South Africa Suffer Heavy Troop Loses In The Central African Republic

South Africa Hits Setback In Central African Republic -- Wall Street Journal

Clashes with rebels in the Central African Republic have cost the lives of more than a dozen South African soldiers, President Jacob Zuma said Monday, in a painful setback for the country's military as well as government ambitions to broker solutions to the continent's conflicts.

Speaking to reporters Monday, Mr. Zuma said the casualties came after rebels attacked a South African military base in the Central African Republic, where the troops had been based since January amid that nation's deepening political turmoil. Mr. Zuma said South African troops successfully defended the base, but in heavy fighting over the weekend, 13 soldiers were killed and 27 injured. One soldier is still missing.

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Update #1: Zuma Says 13 South African Soldiers Killed in Bangui, 27 Wounded -- Bloomberg Businessweek
Update #2: Zuma: CAR Rebels Kill 13 South African Soldiers -- Voice of America
Update #3: South Africa troops killed in CAR fighting -- Al Jazeera

My Comment: So much for South Africa positioning themselves to mediate Africa's conflicts. Bottom line .... the Central African Republ;ic disaster illustrates how difficult it is to stop conflicts in much of the African continent.

South Africa`s Mining Unrest Continues

Protests over pay have seen 45 people killed in weeks of unrest. Photograph: Reuters

South African's Goldmines Beset By Simmering Resentment -- The Guardian

For 150 years, the mines have divided rich and poor. Now the conflict looks as if it could blow up any time.

Down the mine there is pain, oppression and the cold fear of never coming back. But worst of all, said rock driller Mbuzi Mokwane, is the day he gets his pay cheque. "My pay day is the most miserable day for me. At least during the week I'm working. But on the day you're given a pay slip that says 4,000 rand [£300], you start calculating your outgoings and you can go crazy. There is daylight robbery in the mines."

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More News On The Unrest In South Africa`s Mining Industry

South Africa Mine Unrest Spreads -- Wall Street Journal
Concern as illegal mine strikes spread -- iol
AngloGold halts output in South Africa as strike action spreads -- The Telegraph
AngloGold says illegal strike spreads in South Africa -- Reuters
South Africa's mines: gulf between employees above and below ground -- The Guardian
Mining unrest spreads -- The South African

More Unrest And Strikes Predicted In South Africa's Vital Mining Industry

South Africa Mine Massacre: Miners Charged with Murdering Themselves -- Time

South Africa state prosecutors investigating the police massacre of 34 striking miners use an apartheid-era law to charge 270 arrested miners with murdering their own colleagues

The decision late Thursday by South Africa‘s state prosecutors to use a notorious apartheid-era law to charge 270 striking miners with the murder of 34 of their colleagues — men who were actually shot dead by the police, as recorded by numerous television crews — marks a bizarre new low in a bloody scandal that threatens to strip the country’s post-apartheid state of what remains of its moral authority.

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Update #1: South African miners charged with murder of colleagues killed by police -- The Guardian
Update #2: S.Africa prosecutors charge miners with murder -- Reuters
Update #3: Miners charged in deaths of 34 killed by police -- AP

My Comment: This will all but guarantee more unrest and strikes in South Africa's mining industry.

Labor Unrest Spreads In South Africa's Mining Belt

Unrest Spreads In Violence-Hit S.Africa Mining Belt -- Reuters

* Labour troubles reported at Amplats and RBPlat
* Mine turmoil raises worries about investing in S.Africa
* Rights group urges govt to address social problems

RUSTENBURG, South Africa, Aug 22 (Reuters) - Labour unrest in South Africa's platinum belt spread on Wednesday, raising concerns that anger over low wages and poor living conditions could generate fresh violence after 34 striking miners were shot dead by police last week.

The strike that started last week at Lonmin's Marikana mine has driven up platinum prices and stoked worries about investing in Africa's biggest economy, where chronic unemployment and income disparities threaten social stability.

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More News On The Unrest In South Africa's Mining Belt

Higher wage demands spread to other SAfrican mines -- AP
Labour worries spread in South Africa -- The Telegraph
Wage demands spread to Anglo Platinum and other mines -- The Telegraph
Unrest spreads in S Africa mining belt -- Irish Times
Grievances, fears of instability spread to other South African mines -- CNN
Discontent spreads to new mines as S.Africa mourns -- AFP
Violence spreads across South African platinum belt almost a week after 34 striking miners killed in ‘Hill of Horror’ police action -- National Post/Reuters
Marikana mine conflict: South African clerics mediate -- BBC

The Police Killing Of 34 striking Platinum Miners Shocks Post-Apartheid South Africa

Mine "Bloodbath" Shocks Post-Apartheid South Africa -- Reuters

(Reuters) - The police killing of 34 striking platinum miners in the bloodiest security operation since the end of white rule cut to the quick of South Africa's psyche on Friday, with searching questions asked of its post-apartheid soul.

