of the buildings. They even started taking things off the house. They threatened the servants, told them they were going to kill them. There were parts of the couple's property that they could no longer use because it was too dangerous. The squatters told the couple many times that they were going to kill them.

So Theron and his wife complained, over and over again, to the ANC. They described one interview they had with an ANC official. They said she could hardly look them in the eyes. They were told "You're racists. You're just part of the oppressors."

The wife replied "I've been a nurse. I spent my whole time under the so-called Apartheid regime nursing Blacks in Soweto. I never did anything to oppress anybody."

KAS: If you're White, it's very, very difficult, I understand, to get the police or the other authorities to help you. You're almost helpless against these marauding gangs.

DF: Absolutely. The upshot of the story for this couple is that Rick was finally killed by these invaders. He was outside when they butchered him. Rick was hacked to pieces with an ax and Estelle barricaded herself in the house. The squatters tried to hack down her door and she shot through the door but missed, and one of the attackers shot her through a window. The keys of their 4x4 were on the kitchen table, but neither the 4x4 nor anything else was taken.

So they were murdered. But they did leave that paper trail. And it shows how the ANC was backing up the squatters and how they totally supported everything that was going on.

KAS: Now you told me before the program that this attempt to commit genocide against the Boers is not the first attempt.

DF: No. The first attempt was in 1899 to 1902, during what the British called the Boer War -- the Afrikaners called it the English War. And that is, of course, what it was. At the time of the discovery of gold there, the two Boer republics, the Transvaal and the Free State, had been recognized as independent states by international law. So Britain couldn't gerrymander the border as she had done upon the discovery of diamonds.

KAS: So this was very much like the war of American independence 120 years before.

DF: Yes, there are many similarities. In fact our whole history is very similar.

So gold was discovered in the heartland of the Transvaal, and the Brits of course wanted to have control of it. There were some important gold mine owners; perhaps the most significant among them was Cecil John Rhodes. This is a man who had a vision of One World Government under Anglo-Saxon control. Unfortunately, he was sponsored and financed by Rothschild – Baron Rothschild, who was not an Anglo-Saxon.

KAS: He was a Jew...

DF: Yes, he was a Jew. The major gold mine owners were all Jews -- other than Rhodes who was English, but the representative of Rothschild. Their names were Alfred Beit, Julius Wernher, Barney Barnato, Sammy Marks and Solly Joel. They had links with all the international financiers.

And Paul Kruger, who was the president of the Transvaal at the time, was very opposed to this whole bunch of people. The Afrikaners were strong Calvinists and considered that money was the source of all evil. And they could not stand these English-speaking materialists and opportunists who had invaded their land. I mean, we had just purchased that land with our blood, sweat, and tears!

We didn't even have a standing army or anything like that. We were very much a pioneer republic.

So the financiers fronted the money to build up propaganda against the Afrikaners, and the whole character of the Afrikaner was smeared and totally destroyed. And they finally whipped Britain up into a war.

As I said, we didn't have a standing army. And Britain sent out a quarter of a million troops. So how could you fight when you don't have an army? This is really where guerrilla warfare got off the ground. They would ambush the Brits and then run to the nearest farm, change horses, and gallop away to fight again another day. So the British realized that they couldn't win with a conventional war. I think in the whole war, four years, they were only able to kill 3,000 men in the field, so they devised a new plan.

I think it a pro pos to explain here that Rhodes’ major business partner was Baron Nathaniel Rothschild who had financed him to the tune of some One and a half million Pounds. Soon afterwards (with Barney Barnato, who was financed to the tune of some Five and a half million Pounds), he formed the De Beers Consolidated Mines. The Rothschilds appointed Sir Carl Meyer (also a Jew) as their watchdog director, while Sir Alfred Beit (Jew) became Life Governor.

All these mining companies were enmeshed: The Rothschild’s together with the Mosenthals, in London and South African Exploration Co. also had a financial interest in the enormously powerful firm of Wernher Beit and Co., which owned huge tracts of land and gold mines in South Africa. I’ll quote here from J.B. Taylor of Wernher Beit & Co. in his book A Pioneer looks back,( 1939, p. 109): “When Beit realized that it would be necessary to obtain the support of international financiers and bankers in order to raise all the capital required for the gold mining industry, he decided to broaden the market by giving participation to the Rothschilds of Germany, Austria, and France.”

Baron Nathaniel Rothschild also facilitated a meeting between Rhodes and the leading politicians of Britain at his residence at Tring Park (Daily Telegraph, 8th January, 1935), in order to further the behind-the-scenes manipulation obtain a strangle-hold on South African diamond and gold mines through the British, and

The new strategy they devised was a scorched earth policy, which included the first concentration camps in the history of Western civilization. Incredibly, Milner himself was reported as saying that ‘the purpose of the Scorched Earth Policy and the imprisonment of the Afrikaans families in Women’s Concentration Camps was to annihilate the great Afrikaner nation forever and ever. Amen.’

The policy was actually carried out by, Lord Milner, Lord Kitchener and his “Kindergarten,” and Lord Roberts. Kitchener was so close to the Rothschilds that later on, during In the First World War, Alfred Rothschild, Nathaniel’s brother, paid him daily visits at the War Office. Milner also had close ties to the Rothschild family.

They burnt down all the houses and the crops in the field, took whatever animals they could, killed the rest, and then took the women and children and put them in concentration camps. They were taken out on long journeys in all kinds of weather -- in the blazing African sun, in open cattle trucks. They were put in concentration camps whose locations were purposely chosen to be bad for the health of the prisoners.

KAS: You have said that these were the first concentration camps in the history of Western civilization.

DF: That's right -- and they were for women and children only. Typhus broke out in the camps and one fifth of the population died. And there were other deliberate things.

For instance, my own great-grandmother was in a concentration camp, and they were given flour with ground glass in it. They were given bully beef with little metal fishhook-type things in it. My great-grandmother had a whole big bag full of these fishhooks that she'd fished out. And they have exhibits in the Vroue Monument in Bloemfontein, too.
See http://www.boer.co.za/boerwar/hellkamp.htm

According to a British journalist, WT Stead, the concentration camps were nothing more than a cruel torture machine. He writes: "Every one of these children who died as a result of the halving of their rations, thereby exerting pressure onto their family still on the battle-field, was purposefully murdered. The system of half rations stands exposed and stark and unshamefully as a cold-blooded deed of state policy employed with the purpose of ensuring the surrender of people whom we were not able to defeat on the battlefield."

KAS: This is another story that Americans have not been told.

DF: No, they've never heard it.

The captives were given bad rations -- rotten meat, and so forth. We have pictures of children that look like Bergen-Belsen inmates, from typhus. We received no war reparations, not even an apology when the Queen was apologizing to everybody for what the British had done to them, including the Australian Aborigines but they refused to apologize to us because we were then as now, an obstacle to the New World Order – and the international financiers.

But there were a couple of Bittereinders -- Boers who continued to fight even after most of the people had surrendered. They fought so hard because the British were demanding unconditional surrender. They kept on fighting until they negotiated a better treaty. Afterwards, in 1910, we achieved Union and self-rule and so forth to complete independence under Dr. Verwoerd -- which, for the British, pretty much undid all the gains of the war.

And today we have the same people, the same moneyed elite, still trying to get rid of the Afrikaner.

This whole One World Government got a real spurt in South Africa through the diamond and gold mines and through Rhodes and the Rothschilds. As I said before, Rhodes had this idea of creating a cabal, a secret society, to take over the world for the British. But then he left as his executor -- Rothschild. So there were two purposes going at the same time; one group thought they were creating something for the British, and then you had Rothschild and his group, who were basically achieving their own separate ends, slowly subverting British rule.

A direct connection with the present fall of the Afrikaner dates back to the De Beers Consolidated Mines, of which the Jew Sir Ernest Oppenheimer, (the father of Harry Oppenheimer who financed the ANC) later became the Chairman. And Harry Oppenheimer actually boasted after the handover of power to Mandela that he, Oppenheimer, had really been "the quiet engine running the ANC for all these years."

KAS: Now it's widely perceived that the present government of South Africa is a "Black government." But you told me, and I believe you mentioned in your speech in New Orleans, that the ANC government does include a strong Jewish influence. Can you elaborate on that?

