South Africa needs help

State capture, corruption, treason, racketeering, and more, all happening in this beautiful country, South Africa. The people need help, we need to be set free from greedy leaders who have no consideration for the poor people but only fill their pockets.  

 It is a fact, today, there are more people in South Africa who do not have a job, a home, or even food to eat.  Yet wasteful expenditure by government and their allies continues, and soon the situation will explode into a civil war. How much more can ordinary people endure?  Mmusi Miamane, the leader of the Democratic Alliance, is calling on people to help stop this abuse.   Here is his letter and if you want to help, you will be saving a country from doom.


       

30 May 2017 

Fellow South African,

Today I laid serious criminal charges of treason, corruption and racketeering against Jacob Zuma, members of the Gupta family and several cabinet ministers.

This comes after a string of emails were leaked over the weekend that show the extent to which Zuma and his ANC cronies have given over control of our state to the Guptas.

These are most serious crimes against the people of South Africa.

WE NEED YOUR HELP TO SEE THE GUPTAS AND JACOB ZUMA IN HANDCUFFS. 

  The outcome of the ANC’s NEC meeting once again illustrates that the ANC cannot self-correct. 

Your donation will help us pursue court action against Zuma, the Guptas and all those involved with violating the integrity of South Africa.

  CLICK HERE TO DONATE AND HELP US FIGHT THE CORRUPT IN COURT.

Our only hope is in the DA. Help us realise a new beginning for South Africa.

Mmusi Maimane,
DA Leader

Rubbish dump is a hazard for some but a lifeline for others

“I know that the discarded food could be dangerous to the health of me and my child, but I don’t have an option.”

By Joseph Chirume
30 May 2017

Isaac Gabriel and Hilton Goliath make an income from a garbage dumpin Paterson. Photo: Joseph Chirume.

In the small farming town of Paterson, 70 kilometres from Port Elizabeth, residents say a poorly managed dumping site poses a health hazard. However, other members of the community scratch a living out of the rubbish.

Concerned residents say construction companies, including municipal vehicles, dump not only garbage but soil and gravel close to their houses on the road that leads to the site.

Maria, who would not give her surname, wants the site fenced off. She says, “It is very shocking that big companies are openly violating the municipal by-laws. They are not dumping in the designated area. The trucks just dump their rubbish close to our houses … The road is filled with rubbish… The whole area has an unbearable smell.”

She says dogs and animals come to scavenge and people also collected rotten food from the site. “There is always fire at the dumping site … It pollutes the environment,” she says. She also complains of stagnant water that has turned black at the dump.

But 40-year-old Hilton Goliath, who lives alone in a shack in Moreson, says, “The dumping site is a source of income for many unemployed residents here. There are very few job opportunities in this town. I spend most of my time on the dumping place where I collect valuable things, like metal cans, wooden pallets and food.” He says he resells these, but the local scrapyard “offers very little money compared to those in Port Elizabeth”.

Elmarie Gouza says she collects food at the site. “The money that I get from the informal jobs [she does domestic work] is not enough for the upkeep of my child. This is the reason I am looking for valuables that includes food from this rubbish. I know that the food could be dangerous to the health of me and my child, but I don’t have an option. These restaurants throw away raw meat and tinned food here. I first clean the meat and boil it. I put some spices to make it smell good. It is helping me very much, because the food is free and tastes very good.”

Isaac Gabriel, who collects old shoes and clothing at the site, says, “Many people despise me because they say I am scavenging and scrambling for food with animals. There are many dogs, wild pigs and cats that also look for food on this dump site.”

Spokesperson for the Sundays River Municipality Vuyiseka Mboxela said, “The dumping site is amongst the key priorities that our residents have raised during the public road show meetings. They raised that the dumping site should be secured and fenced. So it is an area that we are to act on soon after the budget has been adopted.”

“Even with the highest economic disparities that our country at large faces, a dumping site cannot be what we condone as a way of survival for our communities,” Mboxela said.

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Published originally on GroundUp .

