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Blade runner killing and the media blackout
RETURN TO REASON
Blade runner killing and the media blackout
Ilana Mercer is a writer, blogger and columnist – born in South Africa. She writes WorldNetDaily’s longest-standing, exclusive, libertarian weekly column, “Return to Reason. Ms Mercer is also a pro-Afrikaner activist and an outspoken critic of African Nationalist policies in South Africa. She is a Canadian citizen currently residing in the USA. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ilana_Mercer
Exclusive: Ilana Mercer reveals realities of South Africa’s ‘color of crime’
21 February 2013
After decades of indifference from America’s infotainment industry, imagine my surprise to hear TV anchors like Megyn Kelly of Fox News allude to the killing fields of South Africa.
South Africa should be in the news every day. It isn’t. Scant few among the West’s Yellow Press care to chronicle the country’s favorite blood sport: murder. The Afrikaners, in particular – arguably that country’s founding people – are being killed off at genocidal rates with nary a murmur from the media – although the same crowd is on the scene to report on Nelson Mandela’s every wheelchair-bound move.
According to Genocide Watch, South Africa under the African National Congress is now at stage 6 of the 8 stages of genocide. However, were it not for a little-known, heroic Internet journalist (cited in “Into the Cannibal’s Pot: Lessons for America from Post-Apartheid South Africa”), few would know who the victims of this racial onslaught are and how they die.
Soon jurist Alan Dershowitz was chiming in about “how dangerous” life in South Africa was. Dershowitz even denigrated the country’s judiciary as “a very politically correct judiciary,” “filled with people from the ANC and supporters of the ANC”; most certainly “not one of the finer judiciaries in the world.”
A subject that had been submerged since 1994 – the ramshackle state of post-apartheid South Africa – was suddenly being raised, if in veiled terms.
The reason for the heightened awareness among the criminally comatose is Blade Runner Oscar Pistorius’ run-in with the law. The Olympian amputee killed his girlfriend, model Reeva Steenkamp, in what he contends was a case of mistaken identity. This being South Africa, the crime scene in suburban Pretoria is rumored to have been contaminated by the new and notorious South African Police Services. And the prosecutor has overreached, charging Pistorius, who has no priors, with premeditated murder.
The high-profile murder is PC and TV perfect for a left-liberal media, in South Africa and beyond, that wish to peddle the myth of “colorless” crime in South Africa. It is no such thing. In the aggregate, violence in the Rainbow Nation – more appropriately called the “Rambo Nation” – is unidirectional: black on black and black on white. Violence against women generally flows in the same direction. Considering, moreover, that the country now has one of the world’s highest murder rates and lowest conviction rates, a South African thug can safely pursue his vocation without fearing the consequences.
South African authorities, universities and think tanks no longer provide information about victimization patterns by race of victim and offender. Nevertheless, in the research for my book, I uncovered data according to which, at 76.6 percent of the population, blacks committed 76.4 percent of “intimate femicides” (defined as “the killing of a female person by an intimate partner”). And they committed 68.3 percent of “non-intimate femicides”: “the killing of a woman by someone other than an intimate partner.”
Whites have proven woefully inadequate to the task of filling their pro-rata crime quotas (page 38). At less than 9 percent of the population and dwindling, the corresponding numbers for white South Africans were 3.9 and 2.6 percent, respectively.
With respect to incarceration rates, whites “underperformed” again. According to the South African Department of Correctional Services, 113,773 criminals had been sentenced as of June 2008, of whom only 2,190 were white. Whites make up only 1.9 percent of the number of sentenced criminals.
Weighing in with 90,013 sentenced individuals – approximately 79.1 percent of the total number of criminals sentenced – blacks more than filled their per-population crime allotment.
This high-profile celebrity case involves a class of people – wealthy white South Africans – whose role in the country’s violent crime is statistically insignificant. Trust a hypocritical media to turn a statistical outlier, an anomaly, into a perfect foil for the continued blackout on the color of crime in South Africa.
The incontinent gushing over Pistorius has given way to condemnation. Paranoid about security is how the athlete’s “obligingly stupid” journo friends are now labeling him. They had only ever jetted in from low-crime or no-crime countries for an interview.
More at home among the international glitterati, Oscar Leonard Carl Pistorius is no Afrikaner “everyman,” says activist Dan Roodt, who is such a man. Even so – and for all his privilege – Pistorius knows the rapacity and invincibility of the criminal class in his country. Like every other Afrikaner, he knew in his gut what infiltrating gangs would do to a legless Boer. He had seen images of the mangled bodies.
Perhaps Pistorius will speak up.
Solidarity Movement announces findings of special report on farm murders
Solidarity Movement announces findings of special report on farm murders
MEDIA STATEMENT:
Report: Farm murders should be classified as a priority crime
By Nico Strydom on 27 November 2012
‘Farm murders and attacks should be recognised for the national crisis that it is and therefore deserving of priority status and focused attention’. This is one of the recommendations in a report on farm murders and attacks that was released today by the Solidarity Research Institute (SRI). The report forms part of a national campaign against farm murders by the Solidarity Movement which includes the SRI, the trade union Solidarity, AfriForum and Kraal Uitgewers.
The report deals with subjects such as the: nature and extent of farm attacks, levels of violence during farm attacks as well as psychological effects on victims. According to Dirk Hermann, Deputy General Secretary of Solidarity, farm attacks and farm murders should be declared priority crimes. ‘Government refuses to declare farm murders, in particular, a priority crime, because as far as government is concerned it simply forms part of the broader murder category. This is unacceptable and irresponsible,’ Hermann said.
