Zuma’s speech on Somalia at UN mini-summit

I wish at the outset to congratulate my dear brother, H.E. Hassan Sheik Mohamoud on being elected President of Somalia.

I look forward to working with you President Hassan, in both bilateral and in multilateral settings as we strengthen the South Africa-Somalia relationship and collaborate within the multilateral fora on matters of mutual interest.

I commend the people of Somalia on this historical step of starting a post transition government that shall chart a path towards governance, reconciliation, stability and development.

The Mini-Summit Summit on Somalia comes at an opportune time.

The resolve and desire for peace shown by Somalis from all walks of life must be supported by the international community.

The lessons we have learnt from all governments that emerge from instability is that the population must see benefit in democratic governance lest they be swayed by those who thrive in chaos.

The new Somali government has a challenging task of delivering the fruits of governance in a still violently contested atmosphere.

The crucial support that the international community continues to provide to Somalia, through maintaining AMISOM, supporting social and economic projects will determine the success of this new government.

However, no amount of support can replace the important role of Somali leadership in building their country.

The Somali leadership is expected to play a very critical role in developing a vision that will serve to rally Somali stakeholders and international partners in our efforts at post-transition development.

If we agree on the importance of these foundational elements, it would then be imperative for us all to collaborate in extricating Somalia out of the ashes of desolation to a developmental path.

As we celebrate the dawn of this new beginning for Somalia we remain conscious that there remain those in Somalia, who although they are sons and daughters of Somalia, remain violently opposed to this new government.

To brandish them as terrorists and respond to them consistent with the brand we attach to them, has had persistent costs.

If Somalia is to move forward, its people cannot continue to be at war.

There is therefore a need to consider increasing our effort to encourage and provide incentives to those that remain outside the political spectrum for them to consider peaceful co-existence with the new Somalia government.

In this regard, a strategy for dialogue between all Somali stakeholders is imperative.

This, if managed properly, could help lead to reconciliation and tolerance in Somalia.

South Africa is committed to availing its expertise on the area of national reconciliation.

We had already agreed with the previous Transitional Federal Government that my country would work closely with Somalis in their reconciliation strategy and we renew our commitment to the new Somali government.

Sustainable peace is possible in Somalia.

The adoption of the provisional Constitution has set in place the foundation for building the pillars on which peace will thrive.

We need to direct our focus on providing support as Somalis implement the political and social compact reached by adopting their constitution.

Important work has already been done by Somalis and international partners in this regard.

South Africa believes that it is imperative that Somalia has adequate institutions of governance that will be able to focus on the immediate and long term priorities of the new government.

It is however also necessary that Somali institutions be strengthened to enable them to play their role also in the prevention and prosecution of piracy.

South Africa shall work with Somalia in rendering assistance in capacity building for Somalis to be able to manage the piracy situation.

South Africa will also work closely with local and international partners to ensure that Somalis are equipped to govern themselves.

I commend the Secretary-General of the United Nations, H.E. Ban Ki- Moon for convening this Mini-Summit on Somalia.

We applaud the tireless efforts of the UN Special Envoy for Somalia, His Excellency Augustine Mahiga.

This is a new dawn for Somalia. May it usher in peace, development and reconciliation for the benefit of the people of Somalia.

I Thank You.

Zuma blames apartheid

Jacob Zuma

South Africa’s president says the mining unrest that captured international attention following the police killing of 34 striking miners will be resolved through negotiation.

President Jacob Zuma told the Associated Press that the Aug. 16 killings at the Lonmin PLC platinum mine in Marikana should not be viewed as “the kind of incident that will be a common occurrence” or “that things have gone out of control in South Africa.”

He said the strikes which spread to other, mostly gold, mines were a direct consequence of the strike at Marikana and that they too would be resolved through negotiation.

Zuma denied that the strikes revealed startling inequalities in post-apartheid South Africa, saying it was not a problem that has “arisen now,” blaming the problem on the legacy of apartheid. – AP

South African President Jacob Zuma deploys troops in the country

The SA National Defence Force has officially been deployed domestically from September 14 until next year in Marikana “and other areas of the country where needed”, the Presidency said in a statement on Thursday.

