Undoubtedly Mr Jacob Zuma, former Deputy President of the region some might wish to call Southern Azania, has been placed in an invidious position. The recent brouhaha over who is or was not the author of the phrase 'a generally corrupt relationship' only lends emphasis to the extent to which Mr Zuma's civil rights have been abused by the failure of the National Prosecuting Authority [NPA] to try Mr Zuma at the same time as they tried Mr Shaik.
One understands from various media reports that Mr Shaik is going to make a further attempt this time to convince the Constitutional court that this case was procedurally flawed and his rights were violated. For as long as this attempt is currency, for that long must Mr Zuma wait before the NPA can conclude whether or not they are going to pursue their case against Mr Zuma. Again this inherently violates his right to campaign fairly for the Presidency of the country.
It could also be that his ability to campaign is now fatally flawed in any event since there will inevitably be a stigma hanging over his head like the proverbial sword of Damocles [whoever he was]. This says that Mr Zuma is dammed if he doesn't fight the case and may well be dammed if he does. In a sense this is the Knight's gambit from chess-whereby Mr Zuma is in check and any move he makes costs him his Queen and it's checkmate.
Aside from all the knowledge that is out in the marketplace that indicates that Mr Zuma is in serious trouble the problem is inherently one that we all know now that he received R1.3 million bucks from a man who was not his employer and that notwithstanding all the allegations that the money was a loan no loan documentation was led and no evidence accepted that supported that idea. So we the public were left with two questions.
The first asks what was the payback for the alleged loan since no paperwork existed. A loan is by definition something that must be paid back-so since the arrangement that I have for instance with my mortgage bond holder requires financial payback and there was no evidence of financial payback conditions then some other payback must have been in their minds, and we the voting public need to know what that arrangement was to have been.
This leads us to the idea of 'intention' as a caller to the Perlman debate on the issue this week referred-[I only caught a smidgeon of this debate driving across town avoiding the morning gridlock and surfing between Gareth Cliff, UJFM and SAFM ].
The caller, who sounded like an accomplished autodidact and announced he was from the Eastern Cape, referred to the term 'delict'.
I looked this up later and in the margins of an old textbook on Roman law I found what I had written back in 1967 that there is reference to 'declarations of intent' or 'expressions of will' and the caller suggested we explore the events that transpired over the course of the less than flavoursome relationship between Mssrs Shaik and Zuma.
The debate team pondered the inherent complexity of demonstrating intention. I agreed with them in that personal internal debate that got going in me as I drove or rather snailed in creeping traffic.
How can we assess Mr Zuma's state of mind without having had the opportunity to hear whether MR Zuma saw Mr Shaik as an opportunistic fool from whose money Mr Zuma soon parted him; with NO INTENTION OF EVER GIVING HIM ANYTHING IN RETURN.
In other words we don't know whether Mr Zuma simply saw Shaik as a useful source of revenue, and if some schmuck wanted to trade on past association and give him a million bucks or so then who was he to object-I would see that as a perfectly reasonable position for a man who has no particular code of ethics other than self-enhancement and 2who is desperately attempting to play catch on the years stolen from him by the former evil regime. The alleged evidence that demonstrates anything to the contrary has not been tested and is therefore wanting.
The other thing that we should all need to test in a courtroom to establish some indication of intent may be found in the same place that Eliot Ness found regarding Al Capone in his great movie 'The Untouchables': violations of the Income Tax act.
The simple assessment of intent may be construed through the answer to the second question. Did Mr Zuma declare the 1,3 million bucks he received from Mr Shaik to the Southern Azanian Revenue Service [SARS], irrespective of how he defined it, and was he legally able to do this [or not do so] in terms of the rules of procedure prevailing at that time?
The taxman has always grabbed as much of my money as the market can bear and I'm sure he has grabbed chunks of yours too, my reader. Did her get his rightful chunk of Mr Z's 'informally accrued' money, and assuming he did, did he get it timeously. Or was the declaration retrospective?
