REMOVE THE MAFIAS AND THEIR BOSS ENSCONCED IN THE UNION BUILDING AND NOT THE BOOK.
The Congress of the People (COPE) condemns in the strongest terms the actions and behaviour by SARS to intimidate Jacques Pauw and the publishers of ‘The President’s Keepers’ and the right-wing apartheid-style and fascist threat of the State Security Agency (SSA) to stop the distribution of the book, and the exposure of what is clearly the uncomfortable truth.
The book is clearly in the public interest and of great public importance given the evidence and confirmation presented of the most gross and treasonous abuse of power by Jacob Zuma and his bandits.
What SARS and SSA ought to be doing is to launch an urgent investigation into the breathtaking and brazen criminality which the book exposes and not to harass and intimidate those who act in the best interests of the nation. By now they should be launching searches and seizures at the premises of the tax dodgers, smugglers, crooks and criminals including raiding the Nkandla bunker as well as the Union Building which is used to ensconce the Mafia boss. Their shameless conduct serves to prove that their purpose of law enforcement without fear or favour has long left them and is replaced by stampede to save the Mafia boss. They will fail because they attempt to swim against the forceful tide of the mass rejection of Jacob Zuma's evils.
COPE calls upon all South Africans to stand up for the truth; in solidarity with Pauw, his Publishers and the distributors; for the democratic right to a free press; and against the actions of Zuma’s government and the ANC. During the dying days of the authoritarian apartheid regime they attempted to do the same but they were defeated. Let's act together again to defeat the forces of darkness.
Johannesburg has become a regional retail hub with cross border shopping activity running into billions. Mark Lewis
Over the last 20 years Johannesburg has become an intense wholesale and retail centre for local hawkers and for traders from all over sub-Saharan Africa. Billions of rand worth of fast fashion is sold annually in the traditional central business district and in 20 large Chinese shopping malls west of the inner city.
It is a vast, booming, low-end globalised trade that has transformed space and pioneered a retail phenomenon in the inner city for the sale of cheap clothing, shoes, household wares and accessories. Informal estimates based on bus passenger numbers and spending reported in the survey suggest that cross border shoppers are spending over R10 billion each year in Johannesburg’s CBD.
A new study into cross-border shopping in the inner city maps the shops and the goods sold. Researchers did detailed interviews with 300 retailers and 400 cross border shoppers as well as hotel managers and bus operators that service the flow of shoppers who travel to Johannesburg from countries including Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Malawi, Lesotho, Swaziland and Zambia.
The survey gave the first concrete insights into a vast trading web that operates in the cash economy and below the radar of formalised planning regulation. Yet it is an economy yielding four times the annual turnover of an average regional sized shopping mall.
The extent of the trade isn’t really known. And the scale of cross border shopping is widely disputed in City offices and among property investors. But the survey shows that the city of Johannesburg should acknowledge that its inner city has developed into the shopping hub of sub-Saharan Africa. Some retailers have dubbed it the Dubai of South Africa. That ambition – that it be a global retail centre – should be embraced in economic strategy and in physical plans to upgrade the area.
Hive of unreported activity
The research focuses on 53 city blocks within the Johannesburg CBD anchored by more than 3000 shops. These are streets that bustle with street traders, ground level shopping alleys and high rise shopping centres. The shopping zone is close to rail, bus and taxi infrastructure. It is also served by cross border bus depots and hotels.
The shopping hub is intense with throngs of pedestrians and determined shoppers crowding the streets on any given day. Buildings that have outlived their usefulness as office space and medical suites have been appropriated and converted at a rapid rate – primarily by migrant Ethiopian traders - to shopping centres hosting thousands of cupboard sized shops.
This activity has developed over two decades. It started as a quiet encroachment of space in the mid-1990s when Ethiopian survivalist entrepreneurs, who had fled their country to seek political asylum in South Africa, rented space in almost empty office towers. The space grew first incrementally and then in rapid bursts to become a burgeoning economic enclave created through the dramatic occupation and subdivision of space.
Based on the interviews, we calculated that the annual profit takings in the city blocks we surveyed amounts to close to R7 billion profit every year. But this is likely to be a major underestimate.
The sample survey indicates that about 70% of the shoppers contributing to these profits are cross border shoppers. Each shopper is spending an average of R14 364 on goods per shopping trip. In addition R3 497 is spent on other services including transport.
