NPA Three Free

The last time the trumped-up charges were withdrawn they were reinstated. Let’s hope that this time the NPA Three (Marion Sparg, Beryl Simelane and Dipuo Mvelase) will hear no more accusations from their bosses. A proper apology would be nice to have. See the link below for the latest begrudging climb-down from the Justice Department.

The article (linked below) from the Sunday Times (Business Times) about Danisa Baloyi seems to have been inspired by a wish to give her a helping hand following the collapse of her business empire and pending possible further action in the Fidentia case. Fellow-businessman Saki Macozoma, the main source quoted in the article, seems to want to bend over backwards to make sure that “we do not condemn her forever”, although Baloyi has not been charged with anything up to now. As is often the case when excuses are made, the attempt to excuse Baloyi leaves her even more accused than before. Who, for example, knew of her connection with the Gauteng Tender Board? Read the linked article carefully.

The report in the (London) Guardian of recent US claims in Washington that they are funding the opposition in Zimbabwe have been widely noticed - for example on the front page of Saturday's Weekender. The front page of the Sunday Times reports that the MDC-Tsvangirai is denying receipt of such funds. It seems that the US spies are using money like a drug, dishing it out to all and sundry, creating dependency and a hierarchy of money where there should be democracy. That’s what they do.

US activities in Africa is concerted, and more so since their announcement of the “Africom”, a US military command for Africa, and the appointment of former US Ambassador to Pretoria, Jendayi Fraser, as US “Secretary of State for Africa”. The US poison is evident in the report from Nairobi, Kenya about the “renditions” that have been going on in that part of the world, where people end up incarcerated in Ethiopia. The USA brought this rubbish into Africa. See the link below.

Similarly, the last report linked below, which also comes from Nairobi, concerning the war crimes that are happening on a large scale in Mogadishu, Somalia.

What is not usually spelled out in these report with a Nairobi by-line is: why Nairobi? Well, Nairobi is a great modern city with many extremely comfortable hotels, plenty of good food and safe drinking water. It is not so very far from the surrounding countries of Tanzania, Burundi, Rwanda, Uganda, Sudan, Ethiopia and Somalia that you could not fly to any of them from Nairobi in an hour or two in a readily-available hired aeroplane. That’s the excuse. Also, English is widely spoken in Nairobi and there is a white settler remnant in the country. And so the correspondents, who like to be comfortable and safe, often base themselves in Nairobi and don’t very much like to move from there.

And what they never say is that all the countries mentioned are very, and extremely, different from Kenya, and from each other. The reduction of our individuality and our personality to one single constructed “African” journalistic convention is a major effect of Imperialism. So as much as one must be grateful for the scraps of news that these hacks bring, of Somalia and Ethiopia et cetera, scrounged, jobbed and traded in the rumour-mills and bars of Nairobi, the effect that they have overall is detestable.

Photo: the Nairobi Hilton Hotel.

Click on these links:

Charges against Sparg dropped, Dumisane Lubisi, Sunday Times (102 words)

Rise and fall of Queen BEE, Thebe Mabanga, Sunday Times (1131 words)

US reveals efforts to topple Mugabe, Ewen McAskill, Guardian (603 words)

Ethiopia urged to come clean on secret prisons, Weekender (425 words)

EU given war crime warning over Somalia, Xan Rice, Guardian (657 words)