Tuesday 4 October 2011

Tutu Calls ANC Government Disgusting

Desmond Tutu Condemns ANC government and President

Archbishop Desmond Tutu
In a public statement carried on National television, former Anglican Archbishop, and Nobel Peace Price winner Desmond Tutu tells president Zuma and government
“You do not represent me; you represent only your own interests”. You are worse than the Apartheid government, At least it was expected from the Apartheid government

Tutu, speaking in response to the failure of SA government to provide a Visa for the Dalai Lama to visit South Africa before the Dalai Lama decided to cancel his proposed visit to the country, likened the present ruling party to the Apartheid regime of the past.

Monday 12 September 2011

Kill the Boer Song Banned

Court Bans Kill The Boer Song

Julius Malema's controversial singing of this old Umkhonto We'Sizwe song, 'Kill the Boer' must end. The  court ruled today that 'Kill the Boer'  constitutes hate speech, and it is no longer permissible to sing 'Kill the Boer' .

Umkhonto We'Sizwe spokesperson says MK will investigate appealing the ruling up to the constitutional court level. No doubt the ANC Youth League and their rabble rousing leader Mr Malema will be hard on their heels.

Personally I am in two minds regarding this ruling:
On the one hand, it is high time Mr Malema and his tsotsi brigade were brought to heel. Their conduct over the past few years has brought disrepute to this great nation, has created rifts in society and fermented hatred and intolerance. 

The other side of the coin, I grew up in a South Africa where Freedom of Speech did not exist. Many of us felt the old Apartheid Regime wanted to even deny us freedom of thought. Numerous South Africans suffered for the right to freedom of expression. Not least of those were some of our greatest, Nelson Mandela, Govan Mbeki, Walter Sisulu, Steven Biko among them, not to forget those less visible, Helen Joseph, Molly Blackburn, Sarah Duncan as well as many others who remained obscure and relatively unknown, myself included. Many were deprived of their liberty, and murdered at the hands of the powers that ruled.

The saga of 'Kill the Boer' not over


Definitely this saga is not over. Will the Constitutional Court uphold this ruling, for the good of the majority of South Africans as the constitution permits, or will it decide that freedom of speech is of greater importance than peace in our land?

Saturday 23 July 2011

Dear Mr Zuma

300 Years of Doing Nothing:

I listened with interest to your comments broadcast on SABC news at 19h30 today, Saturday 23 July 2011.

You are so right, in 300 years the people, who migrated southwards fleeing from the Zulu, of the eastern region of the Eastern Cape have done nothing to better their situation. Yes Sir, you are totally right; they have done nothing but sit outside their khayas, steal the odd head of cattle, mutilate their young men in barbaric primitive initiation rituals (and their young women too), and consume alcohol of dubious quality.

However Sir, you forgot to mention the 300 years of progress and development that took place just a little further to the south-west of what used to be the Transkei!

Friday 8 July 2011

Is the Writing on the Wall?

Is the current ANC government heading down a path all too common in Africa in the past 100 years.

I mean: Totalitarian Rule, Detention Without Trial, Insurrection, Arbitrary Arrests, Police State, Racism. Didn't we have enough of this under the National Party Regime?

Zwelinzima Vavi
What is clear is the divide within the ranks of the ruling party. On Monday Cosatu Secretary General Zwelinzima Vavi agreed with President Jacob Zuma that the ANC was "in crisis". In comments made to the media he said that over the last 3 1/2 years a 
"powerful, corrupt, predatory elite combined with a conservative populist agenda to harness the ANC to advance their interests" had emerged.
In recent weeks Blade Nzimande (SACP Secretary General) has been vocal in his criticism of Zwelinzima Vavi, however he refers to the SACP support for President Zuma as a "media created problem". Read more here
Perhaps this is in line with the many remarks made in the past few weeks on National Television have which may be perceived as critical of the President and the ANC.

