ANCYL does it again...

...or rather, Ju-Ju opened his mouth only to change the foot that was already in it. I know that everyone is astounded by his treatment of the BBC journalist yesterday. While it was outrageous, what I find more bizarre is that the ANC hasn't called for him to step down from leadership. Yes, they have now officially condemned his behaviour, but he apparently takes no notice of them. (After all, when they said, "don't sing revolutionary songs that will polarise the nation" he went ahead and sang another anti-Boer song.)

How is it possible that there are still people in this country who think the way he does??? My mind boggles. He is so obviously a racist. How is it that the YL can vote such a person into power? This country would be a lot better off if he was removed from power and taken out of the spotlight. To that end, there's a blog post calling for us all to ignore Julius for a week - irrespective of what he does. Personally I think it should be calling for us to ignore him for the remainder of the year, not just the next week, but that's just me. (Could you imagine how apoplectic he would get if that did actually happen and he couldn't get anyone to take notice of him???? LOL!! It would be worth it just to see his reaction.)

All I can hope is that the future of this country lies in hands more sane than his.

#speakZA - blogs for freedom of the press

One of the problems of being so busy is that the whole #speakZA campaign passed me by. I feel so stupid! I've at least managed to keep up with the news headlines, so I'm aware of all the ridiculous things Julius Malema has been saying. However, not having been on Twitter much, I didn't know about the #speakZA campaign, until this evening when I was catching up on my rss feeds, and saw several posts on it.

Better late than never, I say. So, here I am, jumping on the bandwagon. I am deeply worried about the things that Mr Malema has been sprouting, not because they're just so ridiculous and old-fashioned and seem much more suitable for an Apartheid era politician, but because he genuinely represents a large sector of the country. So, to all the Malema supporters: I stand in solidarity with the reporters you tried to intimidate and say that you need to remember that freedom of the press is what saved this country before.

This is the complaint that Nyiko Shivambu wrote:

Last week, shocking revelations concerning the activities of the ANC Youth League spokesperson Nyiko Floyd Shivambu came to the fore. According to a letter published in various news outlets, a complaint was laid by 19 political journalists with the Secretary General of the ANC, against Shivambu. This complaint letter detailed attempts by Shivambu to leak a dossier to certain journalists, purporting to expose the money laundering practices of Dumisani Lubisi, a journalist at the City Press. The letter also detailed the intimidation that followed when these journalists refused to publish these revelations.

We condemn in the strongest possible terms the reprisals against journalists by Shivambu. His actions constitute a blatant attack on media freedom and a grave infringement on Constitutional rights. It is a disturbing step towards dictatorial rule in South Africa. We call on the ANC and the ANC Youth League to distance themselves from the actions of Shivambu. The media have, time and again, been a vital democratic safeguard by exposing the actions of individuals who have abused their positions of power for personal and political gain.

The press have played a vital role in the liberation struggle, operating under difficult and often dangerous conditions to document some of the most crucial moments in the struggle against apartheid. It is therefore distressing to note that certain people within the ruling party are willing to maliciously target journalists by invading their privacy and threatening their colleagues in a bid to silence them in their legitimate work.

We also note the breathtaking hubris displayed by Shivambu and the ANC Youth League President Julius Malema in their response to the letter of complaint. Shivambu and Malema clearly have no respect for the media and the rights afforded to the media by the Constitution of South Africa. Such a response serves only to reinforce the position that the motive for leaking the so-called dossier was not a legitimate concern, but an insolent effort to intimidate and bully a journalist who had exposed embarrassing information about the Youth League President.

We urge the ANC as a whole to reaffirm its commitment to media freedom and other Constitutional rights we enjoy as a country.

