South Africa's Matric results not as good as they look

By Kagiso Pooe
17 January 2012

Kagiso Pooe says the examinations are failing to prepare pupils for life or higher education

The Minister of Basic Education, Angie Motshekga, glee- fully announced a 70,2% pass rate for the class of 2011. However, as economist Aaron Levenstein said: "Statistics are like a bikini. What they reveal is suggestive, but what they conceal is vital." Upon closer inspection, the class of 2011's marks should leave us concerned at the bleak future prospects for our children post-matric. It's a poor return on investment for South Africa, which spends over 17% of its gross domestic product on education only to get 70,2% and 24,3% (university endorsements) back. The National Senior Certificate (NSC) qualification (matric) is failing to produce the right quality of students which is dis- advantaging universities and employers.

Ordinarily, receiving 70% in any activity qualifies as a success but this 70,2% pass rate is simply not good enough. To begin with 496 090 pupils wrote the NSC or matric exams and of the 70,2% the 348 117 NSC candidates who passed 24,3% qualified for a bachelor's degree pass. This translates to 83 548 pupils being eligible for admission at an institution of higher learning. This is an increase of 0,8% from 2010's 23,5%. This means that 264 569 pupils who passed failed to achieve university endorsement and 147 973 pupils failed the NSC exams for 2011 altogether.

If the veneer of 70,2% is stripped away, we see that the combined 412 542 failed and passed pupils who didn't receive university endorsement, now have to face two problems. Firstly, the economic environment in South Africa is extremely youth unfriendly as the discussion report "Confronting youth unemployment: policy options for South Africa" by National Treasury established. Firms are hesitant to hire pupils coming out of Grade 12 due to their lack of technical skills.

Secondly, Grade 12s have to contend with an ever-changing working environment, one now characterised by entrepreneur- ship and the ability to gain profit from the knowledge economy. The problems emanating from the NSC system are not limited to pupils without university ex- emptions. Those who enter tertiary institutions face the paradox of quality problem. Unfortunately, the cream of the class of 2011 (those who enter university) are going to find out that what they were taught at school will not stand up to the rigours of higher education. Professor Theuns Eloff, Higher Education South Africa chairperson, addressing MPs about the university dropout cited "financial need [and] poor preparedness of some [pupils] for higher education courses, noting only a small percentage of matriculants had passes in mathematics and science". This is the paradox of quality: pupils selected as university material by passing matric are unable to function at a higher level in tertiary education institutions.

This paradox does not end with students who drop out. Companies complain that the university graduates they receive are not of the highest quality. Reports like the one carried out by Hanlie Griesel and Ben Parker, "Graduate Attributes", lament that students coming out of universities are unable to cope with the demands of industry. They begrudge the fact they have to spend additional resources to re- skill their new recruits.

A mental shift is needed to aid this nation's future matriculants to be all they can be. Here are five actions that we could implement to make that happen.

Firstly, parents need to be compelled to get involved in their children's schooling. The current setup sees teachers being forced to pick up the slack caused by absent parents.

Secondly, policy plans like the Department of Education's "Macro Indicator trends in schooling 2011" and "M&E report on the impact of Educational system on South African population" and Schooling 2025 need to be introduced to parents and community leaders as they could aid schools to overcome poor governance, low levels in maths, language, literacy and science. Thirdly, the department needs to revisit the technical high schools of the old education sys- tem where pupils matriculated with immediately applicable technical skills, such as boiler making, plumbing and welding.

Fourthly, the status of teaching and teachers needs to be improved. Pay should follow needs, beginning with specially de- signed pay packets for teachers that reward them for furthering their education, extramural activity participation, etc. Finally, our consumerist culture needs to change. South Africans see no value in investing in books and reading, one of the major reasons for our public schooling systems failure.

Kagiso Pooe is an analyst from the Ingabadi Group, a political advisory and research company. This article first appeared in The Witness.

