Mandarins And Javelins

There will be a panel discussion this morning from 10h00 to 12h00 about the forthcoming United Nations Small Arms Review Conference. The venue is the Goethe Institute, 119 Jan Smuts Avenue, Parkwood. For further information please contact Chemist Khumalo (011 – 339 1363), Ben Coetzee (012 – 346 9500), Sudeshan Reddy (012 – 354 8507) or (RSVP) Thandeka Zondi (011) 339 1363. Sponsors are the Ceasefire Campaign, the UN Information Centre, and the Institute for Strategic Studies. As of yesterday, the Communist University’s amadlandawonye web site has moved from fourth to third place (in terms of numbers of page views) out of 5135 fully public wikispaces in the whole world. Thanks for your support. Jacob Zuma has been forced to bear investigation for many years now. Bulelani Ngcuka and Penuell Maduna announced three years ago that they had a “prima facie” case against him. When they were at last forced to bring that case to court by a certain date, the Scorpions conducted panicky illegal armed “fishing” raids all over the country. They got nothing and courts made them hand back the documents and computers they had seized. Now that the date of the hearing is approaching, the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) is once again trying to play for time. This flimsy tissue of innuendo must be thrown out! See the linked Sunday Independent report. The City Press unfortunately does not put up all its articles on its web site. Hence the CU is not able to pass on their article on the Khampepe Commission (on page 2 of yesterday’s paper) headed “Scorpions: judge urges a reprimand”. This is so far the only newspaper to examine the commission’s findings (as opposed to the government’s response to those findings). Among other revelations, Judge Sisi Khampepe reported that Penuell Maduna, while he was Justice Minister, obstructed the working of the Ministerial Co-ordinating Committee (MCC) “which was created in terms of the NPA Act to deal with the functioning of the DSO”. The DSO is the Scorpions. The City Press article (linked below) says: “In her remarks, the judge effectively blames former justice and constitutional affairs minister Penuell Maduna, whose cabinet position meant that he would chair the MCC, for failing to convene meetings. The City Press is also not convinced by the government’s fudged “solution” of putting the Scorps under two masters. Who is? See the linked City Press editorial, below. “The Wonga Coup” is the name of a book by Adam Roberts about the attempted coup of Equatorial Guinea involving Mark Thatcher, son of former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. The following is from a review of this book in the Sunday Times (also linked below) ‘Plotter Louis du Preez confirmed to Roberts, he said, that the plotters believed “the [South African] authorities had okayed it”. ‘Said Roberts: “They truly believed they had at least tacit clearance from the South African government.” ‘Sensationally — although it does not claim the briefing itself as fact — the book also claims that plotter Henry van der Westhiuzen told Mann and others that he had briefed Bulelani Ngcuka, the former Director of Public Prosecutions, on part of the plan. ‘Van der Westhiuzen told his co-conspirators that he had received “no warning to stop”, the book claims.’ Thatcher was charged but released by the Scorpions/NPA, while it was headed by Bulelani Ngcuka and still under Penuell Maduna as the then Minister of Justice. Thatcher was only required to drop a splodge of wonga on his way out of South Africa. Maduna and Ngcuka are now in (big money) business, jointly and severally. Perhaps it is time to declare a new non-racial identity in Africa: the amaWonga. Although internally extremely fractious, this group has one thing in common: enormous loads of money. Benz cars are nothing to them. Mansions and yachts on the French Riviera and Lear Jets for their wives are more their style. Some of them were Mandarins who threw javelins. Others deal in more lethal things. German prosecutors have begun to investigate the circumstances of the corvette deal with South Africa that was “mysteriously” won after having been previously ruled out. Will these German prosecutors show “Hollywood” or insect tendencies? Or will they catch the real crooks? See link. Meanwhile another ANC legal Marxist, MP Rubben Mohlaloga, has sallied forth to smear critics of the new rich as “anarchists”. See the linked City Press article below. Judge for yourself. COSATU’s document on “Possibilities for Fundamental Social Change” is nevertheless being systematically debated around the country. See the Sunday Independent report linked below. Click on these links: Zuma, Thint apply to have case struck off, state dithers, Sindy (911 words) Cabinet Scorpions decision has sting in tail, City Press (488 words) Dogs of war shown as braying asses, Sunday Times (1453 words) Corvette deal mired in bribery and corruption allegation, Sindy (482 words) SACP shifts to anarchism, Rubben Mohlaloga, City Press (705 words) Union regions debate future of ANC alliance, Da Costa, Sindy (942 words)