South Africa

This is a MUST SEE VIDEO!! from 60 Minutes. Draw your own conclusions.

So I see the good times are still rolling in Cape Town. If you’re guessing by good times I mean chairs are being thrown around and knives are being drawn on the Mayor – you’re definitely on top of your game! Democracy (SA style of course) is truly on the march in Western Cape where democratic principles like Freedom of Speech and Freedom of Association are ably protected and defended by the ruling party :

Max Ozinsky, deputy secretary for the ANC in the Western Cape, said Zille had visited the area without telling the ANC councillor, Elese Depoutch, or the party's leadership about it. "She has been working in the area for the past six or seven years, and she has always supported those who disrupted the ANC meetings," said Ozinsky

Come now Max, tell us what you were really thinking…

“That cow, Zille dared to venture into our bastion of ANC meritocracy, who the hell does she think she is? The most esteemed Comrade Manto??” (my mistake, that last sentence contained an oxymoron - Manto meeting any part of her constituency is like the Pres. admitting he made some mistake in policy.)

Speaking of the Prez, I see he decided to issue for the following royal edict statement

“Today, we need to ask ourselves whether we, cadres of our movement, are still upholding the unimpeachable track record of Ellen Khuzwayo and other past ANC cadres," he wrote in his weekly letter. We need to ask ourselves whether the seeds of self-sacrifice they planted into our organization have not begun to fall on thorny, barren soil of self-interest!"

Which of course in the lingua franca of Delmas can be roughly translated into “Did you say the taxpayer will pay – in that case Pimp my ride!” or if you have the more refined Pretorian way of speaking “Hell yeah! Send that Beemer over thissaway!”.

Public Service. It’s tough but someone’s gotta do it.

Just seen the very interesting "V for Vendetta". Was it a nice bit of agitprop cinema, hell yeah! Was it about the Bush administration, hell yeah! Can we take a bit of the message and apply it to our own country, hell yeah!

"People should not be afraid of their governments, governments should be afraid of their people."

A simple, catchy little movie slogan, but one that makes a lot of sense if you consider its implications. At its core democracy is all about action and reaction - you deliver poor, incompetent service to the electorate and you get booted out of office. You deliver fine, visionary leadership and you are rewarded with a continued control of the levers of power. This means a healthy level of fear needs to permeate the governing group - fear of failing in their mandate, fear of the electorate calling them to account, fear of being driven from office. I'm not talking about a paralysing terror of making a mistake, I am talking about a healthy fear that keeps the government on their toes and mindful that they are not South Africa, but merely represent South Africa. Those in power need to understand that they are transitory and remain in power only so long as we allow it, not the other way round.

Now think of our current government, be it at national, provincial or local level - do they have this healthy sense of fear of the electorate? Or do they act like arrogant, paternalistic clowns who seem to have more in common with medieval lords-of-the-manor rather than elected public officials. This attitude can be easily seen from the Eastern Cape where this idiot was allowed to poison the Province for SIX years, to the spend-taxpayers-money-like-a-drunken-pirate-so-we-can-get... at the Department of Justice. No Repercussions=No Fear=Governmental Arrogance=Faux Democracy.

The governing party knows it. The opposition knows it. The electorate doesn't know it. If the government decides to do something or follow a particular course of action, there is not a damn thing you or I can do about it. Nothing. Oh sure we can moan and maybe kick up a fuss in the Court's but inevitably the government will get what it wants...because it can and because it faces no prospect of punishment at the polls (at least in the near-midterm). There is no fear. This point was ably illustrated in the last government elections and in this post where it was noted that dissatisfaction with the government led to virtually no retribution by the electorate at the polls. Suckers. 

In any other sane democracy Manto's handling of the Aids crises would have brought down the government, the NIA scandal would have led to widespread concern among the populace, the various service delivery protests would have led to a major reevaluation of the direction government is taking in terms of delivery. Not in our faux-democracy. Here it is business as usual and these controversies are treated as speed-bumps on the way to national (ANC) glory rather than the national disgraces they should be.

So keep complaining, but don't hold your breath because: no-ones listening...because the don't have to.

Update : No fear and arrogance in action.

When Royals play. We are not amused.

The Eastern Cape is once again pushing hard to get "The Worst Province. Ever" award this year. Showing your tax money is being wisely spent, we have the following fine bit of news about the joyrides among the provincial royalty :

Johannesburg - Two Eastern Cape traditional kings have damaged the brand-new luxury German cars the provincial government gave them last month, Dispatch Online reported on Tuesday. It said the two BMW X5s were now grounded and had been sent for repairs. The vehicles belonged to King Buyelekhaya Dalindyebo of AbaThembu BakaDalindyebo and King Zwelonke Sigcawu of AmaGcaleka.

Fixing the two cars, which were insured, would cost R40 000. Two days after taking delivery of his luxurious car, Dalindyebo drove over a signpost about 20km from KwaZulu-Natal. Local Government and Traditional Affairs spokesperson Siki Wababa-Putini said the car had a damaged front wheel and suspension control arms, costing about R25 000.

