Will the Big Story of 2010 Be a Terrorist Attack on the World Cup Games?

From Rubin Reports.Blogspot.Com

Monday, October 19, 2009
Will the Big Story of 2010 Be a Terrorist Attack on the World Cup Games?
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By Barry Rubin

What will be 2010’s biggest story? Hopefully it won’t be a massive, bloody terror attack on the World Cup, the world’s most popular sporting event, which will be held in South Africa, June 11 to July 11.

The problem is that South Africa has a poor security system, an inefficient government, and a dangerously wishful thinking attitude to the potential problems. Meanwhile, al-Qaida and other terrorist groups are organizing their qualifying rounds for the big match.

A recent paper published by the International Institute for Islamic Studies asks, “How prepared are our security services in the face of the terrorist threat posed? The answer has to be poorly.”

The reort lists several incidents of terrorists easily entering or operating in South Africa, pointing to the incompetence of the security agencies, their politicization, the fact that they have been used more against critical journalists than violent threats, and the lack of a dedicated inter-agency counter-terrorism unit.

Confidence is not strengthened by the announcement that the new chief of intelligence will be Mohammad (popularly known as “Mo”) Shaik, until recently head of the shady arms’ dealing company involved in the country’s biggest scandal when his brother was indicted for bribing South Africa’s president, his buddy Jacob Zuma, in a corrupt arms’ deal, then let out of prison after serving only two years of a fifteen year term due to supposed ill health. Mo testified on Zuma’s behalf at the trial.

Shaik was made head of the country’s Secret Service because, State Security Minister Siyabonga Cwele announced, he had handled intelligence for the African National Congress (ANC) during its underground struggle against the apartheid regime. This probably prepares him better to collect material on the current government’s factional or political rivals than radical Islamist terrorist groups. He had also been South Africa’s ambassador to Algeria and had worked in the Foreign Ministry.

Other high officials in the service have more background in questionable business enterprises than with counterterrorist efforts.

To give you a sense of Mr. Shaik’s career, he attended a 2006 ANC conference with, as his bodyguard, a leading underworld figure named Cyril Beeka, a former ANC military figure who was now reportedly one of the country’s leading drug dealers.

This is the man responsible for protecting the World Cup games. At the same time, the security threat is increasing. For example, the U.S. State Department recently closed offices in South Africa after American intelligence reportedly intercepted cell phone conversations from al-Qaida cells in Somalia planning attacks.

Viewing itself as being in revolutionary solidarity with such groups as Hamas and Hizballah, the ANC-led government has been friendly to a number of radical Islamist groups which have been heavily involved in terrorism.

In addition, sources within South Africa report the existence already of small, informal terrorist training camps at isolated farms being run with the knowledge of elements in the government. Of course, South Africa’s leaders don’t think that those trained in such places would carry out operations on their own soil, but they could be proven wrong.

The South African Muslim community organization has responded by denouncing such warnings with two arguments: proclaiming its own loyalty (which is irrelevant since a tiny number of individuals can stage a huge terror attack) and warning that Somali immigrants might be harassed since terrorists have reportedly been coming from that country. Obviously, innocent people should not be targeted but this is hardly an argument for refusing to confront the potential danger.

According to one source, there is some Israeli role in security arrangements and these are being prepared well.

But the point here is that it is better to make the most serious possible effort to ensure the safety of the games rather than to engage in wishful thinking and pay for it later.

There is a very serious danger that through incompetence, infiltration, or other factors, terrorists from al-Qaida or other groups will be heading for South Africa. It’s not because they are such big football fans.

The best way to ensure that a tragedy does not happen is to take the threat seriously and make thorough preparations based on international cooperation to avoid such an outcome.

Barry Rubin is director of the Global Research in International Affairs (GLORIA) Center and editor of the Middle East Review of International Affairs (MERIA) Journal. His latest books are The Israel-Arab Reader (seventh edition), The Long War for Freedom: The Arab Struggle for Democracy in the Middle East (Wiley), and The Truth About Syria (Palgrave-Macmillan). To read and subscribe to MERIA, GLORIA articles, or to order books. To see or subscribe to his blog, Rubin Reports.