Sunday, November 19, 2006
Friday, November 17, 2006
The Oppenheimer whimper
Remember that cliche about a week being a long time in the world of moving action, this was never more true than now, here, in our town Jozi-
Now and again I read newspapers from such august places as Vancouver, Auckland and Toronto; the Emirates even and other places in between. I'm always struck by their lack of drama and what drama there is, is worked to death, almost instantly. By contrast we have so much news that most of it is buried instantly-sometimes the most buried stories contain intriguing meat-
I see that the pre-current issue of my Auckland news focuses on public response to an artist's impression of what a new proposed world cup rugby stadium would look like should the Newies ever decide to give it the go ahead. This, and the associated parking issue, will be headline news for months. In Dubai the issue is the quad-bike and the hooligans who wield them, while the Toronto press is mainly concerned with tax issues and the cost of things.
The most serious crime reported in the Toronto press concerns the travails of a man in a Toronto suburb who was relieved of his wallet after being 'swarmed' by a gang of [undefined] men. A week later the headlines are roughly similar, and there is some risidual mumbling about a school shooting that took place months ago... the biggest event in a decade i gather.
Compare this to our own more fecund experience. Headlines of the past week deal with a man convicted of having an undesirable relationship with the [former] deputy president, who goes to jail, and is immediately, and controversially, moved to a more comfortable jail stocked to the gunnels with young boys. Earmark a debate, says Perlman, before his chat show is swamped with urgent matters..
The beginnings of comment on this are snuffed out by routine news of murder and mayhem, as heist gangs roam the suburbs, wreck cars, kill citizen, shoot babies off their mother's backs, burn their enemies [those who guard mobile money boxes] and wipe out any of the forces of good in their paths-These have become 'pop-up' headlines recurring with such frequency that they barely arouse comment. Laced through these is the start of a rape trial involving TWO HUNDRED AND SIXTY ONE COUNTS OF RAPE One would imagine a koke routine at least but- the headlines are barely dry and the story is obsolete- the funeral of a former tyrant barely merits a byline and both pale before the next story to the effect that -
A leading politician, jailed for fraud or something, is enjoying boozy weekends at home and his four-year jail sentence has miraculously morphed into a four-month sentence with time off for good behaviour -I'll bet the system will be inundated with requests from other criminals for such miraculous events to occur to their sentences. We'll earmark a debate, says Perlman, again- more plaintive this time- there are days when Perlman's qualities are stretched to breaking point-. The debate proved 'chattery' when it did happen- It was quickly superseded though-
By midmorning relieved officials could announce the mass slaughter of 17 farm workers whose transport was whacked by a passing train-politicians raced to be first with the usual clutch of empty rhetoric and meaningless promises.
In the middle of all this a report leaks on Classic radio that the richest family in the country has sold off one third of their holdings in the country's biggest company: the business founded by their ancestors back in the nineteenth century. Further news confirms that a fat cat Chinese businessman has bought their shares. A simpatico story in the Sunday Crimes suggests [unconvincingly] charitable motives involving the wider continent.
After this we cut to Parliament where that august institution passes a new Civil Union Bill that bypasses marriage in a controversy loaded half-an-hour-before-tea. The Union Bill enables same sex couples to join together in unholy - well - Union. And while an instant of controversy drips all over the pages of various media someone leaked a few million litres of jet fuel into a bird sanctuary in a wild takeover bid that was immediately ignored because-.
All this news is immediately swamped by a discursive furore that erupts like a hasty storm in a fragile teacup when the presiding judge in an aforementioned corruption trial announces that he has been misquoted and the entire country erupts in fury.
And then while ten debates are roaring away like a series of fast moving volcanoes the news breaks that a prominent citizen has been arrested in connection with the murder last year of a controversial mining figure, the so-called "Fat MAn"- So Friday brings the 'Spotlight' that, according to Perlman, now falls on Glenn Agliotti [an alleged drug kingpin, according to SAFM, who is associated in some smeary way with the chief of police in the country] and Mr Selebi [the police chief] .
With the prospect of a juicy distraction in the form of a celebrity murder-Gosh we haven't had a real celeb' type murder since that girl-whatsername-was kidnapped from a university car park a while back, and the "last" socialite Hazel Crane [what! we used to have socialites ] was assassinated on her way to court- Perlman is having a field day.
