Dear Mr Zuma,

Given some of the stuff written lately, one can’t blame you for being sceptical about anything from the Fourth Estate. But the national mood is so dismal, that I hope you’ll replace prejudices with a generosity of spirit by reflecting on what follows.

Neither of us should have been surprised that yesterday’s TNS survey on corruption painted a bleak picture. But to read that 90% of South Africans believe corruption has become a way of life in our country must have come as a shock even to one who interacts regularly with ordinary citizens, as you do.

It’s just perceptions, I told myself. Things can’t be that bad.

Then I started replaying things in my mind. And remembered how just last night my teenage daughter told of an acquaintance who was so drunk after a night out that he forgot to take off a ballet tutu he was wearing. On his one-eyed weave home, the tutu-wearing drunk was pulled over by a SAPS officer.

But there was no night in jail and an embarrassing court case for this accident-waiting-to-happen. My daughter says the lad’s only complaint was that because he was so smashed this time, it cost R600 to bribe the boy in blue. Much more, he bragged, than he usually had to fork out.

That also got me thinking again about the Glenn Agliotti affidavits.

Remember, those sworn statements signed by the self-confessed gangster and “friend, finished and klaar” of our crooked SAPS Commissioner Jackie Selebi. Just in case they’ve been kept from you, the affidavits are at the bottom of this page.

They are morbidly fascinating, reading like a sick novel.

In his effort to cut a deal, Agliotti now doesn’t seem to know what he believes nowadays. But his affidavits are so specific and obvious that there can be no doubting the veracity of much which emerges from his gut-spilling. It might even have been an addendum to economist Steven Levitt’s Freakonomics where the New Yorker delved into the criminal world to see what made the underclass tick. Insights that are similarly obvious in Agliotti’s contributions.
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What is the problem with these ANC people? I am getting rather sick of their leader’s rethoric of murder and mayhem. Julius Malema’s comments to kill “counter-revolutionaries”, including those in the ruling party, who undermine party president Jacob Zuma, are nothing short of incitement to commit murder!

This guy needs to be charged and jailed for these sorts of comments. If I got up and made death threats to someone else I would be arrested, tried and imprisoned, yet he can wander around freely repeating these terroristic threats!

Look at what this madman has said:

“We are prepared to die and take up arms only if the need arises. Killing counter-revolutionary forces hell-bent to reverse the gains of our revolution…there are people who are all out to destroy JZ. They are found everywhere, all spheres of life, in all sectors, even in the ANC.

“They push their agenda, they will reach a point to engage directly fire by fire without using the law. The only option (we have is to) engage through fire. There are still right-wingers who want to overthrow the black majority rule and are also found in the ANC”.

Why does the ANC ruling elite not fire him? The only thing we hear from other organisations like the SAHRC are demands to retract his statements. Why hasn’t Zuma denounced him yet? Why do we not hear calls for his arrest?

Melissa Moore, head of the Freedom of Expression Institute’s (FXI) law clinic, said if there was a threat of imminent violence, then Malema would have transgressed the boundaries of freedom of expression. I totally agree with this. But people are too scared to stand up and take action.

“The reasonable person would view his statement as incitement to cause imminent violence,” Melissa Moore said.

The funny thing is that so far the police have declined to comment on the “alleged” comments. Why are they not ACTING on it?

Especially in the light of the recent violence in SA, Julius Malema needs to be arrested and held accountable for these comments!

I was reading some of the comments made by Mamphela Ramphele at a press club luncheon this week. Ramphele has held the posts of managing director of the World Bank and vice-chancellor of the University of Cape Town. I think in most respects she really hit the nail on the head.

She said that South Africa had “grossly underestimated” the challenges of transformation, in particular by believing in “miracles and Madiba magic”. I really believe that this is true. During the ‘Madiba reign’ we all had high hopes and believed that the future leadership would be like Mandela. We were very short-sighted!

Ramphele went on to say that the government thought only about ‘the people shall govern’ - that democracy simply meant rule by majority. They forgot that this can be tyranny. These days we can see this very clearly. The government has many times pushed through legislation which disregards the will of the people, they have pushed legislation which benefits certain segments of the population and they have an arrogance that they can do as they like because they are the biggest party.

Ramphele went on:”State corruption in combination with the government’s failure to provide quality access to public resources and social services undermined the country’s ability to be competitive as a democracy in the 21st century”. Again this is something that we have seen growing alarmingly over the last decade. Bribery and corruption have become an integral part of life now and our country has very little social services to speak of.
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