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- A Stuijt
- Retired South African medical journalist, ex-Sunday Times of Johannesburg.
FW de Klerk won’t attend peace conference
16:05 | 
Posted by
A Stuijt |
March 23 2009 - Press statement
Mr F W De Klerk, ex-president of South Africa and Nobel Peace laureate, will reluctantly not participate in the Peace Conference on 27 March in Johannesburg, South Africa, nor in its associated activities if a visa is not granted to enable the Dalai Lama to attend the conference as well.
His decision is based on the following considerations:
§ He feels honour-bound to respect the invitation that Mr Nelson Mandela, he and Archbishop Tutu sent to the Dalai Lama last November, at the request of the organisers of the peace conference;
§ The decision to refuse the visa makes a mockery of the whole purpose of the Peace Conference - which is, among other things, to celebrate South Africa’s peaceful transition to constitutional democracy and to highlight the role that soccer can play in promoting peace;
§ the decision to exclude the Dalai Lama is irreconcilable with key principles on which our society is based including the principles of openness and responsiveness and the rights to freedom of expression and free political activity;
§ Events such as the 2010 Soccer World Cup - and presumably all activities that are associated with it - require a spirit of universality. They host country should admit anyone with a legitimate and peaceful interest and should not take political decisions on who should, and who should not, attend and participate in such activities;
§ South Africa is a sovereign constitutional democracy and should not allow other countries to dictate to it regarding who it should, and should not admit to its territory - regardless of the power and influence of the country.
Mr De Klerk has taken this decision with the greatest reluctance because he fully supports the 2010 World Cup and the concept and goals of the Peace Conference. He hopes that there is still time for the Government to reverse its decision. The following is the background to these developments:
On 1 October 2008 President Motlanthe, supported by former presidents Nelson Mandela and F W de Klerk and Archbishop Desmond Tutu, invited the Norwegian Peace Committee to “a Peace Conference and the Nelson Mandela Peace challenge match between the national football team of South Africa and Norway.” The programme includes a tour of Soweto on 26 March; the Peace Conference and a gala dinner on 27 March and the soccer match between South Africa and Norway on 28 March.
In November 2008 and at the request of the organisers, Mr Mandela, Mr De Klerk and Archbishop Tutu signed letters of invitation to other Nobel Peace laureates, including the Dalai Lama.
Mr De Klerk was informed last week by the Dalai Lama that the South African High Commissioner in New Delhi had requested him to postpone his forthcoming visit to South Africa. Mr De Klerk contacted the offices of the Minister of Foreign Affairs and of President Motlanthe to express his concern and to urge that a visa should be granted to the Dalai Lama. Unfortunately there was no response.
Mr De Klerk has been in touch with Archbishop Tutu and identifies himself with the views that he has expressed with regard to the refusal of the South African Government to grant a visa to the Dalai Lama.
ISSUED BY THE F W DE KLERK FOUNDATION,
CAPE TOWN, 23 MARCH 2009
Enquiries: Dave Steward 082 824 8875 or 021 930 3622
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SA’s first female admiral gets bonus after 2 criminal convictions…
Mar 22 2009 Erika Gibson of Beeld newspaper reports that South Africa's only female admiral, rear-admiral Khanyisile Litchfield-Tshabalala -- convicted of two criminal offences last year -- still received a R25,000 merit bonus on March 15…
The Unsinkable female admiral
Litchfield-Tshabalala – dubbed the ‘Unsinkable Female Admiral’ by dumb-founded defence force colleagues -- still remains the SA Navy's director of transformation, but she’s been on leave since August last year after a second criminal conviction for defrauding the state the previous year - twice.
- Ever since her first criminal conviction in March 2008 (for offences committed during the ‘bonus merit-year’ in 2007) the country’s minister of defence is still trying to decide whether to just fire their faithful struggle-comrade, or whether to allow her to depart her job with a lucrative golden handshake instead, which is what she’s asked for.
