kameraad mhambi

Mhambi has been trying for some time to get into Twitter. The so-called ‘micro-blogging’ service which is really a Facebook-like status update minus the rest of Facebook.

I followed Obama’s amazing campaign all this year for instance.

But like Facebook, Twitter is only interesting if your following and interacting with interesting people. Obama fell silent the night of his election.

Recently I chanced on Joy Cloete’s Twitter stream - she’s a copywriter from Cape Town. Today she alerted me - besides that David Kramer was in Exclusive Books - to the presence of none other than motor mouth Julius Malema on Twitter. Excellent!

Yes THAT Julius, the one of the looks and language to die for. Julius if you remember is the young man who has said he will kill for ANC president Jacob Zuma to become president and much besides.

Here a sample of Julius’s latest Tweets.

Seems war is still on his mind. And Terror.

Terror Lekota, the leader of the new Congress of the People (Cope) and new threat to the Zuma ANC is also on Twitter.

Terror has more followers than you Julius.

You can follow my Tweets on Twitter as well.

But be warned I tweet on both things digital and SA politics. If you want just the politics or the digital then its best to follow either my blog Mhambi or ZuluZulu’s RSS feeds.

PS: Seems from Julius’s stream that he has noticed that he has an search engine problem. Search for brainless youth leader and Julius Malema’s name appears.

Kameraad Mhambi’s been busy of late. Things are dire up here in the cold damp north. I’ve had to concentrate on my job. Jobs are suddenly rather precious.

Down south some of my old chommies are having a whale of a time. In South Africa you see, never mind how bad things get, or perhaps especially when things are bad - you party!

The Wedding DJ’s - that is Donald Swanepoel and Chopper Charlie has just played their first gig in Soweto. And it rukked!

Donald and Charles, from Boksburg and Vereeniging respectively, are also the co-founders of Watkykjy - the cult Afrikaans websaait.

And check out the fashion a la Soweto. Aitsa! Glad nie sleg nie. In fact it’s rather sharp.

“I will tell you will not go out (of prison) Clive Derby-Lewis…you can go to hell. You’re not going to go out until you do your time, it’s as simple as that.”

Those were the words this week of prisons minister Ngconde Balfour the Sunday Times reports.

The words have a ring of Jimmy Kruger to it. Jimmy, famously said of the cruel and humiliating death of Steve Biko:

“Dit laat my koud”. (It does not move me)

But that’s just on the face of it. One cannot equate Derby-Lewis with Biko. Derby-Lewis openly espoused crude race based fascist views, and planned and assisted the killing of communist party general secretary and MK (the armed wing of the ANC) leader Chris Hani in cold blood. He was imprisoned for this deed.

Biko, one of the foremost black intellectuals South Africa produced had done nothing wrong but for the ideas he penned. Ideas about freedom. Ideas about how blacks should take pride in who they are and liberate their minds. Biko was assaulted, humiliated and left to die.

Biko good, Derby-Lewis bad.

If only it was that simple.

In terms of South African prison regulations Derby-Lewis is legitimately up for parole and has been recommended for it by the parole board. As anonymouse, a commentator on the Constitutionally speaking blog, has pointed out:

(1) An Act of parliament passed after 1994, determines that a person who has been sentenced to life imprisonment, who has already served 15 years of his sentence, and who is older than 65 years are entitled to be considered for release on parole.

(2) Two times now, the Parole Board has in the light of this recommended that Derby-Lewis be released when he becomes 65 years, which is now.

(3) Ncgonde Balfour argued in the past, that the three years that Derby Lewis spent on death row, before the CC declared the death penalty unconstitutional and his sentence was accordingly commuted into life imprisonment does not count as part of his prison sentence.

(4) Janus Walusz, the other accused is not being considered for parole simply because he is not yet 65 years old. In his case, he will have to serve at least 25 years before being considered for release.

The final decision still rests with the minister and he has now made his preference clear.

After Mandela, Chris Hani has enjoyed almost mythical reverence from most of black South Africa. Hani is also a rallying point for those in the ANC that opposed the rule of Thabo Mbeki. Considering some of the vengeful statements of late on behalf of leaders, I am not surprised by Balfour’s statement that Derby-Lewis “can go to hell”.

But should we not lament that South Africa does not apply its rules consistently to all?

In Derby-Lewis’s case the rules have been bent before.

In fact he and Walusz should not have been in prison in the first place, had the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) applied the rules contained in its own amnesty legislation.

The TRC had a problem. One of its central big ideas and supposed balm for our festering historical sores was giving amnesty for political crimes. That is if there was a spilling of the beans or so-called full disclosure.

In law there was no definition of what constituted a political crime however. When Namibia went through a similar post conflict process as South Africa they asked a professor Norgaard to define a political crime for them.

Norgaard had nothing to go on accept for international public law on political asylum. Looking at different examples of when countries declined to extradite prisoners to other countries on political grounds, he made a set principles that would form the basis for the Namibian solution.

Most importantly applicants in Namibia had to prove that their act had a political aim and that it was proportionate to their aim.

According to the Norgaard principles placing a bomb in a public space was indiscriminate and not proportionate to the political aim of liberating the country, but killing a senior political figure, or a policeman (who was protecting the state) was. In other words the killings of civilians were not acceptable.

In Namibia, where the principles were first created and used, a Swapo cadre who had tortured and killed a farm worker (who also moonlighted as a tracker for the security forces) was given amnesty, but another cadre who placed a bomb in a Windhoek shopping center was not.

The TRC act incorporated the Norgaard principles verbatim.

But seen through the prism of the Norgaard principles Derby-Lewis and Walus committed the classic political crime. Only to be matched by the assassination of a person like Magnus Malan. But still they were refused amnesty.

