Zuma may have a point.....

President Jacob Zuma had a point, but missed the opportunity to make it clear. It is common place for whites to treat their dogs better than other people and it is a trend among black people nowadays. 

This is not an attack on white people. But a way of saying to black people; "who are you?". Most black people suffer serious identity crisis. They are diluted by the living conditions that demonise our own customs. And consequently it also erodes humanity. 

Sometimes I find it nauseating on the amount of money people both black and white will spend on their dogs, the cost of dog food, vet bills, housing, and dressing dogs as if they were people. Have we forgotten that these are only animals, where is the humanity when I as a person will spend R600 to R1200.00 a month on a couple bags of upscale dog food because I want "Fido" to eat well, but refuse to understand or acknowledge that some people have nothing to eat. We can't even see that they are trying to feed their families on R250.00 a month in food stamps. 

South Africa has people who cannot afford to go to the doctor to have a common cold treated because of the cost or they have no medical aid. The backlog of apartheid still prevents decent medical care to our people.  But I will take my dog to be treated for the Parvovirus and think nothing on flopping down R2900.00 so my dog will not suffer, that is insanity. 

I understand when people  treat their dogs well but there is a limitation on how much money we spend on them.
I wouldn't treat them better than my neighbour who may have nothing. So yes I see Zuma's point.

I like the challenge  on black women who straighten their hair  and buy weaves to have long hair to Europeanise themselves to conform to standard of beauty. 

Black people throughout the world are losing their pride and culture in being black with our emulation on conforming to the white standard in everything we do.

Maybe the ANC should die of old age

I do not want to sit here and be deterred by the Mangaung election results. This year was the year for South African citizens. And it is my hope that Jacob Zuma's re-election as the ANC president will fuel ideas in the minds of our citizens. Patriotism drove a group of concerned people to force the minister of education to deliver learning material to Limpopo pupils. When we were told to pay e-tolls, we stood and took to the courts and the streets to fight for what we believed in. The year 2012 was  the year of the citizens, because ordinary people like Dr Mamphela Ramphele who prevented Zuma's government from appointing the tainted Richard Mdluli from a crucial Position in the security of our country. The spirit of democracy crushed the plans of the ANC to contaminate the State even further.
My warning to the arrogant ANC is that do not underestimate the will of the South African people.
You have to be very selfish to ignore the R 240 million Nkandla Project. You must have buried your conscience if you turn a blind eye to the lack of decisive leadership from President Jacob Zuma. The delegates at Mangaungn Conference Today projected Zuma for a second term in office as head of State. That is equivalent to a spit in the face of many impoverished people of this country. This better evoke Thirst for change. I refuse to accept that a few thousand people can decide on the future of millions of South Africans. Very few good things can be alluded to the Zuma Presidency. The ANC is plagued corruption. And those who voted at the Mangaung conference knew they stand to benefit under Zuma presidency. Why else would you vote for a man with a track record like that of Zuma? The only thing they have achieved is to keep Zuma out of prison.
Something powerful has to come out against this uncertain future for our constitutional democracy. Zackie Achmat has given up his ANC membership. Now that is comforting. There are still South Africans with a conscience. I too, hope the scars of the labour movement which they got from the Marikana massacre do not heal until they erupt and charge the ANC. Charge them like an angry bull. And form a political party that will win the hearts and minds of South Africans who have not benefitted from the lies and deceit by the ANC. Cannot wait for the day when the ordinary citizen say "Amandla" and the masses respond, "Awethu". Because truly, the power is ours.

Apartheid: A black man's scapegoat?

Can we blame some of our social ills on apartheid? Yes we can! Some of us may not live to see a South Africa that has equal opportunities for everyone. But here's the catch in all this, we cannot divorce ourselves from the problems that are clear that they cannot be blamed of the legacy of apartheid. When you switch on your television, you see young black men and women idolising the likes of Kenny Kunene. Some go as far as calling themselves Izikhothane. Kids from poor backgrounds burning banknotes and tearing their trendy, expensive clothing. When you channel hop to another channel, you hear of teens falling pregnant just so they can have access to the R280 social grant. Then tell me how can we expect the Annual National Assessment of our schools to produce any encouraging results?

Can we really say that these kids are the legacy of apartheid? How can you say yes when you have self-motivated youngsters of the same age who grew up in child-headed families, but still have thirst and hunger for education? How are they different from the Izikhothane and those having unprotected sex, having children just to loot the hard work of taxpayers? Does being poor mean you have to be a burden of the already struggling economy. Why can't the legacy of apartheid make us all determined  to be part of the economy.

Township schools are now producing another generation of underpaid farm workers. They are breeding the next generation of exploited domestic workers. There are way too many people that I know of that flourished under far more desperate situations. There is lack of discipline. The black man's disease of self-hate can be diagnosed on this youth that cannot see beyond being an Izikhothane or falling pregnant for ridiculous reasons.

While we give apartheid, a break, where are the teachers? Call them for a Sadtu conference they will come with potbellies in their red T-Shirts and Edgars sneakers. But call them for a round table discussion on how to get the education system right, there will be a low turnout. Our teachers are politicised and they love it. I'm generalising for a good reason. It is the majority of our black people that suffer at the ends of teachers who lack passion. And some of them are the sad realities of apartheid because careers were limited in their times. They failed to change the cour of their lives by not Educating our children.

I am not going to touch on the political leadership. We all know deep in our Nkandlas that we are misled.

ANC's lack of compassion: apartheid lives on

Lenasia demolitions 'about corruption': The demolition of houses on land intended for government housing in Lenasia was part of the fight against corruption, Gauteng Housing MEC Ntombi Mekgwe says.

The so-called Killer mom should not be jailed

A woman from one of the poorest provinces of South Africa was condemned to 12 years in prison for murdering her 5 children. Venolia  Siwa said she stabbed four of the children – disabled 13-year-old Sizwe (Sizwe means a Nation), 10-year-old Lukanyo (his name means Light), Edward who was 5 and 4-year-old Naledi (Naledi means Star) with a knife. She said she drowned the youngest, Reatlegile (2). Reatlegile is a Tswana name which means We are Victors.