Read the original Politicsweb article HERE

The TRUE History of Apartheid Legislation

• The Native Pass Law (1809) of the British Government compelled Black
people to carry pass books;

• In 1865 Sir Theophilus Shepstone made it impossible for Black people
to vote in Natal;

• Cecil John Rhodes in 1894 stopped a Brown man, Krom Hendriks, from
taking part in a South African cricket tour to England;

• Rhodes and Milner in 1905 introduced compulsory division between Black
and White scholars in Cape schools;

• The Native Land Act 2 (1913) prohibited land ownership by Blacks;

• Min. H.W. Sampson (1925) introduced job reservation as regards the Law
pertaining to Mines and related industries;

• The Immorality Act in Natal (1927) prohibits sexual relations between
people of different race and colour. (This was confirmed by Law 23 of 1957);

• Gen. J.C. Smuts in 1936 introduced separate representation in Parliament;

• The Native Urban Area Act 25 (1945) stated that Blacks may not,
without a permit, remain for 72 hours in an urban area;

• The National Party in 1948, defeating the SA Party at the ballot box,
respected all land- and provincial legislation, and stuck to existing
entry and non-entry signs at all state departments, public places and
businesses which indicated where the various races would be served.

At the start of the Verwoerd era, freedom was given to all those who
wanted to utilise it. Self-government was offered to the various Black
nations, an offer they grabbed with open arms. The offer was made after
the well-known British "winds-of-change" speech in die South African
Parliament. The very offer was made by the British Government to
Lesotho, Swaziland and Botswana, self-governments which are still in
place today.

"The ANC as well as the international community ignores these historical
truths, especially with regard to the years 1948 through 1966. As to be
expected though, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC)
questioned no-one from that era.

South Africa: The Next Tunisia

By Hussein Solomon
January 15, 2012

The recent Treasury report makes for sober reading noting that 66 of South Africa’s 278 municipalities are in financial distress with several others heading that way.

For some the chaos currently overwhelming our municipalities reflects a dearth of technical skills and if this is corrected, then the situation is remedied. This is the position of the South African Local Government Association (SALGA) who remains confident that the insertion of public accounts committees at municipal level would prove the panacea for poor governance.

I do not share this confidence. The Treasury report is a reflection of a deeper malaise afflicting every facet of governance from national to provincial to local and this is the blurring of the lines between party and state. For much too long, the ANC has used its dominant position over the state apparatus to absorb the civil service at all levels into its patronage system. Party loyalists (or at least those loyal to the dominant faction of the party) were rewarded with plum positions in the civil service irrespective of competence. Consider here the two political appointees the ANC parachuted into the position of National Police Commissioner: Jackie Selebi and Bheki Cele – both with disastrous consequences for our country. The former has been convicted in a court of law whilst the latter was suspended allegedly awaiting deployment to a plum ambassadorial post.

Whilst such deployments of cadres into the civil service is good for the ANC in that one can reward loyalists or buy-off dissent, it severely damages South Africa as a whole. Service delivery suffers as the dearth of skills of deployed party cadres negatively impacts on that government department. As patronage becomes the norm for deployments into the civil service, governance increasingly becomes more authoritarian – civil servants thus deployed are beholden to the party for their position and not to the people they are supposed to deliver services to. As a consequence, too, governance becomes more opaque, as civil servants resist public scrutiny over the functioning of their departments. Such authoritarian and opaque governance also creates the conditions in which corruption finds fertile ground to grow.

Whilst such corruption undermines the living standards of all South Africans, it is the poorest who suffer the most.

Such a situation cannot go on forever, as the daily service delivery protests illustrate. The ANC should take note of developments north of our borders. In Nigeria this past week, tens of thousands took to the streets expressing their unhappiness with the regime of President Goodluck Jonathan scrapping fuel subsidies. What angered these ordinary Nigerians was that they were being asked to tighten their belts whilst those at the top needed bigger belts.

According to the World Bank, 80 percent of Nigeria’s oil wealth ends up in the pockets of just 1 percent of the population. Similar dynamics was evident in the Arab Spring with the socio-economic disparities between the political elite and ordinary citizens reaching such grotesque proportions that the regimes of Ben Ali and Mubarak fell in rapid succession.