Ironically because of political reasons it was unpalatable (to both the ANC and Nats) to set them free.

The ANC because they and their constituency adored Hani. The Nats wanted to show that ‘ons is nie almal so nie’. They were not like the bad whites to their right.

Both the ANC and especially the Nats feared a backlash from disappointed young black people. Derby-Lewis and Wallus was expendable and had no real constituency or power base to worry about.

Tough luck.

But principles flew out the door more than once.

As the cut off date for amnesty applications came nearer the TRC has received all but a dearth of mea culpas. The TRC became worried. How to unpick the security services’ can of worms with no information.

Especially as the rise of the TRC effectively meant the end of provincial investigation teams like Jan D’Oliviera’s (The Transvaal Attorney General). It was his team that had gone after hit squad leader Eugene de Kock and others so successfully.

The Commission, probably rightly, thought that ex-policemen, soldiers and MK cadres had sought legal advice. Proportionality would be a problem for them.

Suddenly, with barely a week to go, the Commission pardoned convicted policeman Brian Mitchell. A man who orchestrated the massacre of civilians at Trust Feeds. The amnesty applications went from a trickle to a stream.

Last night we witnessed history, as one of the most talented politicians of a generation - and a black man - was elected US president.

To understand the momentousness of this occasion one just have to have a cursory look a the history of racial strife in the USA. A history of bigotry that at times even outstripped South Africa’s sad history. When Obama was born, some American states still did not allow black Americans the vote.

I was rather astounded to hear last night when a TV pundit said that not tens but thousands of black Americans were lynched by white mobs - mob killings that often involved torture. Wikipedia claims in this regard:

‘Between 1880 and 1951 the Tuskegee Institute recorded lynchings of 3,437 African-American victims, as well as 1,293 white victims (that supported the abolition of slavery). Southern states created new constitutions from 1890–1908 with provisions that effectively disfranchised most blacks and many poor whites.’

This morning the New York Times boldly proclaims “Obama Elected President as Racial Barrier Falls“.

Much has been made of Obama’s wonderful oratory skills. But John McCains speech in conceding was fantastic. These two Americans showed the world the meaning of modern democracy.

This election certainly marks a major change - not only for the US - but also elsewhere, like in South Africa. It reignites the possibility and hope of a post racial politics, it’s good news for minorities everywhere.

Obama once again gave a soaring acceptance speech. And I must admit, ek het ‘n traan weggepik. Yes. it got me all sentimental. But politics has to come from the heart as well.

That is the reason I’m sometimes so strident o this blog about the failures of the Thabo Mbeki presidency and the ANC.

In 1994 I worked as an election official outside of Hammanskraal with a number of other University of Pretoria students. We were all Afrikaners. We knew in the back of our minds what was happening that day would mean the end of an Afrikaner dream: An Afrikaans speaking state.

NP van Wyk Louw - the great Afrikaans poet - had said that it’s better for a people to perish than live on in injustice. That day we agreed, justice felt worth it.

It was a cold late autumn morning. I witnessed the long snaking queues, snaking down dusty roads, I saw the excitement and the dignity. I felt proud to be South African.

I was on the Union Building laws together with more than 100,000 South Africans united and tearful when Mandela was inaugurated president.

How much have we not lost since then with our cynical, divisive, denialist, inhuman, corrupt and racial politics? Can we get another chance?

South Africa needs a uniting inspirational figure like Mandela or Obama.

I’m all sweaty palmed. So excited. Cant wait for this election.

Just yesterday I thought I found my favorite Obama clip. But this one is better.

The USA has made many mistakes in the past. But they also have a lot to be proud of.

The big open internet that your using to read this post, first but especially the second and third wave of feminism, jazz, blues, soul, rock n roll, the first gay movement, the civil rights movement, the hippies, fantastic art - all of them were American dreams.

Let’s hope tonight Americas hopes - and not its fears - prevail.

PS: If Cape Town rap group Prophets of da City (or their record lable) have any business acumen they should release their ‘Finally we have a black president’ - originally written for Nelson Mandela - hit in the US tomorrow (If Obama wins of course). And Mhambi wants a cut for the advice.

Tomorrow night Mhambi is going to stay up all night to watch the glorious spectacle that is the US election.

Since Mhambi is a Obama man - even though Sarah Palin looks the awsomist - I’m going to be flipping through YouTube and listen to all the pro-Obama songs, while keeping another eye on the the telly.

This song by Blakk Rasta from Ghana is my favourite so far. Skank it up!

If your not in the US and feeling left out you can cast your vote on this website (as if you could).

Gwede Mantashe, ANC secretary general and communist showed us again this week just how politics and principle do often part ways.

Mantashe, regarded as an intellectual heavyweight and Marxist Leninist - who generaly do not believe in property rights -  this week called on ANC’s trademarks, its intellectual property to be respected.

Reports the Sunday times:

‘ “The ruling party also turned to the courts this weekend in a bid to make life difficult for the breakaway party — by lodging an urgent interdict in the Pretoria High Court on Friday afternoon. It sought to restrain the national convention from using the name South African National Congress or SA National Convention or the acronym SANC because these were “confusingly similar” to the ANC.

ANC secretary-general Gwede Mantashe said in a 28-page affidavit that the splinter group’s proposed name would “confuse or deceive” the public, including donors and potential donors into believing that it was associated with the ANC.

Mantashe, who trumpeted the ANC’s achievements since its establishment in 1912 in his affidavit, said the conduct of former Gauteng premier Mbhazima Shilowa, Lekota and George, cited as respondents , amounted to “trademark infringement”. ‘

I’m sure Gwede will defend himself by saying we are in a capitalist system and therefore the ANC has to use bourgeois capitalist tools to defend itself. Fair enough. Mhambi likes practical communists.