Such beautiful names. It almost makes you believe that these children were planned and conceived with love. It will just take their names for the gates of heaven to open for them. Just unbelievable that they perished at the hands of the woman who gave birth to them. She is now pregnant as she goes to jail. Does she not have control or a say over her reproductive health? What kind of demon possessed her to accomplish the mission to kill her own offspring?

My friend Margaret Mothibi, a journalist for the SABC in the Northern Cape, covered her story. Venolia is a member of the ZCC church. Margaret says community members described her as sweet, quite lady. Some even said she was a great mother. Like millions of South Africans she was unemployed. With five children and a sixth on the way? On top of that, she had problems with her partner. No support. 

Northern Cape province has a reputation of women (and men) who abuse alcohol even in their pregnancy. Venolia wasn't a drinker. She was just a woman from Magojaneng, who may have been suffering from Post Natal Depression. Dis-empowered like many South Africans; probably no education, no access to decent health care and most certainly submissive to her partner. I'm not in any way making excuses for her. But the conditions we live in put us in the situations we find ourselves in. Human soul can only take so much suffering. The climax of her suffering and frustrations ended with her children dead! Dead! The impatience and frustrations of the Marikana miners ended with more than 34 people dead. The inhuman living conditions of South African farm workers has led them to burn vineyards that generate millions for the country's economic. But nothing for them.

"Motherhood without assistance is hell" someone told me once. Margaret tells me that some women in court who didn't even know Venolia, wept with her or even for her. I too weep for her. I feel sorry for this woman. What kind of life will she lead? When she sobers up from the demon that drove her to kill. She will die. Her spirit will die and  follow her children.

This country gives me heartburn sometimes

It's travesty and a tragedy when a rhino or a white person suffers, but when it's black person suffering it's just another day at the office. This week it wasn't the Khayelitsha shack that were on fire. It was the luxurious holiday homes in St. Francis in the Eastern Cape. Thankfully no fatalities. 

But I'd like to add that I feel nothing for the owners of the homes that were razed to the ground by the fires. In my view, there was just too much air time given to this story. All they lost are pictures and insured appliances. 

There were hotels around St. Francis offering the so called victims of fire accommodation.

In a shack fire in Diepsloot or Khayelitsha it is the churches and schools that will offer soup and shelter. In these fires most of the black population, will have lost Identity Documents they use to get access to the social grants. All  their livelihoods are contained in shack. And those stories dwindle so fast in the media. Simply because the shack fires happen too often. Sometimes shack fires are just not headline stories at all if there is no one dead. 

Do you want me to talk about the plight of the farm workers? Should I remind you of the more than 34 lives it took before mine workers could earn a reasonable wage? Constant reminder that life black life is cheap. The gap between whites and black is just wide and getting wider. 

In 2012 we have a government that demolishes homes because they are built on illegal lad!? Really? Does it not take you back to forced removals of the apartheid government? The Gauteng Department of Housing defended the demolitions and said they were in line with the law. So we have a government that would rather be on the right side of the law that to make the welfare and interests of its citizens a priority. I am quite certain Nomvula Mokonyane could have found a way to bargain with the people pf Lenasia. The Gauteng Premier suffered at the hands of the apartheid government, but she ignores the cries and screams of the women and children of Lenasia.  

There's a disco light at the end of the tunnel

Hardness yields to softness…

Eventually, every time.

I try to remember this when I hit a place within myself that is rigid, tensed against life.

Trying to blast through does not work & can cause damage & pain.

Allowing myself to continually yield to the pull of that which moves my soul softens those places in myself & lets the life force flow more freely. 

My job has become like a cheating husband.

The one you chose, the one you love and have invested so much in.

But, because I love him (my job), I continue to be lifted and carried to an impossible place by my "grandmothers".

I think I am taken there so that I may see how that which appears static and set - might be freed by the magic of my imagination. 

Malawi police ordered to stop arresting homos

Malawi has dropped its humans rights abuse of persecuting homosexuals "for the time being". Apparently Malawi police have been ordered to stop arresting people in same sex relationships. Authorities say the suspension has been made to allow lawmakers time to hold further debates on the issue.

A recent report sent to the President Joyce Banda suggested that decriminalizing homosexuality could help the country's fight against HIV/AIDS. And that makes sense because men who have sex with men (not necessarily gay) are the ones at risk of contracting HIV. They eventually die of Aids because they pushed into wilderness by the persecution and the stigma around being and HIV positive. 

Like many African states, homosexuality is illegal in Malawi and is punishable with 14 years in prison if convicted. You will remember Malawi came under the world spotlight in 2009, when a gay couple was arrested after staging a public traditional engagement. The first of its kind. 

However they were released after western donors threatened to withdraw aid to the country.

Aluta Continua!! 

Showing true colours!

Why do we have the army deployed in Marikana where the police themselves shot and killed striking miners? But requests to get the army in the Cape flats, where innocent children die almost everyday will not be heeded! Is it because the miners are now crippling an industry where some of the government officials benefit? Have the miners - fighting for a better life - forced the government to show its true colours? 

The official opposition party recently pleaded with the national government to deploy troops in an area where drugs and violent crimes are perpetrated against innocent people. A BIG NO from government, saying the police were capable of keeping that part of the world in control. I tell you now that there is a toddler shot in the head by a stray bullet in Lavender Hill. And this is a tip of the iceberg. They refused to call it a state of emergency because it would only affirm the notion that today's government is very much similar to the apartheid government that oppressed the majority of the black people of this country. 

South Africa has an alarming leadership crisis. People only "fix things" just to ensure their comfortable life at the expense of many - many South African who are in abject poverty. We have the likes of Julius Malema who are using the unfortunate situation to score political points. Stirring up a mess that has resulted in more people dead since the massacre of 34 miners. We have the former trade unionists and freedom fighters who are now tycoons in the mining sector. Even in their positions they have done nothing to improve the lives of the miners. Despite their first-hand experience of the plight of our people. Now the discontent among the poor has spiralled out of control. From service delivery protest for basic services such as sanitation and access to water to the fight for better wages. 

Government has shown us its true colours, and we believe them. 

US APPROVES NEW ONCE-A-DAY PILL TO TREAT HIV

A new pill to treat HIV infection -- combining two previously approved drugs plus two new ones -- has been approved for adults living with the virus that causes AIDS, US regulators said Monday.


