The force that was....

There was a time were I defended the move toward a "free & just society" & our so called "democracy" that opened the doors for all South Africans to work at whatever job they desired or go wherever they pleased without fear of harassment. That was then when Madiba was still a force to be reckoned with within the ANC. That was when the idea of Tutu's "rainbow nation" was still a possibility. From the time of his (Mandelas') departure until now it has been a steady (at times) downward slide from Mbeki to Zuma. We have had top government officials linked to fraud, corruption, theft, rape, murder - you name it. We have had Police Commissioners facing the same charges, some walking away with a slap on the wrist or not really spending any time doing their "time" whilst police units & policemen that have tried to do their duty & uphold the law have been ostracised, arrested on trumped up charges or suspended. ( https://www.facebook.com/notes/durban-organised-crime-unit-kzn/captain-neville-eva/168286143295529 )


And now this!

http://www.news24.com/SouthAfrica/News/Soldiers-kept-under-lock-and-key-20121130

or

http://www.fin24.com/Economy/SA-armed-forces-in-dire-straits-20121129

Take time to read these two articles & reflect back on what we had. The South African Defence Force was rated one of the most efficient in the world, perhaps just a hair behind the Israeli's. Yes, it was the "Apartheid" force & yes it was involved with some questionable actions within the townships but most of all the entire force Army, Navy & Air force had pride! Some of the regiments hold battle honours going way back - Natal Mounted Rifles, Durban Light Infantry, Transvaal Scottish, Natal Carbineers etc. etc. The list is fairly long. Proud tradition, all of them. Then one reads about a newly appointed OC of one of those being involved in the theft of medals from the units museum & then found wearing them at a parade! My heart goes out to the ex members of those units who now have to read about this! Disgust is not a strong enough word to describe this!

Let's take another area - freedom of movement & something that is apparently written into the Freedom Charter - South Africa belongs to ALL it's people, regardless of race, colour or creed. A case in point - Helen Zille & members of the Democratic Alliance wish to visit nKhandle, the home of Jacob Zuma, as accusations of inappropriate spending of state (public) funds have arrisen. The ANC block the visit by busing in people from wherever & threatening violence, forcing the police (who do NOTHING against the ANC) to stop the DA's visit. Not a word from the ANC or the presidency but an artist paints a satirical picture of Zuma with his bits & pieces exposed (most probably due to his promiscuous behaviour) & immediately the sky falls on everyone's head! Court cases abound & marches organised with printed placards in short order! Zille is then threatened with prosecution  for trespass 'cos she never approached the local chief for permission to enter 'Tribal Lands'!
Democracy? Constitution? Freedom Charter? National Pride? Justice? Bollocks!!! I'm afraid that Cry the beloved country has turned into a raucous wail of despair!

Some good news...

Abigail 2y 4mnths

Paige 1y 4mnths

We just got back from Johannesburg. Not my favourite city but then I don't really have one! Gimme the bush or small places anytime! However the visit was to attend my son's wedding & to see both of my grand-daughters & all my kids at the same time!

A great time spent, too much food eaten & beer drunk, but what the hell! I met my in-laws for the first time & I think we hit it off quite well!

I also got to get close up & personal with a fully grown Cheetah, my favourite animal, & stood as Best Man for my son - possibly my greatest highlight yet! I can say that even though he subjected me to, what I can only call, a beauty session - hair cut, face massage, shave & something called 'threading' which entailed having my eyebrows (of which I am justly proud & quite attached to) - plucked out using a piece of fine string wielded by a grinning demon going by the name of Ahmed or some such!

The Wedding took place at Game rehabilitation farm called the Farm Inn - great setting with some truly stunning animals! As much as I dislike seeing any animal in a cage or behind wire, I was assured that all these animals were either being rehabilitated for eventual release back into the wild or for sustainable breeding programs - NOT for canned hunting safaris!

Meercats

Oldish Lion Male

   

Spending time with my kids & grand kids was great, seeing as we are separated by an average of 1000Km & contact is normally by Skype or cel phone! I also had time to contemplate my accomplishments - not much beyond three really great people that have shown me courage in the face of adversity, the ability to hold truth & honour above all else & true compassion. In a word, I am extremely proud of my three 'kids'! Unfortunately, kids no more but still held in my heart as my kids.
Next was a trip to a game farm that my son had previously held shares in (see, the genes kick in with the love of the bush! ;) ) where we stayed for a week with a friend of his from the UK. First time visit fro his wife & little girl (Millie or Amelia) who I hope enjoyed it as much as we did!