A large number of bus companies is linked to the trade. On one day 51 bus companies were operating from 19 sites. In that same week, a moderate shopping season of the year (mid August), 465 buses carrying up to 60 passengers - many of these being shoppers - left Johannesburg to neighbouring countries.
Johannesburg as a violent city
But retailers and shoppers face enormous risks. The dependence on cash poses a big risk in an area rife with crime and corruption and where law enforcement agencies appear to be complicit in illegal activities.
Over 60% of retailers interviewed said they had been physically attacked or assaulted. And 38% had regularly “gifted” police officers.
For shoppers the risk is also extreme. A third of shoppers interviewed had been exposed to violent crime. They travel in groups and hide their money. They depend heavily on the security and storage facilities of hotels and bus depots for safety.
These levels of crime are a major break on Johannesburg’s ability to maximise the benefits of these shopping trips. Shoppers are spending an average of 2.5 days on each trip. But they spend comparatively little on accommodation and almost nothing on entertainment. And they are too fearful to spend more time in Johannesburg than their shopping requires.
Most said they didn’t use city restaurants, preferring to lock themselves in their hotel rooms in the early evening. And retailers said they would like extended shopping hours but they close shops around 5pm because of safety concerns.
Untapped potential
Cross border shoppers are international visitors to Johannesburg. Their visits increase the demand for services, products and good infrastructure – all of which attract jobs and investment in the inner city. They require and inspire new investment in buildings, maintenance, entertainment services, transportation services and accommodation establishments. They transform buildings and environments. And they attract and support new cultural enclaves and diversity.
Shoppers and retailers say they would like to increase their investment in shopping in the inner city, there are signs of renewed interest from property investors and a number of new shopping centres have been developed in recent years.
But this potential will go untapped unless the city changes its attitude and tackles the risks in the area. Crime – particularly crime committed by law enforcement officers – must be curbed. By recognising and celebrating this sub-Saharan African shopping hub Johannesburg can take full advantage of the benefits of being the region’s shopping hub. In turn that could lead to Johannesburg becoming the host of choice for shoppers and retailers in this international trade.
“We spend millions of rands on security instead of growing food for the nation”
By Tariro Washinyira
30 October 2017
Demonstrators against farm murders gathered near Green Point Stadium. Photo: Ashraf Hendricks
Thousands of people, many of them farmers, drove in convoy to Cape
Town on Monday, eventually gathering at the Green Point stadium, to
protest against farm murders. For much of the morning and afternoon the
N1 into Cape Town moved at a snail’s pace.
“I want these killings to stop. I do not want any woman to suffer the
way I did … My children are heartbroken,” said Marlene Conradie, widow
of murdered farmer Joubert Conradie of Uitkyk farm in Klapmuts.
“We are ordinary people who grow grapes, peaches and olives,” she
said. Marlene and her two children, Hannes (15) and Jane (11), were
marching in Monday’s protest, titled “Genoeg is genoeg, enough is
enough”.
AfriForum says: “Since 1 January 2017, at least 341 farm attacks have
been committed, during which at least 70 people have been murdered.
This means that during 2017 so far, there has already been more farm
murders than the total amount of farm murders during 2016.”
According to Africa Check
“police’s statistics differ” from those previously supplied by
AfriForum. There are also other figures given by the Transvaal
Agricultural Union. There are reasons for the differences based on
methodology and also the definition of famer and farm or rural
smallholding. It is extremely difficult to verify or determine how many
farm owners have been killed on farms and also what the statistics are
for farm workers living on farms.
Marlene Conradie and her 15 year old son Hannes console each
other. Marlene’s husband Joubert Conradie was murdered on their farm in
Klapmuts last week.
The protesters wore black regalia and held placards with: “Stop
killing farmers”, “In memory of murdered farmers” and “No farmer no
food”. GroundUp saw just one person with a small old South African flag
on their T-shirt.
A dairy farmer and wheat producer, Thys Swart Swellendam of
Grootvadersbosch Landgoed, told GroundUp: “We provide jobs for many farm
workers and for each farmer that is killed, it means job losses and
farms are ruined, and the secondary industry as well, because we produce
raw materials for factories and other industries.”
He said farm workers are also attacked sometimes and their families
are in danger. “We spent millions of rands just on security. That keeps
us busy instead of growing food for the nation. With drought in the
Western Cape, it is difficult because besides buying stock for animals
we must also spend on security. Police, who should be providing
security, are not doing that. Farmers are dependent on themselves and
their neighbours.”
