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- A Stuijt
- Retired South African medical journalist, ex-Sunday Times of Johannesburg.
UNPO, Flemish MPs lobby for Afrikaner human rights
21:42 | 
Posted by
A Stuijt |
Flemish MPs demand freeze on R298-m aid-funds to "bankrupt ANC-regime"
BRUSSELS. Belgium. - Two parliamentarians in the Flemish parliament demand that the Belgian government's 22-million Euro (R298-million) development-aid funding to South Africa's ANC-regime be frozen until the country ' gets a more responsible government which will allow an independent judiciary and have respect for private property-rights.'
Parliamentarians John Vrancken (Independent, picture) and Kariem van Overmeire (Vlaams Belang party) both warned that due to the exceedingly poor and fraudulent management of the ruling African National Congress, the entire South African population has now been plunged into 'unbearable levels of violence and hunger' and that the independence of the SA judiciary has been scrapped by the ANC-regime. Speaking many harsh words about the current meltdown of the country's independent judiciary, the murders and hate-speech targetting South African whites, and the ongoing destruction of all private-property rights; the MPs also warned that the most capable, top-educated people were now fleeing from the country enmasse -- just to avoid being murdered.
Unrepresented Nations and Peoples' Organisation interested in plight of Afrikaners
Letter received from Jeroen Zandberg, UNPO Secretariat, The Hague
Dear Ms Adriana Stuijt, Thank you for bringing the information on the dire situation of the Afrikaners as displayed on your website to our attention.
UNPO supports its members to the fullest extent possible in bringing their cases to a worldwide audience, including participation in conferences, UN meetings and diplomatic lobbying. As you are probably aware the Afrikaner people are represented within UNPO by the FFP who are working very hard to address the issues you mention in your e-mail. In light of your interest in the plight of the Afrikaner people you might wish to support their effort. Their website is: http://www.vryheidsfront.co.za
You can also send any news items which you perceive as relevant to the situation of the Afrikaner people to UNPO at newsdesk@unpo.org and unpo@unpo.org
Best regards,Jeroen Zandberg UNPO Secretariat Email: unpo@unpo.org Tel.: +31(0)70 3646504 Fax: +31(0)70 3646608 http://www.unpo.org P.O.Box 85878 2508 CN The Hague The Netherlands
From: AJ Stuijt [mailto:a.j.stuijt@knid.nl]
Sent: Sunday, November 02, 2008 5:31 PM
To: unpo@unpo.org
Subject: Afrikaners say they are in genocide
UNPO The Hague:
Subject: Afrikaners say they are in the middle of a genocide
Please see a detailed summary of the news reports outlining claims by 1,000 families living at the Kameeldrift smallholdings near Pretoria that they are facing a 'genocide'.
This claim is not an exaggeration. As a retired South African journalist (ex Sunday Times of Johannesburg) I have been monitoring the growing number of armed attacks targetting Afrikaners in South Africa since 2001. I have been maintaining a detailed archive of these extremely violent incidents - during which little of value was ever stolen. See http://afrikaner-genocide-achives-blogspot.com
The international genocide expert Dr Gregory Stanton of Genocide Watch already started referring to this to alert the international community to what he termed the "secret Boer Genocide".
- See his explanation of the eight stages of genocide. He said in 2002 that the Afrikaners already were in Stage 6 to 7... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B70d2Z9yago
His explanations are recorded on a documentary about these so-called 'farm attacks' in South Africa in 2001, and can be viewed on the following YouTube video:
I have today also summarised all the names, original source links and places of genocidal murders and -attacks targetting rural Afrikaners since 1994 up to Oct 2008 on the following website page, for your information. This contains a great many links which can be accessed, so that these facts can be further verified:
No political asylum for Afrikaners/Boers:
What concerns me at the moment is the fact that the Afrikaners of South Africa are being denied any means of escaping from the country unless they are top-educated and can obtain jobs -- often with great difficulty -- outside South Africa. There have been various cases recently where Afrikaners who had fled the country to seek political asylum in other countries including in Europe and in the USA, were denied political asylum and forced to return to South Africa - where they were attacked shortly thereafter.
Clearly the Afrikaners of South Africa are not only being greatly suppressed by their own government and have no genuine political representation in their own country any longer - but they are also being targetted by genocide, which not only includes these daily armed attacks against these defenceless families inside their own homes, but also the deliberate denial by the South African government to allow Afrikaners any reasonable access to the labour market only because of their paler skin. They are also being disenfranchised in their voting rights when they are forced to work overseas - and are not allowed to vote in the national elections at government embassies overseas. Moreover, Afrikaners are being denied the right to own land and the smallholdings and farms where they have always produced such large quantities of food for the entire population, are now being taken away from them under a large number of land-redistribution and land-rights laws, some of which are still being enacted.
