Schwartzerwitz: Break the law and pay the price, vows Zuma

Friday, July 24, 2009

Break the law and pay the price, vows Zuma

"There can be no justification for violence, looting and destruction of property or attacks on foreign nationals residing in our country.

"The law enforcement agencies will continue to act swiftly and to take action against all who break the law. They have our full support as they carry out their mandate to maintain law and order in our communities."

This was the message from President Jacob Zuma, who on Thursday addressed a meeting of black business people in Sandton.

This was echoed by Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs Minister Sicelo Shiceka, who on Thursday said the attacks on foreigners during Mpumalanga service delivery protests were unacceptable and criminal.

'The law enforcement agencies will continue to act swiftly'

"The attacks on foreign nationals in these protests is a further act of criminality which will not be tolerated," he said. This was especially so for a country preparing to host "the entire world" during the 2010 World Cup, he said.

"Such acts further take away from any genuine grievances that anyone may be presenting to government," Shiceka said.

On Thursday, a preliminary report into the cause of recent service delivery protests in Mpumalanga was released.

"The findings - include a lack of responsiveness to issues raised by communities," the ministry said.

The report uncovered tensions between the political and administrative sections of some municipalities, as well as the existence of financial mismanagement and allegations of fraud and corruption.

Some ward committees were not fully functional and therefore not communicating properly with communities.

Poor service delivery was identified as the result of poor planning, maintenance and management of infrastructure.

There were also problems with the integrated development plans and budgeting processes of some municipalities.

The report was compiled by a task team dispatched to the province by Shiceka a week ago.

Municipalities assessed include Thaba Chweu, Albert Luthuli, Emalahleni, Emkhondo, Pixley ka Seme, Govan Mbeki, Steve Tshwete and Msukaligwa.

These are some of the areas which have experienced the most violent protests in the past few weeks.

- Sapa

No comments:

Post a Comment

Every Pogrom needs an Armband....

Welcome to Schwartzerwitz. The inevitable consequence of 4 million illegal immigrants arriving in South Africa. More desperate than our local folk they are willing to work longer harder faster for less. The immigrants are more reliable than South African unskilled labour and have outcompeted the local folk. No matter what anyone says it's not FAIR on our locals. Adding 4 million hungry mouths to the country has exacerbated the rocketing food prices felt across the globe. Adding 4 million potential electricity users to the mix has undoubtedly worsened the electricity situation. Having 4 million people send home money to their family drains the economy of money which should stay within the borders. Adding 4 million people and not registering them as taxpayers has cost the country billions. What chance does our government of ridding the country of shacks as per the Millennium Development Goal when 4 million immigrants build/rent shacks. Murambatsvina in Zimbabwe....? Just move to a shack in South Africa. On an individual basis this site condemns violent acts against individuals. However as a collective the illegal immigrants deserve no sympathy and should be deported back from whence they came. These people are economic refugees - "not real refugees" - and they are(generally speaking) in South Africa illegally.

kwerekwere.

The inside cover of my Oxford English dictionary features a word with which I have become all too familiar: the word is kwerekwere.

(It may be more familiar to you with one of its vernacular language–dependant prefixes prepended — the Sotho singular being le– and plural ma–, the Nguni singular being i– and plural ama–). This word is used to refer to black (in the morphological sense) Africans who are not South Africans — South African being defined as Sotho, Nguni, Venda and Tsonga ethnic groups (by that measure the Swazis, Batswana, etc. would be South African?). This word has a very negative sting to it and is often used with contempt. From what I gather it has undertones which speak of how black Africans are believed to be sub–human, too dark and have a pungent smell.