It is in this context that South Africa is particularly vulnerable. South Africa is one of the most unequal societies in the world with the gap between `haves’ and `have-nots’ getting ever wider. Whilst Khulubuse Zuma can drive his latest imported car, millions of South Africans worry about the rising cost of paraffin to light up their shacks. Whilst Kenny Kunene can enjoy his sushi off half naked women, millions of South Africans are not sure of their next meal. In this context, the ANC slogan of “A Better Life for All” rings particularly hollow. In this context, South Africa could well be the next Tunisia…

Read the original HERE

I Am Sorry

13 January 2012, 07:07

The past couple of days, there have been several articles on News24, demanding an apology from every single person who is white, regardless of whether they were involved in apartheid (or even born at the time.)

You want an apology? Well here it is.

I am sorry my great grandparents came here from Europe. I'm sorry they started farms, and built businesses here. Had they stayed there, I wouldn't have to worry about emigrating out of this god forsaken lump of earth at the bottom of the African barrel.

I am sorry my ancestors brought vaccines and medicines here, along with books, tools, engineering and cars. I'm sure you'd all be much happier sharpening sticks and poking each other's eyes out with them than you are using your blackberries and deciding which beemer to buy when you go into politics.

I am sorry that my grandmother and grandfather served in the air force during World War 2. I am sure, had the Nazis made it all the way down to South Africa that you would have had a grand old time of things.

I am sorry that every single day, I have to live with the blind, idiotic hatred of my countrymen. Yes, I know jealousy makes you nasty, but come on. This is getting ridiculous.

I am sorry that when the Brits and the Boere divvied up the country, they didn't do seperate development the right way - by creating two completely seperate countries, and allowing each to stand and fall on merit.

I am sorry that Julius Malema and other similar idiotic motormouths who have so much hate in their brains that they have no room left for thought make my devotion to the idea that no one is different because of arbitrary reasons waver. I know everyone should be judged on merit, but it's hard to take the high road when you have BS rammed down your throat on a daily basis.

I am sorry that the average ANC follower is so brainwashed that they cannot see that South Africa is being flushed down the toilet by greed and gross incompetence. I am sorry that they truly believe that their salvation lies in a party that will never do anything but destroy and break down.

Finally, I am sorry for all my minority brothers and sisters. If only we had been warned in 1994 that the rainbow nation would turn into the quagmire of hate and failure it has become. We could all have made our escape then, and watched the implosion from afar.

I used to think we could save South Africa from herself, but I have realised that we can't, and I am sorry for that too.

I'm sorry that the only future for my daughter lies not in the country where five generations of her ancestors are buried, but on another continent. I am sorry that she will never have the memories of South Africa that I do, and I am sorry that the present is very quickly erasing any sort of emotion I used to feel for this country.

I am sorry that I was born a white African, and that you hate me for it.

But you know what? That's your problem. Not mine.

Do I hate anyone based on race? Nope. Never have, never will. Do I care that you hate me? Not really. It's your problem, and as long as you live in the past, you will have no future. But when things go down the toilet here, please lay the blame where it belongs: with the current government. Blame yourselves, and blame your utter devotion to living in the past, and hating for no reason.

I won't be here when that happens, so I won't get to say I told you so. But I am sure someone will. Sorry you didn't listen to reason when you could.

The original article as published on News24 can be found HERE

MOTHER SHIPTON PROPHECIES

The Golden Age will start anew

Published in 1641

And now a word, in uncouth rhyme
Of what shall be in future time
Then upside down the world shall be
And gold found at the root of tree

All England's sons that plough the land
Shall oft be seen with Book in hand
Great houses stand in far flung vale
All covered o'er with snow and hail

A carriage without horse will go
Disaster fill the world with woe.
In London, Primrose Hill shall be
In centre hold a Bishop's See

Around the world men's thoughts will fly
Quick as the twinkling of an eye.
And water shall great wonders do
How strange. And yet it shall come true.

Through towering hills proud men shall ride
No horse or ass move by his side.
Beneath the water, men shall walk
Shall ride, shall sleep, shall even talk.

And in the air men shall be seen
In white and black and even green
A great man then, shall come and go
For prophecy declares it so.

