Interpreting Thabo Mbeki

In his State of the Nation Address on Friday President Thabo Mbeki quoted from the famous opening passage of a Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens which begins: "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times..." Mbeki said that as he was preparing his address "one among us" suggested that these well-known words capture "what he considers the essence of the reality confronting us."

He added that he personally disagreed with the assessment that "we have entered an era of confusion." "Like the rest of our Government" he said, "I am convinced that the fundamentals that have informed our country's forward march in the last 14 years remain in place."

In reality South Africa appears to be in a state of national despondency. There can be few authorities inclined to describe the current period as the "age of wisdom" or - following the recent power outages - the "season of Light." However, if one reads a little further the relevance of the passage to the current situation becomes more apparent.

Dickens begins his novel in "the year of Our Lord one thousand seven hundred and seventy five": fourteen years before the French revolution. Yet in both England and France , Dickens comments, "it was clearer than crystal to the lords of the State preserves of loaves and fishes, that things in general were settled forever."

France though "rolled with exceeding smoothness down hill, making paper money and spending it." In England, meanwhile, "there was scarcely an amount of order and protection to justify much national boasting. Daring burglaries by armed men, and highway robberies, took place in the capital itself every night..."

I

Over the years Mbeki has proved to be a master of the obfuscatory arts. He has the great ability to single-mindedly pursue one goal, while still creating the impression that he was working towards another. As George Orwell wrote "The great enemy of clear language is insincerity. When there is a gap between one's real and one's declared aims, one turns as it were instinctively to long words and exhausted idioms, like a cuttlefish squirting out ink."

From 2000 onwards Mbeki was required to emerge, like a rather surly cuttlefish, from the dark holes and hidden crevices of power - where he was most comfortable operating - to answer questions in parliament.

The opposition would present an awkward query or two, on say his Zimbabwe or HIV/AIDS policy, to which he would give an inky reply. His opponents would then have to poke around the murky waters with a stick, trying to pin Mbeki down.

Still, in the good old days one knew who Mbeki was trying to befuddle, namely the opposition. This made it possible to eventually tease out his real intentions. Post-Polokwane it has become considerably more difficult to decipher Mbeki's more cryptic comments, such as that on the future of the Scorpions. On Friday he stated in this regard:

"Informed by the imperative to intensify the offensive against organised crime, as well as the recommendations of the Khampepe Judicial Commission on the functioning and location of the Directorate of Special Operations and continuing reflections on this matter, including the reform of the Criminal Justice System, we shall by the end of March this year, interact with Parliament on legislation and other decisive measures required further to enhance our capacity to fight organised crime. What will continue to inform us as we take this step will be the absolute commitment of government to fight organised crime and improve the management, efficiency and coordination of our law-enforcement agencies."

When Mbeki made this statement it sounded like he was submitting to the ANC demand that the DSO be dissolved by June. However, the more one re-reads this passage the more its meaning dissolves into nothingness. It can certainly be subjected to wildly differing interpretations.

On The Times's Politically Correct blog on Friday Brendan Boyle wrote that Mbeki's statement "didn't sound like a confirmation that the Scorpions will be disbanded by June, as the ANC's National Executive Committee has demanded." Meanwhile, DA leader Helen Zille wrote in her immediate reaction, "instead of unequivocally defending the unit's right to exist independently of the South African Police Services, [Mbeki] has been deliberately vague about the unit's future. Given the fervour with which the ANC have vowed to dissolve the unit, the future of the Scorpions looks bleak."

On Sunday the confusion continued. The headline of the Sunday Times announced "Mbeki fights for the Scorpions." The usually well-informed City Press, however, reported that "Legislation to prepare for the disbanding of the Scorpions elite crime-fighting unit and its integration into the South African Police Service (SAPS) will be tabled next month."

What makes Mbeki's statement on the Scorpions so befuddling is that one no longer knows who he is trying to befuddle any more: Is it still the opposition, who were looking for a clear statement of support for the DSO; or the new ANC leadership, who were demanding the opposite? Time will soon tell.

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From 2000 onwards Mbeki was required to emerge, like a rather surly cuttlefish, from the dark holes and hidden crevices of power - where he was most comfortable operating - to answer questions in parliament."