DF: There are about 11 Communist Jews who are in the cabinet and in other high positions in South Africa; many were appointed as soon as Mandela gained power. Joe Slovo was the most important. He was a Lithuanian Jew who was also a KGB colonel. He really brought the ANC to power. The ANC was a nondescript little group when he came in with the South African Communist Party (SACP) and took over. He wielded a great deal of power. He sort of swapped positions all the time, whether it was the ANC or the SACP or the Umkhonto we Sizwe which was the military arm of the ANC – the

terrorist arm. He finally wrote the constitution of South Africa. He has died in the meantime.

The Communist Jews included in Mandela's cabinet and other high positions were:

Gil Marcus - SACP, Vice President of the S.A. Reserve Bank
Trevor Manuel - Minister of Finance (Colored)
Alec Erwin - Minister of Trade and Finance
Ronnie Kasrils - Minister of Water Affairs and Forestry
Helena Dolny - Communist, former wife of Joe Slovo, Executive director of the Land Bank

Prof. Louise Tager - chairman of Spoornet (RSA's railway system)
Michael Katz - the ANC-SACP's chief consultant on taxation
Meyer Kahn - managing director of the police service

Many of these are still in office. Three of the 11 Constitutional Court Judges are Jewish: Richard Goldstone; Arthur Chaskelson; Albert Sachs.

The (spurious) official opposition party, the Democratic Party (DP), is controlled by Jews: Tony Leon was supported by Helen Suzman, Harry Schwartz, and was always financed by the Jewish mining magnate Harry Oppenheimer. Since Oppenheimer's death, his son Nicki heads the financial enterprise from London, and presumably still supports the DP. Ironically, the "official opposition" is the same party which throughout the Oppenheimer years was constantly lobbying for concessions to the ANC.

KAS: So you have South Africa's probably richest man, the Jewish mining billionaire, stating that he was the power behind Marxist revolution. To most people, that would just blow their minds. It's inconceivable.

DF: That's right. This shows again the connection between Communism and capitalism.
[ http://www.nationalvanguard.org/story.php?id=4788 ]
[ http://www.nationalvanguard.org/story.php?id=4797 ]

***

Be sure to be with us next week for the second part of our interview with South African expatriate and truth-teller extraordinaire Deirdre Fields, who will show us the tremendous and terrible lesson that the death and destruction of South Africa holds for White America.

***

If we join together, we can avoid such death and destruction and build a clean, safe, secure, and progressive world for our children. Won't you help us by joining National Vanguard today? If you're unable to join, you can still financially support our efforts and remember us in your estate planning. For further information on National Vanguard, write to Post Office Box 5145, Charlottesville VA 22905, or visit http://www.nationalvanguard.org/ and click on the "join" link at the top of the page. We appreciate your support.

Until next week, this is Kevin Alfred Strom reminding you of the words of Richard Berkeley Cotten: Freedom is not free; free men are not equal; and equal men are not free.

***

(We've added to the above text some links and additional detail provided to us by National Vanguard researchers and by Mrs. Fields herself, subsequent to the original interview.)

Mbeki's hipocrisy

2005-06-24T13:58:00.000-07:00

Mugabe is at it again. His newest atrocity: bulldozing the domiciles of thousands of people, leaving scores homeless and starving. His comrades in crime, the African Union (which includes Thabo Mbeki, president of South Africa), have unsurprisingly failed to criticize Zimbabwe's infringement of human rights.

It is ironic that Thabo Mbeki's ANC, who are celebrating the 50th anniversary of their Freedom charter, are refusing to criticize the Zimbabwean situation. South Africa recently supported the African Union's claim, namely that the Zimbabwe situation is a matter of "internal legislation" which should not be interfered with. This attitude of the ANC seems to be very contradictory with their calls for international sanctions and interference in South African politics a few decades back, during the apartheid era.

South Africa's (more specifically: the ANC's) continuous refusal to criticize Robert Mugabe's reign of terror, prove that they are not the saintly knights of human rights they claim to be.

Sources:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/africa/4620977.stm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/africa/4618341.stm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/africa/4111218.stm

48% increase in black suicides in SA since apartheid ended in 1994...

2005-06-16T02:52:00.000-07:00

June 14 2005 - Sapa -- Black South Africans are so stressed about their present living conditions under the ANC-regime that they are taking their own lives in unprecedented numbers. This past decade has seen a 48% increase in suicides among black people as more South Africans than ever before.

http://allafrica.com/publishers.html?
passed_name=Sunday%20Times&
passed_location=Johannesburg

Nowhere is this more harshly evident than in Umtata, in the Eastern Cape - the capitol of Thabo Mbeki's own Xhosa tribe's homeland -- where an academic found a suicide rate at 30 per 100,000 people -- almost twice the World Health Organisation's estimated global average of 16 per 100 000."More and more people are committing suicide," said Professor Banwari Meel, who has published five papers on suicide in the Umtata region."Female suicide in particular is increasing. In the last five years it has increased at least threefold."

http://allafrica.com/publishers.html?
passed_name=Sunday%20Times&
passed_location=Johannesburg

Do the ANC benefit if AIDS-sufferers die sooner?

2005-06-08T03:00:00.000-07:00

The South African government, more specifically, President Thabo Mbeki and Minister Manto Tshabalala Msimang, are notorious for their controversial and misguided statements concerning HIV/AIDS. The South African government (which is governed by a two-thirds ANC majority) has also been reluctant to supply anti-retrovirals to AIDS-patients. This 'apathy' of the SA government often baffles even the most resolute ANC-supporters.

To better conceive the motivation behind the ANC's dubious behaviour, one must bare in mind that South Africa has the highest AIDS-infection rate in the world. Here is a summary of South Africa's current(2003) AIDS status, as provided by UNAIDS:

Adults between the ages of 15 and 59 have a prevalence rate of 21.5%
There are 5100 000 adults between the ages of 15 and 59 living with HIV

Thus, out of a population of roughly 40 Million people, about 5 Million will die due to AIDS within the next ten to twelve years. During that period, the number of people infected with AIDS will increase considerably. Thus it can be said, bearing in mind the damning statistics, that South Africa's AIDS-status is beyond critical.

The ANC draw most of their support from the country's black population (blacks make up 70% of the country's population), which means that the ANC might quite possibly sustain a substantial blow to their support-base due to AIDS-related deaths.

It can also be said that the longer an AIDS-sufferer lives, the bigger the chances are that such a person might infect another.

There is no doubt that the ANC is doing everything they can to stop the spread of the disease. This can be seen by their arduous awareness-campaigns. However, the government's reluctance to provide anti-retroviral drugs to AIDS-sufferers, and recent reckless comments on HIV/AIDS by both the minister of health, Manto Tshabalala Msimang and the state president, Thabo Mbeki, shows a tendency of reckless behaviour towards those that are already infected with HIV.

What are the chances that they are intentionally trying to shorten the lifespan of AIDS-sufferers, and thereby the likelyhood of them spreading the disease?

Discussion forums for Africa!

2005-06-01T13:49:00.000-07:00

Disaster Africa now has brand-new discussion forums! The permanent link to the forums is situated on the right-hand-side of the page, under "Tools & Functions".

Is this the start of a Zimbabwean civil war?

2005-06-01T05:09:00.000-07:00

More than 22,000 people have been arrested in the recent crackdown on Zimbabwe's shantytowns, a police spokesman has told state media.

Click here to read more...

Deadly proof...

2005-05-27T07:21:00.000-07:00

Here is some facts, as sent to us by the highly renowned reporter, Adriana Stuijt, to support the claims of the previously placed letter:

Black South Africans do not want to farm...
- 'Give us urban houses and urban jobs, not farms'

by Adriana Stuijt, secretary, Foundation for Afrikaner-asylumseekers International (http://www.afrikanerfuture.info) .

Afrikaner farmers have been saying this for the past ten years, but the ANC-regime's relentless ethnic-cleansing campaign to get all Afrikaners out of the countryside under the guise of "land reform" has marched on regardless -- and caused more than 1-million lost jobs among black farm workers.

Now a new study by the Centre for Development and Enterprise has confirmed that the entire "land reform" programme has been a sham from the start: namelythat most black South Africans do not even want to farm.

* But they do want jobs, houses and effective services in urban areas, according to a new study by the Centre for Development and Enterprise.

"Urban housing reform" next?

