No surprise as Zimbabwe rulers found to be idiots
The con-artist who convinced the Zimbabwean government that a special rock bled diesel fuel on demand, has been found guilty of fraud. The self-styled medicine woman, Rotina Mavhunga, claimed to have cast a spell on the rock which then oozed diesel when tapped with a stick. In fact, the tapping was a signal to hidden accomplice to pour the diesel into a concealed pipe. In a country with incredibly severe fuel supply problems, a mystical source of diesel would seem like an amazing boon – if you were a complete cretin.
Mad Bob Mugabe dispatched a high-powered task-force to investigate the claims. No ordinary task-force this: it comprised the Ministers of Energy and Power Development, Science and Technology, and of Mines. Their verdict: Zimbabwe’s fuel shortages were at an end. They obviously had applied their minds objectively to this investigation, starting with removing their shoes in the mystic-one’s presence.
So they lavished her with gifts and farms. Mugabe claims they were blinded by her beauty. Not to mention their deep belief in tribal superstitions, the ancestral spirits with which Mavhunga claimed to be imbued. Nevertheless, when some damned sceptic raised doubts, yet another panel was dispatched which this time concluded that it was all a con.
Arresting her proved to be beyond the police who were scared of her mystical powers and believed she was untouchable. She made a brief appearance in her trail, but was largely left alone in hiding. Her appearance though caused fear amongst the superstition-addled public:
During the trial, Mavhunga would start growling in the dock before the terror-stricken public gallery, but the magistrate said she had been faking a trance to try and have herself declared unfit for trial.
If you ever wondered how people could systematically destroy their country and not realise the consequences of their actions, you need wonder no further.
The Zanufication of South Africa
Story 1: War veterans illegally occupy private farmland. The ruling political party to which they belong facilitates this by providing shelter to the invaders. When the owner and the local opposition-party mayor lawfully demand that the invaders leave or be forcefully removed, the police threaten to arrest the owner and mayor, not the criminal invaders.
Sound familiar?
Story 2:The supreme law of the land is the Constitution which guarantees a raft of basic human rights to its populace. The highest court in the land zealously guards it. The Ruling Party does not like the rulings the court hands down and so systematically goes about stripping the Court of independent jurists and replacing them with obsequious party hacks. Eventually the Ruling Party is allowed to do as it pleases, stripping people of their rights and brutalising the opposition supporters. The judges smile on in benign approval.
Sound familiar?
Well, we all know the story of Zimbabwe and its brutal ruling party, Zanu-PF. They have reduced their country to ruin, their citizens to penury and fear. In effect Zanu-PF runs a fascist dictatorship, a kleptocracy of vicious thugs.
South Africa is no Zimbabwe – that’s obvious. I for one have been dismissive of hysterical claims that South Africa is turning into another Zimbabwe. But I am starting to get a bit uneasy of late. Two reports appearing today have made me become quite apprehensive.
The first report came from Timothy Nast, the DA mayor of Midvaal Municipality on Radio 702 this morning. A large group of thugs were burning tyres, blocking traffic and stoning passing cars on a busy highway this morning. They had invaded a farm yesterday and, Nast alleges, habitable containers were provided by the ANC-controlled area authority. South Africa has appallingly anti-private property laws regarding squatters but at least they do allow invaders to be removed from the property within 48 hours of arriving. The owner quite rightly and lawfully demanded that the invaders move off the land and that the police should enforce this. Nast alleges that the police refused to do this and instead threatened to arrest him.
The second report was carried by Business Day. Judge President of the Western Cape, John Hlophe’s Judicial Service Commission (JSC) hearing into the dispute between him and the judges of the Constitutional Court (CC) have been cancelled. Let’s put this in perspective. Hlophe was accused by the CC judges of attempting to improperly influence judgements relating to Jacob Zuma. Hlophe ducked and dived, using every trick in the book his rabid supporters led by the fugitive Paul Ngobeni had honed to get Zuma off the hook. His waiting game was a transparent attempt to get a hearing by a far friendlier JSC after Zuma’s election.
And he got it. Zuma replaced his appointments with a bunch of pro-executive and definitely pro-Zuma and Hlophe lawyers. Their first action was to hold Hlophe’s hearing in secret and then to simply cancel them. It looks very much as if Hlophe, who any reasonable person would find to be the last person who should hold such a position, is headed for the post of Chief Justice. Even if that is not the case, these actions show executive intent to mould the judiciary into the ANC’s lap-dog. “Transformation” of the judiciary clearly means to transform independence into subservience.
So yes, Story 1 happened in South Africa, although of course it has happened in Zimbabwe countless times.
Story 2 is the story of the emasculation of Zimbabwe judiciary. Without a judiciary willing to uphold the constitution, ordinary Zimbabweans were left naked in their defencelessness from a ruthless and arrogant ruling party, Zanu-PF – lead by that madman Robert Mugabe. These actions taken in the JSC’s Hlophe hearings are an extremely worrying portent of where South Africa could be headed.
But is there any evidence that the ANC seeks to follow Zanu’s example? Well not directly and not really on the same path. Whereas Zanu-PF is a very aggressive fascist socialist movement, the ANC seems to be moving towards a highly centralised Stalinist statist model. Here are the pointers:
- Under Thabo Mbeki, the ANC government sought to centralise control of all facets of government and “deployed” ANC cadres to key positions – not on the basis of ability but on that of blind loyalty to the leader
- The ANC’s 2007 Polokwane conference resolved to centralise political power with the Party – not with the elected government
- The ANC arrogantly chose an entirely inappropriate candidate, Jacob Zuma, for president and then embarked on an aggressive campaign of threats against the judiciary to make sure the legal impediments to his ascendency were removed
- After years of doggedly pursuing Zuma on fraud and corruption charges, the National Prosecuting Authority succumbed to enormous political pressure and abruptly dropped all charges on flimsy and discredited grounds
- The majority of Zuma’s cabinet are or were loyal communists (as was he), including key appointments such as the Stalinist finance minister Pravin Gordhan and a senior cabinet post for Blade Nzimande, general secretary of the SA Communist Party
- A new, enlarged cabinet structure which has a heavy emphasis on central planning
- Policy, direction and disciple is not set by the president or his government but by the Party under the leadership of SACP chairman and ANC secretary-general, Gwede Mantashe
- Justice minister Jeff Radebe interferes with the working of the “independent” JSC
I agree that this is not conclusive evidence of a South African version of Zanufication. But I would argue that with so many pointers toward total Party control, there is a great deal to be concerned about.
How to train a brutal police force
Ever wondered how a brutal regime gets its individual policemen to be so brutal? The answer is: you brutalise them! In this video, Zimbabwean police cadets are systematically beaten, apparently as part of their normal training. It looks as if the recruit takes his beating “like a man”, he is free to join his comrades in a huddle. If not he is subjected to further beating, kicking and verbal abuse.
These are the sick cruel policemen of a sick and cruel regime. Pity the poor populace when this fresh batch of recruits is unleashed on them.
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