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It's 30 years since Cuito Cuanavale. How the battle redefined southern Africa

Rebel UNITA troops walk through a field twenty miles from the front line at Munhango, Angola April 29, 1986.
Reuters/Wendy Schwegmann

Thirty years ago in southern Angola, four military forces were mobilising for the largest conventional battle in Africa since the Second World War. It was a battle that would have huge consequences for Angola, Namibia and South Africa. Indeed it has been referred to as a turning point in southern African history.

On the one side was the Angolan army backed by Cuban forces and Soviet advisers. On the other was the South African backed Angolan rebel movement fighting to overthrow the government.

The rebel Union for the Total Independence of Angola, better known by their Portuguese acronym Unita, had been one of the three liberation groups fighting Portuguese colonialism. But it is the pro-socialist Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA) which won power in 1975 and formed the government.

With western support and arms supplies from South Africa and the Reagan administration, Unita’s campaign to topple the government turned Angola into a Cold War battleground. The climax of this was the battle at Cuito Cuanavale in southern Angola that lasted from March 1987 until the end of June 1988.

There are still fierce arguments about how important the battle was, who won and whether the South African army was really defeated.

That those who fought in the battle should have wildly different interpretations of its importance is not surprising. This is brought out strikingly in a new edition of Fred Bridgland’s book The War for Africa: Twelve Months that Transformed a Continent. Originally published in 1990, it’s an account, primarily from the South African side, of the military campaign that reached its climax at Cuito Cuanavale.

Contesting narratives

The ANC and it’s leader Nelson Mandela, the Cubans and the Angolan government claim the South African army was decisively defeated. The veteran ANC military intelligence chief Ronnie Kasrils, described it as

a historic turning point in the struggle for the total liberation of the region from racist rule and aggression.

But many South African who fought in Angola swear that they were never defeated, as South African author and academic Leopold Scholtz noted in his book on the battle.

Objective observers declared the end to have been a tactical military stalemate between the allied forces on either side. But it was a stalemate that led to major strategic realignments with huge consequences for the whole region, leading to the independence of Namibia, the withdrawal of South African and Cuban forces from Angola and the eventual dismantling of apartheid.

Nelson Mandela lauded the result of the battle during a visit to Cuba in 1991 to thank Fidel Castro for supporting liberation struggles in southern Africa. The future president of South Africa said in his keynote speech:

The decisive defeat of the racist army in Cuito Cuanavale was a victory for all Africa. This victory in Cuito Cuanavale is what made it possible for Angola to enjoy peace and establish its own sovereignty. The defeat of the racist army made it possible for the people of Namibia to achieve their independence. The decisive defeat of the aggressive apartheid forces destroyed the myth of the invincibility of the white oppressor.

Stalemate in Cuito Cuanavale

At the time of the campaign and the key siege of Cuito Cuanavale, Bridgland was a journalist with unrivalled access to the rebels. Through the rebels, he also got access to South African Defence Force (SADF) in southern Angola. He says that the chief of the SADF, General Jannie Geldenhuys, gave him unfettered access to his officers and men on the frontline.

His account of the Cuito Cuanavale campaign is detailed and fascinating, but clearly written from one side. It was impossible for him to report from the Angolan government and Cuban side. The South Africans had been in Angola almost continuously since their unsuccessful bid in 1975 to put UNITA in power.

Their present objective was to weaken the socialist-oriented Angolan government, stop it from supporting the ANC and the Namibian Swapo movement. The aim was then to create a buffer to stop Swapo guerrillas entering South Africa-occupied Namibia.

The fighting lasted from initial skirmishes in March 1987, through the smashing of the Angolan army advance at the Lomba river in September-October 1987. Then followed the siege of Cuito Cuanavale by the South Africans and Unita from January to the end of March 1988. It ended with the Cuban bombing of the Calueque dam on 27 June 1988.