In water, iron, then shall float
As easy as a wooden boat
Gold shall be seen in stream and stone
In land that is yet unknown.

And England shall admit a Jew
You think this strange, but it is true
The Jew that once was held in scorn
Shall of a Christian then be born.

A house of glass shall come to pass
In England. But Alas, alas
A war will follow with the work
Where dwells the Pagan and the Turk

These states will lock in fiercest strife
And seek to take each others life.
When North shall thus divide the south
And Eagle build in Lions mouth
Then tax and blood and cruel war
Shall come to every humble door.

Three times shall lovely sunny France
Be led to play a bloody dance
Before the people shall be free
Three tyrant rulers shall she see.

Three rulers in succession be
Each springs from different dynasty.
Then when the fiercest strife is done
England and France shall be as one.

The British olive shall next then twine
In marriage with a German vine.
Men walk beneath and over streams
Fulfilled shall be their wondrous dreams.

For in those wondrous far off days
The women shall adopt a craze
To dress like men, and trousers wear
And to cut off their locks of hair
They'll ride astride with brazen brow
As witches do on broomstick now.

And roaring monsters with man atop
Does seem to eat the verdant crop
And men shall fly as birds do now
And give away the horse and plough.

There'll be a sign for all to see
Be sure that it will certain be.
Then love shall die and marriage cease
And nations wane as babes decrease
And wives shall fondle cats and dogs
And men live much the same as hogs.

In nineteen hundred and twenty six
Build houses light of straw and sticks.
For then shall mighty wars be planned
And fire and sword shall sweep the land.

When pictures seem alive with movements free
When boats like fishes swim beneath the sea,
When men like birds shall scour the sky
Then half the world, deep drenched in blood shall die.

For those who live the century through
In fear and trembling this shall do.
Flee to the mountains and the dens
To bog and forest and wild fens.

For storms will rage and oceans roar
When Gabriel stands on sea and shore
And as he blows his wondrous horn
Old worlds die and new be born.

A fiery dragon will cross the sky
Six times before this earth shall die
Mankind will tremble and frightened be
for the sixth heralds in this prophecy.

For seven days and seven nights
Man will watch this awesome sight.
The tides will rise beyond their ken
To bite away the shores and then
The mountains will begin to roar
And earthquakes split the plain to shore.

And flooding waters, rushing in
Will flood the lands with such a din
That mankind cowers in muddy fen
And snarls about his fellow men.

He bares his teeth and fights and kills
And secrets food in secret hills
And ugly in his fear, he lies
To kill marauders, thieves and spies.

Man flees in terror from the floods
And kills, and rapes and lies in blood
And spilling blood by man kinds hands
Will stain and bitter many lands

And when the dragon's tail is gone,
Man forgets, and smiles, and carries on
To apply himself - too late, too late
For mankind has earned deserved fate.

His masked smile - his false grandeur,
Will serve the Gods their anger stir.
And they will send the Dragon back
To light the sky - his tail will crack
Upon the earth and rend the earth
And man shall flee, King, Lord, and serf.

But slowly they are routed out
To seek diminishing water spout
And men will die of thirst before
The oceans rise to mount the shore.

And lands will crack and rend anew
You think it strange. It will come true.

And in some far off distant land
Some men - oh such a tiny band
Will have to leave their solid mount
And span the earth, those few to count,
Who survives this (unreadable) and then
Begin the human race again.

But not on land already there
But on ocean beds, stark, dry and bare
Not every soul on Earth will die
As the Dragons tail goes sweeping by.

Not every land on earth will sink
But these will wallow in stench and stink
Of rotting bodies of beast and man
Of vegetation crisped on land.

But the land that rises from the sea
Will be dry and clean and soft and free
Of mankinds dirt and therefore be
The source of man's new dynasty.

And those that live will ever fear
The dragons tail for many year
But time erases memory
You think it strange. But it will be.

And before the race is built anew
A silver serpent comes to view
And spew out men of like unknown
To mingle with the earth now grown
Cold from its heat and these men can
Enlighten the minds of future man.

