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Hello again
The DA seems to be in trouble and whereas the polls show that the ANC is losing support the reality might be very different. What worries DA supporters is that their party may well lose their only province, the Western Cape. Many in the large Moslem population of our province have indicated that they will be leaving the DA –although not necessarily joining the ANC– they have several ‘Moslem’ parties vying for seats. Cyril spent a large part of the week canvassing in the townships of Cape Town, Stellenbosch, and Paarl and the publicity he got did the DA no good at all. On Sunday he was in church in Gugulethu and he asked the congregants to pray for for a quiet, peaceful election and to vote for the ANC. He verily believes that the ruling party can take our province back.
What is clear is that the ruling party up to now has been much better at getting publicity than any of the opposition parties and everywhere that Cyril went there were photos posted of him getting close to housewives, shaking hands with all and sundry and always with a broad smile while cuddling babies.
The polls tell their story and they may not be correct but they do give us a vision of the country on a given day. One of the more transparent polling institutions is the Social Research Foundation. Their latest figures show the ANC at 42.2%, DA 24.7%, MK 12.5% and the EFF 8.6%. I would love this to be correct on voting day but I have my doubts.
What is interesting is that we have a little more than 27½ million voters but we also have 13½ million eligible voters who have not registered to vote.
Nobody gets more publicity than Jacob Zuma. Day after day he makes headlines and this week was no different.
JZ was called to a disciplinary hearing of the ANC scheduled for Tuesday to explain his position in the uMkhonto weSiwe (MK) party. Long before Tuesday, he was back on the front pages and all the publicity he was getting forced the ANC to postpone the disciplinary bhearing until after the election. Now that made news!
Then, Zuma has to be in court yet again on Friday. This is when the matter of his eligibility for Parliament will be tested. Most of the publicity for this case, brought by the IEC (Electoral Commission) has been about Zuma’s demand that six Constitutional Court Justices recuse themselves because of their bias against him. This is the matter where he may well be banned from standing for a parliamentary seat due to his prison sentence of 15 months — where he only served 2 months and of those months not more than a day or two was spent in prison and the rest of the time he was in a hospital because he was “ terminally” ill and that got him out of serving the full sentence–(maar kyk hoe lyk hy nou). The sentence he received was for disobeying a Constitutional Court order.
An ANC big-shot is going to have to face the music despite being exonerated by our disgraced former Chief Justice of the Western Cape, John Hlope. He is our former State Security Minister, Bongani Bongo who will now be back in court to face bribery and corruption charges.
Then the NPA have let it be known that they are after our Sports Minster on similar charges. Zizi Kodwa was named by Judge Zondo as being one that should be investigated but Cyril likes the fellow so much that he put him in his cabinet nevertheless. Not only is he still in cabinet but in spite of the ANC promising to leave out any tainted members (cadres) from their election list, Kodwa is near the very top of the list at No 13.
When is Cyril going to find a backbone? This cartoon from Brandan is from Christmas time last year but it’s even more apposite now:
Large parts of Johannesburg, including downtown, are without electricity. A gang one night dug-up part of a road and were stealing copper wire when a huge fire broke out and now, days later, the massive outages is still ongoing. A few days ago the Mayor of Joburg, from the tiny Al Jama-ah party, in an upbeat speech gave a glowing report on his city and went on and on about how wonderful everything is and that everything is under control. To many of us it seems he was reporting on a different city to the one he is mayor of.
A story that made the front pages of our newspapers this week was the unfinished building collapsing in George. Rescue workers have been struggling for days to try to recover some still alive bodies from the rubble. Of those recovered seven have died.
The reason for the collapse of the five story building is still unknown, but it is being investigated.
The BELA (Basic Education Laws Amendment) Law which is now before the parliamentary committees has already been passed by Parliament. This bill has caused much consternation especially amongst Afrikaans speakers. Some have been vocal in their concern since parents and even principals will have no say in how children will be taught or in what language.
Solidarity, the (Afrikaner) trade Union, and Afriforum, the mainly Afrikaans NGO have let it be known that if BELA gets imposed on the country they will purposefully stop helping municipalities. The bill passes all the control of education in our country to bureaucrats. Pieter Malan in his editorial in Sunday’s Rapport tells how that political witch-doctor in Stellenbosch, Jannie Gaggiano suggests a solution. Jannie believes the Afrikaners should create a body, above politics, like the JBD (Jewish Board of Deputies) in our country. That board will be a-political and will then look after Afrikaner interests.
The DA has collected lots of flack this week. Their latest election advert on TV has a burning SA flag as its central theme. What they are saying is that SA will be burning if the ANC & EFF &/ or MK get into bed together after the elections to govern SA. Whereas most of us understand what they are saying it seems a lot of criticism is being targeted at the DA— even though the flag returns to its full size and shape by the end of the advert. Many are angry at seeing the flag in flames.
One thing is for sure; unlike their first three DA TV adverts this one has got the people talking.
David with his cartoon in the Daily Friend got it dead right again this week:
The Economist this week carried three stories about SA. Our current situation with background is given over three pages in one of those stories. The Economist is always worth a read.
We have had another week free of load-shedding and the Government want us to believe it has nothing to do with the upcoming elections!
Amazon has officially opened in SA. Their biggest competition is the local business, Takealot, which is owned by the very successful Naspers group.
Shell is leaving SA after 120 years. It is reported that Shell and their BEE (Black Economic Empowerment) partner’s relationship has hit rock bottom and that is their reason for leaving. More companies will follow, knowing that Caltex and Mobil have already left.
And not only petrol co’s have left. Think of Barclays Bank and now Anglo American; they are looking for SA’n investors to take over their local assets having already delisted from the local stock exchange.
It’s hard being a Spurs fan. On Sunday evening they lost their 4th league match in a row. The last time that happened was 20 years ago. The coach was on the couch until the score was 3-0 in the early stages of the 2nd half and he got up and went home. Then Liverpool scored a 4th.The Spurs manager then made several changes, as is allowed and suddenly Spurs scored twice but unfortunately no more.
As always,
Gerald
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