The Presidency said in a short statement that the soldiers would be deployed to support the police “in the prevention and combating of crime as well as the maintenance of law and order in the Marikana area, North West province and other areas around the country where needed.”

The statement did not detail where the other areas may be.

The deployment will last from September 14 until January 31, 2013.

“The extended period will see the SANDF soldiers supporting the police during the festive season period around the country, as they did last year, 2011,” the statement read. – Sapa

Malema arrives at Aurora mine

Ululation, whistles and jubilation greeted expelled ANCYL leader Julius Malema’s arrival at the Aurora mine in Grootvlei, Springs, on Thursday.

Workers sang “Ngisebenzela izingane zami emgodini” (I’m working for my children in the mine).

Malema arrived in a Mercedes-Benz Viano minibus dressed in a white shirt, black pants and his trademark beret.

Workers at the mine told Malema how President Jacob Zuma promised to help them, but never honoured his words.

“Zuma was here… took payslips and promised to attend to our problems. He then disappeared and then brought his kids to run the mine,” said one of the workers.

Aurora’s directors include Zuma’s nephew Khulubuse Zuma and former president Nelson Mandela’s grandson, Zondwa Mandela.

Workers told Malema how the liquidators of Aurora Empowerment Systems demolished their hostel, leaving them on the street.

“We were paid R500 and told that was 40 percent of our provident fund,” one of the workers claimed. – Sapa

Malema was expected to address the workers, left without wages for months after Aurora took over the liquidated Pamodzi Gold mines. Aurora’s directors have been accused of stripping the mine’s assets and not paying workers their salaries. An inquiry into the matter is underway.

Another painting with Zuma’s genitals exposed

Another painting of President Jacob Zuma with his private parts exposed went on display at the AVA Gallery in Cape Town on Monday night, according to a report.

According to the Star, artist Ayanda Mabulu’s painting of Zuma wearing traditional attire and his penis exposed, entitled “Umshini Wam” [weapon of mass destruction] is part of an exhibition — “Our Fathers”.

The exhibition also has works of artist Brett Murray whose controversial painting, “The Spear”, resulted in protests against Johannesburg’s Goodman Gallery in May.

The Spear, another painting depicting Zuma with his genitals exposed, was later removed by the Goodman Gallery and the City Press website. The artwork was also classified with a rating of “16N” by the Film and Publication Board because it displays nudity.

Mabulu’s painting is priced at R75,000.

“He is not naked; I did not paint him with an uncircumcised penis. This is a metaphor that shows he is not a boy; he is a man, an elder, a father, a leader,” Mabulu was quoted as saying.

“In this painting I’m engaging my elder in the language of my mother tongue, the language that carries the culture of my people, the language he understands the most.

“Through this painting, I respectfully, as one of his children, ask my father why he is starving us. Why he is negating his duties to his children, the citizens of South Africa.” – SAPA

South African President Zuma could cost taxpayer R500m ($60m) over 5 years

President Jacob Zuma could cost the South African taxpayer more than R500 million over five years, according to analysis based on the ministerial handbook.

“At the very least, President Zuma will cost the South African taxpayer R517.7m over five years — an average of R103.5m per year,” said Gareth van Onselen in a blog published on www.inside-politics.org.

Van Onselen, the Democratic Alliance’s director of political analysis and development, writes the blog in his personal capacity.

He used the ministerial handbook as a guide to calculate the figure.

“It was a very difficult exercise, but using the ministerial handbook as a guide and by being very conservative, I have generated a total figure.”

The total amount included Zuma’s annual salary of R12.3m over five years, medical aid of R6.5m and pension payout of R2.8m.

The cost for Zuma’s spouses was estimated to be R77.59m.

“According to the presidency, the budget for the Presidential Spousal Support Unit was R15,517,500 for the 2009/10 financial year.

The amount allocated to the Spousal Support Unit had increased from R4.5 million in 2004/05 to R8 million in 2007/8, to R15.5 million in 2009/10, under Zuma.

“Significantly, the only way you can get information on the Spousal Unit is through parliamentary questions.

“There is no longer a standalone line item for it in the presidency’s annual report (there used to be) and no dedicated programme of action for it in the presidency’s strategic plan.