To intermingle and show them how
To live and love and thus endow
The children with the second sight.
A natural thing so that they might
Grow graceful, humble and when they do
The Golden Age will start anew.

The dragon's tail is but a sign
For mankind's fall and man's decline.
And before this prophecy is done
I shall be burned at the stake, at one
My body singed and my soul set free
You think I utter blasphemy
You're wrong. These things have come to me
This prophecy will come to be.

See also : The Mother Shipton Story

Treason and the Fall of Apartheid 1985-1994

Africa Update Vol. XIII, Issue 1 (Winter 2006): Reflections on South Africa
The Original "Africa Update" Article can be found HERE

South Africa, 1985-1994
By Hosea Jaffe


Editorial

In this issue of Africa Update Hosea Jaffe reflects on the circumstances leading to the fall of apartheid, the release of  Nelson Mandela and the new South Africa. What forces  really brought the fall of apartheid? How long did negotiations last and in what context? ‘The cosmetic political change from an openly racist state to a masked, multi-racial, partitionist confederal democracy could not lead to democracy and a non-racial society’ Jaffe concludes. The Editorial Board of Africa Update may not necessarily agree with all of Jaffe’s propositions but we consider them important enough to be discussed.

Africa Update commemorated the momentous occasion of the 1994 South African election process in an earlier issue. The sacrifices made by the victims of apartheid and the leaders of the liberation struggle will continue to preoccupy scholars for many decades  to come. This issue of Africa Update is in their honor.

Chief Editor
Dr. Gloria Emeagwali


THE CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK

The 1985-94 constitutional process in South Africa was a process made up of a sequence of sub-events. Its first significant sub-event was the change of mind of the government of President Botha during the mass strikes of 1984-5. The second was the 5-year series of secret meetings with Mandela from late 1985. These were arranged by Botha's ministers, police and secret service to find out how Mandela's brain worked. Then came the un-banning of the Pan African Congress (PAC) and the Azania Peoples' Organization (AZAPO).  The release of Robben Island prisoners; the release of Mandela in February 1990; the negotiations, and finally, the April 1994 election followed. These culminated in formation of a "Government of National Unity.”

ANC Centenary Celebrations and the Future of White South Africans

The centenary celebrations of the ANC must be viewed for what it is, the trigger for much worse to come.

Reading what Julius has been saying over the past few days is most disconcerting to say the least. He is being ignored by most, just as was the case a year or two ago, when he was regarded as just a stupid kid. Now he is being disregarded, because he was dispelled from the ANCYL. White South Africans truly are stupid themselves.

He is busy stirring the pot like never before with statements like : "Domestic workers get raped in the bedrooms of the baas & the madam. They're silent because they'll loose their job." and "We don't want to drive whites into the sea. In 10 years we want white domestic workers." He is urging the maids to rise up to their white employers and suggesting that in ten years from now the white women may be raped by their black employers. He is urging blacks to take up arms against the whites with statements like "Mandela said letters to the Queen doesn't help. Take up the weapon. Ideas Is not gonna bring economic freedom."

Chinese South Africa

As the year 2011 draws to a close we need to sit-up and consider what lies ahead in 2012. Now I don't care whether you're a conspiracy theorist believing the world is ruled by Jews and ugly old men attending Free Mason meeting in dark little rooms, whether you believe the Chinese are colonising Africa (or the world for that matter) and supporting the radical terrorist movements in driving the whites from Africa, whether you're Christian, a Muslim or an Atheist. Frankly I do not care whether you consider yourself a Boer a Dutchman, an Afrikaner or a proud white South African, whether your home language is Portuguese, German, Dutch, Afrikaans or English. I don't care if you came here five years ago or whether your forefathers came here 300 years ago. I also do not care whether you're a liberal, an appeaser or a conservative fundamentalist right-winger.

What we should care about is that we consider where we are living today. We are living in a black majority ruled African country, whether we like it or not. If we thought 2011 was bad, 2012 will be MUCH, MUCH worse in every respect.

