This makes President Mbeki's suspension of the Director of the National Prosecuting Authority, Vusi Pikoli, and his request to the new acting director Mohotedi Mpshe, to review all pending cases under investigation, most of which involve political figures, even more sinister.
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We may be living in a "democracy", but it would appear that this fact has not as yet dawned on the leaders of the ANC Alliance, which has its roots in the dictatorial system of Communism.

There is a tendency that is clearly manifesting within the ranks of those who hold high positions in the ANC. It is a sort of arrogance that refuses accountability and expresses itself in an attitude best described as, "I will do as I please and because I have the President behind me, there is nothing anyone can do about it". Thus we find Ministers that have proven themselves incapable of running their portfolios properly, such as the Ministers of Education, Health, Safety and Security, Welfare, Home Affairs, Sport, Correctional Services, Defence and some seldom heard of, who are in charge of lesser portfolios, going along seemingly oblivious of the fact that they are plunging the country deeper and deeper into a crisis, from which it will be difficult to return.

I can already hear these people react in a way that has become all too predictable in the New South Africa. "This", they'll say, "is the expected reaction eh, eh, of a disgruntled white eh, eh, from the old Apartheid era who eh, eh, is paranoid about losing his eh, eh, previously entrenched privileges." Not so. The fact is that having grown up in an ordered society, both here and in the U.K., it is extremely difficult to adapt to the disorder, which has, more and more, become a typical feature of the New South Africa.

The problem with those who are making the decisions are that they are either incapable of recognising, or else unwilling to admit, that they cannot run the country effectively with people who are not qualified or do not have the necessary experience.

Their obvious belligerence towards anyone that isn't black, and Afrikaners in particular, and their ideological obsession with the racist inspired policies of Affirmative Action, Black Economic Empowerment and Transformation is spurring them on to ultimately exclude all South Africans, other than blacks, from participating in and making a contribution to the building of the New South Africa. With white women, Indians and coloureds making up a disproportionate number of Affirmative Action appointments, it is only a matter of time before they too will begin to suffer the discrimination presently reserved for white men.
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How can one even hope to succeed as a country? Especially as we are being run by those who openly and obviously ignorantly, declare that from now on appointments are no longer going to be made on merit but on colour. Although this statement was made about rugby, it clearly illustrates the warped mindset of many in government.

Watching President Mbeki embrace the predominantly white rugby champions of the world in Paris, one couldn't help but reflect on what our country could achieve if all the citizens, without government interference and racist preferences, were given the opportunity to contribute their strengths and talents for the good of all in the land. Unfortunately the worst legacy of apartheid, namely racism, which has been wholeheartedly embraced by the present government, is making this almost impossible.

While selective colour based employment opportunities and quotas remain, the dream of non-racist South Africa will remain just that, a dream.

In conclusion, a government that calls the crisis and chaos that they have created, challenges and that accepts mediocrity instead of setting standards of excellence, will never succeed in taking this, the most sophisticated country on the African Continent, into a bright future. ANC policies and performance, the persistent veiled threats against the press, and the reported influence, exerted by the head of state, likened in an article by Jacob Dlamini to Joseph Stalin, on the judiciary, is making this a Country in Crises.
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Price Hikes for Electricity
The socialist and vote buying policy of the ANC to ensure basic electricity to all South Africans and free electricity to the indigent, has led to the crisis in supply and black-outs being experienced across the Country at present. This, together with the gross incompetence of management and a lack of technical skills in the monopoly supplier Escom, is responsible for the present situation and not as Saki Macozoma, chairman of the Big Business Working Group said on Wednesday, 4th April 07, "…South Africans are used to paying cheap prices for electricity and do not know how to limit their consumption."

It is customary for the ANC to place the blame on others and justify their inability to run things properly by referring to the "past legacies of Apartheid" but what will the future legacies of the present ANC's ill conceived and executed policies be? What does Saki Macozoma suggest as the remedy for the power crises? "As the demand for electricity had been underestimated, a number of interventions need to be put in place to curb the high usage of electricity, and hiking prices was one of them." I suppose sporadic and prolonged power cuts will be another.

Since writing this, that is exactly what we have been experiencing.

Does a hike in the price of electricity mean that less people will be able to afford it and so fewer will be in a position to have it, which will mean that more will be available?

One wonders how much is really owed to ESCOM by cash-strapped Municipalities, country wide, that are reluctant, because of political considerations, to properly execute credit control measures available to them and thus recover the billions of Rand owed to them by those reneging on their payments for services?