Bibliography (Some items only available through subscription)

, http://www.armsdeal-vpo.co.za/articles00/shaikup.html,

: http://www.news24.com/Content/SouthAfrica/Politics/1057/bf2539efacc04d6696b024527431d9e1/04-10-2009-02-39/Shaik_has_a_tainted_record

http://www.news24.com/Content/SouthAfrica/Politics/1057/fa274b3d937a4ed7b415278e0e0f5fa1/02-10-2009-10-22/Shaik_appointment_bad_for_democracy

http://www.info.gov.za/speeches/2009/09100511351002.htm

http://www.timeslive.co.za/sundaytimes/article145322.ece

http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=594&art_id=nw20091002142957622C970605

Peter Fabricus, “2010 terror plot: ‘SA not ready’” http://www.capetimes.co.za/?fSectionId=3531&fArticleId=vn20091012114847309C896372

http://www.capetimes.co.za/index.php?fArticleId=5199101

http://www.news24.com/Content/SouthAfrica/News/1059/8fbe6a8d632948f2b7efb05395672778/02-10-2009-02-48/Mo_Shaik_new_secret_service_head

http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?art_id=vn20090924041731883C570477&click_id=13&set_id=1

http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=105&art_id=vn20041004100210304C720798

http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=3054&art_id=vn20071222081359297C992563

http://www.mg.co.za/article/2006-11-06-mo-shaik-takes-control-of-nkobi-group

Makhudu Sefara and Peter Fabricius “Plot to bomb US buildings, disrupt World Cup,” The Sunday Tribune, October 11, 2009

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South African Experience

From The Guardian Nigeria

Wednesday, October 21, 2009

South African experience

SIR: On Thursday October 1, 2009, the National Chairman of our great party Chief Bisi Akande; the Lagos State Chairman of the Party in Lagos, Chief Dele Ajomale; his wife; the representative of the Governor and my humble self left for South Africa to inaugurate the chapter of our party. Business finished on Saturday October 2 and 3, 2009 in both Pretoria and Johannesburg. We had Sunday October 4 to look around. It was my first visit to South Africa and what I saw stunned me.

Am I in Africa or Europe? Am I in America? Is this another Singapore? Could this be true? Where was Nigeria when South Africa was putting all these structures in place? If the white man did all these in South Africa why were the Nelson Mandelas of this world complaining? If South Africans got their independence on a platter of gold the way Nigeria got hers in 1960, would there have been all these structures I am seeing here today? Impossible! From what I saw on ground in South Africa, it looked as if all the companies and industries all over the world are physically present there. Ah! Nigeria has been left behind. South Africa is the potential and undisputable leader in Africa. Thanks to the white South Africans.

I came to the unhappy conclusion that the mosquitoes that drove the whites away from Nigeria in 1960 did a colossal and unmitigated damage to Nigerians. I again asked myself these questions: How many black Africans did the whites kill before surrendering power to them? How many Nigerians have been killed by Nigerian leaders since they took over power from the whites in 1960? Let us compare the figures. I am sure the supreme prize South Africans paid to have the South Africa I see today will be so infinitesimal compared with what our leaders have killed to remain in power in Nigeria.

What I am saying is that God should have allowed the whites to tarry for at least more 30 years in Nigeria and we would have been better for it. Mandela survived 27 years in prison because the whiteman was a better person. He could not have survived 10 years in prison in Nigeria.

My conclusion after seeing what I saw in South Africa is that the whites left Nigeria in a hurry, and that is why we are suffering today. Had the whites tarried in Nigeria, Nigeria would have been like South Africa today. I want the whites back in Nigeria!

Joe Igbokwe,
Lagos.

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“SA Government Profits from Crime”

I received this email today, some food for thought:

S.A Government makes huge profits from crime.

Question: “What is the influence of crime on the S.A. Govt?”
Answer: Crime generates millions and millions of Rand’s for the SA
Government

Here are the facts….

Example 1:
Take just one million home owners in Gauteng who pay for “armed
crime reaction” (not crime prevention) where private security companies react AFTER the crime has taken place – no wonder they never make any arrests!
This service costs on average R250 p.m. Therefore 1,000,000 x R240.00 x 12 months x 14% VAT, generates R403 million in tax revenue for the SA Govt!

Example 2:
A car thief steals a R500,000 car and receives between R10,000 and R30,000 for his deed.
The car owner is paid out by insurance and then purchases another
similar vehicle, on which he pays 14% VAT of approx R70,000 as a direct result of crime. Who profited the most?
The thief or the SA Govt?

We must begin with a mechanism whereby the SA Govt is forced to reconsider this unconstitutional and immoral practice of profiting from crime!
All South Africans should demand that all payments related to protection of life and property should be VAT free and Tax deductible!

This principle should also apply to replacement of stolen property as well as estate duty. If a person dies as a result of crime we should also demand that estate duty not be paid. How much do you think the SA Govt. has made out of estate duty from the murders of 1300 South African farmers?

The S.A. Govt likes to compare us to overseas. Well overseas your safety and security is covered by your income tax and is tax deductible!

It is time that South Africans stood together and made the Govt. and public aware of the Govt’s “income” from crime. In the meantime crime is the goose that lays the golden egg.
Is it also not unreasonable to expect victims of violence and hijackings to pay their own medical costs? The Govt. should pay for these expenses as well as family counselling for victims!