Dr. Myles Munroe says that if you walk down the street and run into some guy you haven't seen in five years and the man starts talking to you about the same stuff he spoke about when you last saw him five years ago, turn around and walk away, because the man is stagnated in the past. If you don't know who Myles Munroe is, its time to found out who he is, because irrespective of whether you're a Christian, a Muslim, an Atheist or a Pagan he is worthy of respect, you could actually learn something from him.

Now living by that rule we should probably turn around and walk away from many people we know, because so many people are stuck in the past, stagnated to suffocation and so much so that they are not worthy of your time. South Africa is riddled with stagnant people, zombies that cannot think beyond 1652, 1838, 1902, 1910, 1961, 1994, etc, yet we're living in 2011 going on 2012.

Advice From A Collapse Survivor: “Run!” From Major Cities

Bernie Carr
December 6th, 2011
Apartment Prepper   fateoftheworld.wikia.com
The following interview  has been generously contributed by Bernie Carr from Apartment Prepper. If , in the event of a worst-case scenario collapse, you plan on bugging in and riding out the storm within an urban or suburban dwelling we recommend giving Bernie’s book The Prepper’s Pocket Guide: 101 Easy Things You Can Do to Ready Your Home for a Disaster a serious read.

In the interview below Bernie discusses post-collapse strategies with Selco of SHTF School. You may remember Selco from a previous article which included a first person account of what it’s like to live in a world where there is no electricity, no gas, no heat, no food, no clean water and violence knocks on your doorstep day and night. Basically, all of those Armageddon scenarios we bring up regularly on this web site and others, except Selco is not speaking theoretically.

There is no better information we can acquire than that which comes from those who have lived through it. We thank Selco and Bernie for allowing us to share the following with our readers.

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Food for Thought from Selco Who Lived Through SHTF
By Bernie Carr

A couple of weeks ago, I recommended the link to SHTF Survival Q&A: A First-Hand Account of Long-Term SHTF Survival when I posted Quick Post Today.  I was fascinated by the first hand account by Selco, a man who lived through a SHTF scenario during the Bosnia collapse in 1992.  He described what it was like to live for a year in a city with no infrastructure:  no running water or sewer, trash pickup, no electricity; no food available, currency was useless and no rule of law.  For many of us urban dwellers, this would indeed be the dreaded SHTF situation, unlike anything we have ever faced.

Selco had some kind words about The Apartment Prepper’s Blog, and I asked him if he would mind answering questions that I had always wondered about.  I sent him a list of questions and he graciously responded.  I posted the responses “as is.”

Question 1.  On the forum where you described your experience of being under siege, you mentioned that you had no electricity or running water.  How did you and your family handle the toilet (sanitary) conditions?

Selco: We had a small yard and digged holes for toilets, we thought it was temporary so the holes were small but later on we digged bigger ones because we realized this is long and world might have forgotten us. It was not nice but at least we did not do it in the house like many others. Whole area started to smell bad anyway, stench from dead people is worse than a bit poo.

Question 2.  A lot of my readers are women and they would want to know what did the women, children and elderly members of your family do on a day to day basis during the time your city was under attack?

Selco: The roles were back to hundred years ago. Before war we were modern society, but as soon as SHTF the women, kids and elder stayed mostly at home. They wanted that, no questions. Happened automatically. Did the washing, cooking, cleaning and taking care of sick people. Just sometimes when shelling was a bit less some women came along to gather herbs or MRE if food aid was coming that time. Not often. We always had some man protecting the home, women, children and elderly.

Question 3.  From all the weapons that you used, what was your preferred weapons for when you went out into the street OR when you were staying at home and why ?

Selco: Always had the same weapons, TeTe gun / some russian gun and AK47. Simple choice, most ammo for these weapons. We had only a few of those so we exchanged them among us. Did a good job, very reliable weapons. AK47 has good stopping power, just not very good on fully auto. Can make a mess out of a human.

Apartment Prepper Editor’s note:  An example of the gun described that I found was the Tokarev TT pistol, a Russian made gun.

Question 4.  A lot of apartment preppers will probably decide to stay in their homes and this has raised a lot of discussions on the pros and cons of staying in the city.  Some people say that by staying in the city, the infrastructure will be restored first, and that those living in the countryside would be attacked by roving bandits.  The other side states that those living in the countryside have greater chances of survival as they would be more self-reliant and not dependent on resources from the city.  Based on you and your family’s experience, which would you prefer and why?