Blog Roll:
http://bridesmaid-to-be.blogspot.com
http://thoughtleader.co.za/siphohlongwane
http://rwrant.co.za
http://vocfm.co.za/blogs/munadia/
http://vocfm.co.za/blogs/shafiqmorton/
http://blogs.news24.com/needpoint
http://capetowngirl.co.za
http://thoughtleader.co.za/sentletsediakanyo
http://thoughtleader.co.za/davidjsmith
http://letterdash.com/one-eye-only
http://boyuninterrupted.blogspot.com
http://amandasevasti.com
http://blog.empyrean.co.za/
http://letterdash.com/brencro
http://6000.co.za
http://chrisroper.co.za
http://pieftw.com
http://hamishpillay.wordpress.com
http://memoirs4kimya.blogspot.com
http://thoughtleader.co.za/azadessa
http://watkykjy.co.za
http://fredhatman.co.za
http://thelifeanddeathchronicles.blogspot.com/
http://blogs.timeslive.co.za/common-dialogue/
http://clivesimpkins.blogs.com/
http://mashadutoit.wordpress.com
http://nicharalambous.com
http://sarocks.co.za
http://blogs.timeslive.co.za/stompies/
http://helenmoffett.book.co.za/blog/
http://01universe.blogspot.com
http://groundwork.worpress.com
http://iwrotethisforyou.me
http://fionasnyckers.book.co.za
http://attentiontodetail.wordpress.com
http://blogs.women24.com/editor
http://www.missmillib.blogspot.com
http://snowgoose.co.za
http://dreamfoundry.co.za
http://www.vanoodle.blogspot.com
http://www.exmi.co.za
http://cat-dubai.blogspot.com
http://alistairfairweather.com
http://www.zanedickens.com
http://www.nickhuntdavis.com
http://guysa.blogspot.com
http://book.co.za
http://baldy.co.za
http://skinnylaminx.com
http://blogs.african-writing.com/zukiswa
http://www.mielie.wordpress.com
http://blogs.timeslive.co.za/gatherer/
http://thoughtleader.co.za/sarahbritten
http://stii.co.za
http://blogs.news24.com/FSB_AP
http://twistedkoeksuster.blogspot.com
http://whensmokegetsinyoureyes.blogspot.com/
http://trinklebean.wordpress.com
http://commentry.wordpress.com/
http://matthewbuckland.com
http://blogs.news24.com/colour-me-fran
http://gormendizer.co.za
http://helenmoffett.book.co.za/blog/
http://www.harassedmom.co.za
http://ravingfans.co.za
http://khadijapatel.co.za
http://simon.co.za/speakza
http://gnatj.com
http://moralfibre.co.za
http://www.exmi.co.za
http://fsi.org.za/
http://nix-grim.blogspot.com

ANCYL

The more press the ANCYL gets, the more I have to laugh at their spokespeople. They really have the most RIDICULOUS things to say. I guess that recently (there isn't time to go into all the history) it all began with Julius Malema, ANCYL president, who commented that the ANC was not just going to win a two-thirds majority, but they were going to win a three-thirds majority.

Then, this week, Helen Zille made a comment that was unrelated to a question she had been posed regarding her appointment of an all male provincial cabinet, possibly in an attempt to deflect attention from herself. Her comment was about President Zuma (and THAT is another whole series of blog posts in itself) and his sexual conquests.

Jumping to his defense, the ANCYL made a series of ... I can only call it laughable statements about Helen Zille. The ANCYL is, apparently, "disgusted by remarks attributed to the racist girl Helen Zille, who when failing to defend her stupid and sexist decision to appoint predominantly white males into her Cabinet, attacks the president of the Republic of South Africa. Zille has appointed an all male Cabinet of useless people, majority of whom are her boyfriends and concubines so that she can continue to sleep around with them, yet she claims to have the moral authority to question our president.

OK. So, as if that wasn't ridiculous enough. This morning, on radio 702 (a Jo'burg based talk radio station)/ Cape Talk 567 (the Cape Town version of 702), an interview was held with another ANCYL spokesperson, in an attempt to clarify their statement. You can hear the podcast of the interview here, but two things that were said made me laugh:

1) According to the ANCYL: "Racist" means being someone who undermines black people.

Umm, yeah, I'm not sure in which universe that is the meaning, but last time I checked, it wasn't in this one.

2) According to the ANCYL: "Sleeping around" means sleeping around (not having sex with someone), and if you don't know what that means, then you need to look it up somewhere, because there is no other way to explain it.

OK, then. That really helped to clarify the situation. Thanks. So blue means blue, except that blue is not the colour in the spectrum that is between green and purple, and if you don't know what blue is, then you'd better find someone who can describe it to you, because there's no other language I can use to explain it to you.

In fact, the other thing that made me chuckle was that at the end of the interview the spokesperson told the interviewer to grow up when speaking about 'these matters'. OMW!! Open mouth, engage both feet.