Hermann’s concerns were echoed by various experts who were involved in compiling the report. ‘It is obvious that the government no longer considers the ongoing attacks on farms and the murder of persons involved in the farming community as a priority,’ said Dr Johan Burger, senior researcher at the Institute for Security Studies, in the report’s introduction. ‘The strategic and operational response to the threat of farm attacks and murders is clearly not based on the acknowledgement that the farming community is disproportionally targeted when compared to the victimisation risk of other citizens or groups in South Africa.’
According to Prof Christiaan Bezuidenhout, a professor of criminology at the University of Pretoria, it is evident that South Africa is struggling to cope with violent crime in general and farm attacks in particular. ‘I am under the impression that the current government is not taking the disastrous enigma of farmers under siege seriously enough and they are making the farmer the outcast instead of the provider of the nation.’ Lorraine Claasen, a criminologist, says it is disconcerting that farm attacks are still not given the attention they deserve despite the harrowing details that become apparent after only reading the details of a few farm attacks; thousands of attacks have been documented. ‘In conclusion, no human being deserves being killed and in such an inhumane, unjustified and brutal manner. Why is this allowed?’
AfriForum, the movement’s civil rights organisation, distributed memorandums about farm murders to 110 embassies and international institutions in October to create international awareness about the crisis. According to Nantes Kelder, head of AfriForum’s investigating unit, the establishment of community safety networks is the most practical step a community can take to drastically reduce crime in its area. It is a legal way in which communities can take the initiative to enhance their own safety.
SOURCE:
http://www.solidariteit.co.za/en/report-farm-murders-should-be-classified-as-a-priority-crime/
Media statement, Solidarity, 27 November 2012.
Blade Nzimande incites hatred towards ethnic-Europeans
Blade Nzimande (SACP) communist agitator, Source~iAfrica.jpg
’We are undermined by whites’
Source: iAfrica
File category: Hate speech, demonizing genocide target group
SACP general secretary Blade Nzimande has called for a law protecting President Jacob Zuma against insults, The Star reported on Thursday.
South Africans had shown little respect towards blacks and their culture, and only treated Jews and Afrikaners with respect, he said.
Nzimande backed the call made by the SA Communist Party in KwaZulu-Natal on Monday, for a law protecting the Presidency from attacks that were “unfair, and lacking in fact and truth”.
He warned that Zuma supporters would soon reach boiling point.
“People can differ with me and you can insult me as you like, but disrespect, that is not acceptable,” Nzimande, the higher education and training minister, was quoted as saying by the paper.
“We are being undermined by whites.”
SOURCE URL:
http://mobi.iafrica.com/sa-news/we-are-undermined-by-whites/
Hate-Speech: ANC NOT TO BE TRUSTED WITH AGREEMENT ON HATE SPEECH
ANC NOT TO BE TRUSTED WITH AGREEMENT ON HATE SPEECH
(Archive copy)
01 November 2012
”The Freedom Front Plus would have welcomed a court decision in the Malema hate speech case, as it would have brought clarity and would have been enforceable.
The ANC cannot be trusted with the agreement it signed with Afriforum and the TAU SA about the Malema hate speech case. It is not the first time that the ANC has undertaken to encourage its supporters to desist with hate speech. Historically, the Freedom Front Plus, in 2007 had a similar agreement with the ANC, following a complaint it submitted to the Human Rights Commission (HRC). The complaint arose from placards in Dendron containing the words “All Boers are Killers” and “A Boer will remain a F***** Boer” in a protest march of the ANC. The agreement was concluded on 17 April 2007 in the hearing of the HR. and the ANC even agreed to take disciplinary action against members. Needless to say, the ANC did not stick to the agreement,” Mr. Pieter Groenewald, parliamentary leader of the FF Plus said.
”Even if the agreement with Afriforum and the TAU SA is made an order of the court, it is difficult to enforce in practice. An undertaking to “advise and encourage supporters and the leadership to act with self constraint … to avoid giving offense” is too wide. Nowhere was it agreed to, that the words sung by Malema is hate speech. According to information Malema was not present and it is doubted whether he would at all stick to the agreement,” Groenewald said.
Statement issued by Mr. Pieter Groenewald (MP), FF Plus Parliamentary Leader, October 31 2012
Source:
SAIRR amends view on farm attacks
SAIRR amends view on farm attacks
(Archive copy of original source material)
Research and Policy Brief: Farm attacks in South Africa – a new analysis
This Research and Policy Brief paper seeks to determine the extent to which farmers are uniquely vulnerable to armed attack in South Africa. It draws comparisons between the rate of attack on farmers and their families to that of other citizens in South Africa.
On 5 October 2012 the South African Institute of Race Relations released a statement on farm attacks in South Africa. The statement was based on farm attack data by the Transvaal Agricultural Union (TAU). It has since been drawn to our attention by James Myburgh of www.politicsweb.co.za that the TAU data is compromised by a significant undercount of as much as 7:1 in terms of the actual number of farm attacks. Our initial analysis has therefore been revised accordingly. The revised analysis follows below.
