MEDIA GROUP RAISES CONCERNS OVER SECRECY BILL IN ITS CURRENT FORM

The Southern African Freelancers' Association (SAFREA) today issued a press release raising concerns over the Protection of Information Bill in its present form.

The Bill was passed by majority vote in South Africa's Parliament yesterday and will now be forwarded to President Jacob Zuma to be signed into law.

Safrea drew on a quotation from American writer and activist Noam Chomsky which aptly describes the relationship between free speech and a democracy:

"If we don't believe in freedom of expression for those we despise, we don't believe in it at all."

The full text of the press release appears below.

The Southern African Freelancers' Association stands opposed to the passing of the Secrecy Bill in its current form.

"Although the Secrecy Bill that was passed yesterday is a considerably improved version compared to what was presented last year, it remains a threat to freedom of speech, exposing journalists and whistle-blowers to real and significant risks, including a jail sentence of up to 25 years when reporting on certain matters in the public interest.

"The limited protection the bill offers journalists and whistle-blowers will no doubt result in an unacceptable environment of secrecy, fear and intimidation. This does not bode well for responsible journalism in South Africa, for the livelihood of those pursuing honest careers in what should be free media, or for the South African public," says Safrea chair, Helen Ueckermann.

The Secrecy Bill must be weighed and tested against the South African constitution. Legislation of this nature undermines and erodes the sacrifices endured during the Struggle, and all that it stood for. Passing the bill makes a mockery of the constitutional safeguards on free speech.

"The media's role as watchdog, and its responsibility towards the public to report on classified information exposing corruption or criminal activity, will be severely hampered with the passing of the bill," says Ueckermann.

There can be no true democracy where there is a limitation on freedom of speech. In the words of American linguist, philosopher, historian, political critic, and activist, Noam Chomsky, "If we don't believe in freedom of expression for those we despise, we don't believe in it at all."

LATEST REPORT FROM ST FRANCIS BAY RESIDENTS' ASSOCIATION

Below is the latest report from the St Francis Bay Residents' Association.

25 April 2013

Hi  Folks                                                                                                                 

Since the end of January this year a number of interesting things have happened in St Francis Bay.
• Firstly, the Tourism office has been relocated to Viking Bakery and approval has been given by Council to put up new signage directing people to this new office.
• The second significant happening has been the formation of a Business Chamber, which has been set up to address business issues within the Greater St Francis Bay area.  They have already achieved considerable success in discussions with council and other parties and a new committee is being put in place.  The Residents' Association is very supportive of the endeavours of Tourism and the Business Chamber.
• We are, once again, trying to get the residents of Sea Vista to form their own Residents' Association so that we have greater representation when dealing with council. 
• The street sign community project run by the SFB Residents Association is in the final throes of being put together.  This project will manufacture street signs conforming to Council requirements.  These curb-type signs will be manufactured locally creating employment.  We are hoping that businesses will come forward and sponsor these signs.
• It appears that the Parks grass cutting team has stopped their ‘go slow’ and is now back at work, long may this continue. 
• Two of the bad areas on St Francis Drive on the way to the Port have now been permanently repaired and the remaining section adjacent to Tarragona as well as the bend in Tarragona will be repaired shortly by Council.  The replacement of the mains water pipe in Lyme Road North is progressing well and most of the piping has been laid.
• The St Francis Bay Golf Club is in the process of finishing a contoured drainage system taking storm water away from flooding the areas adjacent to St Francis Drive down to the sea.  Council employed an outside contractor to put in a new storm water pipe system under the main road which will significantly help avoiding the damming of water.  This project was required to be completed prior to the winter rains. 
• Recently the new donated fire boat equipped by the Riparian Association was demonstrated to the media and public in the small boat harbour.  The water pressure allowed for five hoses to be attached simultaneously with significant water pressure.  As an aside, many of the houses destroyed in the fire are being rebuilt which is gratifying to see as it has created job employment and proves that SFB is still many peoples favourite holiday destination. 
• The wind farm on the Oyster Bay road has started.  The contractors Red Cap have agreed to have regular meetings with the community to update us on progress.  This project is significant for St Francis Bay as it will be employing 50% of its labour from Sea Vista. 
• We asked Council for an explanation as to why there is such a discrepancy in the meter reading period going from anything from 28 days to 41 days.  Herewith an explanation from Council:-  
“Electricity payments.  The municipality would like to apologise for those instances where the period between meter readings was exceptionally long.
Unfortunately, there are a number of factors that influence the length of periods and over which the municipality does not have control, for example, the weather.
We can assure residents, however, that the municipality is looking at adapting the programme used to calculate electricity usage to ensure that residents are charged correctly regardless of the length of the period between readings.
Residents who believe they have been overcharged for electricity can send their particulars to the municipality - in writing please - so that we can follow up on it.  
• We have had sight of the Kouga Municipality Draft Budget 2013/2014.  There are many issues in this budget which we are not happy with and are in the process of addressing.  This includes a proposed rates increase of 13% and staff salary increases of 11.8%. 
• A number of concerned property owners have approached the Residents Association with a view to assisting us in increasing our membership especially those people living in the Gauteng and Kwazulu Natal areas.  This endeavour is greatly appreciated by the Residents Association, as without more people paying membership fees it is impossible for us to continue with our projects as well as effectively represent property owners in St Francis Bay.