Delete consciousness rules and no one, other than the brief aforementioned simpatico moment in the Sunday Crimes, has given a second thought to the significance of the tucked away tale of the Oppenheimer's retreat from Anglo. In fact in retrospect the non-announcement of the Oppenheimer sell-off is reminiscent once again with remarkable poignancy of Eliot's catch phrase 'not with a bang but a whimper". Have these rich nobs become so peripheral to our day to day existence that their pending disembarkation leaves us stone cold- or are we just to busy to notice or even care.
Nonetheless it is curious that there have been no public pronouncements from the usual firebrands, of the ilk that reacted so vehemently to the judge's misquotation,So much for misdirection.
So it seems no-one wants to talk much about the news that the Oppenheimer family has apparently sold off one third of its holdings in Anglo-American to an organisation that has the word China in its name. One would have assumed the Liberation lobby would have been leaping for glee that the old imperialist capitalist rich nobs, hated by som many for their 'taking' ways, who exploited the people for the past century or so, are moving on and have 'done' a most intriguing 'empowerment' deal with the new partners for African development who are forging deals all over the continent.
Strange to think that Anglo-American once owned about 90 percent of the listed companies on the JSE. It is certainly a shadow today of that former self-Now it's main operations have moved offshore, the company has morphed like Mr Yengini's sentence into another unanticipated form and the local branch is now rapidly vanishing. Within two years it will have ceased to exist- It has apparently served its purpose and now it is on its way out. Talk is rife that the company is positioning itself as a takeover target.
Presumably, well according to the sub texts in the Crimes article, the Oppenheimer's are selling up their concentrated holdings in our world in order to liberate themselves to play the greater world markets with far greater anonymity than they can manage being the big fish in our local pond. This is a sensible idea. These are global citizens and it is best that like all global citizens they hide themselves in comfortable places where rich people abound and they will not be noticed while they move their money to where it makes the most 'more money' - Regular readers may recollect my blog on going liquid sometime back [Staying liquid 9/03/06] in which I dealt with the trend against owning hijackable assets in a world increasingly mobilising to steal them a la Chavez, or Morales or who knows who may be lurking like the cobra Mugabe in our own shadows. In a world that rationalises the theft of assets sensible people follow Mr Micawbers advice: 'Keep they property portable' [Great Expectations: Charles Dickens]
Maybe no one wants to talk about the Oppenheimer decision to move a chunk of their assets into other extra-territorial venues. It's as your favourite raconteur playboy uncle announces that he's secretly gay [and doesn't seek 'Union']. Nonetheless the truth is they are leaving the party and have been for some time. So why are we hearing no cheers of joy?
And then there was that other piece of news that never made headlines. This according to a brief radio news report was from a conference in Cape Town where, apparently, concerns were raised about the declining levels of foreign investment in the local, recently hijacked, mining industry. [The details of this report were unclear- it is never to easy to get an intelligible news report on UJFM where the music is great, and the station is, as they regularly affirm, young enough to get away with inarticulate and broadly incoherent news reporting.]
This [decline in investment] is understandable. In a world where the rules regarding investments have become flexible money also becomes flexible. Smart money avoids those places where moral outrage rules. Headlines confirming this will continue to play a low profile in our moment to moment existence.
On a flippant note perhaps the Oppenheimers are feeling chastened that none of their garden parties [assuming they still have garden parties] have made the society pages lately [mainly because there is so little 'Society' left in our news saturated town]; and such news is reduced to the occasional byline, unlike Vancouver and Toronto [for instance] where their society pages are the only news worth reading in such places where people 'have it all' and are left to obsess over the occasional pothole and dog litter left on pavements.
So if no one is going to say nice things about one's little soirees then it must be time for a new venue. After all what's the point of having money if bragging about it is so inconvenient.
Now and again I read newspapers from such august places as Vancouver, Auckland and Toronto; the Emirates even and other places in between. I'm always struck by their lack of drama and what drama there is, is worked to death, almost instantly. By contrast we have so much news that most of it is buried instantly-sometimes the most buried stories contain intriguing meat-
I see that the pre-current issue of my Auckland news focuses on public response to an artist's impression of what a new proposed world cup rugby stadium would look like should the Newies ever decide to give it the go ahead. This, and the associated parking issue, will be headline news for months. In Dubai the issue is the quad-bike and the hooligans who wield them, while the Toronto press is mainly concerned with tax issues and the cost of things.