The table below compares the farm attack rate for farmers and their families to the house robbery rate, aggravated robbery rate, and combined aggravated robbery and murder and attempted murder rates for the broader population. It is based on three assumptions. The first is that there are 47 000 commercial farmers in South Africa. This is based on StatsSA’s Census of Commercial Agriculture 2007. The second is that the average household size for farmers is 3. This is the average household size for white South Africans. The third is that, following from James Myburgh’s analysis, TAU undercounts farm attacks by an average of 7 to 1. The fourth is that attacks on smallholdings should be included as attacks on farms.
| 47 000 farmers + 2 dependants each = 141 000 people | National population = 50.6 million people | Ratio of farm attacks to attacks on general population | |
| Rate per 100 000 people | |||
| Farm attacks vs house robberies | 422 | 33 | 12.8 to 1 |
| Farm attacks vs aggravated robbery | 422 | 200 | 2.1 to 1 |
| Farm attacks vs aggravated robbery + murder + attempted murder | 422 | 260 | 1.6 to 1 |
Table 1: Attacks on farmers and their families compared to other citizens (smallholdings included)
The table shows that based on those four assumptions the number of attacks on farmers and their dependants is 422/100 000. The number of house robberies in the broader population is 33/100 000. In this comparison farming families are 13 times more likely to be attacked than other families. However, farm attacks also include all forms of robbery and not just house robbery.
For that reason the table also compares the farm attack rate to the broader armed robbery rate in the country. Here the farm attack rate, which remains at 422/100 000, must be compared to the national armed robbery rate of 200/100 000. In terms of this comparison farmers and their families are twice as likely to be attacked as other citizens. Farm attacks also involve murder and attempted murder.
For this reason the table also compares the farm attack rate to the joint aggravated robbery/murder/attempted murder rate for the broader population. Here the farm attack rate, which remains at 422/100 000, can be compared to the national murder and aggravated robbery rate of 260/100 000. Even on this analysis farmers remain more vulnerable to attack by a ratio of 1.6 to 1.
However, the argument can be made that smallholdings are basically large urban plots and not really farms. For that reason we have published the table below which compares farm attacks, excluding attacks on smallholdings, to criminal attacks in the broader population. The other three assumptions made about the data (above) are unchanged.
| 47 000 farmers + 2 dependants each = 141 000 people | National population = 50.6 million people | Ratio of farm attacks to attacks on general population | |
| Rate per 100 000 people | |||
| Farm attacks vs house robberies | 262 | 33 | 7.9 to 1 |
| Farm attacks vs aggravated robbery | 262 | 200 | 1.3 to 1 |
| Farm attacks vs aggravated robbery + murder + attempted murder | 262 | 260 | 1 to 1 |
Table 2: Attacks on farmers and their families compared to other citizens (smallholdings excluded)
This table shows that when smallholdings are taken out of the equation the farm attack rate declines to 262/100 000 farmers and their families. Compared to the national house robbery rate of 33/100 000 farmers are on this measure eight times more likely to be attacked than other citizens.
However, the table shows that when this new farm attack rate is compared to the broader aggravated robbery rate of 200/100 000 this ratio comes down to 1.3 to 1. Furthermore, when the farm attack rate is compared to the broader aggravated robbery/murder/attempted murder rate of 260/100 000 that ratio reaches a level of parity of 1 to 1. In other words, on this measure farming families are no more likely to be attacked than other citizens.
We have also conducted an analysis of the murder of farmers, based on TAU’s more complete murder figures. In order to produce a figure for the highest possible murder rate the table below assumes that only the 47 000 farmers, and not their families, are targeted in farm murders.
| 47 000 farmers | National population = 50.6 million | Ratio of farmer murders attacks to murders in the general population | |
| Rate per 100 000 people | |||
| Farm murders vs all murders | 68 | 31 | 2.2 to 1 |
Table 3: The murder of farmers
On this measure the table shows that in 2011 some 68/100 000 farmers in the country were murdered. This compares to a national murder rate of 31/100 000. On this analysis farmers are twice as likely to be murdered as ordinary citizens. However, while farmers are particularly likely to be murdered, it is true that family members may also be murdered in attacks. It is for this reason that we have prepared the final table below, which compares the murder rate for farmers and their families to that of other citizens.
| 47 000 farmers + 2 dependants each = 141 000 | National population = 50.6 million | Ratio of farmer/family murders to murders in the general population | |
| Rate per 100 000 people | |||
| Farm murders vs all murders | 33 | 31 | 1.1 to 1 |
Table 4: The murder of farmers and their families
This table shows that in 2011 the murder rate for farmers and their families was 33/100 000. The murder rate for the broader population was 31/100 000. On this comparison farmers and their families are not more likely to be murdered than other citizens.
Keep in mind that our analysis has excluded the 220 000 emerging commercial farmers, some of whom are large producers, who may also be attacked. We have also excluded from this analysis farm managers and extended families that may live on farms and become victims of attack. Our figures therefore suggest worst-case scenarios for farming families.
What conclusions can be drawn? The first is that the past week has seen a sharp increase in the quality and level of analysis of farm attacks in South Africa. It has also focused considerable media attention on the problem. Both of these are good things.
The second is that it is possible to argue that farmers are uniquely vulnerable to attack contrary to our initial conclusions drawn from the incomplete TAU data. This is especially so where a straight comparison is drawn between the house robbery rate and the farm attack rate. The same is true for the murder rate of farmers (excluding family members).
The third is that by changing some assumptions it is possible to reach somewhat different conclusions. For example, it is reasonable to compare farm attacks, which is a term inclusive of robbery and murder, to the broader robbery and murder rates of the society. When this is done farmers remain more at risk, although by a smaller measure. However, it is when the assumptions shift to exclude smallholdings that the picture changes significantly. Then the comparisons suggest that farmers are not uniquely vulnerable to violent attack.
