By Darlington Majonga
NOW, I’m about to reveal what would have made my late poor mother’s eyes pop out of their sockets.
I haven’t been to church since one Sunday, in April 2008, when helmeted and black-booted anti-riot police officers, brandishing batons and slinging rifles, stormed the Anglican Cathedral in Harare in the middle of a sermon.
We stampeded for the doors, with terrified women and children, the majority of the congregants, screaming and falling over each other.
The law-enforcement officers were doing it at the behest of renegade bishop Nolbert Kunonga – an ardent supporter of President Robert Mugabe – who made it clear anyone who did not recognise him as the leader of the church had no right to worship at Anglican properties.
I will come back to the moron – yes, that’s what he is – some other time.
But he’s not the reason I haven’t been to church for more than three years.
This was unacceptable when I was growing up, with my mother being a popular leader of the Mother’s Union at the St Mary’s parish in Chitungwiza.
In fact, anyone in our family who bunked church would not have tea with fried eggs – Sundays, not all of them of course, were the only days we could be treated to a somewhat decent breakfast.
So in a way the fried eggs became an incentive for going to church.
But I also believed that was the only right thing to do and, honestly, I have fond memories of my times at the Sunday school.
I always liked it when the big bell chimed.
The holiness that engulfed the church especially when servers, clad in white robes, paced up and down the aisle swinging a small urn pouting burning incense was quite unbelievable.
And the hymns were quite captivating and I sang along so much I thought I was a brilliant tenor until I couldn’t make the school choir.
You can imagine, when I was young, I actually thought the late Father Oliver Mutume, for example, could talk to God.
It meant so much and I felt God’s spirit entering me whenever the priest touched my head while we knelt around the pulpit.
By the time Kunonga started putting the name of the Anglican Church – and Christianity at large – into disrepute, I had long ceased seeing priests and pastors as pious.
With Kunonga wreaking havoc, I was tempted to look for another denomination but I found it hard to leave my Anglican and its traditions.
The only time I had done so – leaving my Anglican – was when I went to one Pentecostal church after learning the girl I wanted was an ever-present there.
Armed with my fairly good understanding of the Bible, which I had to somehow memorise when I was doing divinity at A-Level, I maneouvred my way close enough to the hot one to impress her with some verses.
The only thing I didn’t do was to speak in tongues.
In all honesty, I didn’t believe in their razzmatazz way of worshipping and only put up with it because I had a mission.
That’s exactly why I’m no longer interested in this church business.
The church, in general, is full of pretenders.
Some, like I did years ago, go to look for women.
And women too – especially when their marketability is teetering towards expiry – also go to church to look for potential husbands.
The place of worship has become a stage to show off fashion trends and wheels.
Yet that’s not my biggest problem with Christianity.
It’s the leaders stupid!
And the overzealous preachers!
And the pretenders
And the blind followers too!
Has anyone ever paused to think why some Christians thrive on striking fear into the hearts of non-believers?
Is it not because such Christians do not understand the life and teachings of Jesus Christ upon which the Christian faith is based?
Not that I understand the Bible better.
Yet that’s exactly my frustration!
Whenever I have tried to understand the religion and its teachings better I have been unfortunate to meet Christians who take pleasure in making other people feel “hellish”.
They tell you symbolic practices like brewing sorghum beer to remember or appease our ancestors are satanic — as if the white man who brought Christianity to the shores of Africa does not have his own traditions.
Like burning incense to chase away evil spirits!
If they are tired of stuffing that nonsense into your ears, the fear-mongers either spurt the crap about burning in hell or God meting out heavy punishment against sinners and non-believers.
When you ask them if that’s not the antithesis of the compassion, spirituality and love which the religion champions, they become so defensive.
They hide behind the “it’s the will of God” mantra in their desperate attempts to stifle and obfuscate meaningful debate on religion.
If you ask them what they don’t know, they label you blasphemous.
In fact, some of them get angry on behalf of God.
“You need prayers!” they usually quip.
Yet it is such people who need more prayers than anyone else for endangering a religion that has taught the world love, forgiveness and all the virtues that make us a peaceful and happy people.
The religion that I grew up loving so much is at the mercy of cults or sects led by fundamentalists who hide behind dogma and fake miracle works to sate their narcissistic desires.
We must watch out for such fundamentalists who thrive on isolating gullible followers from outside influences that might cause them to doubt their saintliness.
And these marshals of blind faith, who claim exclusive access to God’s will, normally target the very vulnerable in society — the loveless, the sick and hopelessly poor included.
Do I hear anyone saying Pastor Chris or Prophet TB Joshua or Pastor Makandiwa?
Yes, those are among the religious charlatans.
They thrive of fooling people by performing spell-binding miracles that heal wheelchair-bound people.
They can cure cancers and any other terminal ailments.
They can exorcise evil spirits by sending bearded men and breasted women tumbling into trances.
I saw TB Joshua doing that on his TV channel recently.
A trembling woman was told she had a spirit which made her not have any feeling of affection for her husband.
“It’s the crocodile spirit,” he “prophesied” to a deafening applause as the woman wriggled and snapped her mouth like a reptile.
Then a guy was told his family was battling a spirit that made them unfaithful to their spouses.
And, can you believe it, the possessed always exalt the Man of God for correctly prophesying their problems and dealing with the spirits!
Now, my problem is that I have relatives and friends who have terminal illnesses like Aids who believe TB Joshua can deal with that.
And those who chow their modest salaries like they are Bill Gates suddenly blame spirits when they find themselves penniless and unable to feed their families hours after payday!
Even prostitutes shout spirits when their addiction to sex suddenly overwhelms them.
Holy crap!
The whole idea, it seems, is for these charlatans masquerading as genuine prophets to sway people into believing they are all-powerful.
It’s about them, not Jesus or God.
That’s why most of them run TV channels which broadcast sermons and miracle works to hoodwink people.
Isn’t it why they are filthy rich?
Their dubious missions are more akin to occult practices than they are to genuine Christian modus operandi.
I know some Christians will regard this article in bad taste because they are already victims of fear-mongers who take every opportunity to misinterpret the Bible.
Maybe TB Joshua should try the “remote control” trick with me – but only if he pays me too and I will gladly join those telling the world the “Man of God” is great!
*Darlington Majonga is the editor of the Free State Times in South Africa. He previously worked for the Zimbabwe Independent and Daily News in Zimbabwe. You can email him at dmajonga@yahoo.com
Friday, September 9, 2011
Zimbabwe flatter to deceive
Darlington Majonga
WE laugh for different reasons.
Every millisecond someone somewhere is doing that – showing emotion through an explosive, often spontaneous, vocal sound.
Pakistan did a lot of that on their way to a seven-wicket win over Zimbabwe in their one-off Test match in Bulawayo this week.
Every time Zimbabwe gave away a wicket – and it happened in horrendous fashion in a forgettable second innings – howls, similar to those made by a pack of jackals, filled the rather empty Queens Sports Club.
Maybe that’s how they express impulsive delight in Pakistan, but their piercing cackling said it all about Zimbabwe’s sorry collapse.