The single daily dose of Stribild provides a complete treatment regimen for HIV infection, the US Food and Drug Administration said in a statement, and is meant for people who have not already received treatment with other HIV drugs.


"Through continued research and drug development, treatment for those infected with HIV has evolved from multi-pill regimens to single-pill regimens," said Edward Cox, director of the Office of Antimicrobial Products in the FDA's Center for Drug Evaluation and Research.


"New combination HIV drugs like Stribild help simplify treatment regimens."


The new pill, previously called Quad, is made by Gilead Sciences in California and "should be available to patients by the end of the week," company spokeswoman Erin Rau told AFP.


The company said it tested the pill in two double-blind clinical trials of more than 1,400 patients.


Results showed that Stribild performed as well or better than two other treatment combinations, and brought virus readings down to undetectable levels in around nine of 10 patients after 48 weeks.


"Therapies that address the individual needs of patients are critical to enhancing adherence and increasing the potential for treatment success," Gilead chief John Martin said in a company statement.


But some advocates say the new pill is priced far too high.


"We wanted to see (a price of) no more than the current drug," said Michael Weinstein, president of the AIDS Healthcare Foundation, referring to Gilead's previously approved three-in-one pill, Atripla. But he said the price will be about a third higher than the three-pill combo.


The new drug "is not a significant improvement over existing therapies," Weinstein told AFP, adding the cost will "severely limit access" to the new medication.


Gilead is charging wholesalers $28,500 a year for the drug, but said it will provide discounts to state assistance programs and has created a patient financial-assistance program, Rau said.


This is Gilead's third single-tablet anti-HIV combination therapy, the company noted, adding it is still seeking approval for the newest offering in Australia, Canada and the European Union.


To get the drug to HIV patients in the developing world, where millions lack access to effective treatment options, generic versions are being developed -- with permission and help from Gilead -- by a number of Indian manufacturers and the Medicines Patent Pool, a non-profit that helps facilitate generic drug-making.


The drug combines Truvada -- another Gilead offering approved in 2004, that combines emtricitabine and tenofovir disoproxil fumarate to fight an enzyme that HIV needs to replicate -- with elvitegravir, another enzyme-fighting drug, and cobicistat, which enhances the effects of elvitegravir.


The FDA said further study is required to determine the quad-drug's safety for women and children, how resistance may develop, and whether the drug interacts with other drugs.


Stribild will also be required to carry a label warning patients and health care providers the drug can cause fatal side effects, including severe liver problems, and a build-up of lactic acid in the blood. The FDA said the label is also required for many other HIV-fighting drugs.


But Gilead said that during the studies, "most adverse effects were mild to moderate." The FDA said patients commonly experienced nausea and diarrhea.


The drug also weakened bones and caused or worsened kidney problems --both of which will be mentioned in a warning on the drug's label.


Truvada was previously approved as a treatment for people infected with HIV to be used in combination with other antiretroviral drugs.


In July, it was also approved for use by healthy at-risk adults to prevent HIV, the first-ever daily pill approved for that purpose.


This year, the FDA also approved the first rapid HIV test that can be bought without a prescription and taken at home.

The ironies, glass closets and the Aids in our blood

It is through attending the 2012 International Aids conference that I learnt that America, a country that boasts about being a mature democracy, has had a travel ban against people infected with HIV. I soon learnt that many other progressive countries like Russia, Singapore and others also impose this ban.

There's more, governments out there criminalise gay men infected with HIV. I am quite certain this is one of the reasons HIV prevalence will remain high among Men who have sex with men and the entire gay community. This for me is like an attempt to wipe out a whole generation of gay men. I will go as far to say it is genocide. Indirectly so.

Another interesting note I have made in this conference is how so many gay men from other countries meet on the sidelines of the plenary sessions and plan for their underground LGBT advocacy. Some have been living as gay men for as long 40 years, but they are not yet out to their families or communities. And I am talking about highly educated individuals, some very prominent figures in their countries. Religion, tradition and expectation from society keep these men locked in closets. This a big assault on the advocacy for human rights of gay men in their countries, men who have no voice, HIV positive and access to medication. These are people from economies that can afford ARVs to give to 5 African countries if they chose to. They have small populations and the fastest growing GDPs in the world.

It is very ironic that when world leaders like Hillary Clinton start talking of an Aids-free generation, the struggle to curb Aids among gay men intensifies. The very same people that were associated with Aids when it was discovered are still being battered to death by the epidemic. And it is not because we do not have medication because we all know there is treatment. It is because of the stigma, the criminalisation and fear. As Hillary Clinton put it, gay men infected with HIV are pushed into the shadows where Aids preys on them. Gay men remain to be family secrets, they are a sad reality to governments and burdened with HIV and Aids.

The 2012 Aids conference was an eye-opener to a lot of ironies. It made me appreciate the small victories that my country has achieved on gay rights, but warned me not to accept mediocrity.

My battle with Aids

I feel like journalism is like a jealous lover. It just won't let me be an activist. It wags its finger at me and reminds me of the commitment I made to be objective. Sitting in the Washington Convention Center, at the International Aids Conference opening ceremony - I battled to get the story. It is difficult to be a journalist when you are the story at times. I bear the bruises of HIV and Aids just like many delegates here at the conference. We all have something in common - we are either affected or infected. Sometimes both.

As I attempt to write an objective story - I drown in thoughts and reflections of where I come from. I think to myself, "If I erect a wall and write names of people who lost their lives to Aids, it would look like a monument for fallen heroes in a war as big as the Vietnam War."

But it is a war. The war that people at this conference are optimistic that it will be won. I jump up with joy and clap with other delegates when I hear stories of people who have not let HIV be in the driver's seat of their lives.

I am however pained that most men that I have come across in my life as an African Traditional Healer, as a friend -  refuse to go and test for HIV. Some of them use their pregnant girlfriends to gauge if they are infected with the virus. While there is scientific victory in the fight against HIV and Aids, we in South Africa still struggle to get people to test for HIV. People find out too late when they are infected. Mostly in their death beds.

So for me, I have a dilemma of choosing to write a story about those people who refuse to test for HIV and being an activist that will motivate those around me to test. I believe that would be a life-saving measure. Instead of recording deaths and getting new story angles on such a tragedy. Anybody who finds out that their  loved ones are in danger, is inclined to do something to preserve those lives.

