South Africa elections in pictures [and a few words]

SHOOT: I felt a very vigorous sense of South Africana in those two hours spent waiting for Mandela. I haven't felt such a positive, exciting, energetic sense of possibility for a long time. Probably the last time was at 1995 World Cup. Mandela definitely brings an inclusive rejuvenating energy to his people, and his people are everyone - men, women, children, of all classes and backgrounds. It was quite a priviledge to see this man - who is more frail and older than one imagines - in a present reality. We are all going to miss his unifying persona when he's gone.

Photos of Mandela voting in Killarney

Youth League bums ‘a national disgrace’

The ANC Youth League’s chaotic national conference ended yesterday as it began — in disarray.

More.

NVDL: All this ruckus happened literally about 200 metres from where the Reitz Scandal happened, on the UFS campus in Bloemfontein. I wonder if a sewer flows under the campus and the fumes sort of get into people's brains and start to stew and sicken the people. Having said that, I've written a few university exams in that very same hall...

Mbeki: 'We can't pretend...'

Right now the President is giving his 'State of the Nation' speech and very few people are even watching. I'm not. I thought I would but I have things to do. I hear mumbling in the background coming off the big screen. A few faces - one - is glued to the screen, hand rubbing forehead occasionally. A few more faces were looking up at the President but they have since gone back to their desks. This is the true state of the nation.

Last night on the news the press was invited into the President's santum sanctorum. He was plugging away at his keyboard (not very convincingly) while on the screen words two large for conventional use - like this big...no, even bigger...probably for the benefits of the cameras and viewers...were appearing on screen. But we all know that President's don't write their own speeches, especially important one's like this. They have a whole team of advisers and spindoctors. It's not about reality; it's about being touchy feely, being manipulative, saying what's popular, allaying or leveraging fear, saying what you think should be said.

I have personally met Tony Leon's spindoctor and suggested to her that instead of him positioning himself vis-a-vis an opponent (thus ackowledging their authority), he should stand for something. Politics shouldn't be (or even appear to be) merely responsive but proactive.

I digress.

Whilst pretending in front of the press that he was working on his speech, Mbeki said: "There are important issues in our country, like electricity, and other things. We can't pretend they aren't happening..." A 5th grader could tell you that. But the irony of course is that that is exactly what government is doing. Pretending to be government. Pretending to govern. Pretending to be doing what they are not.

Z is for...?

Machine guns, marriage, corruption charges - Zuma is the man of the hour. The amazing thing is, even people who don't want him elected are talking about him. This means he is getting the majority focus, and that - if you are not a Zuma supporter - is bad news.

The solution then - if you would prefer another candidate to lead the country - is for the maximum number of people to focus on the candidate they DO want, rather than to focus on why they DON'T want Zuma. After all, what resists persists. So who DO you want to lead the country? Focus on that candidate.

Now, Z is for...who?

Mandela saddened by rifts in S.Africa's ANC

POLOKWANE, South Africa (Reuters) - South Africa's ruling ANC, torn by the worst rift in its history, on Sunday began a conference expected to put controversial politician Jacob Zuma on track to become the country's next president.

le between supporters of Zuma and current South African President Thabo Mbeki for leadership of the party has deeply divided the previously monolithic ANC, which has led Africa's biggest economy since the end of apartheid in 1994.

Reflecting the concern of party veterans, Nelson Mandela told delegates in a message: "Of course it saddens us to see and hear of the nature of the differences currently in the organization."

Mbeki defended his record in his opening conference speech, but acknowledged the gravity of the divisions. "Completely unacceptable tendencies have emerged within our movement, which threaten the very survival of the ANC," he said.

Zuma, a populist who has recovered from a corruption scandal and a rape trial, in which he was acquitted, is almost certain to become president when Mbeki steps down in 2009 if he wins leadership of the dominant African National Congress.

He has already secured a strong majority of party branch nominations but Mbeki is still fighting to fend off the challenge and secure his third term as ANC leader.

This would give him strong influence over the choice of next president, even though he is barred from standing again himself.