Newspaper headlines screamed "Bloodbath", "Killing Field" and "Mine Slaughter", with graphic photographs of heavily armed white and black police officers walking casually past the bloodied corpses of black men lying crumpled in the dust.

The images, along with Reuters TV footage of officers opening up with automatic weapons on a small group of men in blankets and t-shirts at Lonmin's Marikana platinum plant, rekindled uncomfortable memories of South Africa's racist past.

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More News On South Africa's 'Mine Slaughter'

S. African Police Claim Self-Defense in Mine Shootings -- Voice of America
Some SAfrican miners vow to fight to the death -- AP
South Africa shocked at death toll from police shooting; tensions remain high -- Washington Post/AP
South Africa’s Police Commissioner Defends Officers Who Fired on Miners -- New York Times
Miners' wives rage at South African police brutality after 'massacre' -- The Guardian
South African clashes tarnish volatile platinum industry -- CBC
Lonmin mining massacre shocks investors with flashback to apartheid South Africa -- The Telegraph
Platinum prices rise as violent South African mine dispute continues; other commodities mixed -- Washington Post/AP
Platinum rises on South African mine conflict -- AP

South Africa's ANC Power Struggle Is Turning Violent

Violence At Malema Hearing Shows Divide Within South Africa's ANC -- Christian Science Monitor

Angry supporters of ANC Youth League leader Julius Malema battled police outside the ANC headquarters in the strongest indication that the ANC's youth wing is rapidly falling out of control.



As South Africa's governing African National Congress convened a hearing on allegations of indiscipline against ANC Youth League leader Julius Malema, police outside were battling with rowdy and violent protesters demanding Malema be "left alone."



The firebrand Mr. Malema is facing charges of bringing the party into disrepute through a statement advocating for regime change in Botswana, among other allegations. In a previous disciplinary hearing in May 2010, the ANC ordered Malema to take anger-management classes for remarks deemed by the ANC to be offensive.



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More News On ANC Youth League leader Julius Malema And His Conflict With The ANC

Julius Malema: South African firebrand youth leader threatening to tear ANC apart -- The Telegraph

South Africans Protest Over Hearing for Zuma Rival -- New York Times

South African police fire tear gas in clashes with Malema followers -- The Independent

Violent clashes outside Malema hearing -- Financial Times

ANC power struggle turns violent -- Globe And Mail

ANC Youth League Supporters Protest Violently in Johannesburg -- Voice of America

Julius Malema supporters accused of trying to 'plant seed of civil war' as protests erupt -- The Telegraph

Profile: Julius Malema -- BBC

South Africa's 'Future Leader's Are Calling For Nationalization, Land Seizures

ANC Youth League President Julius Malema, right, addresses a crowd outside a Johannesburg court in April. Malema denied that singing the anti-apartheid struggle song, "Shoot the farmer," incited violence against whites. He is now calling for seizing land from whites to redistribute to blacks. (Alexander Joe, AFP/Getty Images / June 17, 2011)

South African Youth Leader Calls For Nationalization, Land Seizures -- L.A. Times

ANC Youth League President Julius Malema delivers a fiery speech, calling for nationalization of mines and seizure of white-owned lands without compensation. Government officials are at pains to assure that no such steps will be taken any time soon.

Reporting from Johannesburg, South Africa — Julius Malema, the ambitious, firebrand leader of the South African ruling party's youth wing, Thursday called for the nationalization of mines and seizure of land without compensation — policies the government has repeatedly ruled out in the past.

Speaking at the African National Congress Youth League's electoral conference, Malema said the youth league had put nationalization and land seizures on the agenda. He has also pushed bank nationalization in the past.

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My Comment: Like Mugabe of Zimbabwe before him, Julius Malema is becoming the poster child on what is wrong in Africa.

Rising South African Leader Calls For Zimbabwean Style Land Seizures From Whites

Julius Malema and Winnie Madikizela-Mandela under heavy guard outside the Johannesburg High Court Photo: GETTY

South Africa Youth Leader Says 'Criminal' Whites Stole Land From Blacks -- The Telegraph

Julius Malema, South Africa's controversial youth leader, has said that white people who own land in the country should be treated like 'criminals' because they stole it from black people.

Mr Malema said that the government's attempts to return land to black South Africans through negotiations with white farmers had failed, and called for Zimbabwe-style land seizures.

"We have to take the land without payment, because the whites took our land without paying and transformed them into game farms. The system of willing seller, willing buyer has failed," he told a rally ahead of local elections.

"We all agree they stole the land. They are criminals, they should be treated like that."

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My Comment: Everyone is now positioning themselves for the day when Nelson Mandela passes away .... including Julius Malema who is now using Mugabe's tactics to attain and keep power in Zimbabwe as his own.