There are still governments that are reluctant to give people the life-saving drugs. Should I get on the phone and interview them and ask why or should I just mobilise people to pressure them into giving citizens accessible health care? I am really caught in between.

If I remain a journalist, I will be an embedded journalist. The one embedded in the war against Aids.

Not in Nelson Mandela's name

You cannot claim to deliver a speech to honour Nelson Mandela, when you have have African National Congress member literally at each other's throats at the venue you are delivering this "honourary" speech. It cannot be in Mandela's name, the man who always told South Africa's youth to take advantage of education, that you gave a speech and not mention the rot in the education department. You could have not been honouring a man who spoke out against a divided country and inequality.  

It is blasphemous for anyone who claims to be walking in the footsteps of Rolihlahla Mandela to be ignorant to the education crisis in South Africa. The education department is breeding a new generation of rapists, bad mothers and criminals. It is exactly what you get if you do not educate a nation. We will have more and more people dependent on social grants. That is not the kind of legacy Mandela left. We have greedy politicians. The fish really rots from the head down. 

We cannot have responsible young people if we do not have older and matured people to look up to. We lack role models. The people who are really trying to make a difference in our communities are overshadowed by brutality and greed of people in high office. They have planted a seed of doubt in our minds. We do not trust anyone because we have been let down for so long. How can we empower ourselves when the government that has inherited the backlog of apartheid further deepens itself  in corruption, maladministration. It is so bad we forget to mention the good that people like Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma did for our country. It stops us from appreciating the good attempts by Aaron Motsoaledi's department of health. It blinds us so much we do not see a glimmer of hope. It just makes us want to turn on each other, kill each other, oppress one another and belittle each other. All because we are not heard. The great start of our democracy is in tatters. The legacy of Nelson Mandela is in jeopardy. Wherever you are Madiba, I wish a happy birthday. You are blessed with long life and people of South Africa who love you, who miss you and long for the unity you once gave us a taste of.

Verwoerd gets the last laugh!

All apartheid supporters – dead and alive are having the last laugh. A good laugh at how little as changed for the black poor child in South Africa. The latest evidence is the lack of service delivery by the Basic Education Department. Six months into the year, school children have not received study material. The children of the ministers enjoy education in private schools and some overseas. 

The failed system is indirectly breeding the next generation of unemployed, disempowered and illiterate people. That will mean more poverty stricken communities, high HIV and Aids prevalence. All this tragedy because the ANC government is continuing the legacy of apartheid by giving our children no education. 

Minister in charge, Angie Motshega should have done the honourable thing; admit that she failed the country and resign. Instead she lied to the nation.

So that is why I say Verwoerd and other architects of apartheid are having a good laugh.  Angie Motshega has forgotten the bloodshed by the class of 1976. Young South Africans, unarmed but fearlessly protested against Bantu education. They were shot and killed. Let not their sacrifices be diminished by your lack of foresight. Angie, resign. 

A Happy Father's to very few men out there

In many black communities (and I'm sure many black folks will agree) there should be very few men honoured on this father's day. It has become culture of a lot of the working class men in their late 50s or early 60s to get their pension funds, abandon their families and go spend their money with floozies. My dad is 64-years-old and hasn't done it(yet). Lucky for me I have already gone through school and I am employed. And so if he does find a floozy to go spend his pension fund with, I (along with my siblings) will be able to take care of mama. 


But it is a different story for many other people out there. These men, never divorce their wives for some odd reason. And when the money is drained from their bank accounts, it suddenly dawns on them that they have families the left behind. Believe me, this is a trend in the black communities. African tradition sometimes dis-empowers women. Simply because they are supposed to welcome these evil people back into their lives. When they die, women are expected to "mourn" these irresponsible men. "Mourning" these men involves wearing a black robe for certain amount of time (usually a year) and to never have relations with any other man till the mourning period is over. Many men in our communities are burdens to their families because they made bad choices. 


I am not in any way stereotyping black men. But I am giving testimony of what I have seen, endured in my short life so far. Even with regard to HIV issues, the men are the fast "transporters" of this virus. It is an unspoken truth that our women do not have control over their reproductive health. Making them vulnerable to HIV and other "crimes" perpetrated by men. 

I agree that we must be cautious in reducing all men and all women to stereotypes – men as “perpetrators” with an aggressive and “promiscuous” sexuality and women as “victims”, sexually and socially passive. Tamara Shefer has critiqued some early gender-focussed HIV/AIDS responses, saying that the initial focus on women and girls resulted in an inadvertent “blaming” of women for the epidemic, reproduced traditional roles and patronised women. She argued that by viewing masculinity and femininity as opposites and “naturally” different, we have tried naively to “empower” women and improve “communication” in relationships, rather than addressing the structural inequalities and power differential between men and women. In addition, not enough gender work with women acknowledged the role of class, race and other identities and ignored positive aspects of female sexuality, such as pleasure and desire.

And so I would k=like to wish a happy father's day to very few men out there. 

Zuma gives middle finger to June 16th commemoration

With 50 percent of our youth unemployed - Jacob Zuma chose to abandon the country's very important commemoration. Who advices the president must have put some very powerful spell on him. For him not see how desperate the youth is to hear from him - he must have taken some serious korobela. A president who is passionate and devoted to the people of his country would have gone to Port Elizabeth for the official celebration. To tell the unemployed youth of our country what his plans are for them. He should gone there to face his demons. One of the them being Julius Malema's supporters who wanted to disrupt the celebrations because they are aggrieved the Zuma convinced the ANC's national committee not to review Malema's expulsion. Party politics has put the youth of this country last on Jacob Zuma's agenda. 

The hypocrisy shown by the president is shocking because just few weeks ago everyone who supports Zuma was up in arm against The Spear painting. The one they said was an insult to the history of our country and its people. I think Zuma's snubbing of the Youth Day commemorations is an insult to Hector Peterson and all those students who stood up against an oppressive regime. If Zuma really fought in the struggle for freedom, why does he not have the power or the strength to face a few aggrieved youths with petty issues. And all this at the expense of many young South Africans who are unemployed and desperate for assurances from the government. 