As much as the home side’s capitulation was somewhat laughable, it was far from a laughing matter.
In all honesty, their disintegration came as surprise considering how they had amassed a respectable first-innings total of 412, anchored by Tinotenda Mawoyo’s unbeaten 163.
Yet it wasn’t something totally unexpected for a small cricket nation that has flattered to deceive since their first ever Test victory, ironically against Pakistan, by an innings and 64 runs in February 1995.
That historic match had Grant Flower unbeaten on 201 and his brother Andy being caught by Wasim Akram, now coach of Pakistan, off the bowling of Kabir Khan after stroking a massive 153.
Guy Whittall was unbeaten on 103 when Zimbabwe declared their first innings on 544-4.
That proved to be a match-winning total as Pakistan were wiped out for 322 and still could not make up for the deficit when they followed on, only managing a paltry 158.
Heath Streak, then a fresh-faced 20-year-old boy, did most of the damage, hauling six wickets in the first innings for 90 before following that up with 3-15.
No one can dispute that that Zimbabwe side had real talent, with Dave Houghton, Alistair Campbell, Stuart Carlisle, Paul Strang and Henry Olonga in the mix.
The Pakistani side that capitulated at Harare Sports Club in that historic Test match was quite strong too, unlike the “weakened” team which beat Zimbabwe this week.
That goes a long way to confirm what has for long been a public secret: that Zimbabwe doesn’t really have the quality to compete at the highest level.
Maybe I should say they do not have quality yet, because if it’s about potential, yes, Zimbabwe has quite a lot of it.
Many analysts have been decrying a lack of experience in the current Zimbabwe side.
As the match at Queens wore on with Pakistan replying in their first innings, the home side frittered away seven regulation catches that could have turned the duel in their favour.
One commentator said Zimbabwe were not yet used to the intensity of Test cricket.
Yet, in simple words, there was no excuse for such sloppiness.
And this has been and will continue to be Zimbabwe’s Achilles’ heel. It’s a trend that they have failed to overcome, even since the heady days of the Flower brothers.
Flash back to March 20, 2001.
Zimbabwe were on the verge of another historic win, needing just 99 runs to defeat the West Indies at Trinidad’s Queens Park Oval.
The Flower brothers were in the line-up. And so were the much-touted Neil Johnson and Murray Goodwin.
But against all expectations, even for Test cricket’s newest and weakest nation, Zimbabwe folded in spectacular fashion and by the time Curtly Ambrose sent last wicket Mpumelelo Mbangwa’s furniture flying they had only managed 63.
Besides Grant’s 126-ball 26, no other Zimbabwean went into the double figures that day and no one else beat the nine extras donated by the Windies.
Andy’s first-innings century went in vain, like what has just happened to Mawoyo’s mammoth knock.
Inexperience, a wearing pitch and poor batting were proffered as the reasons for the unbelievable capitulation.
We can offer the same reasons for Zimbabwe’s loss to Pakistan this week.
Zimbabwe’s first ever Test win was as significant as victory over the same Pakistan this week would have been.
In 1995, with questions being asked whether or not they had been admitted into Test cricket prematurely, it was important for Zimbabwe to prove they merited a spot in the game’s elite league.
That’s the same scenario Zimbabwe have found themselves in after six years away from Test cricket.
The celebrations that followed Zimbabwe’s 130-run victory over Bangladesh on their return to Test cricket last month were understandable.
But no one can say they expected the result to be very different.
Despite Zimbabwe’s exile, there has never been really anything to separate the two sides since Streak and 13 other players, with 257 Test caps between them, walked out on national duty on April 15, 2004.
You can look at their drawn match at Bangabandhu National Stadium in Dhaka in January 2005 when Bangladesh were expected to overrun Zimbabwe’s greenhorns who had been thrown into the deep end following the senior player rebellion.
The litmus test for Zimbabwe was expected to come in the form of Pakistan, never mind they had the luxury to leave their premier pace bowlers, Umar Gul, Tanvir Ahmed and Wahab Riaz, back home.
The inclusion of relatively inexperienced players, including the uncapped Aizaz Cheema who went on to cause serious damage, was supposed to give Zimbabwe an equal chance.
But that was not to be.
Yet it wasn’t a victory given on a silver platter. Zimbabwe, to their credit, took the match, for the second consecutive time, to the fifth day.
They had failed to do so in innings defeats against Sri Lanka, South Africa and New Zealand – heavy defeats which forced Zimbabwe to take a break from Test cricket.
Solid batting, in both innings, is critical in Test cricket. So is consistently disciplined bowling and fielding.
So far, against both Bangladesh and Pakistan, Zimbabwe have shown they are capable of doing that.
But that will not happen as long as they do not quickly shift their mindset. They have to believe that they can beat or at least compete against the best.
They have the potential, which in simple terms refers to latent but unrealised ability.
Besides Brendan Taylor, Tatenda Taibu and Hamilton Masakadza, players such as Mawoyo, Brian Vitori and Kyle Jarvis can now also steal the headlines.
That’s what makes a team, not individuals.
While we can talk about Zimbabwe’s potential, it cannot be denied that they are still far from becoming a quality side that can compete against Test cricket’s big guns – not that they were under any illusions about that, I suppose.
What Zimbabwe need for now to become polished gems is to strike consistency in performance.
This means if they can score 412 in the first innings they should be able to do as much in the second. And if they can be brilliant fielders in one match, they shouldn’t be dropping easy catches in the next as if they are paid to do that.
The upcoming ODI series against Pakistan will be crucial for Zimbabwe to regain the momentum they had gained against Bangladesh and to convince the cricketing world that their self-imposed exile wasn’t all in vain.
And the players themselves must understand more than anyone else that they can only be taken seriously by winning and being competitive.
• Darlington Majonga is the editor of the Free State Times in South Africa.
WE laugh for different reasons.
Every millisecond someone somewhere is doing that – showing emotion through an explosive, often spontaneous, vocal sound.
Pakistan did a lot of that on their way to a seven-wicket win over Zimbabwe in their one-off Test match in Bulawayo this week.
Every time Zimbabwe gave away a wicket – and it happened in horrendous fashion in a forgettable second innings – howls, similar to those made by a pack of jackals, filled the rather empty Queens Sports Club.
Maybe that’s how they express impulsive delight in Pakistan, but their piercing cackling said it all about Zimbabwe’s sorry collapse.
As much as the home side’s capitulation was somewhat laughable, it was far from a laughing matter.
In all honesty, their disintegration came as surprise considering how they had amassed a respectable first-innings total of 412, anchored by Tinotenda Mawoyo’s unbeaten 163.
Yet it wasn’t something totally unexpected for a small cricket nation that has flattered to deceive since their first ever Test victory, ironically against Pakistan, by an innings and 64 runs in February 1995.
That historic match had Grant Flower unbeaten on 201 and his brother Andy being caught by Wasim Akram, now coach of Pakistan, off the bowling of Kabir Khan after stroking a massive 153.
Guy Whittall was unbeaten on 103 when Zimbabwe declared their first innings on 544-4.