Come on South Africa, ask the right questions and demand the right answers

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John Mauldin: One of US’s top investment advisors: South Africa

John Mauldin

Interesting letter by John Mauldin, one of the  US ’s top investment

advisors- recently voted second only to Warren Buffet as an investment guru

I start this week’s letter somewhere over the Atlantic, halfway through an 11-hour flight from Frankfurt to  Dallas . It has been an altogether marvellous 11 days in South Africa, speaking to over 1,000 people at 12 venues, giving a half dozen media interviews, and meeting with many individuals.

This week, I want to give you some impressions of not only  South Africa , but talk a little about emerging markets in general.

Finding Value in  South Africa

I realized about halfway through my recent trip that it had been some time since I was in an emerging-market country. I have been to over 50 countries over the past 20 years, but recently most of my travels have been to Europe and  Canada, with the occasional vacation trip to Mexico .

As I observed  South Africa , it was forcefully brought home to me that there is more to the emerging-market story than China ,  India , and Brazil . There are any number of countries that are seeing robust growth and contributing to the world economy. It was reported at Davos this year that for the first time the developing world has a larger share of world GDP than the developed world. Today, we focus on an emerging-market country that does not make as much news as it should.

As I mentioned above, the mood among those I talked with in  South Africa in the early 1990s when I was travelling often to  South Africa was quite pessimistic. The economy was not good, due to international economic sanctions stemming from worldwide protests over the policy of apartheid.

Changes and elections were coming, and it was not clear what would happen. I travelled for (mostly) business into 14 other sub-Saharan countries in Africa . With a few notable exceptions, most countries were not doing well and things had progressed from bad to worse over the previous 10-20 years. It was a tough time to try and do business, but it was a great education.

The contrast today is amazing. Before we get into some facts, let me give you a few impressions. First, there are construction cranes everywhere in the four cities I visited:  Johannesburg ,  Pretoria ,  Durban , and  Cape Town. Twelve years ago the thirty miles from Johannesburg to  Pretoria was mostly agricultural land. Today it is one big city, with offices, malls, and homes lining the freeway. There was a significant number of rather nice new housing developments, many if not most being built on speculation all along the freeway.

Johannesburg is a world-class city, on a par with  New York or  London or any major city in terms of facilities, shops, infrastructure… and traffic. There were new shopping malls all over, and the stores were busy. The restaurants were excellent. The hotels I stayed in and spoke at were excellent and modern. The Sandton area is particularly pleasant.

Durban is a tropical jewel on the  Indian Ocean . Again, there was construction everywhere – a green, verdant city of 1,000,000 people, with modern roads and great weather.

I have been to  Sydney ,  Vancouver , and  San Francisco . I love all of them. But for my money,  Cape Town is the most beautiful city I have been to in the world.  Amazing mountains, blue water harbours, white sand beaches, with wineries nestled in among the mountains and valleys. The Waterfront area, where I stayed, is fun and vibrant. Again, an amazing amount of construction everywhere, especially in the waterfront area, as investors from  Dubai are pouring huge sums of money into creating a massive residential/business/ retail/restaurant development. There are several similar, quite large developments going up in different parts of  Cape Town .

I ate dinner on Friday night at a restaurant called Baia at the Waterfront. I find I really love the better South African chardonnays. My friends know I am something of a chardonnay snob. I like the better California wineries. I was pleasantly surprised to find more than a few South African chards the equal of their  US counterparts, but at a third to half the price for the same level of quality. (I should note that a decent chardonnay in  London or Europe is twice the US price.) The two of us had the best chardonnay in the restaurant and one of the better meals I have had in a long time, and the bill was less than $100.

The next day my partner Prieur du Plessis informed me that Baia was one of the most expensive restaurants in town. By way of comparison, you can easily spend 2-3 times that at a comparable restaurant in  Dallas , and 4-5 times that in New York . Forget  London . I began to ask about the bills for food, drinks, and such for the rest of the trip. The country was uniformly about half what I would pay in Texas for the same quality. I stayed in a very nice five-star hotel (The Commodore) for six nights for less than $1,000, including several meals, laundry, and my bar tab. Their walk-up price was much higher, but clearly you can get deals, and it is tourist season at that. The service was terrific and uniformly delivered with smiles.    The exceptionally nice private game reserve (Itaga) we stayed at when I first arrived, trying to get over jet lag, was only a few hundred a night, including meals, wine, and game runs. In short, after having been to  London and Europe for my last few overseas trips,  South Africa seemed like a bargain.

And it was not just the people I spoke to that were optimistic. Grant Thornton (a large international accounting firm) did a survey in the 30 countries in which they do business. The four countries with the most optimism and confidence were India ,  Ireland ,  South Africa , and Mainland China . Why such confidence? I think there are several reasons. The economy has been growing at a reported almost 5% a year for the past several years, which is quite strong. They have had 32 consecutivequarters of positive growth. But the official figures may understate the reality by a significant amount. If you look at the VAT (value-added tax) receipts, as well as other tax figures, some economists estimate the economy may be growing by 7% or more. Why the difference?

