President Thabo Mbeki himself has the most to lose from the British
investigation into corruption behind South Africa's purchase of jet fighters
and trainers from BAe Systems. That is the opinion of Dr Gavin Woods - the
IFP chairman of Parliament's Public Accounts Committee who resigned in
protest over corruption in SA's R60-billion arms deal.
---
WILL MBEKI LIE HIS WAY OUT OF THIS ONE?
Woods said Mbeki's recent outburst against his one-time friend, British
Prime Minister Tony Blair, was a sure sign that pressure was getting to
Mbeki.
Said Woods: "It was Thabo Mbeki who, as Deputy President under Nelson
Mandela, oversaw the entire arms deal process. I always suspected that part
of the reason Mbeki has never wanted the arms deal properly investigated was
that he did not want the embarrassment of it being made public that he had
managed the arms deal in such a poor manner that corruption was allowed to
creep in on such a massive scale."
At the weekend Mbeki launched a scathing attack on Blair, accusing him of
double standards for forcing British investigators to drop their
investigation of Saudi Arabian arms deals but allowing them to probe SA's
arms deal.
---
WHY IS MBEKI SO OVER-DEFENSIVE?
Speaking at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Mbeki said the
British probe into BAe systems' dealings in SA had tainted SA. Mbeki accused
Blair of double standards for not squashing the SA arms deal probe as he
quashed the probe into BAe's dealings in Saudi Arabia, where the arms giant
is believed to have bribed members of the Saudi royal family to buy its
products.
Woods said he was surprised at Mbeki's outburst. "It came as a bit of a
shock that he should so openly attack Tony Blair, who he once appeared to be
very friendly with. Clearly it shows he is under great pressure. If this
British probe uncovers evidence of widespread systemic corruption in the
deal it will be a blight on Mbeki's legacy. I am sure he desperately wants
to avoid the embarrassment of being remembered for presiding over a corrupt
arms deal."
Colm Allan of the Public Service Accountability Monitor (PSAM) at Rhodes
University said he was surprised by the tone of Mbeki's speech. "I suppose
we could interpret his speech in two ways. I hope he was merely criticising
Blair for cancelling the Saudi probe. The other way his speech could be
taken implies he was asking Blair to also halt the South African
investigation.
"I sincerely hope that is not the case and that he was instead merely saying
the Saudis should be investigated as well as South Africa."
Allan said PSAM was one of more than 130 nongovernmental organisations that
appealed to Blair to reinstate the Saudi probe.
***
(no worries Thabo, this is nothing! ~ wait until The Genocide Tribunals
start at The Hague then you'll really be shitting yerself, you dirty ol'
bastard!)
Wanneer gaan dit ophou?
Dan weer moet ek nie eers vra nie want dit raak erger allie tyd.
Next thing blaas Koeberg op en Kaapstad is 'n spookdorp soos die lot
aangaan"
Pretoria - Eskom has issued an urgent plea for South Africans to save
electricity immediately or face crippling load-shedding in the next
few days, the Pretoria News reported on Thursday.
Eskom has announced that it was once again in a precarious position -
it had enough power, just, but a single additional breakdown at any of
its power stations, or a surge in electricity demand by South
Africans, could cause blackouts before the weekend.
Andrew Etzinger, Eskom's general manager of investment strategy, said
South Africa has an overall capacity to produce about 40 000MW of
power.
But about 4 500MW of this is unavailable due to scheduled maintenance
to various power stations, the daily said.
Soos te verwagte sien jy weer net liggies nadat jy by
jou pa se dagga-plantasie uitgekom het, klein klonkie-
boer.
Nee, dohhs, hier is dit die rooi liggies van jou stroois wat
helder skyn, en daar is net een korrekte manier hoe mens
met satanskak soos jy sal praat. As ek jou nie spoeg nie
dan donner ek jou soort gewoonlik baie hard. Wees maar
bly dat jy nie in my vasloop nie, jou lae vuilgoed ! Daar is
geen ruimte om my vir jóú soort gespuis nie.
Ja, jou liberale, Kommunistiese, goddelose, Babiloniese -en
Bíleams-hoerliggies skyn bloedrooi vir jou pa met die horings
en die vurk, naamlik oom Nic.