Some are however critical of the farmers. Colette Solomon, Director
of Women on Farms Project (WFP) told GroundUp: “Women on farms do not
feel safe from the farmers. They experience verbal, physical, sexual
abuse and intimidation. Their tenure and housing rights are frequently
violated but when they report to the police, police don’t take action.
As a result most of them do not report abuse.”
Protesters hold hands and pray. Photo: Ashraf Hendricks
Published originally on
GroundUp
.
The following story is a reminder about the horrific situation white people, especially farmers endure. Torture, rape, brutality and it has not stopped. Farmers, white people remain oppressed in South Africa. A 12-year-old white boy was drowned in a bath of boiling water by black robbers who raped his mother before killing both his parents in a violent house robbery.
Three blacks broke into the family’s home in Walkerville, Johannesburg, where they assaulted and shot dead Tony Viana, 53, and brutally raped and killed his wife, Geraldine. They then tied up and gagged the sobbing boy, Amaro, and pushed him into a bath of boiling hot water to drown him, ‘because he would be able to identify them’.
The family’s gardener, Patrick Petrus Radebe, 24, their domestic servant’s son, Sipho Mbele, 21, pleaded guilty to three charges of murder and one charge of rape each, reported The Telegraph. David Motaung, 20, pleaded guilty on Tuesday to robbery charges.
According to the accused, “we mutually raped Geraldine Viana.” Sipho Mbele raped her first while Petrus Radebe helped to restrain her by standing on her face. Afterwards Radebe raped her too. The white family’s dog apparently barked tremendously during the burglary. The animal was killed by disembowelment.
They then left the South African court and walked back their cells laughing, according to Beeld newspaper. As the death penalty was abolished in South Africa, they will probably get lengthy prison sentences but could be out on parole within five to ten years.
Now there have been 70.000+ murdered total South African Whites in the unreported genocide since the end of Apartheid. Is this the “saint” Nelson Mandela’s “rainbow nation”? Source
In August this year, the Democratic Alliance posted the following -
How many farm murders will be enough for government to take action?
The recent wave of farm murders across the country must see swift and effective action from the ANC government.
Yet our government has continuously failed to put into action already set up plans for rural safety that will mean that farm workers and farmers no longer have to be subjected to torture, murder or the fear of falling victim to brutal attacks.
The DA wishes to convey its condolences to the families of those who have been killed in these attacks.
The Chairperson of the Portfolio Committee on Police, Mr Francois Beukman, has the power to make the Minister of Police, Fikile Mbalula, explain the continued failure to protect farming communities.
The DA will therefore write to request that Mr. Beukman summon Minister Mbalula to urgently explain and to commit to keeping South Africans safe by implementing the rural safety plans.
We will also conduct oversight visits to measure the extent to which police stations are equipped to deal with violence in rural communities.
The government needs to prioritise the safety of farming communities as workers and farmers have a right to be protected from violent attacks.
Our citizens in rural communities should not live in fear while their leaders turn a blind eye to farm attacks. Source
At the end of the day, the white minority remains oppressed and under constant attack. Its time for world leaders to recognize the severity of the situation.
Running out of options. Finance Minister Malusi Gigaba speaks after delivering his medium term budget. REUTERS/Sumaya Hisham
South Africa’s 2017 medium-term budget policy statement represents a watershed moment in the post-apartheid economic and fiscal position. The best thing that can be said about it, is that it was at least frankly honest about the situation the country is facing. Arguably, there was no choice. The country has reached a situation where it’s no longer possible to spin the notion that public debt is under control.
In recent years, South Africa’s National Treasury has desperately, and creatively, tried to avoid making deep cuts to government expenditure, or imposing drastic revenue raising measures on citizens. It did this while still convincing investors and credit ratings agencies that public finances would stabilise.
But the 2017 medium term budget makes it clear that the project has essentially reached the end of the road. The notion that national debt will stabilise has now effectively had to be abandoned. South Africa’s latest finance minister, Malusi Gigaba, effectively gave up on the debt targets set out by Pravin Gordhan a year ago when he stated that net national debt as a percent of GDP should stabilise at 47.9% by 2019/20. Gigaba announced yesterday that this is expected to be 49.1% by the end of this fiscal year, increasing to 53.9% by 2019/20.