Massive Strikes By State Workers Hit South Africa

South Africa Says State Workers Strike Will Have `Huge' Impact on Economy -- Bloomberg/Businessweek

South Africa’s government said an indefinite strike by state workers that began yesterday will have a “huge” impact on Africa’s largest economy, yet it is unable to afford their wage demands.

“We are particularly worried about the impact of the strike on key sectors, such as education,” chief government spokesman Themba Maseko told reporters in Cape Town today. “The impact is going to be huge. The fact of the matter is there are limits as to what government can agree to.”

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More News On South Africa

South Africa strike: 1.3 million government workers push for wage hike -- Cristian Science Monitor
More than 1 million South Africa state workers strike -- Reuters
1 Million South African Public Servants on Strike -- Voice of America
Public Sector Workers In South Africa Strike Work Over Pay Hike -- RTT
Huge strike begins in South Africa -- Al Jazeera
S.African workers go on indefinite strike over wages -- AFP
S.Africa auto part workers to strike -union -- Reuters

The Impending White Flight From South Africa

(Marc Shoul/The Times)

‘We’re In The Final Days Of White Life In South Africa’ -- Times Online

The gunman leant forward and pushed the pistol hard into Manie Potgieter’s neck. “Listen, you white bastard,” he whispered, his breath heavy with alcohol. “I have Aids. We are now going to rape your wife and give her Aids too. Then, we kill you, got it?”

From his position on the floor, hands tied behind his back, he could hear his assailant’s three accomplices pulling the tracksuit bottoms off his wife, Helena, 28.

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My Comment: Black on white crime has reached epidemic proportions in South Africa, and there is no sign that this will stopped. Black on Black crime is also reaching epidemic proportions, but for the White farming community that provides much of South Africa's food requirements this has all the signs of becoming an impending disaster.

More White Farmers Have Been Killed In South Africa Than U.S./NATO Soldiers Killed In Afghanistan

A man walks through a field of crosses erected near Pretoria, South Africa, to honour mostly white farmers who have died in farm attacks over past decade.

White Farmers 'Being Wiped Out' -- Times Online

Over 3,000 have been killed since 1994. Now the ANC is accused of fanning the hate.

THE gunmen walked silently through the orchard. Skirting a row of burnt-out tyres, set ablaze months earlier to keep the budding fruit from freezing, they drew their old .38 revolvers.

Inside his farmhouse Pieter Cillier, 57, slept with his 14-year-old daughter Nikki at his side. His 12-year-old son JD was having a sleepover with two teenagers in an adjoining room.

As the intruders broke in, the farmer woke. He rushed to stop them, only to be shot twice in the chest.

In his death throes he would have seen his killers and then his children standing over him, screaming and crying.

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My comment: The sentence that struck me was the following ....

“More white farmers have been killed than British soldiers in Afghanistan and Iraq. Yes, we are at war here.”

Indeed.

As to what is my take .... at last a Western Journalist has the courage to report this long suppressed news .... albeit that he reports only superficially the ANC involvement.

The Slow Disintegration Of South Africa

Some 6,000 striking municipal workers march to the Civic Centre in the center of Cape Town. President Jacob Zuma on Wednesday urged police to arrest any protesters who use violence, as fresh clashes erupted in the latest anti-poverty demonstrations rattling South Africa. (AFP/Rodger Bosch)

South Africa's Zuma Faces Wide Unrest -- Wall Street Journal

Thousands of Workers, Who Helped Put the Leader in Office, Go on Strike in the Capital to Demand Better Pay, Opportunities.

Jacob Zuma, just short of three months into his presidency, faces resistance from a major constituency that helped to bring him to power, underscoring the challenges he faces amid South Africa's first postapartheid recession.

Tens of thousands of municipal workers struck for a second day this week, disrupting services in Johannesburg, South Africa's commercial hub. That strike follows one by chemical workers and a weeklong one earlier in the month by construction workers building projects for next year's World Cup.

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My Comment: Years of ANC rule .... and the situation is just getting worse and worse.Am I the only one who sees the trend?

The Misery In South Africa

President of the ruling African National Congress (ANC) Jacob Zuma addresses an election rally in Nongoma, north of the coastal city of Durban, February 1, 2009. Photograph by: Rogan Ward, Reuters

South Africa's Outraged Poor Threaten President -- Time Magazine

South African President Jacob Zuma has a problem: the very underclass that swept him into office last April on his promise to deliver them a better life have run out of patience, and they're venting their outrage on the streets. Little more than a year after the country's impoverished black townships erupted in a wave of violence directed at migrants from neighboring African countries, tires are once again burning on the streets as crowds protesting the lack of resources in their communities clash with police in images sometimes reminiscent of the apartheid era. Recent weeks have seen a wave of angry and at times violent protests and strikes break out across the country. First, construction workers building stadiums for next year's FIFA Soccer World Cup — the world's most popular sporting event — walked off the job demanding higher wages. This week, it was the turn of those with no jobs, as unemployed people living in squatter camps went on a rampage, stoning vehicles, destroying buildings and looting stores to vent their anger over lack of jobs, houses and basic services like sanitation and electricity.

