South Africa

Controverial mining magnate Brett Kebble was shot dead yesterday while driving to a meeting . The killing has raised eyebrows with more than a few people labelling it an "assassination". Here are some interesting questions about the killing :

1) Who would hijack a MERC S600 V12? I mean come on, could you make yourself any more visible "look at me I just hijacked this extremely expensive, rare car". Also, it would probably be very difficult to find a buyer for this type of car for the same reason. Scrap is an option, but why even take the risk when you could steal another type car and get a "full" sale.

2) Why would you drive around chilly, dangerous Joburg with your window down. When Kebble and the car were eventually found, the driver side window was down...maybe there was a meeting and something went wrong?

3) If you believe the hijacking gone wrong theory why would there be FIVE shots to Kebble's body? Evidence at the scene indicates that Kebble tried to escape after the first shot was fired...what kind of hijackers would then chase after the car firing as they went? These are usually speedy incidents and if the hijackers attract attention (ie fire shots) they will quickly disappear, to chase after the car shows their true intentions - murder not vehicle theft. 

SA Police spokesman Chris Wilkens put the likelihood of the murder being the result of a botched hijacking at "around 60%". So we'll have to see...

For those of you wondering who Brett Kebble is and why all this is such a big deal - take a look at some of these articles in Noseweek. Definitely not a run of the mill South African - powerful friends and enemies.

I wanted to write a bit about this earlier but Jonty over at Fishbowl beat me to it. To quote :

"SA Government to Grab 1st Farm" said News24 rather gratuitously. Granted, the farm will be expropriated, but expropriated with payment for the property only subsequent to protracted negotiations with the farmer who has been requesting over 3 times the independently valued amount for his land. Assuming it is truly an independent and robust valuation, then I am in agreement with this expropriation. If it is what the farmer would get on the open market, then we have to realise that this is what must occur to bring more rapid change in land restitution....

 

One has to be a realist and be cognisant of the fact that this process has been left open for ten years and little has been done. One also has to rebut the alarmist, who will pull out the knee-jerk reaction (encouraged by News24) that we are "going the way of Zimbabwe". We're not. This is a natural response to a socio-political situation that will find redressment and balance in the near term."

 

Couldn't have put it better myself.

Well it looks like things are really heating up in Kaapstad :

"The African National Congress's provincial leadership was to hold an urgent meeting on Monday to discuss a bloody fight that broke out at a party gathering in Khayelitsha. A councillor, who has not been named, was seriously injured when he was struck by a brick and is in hospital. Others were also hurt. ANC provincial leader James Ngculu confirmed that the top echelon of the party's provincial leadership was due to meet at 11am to discuss the incident. According to an ANC member, Sunday's meeting turned into a bloody fight."

 

Now this is more like it, forget civilised discourse - lets turn every political meeting and rally into a scene from WWE Smackdown...

A story that needs to be read. I really can't say much here because as the cliche goes - words are totally inadequate. Just...read the story, then visit THIS link and do the right thing.

We all know what it means, but do you? Found this in Wiki - all the ZA slang you'll ever need.

The recent troubles in Delmas over the Typhoid epidemic point to a growing frustration in the "peripheral areas" of our country. Long ignored by the ruling elites these unfortunate people have been rolling with the blows for too long and are fed-up with the pathetic responses from those who are meant to represent them. This is a healthy sign. People need to realise they are the ones who have the power to effect change - if they don't like how a particular councillor or Party is managing their area, they must vote him or them out. This is democracy in action.

Unfortunately from what I have seen so far, the electorate in this country does not respond in the way it should when faced with political inefficiency or corruption. Too often the reaction we see is a shrug of the shoulders and a kind of "well that kind of stuff is to be expected, they're politicians after all", or people just withdraw completely from the system and never participate in the political process . To me this is a major reason for the rapidly declining participation in national and (especially) local elections.

On a lighter note I see this blogs "favorite" politician after Jay-Z experienced some troubling moments :

Even suave youth league leader Mbalula struggled to keep control over the noisy crowd, who grabbed the microphone to vent their concerns. “I am not your enemy,” he shouted. Mbalula promised to take their demands to President Thabo Mbeki. He told them that clean water was not a privilege but a right. “Typhoid is killing the poorest of the poor while people staying in nice places drink Valpré.”

 

Does the ANC Youth League hypocrisy know absolutely no bounds? If anyone is going to be drinking Valpré it would probably be you Fikile - checkout the "Lifestyle" link of the ANCYL website.

You are in charge of an organisation tasked with protecting South Africans against a deadly foe. This enemy will strike without mercy those closest to you - in fact one in four South Africans will be effected by this dastardly menace. So, an enormous burden rests on your shoulders and the fate of thousands depends on your decisions. Do you -

a) Immediately order an increase in research funding to try and discover more about this plague.

 

b) Appeal to your fellow South Africans to take up "arms" and join you in this epic battle of Good vs. Evil

 

c) Try and raise awareness so you don't lose the battle against ignorance.

 

d) Cash your salary cheque of nearly R1m a year and head out for your (free - its on us) golf lessons at the exclusive Killarney Golf Course in Johannesburg.

 

I think you can guess what Niamaat Gamildien did...

Then the Pot called the Kettle black.

We have a couple of good cartoonists in SA (Zapiro springs to mind), but my favourite cartoonists would have to be from the Voice in New York. Checkout this awesome cartoon by Tom Tomorrow.

Try as the family might Uncle Cos refuses point blank to shut-up, even when (heaven forbid) we have company over to the house. He usually starts out early and by the afteroon when the booze is really flowing things can get mighty interesting especially when Dad (Thabo) and Mom (Phumzile) start their tut tutting. Dad is the best, he will be in the middle of one his long winded speeches when Uncle Cos will butt in and start slurring about how much he loves Dad but "you're an idiot and you'd be nowhere without me".

Whenever Mom hears this she just slams her fists down on the table and runs to the kitchen to cry. This a typical day in our house. The thing that I reckon pisses Dad off most is not what Uncle Cos says but more the fact that a lot of the kids love him more than Dad. See Uncle Cos might be an out of control alchie, but he knows how to play a crowd. So after Mom and Dad have read the riot act to the kids, Uncle Cos can usually be found lending a sympathetic ear, slagging off Mom and Dad and giving the errant kiddies sweets. It makes for great popularity.

Surprisingly in between his alcoholic outbursts Uncle Cos can have some pretty smart things to say, especially when he's had enough of the the BS Dad has been handing out in his speeches. The subject of Bob the neighbour is a good example of this. Ol' Uncle Cos just would not let this one go and was constantly calling on Dad to do something and going over to neighbour Bob's house to try and talk some sense into him. It made for great comedy with Dad sitting out on the stoep, his head in his hands while Uncle Cos railed at Bob over the fence. Bob being a psycho himself gave as good as he got.

Love our dysfunctional family.