What will be next -- will all Afrikaners now also be ethnically-cleansed from their urban homes, this time under the guise of "city housing reform"?

* The Xhosa-ruled ANC-regime is already cleansing Afrikaners out of the entire public sector and job market -- exactly as did the Nazis to the Jews in Nazi-Germany and its occupied territories under the Nazis "Neurenberg racial purity laws".
* Under Nazi-rule, Jews also were not allowed to hold jobs in the public or private sector, nor were they allowed to own land or indeed any private property whatsoever, and they could only run a business with a "Aryan co-partner" as a front.
* This is also what is happening to the Afrikaner in South Africa today, under the ANC regime's so-called "black economic empowerment" programme...

Read report here...

* Also see:

ANC's Neurenberg laws are called "Umrabulo"
- from the ANCs own website, we read how Afrikaners are being cleansed from all public life in South Africa:

http://www.anc.org.za/

"Empowerment charters are a site of struggle
While empowerment charters are highly contested terrains, they present new possibilities to enhance empowerment, improve implementation and monitoring, and develop empowerment as a central component of the national transformation agenda, writes Andy Brown.

The imperatives of economic transformation and empowerment as a condition of national liberation have been a fundamental tenet of ANC policy since the time of the Freedom Charter. While the scope of the concept has shifted over time and varying terminology used to describe its elements, Black Economic Empowerment (BEE) has evolved as a central component of transformation.

Measures to redress the imbalances of the past are not only moral and political; our economy will not sustain growth while the majority are excluded from meaningful participation in productive activities and while there are high levels of poverty and unemployment. While BEE is not the panacea for transformation and poverty eradication, it can address a number of the challenges confronting us as part of an overall growth and development plan.

Black Economic Empowerment has developed to incorporate a wide range of interventions and strategies, many of which have been implemented by government over the past ten years. These include improving the capacity of our education system, land reform, rural development, small and medium enterprise (SME) support, skills development, access to finance for business, and preferential procurement.

More recently, government has proposed a comprehensive approach within which the private sector should implement BEE. Greater certainty has been given on definitions and measurement indicators, to enable the implementation of company BEE strategies. Sectors have also been encouraged to design transformation charters.

Black Economic Empowerment is therefore aimed at addressing a number of systemic problems in our economy. These include the narrow base and concentrated nature of ownership and control, inadequate investment in skills development, low levels of entrepreneurship, limited investment in underdeveloped areas and high unemployment.

As we learn from its implementation challenges our understanding of BEE will deepen and the policy is likely to continue to evolve. Despite the differing views, debate on BEE is essential to assist in the evolution of the concept. The need for inclusive engagement is particularly evident where charters are concerned.

Many critics, however, appear to have difficulty in appreciating the value creation that protagonists of BEE believe in. On one hand the approach of most companies, either bound by charters or under pressure by procurers of service, is compliance driven. On the other, increasingly vociferous concerns are raised about the narrow base of BEE, questioning how progressive and broad based BEE truly is.

GOVERNMENT POLICY REFLECTS ANC PRIORITIES

The ANC's Stellenbosch Conference in 2002 resolved to support the broad-based BEE process (see below). These ANC positions directly led to the adoption by government of the Broad-Based BEE Strategy and Broad-Based BEE Act in 2003. Both the strategy and the Act are based on numerous policy discussions and resolutions adopted by the ANC on BEE, as well as the considerations of the BEE Commission (BEECom) report.

Government has defined broad-based BEE as the economic empowerment of all black people including women, workers, youth, people with disabilities and people living in rural areas through diverse but integrated socio-economic strategies. The government's strategy outlines a number of state-led BEE programmes and includes a balanced scorecard, against which enterprises and sectors can design BEE strategies and measure progress made in achieving empowerment. The current version of the scorecard has three core elements:

* Direct empowerment: ownership and control;
* Human resource development; and
* Indirect empowerment: procurement, enterprise development and corporate social investment.

Government has released a draft code of practice, which includes a revised scorecard.

* The new code provides significantly more detail on measurement indicators, weightings and targets.
* As it is finalised, it is hoped that terminology such as direct and indirect empowerment will be discarded as it gives the impression that enterprise development or other residual elements are less directly empowering than ownership.

The Broad Based BEE Act is enabling rather then prescriptive. It provides for the establishment of the BEE Advisory Council, the publishing of codes of practice and the gazetting of transformation charters. The challenge in implementation of the Act is that it does not compel the private sector to set empowerment plans and report on progress. Although said to be the subject of a future code of practice, the absence of a legislated reporting requirement may lessen its impact.

Notably the Act does give substantially more definition to Broad-Based BEE and its objectives. Firmly turning away from a very narrow definition, BEE is understood in its broadest sense as the economic empowerment of all black people through diverse but integrated socio-economic strategies.

Both the strategy and the Act argue that economic growth and empowerment are complementary and related processes and that if we do not implement BEE, "the stability and prosperity of the economy in the future may be undermined". In other words, the inclusion of black people in economic activities is seen as a necessary element of a growth strategy.

The role of the private sector, particularly in relation to the complementary nature of BEE and growth, may not have been sufficiently emphasised. Unless we understand that BEE is fundamental to the development and growth of our economy, businesses will continue to implement it half-heartedly, not appreciating the real value beyond short term gains of compliance and not fully understanding the benefits of implementing all aspects of BEE well in their own companies.

The inability of the private sector to implement BEE in an integrated and holistic manner may restrict the broad-based impact of BEE and hamper its potential to foster growth.

The South African Communist Party (SACP) has recently argued that the language of the Freedom Charter has been replaced by 'black economic empowerment', which according to the SACP is "a clear divergence, if not contradiction". The same document aligns BEE to 'Black Advancement' and the "co-option of the few to a project of deracialised capitalism".

This characterisation misrepresents the role of black business in meaningful advocacy on transformation of the economy and in the development of a BEE policy. Most critics of BEE, while supporting broad based BEE imperatives, seldom draw adequate distinctions between policy, practice and the various role players. The resultant perception that BEE as a policy framework involves only the transaction activities of black people in business and that it therefore results in black enrichment is incorrect and misrepresents the evolution of the concept in ANC and government policy.

ENGAGING THE CHARTERS

In June this year we celebrate 50 years of the Freedom Charter. Will the charters being drafted today match up to the spirit of the Freedom Charter and more importantly, will they have the desired impact on the will of all South Africans to transform our society?

Initially mooted by the Department of Minerals and Energy (DME), the BEE Commission (BEECom) and the National Economic Development and Labour Council (Nedlac), transformation charters are negotiated agreements between stakeholders, aimed at driving transformation in the economy.

Charters have added impetus to BEE. They present the possibility of establishing a transformation framework beyond the parameters of how the private sector has implemented BEE to date. Charters provide opportunities to address a range of challenges confronting the economy on a sector-by-sector basis, while enhancing stakeholder commitment.

Characterised by contested views as to how broad-based the charter should be, they are an important site of struggle.

Charters are provided for by the Broad-Based BEE Act. The mining, liquid fuels and financial sectors have already gazetted charters in terms of the Act, while more are expected in transport, property, construction, the accounting and legal professions, health, agriculture, wine, cosmetics, information and communications technology (ICT), advertising and tourism. The experience of the earlier charters is formative and ongoing review is essential. There are some obvious challenges, which need to be addressed to improve on outcomes.

The charters are drafted in the sprit of negotiation; they do contain standards albeit agreed to in a contested environment. Often, those better resourced with time and skills, as well as financial capacity, come out ahead. Hence the imperative of inclusive charter discussions.

Development of charters has been a contentious issue with confusion reigning among black and white business, organised labour and government about who drives and who constitutes negotiating partners. Until recently most have not effectively involved community and organised labour in their drafting.

In the case of the Mining Charter, the Department of Minerals and Energy initially drove the process, bringing in business and labour later on. The consequence of less inclusive development was negative and impacted on the final charter. This is evident in the scorecard, which is more vague in its commitments than would have been desired by government and labour constituencies.

The Financial Sector Charter was led by business in consultation with government, but with limited participation from labour and social partners. The inadequate consultation threatened to undermine the legitimacy of the charter after it was signed. These stakeholders were interested parties in this charter and they had actively driven campaigns to transform the financial sector. They should have been included as negotiating partners. Today, however, they have equal representation in the oversight structure, the Financial Sector Charter Council.