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More News On South Africa

Zuma vows help for SA townships -- BBC
South Africa citizens riot over poor living conditions. -- Vancouver Sun
S.Africa Threatens Clampdown on Violent Protests -- New York Times
South Africa's Zuma Warns Police Will Crack Down on Protesters -- Voice of America
As Social Unrest Simmers in South Africa, Some Again Target Immigrants -- Voice of America
ANALYSIS-S.Africa riots press Zuma to live up to promises -- Reuters
Q+A-What lies behind South African protests? -- Reuters
The ANC: Fifteen wasted years -- Paul Trewhela, Politics Web opinion

Fifteen Years After Apartheid, South Africa At A Crossroad

Photo from Lailalalami. Photo: Jerome Delay/AP

From McClatchy News:

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa — It's easy to look around this proud, polyglot city and think that the favorite slogan of the new South Africa — a "Rainbow Nation" of races striving together for prosperity — is becoming a reality.

Blacks and whites mingle in buzzing bars and restaurants, in state-of-the-art business parks and shopping malls and in tree-lined suburbs that recall Southern California more than southern Africa. A blossoming black middle class fills the boardrooms and back offices of a diverse economy that's the engine and envy of the continent.

In the 15 years since Nelson Mandela won the first democratic elections here, finally closing the book on four decades of white apartheid rule, a lot has gone right with South Africa. Yet days before a new election, a deep malaise has taken hold, a creeping fear that the next decade and a half won't be as good as the first was.

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My Comment: One of the world's worse HIV/Aids infection rates. Crime everywhere. Murderous violence against refugees from other failed states like Zimbabwe. Tribalism mixed in with corruption and violence against political opponents.

Sigh .... if I was living in South Africa, I would be laying the groundwork to get out.

Is South Africa Going The Way Of Zimbabwe?

From Foreign Policy Blog:

It's a very obvious overstatement to say that South Africa is becoming more like its delinquent neighbor, Zimbabwe. Nonetheless, an incident reported in South Africa's Business Today gave reason for the comparison: Last weekend, a mob overran a fruit and sugar cane farm, allegedly in frustration for the slow pace of long-promised land reform. It sparked memories of the public outcry in Zimbabwe that spawned a policy of "fast track" reallocation of land from white to black hands.

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My Comment: Distrust and hostility between different African tribal groups. A Socialist Federal Government that is both corrupt and not acountable to anyone. A leader with a messianic mentality. Yup .... South AFrica is definitely on the way of Zimbabwe.

African Nightmare

At the Central Methodist Church in Johannesburg, hundreds of Zimbabwean refugees gather each evening for prayer. South Africa’s services have been severely strained. Benedicte Kurzen/EVE

No Respite For Refugees In Sth Africa -- The Australian

AS night falls, they slowly emerge from the shadows: dozens of children clothed in rags, with desperate eyes sunk deep into haunted faces, suddenly crowd the streets of Musina, a ramshackle South African town on the border with Zimbabwe.

Boys and girls as young as eight crawl out of rubbish-strewn pipes and filthy flood drains. Some come from human nests built within the thick foliage of wild hedges. Others appear from the bottom of dank alleyways, and still more from the crevices of abandoned buildings.

Night brings some respite for Zimbabwe's lost generation, thousands of children who tried to escape hunger, poverty and disease in their homeland by seeking a better life in South Africa.

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My Comment: And this is probably just the tip of the iceberg.

South Africa: Zuma Faces New Charges After Ruling

Prosecutors have confirmed ANC leader Jacob Zuma will stand
trial for corruption. (AFP: Alexander Joe)

From The New York Times:

JOHANNESBURG—A South African appellate court ruled Monday that graft charges against Jacob Zuma, the leader of the governing party and most likely this country’s next president, were wrongly dismissed by a judge last September, clearing the way for the criminal case to be reinstated.

With elections only a few months away, and with Mr. Zuma’s party politically dominant, this creates a scenario in which he may well assume the nation’s highest office while facing 12 counts of fraud, two more of corruption and one each of money laundering and racketeering.

Immediately after Monday’s unanimous ruling by a five-judge panel was read on national television, the African National Congress, Mr. Zuma’s party, issued a statement of support for its presidential choice, insisting it would not allow “a decision democratically taken” by its members to “be reversed on the basis of untested allegations.”

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My Comment: This is going to fracture the ANC. Will Jacob Zuma respect the rule of law .... if African history is any indication, the odds are that he will not.