Freedom Front. – praag.org

Firearms Act: Stand together and act, ad hoc group requests

The time has come for organisations to work together to strengthen South Africa. This was the message that was confirmed by almost all role players during yesterday’s meeting of the ad hoc group for the protection of property rights.

This group decided to convene all interested groups to discuss the controversial firearms bill. These amendments amount to a form of expropriation of property, against which the group advises.

The ad hoc group for the protection of property rights is an informal grouping of organisations, organised agriculture and agricultural representatives, civil and civil rights institutions, opposition parties and academics as well as religious institutions. The group meets regularly to discuss any policy frameworks that may harm or undermine property rights and to consider mutual views, actions and initiatives.

“It was good to have a diverse group of organisations together,” said Henry Geldenhuys, the president of TAU SA. “What has become very clear from the groups that attended the event and from the comments of people who followed it through social media, is that action must now be taken to prevent this type of legislation from being implemented.”

“We are experiencing serious problems with the administration and feasibility of existing legislation. It is therefore ridiculous to think that new legislation that will require much more administration will be capable of being implemented successfully.”

TAU SA and Freedom Front Plus have confirmed that they totally disapprove of the bill and will not submit to it.

The group agrees that the bill has yet to progress through the parliamentary process, but that provision must already be made for future legal action.

“In the meantime, we urge all South Africans not to be apathetic towards important issues such as those that restrict basic freedoms like the right to choose. Get involved, make your voice heard, be aware of your safety and what you have to do.”

The group also warned that people should not act recklessly, but should become part of a controlled plan to oppose this legislation. Join the conversation and feel free to comment below!

Accord on Afrikaner self-determination 23 April 1994

BETWEEN THE FREEDOM FRONT, THE AFRICAN NATIONAL CONGRESS AND THE SOUTH AFRICAN GOVERNMENT/NATIONAL party taking note of the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, Act 200 of 1993 as amended; and taking note of the unsigned Memorandum of Agreement between the African National Congress (ANC) and the Afrikaner Volksfront (AVF), dated December 21, 1993; and taking note of Constitutional Principle XXXIV, dealing with the issue of self-determination; and subsequent to the discussions between the delegations of the ANC, the AVF, the South African Government and eventually the Freedom Front (FF) –

The parties represented by these delegations record the following agreement:

1. The parties agree to address, through a process of negotiations, the idea of Afrikaner self-determination, including the concept of a Volkstaat.

2. The parties further agree that in the consideration of these matters, they shall not exclude the possibility of local and/or regional and other forms of expression of such self-determination.

3. They agree that their negotiations shall be guided by the need to be consistent with and shall be governed by the requirement to pay due consideration to Constitutional Principle XXXIV, other provisions of the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, Act 200 of 1993 as amended, and that the parties take note of the Memorandum of Agreement, as referred to above.

3.1 Such consideration shall therefore include matters such as:

3.1.1 substantial proven support for the idea of self-determination including the concept of a Volkstaat;

3.1.2 the principles of democracy, non-racialism and fundamental rights; and

3.1.3 the promotion of peace and national reconciliation.

4. The parties further agree that in pursuit of 3.1.1 above, the support for the idea of self-determination in a Volkstaat will be indicated by the electoral support which parties with a specific mandate to pursue the realisation of a Volkstaat, will gain in the forthcoming election.

4.1 The parties also agree that, to facilitate the consideration of the idea of a Volkstaat after the elections, such electoral support should be measured not only nationally, but also by counting the provincial votes at the level of:

4.1.1 the electoral district, and

4.1.2 wherever practical the polling stations as indicated by the parties to, and agreed to by, the Independent Electoral Commission.

5. The parties agree that the task of the Volkstaatraad shall be to investigate and report to the Constitutional Assembly and the Commission on the Provincial Government on measures which can give effect to the idea of Afrikaner self-determination, including the concept of the Volkstaat.

6. The parties further agree that the Volkstaatraad shall form such advisory bodies as it may determine.

7. In addition to the issue of self-determination, the parties also undertake to discuss among themselves and reach agreement on matters relating to matters affecting stability in the agricultural sector and the impact of the process of transition on this sector, and also matters of stability including the issue of indemnity inasmuch as the matter has not been resolved.

8. The parties further agree that they will address all matters of concern to them through negotiations and that this shall not exclude the possibility of international mediation to help resolve such matters as may be in dispute and/or difficult to conclude.