There is a large “informal” economy in  South Africa . While much of the income may not be reported, when something is bought and sold in the retail sectors, taxes are collected.

The stock market has grown by over 25%, 47%, and 41% for the last three years. Such a bull run is always a boost to confidence. But there are also some real fundamentals underlying the emerging-market Bull markets. South Africa has a strong commodity sector, with numerous commodities and not just gold. JP Morgan thinks that earnings growth for South African companies, even adjusting for some anomalies, will be 20% this year, which should mean another good year for their local markets.

This link between commodities and stock market prices is reflected not just in their stock market, but in emerging markets worldwide. Look at the close correlation for the last ten years between the prices of commodities and the emerging-market equity index. I think this rather clearly shows the link between the recent rise in commodity prices and emerging markets. It is more than just a  China story.

Football as an Economic Driver

The attention paid to football (or soccer in the  United States ) is rising to fever pitch in  South Africa . And for good reason: they will host the World Cup in 2010. They expect some 3,000,000 fans to show up. (FYI – a friend of mine works for FIFA in JNB & they are expecting about 500,000 fans to come from abroad. R.)

The government is using the occasion to spend some 400 billion Rand (a little over US $50 billion) on all sorts of infrastructure projects. They are doubling the size of the major airports, which had already been significantly improved. Walking past the construction at the Johannesburg airport, you have to be impressed with the size of it. New roads and other forms of infrastructure are being added to prepare for the influx, but it will have the added effect of making the country morecompetitive, just as infrastructure in  China has been a boost to that country, and a lack of infrastructure has limited  India .

The World Cup will also be a boost to tourism, already one of the most important sectors of the economy.  Cape Town is becoming an international destination for vacations and conferences. The growth in tourism has been strong, showing 20% growth last year from 2005. 2006 was a record year.

Interestingly, 75% of the traffic reported in the tourism growth is from Africa and the  Middle East . While a lot of the people are vacationers, I think a goodly portion are businessmen and women from all over sub-Saharan Africa who look to  South Africa as a deal-doing financial centre. South Africa has a quite strong, very competent, and growing financial services sector that is a magnet for entrepreneurs from all over Africa seeking to find capital.  South Africa also has a strongentrepreneurial class which is the base for much of the new business and development, not just in  South Africa but in all of  Africa . The rest of the world rightly sees South Africa as the place to launch into the rest of  Africa .

Are there problems in  South Africa ? Of course, and some of them are quite serious. But that is the case in nearly all (I cannot think of an exception) emerging-market economies. While the overall crime rate is dropping, it is still far too high. Some rather high-profile crimes of late have resulted in a strong outcry for serious change.

Corruption is an issue, but that is the case in almost every emerging-market country. The high levels of poverty are evident. Although employment is growing and more and more of the poor are being brought into the economy, there is still a lot of room for progress.

The telecommunications infrastructure is hampered by a lack of serious competition. Access to the internet is limited in many areas, and it is really slow where it does exist. This will improve in the coming years, but it is a serious handicap to business. There are power shortages and the need for more power-generation plants to keep up with the growth.

But all these areas are (mostly) going to improve. I see a lot of opportunity in  South Africa in particular and  Africa in general. Let’s look at one area where there may be more than a little potential in the future. I think there is deep long-term value in African (not just South African) farmland. Right now, given the nature of US and European subsidies to agriculture, it is hard for developing-world farmers to compete. But that will change in the next decade.

As I have written before, “Old Europe” the US and even Australia are going to come under intense government budgetary pressure due to the high levels of pension and medical costs they have promised their retiring boomers. Europe is particularly vulnerable. Quite simply,  Europe cannot afford to keep the pension promises they have made and pay for any other normal government expenses without raising taxes. Except that they already have economy-stifling high taxes.

Budgets are going to have to be cut in other areas. At some point, sooner rather than later, agricultural subsidies are going to come under pressure, as politicians must decide where to find the money to pay for the promised pensions and health care. There are more voters who are older and on pensions than there are farmers. I can count votes, and it is not hard to predict the result. It will be with a lot of fighting, but in the medium run, the agricultural subsidies in  Europe are going tohave to go.

When the writing is clearly on the wall,  Europe will start to negotiate on those subsidies, trying to get something for what they will have no choice but to give. Part of that will be to reduce US subsidies as well. Africa will become a breadbasket for much of  Asia . With China pressed for water and much of its agricultural land being used for development, China will need to import more food. And as the rest of the world becomes more developed, there will be an increased demand for meat, which means an even bigger demand for feed grains for livestock. The growing use of ethanol is increasing demand for corn, absorbing more of the world’s land use for energy corn rather than for food.