Can't we get Chelsy Davy down to the EC to raise the bar a bit?

You would think since ’94 inequality had decreased? Well, apparently not if a report from the SA Institute of Race Relations is to be believed – it has increased dramatically, especially among the African population : 

"Increases (in levels of inequality) were most dramatic for the African population, which saw levels... rise by 21 percent... since 1996," the institute said in a statement issued to mark the publication of its annual South Africa Survey. Such growing inequality was in part an indication of the growth of a black middle class. Of concern, however, was that "such growth has been accompanied by an increase in poverty among the lowest income groups".

 

The survey showed the proportion of people living on less than a dollar a day - the measure of absolute poverty - had more than doubled since 1994.

Again, this is post-’94. 

The coverage of last week’s little tussle between Helen Zille and the ANC over the new World Cup stadium seems to have given passing reference to why Zille took such drastic action. The DA may have won the Mayor ship and wrested control from the ANC, but I think their actions were driven by a growing reality over the massive challenge they face in running the city. The stadium battle is only the first problem the DA will face in a city that is in dire need of upgrades and service delivery.

To further this point and understand the long road ahead for the City lets look at a few highlights from an article written by Carol Paton in the Financial Mail :

Cape Town's electricity and sewerage infrastructure is crumbling and in urgent need of huge investment; the administration is weak, demoralised and distrustful of Zille; the housing crisis grows every year no matter if the province spends its entire budget; and the city faces a R3bn price tag to meet Fifa requirements for the soccer World Cup in 2010.

 

The elephant in the room is the housing shortage and the inability of previous City administrations to tackle the problem :

As with all city politicians that have gone before her, housing is the problem that is most on her mind. Cape Town, says Zille, gets about R350m/year for housing - which would allow almost 9 000 matchbox houses to be built annually, assuming that infrastructure for water and sewerage has been paid for out of the city's other budgets. 
"There are 250 000 households on the waiting list, which grows by 16 000/year. You don't have to be Einstein to figure out that you are going backwards every year," she says. It's a numbers game that the city just can't win, and rather than continuing to promise everyone a house it would be far better to take an honest look at housing policy: either changing the national budget to ensure that there will be brick houses for all, or changing the policy to fit the budget by giving everyone services, like water and sewerage, but not all of them houses, she argues.

 
It might be a more realistic way of looking at the problem. But Zille is completely without influence to change national housing policy. And were she to try to do it alone, announcing to the poor of Cape Town that the DA did not plan to build houses, would be political suicide for her party.

Then there is the less visible but also important :

Six years ago, the Unicity Commission - a body set up to strategise the merging of Cape Town's six metropolitan substructures - put the sewerage infrastructure backlog at R1,4bn. Neighbourhood-based sewage pump stations built decades ago are no longer able to deal with the demands of a city of 3m people. But since the commission's warning, no investment in sewerage infrastructure has been made, except for an emergency R200m at one of the sewerage works. 

And of course who could forget :

The electricity crisis is more visible. Cape Town needs additional generating capacity urgently and the city will have to campaign hard with national authorities to make sure that it gets it sooner rather than later. Aside from the crisis in the supply, the distribution network - 6 000 substations that fall under the control of the city and now regional electricity distributor RED1 - are decrepit. With a maximum lifespan of 30 years, most are 33 years old and, says an official, "have been in crisis maintenance mode for five years". It is these substations that continually trip the network when Koeberg attempts to bring the power back up after an outage.

If the DA pulls this one off, they deserve to move on to bigger and better things…

 - (Big hat tip to Hex) -

답변들이 많이 있을지 없을지 모르나, 특별한 대상 없이 게시하는 일반적인 게시물입니다. 혹시 남아공에 거주하면서 이 블로그를 읽고 계시는 분이 있으신지 궁금합니다. 만일 이 블로그를 읽고 계신분이 있으시면 , 이 블로그 Comments Section에 간단한 자기소개나, 글을 남겨주시면 감사하겠습니다.

It was one of those weeks –

Mrs Fantastic in Seoul (Aka. Mrs Lee) : Good morning Someamongus and I’m sure it’s a fine day your side.

Someamongus : Umm yeah I guess its okay…

Mrs Fantastic : We have great news for you (I’m thinking, good for you or me – cynical bastard). We have decided to expand our operation and that means more business for your business.

Someamongus : (the alarm bells are of course ringing by now, but I play it cool – Clarke Gable style) Why that’s great news! Could you please give me a bit more details?

Mrs Fantastic : (sound of laughter at the other end of the line) Why Someamongus, you are always so enthusiastic aren’t you? Don’t worry I will send you all the details by email.

                                                 - click –

So begins the ride. I have in short been slapped with a project that will take at least six months to complete (a very busy six months) along with accompanying fun and games. So will this cut into blogging time – yes. Will that mean a repeat of the past weeks pathetic blogging progress – gawd I hope not!

Thanks for all the emails wondering where I’d disappeared to. Let the blogging continue~~~