But almost all bets are on Zuma. Delegates said Mbeki had missed a chance to rally support, instead making a detailed three-hour speech on his policies that sent some delegates to sleep while others sat in stony silence.

"It was too detailed and it lacked a lot of passion," said tycoon Tokyo Sexwale, who was once seen as a compromise leadership candidate but now backs Zuma.

Some delegates at the five-day conference booed Mbeki's ministers and aides and cheered Zuma supporters as they arrived.

RESULT ON MONDAY

The ANC said leadership voting would start late on Sunday, with the result released on Monday.

Mbeki, who took over the party from Mandela in 1997 and then the country in 1999, accused some ANC members of dishonesty:

"This is the practice that again is entirely foreign to our movement -- the practice of using untruths, of resorting to dishonest means and deceit to achieve particular goals."

Mbeki fired Zuma, then the country's deputy president, in 2005 after he was linked to a corruption scandal surrounding a multi-billion dollar arms deal. Although the case against him collapsed, investigators have now submitted fresh evidence.

A rape trial in which he was acquitted in 2006 has often overshadowed his status as an anti-apartheid hero who spent 10 years at Robben Island prison with Mandela.

Many poor South Africans regard him as a man of the people who can bring the benefits of black majority rule to the poor, millions of whom still live in townships that are a glaring reminder of decades of domination by the white minority.

Zuma has tried to reassure foreign investors that he would pursue the strategies that have delivered an economic boom -- despite the support he has received from increasingly vocal left-leaning trade unions and the Communist Party, certain to press for easier fiscal policies and more social spending.

Mbeki, often described as aloof and arrogant, has won praise from the business community and a new black middle class. But many South Africans say he is out of touch with millions of poor who have yet to benefit from black rule.

(Additional reporting by Phumza Macanda, Ron Derby and Paul Simao; Writing by Marius Bosch and Mike Georgy; Editing by Barry Moody and Kevin Liffey)

By Bate Felix

I won’t step back – Mbeki

South African President Thabo Mbeki said yesterday he was still in the race to lead the ruling African National Congress after his rival Jacob Zuma gathered nominations from key groups and across provinces.

“If there are members of the ANC who nominate me for whatever position I have got to respect that,” he told South Africa’s SABC television.

“When the ANC elections commission comes and says ‘you have been nominated for president, are you available?’ I will respect that, I will say yes of course I am available,” Mbeki said.

For the rest of this article from Sowetan Online, go here.

NVDL: "I won't step back". But will our president step forward? Has he, on all of our countries urgent issues - AIDS, crime, Zimbabwe, The Bokke, Selebi, Manto, corruption in general?

Bullard: Out to Lunch TV Talk Show (INTERVIEW PART 3)

Bullard: Somebody wants to do that. I mean they want to do an Out to Lunch show. It’s like radio. I was asked to do a radio show as well. You’re tied down. I don’t want to be tied down. I don’t want to do [GARBLED] Jenny Crwys-Williams; being in the studio every lunch time to do a show between 1 and 4.
RP: Mmm.
Bullard: I mean I go away for four days on car launches because I can.
NVDL: Where do you go?
Bullard: Umm – where ever they go. Spain – a lot of overseas launches – Spain, America, UK…
NVDL: It’s a nice life hey?
Bullard: Well it sounds a nice life, but there are a lot of delays at airports and the security in Europe, and you go and drive a car on the wrong side of the road for a day or two. If Porsche is hosting it’s a fabulous life. You have a bloody good party that night, get very pissed, get up the next morning, drive a Porsche and then fly back, Business Class, in the afternoon.
RP: [Chuckles].
Bullard: But with three connections. So there’s an upside and a downside. You’ve still got to produce the words. But the problem is I couldn’t do that if I was doing a radio show or a television show. I couldn’t do any of this stuff; and I do a lot of MCing.
NVDL: But you could [do the stuff you do] after a few seasons.
Bullard: No. You could but… [Hesitates a moment] For example if I’ve got an evening show I can’t do any MCing. So somebody phones and says, ‘Will you MC an event,” I have to say I can’t, I have the evening show. So evening shows are way out. Can’t do that. Could record something. Possibly could record a few things and stack them up. And that might help. But on a regular live show it’s just…
NVDL: Then you don’t do it live you do it all prerecorded.
Bullard: Could do that.
RP: Yeah. And that way you’re not tied down.