I urge UNPO to use its considerable international voice to at least obtain the rights for Afrikaners to obtain political asylum - especially in Dutch-language and German-language countries where their forebears have hailed from. The experience in The Netherlands and Flanders with Afrikaans-speaking immigrants which have taken a large number of jobs in these countries over the past years has been for the most part positive.
The period of their adjustment and integration into Dutch/language and German/language societies is much easier and shorter for Afrikaans-speakers than for other nationalities, also because they belong to the same protestant faith-groups.
I urge UNPO to examine this material I have sent you and to initiate pressure on the international community to rescue this small nation from this ongoing genocide before an all-out genocide takes place.
In the present chaotic and uncertain political climate in South Africa, Afrikaners are being targetted more and more as the 'scapegoats' for all these political and criminal problems.
Dr Stanton says that a genocide is not a one-day event - it takes a long time and could be taking place even when small numbers of people are being killed and attacked. See his 2002 report on the Afrikaner genocide which makes mention of this fact: http://www.genocidewatch.org/BoersSlain01.htm
Yours sincerely Adriana Stuijt retired SA Journalist telephone The Netherlands 06 4654 7347
Crisis, what crisis?
Meanwhile in the Flemish parliament - and contrary to these dire warnings by two fellow-parliamentarians, the Flemish parliament's minister-president Kris Peeters however didn't see any particular problem in South Africa -- it was merely a 'government crisis which we will be watching with eagle-eyes...' He did not respond to any of the warnings about the out-of-control violence and the collapse of South Africa's independent judiciary - merely promising to prepare a re-evaluation report of the current R298-milion development-aid programme to South Africa. He also added that 'if adjustments are necessary, they will be undertaken.'
The Flemish parliamentarians Van Overmeire and Vrancken say that the rest of the still outstanding development-aid funds from Belgium to South Africa must be frozen at once - while Mrs Poleyn wants no more development-aid funding to South Africa at all any more because the country does not meet their criteria.
Ms Poleyn, left, a former teacher in the humanities, noted during the debate that South Africa did not qualify for Development-Aid funding anyway -- because it 'does not score the lowest on the Human Development Index, which is a requirement for us giving Development Aid funding.'
However it was parliamentarian John Vrancken, born in the then-Belgian Congo who as a boy, had to flee the vicious anti-Belgian violence which had wracked the middle-African region, who was the most vociferous in his criticism of the ANC's collapsing authority in South Africa. He said: "we are confronted with important socio-economic and political evolutions in that country.
"The South Africans have learned to live with a level of violence which to us (in peaceful Flanders) would be unbearable," he said. "The country has the sad honour of having the highest violent-crime rate in the world. Unfortunately this is only one of the symptoms of the deplorable state in which the economically-strongest country on the African continent now finds itself. This proves the bankruptcy of fourteen years of rule under the African National Congress, the party of Nelson Mandela. Their agricultural sector is being destroyed by a programme of redistribution of farm lands, i.e. the confiscation of productive privately-owned farms which belong to white farmers to donate them to blacks. The result is the major drop in food-production because of neglect and plunder of existing farms. The Zimbabwe-scenario is coming ever closer...'
"On the political level, the collapse of South Africa's judicial independence was illustrated by two events," he said: the acquittal of ANC president Jacob Zuma in the arms-deal fraud scandal; and the linked destruction of the public-affairs ministry's independent police force, the Scorpions - which had played a key-role in revealing the 'mafia-like organisation which is looting the state coffers and has links to the highest levels of government.'
- "Until then, there 'had been some hope for South Africa as long as its judiciary could still operate independently,' he noted. "However now it looks very much as of the SA judiciary has been forced to succumb to the power of the ANC ruling party. These are all very negative signals which now are the hallmark of the collapsing socio-economic and political situation in South Africa,' he warned.
"Skilled employers are leaving the country enmasse, searching for more security and safety. And this increases the already massive unemployment levels among the black population even more,' he pointed out. He asked the Belgian government to immediately freeze all of Belgium's current development-aid funding to South Africa -- and that they urgently re-evaluate their entire programme for the future, too.
Flemish parliamentarian Kariem van Overmeire, left, agreed, warning that the present crisis in South Africa did not augur well for the rest of the African continent: "If South Africa is successful, then there's hope for the rest of Africa too. However it looks as if South Africa is rapidly turning into a dismal failure, and this is a very worrying evolution. One of the phenomena now being observed is that of the 5-million whites, a full 1-million have already left the country and taking their skills with them, since 1994. These also are the best-educated and economically-most active people - and also the people who pay the lionshare of South Africa's rates and taxes,' he noted.