Jacky Green
Administration manager  

SA MILITARY UNION ALLEGES SANDF WITCH-HUNT FOR CAR WHISTLEBLOWERS

A press release just received suggests that South African Defence Force chief, General Solly Shoke, has a ordered a military intelligence operation to uncover  the identities of persons who leaked information to the media on anything involving the Central African Republic. This is the statement:

SOUTH AFRICAN NATIONAL DEFENCE UNION IN REACTION TO RECENT INFORMATION THAT CHIEF SANDF HAS ORDERED AN INTELLIGENCE OPERATION TO IDENTIFY ALL PERSONS WHO LEAKED INFORMATION TO THE MEDIA REGARDING THE CAR.

19 APRIL 2013

SANDU has been alerted to the fact that Chief SANDF General Solly Shoke has ordered a military intelligence operation to identify all persons who have 'leaked' information to the media on anything to do the Central African Republic deployment. 

SANDU views this in a very serious light as no crime has been committed and no troops were endangered by information obtained by the media. The only danger being in the fact that our troops shouldn't have been placed in the predicament it had been in the first place. The only 'damage' caused was a massive embarrassment to Government s not by people telling the full truth.  

This Intelligence  operation is a blatant abuse and waste of state resources and should not be tolerated. We implore SANDF management to rather better its communication skills with the public of South Africa, than engage in a petty Apartheid styled witch hunt against the media and its sources. This is impeding on freedom of the press and information, as the public's right to know the truth behind the unnecessary and untimely death of our troops in the CAR.

This latest development compounds the suspicions of a  cover up.

JG Greeff 

NATIONAL SECRETARY SANDU

A MAMPARA FOR ALL SEASONS

Mamparas come in all shapes and sizes but the one heading the Eastern Cape education department will always be a leading candidate for the much sought after accolade which, in South Africa, is distributed with remorseless regularity, for they are legion. If I didn't know better, I'd swear  the SA government had a breeding programme to churn them out.

The prizewinner is MEC for EC Education, the esteemed (or so he thinks) and pontificating Mandla Makapula, who was quoted as telling a group of South African pupils recently that they had no rights. Read it again, it isn't a misprint. Here is what he said:

'For you, rights come later in life when you are independent, finished studying and have your own place to stay and your own car. That is when you can start talking about rights.'

According to the Mail & Guardian he was allegedly referring to an Eastern Cape boy who took his father to court after he was forced to attend initiation school. This is what he added: 

'I asked myself what was wrong with that boy. His father did go to the initiation school but, because of the rights now, he did not want to go there himself ... I wish he could have been my child, I would have hit him on the head with a knobkerrie and he would have gone to that initiation school crying.'

