Ouch! Eina! Better get that burn seen to!
It’s David Aaronovitch on last week’s Bad Losers Anti-Austerity March in London:
And it was nowhere near as big an echo chamber, as you thought it was, either.
The full article is paywalled on The Times site. Sorry about that.
I don’t think that we in South Africa are in any doubt that South Africa is going through a bit of a rough patch at the moment. While I don’t believe everything I read in the papers, I’m not sure that you can blame this impression solely on our allegedly “anti government media”, because it does mainly seem to be down to our erstwhile government and top clown, Jacob Zuma. It’s not like the government is even bothering to properly deny stuff or explain themselves anymore: they just mumble something about some agenda and continue on to the next scandal. They really don’t appear to give toss about what the public think of them. I’ve covered the “crossing of these lines of pisstakery” in a couple of posts previously here and here.
But let’s not think that the problems end with the issues of the FIFA bribes, Nkandla, Eskom’s loadshedding and the winter rain (ok, we can’t blame them for that). Because wait, in true Verimark style, there’s more!
There is the much delayed Marikana report (about how and why the police shot dead more than 30 miners in 2012), to which the President is currently “applying his mind” [insert oft used line about how that shouldn’t take long], but of which we now know the approximate contents of, thanks to an off the cuff remark by JZ yesterday.
Even the Marikana miners were shot after killing people
So that’s the way that one is going.
And then there was the Al Bashir affair, whereby the Sudanese President escaped from/was helped to leave the country, defying a court order and the wishes of the ICC, which SA – and more specifically JZ – had signed up to.
Max du Preez spelled it out for us all on Facebook:
I think the matter is rather simple. When the ANC/government volunteered to host the AU summit and prepared for it, it knew very well that people like Mugabe would pressure it to invite Omar al-Bashir. It knew very well – and was reminded of it shortly before Bashir’s arrival by the ICC – that it had no legal ground to defy the ICC arrest warrants and South Africa’s own enabling act of parliament.
Government also knew that it would be a African diplomatic disaster to arrest Bashir and deliver him to the ICC in Europe. It must have known that there would be a very good chance that some NGO or rights group would take the matter to court. It must have known that the court was highly likely to order Bashir’s arrest. It went ahead anyway, so we can only conclude Zuma and his inner circle had made a conscious decision in advance that they would defy such a direct court order.
They went further than that: they misled the judges of the High Court – probably even blatantly lied to them – and then executed an escape plan for Bashir.
This is not about the credibility or legitimacy of the ICC. It’s about the president and the cabinet of the country defying a direct court order. Their response to criticism was to attack the court as “anti-ANC”, “anti-majoritarian” and “wanting to govern the country” – we had these arguments from Blade Nzimande and Gwede Mantashe the last two days.
Can we now expect the ANC and government to also defy a likely court order later this year that the criminal charges against Zuma be reinstated? The next step on this slippery slope is to defy the results of an election. And a slippery slope it is indeed. If our constitution tumbles, so do our freedom and stability.
There’s nothing there that seems too much of a stretch, and, as with any premeditated crime, that’s rather worrying.
The solution to this seems simple (at least, in a Belling the Cat kind of way): JZ must go. The trouble with this is that because of a distinct lack of previous action, and (let’s not overlook this) a significant amount of clever wheeling and dealing by the man himself in placing allies in influential places and taking very good care of them, there’s no-one that’s going to be able to do that.
Save maybe for the electorate. But firstly, would they, could they ever vote the ANC out of power? And secondly, as per the point raised by du Preez above, if they did, would the ANC accept the result?
Previously, I would have never believed that the first was possible. Now, given the levels of dismay and disquiet, I’m beginning to change my tune on that one. (Raising the next issue – do we have anything significantly better in the current opposition?)
Previously, I would never have believed that the second would ever happen. Now, given the lack of respect that the government is showing for the country and seemingly, for the rule of law, I’m not convinced on that either.
Yeah, as I said, happy days here in ‘the Rainbow Nation’.
Here’s a statement by our erstwhile Sports Minister, Fikile Mbalula over the weekend:
and here’s a letter which has popped into the public domain this morning:
Of course, even though the $10 million payment was made to Jack Warner, it wasn’t a bribe, in the same way that that body of water at Nkandla isn’t meant for any purpose other than fighting fires.