"In the past we have been told in this parliament that one should not measure South Africa with European standards but rather with African ones. I cannot agree with this at all. There's only one model to assure welfare and wealth for any population anywhere: a model in which political leaders act for the greater public good and not for own clan or own tribe or whatever.... A good model of governance is one with a totally independent judiciary, a system in which private-property rights are always protected and where private-initiative is stimulated.
"I fear that South Africa is now sliding into the abyss, and with each new president things are just getting worse. Eventually the country will reach a dramatic situation for the entire population - and not only for the small white minority which, if they weren't being murdered on their farms, now emigrate enmasse especially to Australia and New Zealand to build up new lives there. For those many tens of millions who remain behind however, their future in South Africa looks grim."
Background Flemish parliament:
The strong European trading nation of Belgium (pop. 10-million) has 6-million Flemish-(Dutch) speakers with their own Flemish-language autonomous parliament, located at the Leuvenseweg in Brussels. However their foreign-affairs policies are still being carried out by the central (trilingual) Belgian government. Advocate Karel de Gught, their minister of foreign affairs, is not an elitist as the former Belgian diplomats used to be, but is the son of a small farmer, known for his outspoken personality. De Gught once publicly questioned whether 'there were any capable ministers coming out of the Congo' (Belgium's late king Leopold used to own most of the Congo regions and many tens of thousands of Belgians had settled there). Under De Gught 's leadership of the ministry, Belgium has of late, considerably increased its role in the Congo mining regions, which since their 'independence' after the violent expulsion of the white Belgian settlers collapsed into lawlessness and dispair. De Gught has also repaired their country's previously strenuous relationships between Belgium and the USA - with its NATO headquarters in Brussels The Belgian minister of development aid is the career diplomat Charles Michel, http://www.diplomatie.be/nl/
In 2005 the central Belgian government voted in 22-million Euro - to be distributed between January 2005 and December 2010 -- in development aid to three South African provinces: Limpopo, the Free State and KwaZulu-Natal.
LINKS:
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sabine.poleyn@vlaamsparlement.be - Website: http://www.sabinepoleyn.be
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Mr Van Overmeire, a lawyer, was born in Gent in Flanders: karim.vanovermeire@vlaamsparlement.be
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Mr Vrancken was born in the then Belgian-Congo in 1951, (email: John Vrancken john.vrancken@skynet.be)
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http://www.john-vrancken.org
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http://www.vlaamsparlement.be/Proteus5/resultaat.action?pContext=VLAAMSE_VOLKSVERTEGENWOORDIGERS
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https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/be.html
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Nultolerantie voor kindsoldaten in gewapende conflicten- Charles Michel
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http://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karel_De_Gucht
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FLEMISH PARLIAMENT COMMISSION MEETING REPORT 9 OCTOBER 2008 'COMMISSIEVERGADERING C17 – BUI2 – 9 oktober 2008 -6-: Tekst
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So what are South Africans - exactly?
DNA testing programmes will settle the issue, human-genetics professor believes...
Dec 12 2008 - All South Africans are settlers, regardless of their skin colour, and their DNA carries the proof. So says Dr Wilmot James, head of the African Genome Project, a distinguished academic, sociologist and, more recently, honorary professor of human genetics at the University of Cape Town.
And he says South Africans will soon have a public genetic database which will show how the country became populated over thousands of years.
- The African Genome project is supported by local genealogy website http://www.ancestry24.com.
'South Africans will soon have a public genetic database'
James aims to trace the origins of South Africans "no matter what their language, ethnic origins, or skin colour". "No one group can lay claim to South Africa. Everyone is a settler, and we will show how people came here in waves of migration."
He and his colleague, associate professor Himla Soodyall, undertook a mass genetic testing programma of Capetonians on September 9. Soodyall is the principal medical scientist at the National Health Laboratory Service and is an associate professor in the Division of Human Genetics at the University of the Witwatersrand.
'No one group can lay claim to South Africa'
"Normally it costs R1 000 a time but this is a public exercise in science and a journey through the history of South Africa," said James. The results will be out early in 2008. The data will be used to map how people migrated here more than 100 000 years ago. They will do similar testing in Johannesburg.
The Africa Genome project aims to fill a gap in the current DNA databases available worldwide and establish the diversity of ancestry in the South African population. The testing will offer another view of SA history since written history only goes back 400 years. It will also further confirm archaeological and palaeontological evidence.
"We do not understand our history well enough and the truth has been modified in many stories," says James.
"South Africa is not the site of human origins. The Sterkfontein caves have evidence of pre-modern humans, but modern man comes from East Africa where there is evidence of significant human presence dating back at least 100,000 years."
The Khoi/San moved from East Africa and, up until 2,000 years ago, people living in southern Africa were brown. Africa's black people are originally from the Niger/ Congo region.
James says genetic testing will confirm the theory that there is a population in South Africa whose ancestors were from Niger/Congo.