The province's education department moved swiftly to downplay Makapula's patriarchal dogmatism with an even more absurd statement from spokesman Loyiso Pulumani, who told the M&G:

'He said these things in jest, he was only trying to be humorous. He wasn't suggesting in any way that children don't have rights.'

He perhaps forgot to add that it was a perverted sense of humour, if that was the case. But I suspect, as I imagine will many readers, that it is a ridiculous excuse for authoritarianism, patriarchal dogmatism and pomposity. It's pretty much how the government runs this country and then moves quickly to dispel scandal and controversy with ludicrous and laughable spin that is so obviously rubbish.

The wildly spinning Pulumani said the provincial minister did not say these things 'in so many words'.

'There has been a misunderstanding of African idioms here. You need to try to understand the cultural differences here and the nuances in language.'

Pulumani may need to get a firm grasp of linguistics or he'll spin himself into a tizz. Unless he's aiming for the mampara of spin accolade.

Regional director of the Legal Resources Centre (LRC) told the M&G that Makapula's comments are an example of the 'state of chaos in the Eastern Cape department of education'.

So the country ploughs on under the leadership of pontificating incompetents hell bent on self-aggrandisement rather than the interests of the populace.

We have become a nation beset by a rampant and self-enriching mamparadom.

TAKE A WALK ON THE WILD SIDE

A unique and unspoilt wilderness along South Africa’s east coast  offers unsurpassed and memorable experiences of culture, history and natural beauty to tourists searching off the beaten track.

The Eastern Cape province of South Africa holds many rich and varied interests for travellers, but one of the most compelling – dubbed an untamed wilderness – is the magnificent Wild Coast along its eastern coastline. 

Stretching from the Mtamvuna River in the north to the Great Kei River in the south, the roughly 300-kilometre coastline offers unlimited leisure options, a rich cultural heritage, spectacular views of jagged cliffs, coastal waterfalls, sheltered bays, vast empty beaches, shipwrecks, indigenous African villages and lush rolling hills and valleys. Despite all it has to offer it is not extensively developed (hence its name), and one can rub shoulders with local farmers and chat to Xhosa tribesmen as a matter of course on any given day.

Typical Wild Coast landscape

           
Ancient forests abound with cycads, yellowwood trees and bird and animal life. Approximately 320 bird species make the area their home and the rich coastline has abundant marine life packed with around 800 fish species. Deep sea, rock, surf, fly and spear fishing are much sought after activities.

The idyllic setting is home to former South African statesman, Nelson Mandela, whose home at Qunu is the area where he was born and grew up as a boy. Much can be learned about his early life in nearby Mthatha at the Nelson Mandela Museum. 

Qunu 

One tour operator aptly described the Wild Coast thus:

‘It only takes a few days before the magic of the Wild Coast starts to work on your soul and very soon you catch Pondo fever (laziness fever). The rest is history.’

Mbotyi

A good place to start exploring the Wild Coast is the quaint, picturesque and historically interesting Mbotyi. The literal translation of Mbotyi is ‘place of beans’ owing to the rich, fertile soil being ideally suited to the growing of any kind of bean.

The hamlet was created in 1922 by deed of grant and is one of the few sites along the wild coast which confers freehold title upon its owners. It has changed ownership several times and was bought in 1985 by Dr Liso Mazwai, with a view to building a hotel. 

Mazwai completed the hotel in the late 1980s but was forced to close the doors in 1993 following the assassination of Chris Hani and the ensuing political turmoil in the region. At the time the hotel was quickly evacuated and some guests had to abandon their cars and were flown out by helicopter. Amazingly it was never vandalized and, for almost a decade, table place settings, which remained intact, and overgrown lawns were a haunting reminder of its prestigious past.

In 2001, new owners bought the site and restored the Mbotyi River Lodge to its pristine best. The area relies entirely on the lodge as an employment generator for people living in and around the hamlet.