Sponsor Wanted

Bullard: The thing with that – and it’s been as I say mooted a couple of times; and everyone says, the SABC says – ‘who is the sponsor Bring the sponsor?’ Because they’re not prepared to put up the money for it. So you go to them and say right: ‘It’s sponsored by Vodacom; here’s a large portion of money. Mr Bullard’s wardrobe by so and so; his hair by so and so. Dancing girls, full orchestra in the back and that’s great. And they then take all the advertising, because that’s the way they run the business. So if you’ve got a sponsor you can do it.
NVDL: Mmmm.
Bullard: We have one or two people looking… It’s a question of commitment, really. Unless someone’s got to, say, rack in a couple of million for production costs, then it’s not going to happen.
NVDL: We need – you know like you get Oprah in America – we need that sort of personality here.
RP: Yeah.
NVDL: And we’ve got Noleen [making a slight face].
RP: Exactly.
Bullard: Well it gets viewers. People like that sort of thing.
RP: But we need some talk show hosts that thinks in controversial aspects.
NVDL: I also think you express – like in your column – what you say is stuff that is quite urgent actually.
Bullard: Yes.
NVDL: And it’s almost like a form of leadership. And I think more people need to join that conversation. Because what’s happening is: a lot of what you’re saying is needed and people are thinking that, but they’re not expressing it.

Let's Talk About Leadership

Bullard: Couldn’t agree more. Because it is a sort’ve ‘zeitgeist’ – to use that overused word. Because a lot of people are saying: “Gee whiz, we read your column and it’s exactly what we discussed over dinner on Saturday night.” Well it’s very read what we’re going to be talking about this weekend. It’s going to be about Mbeki’s dishonesty. I mean my article this week is about Mbeki’s web of evil. And the editor is happy that it goes through, and I think it is a web of evil. But you know, your point is very well made.

It’s kind’ve like aging: I can go to the mirror in the morning and I can now see visible signs of aging. I can now see eyebrows have grown longer and a few more wrinkles. But I mean it’s happening gradually over time. If I look back at a photograph I can see what I was like. Now put that into the political perspective. We look back at a snapshot of South Africa five years ago and we’re very optimistic. Even two years ago. We’re now gradually losing our freedoms. And it’s not until we wake up with all those wrinkles…
NVDL: Yeah.
Bullard: …And we look in the mirror and say: we’re not allowed to say this. Some journalists – that newspaper disappeared, my mates are in prison.
RP: Yup.
Bullard: Or they’ve run out the country. The judges have all been bought off by the ruling party. They’ve gotten rid of anyone in the National Prosecuting Authority who doesn’t please Mbeki or his guys: bloody dangerous. And so you’re absolutely right-
NVDL: And it’s happening right now.

Wanted: Rallying Call

Bullard: You need a rallying call. Well absolutely right. And a lot of people are feeling helpless because business – apart from FNB, which I think was handled pretty badly-
NVDL: That was a shame.
Bullard: But you know Johan Rupert, in a conversation with me, I mean they were banned under the Nats, because they upset them and basically what the government did was hold back their import licenses for a year and starve the company of profits. And business is very aware of the strength of the politicians who can do whatever they like. Because there’s just no control. We actually need a new struggle. I’ve been reading the black columnists; and I hate to differentiate - they have to differentiate because they were part of the struggle, I wasn’t – reading their comments, and about their depression and Justice Malala particularly I think is very vocala and getting a lot of comment and I agree with pretty well everything he says. Um… You know you need some sort of reaction.