Even though the test itself is easy, it is the lab work from where all the exciting details will come to light. Looking at what is known as mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) which comes from mothers, and Y chromosome DNA which comes from fathers, scientists are able to reconstruct the hereditary lineage of individuals and their families as far back as 100 000 years.
- The limitation of this approach is that those ancestors who did not pass on their genes by having surviving children are excluded from the studies.
"Still, we are able to enrich beyond measure our understanding of who we are and where it is we come from," said James. "Some DNA mitochondria do not combine, they develop mutations which creep in and these are seen as fingerprints. They can be traced to where geographic concentrations of the same mutations occur."
James's own test results have revealed that he has Indian, Spanish, German and English forebears.
His mother's one line is Southern Pakistan/Northern Indian and German. Her father was a Hartel and James still has a title deed handed down from generation to generation for a piece of land along the Liesbeek River granted to German infantryman Wilhelm George Hartel by Cape Governor Simon van der Stel. It is from Hartel that James inherited Factor V Leiden, a mutation in his genes which has resulted in him having a clotting disorder, making him susceptible to deep vein thrombosis.
His ancestors on his father's side are English; no surprise there, considering his surname.
But he emphasises that ultimately everyone's ancestors were Africans, who migrated into Europe tens of thousands of years ago. His next project will be to concentrate on groups like Italians, Muslims and Jews.
"Italian prisoners of war worked on many of the Cape farms and they had families here.
"Eventually the project would like to reunite those Italian descendants with their families in Italy. The same for those of Javanese descent.
- "In fact, there are all types of settlers in South Africa, with successive waves of immigrants. The ultimate question for us to find an answer to is: what is an African?"
http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=13&art_id=vn20070818112430857C147272
How to prevent cellphone theft
1. Write down your cellphone 's own unique identification code - get it by punching * # 06 #
2. Also write down your cellphone operating company's theft notification telephone number.
3. When your cellphone is stolen, phone the company operator at once and give them the identification code and ask them to block the code; also ask them to block the Sim-card.
4. The phone company will block the cellphone's code and the Sim-card and the phone cannot be used again - even if the thief changes the sim-card. If your cellphone is recovered through some miracle, you can always unblock the Sim-card and the identification code - it's usually free if you can manage to do it within ten days. And of course, always notify the police within 24 hours of the theft - get a copy of the charge sheet to prove it was stolen. You will need this to get it unblocked again.
5. If everybody starts doing this, cellphone theft will become a thing of the past. Seems simple enough!
ANC gets failing report card from Freedom Front
December 12 2008 - PRETORIA. The Freedom Front Plus opposition party has issued another report card on the performance of the ruling African National Party in governing the country.
ANC must stop dividing the country
Dr. Pieter Mulder, FF Plus leader, today called on the ruling African National Congress to stop dividing South Africans - but to rather find ways of uniting them. He explained to the media how FF Plus members throughout the country from all nine provinces gave input via a standard questionnaire. Willie Spies also gave valuable input finalising the evaluation which resulted in emphasising how the government once again failed in serving South Africa.
Here's the ANC's report card for 2008:
· combating crime and clean governance 1/10 (same as last year);
· education 2/10 (last year: 3/10)
· economic growth and job creation: 3/10 (last year 4/10);
· language and cultural rights 2/10 (3/10 last year);
· foreign affairs 3/10 (same as last year)
· sport 3/10 (last year 4/10).
The average Freedom Front Plus voter this year rated the performance of the ANC at a low average of only 22% ...
Dr Mulder said the FF Plus remains committed to South Africa which offers a place for all. The party will in 2009 - as has been the case in previous years - remain committed to the initiation of talks where it is possible and the mobilising of protest where it has to undertaken.
The ANC has been governing South Africa for nearly 15 years.
In this time the party has apparently gone out of its way to further divide South Africans in all possible ways rather than uniting them.
It is our wish that the politics of the future will be dealing with a competition between those who could best unite South Africans rather than divide them.
The FF Plus is with great expectations looking forward to the elections in 2009.
The party refrained from the evaluation of persons but rather evaluated the experiencing of government policy as a whole. The report does not portend to be objective, but it is an accurate summary of the average FF Plus voter's experience of government policy.
The government's score card for 2008 is further explained below.
1. Combating Crime and Administration of Justice
Combating crime is the core function of a government. If a government fails in this regard, the state fails.
The controversial Minister of Safety and Security, Charles Nqakula was removed this year by President Kgalema Motlanthe and replaced by a new Minister, Nathi Mthethwa.
Although it appears as if Minister Mthethwa has a better grasp of the extent of crime given his public statements, his performance in the last resort will not be tested by his statements but rather by his actions and the results thereof.