The battle for Cuito Cuanavale ended in stalemate with the SADF and Unita unable to overrun the Angolan positions and the Angolan-Cuban force unable to continue the offensive. The South Africans admitted to losing 79 dead, with two Mirage fighters and one Bosbok spotter plane shot down, plus three Olifant tanks and four Ratel armoured vehicles destroyed, as Bridgland describes in his very detailed book.

Politics by other means

The combination of being fought to a stalemate in the battle, and the heavy loss of life and material that couldn’t be replaced, was something South Africa couldn’t ignore. On top of that was the attack on the Calueque dam which demonstrated Angolan and Cuban air superiority.

Taken in the context of the domestic political violence, the growing economic crisis and international pressure, the results of the Cuito Cuanavale campaign were crucial in persuading the leaders of South Africa’s National Party to cut their losses. They did so following talks with the Soviet Union, Angola, Cuba, Britain and the United States.

This led directly to a ceasefire agreement on the total withdrawal of South African and Cuban forces from Angola. Also agreed was a timetable for UN-supervised elections in Namibia, leading to independence in March 1990. By this time, the ANC had been unbanned and Mandela released.

Cuito Cuanavale was not a military victory for any of the combatants. One must view it in the light of the maxim of the 19th century military theorist, Carl von Clausewitz that war is the “continuation of politics by other means”. There was never going to be a decisive military victory in southern Angola.

The battle of Cuito Cuanavale was a turning point, but one that needs to be taken in context.

Keith Somerville, Visiting Professor, University of Kent

This article was originally published on The Conversation.

Facebook's new anti-fake news strategy is not going to work – but something else might

Have you seen some “tips to spot fake news” on your Facebook newsfeed recently?

Over the past year, the social media company has been scrutinized for influencing the US presidential election by spreading fake news (propaganda). Obviously, the ability to spread completely made-up stories about politicians trafficking child sex slaves and imaginary terrorist attacks with impunity is bad for democracy and society.

Something had to be done.

Enter Facebook’s new, depressingly incompetent strategy for tackling fake news. The strategy has three, frustratingly ill-considered parts.

New products

The first part of the plan is to build new products to curb the spread of fake news stories. Facebook says it’s trying “to make it easier to report a false news story” and find signs of fake news such as “if reading an article makes people significantly less likely to share it.”

It will then send the story to independent fact checkers. If fake, the story “will get flagged as disputed and there will be a link to a corresponding article explaining why.”

This sounds pretty good, but it won’t work.

If non-experts could tell the difference between real news and fake news (which is doubtful), there would be no fake news problem to begin with.

What’s more, Facebook says: “We cannot become arbiters of truth ourselves — it’s not feasible given our scale, and it’s not our role.” Nonsense.

Facebook is like a megaphone. Normally, if someone says something horrible into the megaphone, it’s not the megaphone company’s fault. But Facebook is a very special kind of megaphone that listens first and then changes the volume.



The company’s algorithms largely determine both the content and order of your newsfeed. So if Facebook’s algorithms spread some neo-Nazi hate speech far and wide, yes, it is the company’s fault.

Worse yet, even if Facebook accurately labels fake news as contested, it will still affect public discourse through “availability cascades.”

Each time you see the same message repeated from (apparently) different sources, the message seems more believable and reasonable. Bold lies are extremely powerful because repeatedly fact-checking them can actually make people remember them as true.

These effects are exceptionally robust; they cannot be fixed with weak interventions such as public service announcements, which brings us to the second part of Facebook’s strategy: helping people make more informed decisions when they encounter false news.

Helping you help yourself

Facebook is releasing public service announcements and funding the “news integrity initiative” to help “people make informed judgments about the news they read and share online”.

This – also – doesn’t work.

A vast body of research in cognitive psychology concerns correcting systematic errors in reasoning such as failing to perceive propaganda and bias. We have known since the 1980s that simply warning people about their biased perceptions doesn’t work.

Similarly, funding a “news integrity” project sounds great until you realise the company is really talking about critical thinking skills.