The simple fact is that as the world grows more prosperous we are going to need more grain and other foods. Where is the land we are going to need to feed the world? There is an abundance in  Africa , along with the needed water and labour. And as African countries upgrade their infrastructure, it will improve the ability of farmers to get their grains to market at profitable levels.

There is much to like about emerging markets. That is where a great deal of the real potential growth in the coming decades will be. And South Africa will be one of the better stories. If you are not doing business there already, you should ask yourself, why not?

Home Again,  Tulsa

I want to give special thanks to my South African partners Prieur du Plessis and Paul Stewart and the rest of the team at Plexus Asset Management. I have never been treated so well on a trip. They made all the hard work a pleasure, taking care of a thousand small details so I could focus on the tasks at hand. And they did arrange for some fun, relaxation, and great sightseeing. I am looking forward to going back soon. I was particularly impressed with South African Air. Very comfortablebusiness-class seats, impeccable service, and great wines. I have trouble sleeping on planes, but I could actually sleep in these seats. But it still took over 40 hours to get toJohannesburg, rather than under 20, so I was exhausted when I got there. Jet lag this trip was as bad as I have ever had. Coming back has been easy. It is getting late and time to hit the send button. Have a great week and enjoy the ones you’re with.

Your tired but happy analyst, John Mauldin

- Posted by Sage

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Anne Paton: Why I’m fleeing South Africa

From: OurCivilazation.com

Why I’m fleeing South Africa
by Anne Paton (widow of Alan Paton)
London Sunday Times—DISPATCHES, Sunday, November 29, 1998

I am leaving South Africa. I have lived here for 35 years, and I shall leave with anguish. My home and my friends are here, but I am terrified. I know I shall be in trouble for saying so, because I am the widow of Alan Paton.

Fifty years ago he wrote Cry, The Beloved Country. He was an unknown schoolmaster and it was his first book, but it became a bestseller overnight. It was eventually translated into more than 20 languages and became a set book in schools all over the world. It has sold more than 15 million copies and still sells 100,000 copies a year.

As a result of the startling success of this book, my husband became famous for his impassioned speeches and writings, which brought to the notice of the world the suffering of the black man under Apartheid.

He campaigned for Nelson Mandela’s release from prison and he worked all his life for black majority rule. He was incredibly hopeful about the new South Africa that would follow the end of Apartheid, but he died in 1988, aged 85.

I was so sorry he did not witness the euphoria and love at the time of the election in 1994. But I am glad he is not alive now. He would have been so distressed to see what has happened to his beloved country. [Without Apartheid]

I love this country with a passion, but I cannot live here any more. I can no longer live slung about with panic buttons and gear locks. I am tired of driving with my car windows closed and the doors locked, tired of being afraid of stopping at red lights. I am tired of being constantly on the alert, having that sudden frisson of fear at the sight of a shadow by the gate, of a group of youths approaching—although nine times out of 10 they are innocent of harmful intent. Such is the suspicion that dogs us all.

Among my friends and the friends of my friends, I know of nine people who have been murdered in the past four years.

An old friend, an elderly lady, was raped and murdered by someone who broke into her home for no reason at all; another was shot at a garage.

We have a saying, “Don’t fire the gardener“, because of the belief that it is so often an inside job—the gardener who comes back and does you in.

All this may sound like paranoia, but it is not without reason. I have been hijacked, mugged and terrorised. A few years ago my car was taken from me at gunpoint. I was forced into the passenger seat. I sat there frozen. But just as one man jumped into the back and the other fumbled with the starter I opened the door and ran away. To this day I do not know how I did this. But I got away, still clutching my handbag.

On May I this year I was mugged in my home at three in the afternoon. I used to live in a community of big houses with big grounds in the countryside. It’s still beautiful and green, but the big houses have been knocked down and people have moved into fenced complexes like the one in which I now live. Mine is in the suburbs of Durban, but they’re springing up everywhere.

That afternoon I came home and omitted to close the security door. I went upstairs to lie down. After a while I thought I’d heard a noise, perhaps a bird or something. Without a qualm I got up and went to the landing; outside was a man. I screamed and two other men appeared. I was seized by the throat and almost throttled; I could feel myself losing consciousness.

My mouth was bound with Sellotape and I was threatened with my own knife (Girl Guide issue from long ago) and told: “If you make a sound, you die.” My hands were tied tightly behind my back and I was thrown into the guest room and the door was shut. They took all the electronic equipment they could find, except the computer. They also, of course, took the car.

A few weeks later my new car was locked up in my fenced carport when I was woken by its alarm in the early hours of the morning. The thieves had removed the radio, having cut through the padlocks in order to bypass the electric control on the gates.

The last straw came a few weeks ago, shortly before my 71st birthday. I returned home in the middle of the afternoon and walked into my sitting room. Outside the window two men were breaking in. I retreated to the hall and pressed the panic alarm.