NVDL: Yeah. It’s actually an important thing we need. I’ve heard quite a few comments from black people saying – cautiously – that some things under the previous regime were actually better. There was less of this and less of that. Not to say we want to go back to that, but just to say how bad things are now. And to actually say that is like saying: Wow, things are shit. This can’t carry on. We’re actually going way beyond what’s unacceptable.
Bullard: Yeah that’s encouraging because people are recognizing that. On the other hand you go down to the rural areas where you have nothing, and I mean here the similarity is the tornado story last week.

Irrational Behaviour

People went home, and behaved irrationally, only because they didn’t have information to counter the irrational information they’d been given. The skies were dark; it was a tornado, get on the road, get in a traffic jam and behave stupidly. And then realize afterwards you’d been suckered. Now, put that into an election thing. Go to the rural areas and say:
“Jacob Zuma will save you. He will give you houses; he will give you cars," and you vote for him – because that’s what he said. Only afterwards you realize… I mean we all have this madness and delusion in crowds. And everyone is capable of being lead. And I think the government is working to do that very well. Where there is absolutely no counter-opinions. No opposition.
NVDL: Who would you suggest is a good leader [a possible presidential candidate]?

Watch this space to find out who David Bullard recommends to lead this country. To read the previous 2 or the following 2 transcripts, click on the label The Bullard Tapes below.

Bullard is Back (ALMOST)

Bloggers - Now is the Time

Who can blame David Bullard for defending a colleague (and press freedom) on his Blog. That's what blogs can be all about: activism, freedom of expression. But David Bullard is NOT back in Blogland, unless he had a change of heart since we interviewed him on this very topic on Friday morning. Watch this space to view the full transcript of the interview.

If you're not happy with the government's stance on press freedom, or even it's stance on governing, the blogosphere is the ideal medium to challenge that. Get busy!

From IOL.co.za:
The South African National Editors' Forum (Sanef) expressed outrage at the possible arrest of Makhanya.

"I can't recall anybody ever being charged of this before, and it indicates the anger government is showing to the Sunday Times," Sanef head of media committee Raymond Louw told SAFM radio.

The opposition said it would put questions in parliament.
"It is an extraordinary irony that, 13 years into our democracy, the same governing party who fought for freedom of expression, is now seen to be increasingly clamping down on those precise freedoms," Democratic Alliance leader Helen Zille said in a statement.

Drunk Ambassador

Drunk Ambassador - The funniest movie is here. Find it

Laugh Break

The President vs The People

The President's Us vs Them mentality is no different from an attitude of fighting everyone around us, including ourselves

South Africa’s President Thabo Mbeki made a cardinal error when he fired his Deputy-Minister of Health, Madlala-Routledge. In itself, he might have thought he was entirely justified. On Saturday night’s SABC news he was interviewed saying, quite reasonably, that any person who works in government commits themselves to serve, including, serving within government. Any person who does not do that, must leave. Well said, Mr. President, but how utterly ironic.

A colleague recently echoed Mbeki’s sentiments, saying that any person who slanders the company they work for should be fired, as they ought to be. True. But in this case, the Deputy was unhappy about a government that wasn’t doing its job, and so in a sense, she was speaking ‘for the people’, especially since what she said happened to be true.

What my colleague doesn’t see is the fact that Mbeki’s actions here, while in the microcosm of the actual process they make sense, in the wider context of government efficacy he has been exposed (at least in the eyes of the populace) as a hypocrite.

The irony couldn’t be more acute. At the same time that the Deputy-Minister of Health, Madlala-Routledge was fired, the Health Minister (charged with solving an AIDS epidemic that has infected more South Africans than any other country on Earth) was undergoing surgery to replace an alcohol induced cirrhotic liver.

Reports that the Minister (dubbed Dr. Beetroot for her unconventional advice on AIDS treatments)
was abusive to staff in the Clinic where she was treated didn’t help her case. Neither did allegations that she had been drinking alcohol whilst in hospital.

Serious doubt has been cast not only on Health Minister Tshabalala-Msimang, but on a President who has firmly supported her (despite obvious failings) thus far. Meanwhile, the president has dismissed Deputy-Minister of Health, Madlala-Routledge despite wide ranging reports that she was committed and involved and doing solid service to the community, particularly in the area of AIDS. Her work has been so effective in fact, that AIDS activists were outraged at her dismissal, saying they now felt 'vulernable' and intended to sue the government.