Clearly this unsinkable comrade-admiral must have some kind of mysterious hold over the South Africa’s military’s top leaders – there’s no other way to explain why she still keeps on receiving her lucrative monthly paychecks plus a merit bonus for 2007 - despite two criminal convictions in 2008 for defrauding the State in 2007…
First black SA submariner on new German sub:
Her job is very specific and probably none too easy: her task is to recruit as many skilled, black male and female job applicants as possible for Navy jobs. These require high levels of technical skills and a science-based education to keep the complicated Navy machines running smoothly and safely. Only on March 11 2009 the first black submariner was graduated: the rather portly Lt Letsholo,( second from left). He qualified as diving safety officer on one of the country’s brand-new multi-million German-made subs, the SAS Queen Modjadji-1 and said he was ‘very excited’. The other new submariners on this graduation picture are from left Lt-Cdr Beattie; Lt Letsholo; and two new submarine watchmen Seamen Shabalala and Moalosi. (click on picture for story).
The Defence Ministry's chief of communications Siphiwe Dlamini confirmed that the Military Court of Appeals confirmed her conviction.He confirmed she's been in leave since August last year – and also noted that ‘the merit bonuses for senior fleet personnel were paid for the 2007/2008 financial year which ‘had nothing to do with her year of duty for which this merit-bonus was paid'.
"During that period of assesment, she had not yet been found guilty of any charges which could have influenced her merit bonus'. Indeed: but she carried out these criminal acts during 2007.
He also recited his old mantra, confirming that she’d ‘applied for a voluntary dismissal packet’, and that the decision to allow her to leave military service will have to be made by minister of defence comrade Charles Nqakula.
- Dlamini’d said exactly the same thing last December, and it’s now four months later. For some reason, the minister simply cannot make up his mind whether his old struggle-comrade Litchfield-Tshabalala should be allowed to leave of her own accord with a fat seperation packet - or be fired. No, the Admiral is not available for comment, and neither is the Minister.
Moral responsibility?
Advocate Pikkie Greeff of the SA National Defence Force Union said in reaction that granting a merit-bonus to a senior officer after she's been found guilty of criminal offences, "raises serious questions about the moral responsibility in the top leadership structure of the defence force.'
- "The message which the rear-admiral's bonus of merit sends to the rest of the defence force, that corrupt behaviour by senior officers is most certainly being rewarded,' he said.
http://jv.news24.com/Beeld/Suid-Afrika/0,,3-975_2489857,00.html
Comrade Khanyisile Litchfield-Tshabalala (picture by Denzil Maregele of Beeld) meanwhile still stays on in her lush Navy job -- and insiders have started caling her 'the Unsinkable Khanyisile." She meanwhile, declines all official comment.
On Nov 19 2008 at the Pretoria military court, she was found guilty of lodging a false claim for R600 for guesthouse accommodation. And that was her second conviction: earlier in 2008, she was also convicted for submitting a false claim for a ‘stolen’government computer valued at R15,000, convicted for crimen-injuria and also convicted for assaulting a junior defence force member in 2007. Yet she was kept on in her job as the navy's director of transformation and even given this bonus of merit for doing a wonderful job.
Treated with kid gloves
She was convicted at military court in Pretoria on Nov 18 2008 together with a female friend, warrant-officer Longanathan Moodley. The two women were found guilty of defrauding the Defence Force, (i.e. they stole from the national treasury) after they submitted an invoice for staying at a Durban guesthouse in October 2007 they had however never stayed at. She was treated with kid gloves, tried in a military court instead of a civilian one ‘because Litchfield-Tshabalala holds such a high rank,” officials said at the time.
The military court prosecutor’s documents showed that the two women had not stayed at a specific Durban guesthouse in October 2007 – the period of ‘merit’ for which she received her latest bonus in other words.
The court found that the two women had submitted a claim for expense by falsifying an invoice. They had indeed been in Durban to attend a work session when the alleged offence was committed – but her personal assistant Seaman Makgamathe testified that they had stayed in another hotel instead, and then had checked out the second-last day of their visit and stayed for free with a local friend…
- The co-defendant, Moodley had made all the accommodation arrangements and also kept all the receipts, Makgamathe had testified.
- She further testified that the guest house accommodation ‘had not been to the rear-admiral's liking, so since seaman Moodley had been unable to find proper accommodation', the admiral and Makgamathe instead had stayed at a friend's house for free -- while co-defendant Moodley had spent the night ‘somewhere else’.
Litchfield-Tshabalala testified in her own defence that Moodley should take all the blame, because the rear-admiral ‘had not handled her own travel and accommodation claim and had not seen the receipt for the night's alleged accommodation in the guesthouse.” The rear-admiral also testified that she’d ‘only become aware of (the false claim) when military police had informed her of the investigation into the alleged fraud’.