“It is money spent with no identifiable outcome attached to it. And for the last two years, its full costs are unknown,” Van Onselen said.

Zuma’s private vehicles were estimated to cost R3.7m over five years, while flights for the VIP Squadron were calculated at R234.2m over the same time period.

The president’s overseas allowance was estimated to be R127,000 for five years. Van Onselen was not able to work out the allowance for the president’s wives.

Zuma’s official residence could cost about R26m for five years, and the taxpayer could fork out about R6.4m for his private residences.

VIP protection was calculated to be R60m for five years.

Van Onselen said he calculated the figures based on Zuma taking office in May 2009 and his term ending in April 2014.

The presidency had not responded to a request for comment by 4pm on Monday. – SAPA

Return to work, or be fired! Lonmin tells striking mineworkers

Miners must return to work Monday or face being fired from the platinum mine where rivalry between unions exploded into violence that led to the deaths of 44 people in a week, Lonmin PLC said Sunday. Thirty-four were gunned down by police in one of the worst displays of state violence since apartheid ended in 1994.

One of the leading figures in South Africa’s ruling ANC, former union boss Cyril Ramaphosa, is a non-executive director in the company and also owns a stake in it.

President Jacob Zuma declared a week of national mourning starting Monday to commemorate the lives of all South Africans who have died violently, especially the 44 at Marikana mine.

“The nation is in shock and pain,” Zuma said in a statement. “We must this week reflect on the sanctity of human life … We must avoid finger-pointing and recrimination. We must unite against violence from whatever quarter.”

Hundreds of rock-drill operators have been leading an illegal strike among the mine’s 28,000-strong labor force. Threats of violence kept many more away.

Lonmin had initially ordered miners to return to work by Friday, then, after the shootings, changed the deadline to Monday, spokeswoman Sue Vey explained.

Strikers said they were not sure what to do about the ultimatum. The company has not responded to their demands for the minimum wage to be increased from R5,500 ($688) to R12,500 ($1,560).

Last year after a similar dispute over labor representation stopped work at its nearby Karee mine, Lonmin fired all 9,000 workers. Then it asked them to reapply for their jobs and most were rehired.

“Because we work as a majority, if the majority goes back to work tomorrow I’m going too,” said miner Vuyisile Mchiza.

But “If the majority is not going back to work tomorrow, I’m not going either because I won’t be able to go to work while others are sitting grieving.”

Jeff Mathunjwa, head of the union to which the strikers belong, said he was not talking to journalists until Tuesday, when asked how he was advising his members.

More than 100 people, miners, their families and local community members, processed past the mine Sunday singing hymns as they made their way to the dusty veld where police officers fired a barrage of shots from automatic rifles and pistols at a group of charging miners on Thursday.

A moving memorial was led by Pastor Sakhumzi Qiqimana of Marikana New Creation Ministry who told those gathered: “Now we have no power to come in the middle of the negotiations of the company and the workers, but we are here now to pray and say ‘God forgive us,’ and now we are here to say ‘This (killing) must stop.'”

Police say one of the charging miners shot at them first with a pistol and that they acted in self-defense. Earlier in the week, the strikers had butchered two captured police officers with machetes.

Lonmin said Saturday that it will pay for the educations of all children of mine employees killed in the unrest, up to university level.

A presidential statement Sunday said Zuma would announce the composition of a judicial commission of inquiry into the killings and its terms of reference within a few days. It said he had appointed 10 Cabinet ministers and a provincial premier to visit Marikana on Monday to lead support for bereaved families including the identification of bodies, burials and counseling.

Many people have said they do not know whether missing husbands and sons are among the dead, among 78 wounded, or among more than 250 arrested on charges ranging from public violence to murder.

Zuma urged South Africans to “reaffirm our belief in peace, stability and order and in building a caring society free of crime and violence.”

The shootings have South Africans debating their country’s magnified levels of violence, and the frequency with which they resort to violence to resolve disputes. South Africa has one of the highest murder and rape rates in the world. – AP

Zuma wants to ‘decolonise museums’, remove Eurocentric artefacts

The country’s museums needed to decolonise and transform urgently, President Jacob Zuma said in the Northern Cape on Sunday.