Jy is GEEN ware boer nie. Jy is 'n gruwel !
Jy is eerder 'n snotkop-rapportryertjie, 'n vervloekte jong
vrymesselaartjie, wat tien teen een 'n lid is van een van
die Vrymesselaars se vele fronte soos die VF-minus, of
Solidariteit, of Afriforum, of die ATKV, of die FAK, of die
Afrikanerbond, ens, - saam met daardie opportunistiese
wit vrymesselaar-morone soos Steve Mofryer & Kie, met
julle sogenaamde "een (reënboog) nasie" - 'n leuen waar-
van julle desperaat die blankes wil oortuig. Futiel !
Jou subtiele poging tot misleiding werk nie meer nie. Dis
klaar. Dis uitgedien. Finnito !
Jou "Vryheid, Gelykheid, Eenheid en Broederskap" inkonti-
nensie loop soos drek by 'n siek kafferbrak se bek uit.
In kort : Jy is 'n tipiese, laakbare wit houtkop met jou ge-
liefde boggom-naastes styf teen jou sy, kunstig uitgestal
soos 'n fekale herfsbruin-reënboog teen 'n hostel-kakhuis
se muur iewers in die lokasie - daar waar jou ouma bly.
Jou wit, liberale ANC-agent rympies word herken.
Die volgende eentonige, voorspelbare en deursigtige sleu-
telwoordjies verklap net jou slymerige regerings-agenda :
..."almal van Afrika" ; "ons almal saam" ; "vir almal staan" ;
"een nasie" ; "ons mindset verander" ; "verby kleur kyk" ;
"om te versoen" ; "swart of wit" ... bla bla-f'kken-bla !
Druk maar daardie tipiese laakbare goddelose en liberale
propaganda van jou diep op waar dit ongemaklik voel.
Mag jou geliefde barbaar-naastes van Afrika jou spoedig
kom besoek sodat jy jou verdiende loon kan ontvang, en
deel mag word van die statistiek wat tans reeds jou libe-
rale kakpraatjies met bloed weerspreek.
It's time to ignite 2007 with one of Pretoria's biggest bangs on the social
calender - Tuks RAG. The Jacaranda city will play host to South Africa's
finest musicians for three days in the spirit of goodwill and giving back to
the community. Throughout the years RAG (an abbreviation for Reach out and
Give) has been associated with students helping the poor whilst having a
good time, and this year is no exception.
The following bands have been confirmed to play at the RagFarm and Hatfield
Square&Plaza, and we will keep you updated with more confirmed bands on the
OppiKoppi website:
Wednesday 31 January
The Parlotones and Klopjag will be rocking the green pastures of Tuks
RagFarm, preparing all music lovers for what's still to come.
Friday 2 February
LA Cobra, Wickhead, Skwatta Kamp, Prime Circle, Ef-El, Fuzigush, Koos
Kombuis and Love Jones are going to entertain the crowds with their guitar
chords and homegrown SA tunes, also happening at the Tuks RagFarm.
Saturday 3 February
Hatfield Square&Plaza will host the annual Tuks Rag After Party with Koos
Kombuis, Love Jones and Karma.
The ticket price for 31 January is R30, including one free drink on entry
before 19h30. On 2 February patrons will pay R50, also including one free
drink on entry before 19h30 to get the party started. The entrance fee for
the after party on 3 February will be R20. Tickets will be available at the
gate and leave your cooler box at home - alcohol will be sold at the venue.
For more information, please phone 012 346 2011 or visit
www.oppikoppi.co.za.
Crime generates millions of Rands for the Government. A few examples:
At least one million home owners in Gauteng alone (one of the 9 provinces in
South Africa) make use of the services of an armed reaction security company
(please note, not a crime prevention force but only one that can react after
you have become yet another crime victim). The cost of such a service is
approx R240-00 ($35-00)per private household per month. A simple
calculation: 1 000 000 x R240-00 x 12 x 14% VAT (Value Added Tax)generates
more than R403 million ($55 million)VAT for the South African Government as
a DIRECT RESULT OF CRIME. Please note that these figures does not include
the commercial and industry sectors in Gauteng.