The ICT, transport, tourism, construction and property charters are being driven by steering committees. Government is playing an active role and Nedlac has been briefed on most of these charters.

Charters are not negotiated at Nedlac. However, a minimum requirement is that charters should be tabled at Nedlac, participation invited and a final report sought from Nedlac for submission to the respective minister on conclusion of a charter, as is done with significant legislation or policy.

Organised labour and community representatives have been invited to participate as negotiating partners in the transport, construction and property charters. The ICT charter steering committee was recently reconstituted to ensure better representation of all stakeholders. Black business is participating in most of the charters through chambers and professional bodies.

While it is not always easy to involve everyone, the inclusion of any stakeholder who is affected by a sector, who would sign a charter and who could implement a charter, should be sought. The absence of representative, inclusive and empowered stakeholder participation in negotiations compromises the potential impact of charters and limits their broad-based scope.

MORE THAN NARROW CHANGE

Charters often encompass diverse and large sectors, where the nature and the varying types of firms within it necessitate establishing a common threshold or industry mean on which to set targets. While transformation is built in, the mechanisms don't always capture the interests of all stakeholders. Similarly, the scope and content of charters is difficult to define and its broad-based nature contested.

The indicators of the BEE scorecard - which include ownership, control, employment equity, skills development, targeted procurement, enterprise development and corporate social investment - are always considered. But BEE is about more than narrow change. It must follow that companies and sectors should understand their role and contribution to transformation in the economy and accordingly define relevant indicators for inclusion in the charter.

In line with this, some charters have introduced additional residual indicators. The Mining Charter included beneficiation and mining community development. The ICT charter has incorporated bridging the digital divide and access to ICT. The Financial Sector Charter (FSC) addressed access to transaction banking and savings products and targeted investment in areas of national priority.

In the construction and transport sectors the charters are expected to address job sustainability, workplace conditions and enterprise development. In the property sector stakeholders are discussing the extent to which the charter can include access to and use of property.

The weightings allocated to the various aspects of BEE in some of the more recent charters are indicative of this shift to incorporate broader transformation issues. Many scorecards increasingly place less emphasis on ownership than on the other indicators, with most allocating ownership between 15 and 18 points out of a total of 100 points.

While the recent charter frameworks are attempting to broaden the scope, greater emphasis should be placed on growth generating activities and job creation. For instance, to date few charters effectively address enterprise development, many locating the measurement of performance in enterprise development within procurement. In most competitive economies small and medium-sized enterprises are the lifeblood, creating labour-intensive employment, innovation and increased competition. Adequate solutions in this area should bring large-scale benefits to all. To accommodate all these aspects of BEE, especially in diverse and large sectors, innovation in both qualitative and quantitative instruments and in scorecard design is fundamental.

Most important, given some of the challenges, well constructed reporting, monitoring and review mechanisms are critical. Without reporting, progress can never be evaluated and little is left to implement.

PARTICIPATION FOR GROWTH AND DEVELOPMENT

Some believe that charters set defined goals and parameters that are cast in stone and must never change. This is not true. From year to year various aspects of our economic landscape will change and our understanding of particular issues should deepen. These factors could influence the outcomes of charters and we must therefore provide for adjustment of mechanisms by oversight structures when necessary as well as ongoing assessment of the extent to which its implementation meets the intentions and spirit of the charter. In the FSC for example, current research shows that some of the employment equity targets are already easily achievable and the council is debating a review. Such reviews and adaptability of the mechanisms must be recognised.

Perhaps the most difficult challenge confronting the implementation of BEE through charters is the approach of most companies to empowerment obligation s. Few have recognised the benefits of BEE beyond meeting tender or licensing criteria. They therefore do not appreciate the value creating potential of the various components of BEE to an individual business nor the benefits to the economy in general. Charters must become innovative tools to transform workplaces, promote productive environments and grow.

There is vast global experience that demonstrates that economies that increase the participation of people in production and address developmental requirements are more likely to become competitive.

Given the flexible approach to BEE implementation, its success is chiefly dependant on sufficient commitment among companies and industries, champions in government, participation from organised labour and community structures, and effective officials and systems.

There is evidence of growing government success in implementing BEE programmes, including targeted procurement, local economic development and SME support. Examples of private sector progress in implementing BEE, especially through charters, and evidence of real benefits to a wider base would certainly add impetus.

Black Economic Empowerment is firmly located within the national development agenda. The consultative nature, inherent partnership potential and monitoring framework provided by charters adds tremendous impetus to this. While mindsets take time to change, charters provide a framework within which stakeholders can embrace BEE in their sectors and in so doing extend its transformative outcomes.

Andy Brown is a consultant specialising in economic empowerment policy and strategy.

Resolution of the ANC 51st National Conference on Black Economic Empowerment

NOTING THAT:

Despite our efforts, South African society remains characterised by vast racial and gender inequalities in the distribution of and access to productive assets, wealth, income, skills and employment.

Fronting of Afrikaner-owned businesses:

Little progress has been made in achieving greater operational participation and control in the economy by black people, and we have instead seen the rise in so-called 'fronting'.

This limited participation of black people in the economy limits our ability to expand the productive base, sustain economic development, eradicate poverty and contribute to a better life for all, political, social and economic requirement of this country's collective future.

* BEE is defined in its broadest sense as an integrated and coherent socio-economic process located in the context of the RDP. Its benefits must be shared across society, and impact as widely as possible.

THEREFORE RESOLVES:

That Black Economic Empowerment (BEE) is a moral, political, social and economic requirement of this country's collective future.

BEE is defined in its broadest sense as an integrated and coherent socio-economic process located in the context of the RDP. Its benefits must be shared across society, and impact as widely as possible.

That the indicators for success are overall equity in incomes, wealth, increasing levels of black participation - including black women and youth -in the ownership, the extent to which there is operational participation and control of the economy and the extent to which there has been transfer and possession of skills and a retention of assets by the BEE beneficiaries.

To ensure that BEE is broad based, supportive of collective ownership programmes by working people and communities, in the form of collective enterprises and cooperatives, supportive of the creation of an entrepreneurial class, the accumulation of assets by the poor and with a focus on the development of rural economies.

That the ANC will mobilise its membership to mobilise communities in general, and targeted groups in particular - women, institutions working with children, people with disabilities, youth and the elderly - to take up the BEE opportunities and to participate in the debate.

That an essential component of BEE is the involvement of black business people, especially women, in the ownership, control and management of productive capital in all sectors of the economy as well as skilled occupations.

In pursuing this objective the ANC will work with the emergent black capitalist class to ensure joint commitment and practical action to attain increased investment, job creation, employment equity and poverty alleviation.

That the government must intensify its support for small, medium and micro enterprises as a critical component of BEE and ensure that such support reaches them.

That the ANC at all levels must continuously monitor progress in empowering black people, especially black women, youth, children, the elderly and people living with disabilities and ensure government arrives at quantitative targets in order to measure BEE.

That the ANC supports the establishment of a BEE Advisory Council representing all major stakeholders to champion BEE.
To promote the design and implementation of broad based sector or industry empowerment programmes with clearly defined targets, based on agreements between stakeholders.

To enhance the effective use of government's instruments such as licensing, procurement, state asset restructuring and provision of finance, to target BEE.

To ensure government designs an enabling regulatory framework including operational guidelines to promote certainty in the implementation and regulation of BEE.

To ensure that Municipal Integrated Development Plans factor in BEE at community levels and ensure that local government communicates opportunities for BEE.

Letter from Censorbugbear

2005-05-27T07:14:00.000-07:00

We were contacted by the well-known journalist Adriana Stuijt, and asked to place this letter. After verifying it's contents, we decided to place it here. Feel free to copy and distibute this letter:

Why does the US support the racial purity laws of Mbeki's South Africa?

Open letter to US lawmakers

I am addressing this letter to you in the hope that you will alert your voters/supporters to the desperate situation in which the Afrikaner (white) minority of 3-million is finding itself in under the black-ruled ANC-regime in South Africa. Yet the US government is still denying many of these desperately trapped people political asylum or indeed, even the right to legal immigration for reasons we cannot even begin to understand. Perhaps you could shed some light on why the US would so consistently want to deny access into the US to so many well-educated, hard-working Christian people like the Afrikaners?