The message is very clear that the plight of the youth is overshadowed by the infighting, squabbles and power struggles in the ANC. Lest we forget the passion of class of 1976 for  equal opportunities. I really hope that the South African electorate develops an unforgiving heart and a good memory that records the failures of the ANC government. In 2014 our voice should be heard. At the moment our voices fall on deaf ears when we cry and say that our clinics have run out of ARVs. Nobody responds to the lack of clean water in some of our areas. More than 20 years in democracy we still don't have clean water for everyone. 

You Day could have been used by Jacob Zuma to say "Hey, I am aware that you are all angry with us. We acknowledge your anger and please give us more time." 

No such luck! He went off to save his ego and flew to Mexico. I am a very upset citizen. 

An open letter to Ferial Haffajee: A response to The Spear's virtual death by Eusebius McKaiser

Dear Ferial,

You are obviously one of the country's most respected editors and perhaps even, as Peter Bruce, editor of Business Day, rather perceptively observed in his column today, possibly the country's first truly celebrity editor. Your heart is in the right place, and it is little wonder that, filled with compassion for the hurt many have felt at the sight of The Spear (the art work, not the real thing of course!), and fear that some might burn more of your newspapers, hunt you down or kill your vendors even, you decided it is best to take down the image from your website. And you have now done so.

I must admit, however, that I think you made a GIGANTIC mistake. You did the wrong thing. Political bullying, and disrespect for the Bill of Rights, won this morning. Media freedom, I'm afraid, is the loser, and our democracy is worse off for the decision you have taken. Of course, your article explains the relentless pressure you have felt. It reads like a Sylvia Plath poem and seems like a pretty good self-preserving reason for bowing to pressure. No one likes an existential crisis. And Koos Bekker, your big boss, doesn't like a dent in profit. But you're meant to be our principledcelebrity editor, Ferial. Dammit!

Let me make my points bluntly for why I think you wrongly dropped The Spear's balls. This should make for ease of (dis)agreement, I hope.

First, it is not true, as Peter Bruce claims, that taking down the image is in the "national interest". It is (narrowly) in the interest of Jacob Zuma, his family, his supporters, some in the African National Congress who feel insulted, and members of the public who feel the same. But deciding on national interest is not an exercise in simply determining how the majority feels and endorsing those feeling willy-nilly. By that logic, it is "in the national interest" to chuck out the rights of gay people, to bring back the death penalty, and to allow teachers to smack kids in our schools.

That's not responding to the "context" in which your paper exists, Ferial. That is affirming, uncritically, what a vocally dominant bunch says. We should now be mature enough to have critical dialogue.

This means asking yourself whether the "national interest" is really about satisfying the whim of an angry segment of your readership, or even an angry majority in society-at-large. Worse than this, Ferial, consider whether the national interest should be politically decided, depending on what Gwede Mantashe (the ANC's secretary-general) had for breakfast, or how cool headed their spokesperson, Jackson Mthembu, happens to be when he reaches a press briefing?

Second, I think your decision to take down the image undermines your own front page story in yesterday's City Press. You ran an accurate, and very important, cover story that tells us that not all blacks think the same and that not all ANC or alliance politicians think the same. This is why you chose the headline, "Spear divides ANC". And you're right.

For example on The Justice Factor Paul Mashatile (our minister of arts and culture) had a very different take on this issue to Mantashe's and to that of minister of higher education, Blade Nzimande - who has called the painting an assault on the black body. (Let's leave aside the fact that Jacob Zuma's body is his. It is not every black man's.)

Mashatile's tone was more measured. He showed no anger, and he said that there was no ANC "debate" on whether to boycott your paper. His own preference, he said, was for "dialogue" even though he, too, regards the painting as offensive. Similarly, that brilliant old timer, and ANC intellectual heavyweight, Pallo Jordan, also defended the artist's right to artistic freedom on last night's episode of Interface on SABC3, even while explaining that sensitivity is important on the part of artists. And, in an interview in your own paper one of our best writers, Zakes Mda, was scathingly brilliant about Zuma's inability to live with being offended. Mda also denuded silly suggestions that, uhm, nudity is something only white artists dream up. (Mda's article was particularly lekka for showing up the basic ignorance in many critics' viewpoints, borne out of little or no familiarity with art.)

Here's my point. By climbing down on this issue - and following the sentiments of editors like Peter Bruce - you actually do all of us, including black South Africans, a huge disservice. You make it seem - yes, yes, it wasn't your intention Ferial! - as if you woke up this morning and thought, "My good God, they are sooo angry, I had better not hold them to the high constitutional standards I preached last week, if I want to still be alive next week!" I know these are not your literal words. But, alas, Brett Murray is not the only one who produces works open to interpretation, filled with ‘sub-texts'.

As editors, journalists, writers and columnists, our speech acts - our words -are also subject to interpretation. And so I am sorry to add to your headaches by saying that just as Mantashe, Zuma, Nzimande and Jackson - The Big Men Of Politics - were offended by your decision to keep the image on your website, it is my turn to play the "I'm offended!'-card. I am offended - cough - that you have such low expectations of angry readers, and angry politicians. I am offended that you did not take seriously your paper's own recognition that not all blacks think the same, and many of us have your back covered, including many ANC politicians even. Hence my examples of black men who have either clearly supported you (like Mda) or politicians who showed that they can explain being offended by the art work but live with being offended (Mashatile and Jordan).

The right to dignity, as you know, does not include the right to not be offended. This is why Zuma's case is legally impotent. They should have mounted (as it were) a defamation case or a hate speech one under the Equality Act. But of course their legal advisers are not the sharpest tools in the legal shed. (Those legal strategies would not have worked either, but had marginally better prospects.)

Constitutionally, we have to set a precedent which makes it clear that being ridiculed by an artist is legally allowed. Mashatile gets this. Jordan gets this. And no doubt many other politicians not yet interviewed on this issue, get it too. Your decision robs us of an opportunity to entrench, legally, the meaning and implications of artistic freedom. The aesthetic merits of the work are beside the point.

Bad art, like bad politicians, are allowed to exist. That's the point of democracy. One can only hope there isn't a retreat by Murray or the Goodman gallery.

