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The Weekly update to life in post-apartheid South Africa.

What a farce, what a joke, what a disgusting performance. What made the South African Embassy in France decide to use this total asshole to sing the national anthem at the match between France and South Africa this past weekend?

Watch the video clip here & let me know what you think.

News 24 reports (click on the photo) that this Durban based singer is in France to record a new album, but his failure to keep in tune explains maybe why he's a reggae singer. We all know these guys are mostly high on pot, so it's no wonder he thought he did brilliantly! I might be critical of how the ANC is ruling our country, but our anthem is our anthem. Don't mess with it and don't disrespect it! And good luck with his coming tour - makes you wanna laugh at the prospect after watching the video - maybe his followers are also 'tune challenged'...

In the meantime - all our parastatal's are having their days of fame (or should we make that months?). First we had the SABC board with so many underhanded wealings and dealings and millions of Rands being squandered, that it's scary to look at just the local production costs on television series which have never been broadcasted (not even produced). The board got axed (eventually) and it seems that some sanity has returned there. That's of course after the fact that they're totally broke. So broke that they even proposed an additional 1% be taxed on all honest hard working people income in order to help them survive.

Now that would make them a pukka government department then, wouldn't it? With only one master, the ruling party. I smell communism. With certain of the tri-party alliance members shouting again about nationalising the mines, one wonder where and when (or if) it will ever stop.

Then we have Eskom. The boss man first resigned (in October), then decided that he didn't, then got refused entry into his office, then threatened to fire people, then his second in charge resigned, then he was back in charge (thought he's always been in charge), then eventually he did actually resign in October. I can't even remember all the then and nows, and I'm still totally confused about what's happened.

The man inherited this mess. He did not see eye to eye with management and he got a fat increase whilst the company has been crying for funds to fix up Mbekis' mess when they ignored calls for more power stations. We know Eskom is in a mess, and people keep on telling us that we have to deal with it now. We're trying. We just want to see justice for the suffering that's lying ahead. 45% Increases for the next three years - my backside! I'd rather suffer and pay up for my own independence from this parastatal.

Government has extended it's offer to people to hand in unlicensed firearms yet again. I think the reason behind this is (and we all know this) an excuse to rid the Boere from their weapons. A customer of mine is sitting with ten firearms, from sporting rifles to hunting rifles to handguns. Most of these have been passed from father to son over a couple of generations and they're all licensed. There's no hoarding of ammo, there's no sinister plan of overthrowing the government, there's no cowboy tendencies like the days of the AWB and what happened in the homeland of Boputatswana.

You're limited to specific quantities of specific types of firearms and a specific amount of bullets for each. And specific firearms applies to specific conditions. Yet there are some 5 000 automatic weapons which used to belong to the police in circulation, being used for armed robberies and hijackings.

Which gets me to the next point - shoot to kill. Our cowboy hatted chief of police who stays at fancy hotels and looks more like a playboy and celebrity (and by the way, cannot salute) told his force that if their life are threatened they must shoot to kill. This is great and about time. Too many good policemen and women get killed in the line of duty. But shooting a two year old kid with a pipe in his hand?

The excuse is that it looked like a firearm - goodness, it was a two year old kid! And killing a woman in her car because they "thought it was stolen"? Where were their life's threatened? What the hell is happening here? The SAPS is pushing idiots through their exams, hand them firearms and push them onto the streets to protect us?

The soccer world cup is upon us, and they're desperately trying to stamp out crime, especially serious crime. But shooting a suspect because he's running away is pushing things a bit far. Seems to me that the SAPS (re. government) has been looking for an excuse to live out their fantasies of the wild west. Idiots with guns and the "the boss said I can" attitude.

They need to get reigned in quickly. They need to understand that their fight is against crime and not South Africans in general. Collateral damage for the sake of less crime is not acceptable, especially by a police force that don't know their arse from their elbow. But what happened - the "big boss" says that it will happen. Does that mean they have license to kill before asking questions or without proof of wrongdoing?

All citizens in this country has a right to self-defense. If you end up in court because you shot a robber on your property, you have to proof that your life was in imminent danger. And you cannot shoot a criminal with a 44 Magnum either - it's not acceptable minimum force!

Now work that one out.

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