In quotes

“Before you speak, ask yourself, is it kind, is it necessary, is it true,

does it improve on the silence?”

Sai Baba

Shattered rainbow ...

Julius Malema - ex ANC
Youth League Leader

Julius Malema is out of the ANC.  They stuck to their guns and fired their pet blunderbuss.  

I have a sneaking regard for Malema;  he had to know he was shooting himself in the privates ... there was no way the old boys in the organisation would let him carry on bad-mouthing them. Yet he went out there day after day - saying the most dangerous and plain stupid shit possible - especially given SA's still-precarious racial climate. 

Perhaps he is as dumb as a rock (which I don't believe), or he was set-up, either way his political career is over... for now. I don't think we have seen the last of him.  He may have failed woodwork at school - but he has spent time in prison and in business learning survival skills plus there's this huge humiliation. He's a harder man now. If the SA Revenue Service doesn't bury him for non-disclosure, I predict he will be back with a dastardly and well-funded plan before long.  

Rev. Frank Chicane and his book of 'dangerous memories'

Meantime, I am reading Frank Chikane's retelling of the ousting of Thabo Mbeki as President in 2008. Fascinating ... and that's just the info he is permitted to tell. Chikane makes sure to let us know that he is legally bound and gagged until he is 90.  And is at pains to inform the reader that he has not included everything he knows - for fear of exposing other members of his party to the repercussions he suffered - which include threats to his life, blacklisting throughout business circles in SA and being blackballed both socially and politically.

Chikane is an ANC lifer - he has held rank within his party and high political office in all administrations from Mandela through Zuma; so he knows his way around the hill. He is not a man to scare easily: in late 1989, agents of the apartheid government attempted to assassinate him by lacing his underwear with poison (!).  Two of the suspects, former Police Minister Adriaan Vlok and his (then) police chief; Johan van der Merwe, received suspended 10-year sentences during the Truth and Reconciliation process. Vlok sought forgiveness from Chikane in 2006 by washing his feet.  A gesture made more poignant by the biblical reference - the Apartheid Government was founded on strong Christian beliefs.

Thabo Mbeki - ever the gentleman.

Frank is also an ordained Pentecostal minister - still active within his church, so the spiritual vagaries of humans are well known to him.  He is been incarcerated because of his political and religious views and spent time in exile.  As life goes - he has seen plenty.

Yet this event: the removal of a President - not by the people who voted him to power but by the party that he represented, ... struck such a deep chord with Frank Chikane that he risked his future to tell it.

In insisting that Mbeki went 'ngoku' (now!), the ANC destroyed a life, a career, a body of work. They left the rest of Africa hanging, and created a precedent that they may live to regret. But they didn't care: they knew Mbeki was a statesman, an ANC stalwart: and he that he would not contest the recall.  He accepted the decision and focused on keeping this volatile country stable.  He went with dignity, his honour intact.  And I think that it is this that really resonated with Chikane, I think he understood that this was the end of the decent ANC. And he wanted to mark it's passing.

But there's another, greater sadness here.  The very people who fought against apartheid, who endured torture and harassment, who gave their lives and sometimes their families to the fight for freedom - these people did this.  They ended up in government: where they succumbed to temptation.

Chikane also believes that Jacob Zuma's rise to power as President of SA following Mbeki's 'recall' was tantamount to a coup. He refers particularly to the 'leaked' intelligence spy tapes that led to Zuma's corruption charges being dropped, just days before the 2009 elections.  Allowing Zuma to stay on ballot.  He states unequivocally:  “If intelligence officers report outside government,  that's the best recipe for a coup (d'etat)".  And they did. And we let the rest happen. 

Governor Mitt Romney
GOP Presidential Nominee

As I watch the American Presidential race run it's unsurprising course, I wonder how Obama will handle defeat if it comes.  To me, it's impossible to even imagine that he would lose America to milquetoast Mitt Romney. But we've seen this movie before - so I am not holding my breath.

President Barak Obaba
Democratic Incumbent.

What I do want to say to President Obama is that it is time to man-up. I am not asking you to fight dirty - I would think less of you if you did. What I am asking is that you get organised, pull out every stop and get re-elected.  We need you. So stop apologising, stay away from the middle of the road and get tough.  It's time to go to work now. I ask you this selfishly.  Because just maybe, your example will inspire the good men and true left in my government to stop worrying about political survival and bank balances and to roll up their sleeves.  And to start asking themselves what they can do to fix the rainbow