Archive for December, 2008
Wednesday, December 17th, 2008
Redi Direko on her Capetalk/702 morning talk show debated with one of her callers the other day. She stated that just because people in the townships and rural areas were listening to COPE didn’t make them stupid.
On the contrary, she said, they are very aware of the all the happenings of the last year in politics in South Africa.
This is the problem I have with the media and ANC detractors. They take it for granted that people who choose to vote for the ANC do so in ignorance.
If we are to believe the media, people who are flocking to COPE and other parties do so because they are informed. Those who continue voting ANC do so because they don’t know any better!
The very same uneducated and elderly people Redi mentioned having had long debates with in the townships.
Of course there are people who vote for their parties – Democratic Alliance, ANC, COPE, Freedom Front, etc. without thought. They vote for what is familiar, because their parents did, out of fear, or because they like the name. Some even vote against a party.
Whatever the reason, we all have 1 vote – whether we think deeply about our choices or if we play eeny meeny miny mo.
I vote ANC because I believe in all their main policies – which incidently are similar to the DA’s.
The difference between the ANC and the DA, is that unlike the citizens of Zimbabwe, the ANC in particular, fought for my right to vote, to live whereever I can afford to live and for my right to ride in any carriage on a train (if I should ever need to)- something that was illegal for black people just 25 years ago!
If it was up to the DA’s previous incarnations, they would still be fighting the good fight for our political freedom in parliament, while the majority were still living in segregation and without the right to vote.
I appreciate that previous leaders and other ANC members fought for our freedom, so that I don’t have to.
Mainly I vote ANC because its history resonates with me in a way no other party- I identify with it policy-wise and historically.
There have been times when I have not liked decisions the party made – like electing Jacob Zuma as president of the party and possibly country and disbanding the Scorpions.
So maybe COPE will make it easier for our democracy to flourish. I hope so.
As for me, I vote ANC. My vote is not up for debate.
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Wednesday, December 17th, 2008
How do a bunch of sore former ANC losers get together and form a party and then get the electorate excited?
What have Terror Lekota, Alan Boesak and Pieter Marais done all of a sudden to wipe the slate clean?
Just this evening Boesak went on Cape Talk with Mike Wills and mentioned a meeting he had with the ANC big 6, including Jacob Zuma and Kgalema Motlanthe in July of this year. They asked that he campaign for the ANC in the Western Cape during the election run-up.
According to Boesak this was not enough to tempt him to leave his post at his church! Instead he asked for a United Nations Ambassadorship, which they rightly declined.
Hell, this is the man who was convicted of a criminal offence, not even a political one ! How could he represent our country in a official capacity in such a highly visible post after spending time in prison pilfering money from a foreign donor?
Anyone who thinks Alan Boesak has much power in the Western Cape or in the entire country must be raving mad! He was on the ballot in the 1994 election as ANC candidate for premier, but lost to Gerald Morkel of all people.
Hey COPE, why not Pieter Marais for candidate for WC premier seeing you are scraping the bottom of the disgraced politicians barrel? At least Marais has a following.
In his interview on Cape Talk, Boesak intimated that the tipping point for his joining the Congress of the People yesterday was a promise of the Premiership should COPE manage to win the province.
The people on the Cape Flats might be fond of their crazy sons, but they don’t easily forgive someone who was convicted of defrauding a charitable organisation.
Somehow I hope Boesak takes himself out of the public eye and save COPE, because South Africa needs a strong opposition and I would rather that it be COPE than any of the other naysayers.
So many people are excited about COPE. Is there not someone fresh and untainted among them?
Posted in election 2009, politics | 2 Comments »
Sunday, December 14th, 2008
So Congress of the People (COPE) began the launch of their new party today. If only the faces were also new.
If only the rhetoric was new too.
Seeing the same old same old politics will still be at play, with a new name thrown into the hat, can we ask that politicians stop whining?