Improving critical thinking skills is a key aim of primary, secondary and tertiary education. If four years of university barely improves these skills in students, what will this initiative do? Make some Youtube videos? A fake news FAQ?



Funding a few research projects and “meetings with industry experts” doesn’t stand a chance to change anything.

Disrupting economic incentives

The third prong of this non-strategy is cracking down on spammers and fake accounts, and making it harder for them to buy advertisements. While this is a good idea, it’s based on the false premise that most fake news comes from shady con artists rather than major news outlets.

You see, “fake news” is Orwellian newspeak — carefully crafted to mean a totally fabricated story from a fringe outlet masquerading as news for financial or political gain. But these stories are the most suspicious and therefore the least worrisome. Bias and lies from public figures, official reports and mainstream news are far more insidious.

And what about astrology, homeopathy, psychics, anti-vaccination messages, climate change denial, intelligent design, miracles, and all the rest of the irrational nonsense bandied about online? What about the vast array of deceptive marketing and stealth advertising that is core to Facebook’s business model?

As of this writing, Facebook doesn’t even have an option to report misleading advertisements.

What is Facebook to do?

Facebook’s strategy is vacuous, evanescent, lip service; a public relations exercise that makes no substantive attempt to address a serious problem.

But the problem is not unassailable. The key to reducing inaccurate perceptions is to redesign technologies to encourage more accurate perception. Facebook can do this by developing a propaganda filter — something like a spam filter for lies.

Facebook may object to becoming an “arbiter of truth”. But coming from a company that censors historic photos and comedians calling for social justice, this sounds disingenuous.



Nonetheless, Facebook has a point. To avoid accusations of bias, it should not create the propaganda filter itself. It should simply fund researchers in artificial intelligence, software engineering, journalism and design to develop an open-source propaganda filter that anyone can use.

Why should Facebook pay? Because it profits from spreading propaganda, that’s why.

Sure, people will try to game the filter, but it will still work. Spam is frequently riddled with typos, grammatical errors and circumlocution not only because it’s often written by non-native English speakers but also because the weird writing is necessary to bypass spam filters.

If the propaganda filter has a similar effect, weird writing will make the fake news that slips through more obvious. Better yet, an effective propaganda filter would actively encourage journalistic best practices such as citing primary sources.

Developing a such a tool won’t be easy. It could take years and several million dollars to refine. But Facebook made over US$8 billion last quarter, so Mark Zuckerberg can surely afford it.

Paul Ralph, Senior Lecturer in Computer Science

This article was originally published on The Conversation.

The Soweto Declaration

At a “Land Imbizo” in Soweto this weekend, Andile Mngxitama, the leader of the Black Land First movement, issued a declaration which is quoted in full below.

Mngxitama stated last week that the BLF is not interested in attendance of any white people at the imbizo. The declaration makes no provision for recognition of the fact that black people has no claim to large parts of South Africa, including predominantly the Western Cape where the first black people arrived AFTER the European settlement of 1652. The declaration makes no provision for recognition of the fact that there is no legal evidence of prior ownership to the land claimed, nor of the fact that all farmers have evidence of legally obtaining and owning their land. The declaration fails to acknowledge that white people are South African citizens as well with a full right of residence and the right to own property as protected by the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa and the Statutes of the United Nation as recognised by the government of South Africa.

In light of the wording of this statement, which boils down to utter racism, incitement to violence and hate speech, Front National South Africa regards Mngxitama and his gang of followers as terrorists and demand that they be treated as such under the legal procedures against terrorism in the South African Constitution and Laws of the Republic.

If anybody has to go to jail – it is this man!