However, even this result should not be taken to suggest that farmers are safe. Analysts of our data must consider that South Africa’s crime rates are uniquely high. Our murder rate, for example, is 500% higher than that of the United States and 3000% higher than parts of Western Europe such as the United Kingdom and Germany. This brings us to our fourth conclusion that all South Africans face an extraordinary criminal onslaught. People who have previously regarded farm attacks as a somewhat distant problem, nothing to do with them, must realise that they arguably live in as much peril as farmers do. It is clear therefore, regardless of how they rank compared to other citizens, that as a best-case scenario, farmers live a perilous existence in a largely lawless society.
The fifth conclusion is that, unlike urban middle class residents, farmers do not have the benefit of armed response companies or nearby police stations. Rather they depend on their own defences to secure themselves and their families. In addition, no analysis of the security position of farmers would be complete without noting the role of the State in exacerbating their vulnerability. The closure of the commandos and the Government and the African National Congress’s ambivalence at best toward the incitement by some of their own members to kill farmers creates an environment in which South Africa’s farmers are likely to be killed.
The final conclusion is that there can ultimately be no solution to farm attacks without a broader solution to the general problem of criminal violence in our society. In other words, farmers will not be safe until other citizens are safe and vice-versa. This is a point that advocacy groups can use to great effect in their important campaigns to alert policy makers and the international community to the murder of farmers in South Africa.
Issued by Frans Cronje, Lucy Holborn, Boitumelo Sethlatswe, South African Institute of Race Relations, October 10 2012
ANC Youth League: MEDIA STATEMENT ON THE RECENT POLITICAL DEVELOPMENTS, MARIKANA AND THE WAY FORWARD.
MEDIA STATEMENT ON THE RECENT POLITICAL DEVELOPMENTS, MARIKANA AND THE WAY FORWARD.
By: Floyd Shivambu
Our call for Nationalisation of Mines and expropriation of land without compesention is directly linked to the struggles of the people of South Africa benefitting from South Africa’s wealth.
18 September 2012
We have called all of you here as members of the media from across South Africa and the world to speak to all South Africans about the recent political developments, the Mining revolution and the struggles that the people of South Africa are facing 18 years after the democratic breakthrough that transferred only political power from the white racist, murderous regime known the world over as amongst the greatest crimes against himanity, apartheid. Various political formations, the youth movement, civil society, trade unions have since 1994 decried the slow pace of development and transformation which had to accompany political liberation. We speak today an absolute majority of the previously oppressed and economically excluded people are still trapped in the poverty and starvation that existed under colonial and apartheid slavery and domination. More than 50% of the youth who need jobs and are capable of working cannot find jobs and subjected to various forms of suffering and starvation in South Africa’s townships, villages, squatter camps, and some on the streets with no home due to suffering.
As revolutionary political activists and economic freedom fighters, we have been at the forefront of the struggles of the excluded and oppressed people of South Africa, speaking everyday about their siuffering. As revolunary political activists, we have said that the only solution to the crisis of unemployment, poverty and starvation in South Africa is attainment of economic freedom, which we say should find expression in attainment of all freedom charter objectives and aims. To us economic freedom means that all people of South Africa who need jobs should be given jobs and that the wealth underneath and above South African soil should be utilized to benefit all South Africans. Our call for Nationalisation of Mines and expropriation of land without compesention is directly linked to the struggles of the people of South Africa benefitting from South Africa’s wealth.
We have actively done everything in our power to raise the plight of the poor and downthrodden. We have been to the informal settlements of South Africa, and took all key events of the ANC Youth League to the suffering masses of our people. We have been to the Mines and communities in Kuruman in the Northern Cape to speak on behalf of the former mineworkers whose participation in mining has only left them with diseases called asbestos. We have been to the communities in the Western Cape to speak against the racist DA government that subjected our people to open toilets. We were the first to condemn open toilets when they were done by the ANC government in the Free State. We have been to the Mines in Limpopo, Mpumalanga and the North West to speak to mineworkers who do not have anywhere to turn to because they are exploited. We were amongst the first to internationally raise the plight of the suffering mineworkers in the international space. We have been to the villages, squatter camps, townships, suburbs, schools, universities, traditional councils, government offices, corporations and we have been to the world to speak to Africans in the diaspora about the suffering of our people.
We have cautioned South Africa before that since Jacob Zuma took over leadership of the South African State, we have seen introduction of dictatorship and extremely intolerant forms of leadership. Because of his inability to persuade and politically convince those that disagree with him, he has resorted to usage of force and coercion in his leadership style. It begun during the elections campaign when he begun to question the principle of innocence until proven guilty and in 2009 when he called on the police to use maximum force against people who are not yet arrested. Jacob Zuma then went to militarize the police without any resolution and guidance of the ANC. Like all dictators, Jacob Zuma is only concentrating on his village, Nkandla for development and even declared it a military zone in order to prevent media from reporting about it. The department of agriculture and forestries is reported to have donated R800 million to a private entity which Jacob Zuma and his friend own called Masimbambisane, which is used to buy political support in KwaZulu Natal and Eastern Cape. It is only dictators who donate so much money of government to themselves because they know that government systems will not allow the manner in which the money will be spent.
