The South African government has simply failed in the fundamental objectives of its anti rhino poaching strategy.

The anti rhino poaching strategy designed and implemented by the South African government is failing in its most fundamental objectives. Rhino are being killed for their horns at an increasingly faster rate despite deployment of the National Defence Force to the Kruger Park.
Poachers are being caught but not enough of them and those that appear in court come prepared to wriggle and slip through loopholes in the law.
The syndicates that run the rhino horn trade in similar fashion to and probably in connivance with international drug traders and smugglers remain largely untouched.
Diplomatic interaction and signed documents between South Africa and Vietnam have yielded little or no substantial results against the rhino horn devourers.
The members of the public with red rhino horns on cars and motorbikes should also be pushing for a legalisation of rhino horn trade.
Through research by journalists we have learned that the target market for rhino horn in Vietnam is small and limited to the upper middle class who have money to burn and status to gain through the use of illegal and elitist substances.
The price of crushed rhino horn puts it out of reach of the average person and it is therefore a luxury item much like sushi off semi naked bodies or cocaine is here in South Africa.
The spending power of the target market and the ill gotten gains for smugglers and traders mean that there are plenty slush funds packed with baksheesh to pay off the military, police and other government officials as well as those involved with rhino in private game reserves in both South Africa and Vietnam.
All that the war zone in the Kruger Park, the intransigence of the Vietnam government and the ubiquitous headlines of yet more gruesome carving up of rhinos for their horns is achieving right now is embarrassment for the South African government.
It is common sense and a truism in any endeavour of human nature that when a chosen path or strategy is not working, change it.
The immediate alternative is to legalise trade in rhino horn. There are plenty of people and organisations that are anti legalisation for many reasons.
Many think that it would grow the demand by making the product cheaper. This I believe is incorrect as in all likelihood it would diminish the demand as being cheaper it would be accessible to anyone and therefore no longer elitist or illegal.
The criminalising of trade in rhino horn has pushed up prices thereby creating an artificial market in a substance that is both illegal and elitist.
By legalising the sale of rhino horn in a clearing house near an airport like O. R. Tambo in Johannesburg and making the sales accessible to anyone who wants to buy it would create an open market and the allure and attraction of doing something both illegal and elitist would be gone.
South African rhino owners could then use the proceeds of the sales to concentrate on the conservation of rhino, the National Defence Force would be free to guard our borders like they should be doing and the public would no longer be subjected to the gruesome and callous footage and photos of the damage done by rhino killers.
As South Africa is a member of the Convention on International trade in endangered species of wild fauna and flora (CITES) it cannot act unilaterally in any moves towards legalising the sales and trade of rhino horn.
However, South Africa is in possession of most of the rhinos on the planet and has done a large amount of work on rhino conservation so a move on a legalisation strategy through CITES should be driven by South Africa.

The average person or the unsung hero is simpy not interested in petty politics and factionalism.

(Cyril) Ramaphosa told the Free State members that normal people were not interested in factional battles or who their leaders would be.

“They are only looking for answers on how service delivery could be accelerated [for] water [and] electricity and how their schools could work better.”

This quote comes from the elective conference of the ANC in the Free State over the weekend. It is an astonishing statement and one that bears a bit of thinking about and pondering.

The logic is obvious to anyone and the statement is therefore not very profound, in fact rather banal and common place but it raises a very critical question as to why the Deputy President of the ANC feels it necessary to lecture on political governance to ANC members that have held office for years.

A clue to the answer lies in the fact that elections are to be held in South Africa next year 20 years after independence and the ANC are in a flat spin because they stand to lose votes due to incompetence, arrogance, corruption and the dreaded cadre factor.

There has been talk and even dire warnings from the ANC in the Eastern Cape recently about the possibility that they might lose Nelson Mandela Metropolitan and other key areas. There is never really any strategy to turn the system around and stop the mistakes happening just a comradely gathering and talk between the cadres that have got the ANC into the mess as if the talk might make the problem melt into thin air.

I recently spoke to an old lady who has lived in the Eastern Cape rural areas all her life and still remembers vividly what life was like under ‘apartheid’. She cannot read or write but explained very articulately that the only interaction that the average person has with the ANC government in between elections is in a hospital or a school.

She went on to say that hospitals and schools are disaster areas but the government never listens until close to an election and then there is a panic. “All of a sudden you will see top ANC visiting rural areas and promising to fix hospitals and schools and also to catch the corrupt ones”.