Except for Helen Zille and her Democratic Alliance who we can never expect to stop whinning!
Today we had Misioua Lekota again calling the ANC names…comparing them to Hendrik Verwoerd or some other apartheid era leaders, regardless how offensive it is for people who spent most of their lives fighting against apartheid! In the same breathe he constantly complains about ANC tactics. Is this not the pot calling the kettle… uhmmm… black?
Mr Lekota can say whatever he wants, but no one else can? He should be able to take as good he gives and stop whining when the ANC responds.
Now if someone was actually in charge of the ANC, they could advise their delegates to keep their mouths shut about COPE and to stop all silly court actions. Give people a chance to hear what COPE has to say for themselves. Give COPE the rope to hang themselves – not literally COPE supporters!
So far they have not said anything different from what we get on a regular basis from the Democratic Alliance and Independent Democrats. Nothing we haven’t heard before.
So far COPE have been a haven for disgruntled ANC supporters, more specifically disgruntled Thabo Mbeki supporters.
If the ANC keeps the discipline that former leaders of the party instilled, then they will have very little to fear in the next elections. Those who will defect have in all likelihood already defected – all COPE and the DA could muster in Langa in the Western Cape was 1200 votes out of 14000+ registered voters in last week’s bi-election.
Not all ANC supporters who dislike what happened at Polokwane and the Thabo Mbeki ousting will automatically choose another party. Whatever the anti-ANC brigade and the media says about ANC supporters blindly supporting our party, we have our reasons for being loyal.
Another party has to come up with something different to get my vote and until now I have not heard anything new to change my vote. Actually all the whining is just solidifying my support that might have been in the balance after Mbeki’s recall.
Posted in election 2009 | 3 Comments »
Saturday, December 13th, 2008
Just my luck!
A week ago I downloaded WordPress 2.6.something for my first WP install ever! It took a few hours, over three days, to figure out how to install and work the whole thing.
It is unbelievable how easy it turned out to be. My new webhost Afrihost made the move so easy (I wish I had made the change much sooner!) If I hadn’t chosen to download WP onto my computer first, the transition would have been even faster and smoother, as Afrihost has the WordPress download available on the cPanel.
After a few trials and errors I found my dream theme (for the moment) through blogohblog.com.
As luck would have it, I logged onto my WP dashboard only to be told that the latest version WP 2.7 is available for download. Yayyyy!! I barely got to know 2.6.something.
The whole thing took a few minutes and I didn’t feel like a total newbie this time.
I put the new download into the sub-directory I had created last week (the source of all my beginner problems) and overrode the old files via ftp. The dashboard was new to me anyway, so the benefits are not that obvious right now.
I am loving WordPress with the dashboard that makes you feel like a mini-god compared with Blogger.
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Thursday, December 11th, 2008
My month long summer holiday starts on Friday afternoon. Right now all I can think of is sleeping as much as possible as exhaustion has set in!
I would have liked to take up a Mauritius holiday package – one of those all inclusive ones – and not do anything but drink cocktails with umbrellas in them and eat seafood. Any holiday destination is impossible right now, but who knows in a few months. Maybe a few weeks before the elections – when politics become even more boring than usual?
Other than doing some work on my website and blogs, I plan to spend some time with my family, see a few movies and just relax as much as possible..
I intend staying away from the mall as much as possible, even if my closest mall is a few hundred metres away from home.
Today I went online to my favourite bead shop sebavasibeads.co.za and ordered a range of semi-precious stones and findings to create jewellery as gifts. I can’t wait to receive my goodies so I can start making necklaces and bracelets.
sebavasibeads.co.za have the best and most cost effective beads that I have come across online and offline. Their service is by far the best, backed up by an up-to-date website. Most other bead shops in this country don’t update the stock levels on their websites, which you only find out once they phone you a few hours later.
I also intend reading one or two novels and try to get Barack Obama’s biography.
Most importantly I will not be going to the office for a month!!!
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