This is a clear sign that any attempt to stabilise debt has failed. A further ratings downgrade is now highly likely. And it will be worse than the last one which only affected foreign currency debt. Gigaba’s budget proposals are likely to lead to a downgrade of the country’s local denominated debt, which will increase government borrowing costs and could lead to significant capital outflows. Even without a downgrade the medium term budget reveals that debt service costs are expected to increase from 11% of total expenditure to 15% over the next few years.
Without higher revenue, that means less money to spend on government’s constitutional obligations and policy commitments. Unfortunately, the gloomy story is largely driven by a massive shortfall in revenue collection of R50.8 billion. So attempting to avoid these consequences through taxation is not looking like a feasible option.
In the current political environment, even the best case scenario is grim. In fact the country’s finances could worsen even further if the outcome of the governing party’s elective conference in December doesn’t see a return to good governance and responsible fiscal management.
Slippery slope since 2008
In the years since the global financial crisis that started in 2008, the government allowed expenditure to increase faster than growth and revenue. This was done with the hope of offsetting the short-term effects of the crisis and getting the country back onto a stable path of significant economic growth.
That led to a rapid increase in national debt relative to the size of the economy. But the failure of the economy to recover – due in part to political instability, bad decision making and poor governance – meant that this approach became unsustainable.
In the last few years successive national budgets have walked a tightrope in trying to contain the growth in debt. Planned spending has been reduced, while some tax rates have been increased and new tax instruments introduced. Amid all these manoeuvres, dramatic cuts to government expenditure, or wide-reaching increases in taxes, have been avoided.
Efforts to arrest fiscal decline were sabotaged by the removal of Gordhan in March this year. His removal meant that the institutional reputation of the finance ministry was compromised and, since it was this that had kept the country’s credit ratings intact despite increasing fiscal pressure, the country’s foreign denominated debt was downgraded to “junk” (sub-investment grade).
Storm clouds on the horizon
As if the picture wasn’t gloomy enough, numerous risks to the fiscal projections and proposals loom on the horizon. South Africa’s president Jacob Zuma continues to sit on the higher education funding report, causing further instability at universities. That leaves open the possibility that more money for university students may be needed at short notice.
And the finances of various state owned enterprises are teetering, requiring increasing government support to prop them up. Since Gigaba took over the ministry he has taken R5.2 billion from the R6 billion “contingency reserve” – which is meant to be used for emergencies, or other unforeseeable events, such as natural disasters – to prop-up South African Airways. This broke with commitments to fund bailouts using revenue from asset sales. The medium term budget cements this breach – funds used to prop up the airline will not be replaced with funds from asset sales.
But the most menacing risk is the power utility Eskom, which is propped up by R350 billion in debt guarantees, but faces rising infrastructure costs, stagnant electricity demand and successive corruption scandals linked to state capture. Due to the scale of the commitments to Eskom, it will be impossible to contain the negative consequences if its lenders start refusing to rollover its debt.
No political will
Reading between the lines of the medium term budget, there is evidently no political will at the highest levels – the president and his cabinet – to do the right thing. The only reduction in planned expenditure is a cut to the contingency reserve. But responding to rising debt by reducing money for future emergencies is emblematic of the reluctance to take braver decisions like cutting the bloated, pointless ministries seemingly introduced by Zuma to employ his political cronies and their associates.
South Africa’s public finances are in dangerous territory and very difficult decisions will have to be taken before the 2018 budget if the situation is going to be stabilised. This will require politicians and civil servants who are competent and dedicated to the public interest to make bold decisions. Without such leadership the resultant trajectory will undermine the ideals and objectives of the post-apartheid era for many years to come.
But this potential will go untapped unless the city changes its attitude and tackles the risks in the area. Crime – particularly crime committed by law enforcement officers – must be curbed. By recognising and celebrating this sub-Saharan African shopping hub Johannesburg can take full advantage of the benefits of being the region’s shopping hub. In turn that could lead to Johannesburg becoming the host of choice for shoppers and retailers in this international trade.
South Africa’s public finances are in dangerous territory and very difficult decisions will have to be taken before the 2018 budget if the situation is going to be stabilised. This will require politicians and civil servants who are competent and dedicated to the public interest to make bold decisions. Without such leadership the resultant trajectory will undermine the ideals and objectives of the post-apartheid era for many years to come.