(for details on these asylum-seekers see http://groups.msn.com/asielsoekers and click on "USA/VSA" . It's a bilingual English/Afrikaans website.

ANC has racial-purity laws against Afrikaners - just like the Nazis did against the Jews:
Our organisation has extensive evidence - which was even presented to Amnesty International -- that the Afrikaner nation is deliberately being ethnically-cleansed in South Africa under the (Nazi-style Neurenberg- "racial purity") laws of President Thabo Mbeki and his ruling black African National Congress party, which is run primarily by one tribe, namely Mbeki's Xhosa tribe.

* Mbeki's own tribal members are indeed the primary beneficiaries of Mbeki's policies - and are referred to as the wealthy Xhosa-elite by the SA news media -- and this fact also means that the African National Congress is a Nationalist-Socialist party, i.e. Nazi for short. Aren't Nazis outlawed in most countries? So why is your government still supporting with this Nazi party of South Africa - and indeed why is President Bush is all set to receive this vile Nazi dictator in the White House?
* The ANC's own racial purity laws - so very similar to those of the Nazis -- are called the "Black Economic Empowerment" laws - and these laws, exactly as did the Neurenberg laws to the Jews under the Nazis, also are effectively barring the vast majority of Afrikaners except a token few, from public life.
* It does not matter how well-educated or experienced these Afrikaners are in their jobs - and indeed they form the best-educated group in South Africa -- but only because of their ethnic origin, the Afrikaners now are continuously being fired and being denied access to any public- and private-sector jobs because of the "BEE-laws" - some companies even have signs up saying "Afrikaner males need not apply" -- and all because they have the wrong skin colour and speak Afrikaans at home.

The socalled 'coloured" 5-million Afrikaans-speakers are also beginning to suffer the same fate in the Western Cape province, where the Xhosa-elite is taking over all the public- and private sector jobs and firing Afrikaans-speakers under the BEE-laws - in spite of the fact that the 'coloured' Afrikaners, classified as a "previously-disadvantaged" racial group, often also supported and voted for the ANC in the past.

Clearly the ANC-regime hates all things Afrikaans, because they are also removing more than 80,000 Afrikaans names from the South African landscape, including unilaterally changing the name of the capitol city, Pretoria. It was built and founded by Afrikaners when they still had their own independent Boer Republics ( up to 1902) and therefore the name is hated by the regime.

All the Afrikaans-language schools, churches, universities and even libraries are being forced to anglicise, their language is being trampled upon in the courts where Afrikaners are often denied due process of law by being forced to conduct/participate in trials in a foreign language under the pretence that no "qualified translators" are still available.

Laws are being made against the use of Afrikaans and public presence of Afrikaners everywhere =- Afrikaner families are also being attacked and murdered increasingly in the cities for no discernable reason other than violence -- and the very land the Afrikaners' forefathers have farmed and indeed greatly improved for so many generations since 1656, is now being stolen away from them under the ANC's so-called land-reform programme - and also by the organised squatter armies the ANC supports, and which are invading farms everywhere and destroying any possibility of agricultural production by their 'slash and burn' so-called farming methods.

* Our organisation has also submitted extensive reports to your US congressman Mr Frank Wolf, who co-chairs the Congressional Human Rights Commission. He had approached us for informationabout the security situation for Afrikaners in the rural Free State.

Black South Africans don't want to farm

* Recent authoritative studies have found that most black South Africans don't even want to farm - what they really want is urban housing and urban jobs - yet the ANC regime continues with its ill-fated "land reform campaign" (for details on how the fraudulent ANC-regime is looting South Africa's once so productive farms, access http://groups.msn.com/censorbugbear/failedprojects.msnw ).
* The ANC regime also has withdrawn all protection from the countryside and has made gun-laws to disarm its law-abiding citizens -- thus Afrikaner farmers are not able to protect themselves from marauding gangs with AK-47s and are often being murdered in the most cruel fashion - often tortured for many hours before they are executed, often forced to watch the rape of their female relatives, however young or old they may be. The ANC regime claims these are "ordinary robberies", although from the police videos in our possession, it can be seen that many valuables are left behind on the scenes of these terrible crimes. "A Bloody Harvest", the 2003 documentary about the South African farm murders, broadcast in South Africa only once, can be accessed online to see all the horrid details.Click on:
* http://www.africancrisis.org/Movies/FM_Small_000.WMV

Dr Gregory Stanton of Genocide Watch in the US already warned from 2002 that the Afrikaner Boers (Boer=farmer in Dutch) were being greatly endangered by an approaching genocide and which the ANC-regime was doing nothing to prevent, on the contrary, they were allowing the atmosphere is hate and were themselves actively engaged in hate-speech targetting the Afrikaner minority which contributed to this atmosphere of hate in which these attacks against Afrikaners in the cities and the countryside are taking place. Read his entire report on http://www.genocidewatch.org/BoersSlain01.htm

The current death rate among Afrikaner farmers from all the many thousands of farm attacks has now risen to more than 1780, (onethousand-sevenhundred-and-eighty) and more than 20,000 people have been raped and maimed during those attacks. More than 20,000 farms have already been attacked by organised black militia groups, armed with AK-47s in South Africa since "apartheid has ended".

* These are large groups of men who drive past countless other, much more lucrative targets, often for hundreds of miles, just to carry out one attack against one specific farm - and often they don't even steal anything except the farmer''s cellphone or car, to stop him from escaping or calling for help.
* These militias are carrying out a campaign of the most incredible terror against South African farmers - yet the world, which is in a constant state of uproar about 20 murdered English-speaking white farmers in Zimbabwe, remains totally silent about this much worse death toll on South African farms. Why is that?

Our organisation, the registered non-profit Foundation for Afrikaner Asylum-seekers International, (telephone The Netherlands coutnry 31 519 561 731 ) was founded to help the Afrikaner survivors from what is rapidly becoming an all-out ethnic cleansing campaign targetting them. We classify all Afrikaners as "asylum-seekers" since they do not have a government to protect them, on the contrary, their government is their biggest enemy...

All Afrikaners are now asylum-seekers:
We help the many destitute Afrikaners - people who only a decade earlier, all held down jobs and were employers of black families -- and who now are begging in the streets of South Africa and are trying to eke out a living with subsistence farming and arts and crafts sales from church-run internal refugee camps inside the country; and we also try and help those Afrikaner families who have already managed to flee abroad from this incredible violence targetting their ethnic group.

One such family, the Botha family, was recently in the news in Berryville, Virginia - where their local pastor and the entire congregation is 100% behind them.

They can be reached for a radio interview via their pastor Rev. William K Dawson of the Duncan memorial United Methodist Church in Berryville, Virginia telephone 540 - 955-1264 - Their story follows below:

Botha Family seeks asylum in USA - Winchester Star

* Family Worries of Dangers Returning To South Africa - By Linda McCarty - The Winchester Star (Virginia USA)
* Senator Wolf of Virginia - co-chairman of the Congressional Human Rights Commission -- 'will continue trying to help them..."
Monday, May 23, 2005 - Read entire story on:
* http://www.winchesterstar.com/TheWinchesterStar/050523/Area_fears.asp

BERRYVILLE — (Virginia, USA) Eight members at Berryville’s Duncan Memorial United Methodist Church sat quietly in a semi-circle in the chapel and listened to Josef and Amanda Botha’s frightening story.

Though they were very familiar with the Bothas’ plight and had heard the story many times, signs of fear and worry masked their faces and many of their hands were tightly clasped in their laps.

The Bothas and their three daughters — Jacqui, 15, Zandri, 11, and Jomandi, 5 — are seeking asylum in the United States from South Africa.

Fearing that Amanda and their daughters would be raped and Josef would be murdered, the family got a six-month visa, sold all their belongings, and fled their country in June 2001 to live and work on farms near Salina, Kan.

“There is an AIDS epidemic in South Africa, and it is a traditional belief that sex with a virgin can cure AIDS, more so the younger the virgin, the stronger the cure,” Josef said in an emotionally filled voice.

That belief, Josef said, has “lead to the rape of even babies of only two or three months old.

Oldest daughter threatened with rape:
Prior to leaving the country, the Bothas’ oldest daughter was threatened with rape. “She was 11 at the time,” Josef said. “It was getting close to our family.”