It would appear that the honest, hardworking citizens are once again going to be penalised, as they are required to subsidise the irresponsible amongst us.

Manuel's Friend
According to Trevor Manuel the BEE policy needs to be reviewed, because it is not working for his friend. His friend has evidently been appointed as a BEE component in a company but feels that he is being left out by his white partners, when it comes to the running of the company.

This policy is indeed flawed and needs drastic revision, but not for the reasons Manuel has mentioned. This policy has resulted in black persons being put into positions as "an insurance policy", as without such appointments lucrative government contracts would not be forth coming.

The problem is that most of these BEE/Affirmative Action appointees are not at a level of competency where they can actually be entrusted with serious management responsibilities. Thus they are, in many instances, paid for doing absolutely nothing. The companies that employ of them, of course, work their salaries into tenders and contracts and so the poor taxpayer is yet again required to carry the load. Furthermore, the BEE/Affirmative Action Policy also curtails foreign investment. No self-respecting company wants to be told who they have to employ and in what positions. The normal criteria for employment is competence to do the job, not the colour of a person's skin.

The negative effects, of BEE/Affirmative Action are already seen everywhere: This is however, just the beginning of the downward spiral that will be experienced should this policy be continued.
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Political Intrusion in Sport
During the apartheid era all government decisions were made with the needs of its key constituency in mind, so racism played a big part in the approach to matters affecting the citizens of the country. One would have hoped that the new dispensation would have brought about a different approach. Unfortunately this is not so. The ANC regime seems to be more obsessed with race than the Apartheid regime ever was. Every new law made has been tainted with the colour of racism. More and more powers are continually being put into the hands of the government to prescribe to and interfere in the normal development of things. Outside interference in natural processes always have negative results.

I listened with interest to the debate around the inclusion of black players in the Rugby World Cup team. It was mentioned that the Under 19 and Under 21 teams, who have many black players in their ranks, have done well on the International scene, but by the time it came to the bigger league at Provincial and National level not many black players have had much success. I would like to point out that many white players who have in the past and at present done well at the lower levels have also not made it all the way. The reason should be obvious, only those with exceptional skills should expect to go through to Springbok level.

In a normal society national teams are always selected according to a criteria that ensures that only the best players represent the country. In a racist South Africa, however, criteria is not based on skill, but on the colour of a person's skin. Political interference, that has been bad in the past, is now to increase to an even more alarming level, with greater powers having been bestowed upon the Minister of Sport to intervene in something he knows nothing about.
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Mbeki's Racist Blunders
Mbeki's talk about "nation building" sounds somewhat hollow in the light of his statement in the weekly "Letter from the President", on the ANC's web-page. In it he stated that the reason white South Africans are disturbed about the extent of crime in the country stems from their age-old "racistic fear" of blacks.

Not only is this statement irresponsible and inflammatory, but it lacks statesmanship. It would appear that he does not really regard himself as the President of all those living in the country but only of those who support and vote for the ANC. His statement included the word "kaffir" which was repeated eleven times. By using this word he seems to be inferring that it is still in general use by whites when referring to blacks. I must say that I seldom come across it. Talk like this can only lead to further polarisation between blacks and whites, as it tends to inflame emotions, which could lead to confrontation.

Joyce Khumo in a letter in Business Day under the heading 'Mbeki farce' wrote as follows "Also shocking is the President's ANC Today online letter blaming the perceptions of crime in SA on white racists. This will increase the gap between whites and blacks in the country and under-minds the efforts of nation building started by former president Nelson Mandela." The academic, Prof. Sipho Seepe speaking on ETV News said that Mbeki's viewpoint, places a question mark over his seriousness in combating crime.

The fact remains that blacks are as concerned if not more, about the levels of crime in SA as they are more often exposed to it.

As with HIV/AIDS the President, in his own words appears to ignore and minimise the seriousness of crime in South Africa. This is not the first time he has made such an obviously racist statement. A couple of years ago, while in Sudan, he said that there were those in South Africa who did not want to accept the end of white minority rule and who are waging a cold war. A "cold war", in the context of Mbeki's statement, created the impression that white South Africans were on the verge of attempting the overthrow of the Government by violent means. Both the above statements by Mbeki appear to be a calculated ploy to inflame "the masses" against the "white minority". He seems to regularly use the race card in order to secure the support of his majority constituents. He knows that racial harmony in South Africa would not be to the ANC's advantage as this could mean that more and more blacks will use competent governance rather than race or colour as the measure for electing their representatives.
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