The most serious crime reported in the Toronto press concerns the travails of a man in a Toronto suburb who was relieved of his wallet after being 'swarmed' by a gang of [undefined] men. A week later the headlines are roughly similar, and there is some risidual mumbling about a school shooting that took place months ago... the biggest event in a decade i gather.
Compare this to our own more fecund experience. Headlines of the past week deal with a man convicted of having an undesirable relationship with the [former] deputy president, who goes to jail, and is immediately, and controversially, moved to a more comfortable jail stocked to the gunnels with young boys. Earmark a debate, says Perlman, before his chat show is swamped with urgent matters..
The beginnings of comment on this are snuffed out by routine news of murder and mayhem, as heist gangs roam the suburbs, wreck cars, kill citizen, shoot babies off their mother's backs, burn their enemies [those who guard mobile money boxes] and wipe out any of the forces of good in their paths-These have become 'pop-up' headlines recurring with such frequency that they barely arouse comment. Laced through these is the start of a rape trial involving TWO HUNDRED AND SIXTY ONE COUNTS OF RAPE One would imagine a koke routine at least but- the headlines are barely dry and the story is obsolete- the funeral of a former tyrant barely merits a byline and both pale before the next story to the effect that -
A leading politician, jailed for fraud or something, is enjoying boozy weekends at home and his four-year jail sentence has miraculously morphed into a four-month sentence with time off for good behaviour -I'll bet the system will be inundated with requests from other criminals for such miraculous events to occur to their sentences. We'll earmark a debate, says Perlman, again- more plaintive this time- there are days when Perlman's qualities are stretched to breaking point-. The debate proved 'chattery' when it did happen- It was quickly superseded though-
By midmorning relieved officials could announce the mass slaughter of 17 farm workers whose transport was whacked by a passing train-politicians raced to be first with the usual clutch of empty rhetoric and meaningless promises.
In the middle of all this a report leaks on Classic radio that the richest family in the country has sold off one third of their holdings in the country's biggest company: the business founded by their ancestors back in the nineteenth century. Further news confirms that a fat cat Chinese businessman has bought their shares. A simpatico story in the Sunday Crimes suggests [unconvincingly] charitable motives involving the wider continent.
After this we cut to Parliament where that august institution passes a new Civil Union Bill that bypasses marriage in a controversy loaded half-an-hour-before-tea. The Union Bill enables same sex couples to join together in unholy - well - Union. And while an instant of controversy drips all over the pages of various media someone leaked a few million litres of jet fuel into a bird sanctuary in a wild takeover bid that was immediately ignored because-.
All this news is immediately swamped by a discursive furore that erupts like a hasty storm in a fragile teacup when the presiding judge in an aforementioned corruption trial announces that he has been misquoted and the entire country erupts in fury.
And then while ten debates are roaring away like a series of fast moving volcanoes the news breaks that a prominent citizen has been arrested in connection with the murder last year of a controversial mining figure, the so-called "Fat MAn"- So Friday brings the 'Spotlight' that, according to Perlman, now falls on Glenn Agliotti [an alleged drug kingpin, according to SAFM, who is associated in some smeary way with the chief of police in the country] and Mr Selebi [the police chief] .
With the prospect of a juicy distraction in the form of a celebrity murder-Gosh we haven't had a real celeb' type murder since that girl-whatsername-was kidnapped from a university car park a while back, and the "last" socialite Hazel Crane [what! we used to have socialites ] was assassinated on her way to court- Perlman is having a field day.
Delete consciousness rules and no one, other than the brief aforementioned simpatico moment in the Sunday Crimes, has given a second thought to the significance of the tucked away tale of the Oppenheimer's retreat from Anglo. In fact in retrospect the non-announcement of the Oppenheimer sell-off is reminiscent once again with remarkable poignancy of Eliot's catch phrase 'not with a bang but a whimper". Have these rich nobs become so peripheral to our day to day existence that their pending disembarkation leaves us stone cold- or are we just to busy to notice or even care.