That proved to be a match-winning total as Pakistan were wiped out for 322 and still could not make up for the deficit when they followed on, only managing a paltry 158.
Heath Streak, then a fresh-faced 20-year-old boy, did most of the damage, hauling six wickets in the first innings for 90 before following that up with 3-15.
No one can dispute that that Zimbabwe side had real talent, with Dave Houghton, Alistair Campbell, Stuart Carlisle, Paul Strang and Henry Olonga in the mix.
The Pakistani side that capitulated at Harare Sports Club in that historic Test match was quite strong too, unlike the “weakened” team which beat Zimbabwe this week.
That goes a long way to confirm what has for long been a public secret: that Zimbabwe doesn’t really have the quality to compete at the highest level.
Maybe I should say they do not have quality yet, because if it’s about potential, yes, Zimbabwe has quite a lot of it.
Many analysts have been decrying a lack of experience in the current Zimbabwe side.
As the match at Queens wore on with Pakistan replying in their first innings, the home side frittered away seven regulation catches that could have turned the duel in their favour.
One commentator said Zimbabwe were not yet used to the intensity of Test cricket.
Yet, in simple words, there was no excuse for such sloppiness.
And this has been and will continue to be Zimbabwe’s Achilles’ heel. It’s a trend that they have failed to overcome, even since the heady days of the Flower brothers.
Flash back to March 20, 2001.
Zimbabwe were on the verge of another historic win, needing just 99 runs to defeat the West Indies at Trinidad’s Queens Park Oval.
The Flower brothers were in the line-up. And so were the much-touted Neil Johnson and Murray Goodwin.
But against all expectations, even for Test cricket’s newest and weakest nation, Zimbabwe folded in spectacular fashion and by the time Curtly Ambrose sent last wicket Mpumelelo Mbangwa’s furniture flying they had only managed 63.
Besides Grant’s 126-ball 26, no other Zimbabwean went into the double figures that day and no one else beat the nine extras donated by the Windies.
Andy’s first-innings century went in vain, like what has just happened to Mawoyo’s mammoth knock.
Inexperience, a wearing pitch and poor batting were proffered as the reasons for the unbelievable capitulation.
We can offer the same reasons for Zimbabwe’s loss to Pakistan this week.
Zimbabwe’s first ever Test win was as significant as victory over the same Pakistan this week would have been.
In 1995, with questions being asked whether or not they had been admitted into Test cricket prematurely, it was important for Zimbabwe to prove they merited a spot in the game’s elite league.
That’s the same scenario Zimbabwe have found themselves in after six years away from Test cricket.
The celebrations that followed Zimbabwe’s 130-run victory over Bangladesh on their return to Test cricket last month were understandable.
But no one can say they expected the result to be very different.
Despite Zimbabwe’s exile, there has never been really anything to separate the two sides since Streak and 13 other players, with 257 Test caps between them, walked out on national duty on April 15, 2004.
You can look at their drawn match at Bangabandhu National Stadium in Dhaka in January 2005 when Bangladesh were expected to overrun Zimbabwe’s greenhorns who had been thrown into the deep end following the senior player rebellion.
The litmus test for Zimbabwe was expected to come in the form of Pakistan, never mind they had the luxury to leave their premier pace bowlers, Umar Gul, Tanvir Ahmed and Wahab Riaz, back home.
The inclusion of relatively inexperienced players, including the uncapped Aizaz Cheema who went on to cause serious damage, was supposed to give Zimbabwe an equal chance.
But that was not to be.
Yet it wasn’t a victory given on a silver platter. Zimbabwe, to their credit, took the match, for the second consecutive time, to the fifth day.
They had failed to do so in innings defeats against Sri Lanka, South Africa and New Zealand – heavy defeats which forced Zimbabwe to take a break from Test cricket.
Solid batting, in both innings, is critical in Test cricket. So is consistently disciplined bowling and fielding.
So far, against both Bangladesh and Pakistan, Zimbabwe have shown they are capable of doing that.
But that will not happen as long as they do not quickly shift their mindset. They have to believe that they can beat or at least compete against the best.
They have the potential, which in simple terms refers to latent but unrealised ability.
Besides Brendan Taylor, Tatenda Taibu and Hamilton Masakadza, players such as Mawoyo, Brian Vitori and Kyle Jarvis can now also steal the headlines.
That’s what makes a team, not individuals.
While we can talk about Zimbabwe’s potential, it cannot be denied that they are still far from becoming a quality side that can compete against Test cricket’s big guns – not that they were under any illusions about that, I suppose.
What Zimbabwe need for now to become polished gems is to strike consistency in performance.
This means if they can score 412 in the first innings they should be able to do as much in the second. And if they can be brilliant fielders in one match, they shouldn’t be dropping easy catches in the next as if they are paid to do that.
The upcoming ODI series against Pakistan will be crucial for Zimbabwe to regain the momentum they had gained against Bangladesh and to convince the cricketing world that their self-imposed exile wasn’t all in vain.
And the players themselves must understand more than anyone else that they can only be taken seriously by winning and being competitive.
• Darlington Majonga is the editor of the Free State Times in South Africa.
Friday, June 17, 2011
Mandela's ex-political prisoners project falling apart
Darlington Majonga
Bloemfontein
FORMER president Nelson Mandela’s initiative to save thousands of South Africa’s ex-political prisoners from destitution is on the verge of collapse, the Free State Times can reveal.
The Ex-Political Prisoners Committee (EPPC), established in 1995 after Mandela led a reunion of South Africans who were jailed for anti-apartheid activities, has been debilitated by a lack of funding and internecine fights.
Only the KwaZulu-Natal wing of the EPPC is still running, with the rest of the provincial structures in limbo.
This was confirmed by Sibusiso Peter-Paul Ngwenya, a major player in the ex-political prisoners’ movement, in documents for an infringement case he has filed at the Bloemfontein High Court.
Ngwenya is the executive chairman of Makana Investment Corporation (MIC), founded in 1997 as the commercial vehicle of the Makana Trust which had been set up a year earlier to fundraise for the EPPC, then led by anti-apartheid hero Ahmed Kathrada.
In its formative years the trust, with the world-adored Mandela’s blessings, received millions of rands in donations which were meant to help integrate ex-political prisoners into a new, democratic South Africa by improving their educational, social, health and economic wellbeing.
To sustain its objectives, the Makana Trust then set up MIC in which it would have a 51 percent controlling stake.
Today MIC is a broad-based investment company with interests in broadcasting as well as a range of ventures spanning aviation, logistics and telecommunications.
The EPPC’s national conference in 1999 agreed that the organisation decentralise its operations by establishing provincial structures.
These provincial structures, it was agreed, would then start business ventures acting as MIC “subsidiaries” and in which MIC would have a 40 percent stake in return for financial support and mentoring.
Now Ngwenya has launched a legal battle to stop Free State businessman and ex-Robben Island inmate Ramakaudi Paul Ramakatsa – also known as Mpho Ramakatsa – and the provincial companies he contends were started under the EPPC ambit from using the name Makana.
