Boeremafia

Barry Sergeant is a great journalist. He writes the “Fear and Loathing” column at Moneyweb (It also appears in The Citizen). His latest one (linked below) is about the rolling mass blackouts that have afflicted our country. Apart from the Communist University one day earlier, this is the first real journalistic charge against the monstrous catastrophe that Eskom has imposed upon South Africans like a coup d’etat.

Some say that the power cuts are the work of a “boeremafia” in Eskom, indulging in some “creative destruction” just like the other boeremafia that has managed to get hold of the NPA/Scorpions. Others say it must have been corruption, during the years when Penuell Maduna and his friend Bulelani Ngcuka’s wife Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka were successively Ministers of Energy. Some say that these three and the boeremafia are all involved together in both of these imbroglios, and a lot else besides.

Barry Sergeant thinks that Alec Erwin (“a national disgrace”) the Public Enterprises Minister should be answering questions, as well as Mohamed Valli Moosa, who is the Chairperson of Eskom, for which he gets paid millions, but who is presently nowhere to be found. Maybe the mainstream bourgeois media, who have been telling us recently how essential they are, could do a job of work for once in their jolly lives. As Barry Sergeant says: “Something truly catastrophic has happened at Eskom, and it’s going to come out, sooner or later.” The sooner the hacks get on with the case in a serious way, the better. The sooner the patriotic boere start talking, the better.

COSATU has unfortunately already decided that it is not Eskom’s fault. See the second linked item.

2008 is the 20th Anniversary of the battle of Cuito Cuanavale. It is the year when we must finally do our duty and honour the Cubans who fought and laid down their lives for our freedom. It is not going to be easy. There is a strong lobby within the same old bourgeois mainstream media which will set up a big commotion against us as we honour the Cubans. They have already begun their work. See the third linked item, by Brendan Seery, from the Saturday Star.

Comrades, do you know that there are black Indians, and Indians who are not black? And do you know that there is something very like apartheid between them? And do you know that the arguments of the non-black Indians are very similar to the arguments of Solidarity and the AfriForum of Afrikaners in this country? Do yourselves a favour and read the fourth item, ironically titled “Pity the Brahmins” (see image). This is a story that needs to be told over and again in South Africa. It shows how things will persist if not dealt with. India has been independent for more than 60 years, and still the problems are there.

On 26 January there is an international day of solidarity for the Palestinians of Gaza, who are being subjected to genocidal actions by the Israelis. The Israelis destroyed Gaza’s only power station not long ago. The restriction of power supply is a political weapon. The fifth linked item below announces a demonstration starting in Adderley Street, Cape Town, at 10h00 on 26 January 2008.

See also Coming Events for more dates.

Click on these links:

Days of mongrel donkeys, Barry Sergeant, Moneyweb (680 words)

Eskom’s ‘load shedding’ crisis, COSATU Media Release (352 words)

Truth is always the first casualty, Brendan Seery, Saturday Star (2029 words)

Pity the Brahmins, ‘Reverse Discrimination’ in India, P Sainath, Cpunch (1598 words)

Gaza protest, 10h00, Adderley St, Cape Town, 26 January 2008 (Notice, 475 words)

Coming Events