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The Situation in SA

Started by clevermike3 REPLIES524 VIEWS· 17 Nov 2018, 07:23
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CL
clevermikeCoach57,555 posts
17 Nov 2018, 07:23
#1
17 Nov 2018, 07:23#1

This component of this site turned into a campaign about President Trump - but is it not time we look closer at home as to what is happening in South Africa.

Alan Paton - whom I met - wrote a book "Cry the Beloved Country".   His wife fled from SA years ago because she found that the country is going backwards and one wonders whether another version of "Cry the Beloved Country" is not needed.

Over he last decade what I thought would happen did happen.  When Zuma was elected as ANC leader I had a serious and heartfelt discussion with the Mayor of the Municipality where I worked about the issue.   I told him I was worried about the selection - especially since I knew Zuma personally and did not think he was honest. The Mayor told me not to worry - but he was fired by the Zuma crowd shortly afterwards.   He is a really good guy and was a very capable Mayor as well.

What happened over the past decade under Zuma became more evident as time went on - but has now turned into a horror show.   There is not a day that goes by when more Billions of Rand theft of Government money is not exposed.   Every day  listening to the Zondo Commission of Enquiry is just another torment of how Zuma posted crooks in position where they could authorize and participate in massive looting, make me even more despondent about the country.

It is not only thing that causes despondency - it is the almost daily repots of agencies  appointed to investigate what happened in the various state-owned enterprises and government departments which caused me to wonder why the looters - inclusive of Zuma himself - should not spend the rest of their lives in jail.

I was delighted when Zuma eventually got kicked out, but was it really for the better?   Maybe to a limited extent - after all Ramaphosa was Zuma's Deputy President for years.   He  became a very wealthy man when he benefited from share allocations by major companies to establish a Black shareholding class by 1997 and married into one of the richest Black families in SA - the Motsepe's.

The question is what did he do when the Zuma looting spree was at its top between 2012 and 2016 to stop the rot?   Near to zero.  Now came the crunch - in the latest question session in Parliament Maimane as leader of the Opposition asked a question about a payment of R500 000 made by one of the major crooked companies made to Ramaphosa's son.   

Ramaphosa answered that he asked his son about the payment and his son showed him the contract between the company and his son's company which resulted in the payment for services rendered.   Ramaphosa gave what appears to be a credible account of what happened - but the DA was still not satisfied with the answer and asked to see the contract to which Ramaphosa referred.

All went quiet for a few days until Ramaphosa - obviously under pressure - wrote to the Speaker to apologize about him misleading Parliament by answering the question of Maimane the way he did.   The R500 000 paid by the crooks was not to his son - but to a Trust Fund established to fund Ramaphosa's campaign to become leader of the ANC.

I was hoping that Ramaphosa would at least usher in a more responsible and more honest Government in SA - but would he?  I am developing doubts about him as well.   So a second book about "Cry the Beloved Country" is what really is needed because it is really the poor who are suffering most in SA as a result of looting of the Government in the Zuma years and it clear it is still continuing.                            

BO
bobbok...Captain10,129 posts
18 Nov 2018, 00:48
#2
18 Nov 2018, 00:48#2

Good post ouMaaik, like you I'm  bemused by the fascination  here of all things America . SA seems to be marching inexorably towards banana republic status. So sad, & the cherry on top, we have to put up with self-serving fckwit politicians interfering with our sports.

DB
DbDraadCaptain26,388 posts
18 Nov 2018, 08:40
#3
18 Nov 2018, 08:40#3

Bob, we are too horror-stricken too discuss South African woes, so some are projecting a bit.

Maaik the ANC gravy train is the problem. Zuma was created by them and they enabled him. The whole new NEC knows what he has done and where the evidence are.  If they really had the country's best interest at heart, he would have been in prison already and Ace Magashule would have been kicked out of the top 6 and investigated too. They want to continue the looting, but be a bit less obvious about it.

The DA isn't the answer either. We need a strong leader to step forward, but sadly there are none.

CL
clevermikeCoach57,555 posts
18 Nov 2018, 16:18
#4
18 Nov 2018, 16:18#4

Draad

The Greeks - where according to present ideology started the concept of "democracy", but it was their own philosophers who at the time wrote that Democracy is a bad form of government.  

People wrote about Populism and condemn it outright, but is the usage of ignorant and non-thinking people not a Populist movement?

Be it as it may - there are no leaders of substance in evidence - especially not in the ANC - also known as the Association of National Criminals.

There are indeed prominent business leaders (Black and White) who would be better leaders - but they know SA politics stinks to high heaven and would not touch it with a bargepole.

So "Cry the Beloved Country".     

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