South Africa’s Courts of Law have passed ruling that the National Prosecuting Authority should release the basis upon which more than 700 cases of corruption and fraud against Jacob Zuma were withdrawn and the NPA has not done so because they are instructed not to by Justice Minister who is conflicted. Minister Jeff Radebe speaks about law and order as if he really wants to protect these, but the real reason is protection of his wife’s mining interests, and the interests of his brothers in law Cyril Ramaphosa and Patrice Motsepe who are part of a black elite that has benefitted from mining in South Africa. Where is the rule of law when a sitting President is preventing the Courts from probing corruption and theft by him? Mineworkers in Lonmin Marikana have opened a police case against the killing squad that massacred the 34 mineworkers and Minister of justice has not said anything over the fact that no police officer was arrested. Where are we taking this country to? Minister of police used slush fund money to build security wall around his house and for what else we do not know, and the Auditor General says the Minister did not know. How on earth can a person not know who is paying for the wall built on his private residence?
The soldiers in South Africa have won all the cases against the State and there has never been any compliance. When we speak to the aggrieved soldiers, we are threatened with violence and killing, but when COSATU and the Young Communist League address so many soldiers than we did, nothing is wrong with it because those are blind supporters of Jacob Zuma due to the patronage he has dispensed to them. South Africa, we have warned of dictatorship and it is becoming real and more real day by day. In KwaZulu Natal, any leader of the ANC who questions the leadership of Jacob Zuma and his policy stances disappears. In KwaZulu Natal, the charges brought against Comrades Peggy Nkonyeni and Mike Mabuyakhulu were recently withdrawn because of the Conference of the ANC in December 2012. The strategy to drop the charges is meant to intimidate other leaders of the ANC in other provinces into supporting the re-election of Jacob Zuma as President of the ANC. This is pure dictatorship, where people are not allowed to exercise free democratic rights and choices, but forced through threats to agree with the sitting President.
Our isolation, suspensions, and expulsions from the ANC was solely meant to suppress dissent and deal with courageous youth who could not stand pure mediocrity of Jacob Zuma. We cannot blame the entire collective because they are not given space to speak to the future an when they do, they are ignored. Many leaders of the ANC have spoken against some of the things we are mentioning here and they were intimidated and isolated.
Typical of all dictatorships in the world, the public broadcaster which has a public mandate and funded by the public to fairly report on all necessary political, social and economic developments in the country has now been reduced into a praise singer of Jacob Zuma. The only news that is covered in the SABC should necessarily be affirming Jacob Zuma because he thinks appearing on television everyday alongside the newspaper of his children’s business associates, the Guptas, he will be seen as the only leader in South Africa. All dictators engage in activities that seek to benefit their friends and families, and the supersonic speed with which Zuma related businesses have grown since he was elected President are evidence that he is only concerned and interested in his family affairs and interests at the expense of everyone.
In October 2011, we led the longest march in the history of mass protests from Johannesburg to Pretoria, which is 60 kilometres to highlight the plight and suffering of the people of South Africa. We went to the Chamber of Mines, Johannesburg Stock Exchange and the Union Buildings to demand Nationalisation of Mines, expropriation of land, better housing, free quality education, and proper sanitation for the people of South Africa. To this day there is no response and direction from these centers of power and if these problems still exist, the country will further collapse like Mines will be collapsed by wokers revolt. We have never been ashamed in and outside the ANC to speak about these challenges confronting society. We went to the National General Council of the ANC and made some progress in terms of these key policy issues we have been campaigning about as revolutionary politicsl activists and economic freedom fighters. Jacob Zuma chose to distort outcomes of the NGC because they never agreed with his personal views.
It therefore came as no surprise that when Lonmin mineworkers embarked on a strike against their employers to demand R12.500 minimum wage, they called upon us to help raise the voice. We did not immediately respond to the plea and invitation to the call because we believed that the mineworkers had potential to liberate themselves from slavery and dangerous working conditions with no adequate payment. When the South African police massacred the 34 mineworkers on Thursday, the 16th of August 2012, we saw the need to intervene because it was clear that the political leadership of this country could not provide leadership except killing the mineworkers. On Friday, the 17th of August 2012, Comrades Sindiso Magaqa, Floyd Shivambu, and Anda Bici as Fearless Economic Freedom Fighters visited the mineworkers in Marikana to understand closely the request mineworkers had made that we should speak on their behalf.
On Saturday, the 18th of September 2012, we visited the workers and held an open public meeting with the mineworkers wherein we called Mr. Jacob Zuma and Nathi Mthethwa to step down because they presided over a cold blooded massacre of our people for protesting against the Mine bosses. We called for their resignation of Jacob Zuma because Jacob Zuma is a liability to this country and to the African National Congress. Never in it’s history has a sitting President of the ANC presided over such chaos and divisions in the ANC and in the country. Jacob Zuma is a proud proponent of tribalism and tribalist politics, which will plunge South Africa into a deeper crisis. Members of the ANC and whole of society should appreciate that under Zuma, our country will be plunged into a deeper crisis. The massacre in Marikana is definitely not the last one and more workers and poor people will still be massacred and killed by the South African security apparatuses. The soldiers are unhappy about Jacob Zuma’s leadership of this country, but he will deploy them alongside police to intimidate and kill more people. The whole world must watch this space because we will again remind you that we warned you about Jacob Zuma administration.