The place is renowned for having spawned and moulded one of South Africa’s great herbalists, Khotso Sethuntsa, reputed to be the grandchild of President Kruger’s coachman and privy to where the Kruger millions were buried. Appropriately he always celebrated Kruger Day with great enthusiasm and would invite celebrities from all over South Africa to attend. Khotso made a fortune selling his potent muti (African medicine or magical charms) and built splendid palaces outside Kokstad, Mt Frere and Lusikisiki for himself and his followers. Fascinating supernatural anecdotes (some involving Khotso) abound and can be heard at the lodge or read on their website www.mbotyi.co.za. 

Khotso with banknotes - Courtesy BooksLIVE

Mbotyi is a seaside hamlet in the Pondoland region of the Wild Coast north of Port St Johns. Among the many activities to be found in this beautiful, rugged area are birding, canoeing, fishing, hiking and horse trails, mountain biking, open landrover routes, swimming, waterfalls and the astonishing Sardine Run in June/July that can be seen from numerous vantage points when whales, dolphins, sharks, gannets and seals feed on the massive shoals of sardines along the coast.

Seascape at Mbotyi

Hole in the Wall

The main attraction and outstanding peculiarity of the Wild Coast is the Hole in the Wall, near the busy surfing town of Coffee Bay. Known to the locals as esiKhaleni (the place of the sound), this offshore, stand-alone natural rock, with its iconic wave-worn centre hole created by centuries of pounding waves, is a geological phenomenon that explodes in sound through the valley when waves crash against it at high tide.

Xhosa mythology believes it was created by the ‘sea people’, a race resembling humans with supple wrists and ankles and flipper-like hands and feet.

Hole in the Wall 

Wild Coast shipwrecks

The fascinating and romantic history of Wild Coast shipwrecks is a story on its own and the treacherous seas in some parts of the region have claimed the lives of many victims. Some ships were thrown onto the shore while others perished beneath the waves and divers today still comb the area in search of lost treasure.

• Oceanos (1991) sunk in heavy seas near the Hole in the Wall.
• Jacaranda (1971) ran aground following engine failure in heavy seas.
• SS Waratah (1909) disappeared without trace reportedly along the Wild Coast.
• The Grosvenor (1782) struck the rocks at Lambasi Bay on her final voyage.
• The Stavenisse (1686) wrecked in the seas off Coffee Bay.
• The Santo Espirito (1608) lies off Bead Beach, its identity still unconfirmed.
• The Santo Alberto (1593) deliberately run aground owing to cargo overload and imminent heavy seas.

These are just a few of the many maritime tragedies that have occurred in the turbulent and sometimes raging seas of the Wild Coast.

The Jacaranda

Four lighthouses at Cape Morgan, Mbashe Point, Cape Hermes and Sound Sand Bluff patiently watch over the fate of seafaring men who stray into their waters.

Exploring the Wild Coast

The most convenient way of traversing the Wild Coast and imbibing all the natural and cultural riches on offer is to take a guided tour. These are conveniently packaged to suit individual needs. 

The region is a hiker’s paradise and also can be enjoyed on horseback. A multitude of 4x4 trails are available for those who prefer travelling in comfort.

The Wild Coast is renowned as one of the most beautiful places on earth and is a relatively untouched paradise. It is the heartland of the Xhosa nation.

Written by Bruce Cooper and first published in the February 2013 edition of Sawubona

MURDER OF 6-YEAR-OLD SPARKS OUTRAGE IN ST FRANCIS

The traditionally quiet and relatively crime-free village of St Francis Bay was rocked and outraged this morning by the news that a 6-year-old school pupil from the adjoining Sea Vista community was murdered by an alleged stab wound through his neck.

The boy, whose name cannot be disclosed, was found in the bush near Assisi Drive, St Francis Bay - a large section of notorious indigenous bush where rape has occurred in the past and which divides the village from its industrial area and Sea Vista, an underprivileged community whose inhabitants mostly work in St Francis Bay or nearby Cape St Francis.

The boy's body was discovered by a Sea Vista resident at around 3 a.m. this morning. It was reported that the boy's overwrought mother and sister from Sea Vista had to identify the body at around 4 a.m. 