The business ventures in question, also cited as respondents in the infringement case, are Makana Investment Free State (Pty) Ltd, Makana Women Construction (Pty) Ltd, Makana C&I Technologies (Pty) Ltd and Makana Infrastructure Developers (Pty) Ltd.
These companies were established in 2003, the same time that other provincial business entities such as Makana Investment KZN and Makana Investment Gauteng were established.
Ngwenya, in the court papers, however says the Free State companies no longer have anything to do with MIC because they were “closed down”.
“The operations of these commercial entities, including that of the second to fifth respondents, were all closed down due to a number of reasons, including the fact that there was a poor level of managing and that they did not submit business plans to the applicant for vetting,” he says.
Ngwenya, in his founding affidavit, contends that Ramakatsa has no “bona fide claim to the use and proprietorship of the Makana trademarks”.
“As is evident from the notice of motion, the applicant seeks that the respondents be interdicted and restrained from infringing the applicant’s registered trademarks by using the marks in the course of trade in relation to any of the goods or services the marks have been registered for,” he says.
MIC registered the Makana trademarks between 2006 and 2008.
Makana is the name of the first political prisoner, a Xhosa chief, to attempt to escape the notorious Robben Island jail in 1873.
He drowned while attempting to flee and ex-Robben Island inmates decided to honour him by naming their trust and investment vehicle after him.
In his responding affidavit, Ramakatsa says the companies had been established and used the Makana name and logo “with the assistance, consent and knowledge of the applicant, the trust and the EPPC”.
“Due to the fact that the provincial and national structures had the same object, being to generate income to benefit and support the ex-political prisoners and their dependants in South Africa, it was throughout agreed by the EPPC, as the founder of the Makana Trust being the main shareholder of the applicant, that the structures and its activities will all be identified by the name ‘Makana,’” he says.
“The business logo was also, since the establishment of all the national and provincial structures, used by all the structures, including the respondents.”
Ramakatsa says MIC forfeited its interests in the Free State businesses after allegedly failing to honour its “obligations” as agreed with the EPPC.
The case will be heard at the Bloemfontein High Court next Thursday.
It however turns out that there is more to the fight than just the Makana trademark.
Ex-political prisoners sympathetic to Ramakatsa believe the court case is a smokescreen for the real battle that has been tearing the EPPC apart.
It appears the problems for Ramakatsa started way back in 2006 when he, as the EPPC’s national deputy chairperson, and other provincial leaders of the organisation held an emergency meeting to oust Makana Trust chairman Tokyo Sexwale.
The meeting also demanded that the trust and MIC be accountable and explain why EPPC provincial structures were allegedly not “fully” benefiting from the investment company’s business interests.
David Moisi, who was the EPPC national chairman at that time, however distanced himself from the meeting which the organisation’s then secretary, Notty Ngcobo, also described as “illegal”.
A year later, Ramakatsa left his position as the EPPC national deputy chairperson after, according to Ngwenya’s affidavit, he “was found to have sexually harassed a female employee”.
Ramakatsa says the sexual harassment case was trumped up to “silence” him.
Since then, Ngwenya has apparently been trying to distance the Makana Trust, EPPC and MIC from the business ventures Ramakatsa spearheaded “for the benefit of ex-political prisoners” in the Free State.
In the meantime the EPPC’s structures elsewhere have also been disintegrating.
Of all the commercial entities established to take care of the EPPC provincial structures, only one – Makana Investment KZN – is doing well.
Incidentally, MIC boss Ngwenya comes from KZN.
“(MIC), currently, only permits Makana Investment KZN (Pty) Ltd to use the name Makana,” Ngwenya says in his affidavit for the infringement case against Ramakatsa.
“This is the only regional structure which has regular meetings with the applicants and Makana Investment KZN (Pty) Ltd has proper reporting structures, regular board meetings, regular financial and management reportings.
“It is important to note that Makana Investment KZN is managed by the applicant.”
Other provinces suspect Ngwenya has been channelling a large chunk of the MIC proceeds due to the EPPC to his home province.
This has left the EPPC tottering to its death, according to the organisation’s national deputy secretary Mpho Masemola.
“Since two years ago we have seen our provincial structures collapsing,” says Masemola, an ex-Robben Island inmate.
“We have been told many stories about the Makana Trust not having money for the EPPC’s activities and this is devastating.
“While we have been told there is no operational money for the EPPC look what’s happening in KZN . . .
“It’s only the KZN that’s fully functional because it’s supported by Peter-Paul because he comes from there.
“In the meantime comrades keep on dying as paupers because they can’t get help from their organisation.
“This is a joke and the mess has to be sorted out because we have people such as the president and deputy president as part of the movement.
“We were together at Robben Island.”
Masemola was apparently referring to President Jacob Zuma and Deputy President Kgalema Motlanthe who were incarcerated at the infamous prison for their anti-apartheid activities.
Ngwenya could not be reached for comment.
Bloemfontein
FORMER president Nelson Mandela’s initiative to save thousands of South Africa’s ex-political prisoners from destitution is on the verge of collapse, the Free State Times can reveal.
The Ex-Political Prisoners Committee (EPPC), established in 1995 after Mandela led a reunion of South Africans who were jailed for anti-apartheid activities, has been debilitated by a lack of funding and internecine fights.
Only the KwaZulu-Natal wing of the EPPC is still running, with the rest of the provincial structures in limbo.
This was confirmed by Sibusiso Peter-Paul Ngwenya, a major player in the ex-political prisoners’ movement, in documents for an infringement case he has filed at the Bloemfontein High Court.
Ngwenya is the executive chairman of Makana Investment Corporation (MIC), founded in 1997 as the commercial vehicle of the Makana Trust which had been set up a year earlier to fundraise for the EPPC, then led by anti-apartheid hero Ahmed Kathrada.
In its formative years the trust, with the world-adored Mandela’s blessings, received millions of rands in donations which were meant to help integrate ex-political prisoners into a new, democratic South Africa by improving their educational, social, health and economic wellbeing.
To sustain its objectives, the Makana Trust then set up MIC in which it would have a 51 percent controlling stake.
Today MIC is a broad-based investment company with interests in broadcasting as well as a range of ventures spanning aviation, logistics and telecommunications.
The EPPC’s national conference in 1999 agreed that the organisation decentralise its operations by establishing provincial structures.
These provincial structures, it was agreed, would then start business ventures acting as MIC “subsidiaries” and in which MIC would have a 40 percent stake in return for financial support and mentoring.
Now Ngwenya has launched a legal battle to stop Free State businessman and ex-Robben Island inmate Ramakaudi Paul Ramakatsa – also known as Mpho Ramakatsa – and the provincial companies he contends were started under the EPPC ambit from using the name Makana.
The business ventures in question, also cited as respondents in the infringement case, are Makana Investment Free State (Pty) Ltd, Makana Women Construction (Pty) Ltd, Makana C&I Technologies (Pty) Ltd and Makana Infrastructure Developers (Pty) Ltd.
These companies were established in 2003, the same time that other provincial business entities such as Makana Investment KZN and Makana Investment Gauteng were established.