As for the excuse that there is no money she smiled and said that it does not take education to figure this one out. “It has been stolen by those in government and now another generation grows up without a decent education”.

Recently Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu said that he would not be able to vote Again for the ANC. It is a powerful statement from the ‘Arch’ but one that has come a bit late to make maximum impact.

However, the average person and the unsung hero who only gets any proper interaction with government and ANC just before an election is going to be a challenge for government and it’s sins of incumbency.

Will they be conned and intimidated yet again with sweet talk and dancing at rallies or will they take a stand and show the ANC government just how much the political game has changed here in South Africa in the 20 years since independence.

Truth is the daughter of time.

Democracy is a journey and not a destination.

What actually defines a presidency?

This question cropped up in discussion and debate during the last week when the news came through that the choir of praise singers are attempting to rehabilitate the dismal reputation of one George. W. Bush.
The same guy that calmly lied to his people about the fictitious Weapons of Mass Destruction (atomic bombs) possessed by Saddam Hussein.
His supporters that were bussed in claim that he was unaware of the lies and that it was concocted by intelligence agencies but the fact remains that the debacle happened on his watch.
It was his administration that responded at snail’s pace to the disaster of Hurricane Katrina amid allegations that black people did not warrant the same priority as whites.
The racial aspects aside any government prepared to spend billions on a war that was built on a fairy tale should be able to respond adequately to a natural disaster in their own country.
Whether the Bush choir manage to rehabilitate this dismal Bush legacy is a moot point but the fact remains that presidencies are marked and defined around a few turning points, moments where decisions are taken and choices are made that cannot be revoked.
Thabo Mbeki is written in history as the Aids denialist, the president that devoted precious time to researching conspiracy theories and conferring with snake oil salesmen. He stated that there is no proof of the HIV virus as around him people died, orphans were left and raped women contracted a virus that could have been prevented with anti retro viral treatment.
His minister of health went off to a international conference peddling her theories about African potatoes and beetroot being a cure for Aids.
The world laughed at us and Mbeki was eventually forced by his own cabinet to cease and desist from meddling in medical science and consorting with con artists. This denialist moment still defines his presidency regardless of what else he did or achieved.
President Jacob Zuma has had his memorable moments with the shower episode claiming that a shower after sex prevents transmission of the HIV virus, The Protection of State Information Bill, South African soldiers dying in a backyard brawl in the Central African Republic and Nkandla.
The multiple charges of corruption against President Jacob Zuma that melted into thin air with the assistance of his political connections must also loom large on any presidential legacy radar screen.
But Nkandla gets my vote as the skulduggery, bribery and corruption that has gone on so that Zuma can build a palace and bunker from which he could become the de facto dictator of South Africa has to make it into prime spot in the annals of South African presidential history.
During their presidencies both Thabo Mbeki and Jacob Zuma supported and encouraged Robert Mugabe in maintaining his vice-like grip on Zimbabwe even as the country has been disappearing before our very eyes.
And as for Robert Mugabe the best that can be said about his legacy is that he was a freedom fighter because after independence he never actually took any responsibility in governing but simply let the country die.
Maybe the farm invasions that he orchestrated or simply allowed to develop will be the event or set of events that will in the end define the lifetime that Zimbabwe has had to endure under his hawk like watch.
They destroyed a thriving economy, thousands of jobs, set up countless refugees to wander forever in exile and made the country dependent on food imports. A country that was a breadbasket in Africa was crumpled like a piece of paper and set alight.
Maybe there is more to a comparison between Bush and Mugabe than meets the eye. Both were prepared to destroy and kill to achieve a goal that they had set themselves. Bush has his acolytes and praise singers and when he is no longer president so will Mugabe have his own choir.
The defining moments in a presidency cannot be divided into right and wrong but are expedient decisions made with allies to support and encourage them.
George. W. Bush had Tony Blair to watch his back while he went about the nefarious invasion of Iraq and Robert Mugabe has had Thabo Mbeki and Jacob Zuma to watch his back and prevent sanctions while he goes about the nefarious act of simply looting and killing a country.

Democracy is a journey and not a destination.

This blog was penned before the outbreak of the Gupta virus and the infiltration of a national key point by a civilian aircraft.

People supporting fracking Shell for jobs should beware the wolf in sheep’s clothing.