Nonetheless it is curious that there have been no public pronouncements from the usual firebrands, of the ilk that reacted so vehemently to the judge's misquotation,So much for misdirection.
So it seems no-one wants to talk much about the news that the Oppenheimer family has apparently sold off one third of its holdings in Anglo-American to an organisation that has the word China in its name. One would have assumed the Liberation lobby would have been leaping for glee that the old imperialist capitalist rich nobs, hated by som many for their 'taking' ways, who exploited the people for the past century or so, are moving on and have 'done' a most intriguing 'empowerment' deal with the new partners for African development who are forging deals all over the continent.
Strange to think that Anglo-American once owned about 90 percent of the listed companies on the JSE. It is certainly a shadow today of that former self-Now it's main operations have moved offshore, the company has morphed like Mr Yengini's sentence into another unanticipated form and the local branch is now rapidly vanishing. Within two years it will have ceased to exist- It has apparently served its purpose and now it is on its way out. Talk is rife that the company is positioning itself as a takeover target.
Presumably, well according to the sub texts in the Crimes article, the Oppenheimer's are selling up their concentrated holdings in our world in order to liberate themselves to play the greater world markets with far greater anonymity than they can manage being the big fish in our local pond. This is a sensible idea. These are global citizens and it is best that like all global citizens they hide themselves in comfortable places where rich people abound and they will not be noticed while they move their money to where it makes the most 'more money' - Regular readers may recollect my blog on going liquid sometime back [Staying liquid 9/03/06] in which I dealt with the trend against owning hijackable assets in a world increasingly mobilising to steal them a la Chavez, or Morales or who knows who may be lurking like the cobra Mugabe in our own shadows. In a world that rationalises the theft of assets sensible people follow Mr Micawbers advice: 'Keep they property portable' [Great Expectations: Charles Dickens]
Maybe no one wants to talk about the Oppenheimer decision to move a chunk of their assets into other extra-territorial venues. It's as your favourite raconteur playboy uncle announces that he's secretly gay [and doesn't seek 'Union']. Nonetheless the truth is they are leaving the party and have been for some time. So why are we hearing no cheers of joy?
And then there was that other piece of news that never made headlines. This according to a brief radio news report was from a conference in Cape Town where, apparently, concerns were raised about the declining levels of foreign investment in the local, recently hijacked, mining industry. [The details of this report were unclear- it is never to easy to get an intelligible news report on UJFM where the music is great, and the station is, as they regularly affirm, young enough to get away with inarticulate and broadly incoherent news reporting.]
This [decline in investment] is understandable. In a world where the rules regarding investments have become flexible money also becomes flexible. Smart money avoids those places where moral outrage rules. Headlines confirming this will continue to play a low profile in our moment to moment existence.
On a flippant note perhaps the Oppenheimers are feeling chastened that none of their garden parties [assuming they still have garden parties] have made the society pages lately [mainly because there is so little 'Society' left in our news saturated town]; and such news is reduced to the occasional byline, unlike Vancouver and Toronto [for instance] where their society pages are the only news worth reading in such places where people 'have it all' and are left to obsess over the occasional pothole and dog litter left on pavements.
So if no one is going to say nice things about one's little soirees then it must be time for a new venue. After all what's the point of having money if bragging about it is so inconvenient.
Monday, November 13, 2006
The man who complained about home affairs
Home affairs hostage-taker Kabelo Thibedi is apparently suffering from depression. He just received a five year jail sentence for losing his patience after failing for four years to get an identity book and taking some of the non-performing staff at that august institution hostage with a toy gun to make his point.
What a schmuck
According to recent reports Kabelo is a schmuck for not having simply bribed someone to get an identity document. According to a recent TV programme this is easier than applying through the normal channels.
Secondly he must have got the worst legal aid counsel available that day for his trial-Last month a bunch of murderers were fined twenty grand each and received a two-year sentence each for butchering someone-and Kabelo gets five years for complaining too loudly about poor service delivery. Double schmuck.