Warrant Office Basil Seekoei of the SAPS said this afternoon that the boy had a stab wound to the neck and initial investigation reveals no evidence of physical abuse or sexual assault. A post-mortem of the body is expected soon.

Around 50 women from Sea Vista protested this morning at the St Francis Bay police station in Kansies Road against abuse of women and children and demanded to know who had found the boy and what he was doing in a dangerous area of common bush at 3 a.m. They expressed their dismay and concern that a search and rescue team involving the resources of the whole community had not been launched by the SAPS when he was reported missing by his grandmother late yesterday afternoon. Apparently, crack disaster units, the local fire department and NSRI were not contacted to help in the search.

Picture courtesy of St Francis Chronicle

Writing on Facebook, owner of the largest security company in St Francis Bay, Lynn Edwards, had this to say:

"I ask myself, can something more not have been done by the community of St Francis and Sea Vista had we been advised - got a search party together?? I know there is a whole big social issue out there but this is happening right on our doorstep and perhaps could have been averted."

Edwards' security team is frequently involved in apprehending and tracking down suspects in the village.

Local journalist and former crime reporter, Beth Cooper Howell, also writing on Facebook, echoed Edwards' plea:

"It has since come to light that a 12-year-old suspect has been detained and this is what I suspected - a peer-related fight. But the point is - every child counts. 

"A community/police/NGO/municipal registry or action plan of some sort would go a long way towards minimising tragic situations such as these. He was a child and he was missing - someone should have been worried."

Cooper Howell in a separate email added:

"I'm convinced that our brilliant guys from the NSRI, volunteer fire station and other local heroes would be more than happy to be involved in an initiative that encompassed an immediate 'action plan' once a missing child/person alert was made public.

"As we stop fires and prevent drownings and come together in times of crisis, surely we must do the same when a child or adult goes missing?"

Edwards responded with a counter plea to Cooper Howell on Facebook:

"Beth, I find this totally unacceptable that nothing was done. I cannot understand that the Sea Vista community, local police forum, ourselves, NSRI, were not advised and a search party organised. The child was 6!

"I am sure if it were a missing child from the other side of Tarragona [road dividing St Francis from Sea Vista], this scenario would not have happened. Let something positive come out of this tragic story."

St Francis Bay has been struck by fire, repeated floods and the murder of a young child. The community's heart goes out to his mother, sister and grandmother while it ponders what more it might have done to prevent this tragedy.

DON'T LET PULE OFF THE HOOK

It is likely that controversial Communications Minister Dina Pule will be given the boot by South African President Jacob Zuma in the next few weeks.

Pule has been accused of channelling large sums of money into the account of her alleged lover Phosane Mngqibisa.

In August 2013, departmental staff leaked a dossier to the Mail & Guardian newspaper in which they alleged that Pule had connived to fill key positions in her department, the South African Post Office and the SABC through nepotism and the promotion of cronies.

The Mail & Guardian, during the course of its investigations, found that Mngqibisa had very close political ties with the ANC. When confronted with the allegations, Pule rejected them as being the result of a 'vendetta' and 'witch-hunt' against her or even Zuma. Sources close and sympathetic to her said it appeared to be a smear campaign to embarrass her and Zuma ahead of the ANC conference in Mangaung in December.

Werksmans Attorneys, acting for donor MTN, revealed that Mngqibisa had  inappropriately benefited by some R6 million from an ICT Indaba held in Cape Town last year.

Public Protector Thuli Madonsela and Parliament's ethics committee have begun investigating the alleged irregularity.

The Sunday Independent reported today that it understood Pule had met with Zuma asking to be redeployed to an ambassadorial post knowing she was on the point of being fired. If it is found that she was complicit in corruption involving Mngqibisa, it would be a travesty of justice for Jacob Zuma to give her an official position and it would fly in the face of the ANC's much-vaunted Integrity Commission. It would send a clear signal to South Africa's citizens that the ANC looks after its crooks and has little or no interest in serving the cause of justice.