National Land Imbizo
Mofolo Park
Soweto
27 May 2017
Introduction
We, the landless people who are the rightful owners of this country, its wealth and the land – here today, in Soweto (at Mofolo Park) declare the following:
1. South Africa belongs to black people!
2. White people came here in 1652 and stole our land and made us their slaves.
3. The land and its wealth, everything underground, the oceans and the sky belong to black people.
4. All our sufferings, our poverty, the violence in the townships, in the squatter camps, and in our rural villages are caused fundamentally by the fact that we remain a landless people.
5. Without land there is no freedom or dignity.
6. All the land in the hands of white people is stolen property.
We note with anger that:
1. After twenty three years of democracy, only 35 000 white families own 80% of the land!
2. Blacks own only 3% of the JSE!
3. Racism is rife in South Africa!
4. Whites exploit, oppress and murder black people every day in the farms and the rural townships!
5. White monopoly capital which exploits our land and minerals has murdered our brothers in Marikana and has not paid reparations or accounted for their wrongdoings!
6. White monopoly capital mines illegally in South Africa (SA) – who gave De Beers, Lonmin and others the right to mine on stolen land?
7. When blacks mine they are called illegal, forced into unsafe conditions and condemned by white owned media as “Zama Zama” miners.
8. White monopoly capital murders the rightful owners of the land and wealth and calls them Zama Zamas.
9. We note that the courts don’t take racism seriously!
10. Blacks are being evicted every day from our homes and land by the white racist farmers on the farms; by white owned racist and corrupt banks; by the courts and sheriffs in the towns and townships; and by municipalities we vote for in squatter camps!
11. Because of landlessness we blacks are congested in the townships including in the backyards!
12. The government has up now not produced a plan to return our land and help stop our suffering!
13. Our government is buying land which was stolen from us through its “willing buyer, willing seller” policy.
14. It will take us more than 100 years to buy back only 30% of the land, if we follow the current pace of land delivery!
15. 8% of the land was bought back from whites at more than R50 billion since 1994!
We furthermore, declare that:
1. The post 1994 government has failed to return our land for the past 23 years!
2. That the ANC must apologise for this, ask for pardon and take action now!
3. White people have not shown that they are sorry or that they acknowledge their sins for slavery, colonialism, apartheid and land theft!
4. White people have not acknowledged that the wealth, comfort and security that they enjoy today is from the direct oppression, exploitation and land dispossession of the black majority!
5. Whites have had 350 years to give back our land and they did not do so. Moreover, whites had twenty three years to say they are sorry and they did not say so!
6. Now, we no longer want dialogue with whites – want our land back!
7. The biggest and most evil corruption is land theft – this is the mother of all corruption!
8. The crisis in the life of black people comes from historical land dispossession – we cannot heal if the land is not returned!
We note with sadness the following:
1. Our political leaders remain divided and not focused on the real issues affecting black people.
2. Most of our political leaders speak one thing and do the opposite.
3. Most of the political leaders are in the pockets of white monopoly capital.
4. President Zuma has called for Land Expropriation Without Compensation – instead of supporting this call, the land question has been made into a political football in parliament.
5. White owned media, the politicians captured by imperialism and white monopoly capital (both inside the ANC and the opposition) only pay lip service to the question of land return.
7. Politics are made to make blacks fight amongst themselves over nothing!
8. All black politicians in parliament, irrespective of political party affiliation, are landless people like the rest of us.
9. The talk of state capture and corruption is focused only on blacks.
We therefore ask the following questions:
1. Can a landless people play the games of politics amongst themselves?
2. What can be gained by fighting amongst ourselves when the country remains in white hands?
3. Why are these political parties and elders not supporting the call of President Zuma for land expropriation without compensation?
4. We ask the ANC, why do you say we must buy land which was stolen from us?
5. We ask the ANC further, why are you not listening to your own President?
Our Demands!
These demands must be met by any means necessary!
1. “Land expropriation without compensation” must be made policy before the end of 2017!
2. Stop all evictions – from bond houses, from farms, from flats in the inner cities, from squatter camps NOW!
3. We want state owned banks in all the provinces by the end of 2017!
4. The Zama Zama miners must be regularised and given all the assistance they need!
5. Backyards Must Fall! All adult persons must be given land and subsidies for housing!