And if it was a bribe, why would they have made that huge PR effort and the big song and dance about such a generous donation to such a worthy cause?
Nah, this totally seems legit.
One of my Facebook friends (peace be upon them) had shared this News24 piece, replete with The Arch being more Tut Tut than Tutu over the recently delivered Nkandla report (featured here) and suggesting that the government had “humiliated SA”.
At least, the Facebook friend suggested, it is:
Good to know someone respected world-wide is on the side of the “average” SA citizen.
And, I suppose it is.
But then there was this comment in reply*:
It hasn’t featured outside of SA once again. Zuma doesn’t give a monkeys because Zuma is well aware of the fact that International media have wiped their hands of SA.
“It hasn’t featured outside of SA”? Really?
Apart then, from er… the BBC:
South Africa’s ‘brazen cover-up’ of Zuma’s home upgrade
And The Sydney Morning Herald (and with it, The Brisbane Times, Western Australia Today (good news for those in Perth), The Age and The Canberra Times):
‘The pool is for fire safety’ and other Jacob Zuma renovation excuses
Sans oublier RFI – ‘Les Voix Du Monde’:
Ceux-ci ont estimé que le rapport du ministre de la Police est « biaisé » et inconstitutionnel, puisqu’il ne prend pas en compte les recommandations de la médiatrice de la République.
Of course, the fugly (but sadly, well read) Daily Mail didn’t miss out:
South Africa’s president has been cleared over using £15million of public cash to add a swimming pool and visitor’s centre to him home because the new features are actually security measures.
Elsewhere in the UK, The Daily Telegraph:
Police claimed expensive swimming pool was necessary in the event of putting out a fire on his sprawling taxpayer-funded estate
While the Middle East was covered by The Gulf Times:
Police Minister Nkosinathi Nhleko said on Thursday that an investigation found that the president is not liable to repay any of the public funds spent as the improvements were in fact security features.
I could continue, but I think I’ve already shown that the allegation that SA has dodged an international news bullet simply by the president being routinely crap is, at best, misplaced. Zuma et al. don’t give a monkeys not because they think their actions will avoid international exposure, but simply because they have gone beyond the point of caring what people think of them.
Journalists asking “Do the government think we’re stupid?” are missing the point. They don’t care what we think.
— 6000 (@6000) May 28, 2015
Because, as I mentioned in that post last week:
We seem to have crossed yet another line of pisstakery with today’s events.
It seems hard to believe that Zuma and his cronies are capable of anything more ridiculous than we saw last week. However, having said that, ironically, we had said that previously and yet they continue to confound us and outdo themselves time and time again.
But that “it hasn’t featured outside of SA” line?
No. The damage is still being done with every step of breathtaking hubris.
* I’m choosing to ignore the grammatical disaster of the gratuitous “of”.
Today in politics:
Firstly, Sports Minister Fikile “Fickle” Mbalula (see blog passim) reacted to the FIFAgate scandal and the allegation that the SA Government had paid a $10m bribe to bring the 2010 World Cup to South Africa, with this gem:
Yep. No corruption in this nation. Absolutely not. None.
Here are some other ridiculous things he said, helpfully illustrated by high class rag The Times.
Glad we’ve got that sorted.
Then, Police Minister Nkosinathi Nhleko told us that the R250m upgrades to the President’s residence in KZN were necessary for security purposes and therefore, JZ doesn’t have to pay for them.
You might think that this is fair enough, but let’s just see how much they had to stretch to get some of the less obvious “security” upgrades into the “security upgrade” bracket:
And good job too, because those chickens could obviously pose a definite danger to Number 1. And in the event of an emergency, where else are you going to be able to assemble if not in an amphitheatre?
It does rather make you think that they’re taking the piss now. I mean, the signs that they’ve been taking the piss have been there for a while, but we definitely do seem to have crossed yet another line of pisstakery with today’s events.
Quoth Tom Eaton (in a post/column written (I think) ahead of the FIFA or Nkandla developments mentioned above):
They know we’re watching, but they don’t care. We’re just scenery to them now, a fleeting impression to be remembered one day when they’re lying on their private beach, laughing about the old days when they were making their pile.
Yes.
Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have to get off home to build an animal enclosure next to the firepool to stop the beagle crapping in my amphitheatre.