“Our museums must be transformed to become centres of heritage and expertise which respect all peoples and cultures,” Zuma said in a speech prepared for delivery at the reburial of Klaas and Trooi Pienaar in Kuruman.

The bodies of the couple, who were Khoisan descendants, were dug up and sent to Vienna by Austrian scientist Rudolph Pch in 1909.

They were workers on the farm Pienaarsputs, and died of malaria fever in May and June that year. Their bodies were dug up in October 1909, wrapped in linen and forced into a large barrel, which was filled with salt to preserve them.

Zuma said processes were underway to address the legacy of racial science in museums.

“No museum must have a collection or material that depicts any section of our population as colonial objects, especially indigenous people.”

He said the Iziko Museum in Cape Town had already investigated the ethics of its collection.

“The museum decided that all human remains bought from grave robbers or acquired for racial research were unethically collected and needed to be returned.”

The arts and culture department would work closely with the museum sector to ensure this happened in line with national policy, said Zuma. – SAPA

Zuma made honorary professor

President Jacob Zuma was awarded the title of Honorary Professor of International Relations by the Peking University in Beijing, China, on Friday, the presidency said.

Zuma was in the country attending the fifth Forum of China-Africa Co-operation (FOCAC) meeting, the presidency said in a statement.

In his acceptance speech, Zuma said the award was a sign of China’s confidence in South Africa.

“Let me also express my personal thanks to this institution and the broader leadership of the People’s Republic of China for deeming me worthy of this honour,” he said.

“I take this as a symbol of the confidence the Chinese have in South Africa as an emerging country of the South, as well as a partner in the pursuit of a just international order.”

He said the award confirmed that China was a country “inspired by the zest for knowledge through education”.

“We are inspired by the value attached to education in the analects of the ancient Chinese philosopher Confucius, who stressed the importance of education and study as being fundamental to human progress,” Zuma said.

“We believe that today marks the beginning of a new chapter in the educational relations between our two countries.”

He said that education was important in South Africa, and it received the biggest share of the country’s budget.

“More money is always needed to address the huge backlogs left by more than 300 years of colonial subjugation, and we appreciate that our international partners, like China, play a major role in this regard,” the president said.

“History tells us that if used positively, education develops people and ensures that they are capacitated to change society for the better. I say this because some have used education negatively.”

He said the award could be seen as the recognition and appreciation by China of the role the African National Congress played in the struggle against apartheid.

“All of us in the leadership of the ANC have made these accomplishments because of the unwavering support of the South African people,” Zuma said.

“I am genuinely humbled that this recognition is done through me as the leader of this organisation, and as the leader of the democratic government of South Africa.”

This is the ninth honorary academic award that Zuma has received.

The others are from the University of Fort Hare, the University of Zululand, the Medical University of Southern Africa, the University of Limpopo, the University of Zambia, the American University of Nigeria, the University of Abomey-Calavi of Benin and the Texas Southern University. – Sapa

South African government demands removal of Zapiro cartoon

The South African government called for the urgent removal of the latest Zapiro cartoon on President Jacob Zuma in the Mail & Guardian on Friday.

“Government calls on Jonathan Shapiro (Zapiro) to withdraw his cartoon, and urges the Mail & Guardian to remove it from its website,” government spokesman Jimmy Manyi said in a statement.

The cartoon was a “defamatory attack” on Zuma’s character and violated his rights to dignity as enshrined in the Constitution.

“It is disappointing that the Mail & Guardian published such a demeaning cartoon, especially following the recent debate about another offensive artwork.”

He was referring to a now-defaced painting by artist Brett Murray depicting Zuma with genitals exposed, which showed at the Goodman Gallery in Johannesburg in May.

“While the Constitution and the government of South Africa promote freedom of expression, artists should ensure that they do not infringe on the rights of others, and that they build cohesion, dignity, and respect rather than undermine these imperatives.

Earlier, the ANC, which Zuma heads, the ANC Women’s League (ANCWL), and the National Union of Metalworkers of SA (Numsa) issued statements condemning the cartoon.

It features an erect penis with a showerhead and legs with an accompanying limerick about Zuma.

The ANCWL said: “The Zapiro cartoons rely on their shock value to make an impact, but calling the president of this great nation a ‘dick’ is unacceptable and the WL would like to know who the ‘we’ he is referring to in the cartoon actually is, as the majority of the population who voted for the president clearly did not think this of Zuma.”