The President’s response has been to point out legalistic details and brand Madlala-Routledge a liar on his website, meanwhile Health Minister Tshabalala-Msimang is taking to court the newspaper that published her escapades in hospital.

Recently the Sunday Times published an article indicating Tshabalala-Msimang, while working at a hospital in Botswana in the 70’s, had stolen personal items from patients (including a watch, shoes, linen etc).

Opposition Party leader (and mayor of Cape Town) Helen Zille has said: "In any properly functioning democracy... Dr Tshabalala-Msimang would have been removed from her position a long time ago. That she has not been, says more about our President than about the health minister."*

The cardinal error the President has made is in underestimating the public’s resentment to almost perpetual government intransigence on a host of issues in South Africa, from AIDS to Zimbabwe. At the recent SADC conference, the leaders who gathered there decided the best course of action on Zimbabwe was ‘to do nothing’ and to ‘wait for the election’ to allow the problem to sort itself out.

The question must then be asked: what is a government actually for? The answer is usually something like this: to serve the people. What happens is citizens elect leaders, and then leaders effectively isolate themselves from the voters, and attempt to fortify or defend their positions. To actually answer to the electorate is so far beneath our leaders to be laughable. This is obvious across the board, from Mugabe to Bush.

The result of this arrogant and narcissistic attitude towards the nation of voters, is a schism between citizens and those ostensibly in place to govern them. The average citizen knows that officials riding around in expensive cars, living on inflated salaries (taxpayers money) etc. couldn’t care less about sorting out important civil problems, for example in less affluent suburbs (or rural areas) because effectively, this is a world away from where they live their lives in hardhearted comfort.

Our president's Us vs Them mentality is evidenced elsewhere in the world. The dangerous result is a slow growth of subversion in communities. At first it is harmless. A mass of people who simply doesn’t trust its own government, but tolerates it because it feels it is ‘stuck’ with it.

Populaces everywhere are free to enter the streets and as a form of popular protest, vote their feelings. We don’t do this probably because we have better things to do, and anyway, how does a President influence us anyway? We’re not necessarily any better or worse off whatever we do.

But there are those who are less inclined to roll over. We call them terrorists. Terrorists are also people who feel strongly about not wanting to be ruled by people who ruthlessly impose their rule, despite having lost the popular mandate to do so. So an attitude of disconnectedness from government can inculcate a similar attitude from the most destitute, from the most extreme segments of a community.

In that sense our leaders have a far greater responsibility towards us than they imagine.


*Quote from ‘Give evidence about Manto: Presidency’, an article compiled by Sapa

Mugabe's Protege

Is it just me or is our government starting to resemble the quintessential 'African autocracy'. I mean, the government that foreign investors particularly want to not do business with (because of the sort of economic chaos they cause).
In our case we already have a leader who does not listen to the people, and seems to prefer an inept Minister of Health (who according to certain sources is a virtual alcoholic and thanks to her position secured herself a brand new liver).

Meanwhile her deputy who happens to be doing a brilliant job, some excuse is found to fire her. Possibly this casts doubt on our president's impeccable taste and discernment.

Dr Beetroot will now I'm sure continue to wage her war on AIDS in vegetable gardens across the country (and then off to the vineyards), meanwhile Mbeki must be spending a lot of his time fudging statistics. He seems unable to believe that 4.4 million people don't have work in the country, and since he can't see it, the numbers must be wrong.

The Zimbabweans streaming across the border present another case of African Intransigence. Unemployment and crime is already a problem. 6000 new arrivals per month - all heading for the same port of call, Gauteng - are naturally going to cause a problem.

I suppose if you are having Chianti each evening and surrounding yourself with crone that tell you how swell you look, that's not something you want to change with a few powerful doses of reality. Thus the powerful enjoy the excesses at the expense of those who put them in power, forgetting conveniently the burdens they once voiciferously fought for. And then the cycle continues.