[A regular reader expressing his sentiments. Jan]

Hi Jan,
Thank you for the posting of œVaal River “ Worst Disaster in 30 Yearsœ (17 01.2006) on your www.AficanCrisis.org website. What follows below I started writing before I read your posting. I am glad you posted the article because it has given me more information and good TVNews photographs (equally annoying). From the outset I would like to apologize if what follows is irrelevant, in no particular order, rantings and ravings of someone that does not see the bigger picture or just plain stupid. There is so much on my brain because of so much sh*t has happened in S.A. over the past 11 years that I will be called a scatter brain for jumping from politics to personal information and back to politics. I just don™t know where to start because of the flood of events happening in our country. Please excuse my humble attempt at penning some of what goes on in my head!!!!

There was a time (the 60™s, 70™s and the middle 80™s) that I would never even have considered writing what follows, putting my feelings of hopelessness and despair on paper.

With the Delmas debacle still fresh in our minds and Hartebeespoort Dam with it™s feeders that can no longer be used for recreation purposes anymore, due to the contamination of the water, serious action needs to be taken before this beautiful land of ours turns into a cesspool of epidemic germ carrying filth and other related illnesses.

Lets us go to the origin of the problem and see why we are where we are today. What follows are just a few highlights (not that there were any since April 1994) and my own thoughts, nowhere near a full rendition of this country™s recent history which is ruled, driven and abused by pathetic excuses for human beings.

The ANC (Another Native Coward) fought a cowardly œwar (if that is what you can call terrorism “ fought by yellow bellied a**holes in the name of œfreedom). The only œfreedom won (the portion that the then ruling party “ NP – did not negotiate away at Codesa) was the œfreedom to be torturous murderers, brutally criminal, dishonest, exceptionally corrupt, racist, discriminatory and many more. This newfound œfreedom they fought so hard for “ also called the new œdemocracy obtained through œfree and fair elections to create this wonderful œRainbow Nation gave unruly elements (of which there are many thousands) and the incoming ruling party elite carte blanche, in other words a license to do and take whatsoever pleases them.

Numerous promises were made by the ANC in the run-up to the so-called œdemocratic 1994 elections. Those œpeople who did not believe in promises were intimidated and shocked into submission by the use of the feared œnecklace murders. (œWith our matches and tyres we will liberate this country – Winnie Mandela). All this was, was a ploy by the then soon to be ruling party to secure the votes of the public (mind you in 1994 œthe people voted for a figure head, Nelson Mandela, not for a party “ they voted with their hearts not their heads). This simple sod of a figure head made promises left right and centre to make absolutely sure that they would be voted into power. Promises œthe people are still waiting for.

A few lame attempts at building RDP houses were made and just about each and every attempt was scuttled by money hungry bastards who made off with billions of rands earmarked for housing. The small amount available left to build houses with was squandered by totally incompetent œpeople with absolutely no skills or idea of building. Remember the toilet debacle a few years ago. As a matter of fact, watch TV news daily for the most amazing Schuster-like inserts on incompetence. (As the Afrikaans joke goes, what was written on Joe Slovo™s tombstone – Minister of Housing:

œHier le(170)ª Joe Slovo,
Arms gevou en fokkol huise gebou

I can, for example, vividly remember the œtravelgate, oilgate, the arms scandal, and quite a few other scandals. Our Deputy President™s holiday to the United Arab Emirates (abusing taxpayers money) is a shining example of the extent, in this case the elite, will go to, to enjoy life to the full and in some instances even further than that. These œpeople (who all seem to be above the law and can never do anything wrong in the scumbag socialistic governments eyes) reckon that as long as there is money we will just help ourselves to it and when reserves run low, we will milk the (194)Â(177)±10% of tax payers in the country.

Now, the real or actual reason for putting pen to paper. Our country has in the past 11 years been overpowered by a tsunami of œFILTH. Now… filth comes in a number of disguises such as murder, rape, theft, corruption, non-functional infra structures, broken promises and a host of other topics, actually too numerous to name.