The ANC said: “As the ANC, we are taken aback by this so-called cartoon and comment by Zapiro.

“We find it unacceptable and shocking that after the harsh experiences that South Africa, the President, and his family experienced [a] few weeks ago, that Zapiro and the Mail and Guardian will find it appropriate to continue with the insults and hurt to the President, his family, and the broader ANC constituency.”

Numsa said it was “littered with venomous and deep personal hatred” of Zuma.

“As Numsa we can come to no other conclusion but to accept that some white progressives of yesteryear have become racist and colonialist in their outlook since the advent of our new democratic dispensation.”

‘Farm attacks not racially motivated’ – South African president

Farm attacks should be viewed within the context of the country’s high crime statistics, and not as racially motivated, President Jacob Zuma has told Beeld newspaper.

Many attacks took place on the farms of white commercial farmers, and had the appearance of being racially motivated, but this was not the case, Zuma told the newspaper in an interview on Tuesday.

He said that many murders took place in South Africa’s townships, and these were not always reported in the media.

The government rejected farm attacks and would attend to farmers’ concerns that the comprehensive rural safety plan was not getting off the ground.

Asked why farm murders were not being made a priority crime, Zuma said Police Minister Nathi Mthethwa had said in Parliament that farm attacks were just as much of a priority as any other crime.

The recent court case against the murderers of Afrikaner Weerstandsbeweging leader Eugene Terreblanche had again shown that crime, rather than politics, was the driving factor behind the attacks, he said.

Praising the country’s commercial farmers, Zuma said: “Wherever I go, established farmers tell me that they’re prepared to act as mentors for emerging farmers.”

Freedom Front Plus said Zuma was ill-informed.

“President Zuma is clearly ill-informed about farm murders if he says that race does not play a role,” the party’s spokesman Pieter Groenewald said in a statement.

He claimed research had shown in 2003 that 2 percent of farm murders were racially driven.

“The reality is that the cruelty with which the farm murders are perpetrated attests that it is not ordinary criminality.”

“The president should firstly tell us how many farm murders have taken place since 2007 for him to be able to prove his statement.”

He claimed the figure for murders of farmers stood at around 313 per 100,000 of the population while the figure for the murder of “ordinary people” was 32 per 100,000.

“If Zuma wants to resolve farm murders he has to concede to the request of the Freedom Front Plus…to make crime statistics on farm murders available and to declare farm murders as a priority crime,” said Groenewald.

‘We won’t kill whites, just take their land without compensation’ – Julius Malema

According to the Daily Maverick, a Johannesburg website, expelled ANC Youth leader Julius Malema is still campaigning hard in his home province of Limpopo.

Greg Nicolson writes that Malema gave whites a lashing over their continued ownership of farmland. “We don’t owe them fuck,” Malema added, assumingly referring to expropriating land from white people without compensation. “We don’t want to kill you… not because we are scared (but) because we like peace.”

After the delegates at the ANC’s national policy conference returned to their respective provinces, Mondli Makhanya, editor-in-chief at Avusa, noted a change in the president Jacob Zuma’s demeanor.

“Defeat in the second transition debate was no small loss for the president. It was a very clear indicator of his precarious hold on power. That is why the president is mimicking Julius Malema and trying to occupy the militant space that the former youth league leader once occupied,” wrote Makhanya.

“And the more unsure he becomes of his sway in the ANC, the more populist he will sound. Julius Malema will have returned. Older, but not wiser.”

Zuma’s legacy is corruption and immoral leadership that lacks personal respect, said Malema last night. He called on the crowded hall to “save the ANC” from the “crisis” that would engulf the party if Zuma led until 2019.

Under Zuma the ANC will take less than 50% of the vote in 2014, said Malema. He referred to Zuma’s dictum that the ANC “would rule until Jesus came”, while the Democratic Alliance already governs the Western Cape. “This is an example of misleading leadership,” he said.

He gave the president a lesson in populist rhetoric. “You will never know what land is until you own it… There are no rich people without land. Land is everything. Land is the purpose the ANC was formed. It wasn’t for VIPs,” proclaimed Juju.