I'll bet Kabello wont get a nice comfortable personalised cell in a juicy juvenile facility like Mr Shabir Shaik who is guaranteed a supply of youngsters for his fifteen year sojourn behind bars in a private cell...or will it turn out to be fifteen months?. Nor will he be going home for partying weekends with his parliamentary buddies like Mr Yengeni whose four-year sentence has mysteriously morphed into a four-month sentence, soon to be converted to sentence under correctional supervision, whatever that implies.
No. More likely the poor innocent prick will find himself in a cell with 50 convicted rapists, murderers and general riff raff in the University of crime, where he will either learn to kill, rape and pillage or be fucked to death with the now traditional slow puncture. Treble schmuck Kabello.
At least his mother still loves him and will put flowers on the grave dug for him by the skivers at Home affairs.
Perhaps he should get smart and employ Winnie's lawyer and go for an appeal against his sentence-After all, the wonderful Winnie has been patiently awaiting the opportunity to appeal for about five years now against a minor sentence for committing some sixty criminal counts of fraud, deception and who remembers what.
On the other side of the planet the Dalai Lama has called for the Iraqi authorities to leaven their rage at Saddam Hussein and not kill the fellow for having murdered millions. Those of you who read my fictitious tale about Saddam on the run in a reworking of Bradbury's [I think] Great Lorenzo will remember that I doubted that this was the real Saddam: he was alleged to have had so many doubles.
Given the terrible legacy of incompetence demonstrated by the American authorities over the past years of the invasion it would not surprise me to discover thirty years from now that the real Saddam disappeared into Mexico City or somewhere similar and continues his auld ways in a dentists chair or some other place.
It hardly seems fair that Saddam, whoever it turns out to be, should get a quick death for murdering a few million people and destroying the lives of millions more and that poor schmuck Kabelo gets nailed five years and death by slow puncture for complaining too vociferously about a violation of his civil rights by the State.
Wasn't the struggle supposed to end in fair dibs for all?
What a schmuck
According to recent reports Kabelo is a schmuck for not having simply bribed someone to get an identity document. According to a recent TV programme this is easier than applying through the normal channels.
Secondly he must have got the worst legal aid counsel available that day for his trial-Last month a bunch of murderers were fined twenty grand each and received a two-year sentence each for butchering someone-and Kabelo gets five years for complaining too loudly about poor service delivery. Double schmuck.
I'll bet Kabello wont get a nice comfortable personalised cell in a juicy juvenile facility like Mr Shabir Shaik who is guaranteed a supply of youngsters for his fifteen year sojourn behind bars in a private cell...or will it turn out to be fifteen months?. Nor will he be going home for partying weekends with his parliamentary buddies like Mr Yengeni whose four-year sentence has mysteriously morphed into a four-month sentence, soon to be converted to sentence under correctional supervision, whatever that implies.
No. More likely the poor innocent prick will find himself in a cell with 50 convicted rapists, murderers and general riff raff in the University of crime, where he will either learn to kill, rape and pillage or be fucked to death with the now traditional slow puncture. Treble schmuck Kabello.
At least his mother still loves him and will put flowers on the grave dug for him by the skivers at Home affairs.
Perhaps he should get smart and employ Winnie's lawyer and go for an appeal against his sentence-After all, the wonderful Winnie has been patiently awaiting the opportunity to appeal for about five years now against a minor sentence for committing some sixty criminal counts of fraud, deception and who remembers what.
On the other side of the planet the Dalai Lama has called for the Iraqi authorities to leaven their rage at Saddam Hussein and not kill the fellow for having murdered millions. Those of you who read my fictitious tale about Saddam on the run in a reworking of Bradbury's [I think] Great Lorenzo will remember that I doubted that this was the real Saddam: he was alleged to have had so many doubles.
Given the terrible legacy of incompetence demonstrated by the American authorities over the past years of the invasion it would not surprise me to discover thirty years from now that the real Saddam disappeared into Mexico City or somewhere similar and continues his auld ways in a dentists chair or some other place.
It hardly seems fair that Saddam, whoever it turns out to be, should get a quick death for murdering a few million people and destroying the lives of millions more and that poor schmuck Kabelo gets nailed five years and death by slow puncture for complaining too vociferously about a violation of his civil rights by the State.
Wasn't the struggle supposed to end in fair dibs for all?
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