8.1 The parties also agree that paragraph 8.0 shall not be read to mean that any of the deliberations of the Constitutional Assembly are subject to international mediation, unless the Constitutional Assembly duly amends the Constitution to enable this to happen.

8.2 The parties also affirm that, where this Accord refers to the South African Government, it refers to the South African Government which will rule South Africa until the April 1994-elections.

signed by: gen. constand viljoen, leader:

freedom front mr thabo mbeki, national chairman:

african national congress mr roelf meyer, minister of constitutional development and of communication on behalf of the government and the national party witnessed by:

prof. abraham viljoen & mrjurgen kdgl

April 23, 1994

FF Plus demands scrapping of re-demarcation in Vaal Triangle

The proposed re-demarcation of the municipal boarders of the Midvaal, Emfuleni and Lesedi municipalities in Gauteng should be scrapped after it was revealed that the chairperson of the municipal demarcation board, Landiwe Mahlangu, serves on councils and boards which provide services to the government and specifically to Emfuleni, Mr. Jaco Mulder, the FF Plus MPL for Gauteng says.

The fact that Mahlangu apparently, amongst others serves on the boards of Sea Key Holdings and Interwaste which do business with the Emfuleni municipality draws a line through the credibility of the demarcation board and should be investigated.

The FF Plus had already on 17 April 2013 lodged an appeal with the demarcation board after public hearings were held between 7 and 11 April 2013 in the two municipalities and various other centres in South Africa. The chairperson of the municipal demarcation board, Mr. LJ Mahlangu only signed the notices for the public hearings on 3 April 2013 – less than 6 days before the public hearings were held and the public notices in newspapers were published as late as April 2013.

The appeal is based on the spirit of the South African Constitution as contained in section 33 which in no uncertain terms determines the right to fair administrative action in par. 1, 2 and 3 and the Promotion of Administrative Justice Act, 3 of 2000.

It is now clear that Mahlangu could not make any objective contribution to the process.

No suspects in SA Police hack attack

No suspects have been identified in connection with the hacking of the SA Police Service website last month, Police Minister Nathi Mthethwa revealed on Wednesday.

Mthethwa said the investigation was still underway and the level of threat to identified whistleblowers was not yet known.

The information was provided in an answer to a parliamentary question by Freedom Front Plus spokesman Anton Alberts.

Alberts asked the minister whether any steps had been taken to safeguard those whose identities were compromised.

Mthethwa replied: “Full implementation of steps will be finalised after the investigation and the threat assessment is completed.”

Alberts said it was concerning that these people appeared to not receive any protection by police.

He feared the hacking incident would be a set-back for crime-fighting because people with information would be too scared to come forward.

“This is negligence on a huge scale and shows the incompetence of the state’s information technology agency which manages the police’s website. The public’s confidence in the police will definitely be harmed by this.”

In May, a State Information Technology Agency (Sita) official said information posted by citizens alerting police about crime had been left on the police site by mistake.

“The data is collected on that public server. There was a little bit of an oversight, because it should have been removed afterwards,” said divisional head responsible for government solutions, Daniel Mashao.

“We increased the functionality [of the police website] to allow people to be able to report further information. When we did that we should have also decided to move it to the secure site.”

The hacker reportedly performed a data dump when complainants and whistle-blowers’ details were downloaded from the SA Police Service website’s e-mail server and uploaded onto another site.

Mashao said at the time that the information obtained by the hacker comprised about 15,000 lines.

“Most of the information was submitted anonymously. We are concerned because there is information [within the 15,000 lines] where people have given [their] further details to say ‘I know about such and such [a crime].”

Mthethwa re-iterated in his reply that nobody in the witness protection programme had been compromised in any way, contrary to media reports.

The hackers used social networking site Twitter to inform the public that the attack was in connection with the lack of arrests for the August 2012 shooting of 34 protesting mineworkers at Marikana mine in Rustenburg.

Public Service Minister Lindiwe Sisulu also answered questions submitted by Alberts.

He had asked her what security measures were in place at the time.

Sisulu replied that the website had a firewall and network intrusion protection, malware inspection and antivirus software.

It also had an inverse proxy, which took requests from the internet and forwarded them to servers in an internal network.

“Those making requests connect to the proxy and may not be aware of the internal network, and it helps to protect the internal network from intrusions,” Sisulu said.