Another example. A luxury car worth R500 000-00 ($70 000-00) gets stolen.
The thief receives R20 000-00 ($2 800-00)for his efforts. The car owner gets
paid out by his Insurers and replaces the stolen vehicle with a similar one.
Hereby the Government receives R61 403-51 VAT ($8 469-00)on the transaction
as A DIRECT RESULT OF CRIME. Now who gained the most from this crime? The
thief or the Government.
It would be interesting to know how much estate tax revenue the Government
got from the estates from the more than 1300 farmers murdered in South
Africa.
This Government likes to compare South Africa with other countries, but only
when it suits them. In many other countries across the world your security
and safety are covered by the taxes you pay and any other security measures
you take to safeguard yourself and your loved ones are tax deductable.
Now can you see why this Government will do anything within its powers to
safeguard and protect the goose that lays the golden egg. They will keep on
denying crime and wipe it off the table as a mere "perception" just as they
managed to wipe the damning AU report off the table.
Uiteindelik is ons winter hier. Tot en met die eerste week van
Januarie moes almal nog vra, wat het hierdie jaar van die winter
geword hier in Oos-Ontario? Daar was geen sneeu op die grond
nie, en die gras was nog effens groen. Ons wou nie kla nie, maar
ons was verwar. En dit was nie asof die hele Noord-Amerika
dieselfde ondervind het nie. Vancouver het die een sneeustorm
na die ander gekry, gepaard met vreeslike winde. Die Ooskus
ondervind nou nog die een storm na die ander. Suid van ons
het die middel van die VSA verwoestende ysstorms ondervind
in die afgelope weke. Daar was sneeubanke in Malibu in
Kalifornië.
Ons het tot nou toe nog geen verwoestende storms gekry
nie. Maar gelukkig het die temperature gedaal sodat dit nou in
die nag gewoonlik onder - 20 C is. Ek sê gelukkig, want almal
het begin wonder wat ons sal doen hierdie jaar vir Winterlude
as die mense nie op die Rideau Kanaal ( die langste skaatsbaan
in die wêreld) kan skaats nie, en die ouens van dwarsoor die
wêreld nie kan kom kompeteer in die Ice Sculpture kompetisies
nie. Die rivier hier onder is amper van die een kant na die
ander gevries. Gister het ek vir die eerste keer mense aan
hierdie kant op die bevrore rivier sien loop, en aan die
anderkant van die rivier het die ysvissermanne aktief geraak
hierdie naweek. Ek het selfs 'n kar op die bevrore rivier sien
ry. Nou hoop ons maar net die koue temperature hou vir 'n
maand of so, sodat ons Winterlude agter die rug kan kry,
en dan kan dit maar begin warmer word. Maar eintlik
verkies ek dat ons die hele winter -10 C bly. Ek hou nie
daarvan as die temperature warmer word nie, want dan
lei dit na sneeu wat smelt en dan verys as dit onder
-0 C gaan. Dit veroorsaak dan die spieëlgladde ys
waarvoor mens baie bang moet wees. Of dit veroorsaak
die ysstorms, wat honderdmaal meer verwoestend is as
sneeustorms. Hulle moes nou onlangs die hele Oklahoma
'n disaster area verklaar weens die ysstorms. Ys is baie
sterk. As dit op 'n groot boom val, dan bou die ys aan
albei kante van die boom op, en dis later so geweldig
swaar dat dit die boom reg in die middel begin skeur.
Kleinerige bome buig net en word gebreek. Maar groot
bome word reg in die middel deur geskeur. Hulle val
dan op die elektriese drade sodat die mense gewoonlik
dadelik hulle elektisiteit verloor. Dit lei na groot tragedies
veral op plase. Gedurende ons laaste ysstorm is duisende
varke dood en koeie, wat nie gemelk kon word nie, het
op die grond neergesak van die oorvol uiers en moes
uiteindelik doodgemaak word. So ons hoop maar dat
daar nie nog 'n ysstorm in ons toekoms is hierdie jaar
nie.
Ondertussen geniet ons die feit dat die aande nou
weer stadig ligter word. Die son gaan om vyf-uur onder.
'n Maand gelede was dit vyfuur stikdonker.
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