* To protect his family before they left, Josef installed barred doors into their bedroom area.
* “Our girls couldn’t play outside, go to the swimming pool, or ride their bikes. They were prisoners in their own home,” Amanda said. “It still amazes me to see children playing outside here.”

Ethnic cleansing of the Afrikaner nation:
“There never was a time to go outside,” Jacqui said, “because we’d heard of so many people dying, especially the kids. I didn’t want to be one of them.” Josef said his life was in danger as well, because of “ethnic cleansing to rid the country of the Afrikaner nation.”

Afrikaners are any South African - Dutch or Huguenot descent. The Afrikaners were originally called Boers (farmers).
Josef, an Afrikaner, said the killings have become so common that he and his family were afraid of being “attacked, mutilated, and set afire.” Josef, who was manager of a 6,000-acre farm in South Africa, said the farm work in Kansas didn’t work out.

A month after arriving there, the family used $150 of the $400 they had brought with them to the United States and bought a car to drive to Maryland, where they’d been promised jobs. “We were waiting for our working papers, but they never came,” Josef said. In September 2001, Josef contacted an acquaintance in Chantilly, and the family traveled there.

“We found a place in Berryville to rent, and that’s how we got here,” said Josef, who at that time had a painting job from 5 a.m. to 8 p.m. in Chantilly.

* “Josef showed up for early Sunday morning worship in our chapel,” said the Rev. William K. Dawson. “The main thing he wanted to do was go to church, and I invited him and his family back for our 11 o’clock service, and they came.”
* The Botha family, who joined the church and are active members, lived in a house in Berryville for about a month and then rented an apartment.
* “The church had a housewares party for us and gave us everything,” Amanda said. “It was wonderful.”

“God provided for us,” Josef added. “If God hadn’t provided for us, we wouldn’t have met so many wonderful people.”
While the family was settling in Berryville, they also sought an extension to their visa.

“We hired a person to help with that, and we thought he’d taken care of it,” Josef said, “but all he did was take our money, $5,500, and disappear.” Josef borrowed the money from a friend at church and paid it back.

* Shortly after discovering work on the extension hadn’t been done, the family applied for asylum.
* “That’s what we should have done when we arrive in this country,” Josef said, “but we thought that was just for political figures.”

The Bothas filed an application for asylum in February 2002 with the United States Citizenship and Immigration Service, but were denied and referred to the U.S. Immigration Court. “They also denied us,” Josef said.

They next filed a petition to the Immigration Appeals Court. They received word in April 2003 that the appeal had been denied.
“The judge said there was lack of evidence of fear of persecution,” Josef said. “We didn’t have any expert people to give testimony on our part.”

The family then filed an appeal with the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in July 2004, and the following October, Rep. Frank Wolf, R-10th, sent a letter in behalf of the the Bothas to United States Citizenship and Immigration Services.
In March, however, the family received notice that the second appeal also had been denied.

“They gave us no reason, just that they had affirmed the last decision. Now, our only option is to get a private bill passed in the United States Congress,” Josef said.

“Congressman Wolf, however, doesn’t feel there is enough evidence to support a private bill,” Dawson said, “but I feel there is, and there are a lot of people who feel there is. The statistics of rape and murder on the Internet even supports us.”

Wolf’s spokesperson, Dan Scanding, said last week that he spoke to Wolf about the Botha family, and Wolf said he was going to continue trying to help them.

The Bothas and their friends also are seeking assistance from U.S. Sen. George Allen, R-Va.; State Sen. H. Russell Potts Jr., R-Winchester; and Sen. John Warner, R-Va. “We’ve sent letters to them asking them to help us with a bill in Congress,” Dawson said.

Opened up their own landscaping/farming business:
Although Josef, who with is family are currently listed as legal, registered aliens, is very worried about deportation, he refuses to give up and has opened his own business doing farm work, landscaping, and construction.
“I have my own bulldozer,” he said.

* Amanda, a certified nurses assistant, is a private-duty nurse.
* The children attend Clarke County schools. “They all have above average grades, and Jacqui and Zandri are both doing excellent in softball,” Josef said.

"Big injustice: " - chairman of the church:
Glen Hetzel, chairman of the church’s administrative council, said he hopes the United States will help the Botha family.
“I feel like it’s a big injustice the way the system has treated them,” Hetzel said.

* “I can’t sleep at night with the thought of them being deported,” Dawson said.
* Just as in the past, Josef believes “God will provide for us and take care of us.”
* “These are children given to us by God to raise and care for,” he continued.
* “So we are pleading for our children’s sake for help and the prevention of being deported to South Africa.”
* http://www.winchesterstar.com/TheWinchesterStar/050523/Area_fears.asp

from: Adriana Stuijt, secretary, Foundation for Afrikaner Asylumseekers International, adrianastuijt@home.nl, telephone Netherlands country 31 519 561 731

Pretoria namechange... to protest or not?

2005-05-25T11:30:00.001-07:00

Jan Lamprecht wrote an article on the namechange of Pretoria, arguing that Afrikaners (a white, indigiounous minority) should support the namechange. Disaster Africa replied to the article on an online forum.

Here follows Jan's article"

White Afrikaners Should Support Changing Pretoria's Name to Tshwane
Jan Lamprecht - 5/26/2005
The government of South African recently decided that the name of the country's capital has to be Africanized and the city will now be called Tshwane. The renaming of towns and cities in South Africa was inevitable. In fact, renaming streets, suburbs, towns, cities and provinces is a Black pastime if you will. We whites have always looked at it cynically saying: "They can change the names, but they can't run the country." But then again, I think, proudly, that it is best the do change the names, because that will distinguish their failures from our successes. For example, Rhodesians can proudly talk about greatness of Rhodesia - and T-shirts with the old Rhodesian slogan "Rhodesia is Super" can still be bought on the Internet. And I think it is great keeping the name Rhodesia associated with success, progress, etc. On the other hand, the name Zimbabwe, reeks of failure... crass failure, incompetence, bureaucracy, etc. Similarly, while losing the name Pretoria is sad, at least you can remember that Pretoria referred to a really lovely city, with a proud history, whereas Tshwane will be an ANC creation, reeking of corruption, crime and failure.

It is even more appropriate that Tshwane is based on an ANC's anti-Zulu version of invented history. In fact, everything the ANC ever did was based on a twisted version of history/life which bore little resemblance to actual facts. So therefore it is most appropriate that even the capital city of South Africa should be named after a figment of their imagination.

I wait for the day when they remove the statue of Paul Kruger from the centre of Pretoria to replace it with an invented image of a Black man whom nobody has any idea how he looked or whether in fact he even existed.

I would also like to give Afrikaners solace by saying that when they changed the name of the capital of Zimbabwe from Salisbury to Harare, Rhodesians absolutely hated it, but now Harare is a city of failure from which evil emanates and most of us are now glad not to be associated with it.

Name changes also happen to be quite ridiculous. As the ANC is having fun, the country is quietly running into the ground - which will be their real legacy. These name changes, as with most things they do, cost amazing amounts of money and serve absolutely no purpose except to confuse. And yes, there is no doubt, that they are deliberately setting about getting rid of the Afrikaner names before getting rid of Afrikaners themselves.

Afrikaners must just keep ourselves alive, work together, stick together and bide for time. As surely as night follows day, ANC is weakening their own country, and if we were to adopt the view of the Chinese military theorist Tsun Tzu, we should actually be out there deliberately encouraging them to change all place names as soon as possible and help them to completely mismanage the public funds because it will help to weaken them even more.

Virtually all Afrikaners are too honest to even consider such a course of action, but in reality, if we really want to bring an end to the ANC rule, we should be standing by their side, encouraging their fantasies, boosting their false egos, and picking up a shovel and helping them to dig their own graves even faster.

We should be giving up farms more willingly and willingly speeding up "transformation" and Black empowerment - because it will then bring this country faster to the stage where Zimbabwe is. The sooner, the better - and maybe, if it's done well enough, the day will come, where we can see the last of the ANC. The ANC will not rule this country forever - even though they aspire to. Whether they will even last the 48 years which the National Party did, remains to be seen. People may think the ANC is invincible, but that is just another illusion. Jan Lamprecht was born and raised in Zimbabwe, then called Rhodesia, during the "Bush War", which resulted in Robert Mugabe coming to power. He was educated in Harare, the capital of the country, before leaving for South Africa, where he spent some time in the Navy. He wrote a book called "Government by Deception" about African politics related to Zimbabwe and the effects Mugabe's policies may have on other countries.