This time I had shut the front door on entering. By now I had become more cautious. Yet one of the men ran around the house, jumped over the fence and tried to batter down the front door. Meanwhile, his accomplice was breaking my sitting- room window with a hammer.

This took place while the sirens were shrieking, which was the frightening part. They kept coming, in broad daylight, while the alarm was going. They knew that there had to be a time lag of a few minutes before help arrived—enough time to dash off with the television and video recorder. In fact, the front-door assailant was caught and taken off to the cells. Recently I telephoned to ask the magistrate when I would be called as a witness. She told me she had let him off for lack of evidence. She said that banging on my door was not an offence, and how could I prove that his intent was hostile?

I have been careless in the past—razor wire and electric gates give one a feeling of security. Or at least, they did. But I am careless no longer. No fence—be it electric or not—no wall, no razor wire is really a deterrent to the determined intruder. Now my alarm is on all the time and my panic button hung round my neck. While some people say I have been unlucky, others say: “You are lucky not to have been raped or murdered.” What kind of a society is this where one is considered “lucky” not to have been raped or murdered—yet?

A character in Cry, The Beloved Country says: “I have one great fear in my heart, that one day when they are turned to loving they will find we are turned to hating.” And so it has come to pass. There is now more racial tension in this country than I have ever known.

But it is not just about black-on-white crime. It is about general lawlessness. Black people suffer more than the whites. They do not have access to private security firms, and there are no police stations near them in the townships and rural areas. They are the victims of most of the hijackings, rapes and murders. They cannot run away like the whites, who are streaming out of this country in their thousands.

President Mandela has referred to us who leave as “cowards” and says the country can do without us. So be it. But it takes a great deal of courage to uproot and start again. We are leaving because crime is rampaging through the land. The evils that beset this country now are blamed on the legacy of Apartheid. One of the worst legacies of that time is that of the Bantu Education Act, which deliberately gave black people an inferior education.

The situation is exacerbated by the fact that criminals know that their chances of being caught are negligible; and if they are caught they will be free almost at once. So what is the answer? The government needs to get its priorities right. We need a powerful, well-trained and well-equipped police force.

Recently there was a robbery at a shopping centre in the afternoon. A call to the police station elicited the reply: “We have no transport.” “Just walk then,” said the caller; the police station is about a two-minute sprint from the shop in question. “We have no transport,” came the reply again. Nobody arrived.

There is a quote from my husband’s book: “Cry, the beloved country, for the unborn child that is the inheritor of our fear. Let him not love the earth too deeply. Let him not laugh too gladly when the water runs through his fingers, nor stand too silent when the setting sun makes red the veld with fire. Let him not be too moved when the birds of his land are singing, nor give too much of his heart to a mountain or a valley. For fear will rob him of all if he gives too much.”

What has changed in half a century? A lot of people who were convinced that everything would be all right are disillusioned, though they don’t want to admit it.

The government has many excellent schemes for improving the lot of the black man, who has been disadvantaged for so long. A great deal of money is spent in this direction. However, nothing can succeed while people live in such fear. Last week, about 10km from my home, an old couple were taken out and murdered in the garden. The wife had only one leg and was in a wheelchair. Yet they were stabbed and strangled—for very little money. They were the second old couple to be killed last week. It goes on and on, all the time; we have become a killing society.

As I prepare to return to England, a young man asked me the other day, in all innocence, if things were more peaceful there. “You see,” he said, “I know of no other way of life than this. I cannot imagine anything different.” What a tragic statement on the beloved country today. “Because the white man has power, we too want power,” says Msimangu.

“But when a black man gets power, when he gets money, he is a great man if he is not corrupted. I have seen it often. He seeks power and money to put right what is wrong, and when he gets them, why, he enjoys the power and the money.

Now he can gratify his lusts, now he can arrange ways to get white man’s liquor. I see only one hope for our country, and that is when white men and black men, desiring neither power nor money, but desiring only the good of their country, come together to work for it.

I have one great fear in my heart, that one day when they are turned to loving, they will find we are turned to hating.”

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Mandela – The Legend and the Legacy

Thanks to Sarah Maid of Albion for this no nonsense article.

It is often said that one man’s terrorist is another man’s freedom fighter, however, this usually means that the other man has been less than fastidious in his choice of hero, or that the “freedom fighter” in question was on the crowd pleasing side.

On the 27th of June, London’s Hyde Park played host to a concert in honour of Nelson Mandela’s 90th birthday and as expected it received wall to wall coverage from a star struck and worshipping media, who continue to laud Mandela as one of the greatest, or indeed the greatest, heroes of our time.

The beaming old man appeared on stage in one of his trademark multi-coloured shirts and cheerily acknowledge the cheers of the adoring crowd, most of whom have been taught to believe in his sainthood since their first days in primary school, which, for many of them, will have occurred around the same time their hero walked free from Robben Island.