- The reason for the remark is as follows:
The latest crime statistics indicate that murder (-3,7%), attempted murder (-7,9%) and ordinary robbery (-8,7%) have declined, but the figure for murder is still 38,6 per 100 000 of the population, as opposed to the world average for murder of 5 per 100,000.
·In South Africa the statistics for murder is still nearly eight times higher than the world average. Robberies at residences have increased by 13,5% (14 481).
From the previous report year 2006/2007 to date, robberies at residences have increased by 38,9%. Car high-jackings have increased by 4,4% (to 14 201). - These types of crimes threaten the public's lives and the public is therefore unsafe in their own homes and on their way to work. This explains the view of the public that crime is increasing and is getting out of control.
Racism, especially black-against-white, by officers in the SAPS is a growing source of concern. Incidents where police officers act in a racist and prejudiced manner against white people and refuse to open cases are increasingly being experienced. The most well-known example is where a black police officer had said to a white victim of a car high-jacking that it is time for whites “to f…..f out of the country” (Beeld 7 November 2008).
- Increasing racism against white members of the SAPS lead to these people not being able to function properly and being over-loaded with work of other colleagues who are incompetent. Promotion possibilities for white SAPS members are also becoming scarcer.
- The suspended Commissioner of Police, Jackie Selebi, was, despite criminal charges of corruption and defeating the ends of justice, rewarded by former President Mbeki by having his contract extended for another year. Taxpayers therefore still have to pay for the salary of a suspended chief of police.
- Former Minister Nqakula's refusal to answer several questions of the FF Plus in Parliament, such as for example, how many members of the police were themselves involved in crime, raises the eyebrows and destroys any trust which the public could still have had in the Police.
- The most controversial and unforgivable policy decision of the ANC with regards to crime was probably the scrapping of the Scorpions special directorate.
- The Scorpions were responsible for the investigation of the ANC president, Jacob Zuma, as well as the Police Commissioner, Jackie Selebi. It was the most successful crime fighting unit and overshadowed the Police with regards to successful prosecutions.
The events as explained above, leaves a bitter taste with the public.
It left the impression that the government is an accessory to the crime wave and this released an unprecedented anger with the public. The FF Plus' allocation of marks to the ANC for combating crime and the administration of justice remains unchanged to that of 2006 and 2007, at 1 out of 10.
2. Education
The politicising of school education was taken to new heights by the ANC in 2008.
The year 2008 will be remembered as the ANC's year of inferior, ideology driven education.
Earlier this year, former president Thabo Mbeki and the Minister of Education made headlines with their announcement that school children would have to take a compulsory oath or pledge in which they “acknowledge the injustices of the past” and “honour those who fought against it”.
- The FF Plus also revealed this year that grade 9 learners in the subject course Social Sciences had to complete a joint project for assessment with the theme “Apartheid - King Williamstown”.
The politicising and indoctrination which have become inherent to national school education, did however not contribute to an improved education standard.
- To the contrary, indications are that the education system is failing with regards to the basic requirements, i.e. to develop literacy and numeracy of learners.
- A study amongst 54,000 grade 3 learners from 2,400 primary schools last year, only achieved an average of 36% for literacy and 35% for numeracy. A source of hope is the fact that the ANC is apparently realising that the concept of outcomes based education (OBE) is a failure and did not lead to the standard of education being raised.
2008 was no exception with regards to the continued pressure on Afrikaans schools.
In the Northwest, the FF Plus undertook a poll of the schools which were indicated by the Department to be Afrikaans single medium schools. 70% of these schools however indicated that they had lost their single medium status in 2007 already.
- The High School Ermelo-saga continued with the Mpumalanga Education Department's decision to summarily fire the Headmaster, Mr. Koos Kruger.
The FF Plus awards a lower failure mark of 2 out of 10 than the previous years' mark of 3 out of 10.
3. Economic growth and job creation
Last year the FF Plus warned that the way in which the economy was being managed at the time, could leave South Africa in a crisis within the next 10 years. Criticism was levelled at an approach by government to rather use surpluses for social grants instead of using it for essential infrastructure. The international financial crisis acted as an accelerator which threw South Africa even faster into a crisis than what was initially expected.
- To declare the international economic crisis as the only scapegoat for South Africa's poor financial state is however irresponsible.
- Since December 2007 the national power crisis hit the country as a direct result of the government's slack approach with regards to infrastructure development and consumers were punished with exorbitant power tariff increases. 2008 actually introduced the era of expensive, unreliable power. Power shortages lead to a moratorium on new property developments and Eskom even encouraged prospective investors at Coega and other places to place their investments on hold.
- The government's practice of monthly fixtures of the fuel price has now exploded in the face of government as a result of the stormy international market circumstances. This has forced the food prices to sky rocket and made production costs rise to such an extent that the food shortages experienced by the poorest section of the population has now worsened.
- Infrastructure has, especially on a municipal level, not been maintained and has reached a point of implosion.