Selco: RUN!   If you lucky yes, city might be better off but if not it is so much worse. Bug in for a few days until first madness settled and then bug out. Also depends on the weather. Might stay at home in winter and risk getting robbed / murdered instead of going out and freezing to death. Only run if you know where you run to.

Apartment Prepper Editor’s note:  I was very curious about the answer to this question.  Intuitively I believe it would be bad in the cities in a total collapse.  I would like to be able to leave, but like many city dwellers, currently do not have the means to own a designated place.  We would need to decide on a destination that we can run to, should it get to that point.

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More from Bernie Carr at The Apartment Prepper
More from Selco at SHTF School Author: Bernie Carr
Date: December 6th, 2011
Website: apartmentprepper.com

Copyright Information: This content has been contributed to SHTFplan by a third-party or has been republished with permission from the author. Please contact the author directly for republishing information.

www.shtfplan.com/emergency-preparedness/advice-from-a-collapse-survivor-run-from-major-cities_12062011

Read original article here

Secrecy is the beginning of tyranny

Asaph Chuene - Peter Mongezi

22 November 2011

Asaph Chuene and Peter Mongezi says the ANC is reacting to criticism from a 'hostile' media

There is a lurking fear that some things are not meant "to be known," that some inquiries are too dangerous for South Africans to make. Without wanting to appear too superficial, the press and whistle blowers has played a constructive role in informing the public about which that could have easily been swept underneath the carpet by the fraternal ‘stomach pushing' comrades in commanding positions of power abusing public resources through inflated charges, colluding, embezzlement and senseless corruption.

As far as I know media has never made public any information that has thus far threatened the nation's interests. In fact, the contrary has been the case. This is the reason we are so concerned that the secrecy bill will become a threat to national interest itself. Clean government needs to protect no information against legitimate enquiries.

A failure to include a public interest defence clause is tantamount of affirming that the bill itself it is not about protecting the interests of South Africans. It will therefore not be too far-fetched to say that the bill will be used as instrument to remove freedoms of individual whistle blowers, the press, business and political opposition in favour of the powers that be.

If this is not a path to tyranny, it's a sure path to political suicide. Of what use will be the Protected Disclosures Act and Promotion of Access to Information Act if the State will dictate what information to give away and which to sweep under the secrecy rug? How will disclosures be possible if one can later be charged of disclosing classified information? Thus a public interest clause is necessary, in fact, why should state held information not be of public interest? Isn't a democratic state like ours govern on our behalf? Yet they should hide information from us? Democracy is not worth a crown under these circumstances.

It's obvious that ANC find itself under attack by ‘hostile' media. The disclosure of high level corruption and maladministration cases which have become a norm in the ruling party are dealing a heavy blow to the terribly factious party. This time around it looks like all ANC MPs were all instructed to all attend the session and vote for the Bill. That which is at stake here is the integrity of the movement not national interests. I challenge the State to point to any disclosure of information which has ever endangered the lives of South Africans. 

South Africa continues to be diminished by structural racism, corruption, widening inequalities and unemployment amongst myriad of challenges upon which the ruling party should expend its energy. Instead of working tirelessly to show leadership on those challenges we are given a secrecy bill.

A movement/entity it is never attacked from without before it destroys itself from within. The national interests are not at stakes from spies but rather at the political bureaucrats who are supposed to serve the needy population but instead are doing worse than nothing.

Thomas Jefferson once said "Our liberty depends on the freedom of the press [and whistle blowers], and that cannot be limited without being lost".

Delivering speech in 1994 before ANC took over; our very own Nelson Mandela said "If the people of South Africa elect us to office, we firmly undertake that an ANC government will strive for an open society in which vigorous debate is encouraged through a free press and other media"

And in our simplistic conclusion, we still say NO to secrecy. No to Secret Governance!!

Asaph Chuene and Peter Mongezi are co-founders of the upcoming Establishment for Political Redress (EPR)

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