The outrageous lengths to which the NPA will go to get a conviction, against the facts of a case, is shown by the case of Marion Sparg, Dipuo Mvelase, and Beryl Simelane. It also shows that the NPA victimises people impartially. It can be Jacob Zuma or Glenn Agliotti (a proxy for Jackie Selebi) or it can be people who work for the NPA itself like these three women. Sparg is an ex-MK soldier and ex-political-prisoner and Mvelase is Deputy Chairperson of the South African Communist Party, by the way.
Even at the point when they knew their case was collapsing the NPA was still trying to bully these women into a so-called plea bargain, or in other words an admission of guilt. When the women refused, the NPA backed down. But in the Sunday Times today, it is briefly reported that the NPA has trumped up new so-called disciplinary charges against the three women. There should now be a roar of popular rage against the NPA. This kind of Kafka-ism is just intolerable. The report from the Star is below.
Another kind of truth, or at least partial truth, is shown by the review of a new war film from the other Hollywood, across the Atlantic. A few years ago there was an enormous correspondence in the letters pages of the Johannesburg Star on the subject of who won the Second World War. The second article below at least gets that much right. Other parts of it are not right. For example, the reviewer Ackermann accepts the Clint Eastwood idea that soldiers fight for their buddies and not for a cause. But it could better be said that the nihilist US military has such a poor record precisely because it has no reasonable political motivation or morality. The apolitical soldier is not actually apolitical. He is a fascist, and in the end, a loser. The army that wins is the politically and morally motivated army, like the Red Army.
The same Weekender carries an editorial (below) denouncing false accusations in a couple of well-known cases, and blaming the South African public. Yet it is the newspapers that have promoted the idea of hounding people and ostracising them before they have been found guilty, and even after they have been found not guilty. In the case of Jacob Zuma, it was the support of the South African public, and very little from the newspapers, that saved him from going down under the shouts of the snobbish racists, the Mother Grundys, and the NPA.
The last two items below are the rehearsals by Carol Paton from the Finanacial Mail of the Telkom (Elephant Consortium) case and also matters having to do with the ANC in the Western Cape. It is good that such things are brought out for re-examination. Let us hope that the journalists now persist until it is known who all the beneficiaries are.
Click on these links:
NPA women win battle to clear names, Karyn Maughan, The Star (560 words)
Myth of US as saviour of the world, Lourens Ackermann, Weekender (650 words)
False accusers must be held accountable, Editorial, Weekender (687 words)
ANC and Telkom sale, Carol Paton, Financial Mail (640 words)
ANC Western Cape ethnic wrangling, Carol Paton, Financial Mail (661 words)
Even at the point when they knew their case was collapsing the NPA was still trying to bully these women into a so-called plea bargain, or in other words an admission of guilt. When the women refused, the NPA backed down. But in the Sunday Times today, it is briefly reported that the NPA has trumped up new so-called disciplinary charges against the three women. There should now be a roar of popular rage against the NPA. This kind of Kafka-ism is just intolerable. The report from the Star is below.
Another kind of truth, or at least partial truth, is shown by the review of a new war film from the other Hollywood, across the Atlantic. A few years ago there was an enormous correspondence in the letters pages of the Johannesburg Star on the subject of who won the Second World War. The second article below at least gets that much right. Other parts of it are not right. For example, the reviewer Ackermann accepts the Clint Eastwood idea that soldiers fight for their buddies and not for a cause. But it could better be said that the nihilist US military has such a poor record precisely because it has no reasonable political motivation or morality. The apolitical soldier is not actually apolitical. He is a fascist, and in the end, a loser. The army that wins is the politically and morally motivated army, like the Red Army.
The same Weekender carries an editorial (below) denouncing false accusations in a couple of well-known cases, and blaming the South African public. Yet it is the newspapers that have promoted the idea of hounding people and ostracising them before they have been found guilty, and even after they have been found not guilty. In the case of Jacob Zuma, it was the support of the South African public, and very little from the newspapers, that saved him from going down under the shouts of the snobbish racists, the Mother Grundys, and the NPA.
The last two items below are the rehearsals by Carol Paton from the Finanacial Mail of the Telkom (Elephant Consortium) case and also matters having to do with the ANC in the Western Cape. It is good that such things are brought out for re-examination. Let us hope that the journalists now persist until it is known who all the beneficiaries are.
Click on these links:
NPA women win battle to clear names, Karyn Maughan, The Star (560 words)
Myth of US as saviour of the world, Lourens Ackermann, Weekender (650 words)
False accusers must be held accountable, Editorial, Weekender (687 words)
ANC and Telkom sale, Carol Paton, Financial Mail (640 words)
ANC Western Cape ethnic wrangling, Carol Paton, Financial Mail (661 words)
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