She said after the visit from the military police, she’d 'immediately paid back the money, and that in addition, it was also taken off her salary...' see
However, the court declined to believe her claim-- also because of her previous conviction for another fraud in March 2008, for an offence she had committed in 2007.
Jubilant headlines about SA’s first female admiral
As the SA fleet's'director of transformation,', senior-admiral junior-grade Khanyisile Litchfield-Tshabalala had made jubilant headlines worldwide in 2004 when she was appointed as the country's very first female admiral. She was photographed with all the top navy brass and feminists worldwide were hailing it as another 'victory over apartheid'.
However this glory soon fadedafter she was found guilty in March 2008 of the ' fraudulent 'loss' of state-property (an R15,000- laptop computer) as well as for crimen injuria and for assaulting a junior colleague. She ‘d claimed the computer had been stolen during a trip when it wasn’t...
At that time, she was fined a mere R6,000 and given a suspended sentence after she’d paid back the money - yet despite demands back then, that she had to be fired from her job, the rear-admiral still sits in it to this day.
Submitted her resignation - then withdrew it
She had initially submitted her resignation just before this first judgment -- but then quickly withdrew it and resubmitted an application for the Navy's lavish golden hand-shake package instead.
This 'golden-handshake' application however was placed 'on ice' until this latest fraud trial had been completed and that’s where matters stand to this day. Then she still received a merit-bonus in March 2009…
So although a convicted thief and fraudster -- besides also having assaulted a junior navy staffer --- she has thus far still been allowed to keep her top Naval job. It's all a great mystery.
On 18 May, 2007, she appeared at a South African parliamentary meeting to help present the South African Navy Transformation Strategy. The word ‘transformation’ in this context means the Africanisation of its military.Rear Admiral K Tshabalala presented her brief to the SA parliamentary committee together with navy commandant J Moodley.
She said that the Navy was presented with a major problem, because the law said that that year, 25% of any given ship’s complement ws still made up of reserve military staffers – and they were unable to : rapidly phase out the high proportion of white officers” because during apartheid, Indians in Durban and Coloureds in Cape Town were recruited “to the detriment of Africans”.
400 coloured staffers in Simonstown handed over to ARMSCOR… helps with the stats…
One ‘solution’ to this problem was that the naval dockyard in Simonstown was simply ‘handed over to the state military arms manufacturer Armscor.’ She said the removal of 400 mainly coloured workers ‘would of course reflect very positively ‘on the demographics statistics’… at least for the Navy.
However, ANC-MPs J Phungula and Ms M Nxumalo were rather critical of her during this session, noting that ‘not many blacks were inducted into the SAN during transformation”. Phungula hoped that ‘funds were being efficiently utilised for this; while Nxumalo said that ‘the crew of the SAS Amatola had complained in chats with her that ‘transformation was not taking place as middle management was still the same… (i.e. white) ’She also asked however ‘why skilled people were not being effectively retained…”
‘Patriotism does not put bread on the table…’:
Adm Tshabalala was undoubtedly fearless in her replies to the parliamentarians, saying that she was ‘very sceptical of individuals who said that transformation was not occurring as the navy had undeniably changed…’
- She instead complained that they needed higher pay scales because ‘they couldn’t retain qualified staff as they got paid much better by private companies.’
She also seemed rather cynical in her replies, responding to one comment by the chairman, ANC-MP Montsitsi, that she should ‘appeal to skilled personnel’s patriotism during recruitment’, that “patriotism did not put bread on the table, that ‘South Africa was struggling with patriotism…’
Problems with pregnant recruits, she said:
She also noted another fascinating problem, namely that it took recruits two years to complete the course and that they weren’t part of the Navy until they graduated – and that they had signed a contract promising not to fall pregnant during that time... “If a recruit did fall pregnant, they were removed from the programme as training was not possible due to the physical nature of certain aspects of it.”
- “The problem was that the training slot was then wasted as another recruit could not fill it once the programme was underway - hence the contract for them not to fall pregnant…” see
ANC leader called “black Jesus’
March 23 2009 - The ruling African National congress party in the North West province of South Africa ‘is riddled with nepotism, patronage and a sickening hero-worshipping of the provincial secretary Supra Mahumapelo, whom it has emerged his die-hard supporters refer to as Jesus,’ reports Sowetan newspaper today. (Picture by Alet Pretorius, Beeld newspaper)
- However Mahumapelo says there’s nothing wrong with being called Jesus, even ANC-president Jacob Zuma was given that nickname…
This broadside was reportedly fired by the co-ruling COSATU trade union movement’s secretary-general Zwelinzima Vavi after ‘elaborate consultation with the structures of the tripartite alliance in the province last week,’ he said.