From L To R Claire,Martin, Millie, Russel, Paige & Jenni

Jan(et), Llew, Russel, Jenni & Paige - doing 'Village People'

'Kay, that's all for now, getting writers cramp in my one finger! Mebbe some more later!

'Cause it's another day for you and me in paradise

http://m.iol.co.za/article/view/s/11/a/304960

Durban - Two policemen were shot dead in Durban over a weekend in which ordinary citizens came under fire in a shopping centre, on the streets and in a takeaway restaurant.
On Sunday, an off-duty policeman was killed in KwaMashu, close to the area where a councillor was abducted and murdered on Friday.
News of his killing came as people from Pinetown and New Germany gathered outside a New Germany Kentucky Fried Chicken outlet to lay flowers and bid farewell to Detective Constable Ajith Krishinlall, who died after being hit several times in a shoot-out with robbers on Friday night.
His colleague, Detective Constable Jerome Ngoma was critically injured in the same robbery.
At 7am on Sunday, customers and staff in the Sunningdale Centre Spar in the northern suburbs escaped with their lives when 15 men stormed the shop with pistols and AK47s. They emptied the tills and robbed people of their wallets and cellphones. A shoot-out ensued and, it is understood that a Blue Security guard was injured, although this could not be officially confirmed.

A frustrated senior policeman, formerly of the Pinetown area, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said “our hands are being tied behind our backs”.
“On the one hand, the public says we’re not providing a service. On the other, we’re accused of brutality,” he said.
What has incensed the Pinetown and New Germany communities is that a third policeman, who also responded to the KFC robbery and who shot dead a robber, was subsequently charged with murder by the Independent Police Investigative Directorate.
The directorate were also accused of hijacking the crime scene and contaminating evidence, allegations which spokesman Moses Dlamini categorically rejected.
“It is a known fact that the directorate has upset a lot of policemen by arresting members of the infamous Cato Manor unit and that some of their friends and supporters will go out of their way to tarnish the name of the Ipid and its investigators,” Dlamini said.
He said the officer had not been arrested and was not to appear in court, but that the directorate had registered a murder docket, as was routine, when a person died as a result of police action.
But Jacques Stephen, a reservist who addressed the emotionally charged KFC gathering, said: “The SAPS are expected to love and hug because they’ve got rights… there are members who have lost the fight, who get charged and prosecuted. The police are taken off the streets for doing their jobs.”
Kohler Barnard, whose son Peter, 24, was hijacked outside their home a week ago, said: “If you hold a gun to someone’s head, any cop… has the right to take you out.”
Krishinlall’s family was suffering the same devastation as “many other families, whose relatives had died in the line of duty. “These are the people who put themselves between you and a bullet,” she said.
“If I find that destroyed forensic evidence, I will not let this matter drop, I assure you.”
The crowd released white balloons into the afternoon sky for the dead policeman.

The daughter of a policeman clutched a placard which read: “Is our dad next?”

No arrests have been made for the KFC killing, but a case of business robbery, murder and attempted murder is being pursued, SAPS spokesman Thulani Zwane said.
Another SAPS spokesman Jay Naicker, said the fatal shooting of the off-duty officer outside KwaMashu Hostel couldn’t be linked to tensions between members of the IFP and NFP.
The policeman, who was in civilian clothes, was on his way to a friend when he was shot repeatedly at 3pm.
No arrests had yet been made in that murder either.

In the Spar hold-up, witnesses said the robbers had herded them into the receiving bay when Blue Security arrived. The robbers then fired shots through the store’s windows at the guard.
Spar owner Garth Slater, said one customer was hit on the head and was taken to hospital, but was treated and released.
He said support from the Sunningdale community had been “amazing”. Twenty minutes after the incident police reservists, volunteers and a crisis team arrived to assist staff.

The Mercury, with additional reporting by Bongani Hans, Wendy Jasson da Costa and Andile Dube.

 

Apologies To Phil Collins

She calls out to the man on the street
"Sir, can you help me?
It's cold and I've nowhere to sleep,
Is there somewhere you can tell me?"

He walks on, doesn't look back
He pretends he can't hear her
Starts to whistle as he crosses the street
Seems embarrassed to be there

Oh
Think twice
'Cause it's another day for you and me in paradise
Oh
Think twice
'Cause it's another day for you
You and me in paradise

(Think about it)

That is how we are being treated by "our" government!
Our Politicians usually only show their faces when there is political mileage to be made out of someone else' loss or heartbreak. This, I feel is true of ALL our politicians! Hey, if you can count dancing, singing, driving behind racing blue light vehicles, graft, corruption etc, etc as being the job of a politician then we are really in excellent hands.
Never mind cry, the beloved country - we would be better off howling & screaming!
This not a good time to be writing - I am REALLY pissed off!