Malema was riding on the confidence that followed last week’s conference. Zuma was dealt a psychological blow when the title of the second transition document was rejected, supporters sung for Kgalema Motlanthe and ANC delegates reportedly came to blows over nationalisation.

But the expelled youth league radical didn’t stop at leadership or policy issues. He engaged in a personal tirade against Zuma and ANC spokesman Jackson Mthembu.

Malema asked what right Zuma had to discipline the Youth League while it’s public knowledge that the president slept with a friend’s daughter. He suggested that when Zuma looked at the children of his friends, he didn’t see children, but different opportunities.

In front of the enthusiastic crowd, he said Zuma’s second transition document was rejected at the policy conference, but that he wouldn’t know, because he’s always sleeping.

Malema also launched an attack on Jackson Mthembu, the ANC’s spokesman. He referred to him as a drunk and his son as a drug addict. Mthembu has publicly spoken about his son’s addiction.

Why does Malema still get so much publicity if he is no longer a member of the ruling party?  “So Julius had views, how did they get in the paper? Whether he is relevant or not, it appears the media decided that they want to make him relevant,” said political analyst Ebrahim Fakir on Tuesday.

Greg Nicolson of Daily Maverick is of the opinion that last night’s speech was “Julius… unchained. By expelling the ANCYL leader the party let him loose, took away any control it had over him. If he were suspended he would need to toe the line for five years. But his only hope of returning to the party is through helping to topple Zuma and hoping for a reprieve post-Mangaung.”

Manguang, outside Bloemfontein, will host the party’s major conference in December this year, with the leadership struggle heating up in the run-up to it.

Anti-white measures stepped up in South Africa

Partial view of the Afrikaans language monument at Paarl, Western Cape


Everyone knows the cliché about the frog being heated up slowly in water. Instead of jumping out of the pot, he becomes so used to it that he eventually boils to death. So many people have already used this metaphor for South Africa’s whites that it feels almost like plagiarism just to mention it.

However, last week’s mammoth conference by the ruling ANC in Midrand again gave me the idea that we are all being brainwashed into accepting the unacceptable: that we may lose our farms, property and equal rights simply because we are white.

During his opening speech, the ANC leader Jacob Zuma flew into a rage against “white men” who supposedly “still control the economy”. We reported on the ANC conference on www.praag.org, which led to a few altercations with black South Africans on Twitter.

White men are already self-employed

What blacks do not seem to understand is that white men no longer pose any kind of competition in the job market to them. All the banks and major corporations in South Africa follow the government’s affirmative-action rules to the letter. They are even eager to get rid of their white employees, to the extent that 75% of white men over fifty are already self-employed, eking out a measly living by doing odd jobs on their computers. South Africa is crying out for engineers, but many white engineers are sitting at home selling pet food on the internet or running gasoline stations. If they are still allowed to get gasoline franchises from the oil companies who have also excluded whites from doing that!

I came upon another statistic about white South African men: In 2006, one out of every four, of all ages, was self-employed. In short, while the ANC was ranting against white males at their conference, there were hardly any left in formal employment. Tens of thousands of young white men have already left the country and are working overseas, because no corporation would employ them in South Africa, let alone the government or municipalities where it is almost unheard of for any white person to be offered a job, except as cleaning staff.

Yes, this is the most bizarre effect of South African affirmative action, that well-educated but impoverished whites are now so desperate for an income that they will clean the floors and toilets for black office staff. I spoke to an alderman in the town of Brits, north west of Johannesburg, and she confirmed that the cleaning staff of the municipality was all white, employed as a “special favour” to the local white community. East of Johannesburg, in the horrible, Stalinist “megacity” of Ekurhuleni, a similar arrangement is taking place whereby whites are only employed to do menial labour. This is a way of boosting the self-esteem of the profligate black municipal potentates who regularly make the news because of corruption, unwarranted expenditure on luxury hotels and overseas conferences, and so on.

Taking the fight to the courts

As I am writing this, I am still awaiting the US Supreme Court decision on Fisher v. the University of Texas on affirmative action. Somehow it was not handed down last week, being overshadowed by the news of the Court’s decision on Obamacare. The Fisher decision, although important for the United States, might have a knock-on effect worldwide. South African universities practise the same kind of exclusion of white students on racial grounds, except far more radically. In some faculties, such as veterinarian science at the University of Pretoria, whites are banned altogether. In medicine, they are only allowed a quota of 10% of admissions, regardless of academic merit.