Vavi said he was ‘shocked to learn that alleged ANC supporters openly use the name Jesus in reference to Mahumapelo’.
Even Jacob Zuma called Jesus
In an interview yesterday, Mahumapelo confirmed that he is affectionately called Jesus. “Even JZ (Jacob Zuma) was at some stage called Jesus,” Mahumapelo said.
He said the reason for that was because many ANC members in the province believe he has a “good heart” and easily forgives members who break the ANC rules. His supporters say he is “too soft and accommodating”. He said “Vavi misses the point. He thinks I am too powerful. He has not bothered to investigate, otherwise he would have discovered the fundamental truth behind why I’m respected like this.”
Mandela would ‘die of a heart attack’…
Vavi however said if Nelson Mandela could hear about what was happening in the North West “he will die of a heart attack”.
- He also said the late ANC leader Oliver Tambo would refuse to come back to life and lead the kind of the ANC currently found in the North West.
Vavi was one of a number of high-profile speakers at the memorial service for Moss Phakoe, an ANC Rustenburg councillor, who was gunned down at his home by unknown assailants just over a week ago.
A staunch Zuma supporter, Phakoe (53) was killed a few days after he had submitted documents apparently exposing tender-related corruption in the municipality to Sicelo Shiceka, local and provincial affairs minister.
Vavi said the ANC in the province was its worst enemy. Our enemy is not even COPE. That’s a small fry. – Motswako News Agency http://www.sowetan.co.za/News/Article.aspx?id=964725
Children face threat from sex predators at WC2010
March 23 2009 - Child pornography, human trafficking and sex tourism are among the biggest threats facing South Africa’s most vulnerable population group: its children, warms expert Iyavar Chetty from the government’s Film and Publication Board this week.
Yet the issue of sexual predators and child-pornography ‘are low on the list of this country’s priorities’, he warns. see
“International sexual predators are preparing to enter the country with soccer fans for the FIFA 2010 World Cup to South Africa – yet South Africa does not even have a Police child protection unit any more: it was scrapped by ex-president Thabo Mbeki several years ago.
Picture: an anti-child pornography campaigner from the government’s Film and Publication Board at one of its public shows explaining the nature of child-pornography to children and parents in Gauteng .
Iyvar Chetty, an expert on the Board, expressIy ‘deep concern at South Africa's lack of law-enforcement staff dealing with child pornography. Even its Police child protection unit was scrapped, he warned.
Child pornography low on priorities list
"It's leaving the authorities hamstrung in fighting child pornography, said Chetty, an expert on child pornography and a consultant to the board. He warned: “Child pornography is low on the list of this country’s priorities.”
“International sex predactors know about our street children:
Chetty warned that international sex predators know “there are lots of street children and the lack of law-enforcement resources in South Africa”.
The research study has also found that 'many people in South Africa do not even understand what child pornography is or the exact nature of the sexual abuse of children it entails."
The Film and Publication Board report warned that ‘policy makers and senior managers were 'not fully aware of what constituted child pornography nor how to fight it."
Picture: South African children are widely targetted by sexual predation already, with so-called ‘jackrolling’ gangs looking for young children to rape in the country’s townships, and hundreds of thousands of street-children roaming the streets, looking for survival handouts, they would become an easy prey for sexual predators. On this picture by Durban photographer Snowy Smith, large groups of children were playing the game ‘execution’ at the marina recently. Sex and violence have become part of the normal lives of many South African children.
“The most striking and important of [our findings] was the confusion and lack of understanding as to what constitutes child pornography and its relation to child abuse,” board senior researcher Antoinette Basson said.
“The general workplace environment is potentially conducive to the viewing, downloading and distribution of child pornography.
"Their policies for anti-child pornography need to be more specific.”
The Board's head of the child protection unit, Goodness Dlamini, said there were plans for the Board to 'give training workshops to the police to prepare for 2010.
" That would drive home the board’s message to both parents and children to reduce the vulnerability of children while the authorities get their act together," Dlamini told the Sunday Times. http://www.thetimes.co.za