 

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The elusive pimple For Mbeki to compare current SA to Dickens' London and Paris is pure gobbledegook with which he is becoming fully and farcically associated. His literary befuddlement becomes more apparent by the day. Poor man. If he really wants to . .more compare SA to a work of literature I suggest he starts with Joseph conrad and thinks about a "Heart of Darkness". Alternatively if he wants to be more factually correct and truthful then the work which comes to mind is one by a certain Lewis Carroll-- you know the one.. Alice in Wonderland. Trouble is, in that book there was only one mad hatter so once again we are faced with the dilemma of truth. Poor man. Frankly, with all the revelations about the arms deal and the blue-bottomed Selebi chimpanzee (do not accuse me of racial bigotry... Selebi called his own troops chimpanzees so I am fully allowed to use the same jargon) Mbeki has shown himself to be nothing more than a craven liar so perhaps the publication he should be associated with is the annual statistical review of unemployment in SA as published by the Government Gazette . .less by Plutarch on February 12 2008, 17:29 Find this comment inappropriate? Report it

And Zuma is too "sirius" to take seriously This on IOL today re the BBC Panorama programme aired last night on BBC1: By Elizma Nolte "Are you a crook?" Jacob Zuma laughs, unsure how to respond to the brutally frank question. He tries to make light of it, then . .more plays for time by asking for a definition of crook. "It's somebody who takes money from others for corrupt purposes," the BBC journalist responds slickly. "Ah, serious," he chuckles. It takes him a moment to collect his thoughts and launch into a familiar argument about having been "put on trial by media". But the damage is done. Within half an hour last night, thousands of British TV viewers were given the impression that South Africa's democracy and the ANC's moral integrity were on a downward spiral, while crime, unemployment and Aids ravage the country. In the BBC1 Panorama documentary entitled No More Mandelas, Fergal Keane asks: "How did the presidency pass from Mandela to this man?" He calls South Africa a "frighteningly violent" country and notes that although the government is increasing its police force, "confidence is not boosted when the chief of police is charged with accepting a bribe or the leading party votes to disband its anti-corruption unit". To illustrate his point, he asks some teenagers, high on a mix of alcohol and amphetamines, why they commit crime. "If you don't want to give me your car, I kill you. It's nothing to kill you because I need the money," comes the reply. "Is this what Mandela spent 27 years in jail for, so you can go around and kill people?" asks Keane, trying to prove his point, rather than elicit a coherent response. "No, no, no," falters the drunken chorus, before the guy sitting closest turns to the cameraman: "I could rob you, I could steal your camera." Keane moves away and on to poverty, explaining that despite everything that has been achieved, the "growing economy hasn't delivered jobs". A man in a squatter camp tells him that he thinks things were better under the apartheid government - at least he had a job back then. "From answers like these you get a sense of how far the elite of the ANC has drifted away from their constituency - the people of the townships," he concludes. . .less by Dave on February 12 2008, 17:52 Find this comment inappropriate? Report it

Scorpions future Indeed Pres speech was vague on the matter of scorpion. But subsequently the security and justice ministers met and media reports said Minister of Safety and Security made it bluntly clear the Scorpion will be "disbanded" and a new unit, made of policy . .more and scorpion personnel created. Tebogo . .less by TP on February 12 2008, 17:50 Find this comment inappropriate? Report it

keep the failure rate to 100% by nothing like closing down almost the only successful thing the anc have ever done. on February 12 2008, 23:32 Find this comment inappropriate? Report it

What actually works well in SA? by While the country is out of control these guys try and make fancy speeches. on February 12 2008, 23:31 Find this comment inappropriate? Report it