The website application was developed in 2004/05 and there were no external contractors involved in its maintenance.

Sisulu said the increasing sophistication of cyber-criminals had resulted in a race to implement security measures ahead of attacks.

She said Sita had scanned its websites for vulnerabilities and a process had been underway since February this year to address these vulnerabilities.

“This is unfortunately a tedious process as it requires the redevelopment of large portions of the application.” – Sapa

Why did the Gupta family use Waterkloof Air Force Base?

The Minister of Defence, Ms. Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula, must provide answers as to why the Waterkloof Air Force Base was made available for the Gupta-family and whether they will be paying for the use of the airport and what costs it amounts to,” Mr. Pieter Groenewald, the Freedom Front Plus’ chief spokesperson on Defence says.

According to Mr. Groenewald, the excuse that the Lanseria airport was not suitable for the Guptas’ aircraft is unacceptable as the Mafikeng airport is closer to Sun City and is definitely suitable for large aircraft.

“It appears that the air force are bending over backwards to accommodate the Guptas who are well known for their financing of the ANC.

“When the air force and the police are abused for personal enrichment, then it promotes corruption and the abuse of tax payer’s money.

“The minister of Police, Mr. Nathi Mthethwa, must also explain why the police was used to escort the Guptas’ friends and whether the costs will be paid from the state coffers.

It is totally unacceptable that the ordinary public is disrupted during peak-hours and that the taxpayers’ money is used to make it as comfortable as possible for the Guptas’ guests to attend a wedding,” Mr. Groenewald said.

He said that the FF Plus will be asking questions in Parliament about this issue.

Freedom Front announces R90 billion claim against Transnet on pensioners’ behalf

A struggle which the Freedom Front Plus (FF Plus) had undertaken for years on behalf of Transnet pensioners for compensation for damages, which members of the pension fund have suffered over the past 20 years due to alleged maladministration of the fund, has now led to the launching of the largest civil claim in South Africa’s legal history against Transnet and the government.

The FF Plus, following numerous enquiries and meetings with Transnet pensioners in the past couple of years, undertook to handle the injustice perpetrated against them politically and legally and would try to resolve it.

The FF Plus has fulfilled the first part of the undertaking, i.e. to take Transnet and the government to court for damages which its pensioners had suffered. A civil claim was instituted on Friday (26 April 2013) at the Pretoria High Court.

What makes the case so historical is underscored by the following:

The claim amounts to nearly R90 billion. It is the largest legal claim in the history of South Africa and naturally also the largest class action;
The extent of the case is clear if it is taken into account that it is a claim worth twice the value of the arms deal;
The claim could break Transnet financially and the mere institution of the claim could lead to a serious downgrading of Transnet’s credit status and most likely that of the state also;
The claim arises from probably the largest alleged fraud which has been committed with a pension fund;
The claim affects 66 000 pensioners and their dependents, of which 62% at present receive less than R2 500 monthly.

The FF Plus will be announcing what the intra-parliamentary strategy will entail in conjunction to the legal strategy, now that legal proceedings have been instituted.

Mulder rewriting history, say Young Communists

Freedom Front Plus leader Pieter Mulder is trying to rewrite history and suggest that settlers and colonialists found South Africa as a “house to let”, the Young Communist League of SA said on Sunday.

“The fact is that land was dispossessed violently and through bloodshed, and ultimately legislated in 1913, leaving Africans with no choice but to subject themselves to wage exploitation in the mining industry,” YCLSA secretary Buti Manamela said in a statement on its lekgotla.

“Such utterances are nothing but archaic white denialism and [it] will defeat the very process of land redistribution and land restitution.”

On Wednesday, Mulder suggested in Parliament that black “Bantu-speaking” people had no historical claim to 40 percent of the country.

“Africans in particular never in the past lived in the whole of South Africa,” he said during debate on President Jacob Zuma’s state of the nation address.

Zuma later warned Mulder to tread carefully on the emotive issue of land reform.

On Sunday, the YCLSA called for Mulder’s resignation as Deputy Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries.

“We do not believe that a person such as Pieter Mulder should serve in government, especially in his responsibility in Agriculture and Forestry,” said Manamela.

“We call for his immediate resignation as he does not share the overall objectives of government, or for the president to release him from his duties.”