Comrades, friends and the people of South Africa we must never be silenced and we must never be threatened by undemocratic means to suppress politics dissent. In the ANC, Jacob Zuma used his henchmen to isolate us and suppress political dissent because we said he is incapable of leading this country. Now that we continue to enjoy the confidence and trust of ordinary people on the ground, Jacob Zuma is agitating soldiers and the police to block our movements and even eliminate us from the surface of this land. A death warrant has been issued against Economic Freedom Fighters for speaking on behalf of the people. The Minister of Defence has already called us counter revolutionary and the Military General have issued warning against us. If we die tomorrow and anytime soon, we would have been killed by Jacob Zuma and his people, who do not have the interests and aspirations of the people at heart. If we are illegally arrested tomorrow, we would have been arrested by Jacob Zuma and fair and free Courts of Law will set us free. Jacob Zuma is inherently insecure and forever threatened by our presence in this world.
Comrades, friends and fellow South Africans, let us stand firm in defence of the democracy and freedom our forefathers fought so hard to achieve. Let us defend the legacy of Nelson Mandela, Chris Hani, Thami Zulu, Oliver Tambo, Walter Sisulu, Peter Mokaba and many others who fought for real freedom not for the freedom of few families and friends. The aspirations contained in the Freedom Charter should be achieved and we should all fight towards attainment of all Freedom Charter objectives. All people who want to protest should never be scared to protest and and stand up to demand what is rightfully theirs. All people who want better wages and better living conditions should rise up to demand their interests and aspirations. We are ready to join all protest actions and strikes that are aimed at improving the living conditions of our people and we will not be scared to join in the protests.
South Africa belongs to all of us and inspired by many generations before us who were fearless and we are fearless. We are ready to confront anything that will face us. The actions of members of the SAPS in Marikana on Monday, the 17th of September is a sign that freedoms and rights of the people of South Africa as contained in the Constitution are being eroded. The SAPS without any order prevented us from going to a legal meeting where we were invited by the workers in front of television cameras and in front of everyone. We went to Marikana to visit the latest victims of the police brutality who were shot at and harassed by the police for no given reason. After visiting the families that were shot at, we were asked to go visit the mineworkers at the stadium who had legally gathered and the police physically stopped up, threatened to isolate and kill us and further pushed us out of Marikana against our will and against the right to assemble and associate with workers who invited us to speak to them.
This sordid and blatant prevention of ordinary South Africans from expressing and exercising their rights by the police State should be condemned and rejected with all means possible because today it might be happening to us, and tomorrow it will be happening to all other South Africans who will be prevented to associate and assemble with other people because of the insecurities of political authorities.
We have instructed our Legal Representatives to follow up on the illegal prevention of Economic Freedom Fighters to address mineworkers and community members who met in Marikana on Monday, the 18th of September 2012 when members of the SAPS physically prevented us from going into the meeting whilst allowing other civilians who went in. We also have instructed our Legal Representatives to find ways of setting aside the State of Emergency declared by the South African government because it has potential to further degenerate the state of affairs in the Mines.
We will never keep quite and we will never be intimidated by anything under the sun. We carry a responsibility and obligation to speak on behalf of all the people and we will never retreat. No surrender! No retreat! ASIJIKI!
ISSUED BY ECONOMIC FREEDOM FIGHTERS
Contact Floyd Shivambu preferably via email floydn@gmail.com
Source:
South African Labor Unrest Grows as Regime Blames Mining Firms
South African Labor Unrest Grows as Regime Blames Mining Firms
Written by Alex Newman
Source: The New American
(Archive copy – link to the source at the end of article)
The labor unrest surrounding South African gold and platinum mining is continuing to spread as accusations about who is responsible fly in all directions and international pressure against the ruling regime expands over the accelerating genocide of white farmers. Security officials and military forces raided miner shanty towns over the weekend to confiscate weapons from strikers, but the chaos is still spreading.
At least a thousand soldiers have been deployed to support the embattled police force as the ruling African National Congress (ANC) regime and its communist partners seek to blame business for the tensions. Observers even within South Africa’s ruling alliance, however, say the unrest is being carefully orchestrated by power-hungry elements within the communist-backed ANC itself.
Politicians and aspiring powerbrokers seized on the escalating crisis — multiple gold and platinum mines are currently idle because of the ongoing strikes — to whip up hysteria for political purposes, analysts said. The ruling alliance consisting of the ANC, the South African Communist Party (SACP), and the Conference of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) implausibly claimed after an inquiry that mining companies were to blame for the chaos.
“It is therefore our considered view that employers have an interest in fanning this conflict to reverse the gains achieved by workers over a long period of time,” the ruling alliance alleged in a statement. It also accused South African platinum industry heavyweights of following “the story of the power and belief in divide and rule” — tactics long employed by the current totalitarian-minded rulers of South Africa and other communist regimes.
According to the ruling alliance, the mining businesses were deliberately stirring up union rivalries to suppress wages and benefits. However, credible analysts largely rejected the allegations as preposterous; the firms in question have already lost huge amounts of money as many of their mines remain shut down because of the strikes. Stock prices have plunged, too.
Meanwhile, multiple communist agitators within and outside the ANC have renewed their calls to nationalize the mines. Marxist agitator and former ANC Youth League boss Julius Malema, famous for inciting genocide against white South Africans and demanding that the regime nationalize virtually the entire economy, has inserted himself at the center of the growing unrest. He is calling for nationwide strikes and the nationalization of the nation’s mining industry.