Sunday 22 May 2011

ELECTION - FINAL RESULTS


We are now able to bring you the final results for the 2011 Elections

 Once again we must thank the Independent Electoral Commision and elections.org.co.za for providing these statistics.

NATIONAL RESULTS
National Results
NATIONAL PERCENTAGES
National Percentages
ADDITIONAL RESULTS STATISTICS
Additional Statistics


Finally, an update on our earlier news item: DA calls for recount:
After the recount, the DA has won outright control of Cape Town Metro with 61% of the vote. This story will be featured on AndNowComrade? in our post election coverage.

These stats bring our Special Edition coverage to an end. However, we have much more commentary coming very soon from our correspondents, covering the post election politicing among the various parties.


NOTE: If the links to the results documents do not work, please use the comment form to notify us. Some configuration changes to the site hosting these documents may have resulted in a broken link.

posted by: babasizwe


Saturday 21 May 2011

ELECTION RESULTS - WARD WINNERS


We are pleased to be able to bring you these results from the Independent Electoral Commision, of Ward Winners in the Metropolitan Regions of South Africa. We also provide links to an interactive map giving all the regional results:



WARD RESULTS FROM THE IEC
Bloemfontein (Mangaung)
Cape Town
East Rand (Ekerhuleni)
Johannesburg
Port Elizabeth (Nelson Mandela Bay)
Pretoria (Tshwane)


Interactive Map
Election Map
"Interactive Local Election Map"



NOTE: If the links to the results documents do not work, please use the comment form to notify us. Some configuration changes to the site hosting these documents may have resulted in a broken link.

Friday 20 May 2011

Unprecedented Voter Turnout


While we still await the final results from the IEC, We are now able to bring some statistics which are representative of the final outcome.

There are a number of outcomes worthy of comment:

Voter Turnout:

The impression given by analysts halfway through Wednesday polling was of extremely poor voter participation. How wrong can the analysts be;


Unprecedented turnout of almost 57% for the municipal elections; the highest ever for an election of this nature in South Africa - can be attributed to an exciting election campaign and the tight contests that were expected in key areas, analysts and politicians say.

Thursday 19 May 2011

Thanks to all for a memorable day!


Your correspondent would like to thank all who helped make yesterday, 18 May 2011 one to remember. Especially, thanks must go to our readers who endured all the update notifications; without you there would be no reason to write these articles.


I will still be around for a few more days while the various posts are edited (and just maybe a little longer thereafter), and will no doubt have a final say.


Babasizwe


Wednesday 18 May 2011

SABC ELECTION RESULTS WEBSITE FEED CRASHES


The much promised live update from the SABC website on http://www.sabc.co.za/wps/portal/news/pages/home Has crashed!!!

The page returns the following message:

Internal Server Error

The server encountered an internal error or misconfiguration and was unable to complete your request.
Please contact the server administrator, you@your.address and inform them of the time the error occurred, and anything you might have done that may have caused the error.
More information about this error may be available in the server error log.

IBM_HTTP_Server Server at www.sabc.co.za Port 80

Could anything else have been expected!


Babasizwe, Johennesburg, South Africa


Up to 18% Dropoff of Voter Turnout

Political anlayst says us many as 18% fewer votes may have been cast in this election, with the biggest dropoff among black voters. From 48 percent voter participation in 2006, a little over 40% of the electorate may have cast the vote today.

via SABC TV2 Political Newscentre Cape Town


If so this would surely be a "vote" of no confidence in the performance of elected officials. More to follow on this item from this correspondent.

Babasizwe, from Johannesburg

Cape voters threaten to boycott future elections

Community members in poorer Cape Town communities said they will boycott future elections if no improvements made

Story at EWN


angasivukasizwe from Cape Town

Voting Still Continues


21h51 Johannesburg:

A handful of polling stations are still processing voters. Counting will start after all voters have finished..

Source: SABC TV2
Babasizwe

IEC official suspected of influencing voters


The Independent Electoral Commission has said it is investigating a report that one of its own officials has been trying to influence voters at a polling station in the Western Cape.