Ngwenya, in the court papers, however says the Free State companies no longer have anything to do with MIC because they were “closed down”.
“The operations of these commercial entities, including that of the second to fifth respondents, were all closed down due to a number of reasons, including the fact that there was a poor level of managing and that they did not submit business plans to the applicant for vetting,” he says.
Ngwenya, in his founding affidavit, contends that Ramakatsa has no “bona fide claim to the use and proprietorship of the Makana trademarks”.
“As is evident from the notice of motion, the applicant seeks that the respondents be interdicted and restrained from infringing the applicant’s registered trademarks by using the marks in the course of trade in relation to any of the goods or services the marks have been registered for,” he says.
MIC registered the Makana trademarks between 2006 and 2008.
Makana is the name of the first political prisoner, a Xhosa chief, to attempt to escape the notorious Robben Island jail in 1873.
He drowned while attempting to flee and ex-Robben Island inmates decided to honour him by naming their trust and investment vehicle after him.
In his responding affidavit, Ramakatsa says the companies had been established and used the Makana name and logo “with the assistance, consent and knowledge of the applicant, the trust and the EPPC”.
“Due to the fact that the provincial and national structures had the same object, being to generate income to benefit and support the ex-political prisoners and their dependants in South Africa, it was throughout agreed by the EPPC, as the founder of the Makana Trust being the main shareholder of the applicant, that the structures and its activities will all be identified by the name ‘Makana,’” he says.
“The business logo was also, since the establishment of all the national and provincial structures, used by all the structures, including the respondents.”
Ramakatsa says MIC forfeited its interests in the Free State businesses after allegedly failing to honour its “obligations” as agreed with the EPPC.
The case will be heard at the Bloemfontein High Court next Thursday.
It however turns out that there is more to the fight than just the Makana trademark.
Ex-political prisoners sympathetic to Ramakatsa believe the court case is a smokescreen for the real battle that has been tearing the EPPC apart.
It appears the problems for Ramakatsa started way back in 2006 when he, as the EPPC’s national deputy chairperson, and other provincial leaders of the organisation held an emergency meeting to oust Makana Trust chairman Tokyo Sexwale.
The meeting also demanded that the trust and MIC be accountable and explain why EPPC provincial structures were allegedly not “fully” benefiting from the investment company’s business interests.
David Moisi, who was the EPPC national chairman at that time, however distanced himself from the meeting which the organisation’s then secretary, Notty Ngcobo, also described as “illegal”.
A year later, Ramakatsa left his position as the EPPC national deputy chairperson after, according to Ngwenya’s affidavit, he “was found to have sexually harassed a female employee”.
Ramakatsa says the sexual harassment case was trumped up to “silence” him.
Since then, Ngwenya has apparently been trying to distance the Makana Trust, EPPC and MIC from the business ventures Ramakatsa spearheaded “for the benefit of ex-political prisoners” in the Free State.
In the meantime the EPPC’s structures elsewhere have also been disintegrating.
Of all the commercial entities established to take care of the EPPC provincial structures, only one – Makana Investment KZN – is doing well.
Incidentally, MIC boss Ngwenya comes from KZN.
“(MIC), currently, only permits Makana Investment KZN (Pty) Ltd to use the name Makana,” Ngwenya says in his affidavit for the infringement case against Ramakatsa.
“This is the only regional structure which has regular meetings with the applicants and Makana Investment KZN (Pty) Ltd has proper reporting structures, regular board meetings, regular financial and management reportings.
“It is important to note that Makana Investment KZN is managed by the applicant.”
Other provinces suspect Ngwenya has been channelling a large chunk of the MIC proceeds due to the EPPC to his home province.
This has left the EPPC tottering to its death, according to the organisation’s national deputy secretary Mpho Masemola.
“Since two years ago we have seen our provincial structures collapsing,” says Masemola, an ex-Robben Island inmate.
“We have been told many stories about the Makana Trust not having money for the EPPC’s activities and this is devastating.
“While we have been told there is no operational money for the EPPC look what’s happening in KZN . . .
“It’s only the KZN that’s fully functional because it’s supported by Peter-Paul because he comes from there.
“In the meantime comrades keep on dying as paupers because they can’t get help from their organisation.
“This is a joke and the mess has to be sorted out because we have people such as the president and deputy president as part of the movement.
“We were together at Robben Island.”
Masemola was apparently referring to President Jacob Zuma and Deputy President Kgalema Motlanthe who were incarcerated at the infamous prison for their anti-apartheid activities.
Ngwenya could not be reached for comment.
SA's ex-political prisoners live in abject poverty
Darlington Majonga
Bloemfontein
SERAME Molefi is 56 but he looks much older than his age.
To keep himself warm on this wintry Sunday afternoon, he is clad in soil-stained khakhi trousers, a worn-out military-green polo neck, weather-beaten waterproof jacket and a floppy black woollen hat.
“Look at me . . . this is the only decent – if I can call it that – pair of shoes that I have,” he says, pointing with a trembling finger to his battered brown leather shoes.
Molefi, condemned to penury in a poor suburb in Bloemfontein, is one of the thousands of South Africans who were jailed for political crimes during the apartheid era.
In 1979, Molefi was slapped with a 10-year jail sentence for participating in what the apartheid regime termed “terrorist acts”.
After dropping out of a Bloemfontein school in 1975, he did not want to go back to the “farms” in Petrusburg where his father was struggling to fend for the family.
“I left my books and my future was bleak,” recalls the father of one, speaking in fluent English which he says he perfected while in prison.
“At 18, I was liable to pay tax and I just told myself I was not going to do that,” he says, choking up with anger.
“I was not going back to the farms and my only option was to fight.
“I was inspired by the Mozambique revolution, the 1976 uprisings and in 1977 Steve Biko died.
“The struggle was my home, I was convinced . . . and in 1978 I left for Swaziland to join a training camp so that I could play my part in forcibly removing the evil regime.”
The following year he was arrested and sentenced to 10 years for his political activities.
On appeal, Molefi’s sentence was halved to five years.
He served part of his sentence at Robben Island, the infamous prison where South Africa’s first democratically elected president, Nelson Mandela, spent 27 years.
Life only got tougher for Molefi when he was released from prison in 1984.
Every time he got a job, his employers would be “pressured” to ditch him because he was seen as a troublemaker.
“I briefly worked at Metro through the influence of my uncle where I was introduced to merchandising, stock counting and stock control,” he says.
“The police special branch then visited and asked the management why I was employed there.
“I was expelled, after working for only six months, because I was a political activist . . .
“This was also the time trade unions were mushrooming.”
A stint at Coca-Cola suffered a similar fate, Molefi says.
For the next 20 years, he was either unemployable or simply could not find a job.
His only relief came in 2004 when the EPPC Free State leadership pleaded with the provincial government to give him a security job within the then public works, roads and transport department.
But for the past four years he has had to scrounge for food and money to foot his medical bills – he suffers from the skin disease eczema which he says he contracted at Robben Island.
“Having suffered so much makes me bitter,” Molefi says.