He publishes a popular, highly "politically-incorrect" web site AfricanCrisis.org"

Here follows our reply:

"Jan Lamprecht's article, "White Afrikaners Should Support Changing Pretoria's Name to Tshwane", makes a worthwhile impression, but unfortunately we must disagree.

He uses the example of Rhodesia vs. Zimbabwe throughout the whole argument, arguing that Zimbabwe reaks of failure. This is true to some extent, but failure is in the eye of the beholder. To Robert Mugabe, Zimbabwe is successful. He achieved one of his life goals, didn't he? He got rid of all the whites in the country! And at what a price to the whites!

Not to sound judgemental of the Zimbabwean farmers, but their lack of resistance was their downfall. If they stood up against Mugabe, England would have surely sent troops to protect her citizens. The situation for the whites, and the 6 million starving people inside Zimbabwe would certainly have looked better.

It goes to show: your enemy's failure is not necesarily your success!

The Admin: Disaster Africa (www.disasterafrica.blogspot.com)"

"Africanization", the death of democracy: must the west intervene?

2005-05-25T03:40:00.000-07:00

"Africanization" seems to be the buzzword on the lips African politicians these days. But what does the term really mean, and what does it entail?

Wikipedia defines the term as follows:

"...refers to the modification of place names or personal names to better reflect an "African" identity. In some cases, changes are not strictly a change of name, but simply a transliteration different from the European name (e.g. Antananarivo)"

But in South Africa and Zimbabwe, this word has a much more ominous meaning. Not only does it describe the changing of placenames, but also chasing whites of their farms and eradicating all signs of existence of western civilization. This is evident in South Africa through (amongst others) the ANC's desecration of Afrikaner monuments, the eradication of Afrikaans as learning-medium in schools and universities, and certainly not the least, the implementation of autocracy and despotism in stead of democracy. Let's not forget the genocide-induced diaspora of whites and coloureds out of Southern Africa and the so-called land redistribution policy (which takes farmland from skilled white farmers and hands it over to unskilled black persons). In short, all of this points to an intentional change of political system by the ruling party, the ANC, and its allies. South Africa mutated from a system of Apartheid, to a democracy, to an autocracy and it is currently in the transitional phase to become a totally communistic state.

The excuse of "Africanization" is often propagated to unjustly seize control of the assets of citizens and entities within Southern Africa, as was demonstrated by the Zimbabwean landgrabs.

It is no wonder then, that western mining corporations such as Anglo-American are now also being forced to "Africanize" by the ANC. This comes at a time when China and Russia are strengthening their foothold in Africa, especially in the mining-sector, and when South Africa and Zimbabwe are both "building ties" with China.

It is a well-known fact that China supplied Mugabe's supporters with T-shirts right before the election in Zimbabwe and that he himself was given several expensive bribes. The Chinese now have control over the mines in Zimbabwe. (See previous post: "Who funds Africa's oppressors?")

What is also of concern, is that uranium is one of the byproducts of some of these mines that have now been taken over by the communists, or by the communist inclined oppressors of Southern Africa. What will the Chinese and the Russians do with their newly mined uranium?

The west needs to ask itself: "Have communism ever brought prosperity? Can this oppression be allowed to continue? Can the west afford to let the mineral riches of Africa fall into the hands of the communists? Can the west afford to stand on the side while another genocide unfolds before their eyes? Is it safe to stand on the sidelines?"

Crime in South Africa

2005-05-23T01:17:00.000-07:00

Disaster Africa came across a videoclip pertaining to crime in South Africa since 1994. Since the ANC came into power in 1994, South Africa has deteriorated from a first-world country to a country with the highest crime-and-murder rate in the world, the highest AIDS rate in the world and more!

Please note that the clip contains graphic images of crime-scenes and is definately not suitable for sensitive and underaged persons! By clicking/right-clicking on the link to the video-clip you declare that you are not a minor in your country and that you are aware of the graphic nature of the video-clip.

Right-click here, and choose "Save target as" or "Save link as" to save it to your computer.

‘Total onslaught on Afrikaans’ ...language of the oppressed?

2005-05-22T10:38:00.000-07:00

The following report appeared in the South African newspaper, "Die Wêreld" (The World).

"The Democratic Alliance and the Freedom Front took up the cudgels on behalf of Afrikaans this week in parliament. Outside parliament, Afrikaans activists like Steve Hofmeyr are fighting for Pretoria’s name and in the Kalahari, parents are locked in battle to keep their schools Afrikaans.

It seems the dam has broken and people have suddenly realised that, notwithstanding Pallo Jordan’s vehement denials in parliament and various reassurances by Mr Mbeki, the ANC is not well disposed towards Afrikaans. In fact, Jordan’s denials took the form of a sharp attack on what he dismissed as ‘hysterical nonsense’. And this while his comrades in Pretoria and Limpopo, despite growing opposition, continue to remove Afrikaans place names and target one Afrikaans school after another.

Jordan threw out a challenge for Afrikaans books that have been banned and writers who have been gagged to be named. But he said nothing about Afrikaans schools and the huge number of Afrikaans children who have been deprived of their basic right to mother tongue education. Of course not.

What is of great concern is the ANC’s willingness to spend the taxpayer’s money on court cases against school governing bodies. In effect, the taxes paid by Afrikaans parents are being used to deprive their children of their language rights! Local authorities in Pretoria, the City of Tshwane, are impervious to the astronomical cost of changing the name. And whose money are they spending?

If the ANC were running a competent government and public service, one might see things a little differently. But after 11 years in power, there are still umpteen schools that don’t have even the most basic amenities, and even more where the standard of education is abysmal. The ANC should be addressing those problems rather than using ‘access’ to good schools as an excuse for their onslaught against Afrikaans schools. They would far rather level accusations of racism against Afrikaans parents who maintain and improve their children’s schools. It’s always easier to accuse others than it is to do something yourself.

The matter is out in the open. If a systematic attack on Afrikaans is ‘hysterical nonsense’, the ANC can prove it by retaining Pretoria’s name, restoring the names of Pietersburg and other towns and cities in the province of Limpopo and withdrawing the legal action against schools in the Northern Cape.

Should the ANC continue its assault on Afrikaans, the word ‘oppression’ will disappear from its vocabulary and become the property of the Afrikaans minority.
How strange that a liberation movement should be so insensitive to the freedom of others."

Click here to go to their website, and here to directly access the report.

Autonomy: the end of oppression

2005-05-16T10:43:00.000-07:00

What drives the ideal of democracy? One aspect stands out more than any other... freedom. Freedom is the exact opposite of oppression, thus it can be said that where oppression reigns, democracy is absent, and vice versa.

When viewed in the above mentioned manner, few African countries have ever been democracies. At best it could be said that they are, or were, failed democracies. Even the last statement seems overly-optimistic, since most "democratic" countries in Africa are usually dictatorships or one-party states. Again, Mugabe has to bear the brunt of our criticism. Zimbabwe claims to be a democratic country, due to the fact that they hold so-called elections. It is, however, a well-known fact that Mugabe manipulates the outcome of each election in favour of himself. Zimbabwe is thus a dictatorship rather than a democracy.

A country not far behind the likes of Zimbabwe concerning oppression, but much more refined in their tactics, is South Africa (the ANC). Here, the votes of the biggest nation (the Xhosas) is used to render smaller (indigenous) nations, like the Boer-Afrikaners and the coloureds, utterly powerless. And of course, the ruling party's discrimanatory laws favours their supporters - the Xhosas. South Africa, is currently in effect a one-party state. There is countless facts that demonstrates the degree of freedom, or rather the lack of it, in South Africa. Among them would be the high crime rate (the highest in the world since '94), genocide, mass-emigration and more. Minorities, in effect, have no vote against the two-thirds majority of the ANC (thus, the Xhosas). The popular argument of the ruling party's supporters seems to be that "the will of the people" governs matters, but that is sadly not the case. It is ironic, since the only "people" who's votes do count are the ANC's supporters's, and the rest of the people are trampled on like animals. Germany was superior in numbers to Poland, yet nobody (except some of the Nazis) saw that as a legitimate reason for the Germans to rule and oppress the Polish. Why should the same be tolerated in South Africa, Zimbabwe or any other country, for that matter?