I attended the meeting on fracking at the Graaff-Reinet Town Hall on Thursday 18 April and I did not hear anything new from Shell. It is almost two years ago that there was a massive meeting at the same spot and Shell still have no answers to the questions about water and about jobs.
There are no guarantees about jobs or water. There is no certainty that there will be jobs and no certainty that the water is safe and won’t be contaminated by chemicals used in the drilling process.
Shell SA is a part of Royal Dutch Shell which as a Multi-National Corporation is there to make money, otherwise it does not exist. Shell is not terribly worried about whether people in the Karoo get jobs or whether they can continue to drink their water.
There is shale gas in the Karoo and that can be turned in to money. This is the bottom line in any calculation or analysis by Shell. The same arrogance and even contempt for the Karoo locals was on display yet again as we were told that people concerned about chemicals are being “emotional”.
At question time this lack of respect was shown in the contempt with which one of the Shell delegation fobbed off a question around the recent article in the National Geographic about the ever present dangers in mining and hydraulic fracturing (fracking).
The presentation itself has not altered much in two years and Shell simply speak of job possibilities in the “multiple 1000’s” like a lottery which of course means that they are not sure and don’t want to be caught out.
The local community has become split over fracking with some irresponsible people encouraging the split along racial lines with whiteys anti because they don’t need jobs and blacks pro because they want jobs.
This is simplistic and done purely for political gain. The reality is that both of the groups should be together pressurising Shell to come clean on these issues of jobs and water.
There is no guarantee that there will be jobs and no guarantee that the groundwater will survive this Shell onslaught.
We have an elected government in this country whose job it is to protect the citizens of South Africa against this kind of invasion by a Multi-National Corporation that is richer than many countries.
An elected government that should controlling and monitoring the process by which rights to mine are granted. Controlling and monitoring the process that Shell seems to running on its own.
Shell at this meeting looked like a player in the game and the referee as well.
There is still a long way to go in this fight and people that support Shell and fracking because they believe it will bring jobs should beware the wolf in sheep’s clothing.

The DA taking on the ANC in a “struggle” over the “struggle” could simply be a strategic masterpiece.

The recent decision by the Democratic Alliance to take on the ANC and it’s self defined role as not just a part of the struggle against apartheid but the struggle itself is going to make the 2014 elections into a griping spectacle.
The ANC arrived at the negotiating table as the first in line but they were not the only ones who fought apartheid. The Black Consciousness Movement, PAC, United Democratic Front and others were there but were eclipsed by the ANC.
A number of these are now members of the DA.
Former leader of the DA, Tony Leon has warned that any attempt to take on the ANC over the past will be defeated. This is a logical way of looking at things but politics can be illogical and counter intuitive when it comes to beliefs and allegiances.
For people in South Africa to see the picture of Madiba hugging Helen Suzman and to be surprised because all these years they were told by the ANC that Suzman was part of apartheid is in itself a turning point in South African politics.
The two decades that will have passed between the independence elections and those that will be held in 2014 have witnessed a change in the nature of the game of SA politics and how it is played.
1994 was all the ANC with everybody else playing catch up but now with the threats and challenges of being in power, the non-delivery on promises and the corruption, the incompetence and the inability to turn around non-performing departments means that the ANC faces huge questions about its ability to actually govern.
There are people who have said that it is political suicide to take on the ANC over the struggle but for this writer it is a well thought out strategy. The DA has proved to be more efficient in governing than the ANC and people have said that they should stick to reminding the electorate of this fact.
However, it makes a lot of sense to take the ANC on and ask questions about its core strategy, the strategy that everything else for the ANC depends on.
Identifying itself with the struggle, not as a part of the struggle but as the struggle itself means that all their eggs are placed in that one basket. Unless there is a surprise rabbit out of the hat the ANC has nothing else to campaign with for 2014.
Education systems, hospitals, roads, prisons, SAPS and other situations show a lack of primary management skills and point to a lack of resources needed to turn these disasters around.
If the ANC had to lose the Northern Cape and Gauteng next year it could prove to be a blessing as the organisation would be forced to get rid of the dead wood cadres and would be leaner and maybe more efficient as an organisation.
Whether the ANC would accept that going forward is another question entirely, another couple of blogs at least would be needed to discuss that particular issue.
By forcing the ANC to fight on the struggle front as well as the corruption, incompetence and management disasters fronts could prove to be a strategic master play by the DA.
By taking advantage of the ANC organisational system being overextended with crises on all fronts this “struggle” over “the struggle” could just gain more votes for the DA.
It won’t bring the ANC down at the polls next year but by starting early the DA have also forced the ANC into a long term campaign against their will and votes are there for the taking.

Deploying an ANC political cadre to run the SAPS is an obsession that President Zuma inherited from his predecessor.