- Health services are no longer capable of delivering the most basic of medical services.
- The Rand this year already lost a third of its value against the Dollar, Euro and Pound and the all-shares index on the JSE is 30% weaker than the same time last year.
- R40 billion has left South Africa the past couple of weeks as a result of the lack of confidence in the economy.
- South Africa is at present hovering on the brink of a negative growth rate.
South Africa needs bigger economic stability.
Economic growth requires international confidence. Corruption and financial maladministration does not create international confidence. Corruption and maladministration is found in all the public sectors and should be eradicated. International investments in South Africa will create the possibility of sustainable economic growth and create new job opportunities, but that confidence will first have to be earned.
South Africa still has a relative growth forecast but it should be managed wisely through sensible regulation. In order to make use of this, it will not be sufficient to increase savings only.
- Productivity will have to be increased dramatically.
Affirmative action and black economic empowerment as luxuries which the economy can ill-afford in difficult circumstances, will have to be reduced drastically.
The party once again awards a lower failure mark for economic policy than it did last year, i.e. 3/10 as opposed to 4/10 last year.
4. Language and cultural rights
With the inauguration of the Constitution in 1996, certain institutions inherent to a democracy were established in order to help protect and develop certain issues which were regarded as bottlenecks. One of those institutions was the Commission for the Promotion and Protection of the Rights to Language, Culture and Religion (in short known as the Section 185 commission).
This year Parliament had, after more than a year's delays, accepted the recommendations of an ad hoc committee under the guidance of Dr. Kader Asmal that the commission should gradually be phased out and its cases, together with those of the Pan-South African Language Board, should be taken over by the Human Rights Commission.
The failure of the relevant institutions should be put at the door of the ANC.
At present the political will is apparently lacking to intertwine South Africa's rich cultural diversity in a sensible manner with our democracy. The phasing out of these institutions is a further symptom of this.
Nothing came of the consultation process for the reaching of a consensus about geographical names which Cabinet had envisaged for the future. Controversial and sensitive street name changes were forced through in Durban and in Pretoria the FF Plus had to approach the court to slow down or prevent the name changes of historical streets.
The FF Plus awards the ANC once again a poorer failure mark of 2/10 as opposed to the 3/10 of last year.
5. Foreign Affairs
Issues such as Kosovo's independence, which were not recognised by the government, while they acknowledge the Palestinians' as well as international conferences about climate change, were on the agenda of the Department of Foreign Affairs.
The elections in Zimbabwe and the crisis thereafter had largely overshadowed the Foreign Affairs agenda of the government this year. In the Zimbabwe crisis the pendulum swung from moments of hope and optimism to moments of hopelessness and despondency.
When the majority of voters in Zimbabwe elected an MDC government on the 29th March 2008 and supported Mr. Tsvangirai, there was great hope and optimism that a peaceful change of government in Zimbabwe would take place. “Maybe Mr. Mbeki's silent diplomacy had eventually delivered the sought after outcome”, was the speculation of some commentators.
When it became clear after months that Mr. Mugabe would not accept the election results, the world and various African countries condemned Zimbabwe and Mr. Mugabe and his government were described as illegal.
- The worst failure of South Africa's foreign policy with regards to Zimbabwe appears from the fact that countries such as Botswana and Zambia eventually had to take the lead (Aug 2008) to have the problem discussed on a SADC level.
- At present even Senegal is getting involved in the Zimbabwe problem because South Africa and SADC clearly can not solve the problem.
- Based on these failures the Department of Foreign Affairs should have the 3 out of 10 evaluation of last year reduced to 2 out of 10.
What makes a numeric evaluation difficult is that there had been differences between the Mbeki government to that of the Motlanthe government's handling of this issue in the same year.
The Motlanthe government did not hesitate to criticise the Zimbabwe crisis in much clearer terms as what had been the case earlier. The R300 million which was budgeted for by South Africa as aid to Zimbabwe, was also held back by the government in an effort to show their disapproval of the events taking place in Zimbabwe and place pressure on Mugabe. That is why the government deserves recognition and it results in the evaluation this year being kept at 3/10.
6. Sport
The good that took place this year on the sport fields, happened in spite of the role of government.
Low points with regards to the government's handling of sport were the following:
- Mr. Butana Komphela's controversial statements that the management of the South African Olympic Committee is full of whites and Indians who do not care about transformation.
- The humiliation of sport administrators in front of the parliamentary portfolio committee on Sport about issues which did not fall within the mandate of the committee.
- The fiasco surrounding the Department of Sport and Recreation's fruitless expenses on a half completed display at the Olympic Games in Beijing.
- The umpteenth qualified audit of the Department of Sport and recreation.
- The government's interference in the issues of Mind Sport South Africa with the appointment of a “national team” by the minister and the Gauteng MEC.