Provincial Community Safety MEC Albert Fritz claims the official has been asked to leave the station in Factreton after attempting to persuade voters in the queue to support the National Party South Africa.

Eyewitness News

Babasizwe....

First election results announced


The first local government elections results feom Independent Electoral Commission’s results centre in Pretoria.
Randfontein in Western Gauteng. The ANC gained 57.1 percent of the vote and the Democratic Alliance 42.9 percent.


Babasizwe...


War Talk Heats Up


"Political war talk heated up on Wednesday
 afternoon as voting day entered its last stretch, with the opposition DA crying foul while the ruling ANC boasted about electioneering being "in its blood".
"we are actually happy that other parties were campaigning in the manner they were campaigning. This is in our blood, we are used to it, it's in our DNA," ANC elections head Fikile Mbalula,"
May 18, 2011 5:07 PM | via Sapa

ANC cries foul over DA bread handouts

Voting in the Western Cape was largely uneventful, marred only by an ANC complaint to the IEC that the Democratic Alliance was handing out bread to voters.

Patricia de Lille, the DA's mayoral candidate in Cape Town, said she was unaware of the incident and doubted that any DA official would have done what was alleged

More at: iol.co.za and on ETV News

‘Boycott TV licence over election coverage’
Unequal party exposure and excessive coverage of ANC by SABC finally provokes strong reaction

See the feed on iol.co.za

Babasizwe: from Johannesburg South Africa

Polling Closed - Election Peaceful


Most Polling Stations throughout South Africa are now closed, the majority on time at 19h00, although a few are still processing those voters already in the queue.


From all accounts it appears the election went off peacefully; we are trawling news feeds to find any exceptions.

SABC News claims DA and ANC supporters are celebrating in a friendly manner, both confident of victory, while DA Leader Helen Zille is reported to be lodging complaint with IEC over suspected ballot illegularities. More on this story as it develops

DA remains silent over claims by ANC they will win Cape Town Metropolitan.

Babasizwe, from Johannesburg, South Africa

Today's Voting Experience


As promised, your correspondent did it the hard way today. First up was the 'rural long distance walk' or in this case it was the urban version...

Beginning with second look in at Charter House (Little Falls) where it was still fairly quiet, no more than 70 people. Then down to Panorama Primary School (Voting Station for Weltevreden Park) where it was very quiet. no more than 7 vehicles outside (as well as another 6 belonging to election officials and party personel). Inside were no more than 15 voters. (11h30 SAST approx).

What was very clear from the publicity banners outside the venue, and in the surrounds, was these are both strong Democratic Alliance (DA) wards. At Panorama, a solitary sign for the ANC on the back of a party vehicle, and a lonely looking couple representing the Freedom Front, one would have though suspected there were any other candidates for this ward.

Zille cries foul


Zille cries foul in Mandela Bay Officials withholding proportional ballot paper

May 18, 2011 3:35

Helen Zille headed for the IEC office in the Nelson Mandela Bay metro this afternoon to report that election officials in at least one polling station were withholding proportional ballot papers from ill-prepared voters.

Full story at

http://www.eyewitnessnews.co.za/articleprog.aspx?id=66041

Babasizwe...

SA Polling is Peaceful


SA polls peaceful - Natjoints
As politicians renewed their call for people to go out and vote on Wednesday afternoon, the National Joint Operational and Intelligence Structure (Natjoints) said it was satisfied that communities across South Africa are casting their ballots in stable and peaceful conditions.
Natjoints is operating from a military base in Pretoria and is responsible for coordinating all security-related activities for the local government elections.

Over 131,000 people have been deployed under Natjoints, including police, soldiers, metro police and Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) staff.........
Eyewitness News: SA polls peaceful - Natjoints

Babasizwe...

From Nelson Mandela Bay


Voters at Missionvale queueing since 02hoo. Still unable to vote - no ballot papers yet
via SMS at 09h07