What astounds me, is why we have not had more court challenges of affirmative action and anti-white discrimination generally, in South Africa. The still relatively independent South African courts are often criticised by the ANC, so we should litigate while we still can, following all the US examples of whites who have successfully sued against race preferences.

Should we ‘prepare for war’?

However, many people believe that we are not far from even more violence than we are already experiencing. The Transvaal Agricultural Union recently asked whether farmers should “prepare for war”, given the belligerent rhetoric coming from many ANC politicians. The radical mood of the ANC and especially its militant, communist youth wing, suggests that we could see farm invasions like in Zimbabwe, with whites simply chased off their property within the next year or two, or even earlier. In a widely publicised statement, ANC Youth leader Ronald Lamola said in Durban ten days ago, about taking the land of whites: “We need an act as forceful as war to bring it back to the Africans.”

The ANC closed last week’s “policy conference” with the entire throng singing “bring me my machine gun” in Zulu, led by President Jacob Zuma, as usual.

That FW de Klerk happened to hand the ANC’s militia, Umkhonto we Sizwe, all 500 000 automatic weapons in the country’s arsenal in 1994, was the gravest error of judgement ever and a constant worry to us all.

So amid all this uncertainty and radical talk from the government, we must continue to fight for what is right, organise and defend ourselves.

Spread the message

I want to ask you, our overseas supporters, to please spread the word of our plight. Read the posts on our website and stay informed about the developing conflict in South Africa.
We are trying to keep www.praag.org updated on a daily basis, despite also running a full-scale news website in Afrikaans for our local readers on www.praag.co.za. Remember you can also use Google Translate to read some of those articles.

I recently came across an eBook on the internet about racial violence in America, White Girl Bleed A Lot: The Return Of Race Riots To America by Colin Flaherty.

What amazed me about this book, was the similarity in the violence committed by blacks in the USA and in South Africa, except here it is more extreme, sadistic and informed by African ritual, such as the recent case where a young white female victim’s hands were amputated. Presumably to be used in the concoction of muti, or medicine.

We shall try to alert you about interesting eBooks regularly, which may stimulate the international debate around white and Western survival. As the visiting Dutch politician Martin Bosma of the Freedom Party said, “You Afrikaners are the canary in the coal mine for the whole Western or European world.”

Indeed. Don’t let us die for the sake of proving that multiculturalism does not work. With our increasing poverty and joblessness here, we rely on your PayPal subscriptions and donations to keep our struggle going here.

Please also tell your friends about our fund-raising site, as well as this site www.praag.org where the enfolding drama of South Africa’s slide into racial socialism is being chronicled.

For the solidarity and friendship that you have shown us so far, I thank you from the bottom of my heart. Things may look grim now, but there is hope for our civilisation yet.

Regards,

Dan Roodt

Director, Pro-Afrikaner Action Group (PRAAG)

The ANC’s second revolution (okay, ‘transition’) against whites

by Dan Roodt

South Africa, like Cuba, is the last outpost of communism. Elsewhere in the world, experiments in collective farming and nationalisation have been abandoned as the grim mistakes of nineteenth-century radicalism, issuing forth from the bearded Karl Marx, scribbling away in the British Library.

However, behind Karl Marx there was a capitalist, Friedrich Engels, who bankrolled him and actually paid him to pour forth his books and pamphlets that would sow discord and resentment for more than a century.

The ANC, like many of the “tenured radicals” at South African universities, loves Karl Marx. The class struggle is their favourite nursery tale. And if you could add that the capitalists are actually white, then it’s no longer Little Red Ridinghood; it’s Little Red Soldiers marching from one conference to the next.

Unlike most journalists and newspaper pundits, I have actually read the ANC’s document on “the second transition”. Not so long ago, the ruling party – maybe we should capitalise “Party” as is communist practice – entertained us on the notion that South Africa was going through a two-stage revolution. Classical marxist theory holds that all of human history advances through a succession of “epochs”, culminating in “the most advanced stage, the classless society, or communism”. That is when people start queuing for bread, potatoes, shoes or waiting ten years to buy a two-stroke-engined car with nineteen-fifties technology.

