Power, drunk and younger chaps in mind!!

I am fascinated by the time line of Julius Malema. He was born on 3 March 1981, in Seshego, Limpopo province. He was raised by a single parent, his mother, and was the only child.

He supposedly joined the Masupatsela ("Trailblazers") pioneer movement of the African National Congress at age 9, 10 or 14 according to different sources. Their main task was to remove National Party posters from outside police stations. They all agree that by age 14 he was receiving military training – was this for the daunting task of removing the posters from out side police stations we have to ask!! At this point it was 1995 and Mandela and the ANC were already ruling South Africa. There were many people out there who risked their lives in their real fight for Freedom from the apartheid government but just where does Malema fit in to all this!

His school career was undistinguished and he failed two high school grades as well as several subjects in his final secondary school examination. He finished his secondary school education at age 21 which would be end of 2002!!! We have all heard the rumours at how well he did in the woodwork class. Let me remind you all that soldiers don’t make coffins so he didn’t need the woodwork proficiency!!!

His early political career is very interesting. Malema was elected as chairman of the Youth League branch in Seshego, Limpopo and the regional chairman in 1995. This puts him at 14 years of age and also removing those posters from outside the police stations!!! Being so busy school was just a means to an end!!. In 1997 at 16 years of age he became the chairman of the Congress of South African Students (Cosas) for the Limpopo province. Would YOU be worrying about a woodwork class with all this responsibility at such a young age!! He just wanted to stay at school. Some of our children do post matric to stay at school and play sport, he just had other reasons!!! He was elected as the national president of that organisation in 2001 when he was 20 and still at school. There was method to his madness!! In 2002 at 21 years of age when most of us are celebrating the key to our futures at the coming of age 21st birthday and getting drunk on all sorts of drinks, Malema led a Cosas march by school pupils, through the streets of Johannesburg that was marked by serious incidents of violence and looting!!

Malema was elected as the president of the ANC Youth League in April 2008. It was a close race at a national conference held in Bloemfontein. The election – and the conference – were characterised by what Malema himself later described as "unbecoming conduct" which rumour has it – this unbecoming conduct is following him around since then. (BBC journalist incident, Kill the boer song, to name but a few!!). Allegations of irregularities in the polling procedure saw the conference adjourned shortly after the election results were announced. Malema's election was officially accepted when the conference was resumed only in late June. The integrity of his election has been criticised and questioned!!

Malema is well known for his controversial statements like - “He is a girl” and more recently on relationships - “one man one woman but that does not mean I’m against polygamy”!! He also said “One of the things I have learnt is never rely on any individual who is in politics," – So there we have from the horses mouth!!.

I am not sure about all of you out there but I will be watching the political arena with interest over the next few months. He is attacking the old men in politics saying they must give way to be ruled by the ANCYL and younger men and that they (the ANCYL) should have better representation in ANC matters. This week during the league conference he surprisingly extended that to his mentor Robert Mugabe saying “Mugabe must go and must hand over to those young chaps so that we can engage with (them) on the same level,”!!

While solving Zim’s problems he did admit to “sometimes power makes you drunk” but this statement was directed at Mr Tsvangirai and definitely not himself!!

So with power, drunk and younger chaps in mind this ANC conference around the corner could be very very interesting!!

This could be your daughter or son!!!

Some of you might have read my earlier report about a ‘Brothel in the neighbourhood’. Today my story takes you into the sordid world of human trafficking!! You might not know but human trafficking is rife in South Africa and it is defined as…

the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harbouring or receipt of persons, by means of the threat or use of force or other forms of coercion, of abduction, of fraud, of deception, of the abuse of power or of a position of vulnerability or of the giving or receiving of payments or benefits to achieve the consent of a person having control over another person, for the purpose of exploitation. Exploitation shall include, at a minimum, the exploitation of the prostitution of others or other forms of sexual exploitation, forced labour or services, slavery or practices similar to slavery, servitude or the removal of organs.

I will talk mainly from the sexual exploitation angle and please note that this includes boys and girls, men and women!!!!

Our neighbourhood watch on our situation has uncovered that these girls (Thai, Taiwanese or Chinese) forgive my ignorance in not knowing their actual nationality – do not leave this house and as cars visit all day and all hours of night these girls have to be available!!

Prostitution is illegal in this country but we all know it IS the oldest profession in the book!! Although we would love to know that it does not happen… Who are we kidding!!

If that woman or man you are visiting is free to decide when to work or not and they are free to choose to have a night off or not then it is probably not human trafficking but a choice to be a prostitute!!