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HOW CAN THIS NATION`S WOUND BE HEALED? HOW CAN YOU HEAL A NATION WITH SO MANY WOUNDS? Many Moneyweb readers have replied to this BBC Newscast, likewise I feel to say the following: THE APARTHEID ERA: HOW BLACKS FEEL: Apartheid were a political ideology . .more enforced upon a nation by a white dominated government, politicians made laws forcing racial discrimination upon society and the majority blacks obviously opposed this laws discriminating against them, organizations were established to fight against this discriminative laws which later became political organizations like the ANC and PAC, the Leaders of these organizations used military style methods to gain control of a country they were told belonged to them and were stolen by whites from them, their young were dominated and told…Liberation before Education which caused three generations to be actually prevented education by their own leaders, terrorist activities were planned and executed by their military wings with one obsession…to govern South-Africa, in 1994 this was given to them and then whatever went wrong were blamed on apartheid, the vicious previous government and due to their beliefs even now whites across the board are blamed for their poverty, bad governance and the destruction of society, it is however still important to this day that their generations to come must remember those evil days of apartheid, therefore the Apartheid Museum displaying how blacks were shot during riots and hit with shamboks in this riots, now they are liberated and feel that whites must never ever be given any chance again to govern the country neither have any influence in the economic wealth and growth in South-Africa, therefore BEE were implemented and will continue to be enforced by law to ensure no only political control in SA but also Economic Control is established and maintained, a deep for generation hidden hatred towards whites who wish to participate in politics, education, economy and growth in SA is resisted with reminders about the past, the question is how do you heal this hatred and can you? HOW WHITES FEEL: South-Africa has been their country since birth, a NP Government has forced by law white citizens not to be able to share, govern and mingle with blacks, actually the minority really agreed on this as the majority whites knew that apartheid was wrong but to oppose the NP Government was the same like being an outcast of society, survival, business, churches, schools and yet the majority whites helped blacks more than what the present black government will ever acknowledge. We raise the question as well, …how can a government be so evil forcing children just leaving school to be trained to kill people, given guns in their hands, send them to Angola to kill people for the political beliefs NP Politician had, only to silently stop the war, brainwashing whites they were patriotic heroes to kill for their evil cause?, never once did PW. Botha, FW De Klerk or Pik Botha stood up in public and apologized to whites and blacks were served in the SAP and SAW that they were sorry for breeding killers for their evil beliefs. We see the Apartheid Museums of the ANC Government as a method of absolute racial hatred and discrimination against whites in a effort to brainwash blacks to hate whites as the stories told and photos displayed in this museums only show the SAW and SAP shooting young blacks during riots, whites has embedded in their souls the evil atrocities committed by the very same ANC and PAC Organizations where they themselves burned down their own schools , never were any member of the SAW or SAP prosecuted for burning down a black school, thereby the ANC and PAC denied their own generations to be educated, how ANC, PAC Cadres blasted innocent SA Citizens to pieces in a church, planting limpet mines in Wimpy Bar restaurants and killing whoever were inside, no matter black, white, Indian or colored people, neither if they maybe supported the cause to destroy apartheid, how ANC Youth necklace so brutally young blacks with car tyres around their necks and lighting them with petrol, so cruel to kill an opponent, how hundreds of blacks just vanished in ANC, PAC training camps in other countries like Camp Quattro in Angola , blacks you never saw again, not one of this evil barbaric deeds of the ANC and PAC are displayed in this museums, they did everything to make this violent deeds to vanish from history, why then ask whites do the ANC wants generations to come to remember just evil deeds done by whites to them, if their own hands drips by far more with blood? We remember how the ANC and PAC were also funded by criminal activities like bank robberies, motor vehicle theft, cars stolen and smuggled across borders, although this sensitive information were handled by the SAP, it actually happened, then we cannot help to ask , how is it then that very violent crimes just started to happen since 1994 when over 60,000 highly trained ANC, PAC soldiers were repatriated back to SA, given a R15,000 settling allowance?, all of a sudden criminal are not afraid to hijack your car with a gun at a robot?, enter your house specifically when you and your family are there and kill you?, previously burglars waited until you leave your home, suddenly with precise military style 10 – 20 well armed robbers rob cash in transit vehicles , is it that the ANC never thought that those they trained to take over the country with violence they will have to control when they took over power in SA? Whites know apartheid cannot be blamed for these evil crimes and the ANC Government is just not able to control crimes, it hit blacks just as hard and sadly without discrimination the majority of extreme violent crimes are committed by blacks, why then so whites ask? The question is how do you heal this and can you? THE SOLUTION: Everyone reading this will surely have lots of comments, I think the only way how to heal this to ensure whites, blacks, Indian and coloreds will respect each other and truly build a non-discriminative society for generations to come, is firstly to ensure the past is forgiven and even destroy those propaganda hatred apartheid museums, then SA should be governed by equal numbers of whites, blacks, Indians and colored so that each race will feel being represented by a rainbow nation government, these politicians must make it their goal never to discriminate or refer to the past but together they must build a positive way of talk to all races that we actually all have a secured future, to work together is not impossible, businesses, society has proven that already, organizations with militant and abusive speeches like Cosatu, SACP, and others must realize its not they way to ensure your organizations future by being militant, its to ensure all races support your one and only goal…to represent the workers of all races in this country, to ensure that those who work hard, qualify themselves is employed no matter what race, build together the agricultural land as a union and not by way to get rid of white farmers and empty the breadbasket that feeds the people of SA, implement Specialized Crime Fighting Units again in the SAP, like Narcotics, Murder and Robbery, Commercial Crimes Units, ensure criminal don’t get bail to continue their fearless crime spree, deport the majority of Africans in SA who has no work here and contribute towards crime in SA, proper border controls,etc, yes it’s a lot to do and still not too late to do, but id we don’t do it all races will suffer greatly in the future in SA, greatly. It is maybe a dream far fetched because politician wants to control and build up might, but the question is, is there any other solution and what may that be? . .less by SA CITIZEN on February 16 2008, 17:10 Find this comment inappropriate? Report it

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