Just over a year ago.......

Just over a year ago but still seems like yesterday! :( 

WTF? SNOW? In the Little Karoo?

Yeah, well, it finally happened! Bloody snow in the Little Karoo - saw it in my own garden! This is quite normal for you lot that stay a hop & a skip from one of the poles but here! Not on your Nellie! & the rain - been going on for the last four or five days now! My newly planted onion patch looks like a fairly well established rice paddy! Do'nt like it! Not at all! And the we had damn wind storms as well - leaks all over the place & the river is rising rapidly. Some guy's have measured up to 120mm over the l;ast 2 days. Enough allready. I saw the sun for 5 minutes today & got all bleary-eyed. Miss the heat & the sun & wondering when we gonna get rain again!
 I must admit that anything below 22'C is classed as cold by me & anything less is damn freezing. Anyway, here are some pics of something (according to the aged ones here) that has NEVER happened before!

Bloody Racist Lightning!

Just when you think you've heard it all, along comes another one to leave you utterly gob-smacked! Never mind the HIV/AIDS cures from our late Minister of Health, that pales into insignificance when faced with the intellect behind these statements! NOMSA FOR PRES!

KwaZulu-Natal MEC for co-operative governance and traditional affairs, Nomsa Dube, called on the national department of science and technology to investigate the causes of lightning after seven people died in lightning strikes.


"We will do an investigation and talk to the department of science and technology on what is the cause of the lightning, and if it only happened to the previously disadvantaged as I have never seen any white people being struck by lightning" said Dube. She was visiting Mpumazi in Eshowe where seven people from two families died after being struck by lightning on Sunday. "Scientists from the department could perhaps help us and come up with instruments that could help community members protect themselves against lightning. The department has dealt with floods and fires, but lightning is new to us," said Dube.

Our country is clearly in excellent hands! What else can one say when faced with this?

Winter is here (almost)

Just went for my last early morning walk with shorts on! Ended up with "kneasels" big time! However, it was after a rather nice rain we had last night &, with the ground nice & damp, plenty of place for spoor. At a drift bridge near the centre of town, Duiker, Yellow Mongoose & Cape Clawless Otter mixed in with Guinea Fowl & Francolin tracks. It's one of the really nice things about this country, being so close to nature & our wildlife. Within 15Kms of where we live, some of the Big Five are around - not in cages or pens - but walking virtually free. The birds in the garden are still lively quite early in the mornings with the Cape Robin being the first up, although the Ibis start telling jokes & cracking up at about 3 am!
And then you look into the river itself - Polystyrene quick food containers, plastic packets that you have to pay for, cold drink cans etc etc. Even, at times, discarded rubbish bags although we have a fairly efficient refuse removal system. The biggest shock are the packets. Introduced some years back to stop the littering that took place with the old (tear quite easily) packets, these are now robust 'will not degenerate in your lifetime' jobs! And you have to pay for them! When will they ever learn?
Time to stop - I feel a song coming on! :)

Another day in Paradise....

Well, hell! It's such a beautiful country, the weather is great, the views are stunning - so what can we do to stuff it up completely? Apart from trying to ensure the extinction of our wildlife heritage, I mean? We're doing quite well at sport (in some areas), the economy could be worse (disregard the major amount of skimming that takes place - especially in the Government), so what else? How about crime stats? Well, THEY are or were coming down in most areas, so we might end up as not being at the head of the table when the new worldwide stats are released & we do like being first!

 Soooo, firstly (some time back) we got rid of the Scorpions - their arrest rate & conviction % was rather high. Then we establish the Hawks. Oops! They seem to be a tad over-zealous in some provinces so let's carve them up a bit 'cos some of our best buddies are being targetted (can't have that 'cos they might start talking about the wrong things to the wrong people & then the brown stuff is gonna hit the fan). Oh yeah, what about the Durban Organised Crime Unit? Especially the Kwamashu Violent Crimes Unit, hmm? Now there's a place we can REALLY make a difference! Get rid of them both or at least cut them down to size & voila! Back to the top of the tree again as far as murders, rapes, child abuse, drug trafficking, cash-in-transit heists & just plain old robberies go. and please diregard the fact that the 'evidence' for this action is comming from people who were & are under investigation for criminal activities.

And now in another newspaper report, apparently quoting a senior police officer, it has apparently been noted that since the disbanding of the Kwamashu unit, there has been a notable increase in cash-in-transit & shop based robberies. Go figure, while the ANC spends another bucket of cash on their 100 year celebrations!