Riah Phiyega is the current Police Commissioner and one in a line of ANC political deployments without any actual policing experience. This obsession with appointing and deploying an ANC political cadre to oversee the South African Police Services is one that Jacob Zuma inherited from his predecessor, Thabo Mbeki.
Obsession might seem a harsh word to use except that both these men have made a point of deploying people that they could manipulate to this crucial national position.
Mbeki was eventually embarrassed by his connection with Jackie Selebi and now Zuma faces embarrassment again by having appointed Phiyega after the mess made by Bheki Cele.
Embarrassment is a relative word though as raised by Independent Policing Researcher, David Bruce, in a recent article in Mail & Guardian.
“She (Phiyega) might be harmed in the eyes of the public but it is not going to affect her job security. The way she has been conducting herself is not necessarily a survival thing but more her understanding of how the authority system works – that she needs to take direction. She sees herself as being subject to political authority.”
Bruce portrays Phiyega as the political appointment she undoubtedly is. As merely a deployed cadre she answers to her political bosses and the disastrous state of affairs in real life at the SAPS has no relevance in the ANC organizational “authority system”.
Yet another example of the chaos and mess that follows in the wake of the deployment of an ANC cadre. That “dreaded cadre factor” that is embedded in the ANC organizational system malfunction.
The current mismanagement and lack of control that saw the murder of a Mozambican taxi driver amongst other avoidable incidents has its genesis in the deployment of a civilian under political control to run the police services.
With no understanding of how the police system works and operates she has no respect from those she must lead.
Her claim that she is being criticized because she is a woman is such a blatant attempt to divert attention and set up a smokescreen to block the ringside view of a person with no proper experience and qualifications making a mess.
Some big questions come out of this debacle.
The police overreacted at Marikana and took the law into their own hands but nobody has censured the striking workers for carrying weapons of war. They have not been censured for killing fellow workers who did not want to strike as well as security guards and policemen in the days before the Marikana shooting.
Why are striking workers above the law in a country with such an endemic problem with violence and daily threats of violence.
Why is Jacob Zuma, just like Thabo Mbeki before him, so obsessed with keeping the SAPS under the control of a deployed cadre from the ANC, it is becoming ridiculous.
It is the simple things in life that make a big impact. Simply banning striking workers from carrying weapons of war that inevitably leads to unnecessary and mindless violence together with appointing a Police Commissioner who has actually served in the police service would help to halt this pattern of violent strikes and SAPS mismanagement.
Democracy is a journey and not a destination.

Cui bono? Who benefitte at Marikana?

Political opportunism at Marikana.

The Youth League is no more and the ANC are looking for portable smokescreens and decoy runners.

In the time that has elapsed since the ANC Youth League leadership was disbanded and the remnants brought into line obeying ANC protocol from the top down nothing yet has been mentioned about the vacuum left behind.
This said vacuum refers to the place occupied by the Youth League for a number of years as the focal point of publicity stunts and general deflection of opposition politicians and media away from the important and sticky questions regarding national policy and government. This was particularly important during election time and even Helen Zille was decoyed away from crucial election topics and landed up in a verbal brawl in the gutter with one Julius Malema.
Now that the ANC have changed the Youth League status to simply one of the bureaucratic offices complete with rubber stamps who or what is going to take up the slack in the smokescreen and red herring departments.
Are we to believe that the ANC brains trust have really changed tactics and will not deploy deception and intrigue created by supposed infighting within the organisation. The media usually latch on to any clue or sign of argument or difference of opinion and don’t have the time always to verify the veracity of the breakdown.
Julius Malema was responsible for more column inches at times than President Jacob Zuma himself and the content of the bits and pieces about him were seldom very substantial.
The media felt it their duty though to cover whatever silliness and juvenile behaviour came from his quarter and it was often done to the detriment of other news.
Just what power was wielded by the Youth league behind the scenes is still a moot point as they and their individuals were played like puppets by higher ranking and more experienced cadres out for their own gain.
The Youth League was always bombastic and loud. Always rude and crass with plenty of insults thrown around at random hitting opposition as well as ANC members alike.
Aside from the entertainment value as Malema and his gang played leading roles in the soap opera the ANC as an organisation still has plenty corruption with incompetent cadres and is overflowing with inefficient departments that just cannot seem to deliver .
Without a ready group of decoys to divert opposition and media attention the government at all levels will be under far greater scrutiny and things might just get uncomfortable in the buildup to the elections in 2014.
Democracy is a jouney and not a destination.