At one point Cuba was going back to the bicycle. Not that I have anything against bicycles; on the contrary. Quite a few of our BEE moguls and traffic cops taking bribes alongside the roads, bulging out of their blue uniforms, could do with some exercise.

But to go back to stone age economic principles – “sharing” things around the camp fire – is a great leap backwards, if you will pardon the pun. In fact, Mao’s “great leap forward” was another communist cliché floating around the ANC’s Midrand conference yesterday.

According to Marx and Engels, there is first a political revolution, alternately called a “bourgeois revolution”, before the real transformation, the social revolution, begins. In the case of Russia, the “capitalist epoch” lasted only a few months, from February to October 1917, but we need not detain ourselves with such finer details. In ANC parlance, the transition of 1994 when De Klerk fired all his generals and handsupped before the Party’s militia, Umkhonto we Sizwe, was the political or “National Democratic Revolution”.

Until now, the second or social revolution has been chomping at the bit within the Luthuli House stables, ready to propel its bright-eyed, sushi-chomping jockeys into the apocalyptic dawn.

According to Jacob Zuma yesterday, the enemy, the class enemy, to put it more politically correctly, seems to be so-called white males. South African marxists have always confounded race and class. Mbeki, the great black marxist – or should I use the fashionable euphemism, “progressive” – intellectual, used to rave quite frequently about the white ruling class while he was still president. Or maybe Mbeki was just too habitually drunk to realise that putting yourself forward as a victim while you are wearing the crown represents a colossal contradiction.

However, not so long ago I read that 75% of white males over 50 were self-employed. That is only logical as BEE and affirmative action have already swept South African corporate life, not to mention the civil service and municipalities. Most municipalities are now all-black, with whites actually doing the cleaning. Our municipalities must have the most highly educated cleaning staff in the world; apparently some of the people wielding brooms and mops have postgraduate qualifications. But they happen to be white, which is a fatal handicap in the Republic of South Africa.

Younger white males are hanging on in the SME’s where racial headcounts are pursued with lesser fervour. In fact, a survey that I found on the internet yesterday showed that one in four white males of all ages was actually self-employed in 2006. By now the figure must be far higher.

So maybe the ANC, in its racial-marxist zeal, pursuing the Second Coming – wasn’t Mbeki also fond of quoting his favourite Xhosa poet, William Butler Yeats? – is barking up the wrong tree, “full of passionate intensity”.

One of the few people I mostly agree with in South Africa, is liberal historian Hermann Giliomee. I think that is because we both look at the current situation from the vantage point of history. Not… fantasy. He recently told me that he was just glad to have severed all ties with universities. In fact, the universities have become little ANC kindergartens, producing the type of pompous, quasi-marxist “papers” of which the ANC’s latest policy document is but a carbon copy.

We have to acknowledge that race, not class, is what the South African revolution is all about. That is why the white male bogeyman will be brandished, even if most of us white males eke out a measly living doing odd jobs on our computers in SOHOs. For those less familiar with American acronyms, that is “small office home office”. While the BMW-driving, black bourgeoisie are feasting out there, living it up in five-star hotels and bleeding this country dry.

To understand black identity, we have to look at America and a book such as Jared Taylor’s recent White Identity – racial consciousness in the 21st century.

In a nutshell: whites, with the exception of a few so-called “right-wing Afrikaners”, no longer have an identity. Blacks, on the other hand, are completely lacking in any European class consciousness. Their only consciousness is one of race. Not being very culturally assertive and preferring English as their means of communication, their only identity is being black, which may be further enhanced by hating whites.

Ultimately, the second revolution is not about poverty, equality, redressing past wrongs or any of the usual clichés offered by the ANC. It is about the black elite affirming its own identity.

Like Narcissus, they are looking at themselves in the mirror, whispering: “I am black, so black.” All other consequences flow from that existential premise and experience.

When I was a student, some of the campus radicals used to call it “black-being-in-the-world”. It had a kind of Heideggerian ring to it.

South Africa is going to pay a very high price for that singular mode of being.