The unquestioning belief in Mandela’s universally admired saintliness was again on display in the gushing media coverage and by the unending line of politicians and dignitaries from presidents to Prime ministers who queued up to genuflect before him and sing his praises. It is a brave politician or journalist who would dare to question the godliness of this legend and consummate showman, and hence no such questions were raised, nor were his much vaunted “achievements” subjected to any objective scrutiny.

No matter how many speeches are given or how many news articles are written, it will be a long time if ever before the truth about Mandela is told.

In fact the truth about Mandela is so hidden in mythology and misinformation that most know nothing about him prior to Robben island, and those who do tend to exercise a form of self censorship, designed to bolster the myth whilst consigning uncomfortable facts into the mists of history.

For most people all they know about Mandela, prior to his release in 1990, was that he had spent 27 years in prison and was considered by many on the left at the time (and almost everyone now) to be a political prisoner. However, Mandela was no Aung San Suu Kyi, he was not an innocent, democratically elected leader, imprisoned by an authoritarian government.

Mandela was the terrorist leader of a violent terrorist organisation, the ANC (African National Congress) which was responsible for many thousands of, mostly black, deaths. The ANC’s blood spattered history is frequently ignored, but reminders occasionally pop up in the most embarrassing places, indeed as recently as this month the names of Nelson Mandela and most of the ANC remained on the US government’s terrorist watch list along with al-Queda, Hezbollah and the Tamil Tigers. Of course the forces of political correctness are rushing to amend that embarrassing reminder from the past. However, Mandela’s name was not on that list by mistake, he was there because of his Murderous past.

Before I am accused of calumny, it should be noted that Mandela does not seek to hide his past, in his autobiography “the long walk to Freedom” he casually admits “signing off” the 1983 Church Street bombing carried out by the ANC and killing 19 innocent people whilst injuring another 200.

It is true that Mandela approved that massacre and other ANC killings from his prison cell, and there is no evidence that he personally killed anyone but the same could be said about Stalin or Hitler, and the violent history of the ANC, the organisation he led is not in question.

According to the Human Rights Commission it is estimated that during the Apartheid period some 21,000 people were killed, however both the UN Crimes against Humanity commission and South Africa’s own Truth and Reconciliation Commission are in agreement that in those 43 years the South African Security forces killed a total of 518 people. The rest, (some 92%) were accounted for by Africans killing Africans, many by means of the notorious and gruesome practice of necklacing whereby a car tyre full of petrol is placed around a victim’s neck and set alight. This particularly cruel form of execution was frequently carried out at the behest of the ANC with the enthusiastic support of Mandela’s demonic wife Winnie.

The brutal reappearance of the deadly necklace in recent weeks is something I shall reluctantly focus upon later.

Given that so much blood was on the hands of his party, and, as such, the newly appointed government, some may conclude that those who praised Madela’s mercy and forgiveness, when the Truth and Reconciliation tribunal set up after he came to power, to look into the Apartheid years, did not include a provision for sanctions, were being deliberately naive.

Such nativity is not uncommon when it comes to the adoring reporting of Nelson Madela, and neither is the great leader himself rarely shy of playing up his image of fatherly elder statesman and multi-purpose paragon. However, in truth, the ANC’s conscious decision to reject a policy of non-violence, such as that chosen by Gandhi, in their struggle against the white government, had left them, and by extension, their leader, with at least as much blood on their hands as their one time oppressors, and this fact alone prevented them from enacting the revenge which might otherwise have been the case.

As the first post Apartheid president of South Africa it would, be unfair if not ludicrous to judge Mandela entirely on the basis of events before he came to power, and in any event there is many a respected world leader or influential statesman with a blood stained past so let us now examine Nelson Mandela’s achievements, and the events which have occurred in South Africa in the 14 short years since he took power in following the post Apartheid election in 1994, and the new South Africa which he created after coming to power on a surge of worldwide optimism and hope in 1994, when, following the end of Apartheid, he and his followers promised a new dawn for what became termed the Rainbow Nation.

Today South Africa stands out as one of the most dangerous and crime ridden nations on Earth which is not actively at War. In 2001, only seven years after the end of Apartheid, whilst the city of Amsterdam in the Netherlands with 5,6 murders per 100,000 population was declared the “murder capitol of Europe”, Johannesburg, with 61.2 murders per 100,00 population and remains the world’s top murder city.

In South Africa as a whole, the murder rate is seven times that of America, in terms of rape the rate is ten times as high and includes the ugly phenomenon of child rape, one of the few activities in which South Africa is now a world leader. If you don’t believe me, you can read what Oprah Winfrey has to say about it here.

All other forms of violent crime are out of control, and Johannesburg is among the top world cities for muggings and violent assault, a fact seldom mentioned in connection with the 2010 World Cup which is scheduled to be hosted in South Africa.