After being expelled from the ANC earlier this year, the suspiciously wealthy communist racist has started to attack South African President Jacob Zuma, a polygamist and open communist who regularly sings the infamous hate song calling for the extermination of whites. “How can he call on people to mourn those he has killed? He must step down,” Malema said after strikers were killed by police last month, apparently upset that Zuma had not sunk South Africa into total communist tyranny quickly enough.
But even top officials within the ruling alliance are suspicious about what is going on. According to COSATU President Sdumo Dlamini, Malema supporters within the ANC are hoping to plunge South Africa into deeper chaos to solidify their power. “We also understand that there have been certain individuals behind him who are funding this for their own political ambitions,” Dlamini said. “Julius Malema may be the point person running at the front, but we know that there are big guns behind him.” And big money, too.
Dlamini said COSATU was “very angry” that unsuspecting mine workers were being used by opportunists, sometimes even being killed in the process. “This is a systematic, orchestrated, long-time plan that is unfolding now,” he added. “The ANC as the ruling party shouldn’t be afraid to be bold, condemn and expose … the ANC must continue to identify and deal with those who fund this chaos.”
Communists, of course, have historically been known to create the superficial impression of internal division to further their agenda while collaborating together behind the scenes — the use of strategic disinformation. However, it remains unclear what, if anything, may be going on outside of the limelight between the ANC, the SACP, and other totalitarian forces working to crush individual liberty and all resistance within South Africa.
Other analysts have attributed the expanding labor unrest to widely different causes, ranging from anger over the ANC regime’s lawless corruption to genuine grievances about dangerous working conditions and low pay at the mines. Tribal tensions have also been cited as playing a role, though just how large a role is difficult to determine. But many experts still see something more sinister: deliberate agitation led by shrewd power seekers hoping to exploit the crisis for political gain.
Numerous observers have attributed the violent tensions to rivalries between the ANC-linked National Union of Mineworkers (NUM), which is the largest member of COSATU, and its increasingly influential rival known as the Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union (AMCU). Some experts said the crackdown on protests was an effort to quash the AMCU before it further splintered workers’ support for the ruling alliance.
Critics have accused the AMCU, which touts itself as anti-communist and has long criticized the established powerbrokers for corruption, of fomenting the unrest. The South African Communist Party even called for AMCU leaders to be arrested after the incident, and among the ruling communist establishment, fears about the renegade union are reportedly growing.
The chaos has been ongoing since early this year, but it exploded and entered into the international headlines a month ago after dozens of striking miners were killed in what has since been dubbed the “Marikana massacre.” Police were reportedly fired upon by armed demonstrators before returning fire, killing more than 30 people.
Before the fatal police shootings that catapulted the strike into the global press, frenzied strikers demanding massive pay hikes had gone on a murderous rampage. Two police officers were hacked to death with machetes and two security guards were burned alive. At least six others were killed. Strikers threatened to murder anybody who returned to work.
“The militant group stormed toward the police firing shots and wielding dangerous weapons,” claimed South African Police Commissioner Mangwashi Victoria Phiyega. Reporters present at the scene largely echoed those claims, alleging that at least one person had fired at the hundreds of police officers at the demonstration.
Over the weekend, swarms of police and military personnel raided workers’ shacks near the troubled Marikana platinum mine operated by London-based Lonmin. Security forces used rubber bullets and other non-lethal weapons, arresting more than a dozen people. According to news reports, the operation was aimed at seizing the crude weapons used by strikers — machetes, clubs, spears, and more.
“The soldiers were deployed at the request of the police to support them in their operation,” South African National Defense Force (SANDF) spokesman Brigadier General Xolani Mabanga was quoted as saying. Military vehicles and an army helicopter were also on hand during the raid to support the hundreds of police officers involved.
Top government officials — many of whom have personal stakes in the situation including shares in the mining firms — have vowed to crack down on the strikes. Proud communist revolutionary Jeff Radebe, the “Justice Minister” in the ANC regime, said at a September 14 press conference that authorities were intervening because the mining industry is crucial to South Africa’s crumbling economy.
“The South African government has noted and is deeply concerned by the amount of violence, threats and intimidation that is currently taking place in our country,” he told reporters, warning that anyone taking part in “illegal gatherings” would be “dealt with” very swiftly. “Our government will not tolerate these acts any further.”
Critics of the response, however, warned that the raids and use of force would likely contribute to further unrest. “I am particularly concerned that government’s present action will in fact lead to the worsening of the situation and eventually to a complete revolt across the platinum belt,” said a statement by Anglican Bishop Jo Seoka, who also serves as president of the South African Council of Churches (SACC) and is involved in the strike negotiations. He criticized the government and Lonmin as well.
The growing unrest comes amid increasing international pressure on the ANC regime after the non-profit group Genocide Watch raised its alert level on South Africa last month to stage six — planning and preparing to exterminate the target group, in this case, white South Africans and especially Afrikaner farmers. The eighth and final stage is denial after the fact.
According to the organization and other human rights activists, white South African farmers are facing a well-organized genocidal onslaught as communist forces seek to cement their control over the once-prosperous nation. The ANC Youth League, formerly led by Malema, has reportedly been deeply involved in the planning and execution of the genocide.
A newly formed group of human rights activists and South African exiles known as Friends 4 Humanity told The New American that the number of racist attacks and murders against Afrikaner farmers has surged dramatically amid the labor unrest. There have been at least 30 documented attacks in the last two weeks — many resulting in multiple murders.