- The unsuitable and divisive controversy about the Springbok Emblem.
- The FF Plus therefore gives the government a poorer mark for sport, i.e. 3/10 as opposed to 4/10 last year.
It appears from the above evaluation that the ANC in the eyes of the average FF Plus voter had this year been given a mere average of 22% for its performance with regards to policy.
The FF Plus remains committed to South Africa which offers a place for all. The party will in 2009 - as has been the case in previous years - remain committed to the initiation of talks where it is possible and the mobilising of protest where it has to undertaken.
The ANC has been governing South Africa for nearly 15 years. In this time the party has apparently gone out of its way to further divide South Africans in all possible ways rather than uniting them.
It is our wish that the politics of the future will be dealing with a competition between those who could best unite South Africans rather than divide them.
The FF Plus is with great expectations looking forward to the elections in 2009. FF Plus phone number: 0861 700 700
40% of 500 East Cape pig farmers have died since 2005
Dec 12 2008 Johannesburg - Nearly half of the 500 East Cape pig farmers whose livestock was culled in 2005 due to African Swine Fever, have already died before ever getting their compensation payouts. This mini-statistic also implies the true impact of the AIDS-TB co-epidemics on the working-age population of South Africa -- which includes these farmers. The SA government under ex-pres. Thabo Mbeki still claimed that less than 30% of this age-group is infected with the immune-deficiency-virus which causes AIDS.
- However, there are many indicators showing that this is a very understated statistic: experts instead claim that by 2006 at least 1,791,695 people had already died of AIDS-TB in South Africa in the working-age-group. (see details on Aids-TB epidemic impact below).
Removal of the Transkei's pigs caused cholera, typhoid outbreaks
The culling was done to stop African Swine Fever from spreading to commercial farms. Every smallholders' pig in the East Cape's entire OR Tambo District was culled and their owners were promised R2,000 compensation per pig. The culling had a devastating impact: pigs are farmed in this traditional Xhosa-tribal region for two important reasons: as a 'store of wealth' - these pigs literally are their piggy banks -- but they also are important to public health: in those widespread areas without any sewerage system, the pigs eat the people's fecal waste. But now, with all the pigs gone, the fecal run-off ended up in the rivers-- causing outbreaks of cholera and typhoid in this region, see . Cholera is endemic in this region see.
Meanwhile the country's agricultural minister announced in parliament yesterday that they have stopped the swine fever outbreak with their culling programme, and 106,000 pigs were destroyed. The culling has had a big impact on food security and farm income,. Thus far they have spent R34-m to prevent further outbreaks and this budget would increase to about R100-million in the 2006/07 financial year. see:
Presidential election looms and the payouts start arriving...
The Eastern Cape Department of Agriculture spokesman Mthobeli Mxotwa said yesterday that when they finally decided to start issuing the payments which total about R75-million, they found that some 200 of these 500 farmers (40%) had already died since 2005... He didn't explain why it took them a full three years before deciding to pay these farmers their compensation - if they'd received it earlier, they could have gotten back on their feet that much sooner, but perhaps the forthcoming presidential election has everything to do with it...
AIDS-TB EPIDEMIC IMPACT:
These shocking death-rates among just this one small group of working-age Eastern Cape farmers also reflects the devastating impact of the AIDS-TB co-epidemic which is killing off working-age black South Africans in huge numbers.
- This shows the true extent of the AIDS-TB epidemic in the Eastern Cape -- 40% of this population died within just three years... Extrapolated to the rest of the black South African population, this presents a devastating picture: much worse than the statistics bandied about by SA government sources.
- The SA Health department 's last available statistics says it's less than 30% - but their statistics come from a 2006 study among 33,033 women attending 1,415 antenatal clinics across all nine provinces - which claims that 29.1% of all these pregnant women were HIV+ in 2006. See here:
170% death-rate increase among SA working-age people between 1997 - 2007
From the October 2008 Statistics South Africa report, "Mortality and causes of death in South Africa, 2006", it shows that the annual number of registered deaths rose by a massive 91% between 1997 and 2006. Among those aged 25-49 years, the rise was 170% in the same nine-year period. Part of the overall increase is due to population growth. However, this does not explain the disproportionate rise in deaths among people aged 25 to 49 years.
- In 1997, the working-age group accounted for 29% of all deaths -- by 2006 it accounted for 42%.
- In 2006, AIDS was recorded as a cause of death in only 14,783 cases in South Africa. However, according to researchers from the Medical Research Council of South Africa (MRC), this figure is a massive underestimate, because the majority of deaths due to HIV are misclassified.