His is not the lifestyle befitting a man who sacrificed his future for a free South Africa, he reckons.
After surviving torturous years behind bars, dozens of former political prisoners are fast losing hope they can conquer their latest battle – poverty and disease.
More than half of the 60-plus members of the Ex-Political Prisoners Committee (EPPC)’s Free State wing are jobless and struggling to put food on the table.
The organisation estimates the total number of South Africa’s ex-political prisoners is up to 5 000.
HIV and other chronic illnesses are wreaking havoc among the anti-apartheid heroes.
The EPPC, formed after Mandela led a reunion of ex-political prisoners at Robben Island in 1995, says approximately 40 percent of its members are disabled or chronically ill.
Only a few of the ex-political prisoners in the Free State, among them former Mangaung mayor Playfair Morule and education MEC Tate Makgoe, can be said to be probably enjoying comfortable lives.
The majority of them are languishing in abject poverty, according to EPPC Free State secretary Mpho Ramakatsa.
A handful of them receive an average of R600 a month – enough to buy 10kgs of beef – from the special government pension fund for struggle veterans who were at least aged 35 in 1994.
Yet they, including many other ex-political prisoners who cannot qualify for the pension, have to foot electricity and water bills as well as medical and school fees.
What makes the “forsaken comrades” bitter is that the Makana Trust – set up in 1996 to help thousands of South Africa’s ex-political prisoners and their dependants – has allegedly forsaken them.
The trust has a business arm, Makana Investments Corporation (MIC), which was established to make money for the education, healthcare and general welfare of former prisoners and their dependants.
EPPC national deputy secretary Mpho Masemola this week admitted the organisation had let down its members.
He says “comrades keep on dying because they can’t get help from their organisation”.
“I’ve been betrayed! Why can’t they live up to their promises?” says Molefi.
Before he even finishes saying this, tears are already welling up in his bloodshot eyes.
For Sechaba Moahloli, 54, his destitution has come at a huge cost: separation from the mother of his two young children who is working as a nurse in Cape Town, 1 200km from Bloemfontein.
He is a former commander of one of the uMkonto weSizwe camps set up by the ANC’s military wing in Angola during the apartheid era.
Moahloli was arrested in 1987 for trying to launch attacks against South Africa’s then racist government and incarcerated at Robben Island until his release on April 6 1991.
That was a year after Mandela, who was jailed for 27 years, was released from the notorious prison.
Moahloli was hoping their years of sacrifice would be rewarded with a better life under a democratically elected government.
He says he has been tempted many times to engage in criminal activities to fend for himself.
Moahloli was last employed in 2007 as office manager at the Free State’s then public safety and security department.
Gilbert Moshou, 47, who spent four years at Grotvlei Maximum Prison for politically motivated crimes, believes their plight would have been alleviated if the Makana Trust was serving the purposes it was formed for.
What worries him now is that the companies formed by the EPPA Free State are struggling for survival, especially with MIC engaged in a legal fight with the provincial business entities.
Moshou, a father of one whose wife suffers from diabetes and high blood pressure, has never had a permanent job since he was released from prison in 1989.
He has relied on piece jobs with the ex-political prisoners’ projects in the Free State to eke out a living.
“There are many days when I go to bed without eating anything,” says Moshou, showing an old water tap he intends to sell to scrap-metal collectors.
“This is copper so if I sell it I will have some money for food.
“At least today I have five potatoes for my sechabo (normally a meat or vegetable dish eaten with pap, a stiff maize-meal mix which is South Africa’s major staple food).”
MIC has filed an application at the Bloemfontein High Court to stop the EPPC Free State from using the name Makana for any f its companies.
This comes after the Free State structure said MIC had forfeited its interests in the provincial projects because it had allegedly failed to honour its obligations.
According to Ramakatsa, who leads Makana projects in the province, MIC was supposed to provide financial assistance and mentoring to the Free State companies.
People like Molefi now allege only a few, mostly MIC executives, are enjoying lavish lifestyles thanks to the ex-political prisoners’ business wing’s ventures.
What aggravates his ire is that he has also allegedly not received what he was promised after appearing before the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC).
The TRC was a court-like restorative justice body set up by Mandela after the end of South Africa’s 300 years of supremacist white-minority rule.
It recommended education, housing, healthcare and welfare support for all apartheid victims who testified.
“Where is the TRC? Why are they not living up to the promises?” Molefi says, trembling with anger.
“Now also the (Makana Trust) office run by revolutionaries of the past does not care.
“Why are the national leaders not calling them to account?”
For now, he says, he is grateful Ramakatsa and the EPPC businesses in the Free State have been able to assist them in some instances.
Bloemfontein
SERAME Molefi is 56 but he looks much older than his age.
To keep himself warm on this wintry Sunday afternoon, he is clad in soil-stained khakhi trousers, a worn-out military-green polo neck, weather-beaten waterproof jacket and a floppy black woollen hat.
“Look at me . . . this is the only decent – if I can call it that – pair of shoes that I have,” he says, pointing with a trembling finger to his battered brown leather shoes.
Molefi, condemned to penury in a poor suburb in Bloemfontein, is one of the thousands of South Africans who were jailed for political crimes during the apartheid era.
In 1979, Molefi was slapped with a 10-year jail sentence for participating in what the apartheid regime termed “terrorist acts”.
After dropping out of a Bloemfontein school in 1975, he did not want to go back to the “farms” in Petrusburg where his father was struggling to fend for the family.
“I left my books and my future was bleak,” recalls the father of one, speaking in fluent English which he says he perfected while in prison.
“At 18, I was liable to pay tax and I just told myself I was not going to do that,” he says, choking up with anger.
“I was not going back to the farms and my only option was to fight.
“I was inspired by the Mozambique revolution, the 1976 uprisings and in 1977 Steve Biko died.
“The struggle was my home, I was convinced . . . and in 1978 I left for Swaziland to join a training camp so that I could play my part in forcibly removing the evil regime.”
The following year he was arrested and sentenced to 10 years for his political activities.
On appeal, Molefi’s sentence was halved to five years.
He served part of his sentence at Robben Island, the infamous prison where South Africa’s first democratically elected president, Nelson Mandela, spent 27 years.
Life only got tougher for Molefi when he was released from prison in 1984.
Every time he got a job, his employers would be “pressured” to ditch him because he was seen as a troublemaker.
“I briefly worked at Metro through the influence of my uncle where I was introduced to merchandising, stock counting and stock control,” he says.
“The police special branch then visited and asked the management why I was employed there.
“I was expelled, after working for only six months, because I was a political activist . . .
“This was also the time trade unions were mushrooming.”
A stint at Coca-Cola suffered a similar fate, Molefi says.
For the next 20 years, he was either unemployable or simply could not find a job.
His only relief came in 2004 when the EPPC Free State leadership pleaded with the provincial government to give him a security job within the then public works, roads and transport department.
But for the past four years he has had to scrounge for food and money to foot his medical bills – he suffers from the skin disease eczema which he says he contracted at Robben Island.
“Having suffered so much makes me bitter,” Molefi says.
His is not the lifestyle befitting a man who sacrificed his future for a free South Africa, he reckons.