However, Mulder — in his capacity as the leader of the Freedom Front Plus — reacted later on Sunday saying the league had twisted the comments he had made in Parliament.

“I referred in my speech to the historical acquisition of land. This argument is at present purposefully being presented in a twisted manner.”

He said his argument was that the Koi and the San were the first residents in Southern Africa. Thereafter groups from the North and from the South moved inland and forced the Koi and the San to dryer parts.

“These Northern and Southern groups can not lay claim to the whole land. I referred furthermore to food security and the problems that emotional slogans about land in the fulfilling of this task are causing,” he said.

In its statement, the YCLSA said concerns about the use of judicial institutions for political gain were also raised at its lekgotla.

“We support the proposed regulations for members of the judiciary to declare their business interests and benefits like all other public office bearers,” it said.

It would campaign for constitutional amendments to require the judiciary to be subjected to popular and democratic elections.

“If they serve the public, then the public must determine who should serve in such offices at all levels of the judicial system.”

The lekgotla also touched on the disciplinary hearing against suspended ANC Youth League leader Julius Malema and his executive.

“… In the movement, individuals come and go, but the movement remains no matter how big we believe we are in comparison to the movement,” he said.

In November, Malema and other youth league leaders were found guilty of bringing the ANC into disrepute and of sowing division within the party.

This was after they, among other things, made comments about regime change in Botswana.

They were suspended for periods ranging from 18 months to five years and unsuccessfully appealed against the sanctions. They are now presenting evidence in mitigation. – Sapa

DA says Pieter Mulder needs ‘history lesson’ on land

Freedom Front Plus leader Pieter Mulder needs to be reminded about the “real history” of South Africa, the DA said on Thursday.

“Instead of denying our history, as Mr Mulder does, we must do everything we can to ensure that people have access to land. We have to put right the wrongs of the past,” Democratic Alliance national spokesman Mmusi Maimane said in a statement.

“We cannot simply wish it away. Redress is a democratic imperative. But we have to remedy the sins of apartheid in a way that is sustainable so that all South Africans may benefit from the richness of our soil.”

On Wednesday, Mulder suggested in Parliament that black “Bantu-speaking” people had no historical claim to 40 percent of the country.

“Africans in particular never in the past lived in the whole of South Africa,” he said during debate in the National Assembly on last week’s state-of-the-nation address.

Maimane said there was plenty of land available for land reform, and South Africa needed a land reform programme which was fair and economically viable and the answer was not to do away with the willing-seller, willing-buyer model.

“The solution is an efficient department of rural development that can process claims quickly and can facilitate the efficient and fair distribution of land.

“If we can get that right there will be no need for anybody — whether it is Julius Malema or Pieter Mulder — to use the emotive issue of land to pander to their own narrow constituencies,” said Maimane.

Mulder’s remarks on Wednesday provoked an angry buzz from ruling party benches, which rose in pitch when he explained: “There is sufficient proof that there were no Bantu-speaking people in the Western Cape and north western Cape.”

These areas formed 40 percent of South Africa’s land surface, he told MPs.

Mulder serves in President Jacob Zuma’s Cabinet as deputy agriculture minister.

In his state-of-the-nation address, Zuma said the willing-buyer willing-seller option had “not been the best way to address” land redistribution.

Mulder said the question of land ownership was an emotional issue that had caused many wars. He took issue with land ownership figures cited by Zuma in his address.

“The president quotes in his address the department of rural development’s figures on land reform.

“According to [these], white people possessed 87 percent of the land, and the government had reached only eight percent of its 30 percent [land reform] target. I seriously differ from these figures.

“How does the department calculate the eight percent? There isn’t a completed land audit against which we could correlate these facts.”

The Development Bank of SA calculated in 2001 that 44 percent of the country’s land belonged to whites, 20 percent to blacks, nine percent to brown people and one percent to Asians.

“The way in which the department has calculated the 30 percent and eight percent figures creates the impression that they are setting themselves up to fail.”

Mulder said he seriously differed with the claim that white people had stolen land.

Referring to Zuma’s remarks on the willing-buyer, willing-seller option, he said that, in plain language, this meant the government now believed in the nationalisation of agricultural land. However, anyone who had dealt with land reform knew the problem was not with the willing-buyer, willing-seller principle.

Mulder said he hoped there would come a time when both white and black commercial farmers did not have to look for opportunities elsewhere in Africa.