“Since the beginning of 2012 we have noticed that murders increased to approximately one every second day, with some victims, as young as 6 months. However, since the start of the mining unrest it has now escalated to as much at least one attack a day with multiple fatal victims,” a spokesperson for the group said. “A call for urgent intervention is now required from the international community.”
Despite the genocide alert and growing unrest, socialist and communist-minded political parties from around the world gathered in Cape Town for the 24th Congress of the Socialist International in late August and early September. The immensely powerful coalition of socialists consists of numerous ruling political parties including many from the developed world. They called for global governance and world socialism.
Photo of Julius Malema speaking to a crowd of striking miners at Goldfields Mine in Grootfontein, South Africa: AP Images
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Cosatu: Romove English, Afrikaans from the South African national anthem
Cosatu mulls English, Afrikaans bits of anthem
(Archive copy of original article)
17 September 2012
Trade union federation set to debate whether the national anthem should remain in its current form or whether the English and Afrikaans sections should be removed
THE Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) is set to debate whether the national anthem should remain in its current form or whether the English and Afrikaans sections should be removed, according to draft resolutions to come under discussion at the federation’s national congress starting today.
This would require a constitutional amendment as the anthem is enshrined in it.
The national anthem has been hailed for its embrace of different languages and cultures — and also for its reconciliatory tone, with its inclusion of Die Stem, the national anthem under apartheid.
A resolution sponsored, or suggested, by the Police and Prisons Civil Rights Union (Popcru) notes the Afrikaans and English sections were included as a “compromise position” through the negotiated settlement, and the original Nkosi Sikelel’ iAfrica had influenced African countries such as Zambia and Zimbabwe.
The draft resolutions would be discussed and decided upon during the congress.
The draft resolution reads that the county’s national anthem should revert to its “original form” and should “represent the suffering and the struggle that informs our future aspirations”.
“… the combination with Die Stem is a direct opposite of what Nkosi Sikelel’ iAfrica entails or what it means to be African … the original form of the anthem was and is still part of our struggle”, the resolution reads. “The current national anthem was a compromise out of the deliberations of Codesa, during the political negotiations which led to the new constitution.”
It proposes that Cosatu resolve that the “original” anthem be sung — as composed by Enoch Sontonga — which excludes the English and Afrikaans sections.
Cosatu is allied to the ruling African National Congress (ANC) and would seek to bring about such a change if it was resolved upon, through its alliance structures.
The ANC and the alliance as a whole have said that the negotiated settlement has constrained progress in transforming the economy, for instance, but the issue of the national anthem has been raised for the first time by Popcru.
Popcru has also suggested that Cosatu resolve on completely scrapping the provincial tier of government. The three spheres of government also constituted a compromise during the negotiations and had now “served (their) purpose”, the resolution reads.
“… the three spheres of government have bureaucratic tendencies and hamper service delivery … the three spheres of government have adverse cost implications.”
Popcru wants Cosatu to resolve to scrap the provinces and replace them with “local administration offices to catalyse service delivery to the people”.
The ANC in its policy conference also mulled the reconfiguring of the country’s provinces — an idea that the ruling alliance has been considering for a number of years. The conference recommended that a task team be set up to probe the viability of reorganising the provinces.
Cosatu is to discuss resolutions proposed by its affiliates at its congress. The resolutions would be adopted during the four-day event, which is expected to be addressed by President Jacob Zuma and South African Communist Party general secretary Blade Nzimande.
Source:
http://www.bdlive.co.za/national/2012/09/17/cosatu-mulls-english-afrikaans-bits-of-anthem
POST SCRIPT:
Removing the Afrikaans and English parts of the national anthem will amount to denying the existence and therefore the rights of those individuals speaking those languages.
Without rights or recognition of such, it will be easier to commit abuses against a People with no name, no face and no language.
Denying their existence is therefore denying their right to life, liberty and citizenship.
Zwelinzima Vavi, Cosatu – PHOTO: BDFM Publishers
Blacks urged to reclaim land from whites
Chief Phathekile Holomisa – Photo: SABC
Blacks urged to reclaim land from whites
Sunday 16 September 2012 06:51
Source: SABC
(Archive copy of original post)
Contralesa president Chief Phathekile Holomisa has called on South Africans to stand up and reclaim land from the white minority by next year. Chief Holomisa says the ANC-led government has failed people by adopting the land redistribution policy.
He says land was not bought from the blacks it was forcibly taken by whites. He was speaking at the memorial lecture of struggle hero, McGregor Mgolombana at Dikishe outside Mthatha in the Eastern Cape. Mgolombana was exiled because he resisted forced removal for his community.
Holomisa says: “We need to prepare ourselves next year for a struggle for the restoration of land so that we no longer have a situation where 87% of land is in white hands and the 13% is occupied by blacks. It is unsustainable what you find in the constitution which requires that the state must buy land from the whites in order to be able to give it to the landless South Africans, it is unsustainable because it is unaffordable because the money is not there, so a way must be found therefore to ensure that redistribution of land takes place without any obstacles being put, be it in terms of the constitution or in terms of the requirement that the land must be bought . The people who took it from the majority of South Africa did not buy it.”
Meanwhile Deputy Minister of Defence, Thabang Makwetla has admitted that there have been challenges in the restitution of land. “We will see what happens at the ruling party’s national conference in looking at the matter because there are clear suggestions that we need to look at other ways of expediting this programme. The challenge in the recent years has been the availability of sufficient budget to make sure that land that is under claim is bought back by the government and handed back to the communities.”
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