Minorities within South Africa now feel that self-rule is the only way of achieving both freedom and peaceful co-existence with some of the other nations in Africa. The Boere-Afrikaners and coloureds, both indigiounous to South Africa, are now demanding that they be granted self-rule. Maps of possible "Volkstate" (which refers to a piece of land governed by the nation itself) have been drawn up, and debate surrounding the topic is now more heated than ever. The Afrikaners in particular have taken several steps to put a government of "their own" in place, to rule themselves and only themselves. One such a step is the recent Afrikanerraad referendum, and the Afrikanerraad elections that is planned for next year.

For more information regarding the Afrikanerraad, see www.afrikanerraad.org
Other related sites: http://capepeoplesorg.mysite.wanadoo-members.co.uk , www.praag.org

Disaster Africa now comes to you...

2005-05-16T10:32:00.000-07:00

Disaster Africa's readers corps is expanding and so are we! You can now receive our articles automatically when they are published, via an RSS-feed. If you want to activate this feature, you can click on the orange button on the right-hand-side of the page that contains the letters "RSS".

New e-mail address

2005-05-16T03:29:00.000-07:00

The admin of Disaster Africa can now be contacted via e-mail at the following address: disasterafrica@hotmail.com

Who funds Africa's opressors?

2005-05-11T08:07:00.000-07:00

Gold. The driving force behind human misery. Corruption, greed and war is just some of the notorious results of gold. Does it then come as a surprise that the continent that has the most gold, and even more precious minerals, is also the continent that is plagued by misery the most?

One can of course argue that Africa was miserable before the discovery of gold, and that African misery is rather the cause of more inherant shortcomings, such as cultural flaws or even race. Although it might be true to some extent, that type of argument, on its own, falls rather short, since it is not only blacks but also European-Africans who constantly falls victim to misery. The Boer-Afrikaners is one such example, being targeted for genocide at least two times (firstly during the Anglo Boer war by the British, and now by the ANC). Those who are familiar with the Anlgo Boer War would know that this war was ignited by the Imperialist British Government's greed for South Africa's minerals.

Numerous African governments have been made and toppled (by non-African countries) in order to take control of this continent's mineral wealth. During the last few decades, the communist countries such as Russia, China and Cuba have displayed a growing interest in Africa. Many wars in Africa have been fought with communist-supplied weapons, the weapon of choice being the Russian AK-47. The west, whose investments in Africa have been mainly through companies such as Anglo American, have slowly but surely lost control of it's mineral-investments to the Chinese.

More recent power-plays for Africa's wealth by the Chinese government includes strengthening trade-relations with Southern African countries, including Zimbabwe. One often wonders why Mugabe has not yet been overthrown, not only because of the atrocities he is committing, but also because the opposition party (MDC) has the majority of the western-countries' support. The not-so-obvious is the aid that he has received from the Chinese-government. Aid would include things like building him a new palace, scrambling opposition radio-transmissions and more dark tactics. In return, of course, they get to lay their hands on Zimbabwe's rich mineral deposits.

One can only wish that one day a few world leaders, who aren't obsessed with mineral wealth, will come to the rescue.

The Orwellian disaster of Zimbabwe

2005-05-08T09:50:00.000-07:00

Mugabe, once seen by many as Zimbabwe's liberator, has become the source of it's demise. This dictator, comrade of "Freedom Fighters" such as Mbeki and the well-known Nelson Mandela, has single-handedly transformed Zimbabwe from a productive country, to a country plagued by famine.

To those who are familiar with George Orwell's book, Animal Farm, the resemblance between Mugabe and one of the main characters of the book, Snowball, is striking. The book Animal Farm, in short, metaphorically discusses how so-called political liberators can easily turn into the most wretched dictatorial opressors. Ironically, the book ends with the starving animals revolting against its previous "liberators": a revolt that is ignited when the common farm animals are dying of hunger, while their leaders are blissfully and defyingly living like kings.

Currently, Zimbabwe is facing its biggest famine to date, which is reportedly also it's first famine ever. There are a plethora of reports, even video footage and testimonials of how Mugabe intentionally decline food to the supporters of the official opposition, the MDC. In some areas food are so scarce that people have now resorted to eating treas! And even that is becoming scarce! The cause of this is clearly not drought, since Zimbabwe faced longer periods with less rain in the past, and still it produced more than enough food. Mugabe has engineered this famine, starting when his notorious landgrabs came into action. Mugabe can't even feed his own 'supporters' (support of course that he gained through giving them the ultimatum of giving him their votes or starving) properly, yet so-called election-monitors from South Africa claimed that the elections were free and fair.

It seems that Zimbabwe's inhabitants have one of two choices: revolt or starve. Yet, it is doubtfull that they have enough energy left to wage a revolution. Who will come to their rescue? "South Africa? Nelson Mandela?", one might ask. And the simple answer would be "No". South Africa has long been silent on the issue of Zimbabwe. It is well known that the ANC and Mandela are friends and comrades of Mugabe. "What about some other African country then?", one might ask. Again, the answer would be shortly: "No". The AU (African Union) was one of the ANC's initiatives (Mandela,MBeki etc). Zimbabwe is also part of the AU. This thus prevents any other African country from intervening.

It would seem that non-African countries, or groups inside Africa that operate independantly from their governments, might be the only candidates to save Zimbabwe's 6 Million starving inhabitants.

AIDS treatments - The governments doth protest to much...

2005-05-07T14:26:00.002-07:00

South African president, Thabo Mbeki, was quoted shortly after his inauguration saying that HIV does not cause AIDS. AIDS activists in South Africa have also clashed several times with the RSA government in court on the provision of medicine to AIDS-sufferers, because the government refused to provide sufferers with anti-retroviral medication.

When comparing the South African government's behaviour with AIDS-statistics, one can not help but to shiver. Such behaviour is either proof of that government's total incompetence or of its total corruption, none being less-worse than the other. This does not bode well for the future of Africa and South Africa in particular.

Here follows an excerpt on AIDS-statistics relating to South Africa, as taken from the UNAIDS website:

By the end of 2003, an estimated 5.3 million South Africans were infected with HIV, the largest number of individuals living with the virus in a single country.

Country HIV and AIDS estimates, end 2003

Adult (15-49)

HIV prevalence rate

21.5%

(range: 18.5%-24.9%)

Adults (15-49)

living with HIV

5 100 000

(range: 4 300 000-5 900 000)

Adults and children (0-49)

living with HIV

5 300 000

(range: 4 500 000-6 200 000)

Women (15-49)

living with HIV

2 900 000

(range: 2 500 000-3 300 000)

AIDS deaths

(adults and children)

in 2003

370 000

(range: 270 000-520 000)
Source: 2004 Report on the global AIDS epidemic

Disaster Africa

2005-05-07T10:43:00.000-07:00

Africa...

The continent haunted by famine, corruption, disease, dictatorship, failed economies, wars and genocide. It seems that there is no hope for this continent and its inhabitants. Very often, this misery is blamed on the west, the "white settlers" and "colonialists" that inhabit some of these African countries. However, this can not be true, for one simple reason... these problems existed, were just as bad (if not worse), before Europeans set foot on this continent.

Racism and the term "racism" itself has been used, and are still being used, for the political gain of not only politicians outside of the U.S. but also by African politicians ("African", not meaning black but rather "from Africa"). What is especially alarming is the extent of control that some political organisations have over not ony information entering Africa, but also information exiting Africa, thus creating a "information void" between Africa and the rest of the world. A clear example of this would be Robert Mugabe, who shut down several news-institutes in Zimbabwe and banned reporters from outside the country.

It seems that in order to form more informed opinions of Africa, the "Information void" between Africa and the rest of the world needs to be filled. Thus was born: "Disaster Africa".

Adult (15-49) HIV prevalence rate	21.5% (range: 18.5%-24.9%)
Adults (15-49) living with HIV	5 100 000 (range: 4 300 000-5 900 000)
Adults and children (0-49) living with HIV	5 300 000 (range: 4 500 000-6 200 000)
Women (15-49) living with HIV	2 900 000 (range: 2 500 000-3 300 000)
AIDS deaths (adults and children) in 2003	370 000 (range: 270 000-520 000)