WARNING: This is Version 1 of my old archive, so Photos will NOT work and many links will NOT work. But you can find articles by searching on the Titles. There is a lot of information in this archive. Use the SEARCH BAR at the top right. Prior to December 2012; I was a pro-Christian type of Conservative. I was unaware of the mass of Jewish lies in history, especially the lies regarding WW2 and Hitler. So in here you will find pro-Jewish and pro-Israel material. I was definitely WRONG about the Boeremag and Janusz Walus. They were for real.
Original Post Date: 2007-02-26 Time: 00:00:00 Posted By: Jan
South Africa: Glaring Government Contradictions Don’t Inspire Confidence
Cape Argus (Cape Town)
OPINION
February 24, 2007
AN UNFORTUNATE trait of President Thabo Mbeki is his aversion to input from anyone except a trusted inner circle.
This dependence on a small and sycophantic group mired for years the rollout of an effective HIV/Aids policy, and the issue of crime has gone through a not dissimilar process of protracted resistance then sudden capitulation.
With HIV/Aids, it was the decision by some provincial health departments essentially to ignore national government’s denialist line that influenced the Mbeki turnaround, as much as did the vociferous lobbying of civil society organisations like Treatment Action Campaign.
It has been the same with crime. Mbeki’s dilatory response to public pressure revolved around his ministers and officials spinning the line that the increasing level of national anger was a “whingeing white” phenomenon.
Of course, it isn’t. UmAfrika editor Cyril Madlala this week graphically highlighted the situation at grassroots, noting that as elsewhere in the country, rural Zulu communities have given up on police intervention and “simply hunt down and murder” criminals.
It was only when it dawned on the Mbeki magic circle that there were significant political dangers to ignoring popular opinion, especially as the tussle around the presidential succession grows, that action was forthcoming. Having changed tack, one must concede that Mbeki has moved with vigour.
In his state of the nation address Mbeki not only pledged improved policing, but also made the politically embarrassing admission that police training has been inadequate for “everybody to feel a better sense of safety and security”.
And this week Finance Minister Trevor Manuel made provision for 34 000 additional police and 15 000 additional reservists, and a 52% increase in funds to the Justice Department.
Whether all this will make a big difference to crime levels remains to be seen. Again, Mbeki was refreshingly frank and identified “inadequate capacity and systems to monitor implementation” as the key problem.
But it is difficult to feel much sympathy for Mbeki’s predicament. Inadequate capacity stems, at least partly, from the forced exit of non-African expertise from the civil service. The lack of accountability stems from the deployment of ANC cadres to senior positions everywhere and a tolerance of incompet-ence and, often, corruption.
The incompetence of the police is distressingly legendary. Police stations don’t answer calls and often fail to send out officers to emergencies. In the evenings, charge office staff, especially in the townships, are often drunk or asleep at their posts.
The fact that SAPS hires private security companies to guard their police stations hardly induces confidence. Nor is this week’s report of how Middelburg FM’s night workers parked their car at the local police station, only to return in the morning and find that in full view of the charge office the car had been left on bricks with all four wheels stolen.
Government’s ethical contradictions that encourage criminality are exemplified by two examples, one at the top of the totem pole and the other at the bottom. Jackie Selebi is the unrepentant confidant of men implicated in drug and organised crime syndicates, but his position as National Police Commissioner is unaffected; 650 000 civil servants have stolen pension and social welfare grant money but remain employed after no more than a slap on the wrist. But it would take more than firing Selebi and 650 000 thieving bureaucrats to achieve accountability.
Relevant Links
Southern Africa
South Africa
Crime and Corruption
Legal and Judicial Affairs
It is also about the symbol-ic responsibility of leaders to those who elected them.
For instance, while no one wants the president to feel as unsafe as everyone else does, it beggars belief that a R90 million wall is to be built around Mbeki’s official residence in Pretoria. That works out at about R30 000 per metre.
Also puzzling in a country crying out for public works projects that soak up labour, is the news that the installation is to be sourced offshore. Eish!
Source: All Africa
URL: http://allafrica.com/stories/200702240165.htm…br>
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