Oh, and by the way, many people think Murray's art feeds into a white supremacist history of reducing black men to their rampant sexuality. I actually think your self-censorship feeds into a white supremacist history of lowering expectations of what black people can handle. The modern version of "Don't teach them maths because they won't get it" seems to be "Don't demand of them what you would demand  of a cosmopolitan, progressive, educated white person - tolerance of artistic freedom - because ‘they' won't get it!"

And yes I KNOW you "did not intent" to say this. I know! But we have seen from the artistic rebukes of Murray from critics like Gillian Schutte that it is ok to ignore intention and simply dump an art work into the annals of racist art's history because, you know, an exposed penis is sufficient to justify the racism card making a not-so-rare appearance in public debate.  

So pardon me, therefore, if I am being equally ungenerous in placing your reasoning in the "context" of white supremacist editorials and columns from years ago that you might not have had in mind this morning when you took your decision. I am just being "historical" in ignoring your intention, and saying you're playing into an ‘anthropology of low expectations'.

Don't condescend black South Africans - hold us to a high standard, and don't take us seriously when we bully you. We're trying our luck, and in this case you caved in. Next week, Gwede will be back, and then what? You must be "brave'', Ferial, as many say you are, and let go of the  prospects of being liked by everyone. Rather be respected for consistency and principled editorial decisions; its way cooler. Seriously dude.

As we say on twitter, a platform you love too, #JustSaying.   

Yours in "robust debate"

The president who became a joke

Mr President, take the advice Nelson Mandela gave to Bill Clinton and focus on the job at hand - not the distractions, writes Khaya Dlanga

From every turn, he has been judged on how he lives his life and little on how he does his job. The papers are forever littered with one scandal or another.

One can almost understand and sympathise with his reaction to the painting. He feels affronted on all levels and all the time. We talk about his sexuality, the number of children he has and the number of wives. Having unprotected sex with an HIV positive woman who was not his wife even though he had more than one wife at the time; and then fathering a child out of wedlock with a friend’s daughter. Every single one of these has been covered by the news on numerous occasions.

It is in this context that the painting by Brett Murray famously known as The Spear came to be. Some say that a great wrong has been perpetrated upon the person of the president, while others say that it is a reflection of facts about how he has lived his life.

He is a man with children, wives and a president. His own children have to see how he is portrayed: his fly open before the world. He is conflicted between being a father and being a public figure and being made a laughing stock. He is a president, not a laughing stock. Laughter is good.

Yet some humour can be a weapon that can wound and kill the soul. Yet what humour can do is bring out the unpleasant truth. As Andre Comte-Sponville once put it, “What it rules out is self-deception and self-satisfaction in the conduct of our lives and our relationships with others.”

One by one, article by article, scandal by scandal, a picture of Zuma was being painted on the minds of the people as a man who can’t be taken too seriously, who just likes to have a good time. The indignation he feels goes beyond just the painting. He wants to be taken seriously as president. It also explains how he has taken Zapiro to court for his cartoons. He wants to show us that he is a serious man. He also wants to be treated with dignity.

Perhaps he sees his presidency as something that is under siege from the press and that the courts are not on his side. His frustrations are understandable. The press seems to celebrate his failures and sweep his successes under a dirty rug.

In the 1990s, then American president Bill Clinton was followed by a sexual scandal involving Monica Lewinsky. The story was covered by every paper and news outlet 24/7. Even Chris Rock made a rather crude joke inferring that then first lady Hillary Clinton hadn’t done what she was supposed to do, which is how Bill strayed. The joke was of course very shocking. Yet Chris Rock was not sued nor threatened for making such a joke.

Clinton became a butt of jokes. Later, he would say that the way he survived the scandal was listening to Nelson Mandela’s advice, who told him to focus on the work he was elected to do, not on the scandal.
Today, president Bill Clinton is remembered as one of America’s really good modern presidents because he focused on what needed to be done for the American people. He presided over one of America’s most prosperous times, he even left the country in surplus. He focused on the work at hand, not personal affronts.

Earlier this year, a painting of Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper by Margaret Sutherland shows him reclining on a chair, completely naked. A dog rests at his feet. The prime minister’s office simply responded, “On the Sutherland painting: we’re not impressed. Everyone knows the PM is a cat person.” They responded with humour. And please nobody start with the “unAfrican” argument because it is has no leg to stand on.

There are some who want to reduce the painting to race and call it racist. Of course it is not. It is just distasteful. Despite its distasteful nature, I will defend the artist’s right to paint it and the gallery’s right to display it. Personal feelings on the matter aside. The great thing about the country though is that the president, like anybody else, has the right to approach the courts about the painting.

The race card argument says that the president has been reduced to nothing but a sexual being, which is how white people see black men. Sometimes I dread the race card because it’s often brought up situations where people are too lazy to think of a proper argument. They gravitate towards what is easy and fail to apply their minds in order to win a harder argument based on real factors for they know that no one will try to debate the race card. There is nothing racist about that painting.
What of the atrocious 2010 painting by Ayanda Mabulu which portrays Desmond Tutu naked, with the Pope’s hand resting on his thigh? The same painting exhibits Jacob Zuma’s penis as well. Is it racist too? There has been no outrage about it, of course. The only thing that I find outrageous about that painting is that it is so outrageously bad, it shouldn’t even be called art.

In the US, the presidential communications department is trained on how to dominate the message of the day, how not to let a story run away. They learn to control the message quickly. A story runs away when you don’t own it. If you don’t own it, you can’t control it. The president became a victim instead of owning the story.

He has been painted as a victim. People don’t believe that a powerful man like him is a victim or can be. Just because ordinary people on the street are angered by the painting doesn’t mean that they think he is a victim. In their minds, he is too powerful to be one. When he was running for the presidency of the ANC, it was easy to see how he could be a victim.

Personally, I don’t want my president to become a joke, but I do want my president to take a joke. I don’t want my president to be treated as a man without dignity, but I do want him to be dignified when he is treated without dignity. I don’t want my president to be overly sensitive, but I do want him to navigate around difficult issues with sensitivity and wisdom.

Mr President, take the advice Nelson Mandela gave to Bill Clinton. Focus on the job at hand and ignore the distraction and create a legacy so great we can’t ignore.