6. The value of mortgage bonded houses must be reduced up to 50% because the land is free!
7. Those who have paid for land as part of the mortgage bond must be refunded!
8. Nationalisation of the mines must be realized so that we may benefit!
9. Workers must get a minimum wage of R12500.00 per month. The Marikana mine workers died for this!
10. All the schools must educate the learners about land dispossession and the struggle to regain our land and dignity!
11. Government must assist us to plant our own food!
12. A law must be made that clearly states that any white person found guilty of murdering or harming a black person must go to jail after which that person must lose his/her property and be deported to Europe!
Our Program of Action
We call on all those organisations that are not here and those that are present, to each send two representative to serve on the National Steering Committee for the return of the land!
What must parliament do?
1. We call upon parliament to amend section 25 of the Constitution to affect the policy of “land expropriation without compensation”, before the end of 2017!
2. The Steering Committee must meet all black political parties which are represented in parliament.
3. The Steering Committee must meet the ANC about these demands before their policy conference.
4 The Steering Committee must meet President Zuma as soon as possible.
5 The Steering Committee must visit President Mugabe to get wisdom and courage to fight for land!
What must the church do?
1. The colonial churches must repent and ask for forgiveness. The church which worked closely with the colonialists to take the land of black people must return the land to the people! In 2007, the churches under South African Council of Churches (SACC) made a declaration to return the stolen land, they have not done so!
2. The Steering Committee must demand a meeting with the SACC as soon as possible!
What must white people do?
White people are the direct beneficiaries of land theft from black people. Even those who today are not involved in mining or farming are direct beneficiaries of colonialism and apartheid. The schools they go to, the houses they live in, the wealth they have, all come from land theft and oppression of black people. No white person is not implicated or is not a beneficiary of racism – this includes those who are dead and even those who are not yet born.
Whites have a choice to continue with arrogance or they can decide to cooperate with blacks and return the stolen land. Whites must meet in their own land imbizo and resolve by when the land shall be returned to its rightful owners! The whites imbizo must happen before the end of 2017! We don’t want dialogue we want land!
What must the landless do?
If the landless wait for politicians, for the church or whites to do something about land, then we shall wait forever. Its up to the landless and their organisations to take action on the ground so as to speed up all the processes to regain the lost land. When land was taken from us, there was no law, no parliament, no talks of two third majority – the whites just took our land through force. We have to regain our land by any means necessary!
1. The Steering Committee must work to establish a national land occupation program which must be launched on the 1st of January 2018! The night of the New Year, shall be the night of new things!
2. All the war veterans of the liberation movement must join and lead the struggle for land return through direct action. The veterans of the Azanian People’s Liberation Army (APLA), the MKMVA and the Azanian National Liberation Army (AZANLA) must join hands with all those who seek the return of the land now!
3. The Steering Committee shall also meet these war veterans organisations within the next two months!
4. The Steering Committee must also work with the revolutionary High School learners and university students on the programme for land return through re-occupying our stolen land.
5. The Steering Committee must meet with the African Kings and Indigenous leaders (traditional leaders) on the this Declaration and POA.
6. Every town and village must identify white owned productive land, and prepare to occupy it!
If we don’t take action nothing will change!

The bones of our ancestors are crying out for land. They are not resting in peace. The bones of Sikhukhune, Shaka, Nyabela, Hintsa, Moshweshwe, Cetshwayo, Nghunghunyane are calling for land now! The spirit of Bambatha, Sobukwe, Biko, Mantatise, Nzinga, Nehanda, Tsietsi Mashinini, Kgotso Seatlholo cry over the centuries across the African continent for land to be returned!

It is the land that gives us life and when we die, it’s the land that takes care of our bodies. Without land we are nothing! With land we are everything! That is why we must be black first through getting the land first!

Today here in Soweto we declare that for these commitments we shall fight side by side as comrades, sisters and brothers, as one united black people, until we get back the land!
Take back the land! Land or Death!

Delivered by Andile Mngxitama,
President of Black First Land First
Read the original article by Daniel Lötter on Front Nasionaal SA – blad
Published on South Africa Today – South Africa News