I Offer a Presidential Candidate for the ANC Women’s League

Sent to The Star, Johannesburg, Wed 17/12/2014 08:42. Published

Sir

The ANC Women’s League has reportedly said that it is time for South Africa to have a woman President.

I have just the candidate.

This woman has impeccable anti-Apartheid credentials.  She was a politically active journalist and exposed the Apartheid regime’s false claim that Steve Biko had died as the result of a hunger strike.  She worked for the Black Sash and the End Conscription Campaign, and provided a safe house for anti-Apartheid activists.

She has extensive experience at all three levels of Government: City, Provincial, and in Parliament.  She has been a Mayor, and turned the fortunes of her city around, cutting debt and crime.  She won the 2008 World Mayor award against 820 other candidates.

This woman also has experience in leading a province: She has made it the best-run province in South Africa.

Unlike many figures in government, she has never been implicated in corruption, and she speaks in support of the Constitution at every opportunity.

I urge the ANC Women’s League to throw their support behind this worthy candidate for President: Helen Zille.

The ANC is Now Above the Law

Sent to The Star, Johannesburg, Thu 13/02/2014 14:54

Sir

I was part of the DA’s 12 February March for Jobs.

The march was planned for 4 February but Johannesburg Metro Police refused permission.  The DA had to go to court to have the decision overturned.

Ill-informed ANC members gathered at Luthuli House on 4 February and, when they found there was no march, tried to disrupt preparations for a DA fund-raising dinner that evening at City Hall.  There were no arrests.

On Wednesday 12^th, the DA held an approved, legal, orderly, and unarmed march.  Even the burly security personnel carried no visible weapons.  Some marchers wore hollow plastic builders’ helmets.  These are designed to give construction workers a measure of head protection against small falling debris.

The ANC neither applied for nor received permission to march.  Yet it bussed in supporters form as far afield as Kwa-Zulu Natal.  As seen in photographs, many were armed with bricks, batons, and other dangerous weapons including petrol bombs.  The SAPS and Metro Police appear to have made no effort to disarm them or to stop the busses.

Beyers Naude Square had been approved by the Metro as the destination for the DA’s march.  This was agreed to by the ANC in court that morning.  Nevertheless, ANC supporters occupied the square: SAPS and Metro Police, instead of telling them to leave and then arresting those that did not, prevented the DA march from reaching its destination.

We on the DA march turned back a block short at Rissik Street, and returned peacefully to our destination to be addressed by Helen Zille.

Meanwhile, ANC supporters were trying to attack DA marchers and petrol bombing the police who stopped them.  ANC leaders have attempted to excuse this.  Four arrests have been reported.  There is no talk of the ANC or its many supporters being prosecuted for an illegal march and thuggery on a grand scale.

It is clear that the ANC has become a party of intolerance and violence, while the DA is peaceful, law-abiding, and democratic.

It also seems from police behaviour that there is one law for the ANC and another for other organisations.