Follow Khaya Dlanga just like I do on twitter, @KhayaDlanga

Traditional leaders and the fuel that fires homophobia, for the Daily Maverick

As the National House of Traditional Leaders lobbies for gay rights to be excised from the Constitution, and the chair of the Constitutional Review Committee sprouts anti-gay statements, lesbians and gays continue to be subject to violent attacks. MANDY DE WAAL speaks to constitutional law professor Pierre de Vos about human rights and irresponsible politicians who fuel homophobic hate in South Africa.

Noxolo Nogwaza was 24 when her body was found last year in an alley behind a store in KwaThema. The young mother of two was raped, stoned and stabbed in the East Rand Township that is notoriously linked to corrective rape and murder.

KwaThema is the same township where the body of celebrated female soccer star and Banana  player, Eudy Simelane, was found in April 2008. Simelane was gang-raped, beaten and stabbed 25 times before being disposed of in a ditch.

Nogwaza and Simelane were champions for gay rights. Simelane was one of the first women to live openly as a lesbian in KwaThema, while Nogwaza led a local gay rights group – the Ekurhuleni Pride Organising Committee.

The Star reports that a year after Nogwaza’s murder no progress has been made in her case.
Pierre de Vos, the Claude Leon Foundation Chair in Constitutional Governance at the University of Cape Town, says it is not uncommon for gay people’s rights to be ignored by those who execute the letter of the law.
“When I go to workshops I am shocked to hear from lesbian women and gay men that when they go to the police they are told to ‘voetsek’ because they are just lesbians or ‘moffies’ and don’t have any rights,” says De Vos, who adds that the government hasn’t educated the very people who are supposed to enforce human rights or secure a respect for diversity and difference.
De Vos believes the government is neglecting to do “a very important job” in service departments. “There should be far more diversity training to educate people in the police force not to be homophobic. It is troubling that 18 years into our democracy we haven’t actually transformed those people who are supposed to protect human rights. We speak so much of transformation, but our government hasn’t taken the steps to enable a respect for diversity.”
The result is a gap between the human rights enshrined in the Constitution and the lived reality. People are protected by the Constitution and have an awareness of their rights, De Vos says, but the problem is that it is difficult to enforce these rights in a personal sphere because of the prejudices and hatred that surround South Africans.
De Vos believes this prejudice and hatred is intensified by the irresponsible, homophobic statements made by traditional leaders in recent times, notably the National House of Traditional Leaders, which recently appealed to Parliament to have a clause removed from the Constitution that protects gay rights.
A Parliamentary report by the Constitutional Review Committee this April shows a submission by the leaders that proposed the “exclusion of ‘sexual orientation’ from Chapter 2 of the Constitution, which deals with the Bill of Rights.”  
This particular section of the Constitution reads: “The state may not unfairly discriminate directly or indirectly against anyone on one or more grounds, including race, gender, sex, pregnancy, marital status, ethnic or social origin, colour, sexual orientation, age, disability, religion, conscience, belief, culture, language and birth.”
In its response, the review committee said the submission was under consideration, while City Press reported that an ANC caucus would decide whether this proposal for a constitutional amendment will be debated in Parliament.
The chairman of the Constitutional Review Committee is Patekile Holomisa, who is also president of the Congress of Traditional Leaders of SA, which has earned a degree of infamy because of its wont to rubbish gay rights. Speaking to City Press, Holomisa said most South Africans didn’t want gay rights protected, and that the ANC caucus was opposed to gay marriage in any event.
“The last time this issue was discussed was about same-sex marriages. Most of the people in the caucus were opposed to it, but then Luthuli House and the leadership instructed us to vote for it,” Holomisa told the newspaper, adding that the ANC knew the “great majority does not want to give promotion and protection to these things”.
De Vos says Holomisa’s statements come as no surprise. “Holomisa is a traditional leader and this is part of a far wider fight-back by patriarchal forces in South Africa, which we also see with the tabling of the Traditional Courts Bill and the like. These are people who, during the negotiating process (of the Constitution), were marginalised and their views were rejected in favour of more progressive views because the ANC saw itself as a progressive institution. But they are now trying to claw back some of the space that was ceded to the progressives inside the ANC. That is the context.”
“It is worrying that someone with so much influence inside the governing party would make these deeply humiliating statements,” says De Vos, who doubts that the traditional leaders’ bid to amend the Constitution will be successful. “There seem to be enough sane people in the ANC to not to want to go down that route of discrimination against a vulnerable group in society.”
Although South Africa protects discrimination against people on the basis of sexual orientation in the Constitution, the lived reality is very different, as evidenced by the deaths of Nogwaza and Simelane.
De Vos points out that wealth, class and location can buy protection from this prejudice. The impact of the homophobic leaders has little impact on the “chattering classes” or those living in cities.
“It is very worrying if you live in a community where you are not protected from the hatred of people around you by your money, class or a geographic position. Often where there is a latent prejudice or simmering hatred the pronouncement of leaders can spark action on the part of ordinary people to give effect to their hatred,” says De Vos.
“This can lead to assault and even murder, which we have seen in many cases in South Africa, especially for lesbian women who have been raped and murdered because of prejudice. It is very irresponsible for a leader to make that kind of statement because it can send a signal to other people that it is actually okay to violently attack individuals.”
A study a few years ago by gay rights group The Triangle Project showed that in the Western Cape 44% of white lesbians lived in fear of sexual assault, and that 86% of black women in the province felt the same.
“Every day you feel like it’s a time-bomb waiting to go off. You don’t have freedom of movement, you don’t have your space to do as you please, you are always scared and your life always feels restricted. As women and as lesbians we need to be very aware that it is a fact of life that we are in danger, all women are in danger,” a lesbian from Soweto, Johannesburg told ActionAid, which compiled a survey called Hate crimes: The rise of ‘corrective’ rape in South Africa.
“They tell me that they will kill me, they will rape me and after raping me I will become a girl. I will become a straight girl,” says another young woman from Soweto.
In that same document a quote from South Africa’s National Prosecuting Authority: “Whilst we are mindful of the fact that hate crimes – especially of a sexual nature – are rife, it is not something that the South African government has prioritised as a specific project.”
Righting homophobia in South Africa will take thinking about education and the human rights regime in a much more structured and coherent manner, says De Vos, adding: “We need to think more carefully about how we can create active citizens who can demand their rights and actively participate in the enforcement of their rights, but also respect the rights of other people who don’t agree with them.”
“There should be policies in place that say: ‘what are the values we want to convey when we teach our children?’ It is not only about teaching people to read and write or to add up and subtract. There are always values involved when we educate people, so we need to think about our value system, and the starting point of that system should surely be the constitutional values – respect for human dignity, for equality, for freedom, and the notion of respect for diversity,” he says.
De Vos says that South Africa has been “transformed on paper” but hasn’t been transformed in practice. He says teachers, police officers and people who work in Home Affairs and other branches of government need to be trained to embrace diversity.
But as traditional leaders volley to reclaim the power they’ve lost and to exert their influence, the lack of sanctions against politicians who openly threaten gay rights – or call for the Constitution to limit or ignore gay rights – is telling.
“Political leadership is important, and this isn’t something that’s always present in this country from various political parties,” say De Vos, talking about what it will take to change homophobic attitudes in South Africa.
“By the very nature of politicians they want easy popularity, and exploit situations and prejudices. But real leadership means that one has to sometimes take unpopular stances in the protection of one’s principles. Our politicians are not prepared to do this and are more shameless than politicians in some other parts of the world.”
Back in KwaThema, The Star tells how township residents gathered to honour Nogwaza and other people whose lives were lost to homophobic violence. During the ritual of remembrance people wore T-shirts bearing the names of those who lost their lives to hate.
“They sang and swayed, sporting matching purple shirts that read ‘Struggle continues’ and ‘In memory of Noxolo Nogwaza, Eudy Simelane, Girly Nkosi, Xolani Dlomo’,” the report reads. Nkosi was murdered in 2009 and Dlomo is said to be a gay man murdered in KwaThema in 2004.
The gay rights organisation Nogwaza belonged to is planning to protest at the local police station because there is no progress on her murder case, but has yet to receive approval for the demonstration. “We have to do something,” the chair of the rights group told The Star.