For the purpose of this writing I want to actually concentrate on proper filth or dirt. Dirt is what you wade through when you next take a trip down High Street in Brixton. Goodness, I lived just around the corner in Collins Street for 12 years “ what a simply splendid little middle class suburb. With the scrapping of influx control in the middle 80™s œpeople started flooding into the area. It was then, after a number of incidents in our street and in the block of flats behind my house, that I decided to move to another suburb. There was an attempt, just after we moved house, to beautify the shopping complex and the area surrounding it but the floodgates soon opened and developed into a tidal wave of œpeople. Along with their arrival, their contribution to our lovely suburb was murder, rape, car theft, house break-ins, robbery, muggings, drug dealing, shebeens and droves of squatters.

Our country has in the past eleven years been overpowered by a tsunami of œFILTH. Now . . . filth comes in a number of disguises such as murder, rape, theft, corruption, non-functional infra structures, pornography, broken promises and a host of other topics, actually too numerous to name.

This filthy situation we find ourselves in today is mainly due to the lack of proper control, policing, infra structure maintenance, planning, careful spenditure of municipal budgets etcetera. We all know why we are living in squalor and where all the money is going that is supposed to uplift and keep the country from decaying into a fifth world country “ just look around and see who is in charge of the majority of our cities and their respective municipalities “ the ANC of course. Whilst the fat cats are lapping up their newly acquired filthy rich life styles, the rest of the country is going to hell. Don™t be fooled they have no sympathy for the population who voted them into power, so with the municipal elections just around the corner promises have already been made yet again like spending R400 million (if I remember correctly) on up-liftment and as the ANC election posters say œVote for better local government (WHAT A SCREAM!!!! “ such a pity that millions nae(175)¯ve œpeople will believe all the sweet talk and promises and keep the a**holes in power). Instead of standing up and demanding better governance they follow like sheep.

As an avid listener of œMonitor on RSG (Radio Sonder Grense “ the Afrikaans Radio version of SAFM) in the morning, I heard the heart rendering story of the defilement of the Vaal River (17.01.2006).

An enormous amount of sewerage has now ended up in the river (as is happening with just about every other river in the country). This has directly contributed to the loss of an entire eco system in the Vaal and as an example the wiping out of some endangered fish species in the river.

All susidiadies of the Vaal houses squatters on the banks of the rivers. Out of control, illegal squatting and extremely poor infra structure or the lack thereof. These œpeople have no basic services. Fair enough, the one thing œthe people still do not understand (logic? / lack of education?) is that shacks cannot just willy nilly be erected where it pleases œthe people. A large percentage due to the fact that no municipality in its right mind would install services to œdwellings below the flood lines “ this being only one example. Now all and sundry make use of the veld or un-hygienic make-shift toilets. Effluence of the œpeoples basic needs now ends up in water systems and heaven forbid if it should rain like it has in recent weeks “ this only compounds the problem.

What is really shocking is the attitude and manner in which this extremely serious situation is handled. The Water Board blames municipalities, municipalities blame the œpeople, the œpeople blame the government for the non-provision of proper housing, services and so it goes around and around. Personally, I believe that the above scenario (and many other country wide f***-ups) are to be blamed on the incompetence of municipalities and their personnel. In their œAfrican wisdom they replaced years of experience (whites) with blacks, not for their skills (which is non-existent) but for their political affiliations. Just have a look at who is in charge of the majority of municipalities in the country.

As an example, look at the banks of the Jukskei River. This river flows smack bang through the centre of Alexandra Township. How many houses are still being built (despite repeated warnings not to) below the flood line. During the rainy season, you can set your watch to it, the river comes down in flood and œpeople loose all their possessions and some their lives. Will these people ever learn, NO, all they know is sticking out dirty palms wanting and waiting for the government to grease them. Shelter, food, medical assistance, trauma counseling and a myriad of other handouts. When all assistance runs out, it™s back to building shacks where they shouldn™t.

It is time that the government delivers on its promises, municipalities get their acts together by using monies budgeted what it was intended for and not for flash black 4×4™s, BMW™s and back pockets. Instead of enriching themselves, money should be made available for the education of the œmasses as to basic life skills and then to assist œthe people to take charge of cleaning their own filth in their townships.

After all from a medical perspective, a clean country is a healthy country!

God Bless.