As always with black violence the primary victims are their fellow blacks, however, the rape, murder and violent assault of whites is a daily event, and there is more …

As with the Matabeleland massacres, news of which the BBC, together with much of the world media suppressed for twenty years to protect their one time hero, Zimbabwe’s Robert Mugabe, another secret genocide is being ignored by the world media, the genocide of white Boer farmers, thousands of whom have been horribly tortured to death in their homes since the end of Apartheid. Anyone who clicks on this link should we warned that it includes some very gruesome images as the savagery of these attacks belie the authorities attempts to dismiss them as nothing more than a “crime wave”.

Given that it is now all but illegal in South Africa to report the race of either victim or the perpetrator of a crime (unless the perpetrator is white and the victim black) and as modern South Africa’s official crime statistics are notoriously massaged, it is impossible to know the exact numbers of farm murders that have taken place. Many reliable sources estimate the figure as close to 3,000, but even if we take the more conservative figure of 1,600 quoted in the politically correct South African press (but not quoted at all in ours) this is three times the numbers killed by the South African security forces over a period of 43 years, and which the UN calls a crime against humanity.

To put this in perspective, the population of South Africa is 47 million, (13 million less than Britain despite its far greater land mass) of which the 4.3 million whites account for 9.1%, about 1% less than the immigrant population of Britain. Can you imagine the outcry if 1,600 (let alone 3,000) members of a minority community in Britain were tortured to death by the native population?.

Yet when the victims are white, there is hardly a peep in the South African press and silence from the international media. Compare this to when a white youth is the killer, such as in the case of Johan Nel, who shot three Africans, a story which became instant world wide news with the predictable screams of racism and machete wielding mobs baying for his blood.

(And they accuse us of hate?!! Don’t such people nauseate themselves with their hypocrisy?!)

Crime aside, Mandela and his ANC inherited the strongest economy in Africa, indeed, despite economic sanctions, South Africa was still one of the richest world nations, and indeed initially there was a brief post Apartheid boom, resulting from the lifting of sanctions and due to the fact that until affirmative action forced most of the whites out of their jobs to be replaced by under qualified blacks, those who had built South Africa were still in place.

However, any optimism was to be short lived. Now, after just 14 years of rule by Mandela and his grim successor Mbeke, corruption is rife, the country is beset with power cuts and the infrastructure is crumbling.

The nation’s great cities like Durban and Johannesburg, which could once rival the likes of Sydney, Vancouver and San Francisco, had descended in to decaying crime ridden slums within a decade.

And in recent months we have seen the so called Rainbow nations ultimate humiliation, as xenophobic anti immigration violence spreads across the country. (“xenophobic” is what the media call racism when blacks do it) As poverty and unemployment explodes and is exacerbated by the floods of immigrants flooding in to escape the even more advanced Africanisation of the rest of the country, the mobs turn on those they blame for stealing their jobs, their homes, and their women.

Thus the cycle turns, and, like watching some barbaric version of “back to the future”, on the news we see exactly the same scenes we saw on our televisions twenty years ago, wrecked buildings, burning vehicles, mobs brandishing machetes, axes and knives hacking at everything and everyone which comes within their reach. Most horrific of all, we see the return of that most savage symbol of African brutality, the necklace where, to the cheers of a blood thirsty crowd, some poor trembling soul, with a tire around his neck, is dragged from his home and set alight, exactly as all those other poor souls were set alight throughout the Apartheid years, when we were told it was all the evil white man’s fault.

As nothing else the return of the necklace exposes the failure of Mandela’s revolution, and those who fought for him should weep.

Under Apartheid, blacks and whites went to separate hospitals but they received world class health care, whatever their colour, now the facilities are collapsing or non-existent. Black children went to different schools than white children, but they received an education, something which is now a privileged luxury. When they grew up, their bosses may have been white, but they had jobs and a living wage, as the recent violence shows us, such security is but a memory for most South Africans.

Eighteen years after Nelson and Winnie made their historic walk towards the cameras, and 14 years, since Mandela assumed power on a tide of optimism, a once proud South Africa slides like a crumbling, crime ridden, wreck towards a precipice created though greed, corruption and incompetence.

For all his gleaming smiles, grandfatherly hand gestures, and folksy sound bites, tomorrow night, when crowd cheers the retired terrorist in the gaudy shirt, they would do best not to focus too closely upon his much admired legacy, as they might just find that the Xhosan Emperor has no clothes. For Nelson Mandela’s lasting achievement is that, in the face of a wold wishing him well, he, and the party he leads, have shown the world that, for all its flaws, Apartheid was a more benign system than what replaced it, and that the average South African was immeasurably better off under the hated white rule than they are under the alternative which black rule has created.

That is quite an achievement, even for a living legend.

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