However if you are visiting a house or environment (lap dancing club) where the girls or boys never leave or are driven home to a owners house and back to work the next day then you are part of and condoning some form of human trafficking with out even realising it.

The other day a whole lot of matrics went to a certain lap dancing club in Durban. Hey its young boys and they are only having fun after their trial exams….but…. we need to ask ourselves the question? Are these girls they were fraternising with, free to catch a cab home at night or are they driven to the owners house were they sleep and then bought back to the club the next day!! Does someone control their movements!! As a parent would you be happy knowing that your sons ‘innocent’ night out was actually in the greater scheme of things part of a human trafficking organisation.

Most these girls and boys are drugged and given alcohol to numb their feelings. If they cause trouble they are discarded or moved to other jobs in the chain of happenings and it’s almost impossible to get any evidence. The people who frequent these places don’t talk. The girls are shipped back to their countries so they can’t give evidence and the owners are linked to the best lawyers in town who will find any loophole to get their clients off the hook.

I phoned the eThekwini municipality the other day to see what they would do about a normal prostitution situation. I told them I had some evidence from the visitors. (Our neighbourhood watch are very busy!!!) I was told you cannot use the evidence from any visitor in court, but we will go in and arrest the girls. Now isn’t that ridiculous!!! Prostitution is illegal but not for those visiting the institution. It is only for those performing the acts!!!!

The owners of these placers have got very sophisticated and you with partners out there would be shocked to know that the choice is made from a photo line up on the cell phone. Payment is often made somewhere down the road so no money changes hands on the actual premises. Drugs are involved but drive by exchanges happen so no evidense can be found. All a raid will actually uncover is the sexy red underwear, the drawn red curtains in the middle of the day or night and red sheets and blankets!!!

Some of you might have watched the movie ‘TAKEN’ or seen the many documentaries on the subject. It does not only happen only in other countries but right here in South Africa. It was not a World cup thing and now it’s all gone away….It is still happening and there are parents around the world who have no idea what their young sons and daughters are subjected to. One day this could happen to your children….

Please be aware, be vigilant and above all don’t be quiet!!!

Who can do the Math?

I was shocked on Wednesday when I saw in the Local Natal Newspapers that stated that the municipal wards in Natal where to increase by over 800. That would mean over 1600 new councillor jobs to be created and paid for. Pretoria municipal wards will be increased by 10%. 600 new jobs created!! This is what the IEC chairperson Brigalia Bam has to say about it! - "Today's signing is a milestone in celebrating municipal democracy. It is a remarkable achievement in such a short space of time”

We all know that the ruling party can do what they want and that wards are created and demarcated solely for the purpose of the ruling party getting votes. This is all understandable but what about the Math?

As you know we are in the throws of a nation wide public servant strike and the ANC spokesman this week said there was no money allocated for this expense and there is no money in the coffers to pay these teachers and nurses.

We all know that teachers are pivotal in shaping our children’s future especially in a democratic society and nurses are extremely important when it comes to helping and saving lives. Even though we agree with more pay for these essential services this strike has made us debate whether these people really care about the positions they hold but that is another story!!!

So let’s look at a few facts on monies spent in the government!!

MP’s are milking the government on travel expenses and whatever else may be uncovered!!!

Large Tenders being given to family and friends

If the soccer world cup was a success financially it was largely due to government departments spending millions on tickets. That was our tax money spent on those who are already earning!!

JZ is adding another child to his already large flock. All his wives families and children need to be well looked after before he even looks at the rest of the ANC cronies!! You might wonder why there is nothing left for us!!!

Just look at the story of the mine owned by Zondwa Mandela (Nelson Mandela’s grandson) and Khulubuse Zuma (Jacob Zuma’s nephew). Typical fatcats who don’t pay salaries while they get richer and even might have killed with no consequence!!

Malema benefiting from government tenders and we are asking – Who the hell is he? The epitome of the culture of violence and entitlement and he hasn’t even arrived yet!! (We are obviously hoping he’ll never arrive!!)

I even wonder if Vavi takes a cut in salary in solidarity with these striking workers. He has some interesting points to make - “We have to intervene now to prevent South Africa from becoming a state where corruption is the norm and no business can be done with government without first paying a corrupt gatekeeper,” but really just one of them power hungry moguls!!

And now a whole lot more wards and over 1 billion allocated to fund these wards!! Unbelievable when ward councillors become more important than teachers and nurses. Amazing when democracy is not about getting votes but about rearranging the wards to get your votes and all this at the expense of education and health!!

Just do the Math?