Undeserving Nobel laureatte:FW de Klerk

FW de Klerk still defends apartheid, yet he is a winner of the Nobel peace Prize

Hey Chiief, listen

Chief Holomisa, it took me a while before I could figure out what I want to say to you. But in all my years as a traditional healer I have never suffered any form of prejudice because I'm gay. When people walk into my Ndumba (consultation room) they do not inquire about my sexual orientation. And from that I have concluded that my being homosexual has nothing to do with my calling to be a sangoma. 


Just like it does not hinder a gay or lesbian medical practitioner to do their job. Homosexuality is not a choice or a disease that anyone can cure. I am part of new generation of African traditional healers who are seen as a community builder, counsellor and a custodian of our customs and traditions. That has nothing to do with my sexuality. I practise ubungoma (my duties as a sangoma) the same way that my great-grandmother Mambele did. I do it with pride in the challenging modern days. 


Being a sangoma is a very spiritual thing. We cannot practise it with broken spirits because we have the likes of Contralesa questioning our existence. The African tradition and religion also believe in a Higher power or God and I have enjoyed and still enjoy blessings from God of my ancestors as gay as I am. Between you and me chief, I don't like talking about my sexuality over and over again. I'm not hiding it but I just hate having to prove and validate my existence to people who don't understand. 

We gave Contralesa the right to abuse us

When Mbeki said HIV didn't cause Aids and refused to roll out ARVs, I thought we would be unforgiving citizens and get rid of him. But we just spoke among ourselves and moved on. Some of us even pledged support for for him and gave him a second term ion office. We did nothing!

When it became clear that a man who escaped corruption charges and acquitted of rape charges would become president of this country, I imagined South Africans would be up in arms and dictate their terms with their votes. No such luck.

We embraced the unfortunate situation and gave power to the party that still fails millions of our people. So many of our rights have been trampled on and because we are such a forgiving or illiterate nation, we continue as if nothing is happening. And so I was not surprised when Contralesa had a dream of changing the constitution, to remove a clause that protects the rights of homosexuals. They know we are submissive and may not object to their suggestions. We need to mobilise the same spirit and attitude used by our parents to get rid of apartheid. We are instead living in a different kind of apartheid.

Clinics run out of critical medication like ARVs, even though we have the capacity to curb such discrepancies. People are still without clean water and electricity. But people are obsessed with infringing on the rights of sexual minorities. We are part of the problem. We do not speak loud enough to be heard. Where are the academics, where are community leaders?

Mr Sinclair, now we know your mom and dad

Ken you won't need to take your girlfriend home to meet your mom and dad. We already know the kind of people they are. You are simple reflection of where you come from. I doubt that you just became a racist and a biggot just out of the blue. You must have been sat down and taught that "blacks" are just subhumans who need to just disappear. It seems you also formed your opinion of black people using your underpaid maid at home. She seems to represent the rest of us. I really hope you are one of the very few footprints of apartheid left. South Africans have a spirit of forgiveness and reconciliation. I speak on my behalf that people of your kind do not deserve the forgiveness nor the spirit of reconciliation that has led us into the 18 years of democracy.

Your comments suggest that we should have stayed in the white minority rule. Just so me and many black people do not invade your space. Sorry for you SINclair. We are here to stay. Not going anywhere. We appreciate you introducing us to how you were raised, but we are not interested.

Spiritual renewal

After Mparulo.

At the river for Mundau

Ihlelo (Intwaso ritual)

Treasured moments

Mahlasela and Thambo on our way back from Faraday 

Minutes after their graduation. Proud moment. 

Breathing a sigh of relief.

CAPE LESBIAN KILLERS JAILED - Sapa

My Calling

How do u know when u are living your vocation, following your soul's desires, fulfilling your calling? When you fully engage in whatever it entails, all else (worries, distractions, time, fears) drop away. When you are immersed in it you never feel you "should" be doing something else, even when there are many other things on your to-do list. It doesn't mean that it is always easy, or that you...h...ave no resistance, or that the results are always as you imagined- but when you are engaged with your calling, up to your eyeballs with the details of it, once in a while you pause and cannot help but sit back and grin, feeling yourself being who you are, doing what you are here to do. And sometimes, there is an ecstasy that ripples through you and you feel yourself blooming, opening, and unfolding like blossom in the warmth of the sun. Thokozani and Good Night!