After surviving torturous years behind bars, dozens of former political prisoners are fast losing hope they can conquer their latest battle – poverty and disease.
More than half of the 60-plus members of the Ex-Political Prisoners Committee (EPPC)’s Free State wing are jobless and struggling to put food on the table.
The organisation estimates the total number of South Africa’s ex-political prisoners is up to 5 000.
HIV and other chronic illnesses are wreaking havoc among the anti-apartheid heroes.
The EPPC, formed after Mandela led a reunion of ex-political prisoners at Robben Island in 1995, says approximately 40 percent of its members are disabled or chronically ill.
Only a few of the ex-political prisoners in the Free State, among them former Mangaung mayor Playfair Morule and education MEC Tate Makgoe, can be said to be probably enjoying comfortable lives.
The majority of them are languishing in abject poverty, according to EPPC Free State secretary Mpho Ramakatsa.
A handful of them receive an average of R600 a month – enough to buy 10kgs of beef – from the special government pension fund for struggle veterans who were at least aged 35 in 1994.
Yet they, including many other ex-political prisoners who cannot qualify for the pension, have to foot electricity and water bills as well as medical and school fees.
What makes the “forsaken comrades” bitter is that the Makana Trust – set up in 1996 to help thousands of South Africa’s ex-political prisoners and their dependants – has allegedly forsaken them.
The trust has a business arm, Makana Investments Corporation (MIC), which was established to make money for the education, healthcare and general welfare of former prisoners and their dependants.
EPPC national deputy secretary Mpho Masemola this week admitted the organisation had let down its members.
He says “comrades keep on dying because they can’t get help from their organisation”.
“I’ve been betrayed! Why can’t they live up to their promises?” says Molefi.
Before he even finishes saying this, tears are already welling up in his bloodshot eyes.
For Sechaba Moahloli, 54, his destitution has come at a huge cost: separation from the mother of his two young children who is working as a nurse in Cape Town, 1 200km from Bloemfontein.
He is a former commander of one of the uMkonto weSizwe camps set up by the ANC’s military wing in Angola during the apartheid era.
Moahloli was arrested in 1987 for trying to launch attacks against South Africa’s then racist government and incarcerated at Robben Island until his release on April 6 1991.
That was a year after Mandela, who was jailed for 27 years, was released from the notorious prison.
Moahloli was hoping their years of sacrifice would be rewarded with a better life under a democratically elected government.
He says he has been tempted many times to engage in criminal activities to fend for himself.
Moahloli was last employed in 2007 as office manager at the Free State’s then public safety and security department.
Gilbert Moshou, 47, who spent four years at Grotvlei Maximum Prison for politically motivated crimes, believes their plight would have been alleviated if the Makana Trust was serving the purposes it was formed for.
What worries him now is that the companies formed by the EPPA Free State are struggling for survival, especially with MIC engaged in a legal fight with the provincial business entities.
Moshou, a father of one whose wife suffers from diabetes and high blood pressure, has never had a permanent job since he was released from prison in 1989.
He has relied on piece jobs with the ex-political prisoners’ projects in the Free State to eke out a living.
“There are many days when I go to bed without eating anything,” says Moshou, showing an old water tap he intends to sell to scrap-metal collectors.
“This is copper so if I sell it I will have some money for food.
“At least today I have five potatoes for my sechabo (normally a meat or vegetable dish eaten with pap, a stiff maize-meal mix which is South Africa’s major staple food).”
MIC has filed an application at the Bloemfontein High Court to stop the EPPC Free State from using the name Makana for any f its companies.
This comes after the Free State structure said MIC had forfeited its interests in the provincial projects because it had allegedly failed to honour its obligations.
According to Ramakatsa, who leads Makana projects in the province, MIC was supposed to provide financial assistance and mentoring to the Free State companies.
People like Molefi now allege only a few, mostly MIC executives, are enjoying lavish lifestyles thanks to the ex-political prisoners’ business wing’s ventures.
What aggravates his ire is that he has also allegedly not received what he was promised after appearing before the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC).
The TRC was a court-like restorative justice body set up by Mandela after the end of South Africa’s 300 years of supremacist white-minority rule.
It recommended education, housing, healthcare and welfare support for all apartheid victims who testified.
“Where is the TRC? Why are they not living up to the promises?” Molefi says, trembling with anger.
“Now also the (Makana Trust) office run by revolutionaries of the past does not care.
“Why are the national leaders not calling them to account?”
For now, he says, he is grateful Ramakatsa and the EPPC businesses in the Free State have been able to assist them in some instances.
Wednesday, March 23, 2011
The leaders we deserve
IN a democracy the people get the government they deserve, so goes the cliché credited to the philosopher Joseph de Maistre.
But does this mean the people of the Free State have wrought upon themselves the tribulations that embody their existence under the ruling African National Congress (ANC) party?
Talk about sewage flowing in the streets of Clocolan and Hobhouse.
Talk about the potholes on the Senekal-Marquard road.
Talk about the people of Ladybrand going for weeks without water supplies.
Talk about Eskom threatening to cut off power supplies to Parys, Vredefort, Heilbron, Koppies and Edenville.
How about the people of Viljoenskroon, in this century, squatting on open toilets when nature calls?
And the residents of Leratswana having to live in darkness because they have no electricity supplies?
These are critical issues as South Africa braces for its third municipal elections since local governments were re-organised on a non-racial basis in the wake of the collapse of apartheid rule.
The first municipal polls after the re-organisation were held in 2000.
The ANC has since then won almost all the municipalities in the country.
Little suggests the trend is likely to change come May 18 – never mind the squabbles over candidate selection processes that have rocked the ANC in the Free State.
In Botshabelo this week intra-party skirmishes saw protestors barricading roads with burning tyres and heaps of garbage.
The party’s supporters accuse senior ANC officials in the province of imposing candidates on them.
The ANC’s secretary in the Free State, Sibongile Besani, has put down the intra-party fighting to “misunderstandings” over how the party’s electoral processes worked.
We are a democratic party, he insisted.
Yet ANC candidates, whether popularly elected or imposed, have largely prevailed in local government elections.
The appeal of the ANC as a liberation movement cannot be over-emphasised.
So too can we not belabour the point that the Democratic Alliance remains in the peripheries of power because it is perceived as a white party.
Needless to say, these perceptions will still be crucial when people vote.
This paper is not so much worried about which party will win the forthcoming municipal polls.
It’s about the quality of the candidates, stupid!
Some of the ANC-led municipalities in the Free State, by the party’s own admission, are at the mercy of incompetent councilors and managers.
Greedy officials are lining their pockets through corrupt tender deals.
This is not the leadership that the people of this province deserve.
That’s why we found it critical to remind incumbent councillors and interested candidates of what the citizenry expects from them.
Generally, councils are required to make decisions and set directions for promoting the social, cultural, environmental and economic well-being of their communities.
This, in short, should translate into properly planned residential areas, the building of roads, the provision of water and electricity as well as sanitation facilities.
The challenge is quite enormous but not insurmountable.