People whose deaths are caused by the human-immune-deficiency virus are not killed by the virus alone, but AIDS should always be recorded as an underlying cause if it "initiated the chain of morbid events leading directly to death". In other words, if someone contracts tuberculosis and dies from it because their immune system has been weakened by the human-immune-deficiency virus, then this fact should be included among the underlying causes. The MRC researchers claim that in many cases, this does not ever happen; instead, the doctor records only the immediate cause of death such as tuberculosis or respiratory infection. This could be because the doctor does not know the deceased person's HIV status or they may seek to conceal HIV infection to spare stigmatisation of relatives, or to avoid invalidating life insurance claims. As The Lancet notes, authorities are largely to blame.
The MRC estimates come very close to those made by a computer model of the Actuarial Society of South Africa, called ASSA2003.
Our conclusion:
- 4-million people have already died of AIDS-TB in South Africa since 2000, and 1,5-million people a year are now dying from it each year.
This is how this conclusion was reached: according to ASSA2003 calculations, AIDS caused 108,170 deaths in 2000 and 147,525 deaths in 2001.
- The head of the MRC stated that AIDS killed around 336,000 South Africans between mid-2005 and mid-2006.
- If an average of 400,000 deaths a year are also included for 2002-2003-2004, this brings the total of AIDS-deaths in South Africa to 1,791,695 people up to and including 2006.
Based on the extremely rapid rate of increase of these deaths shown in these previous years, the number of AIDS-TB deaths in South Africa up to and including 2008 would be at least 2-million more: i.e. some 4-million people have already died of AIDS-TB in South Africa since 2000.
- And now they are dying at the rate of at least 1,5m to 2mn a year. That then, is the legacy of the deposed, AIDS-denialist president Thabo Mbeki. Why he hasn't been dragged into the International Criminal Court in The Hague for gross human rights violations, I will never know.
WINDS OF CHANGE IN SA HEALTH DEPARTMENT?
There's a new health minister in South Africa now. Barbara Hogan, a 1952 graduate of the 85-year-old St Dominics Convent in Boksburg/Benoni, a white, working-class English-speaking South African Catholic girl with Irish roots, who was found guilty of high treason in 1983 as an organiser for the African National Congress, and spent ten years in Pretoria Central Prison - where she studied through UNISA university in economics and accounting. She chaired the finance committee between 1999-2004 but was removed by Mbeki because of her public stance on HIV/AIDS.
She told Time magazine in October 2008 when she was appointed: "It is extraordinary that people can continue to work in hospitals where there is so much dysfunction..."
She's clearly very serious about numbers-crunching: statistics are important to her: she said yesterday when introducing the latest SA Health Review by the Health Systems Trust, that 'if we don't accomplish something within five years in our country's disfunctional health system, we might as well pack our bags and leave...' see
But now, just briefly, back to the pig farmers: in 2005, the East Cape agricultural department decided to cull the pigs on 500 farms affected by African Swine Fever to prevent the spread of the viral disease. It's not dangerous to humans but can destroy their livehood very rapidly: the virus spreads very fast in a pig herd: it causes a lethal haemorraghic outbreak in domestic pigs and the animals can die within a week after infection.There are no vaccines or drugs available to prevent or control the infection - the only way to stop it is to quarantine such farms and cull all the animals.
It is endemic to Sub-Saharan Africa and rather strangely, also on the island of Sardinia/Italy. It exists in the wild through a cycle of infection between ticks and wild pigs/bushpigs/warthogs. Since 1960 the disease has also spread to mainland Europe, starting in Portugal and regular outbreaks now occur there among captive swine populations. See here:
Mxotwa said the relatives of the 200 dead farmers would now be compensated instead. Let's hope it doesn't take another three years... Meanwhile his department has issued tenders to try and get the pig-farming communities back on their feet in the affected regions, he said. Wow! Presidential elections work better than magic! The tenders call for new plastic sties, which they say will be restocked with piglets from 'disease-proof' pigsties in the province at nominal prices through the breeding programme of the Tsolo Institute of Agriculture and Rural Development. It's aslso very busy building tunnels for tomato farming and plans for a 'security office' for itself, See
SOURCES:
http://www.news24.com/News24/South_Africa/News/0,,2-7-1442_2441018,00.html
http://www.news24.com/Beeld/Suid-Afrika/0,,3-975_2441008,00.html
http://www.ecprov.gov.za/modules/documents/download_doc.php?id=375
http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?art_id=qw1143581224977B213
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xhosa
http://www.avert.org/safricastats.htm
http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/rwb.nsf/db900sid/KKAA-77N5J7?OpenDocument
LATEST Department of Health Reports, South Africa:
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http://www.doh.gov.za/docs/reports/index.html
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National HIV and Syphilis Sero-prevalence Survey in South Africa 2006:
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http://www.doh.gov.za/docs/reports/2007/antenatal/antenatal_report.pdf
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http://www.statssa.gov.za/
AIDS in South Africa
http://www.doh.gov.za/