We hope the next time our politicians open their mouths they will be talking about how they intend to influence positive change and to, ultimately, make life better and enjoyable for Free Staters.
Evidence on the ground clearly indicates that the current crop of councillors has either failed in this regard or that they had no idea what they were doing for the past five years they have been in office.
It is important that those who seek to be elected as councillors this year understand that they are seeking a very crucial responsibility in our society.
We the people who are led have a big responsibility too.
We have a duty to elect people who understand our problems.
We have a duty to demand proper and timely service delivery.
People need clean water, proper roads, refuse collection, hospitals and schools.
If your councillor has no clue about these basic needs, your choice come May 18 should not be hard.
But does this mean the people of the Free State have wrought upon themselves the tribulations that embody their existence under the ruling African National Congress (ANC) party?
Talk about sewage flowing in the streets of Clocolan and Hobhouse.
Talk about the potholes on the Senekal-Marquard road.
Talk about the people of Ladybrand going for weeks without water supplies.
Talk about Eskom threatening to cut off power supplies to Parys, Vredefort, Heilbron, Koppies and Edenville.
How about the people of Viljoenskroon, in this century, squatting on open toilets when nature calls?
And the residents of Leratswana having to live in darkness because they have no electricity supplies?
These are critical issues as South Africa braces for its third municipal elections since local governments were re-organised on a non-racial basis in the wake of the collapse of apartheid rule.
The first municipal polls after the re-organisation were held in 2000.
The ANC has since then won almost all the municipalities in the country.
Little suggests the trend is likely to change come May 18 – never mind the squabbles over candidate selection processes that have rocked the ANC in the Free State.
In Botshabelo this week intra-party skirmishes saw protestors barricading roads with burning tyres and heaps of garbage.
The party’s supporters accuse senior ANC officials in the province of imposing candidates on them.
The ANC’s secretary in the Free State, Sibongile Besani, has put down the intra-party fighting to “misunderstandings” over how the party’s electoral processes worked.
We are a democratic party, he insisted.
Yet ANC candidates, whether popularly elected or imposed, have largely prevailed in local government elections.
The appeal of the ANC as a liberation movement cannot be over-emphasised.
So too can we not belabour the point that the Democratic Alliance remains in the peripheries of power because it is perceived as a white party.
Needless to say, these perceptions will still be crucial when people vote.
This paper is not so much worried about which party will win the forthcoming municipal polls.
It’s about the quality of the candidates, stupid!
Some of the ANC-led municipalities in the Free State, by the party’s own admission, are at the mercy of incompetent councilors and managers.
Greedy officials are lining their pockets through corrupt tender deals.
This is not the leadership that the people of this province deserve.
That’s why we found it critical to remind incumbent councillors and interested candidates of what the citizenry expects from them.
Generally, councils are required to make decisions and set directions for promoting the social, cultural, environmental and economic well-being of their communities.
This, in short, should translate into properly planned residential areas, the building of roads, the provision of water and electricity as well as sanitation facilities.
The challenge is quite enormous but not insurmountable.
We hope the next time our politicians open their mouths they will be talking about how they intend to influence positive change and to, ultimately, make life better and enjoyable for Free Staters.
Evidence on the ground clearly indicates that the current crop of councillors has either failed in this regard or that they had no idea what they were doing for the past five years they have been in office.
It is important that those who seek to be elected as councillors this year understand that they are seeking a very crucial responsibility in our society.
We the people who are led have a big responsibility too.
We have a duty to elect people who understand our problems.
We have a duty to demand proper and timely service delivery.
People need clean water, proper roads, refuse collection, hospitals and schools.
If your councillor has no clue about these basic needs, your choice come May 18 should not be hard.
Sunday, March 20, 2011
Free State gets English language newspaper
CHANTELLE BENJAMIN
Published: 2011/03/14 06:39:02 AM
AN ENGLISH language newspaper was launched in the Free State on March 11 2011, and editor Darlington Majonga believes it will go some way to filling the void left by poor coverage of the province in established papers.
Lack of regional coverage by national publications has been one of the criticisms raised by the African National Congress when calling for reform of the media sector. Cost-cutting measures have seen the closure of many provincial offices linked to national newspapers, but Mr Majonga said national newspapers also tended to focus on broader issues and dedicated little space to stories "they deem not to be of national importance".
"This is one of the few provinces that has for a long time been largely uncovered by the media. The publisher, Africa Media Holdings (AMH), felt it was imperative that the province had its own paper.
According to census data, Sotho and Afrikaans predominate as the home languages of 76,3% of the province’s population (Sotho at 64,4% and Afrikaans at 11,9%). SA’s last census took place in 2001. It is generally accepted that many African language speakers choose English over Afrikaans.
Mr Majonga, commenting on the website set up to accompany the newspaper, fstimes.co.za, said: "Everyone in this province is entitled to learn and know what is happening in their villages, communities, towns and districts, as well as beyond its borders."
The broadsheet, the Free State Times, is at present a weekly selling for R5, but Mr Majonga said once the paper was established it would become a daily.
In the meantime, the website will be updated daily . There are also plans to expand the various sections in the paper with the intention of their eventually becoming separate sections.
"It is serious and fun, with analysis, politics, sport and entertainment — everything relevant to our readers," Mr Majonga said.
AMH launched Lesotho newspapers the Lesotho Times and Sunday Express, both of which Mr Majonga edited.
In Lesotho AMH started with a weekly. -- Business Day.
Published: 2011/03/14 06:39:02 AM
AN ENGLISH language newspaper was launched in the Free State on March 11 2011, and editor Darlington Majonga believes it will go some way to filling the void left by poor coverage of the province in established papers.
Lack of regional coverage by national publications has been one of the criticisms raised by the African National Congress when calling for reform of the media sector. Cost-cutting measures have seen the closure of many provincial offices linked to national newspapers, but Mr Majonga said national newspapers also tended to focus on broader issues and dedicated little space to stories "they deem not to be of national importance".
"This is one of the few provinces that has for a long time been largely uncovered by the media. The publisher, Africa Media Holdings (AMH), felt it was imperative that the province had its own paper.
According to census data, Sotho and Afrikaans predominate as the home languages of 76,3% of the province’s population (Sotho at 64,4% and Afrikaans at 11,9%). SA’s last census took place in 2001. It is generally accepted that many African language speakers choose English over Afrikaans.
Mr Majonga, commenting on the website set up to accompany the newspaper, fstimes.co.za, said: "Everyone in this province is entitled to learn and know what is happening in their villages, communities, towns and districts, as well as beyond its borders."
The broadsheet, the Free State Times, is at present a weekly selling for R5, but Mr Majonga said once the paper was established it would become a daily.
In the meantime, the website will be updated daily . There are also plans to expand the various sections in the paper with the intention of their eventually becoming separate sections.
"It is serious and fun, with analysis, politics, sport and entertainment — everything relevant to our readers," Mr Majonga said.
AMH launched Lesotho newspapers the Lesotho Times and Sunday Express, both of which Mr Majonga edited.
In Lesotho AMH started with a weekly. -- Business Day.
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