What on earth is going on in South Africa?

What on earth is going on in South Africa? I have been talking to a friend engaged in the business of promoting tourism who recently returned from the much publicised Soccer venue and I fear for the future of that country.

On his recent trip to Cape Town, the prime destination for tourists, he was meeting with South African colleagues at a pavement café in Camps Bay, play ground of the beautiful people of that fair city. A revolting scene brutally interrupted their discussions, playing out right before their eyes.

A police kombi pulled up outside the café, disgorging two of its five uniformed officers who determinedly targeted a parking attendant tout across the road. The tout was clearly terrified and obviously unhappy about being picked up. But flanked by the pumped up, muscle bound cops who could easily feature on WWE, showcasing the unrivaled Superstars of the ring, the cops marched the undersized “criminal” back to the vehicle, struggling ineffectually. The business group thought nothing of it, probably a petty thief or possibly operating without the license needed to direct parking in the African continent’s St Tropez.

To the horror of my friend, who as a Zimbabwean is entirely justified in being suspicious of any in uniform, the cops forced the suspect into the kombi, where their burly associates awaited them, and all four cops in the back proceeded to beat the living daylights out of the tout, in full view of all at the café.

My friend jumped out of his seat, racing towards the kombi, panicked and shouting at the cops to stop. His colleagues also got up, not to assist the victim, but to drag the Zimbabwean back to his seat, telling him to shut up and stay out of it. The rest of the patrons, ensconced in their Gucci garb, hiding behind dark glasses tittered at my friend’s obvious alarm, sipping on their skinny cappuccinos, apparently unconcerned and choosing to be oblivious to the horror story that had played out before them.

The driver of the police vehicle glided out of the parking and into the traffic, the beating continuing on the back seat as they proceeded.

Today the papers and You Tube are crammed with Julius Malema’s idiotic attack on a BBC journalist. In typical ZanuPf fashion, Malema uses the strategy of attack when put in an uncomfortable position, spouting his “revolutionary” garbage. Malema acts with utter impunity, as apparently do many others in positions of power in today’s South Africa. It seems to me that the vast majority of South Africa’s citizens are playing the ostrich game, choosing not get involved, or to fatuously turn a blind eye to the corruption and violence besetting their nation.

I agree entirely with Yusuf Abramjee, chairperson of the SA press club in his statement that ALL journalists present at an ANC Youth League media briefing should have walked out in solidarity, when the BBC reporter was called a “bastard” by Julius Malema and thrown out of the venue:

“Journalists need to stick together. It is entirely appropriate to walk out should a news conference degenerate into a shouting match and should journalists be sworn at and insulted,” said Abramjee.

Indeed ALL South Africans better stand together soon before their nation declines into yet another failed African state.

The Guardian has more detail on the row between Malema and Jonah Fisher:

The row began when Malema, who has just returned from Zimbabwe, praised Robert Mugabe’s Zanu-PF party and poured scorn on the “Mickey Mouse” opposition. He mocked exiles linked to the Movement for Democratic Change, led by Zimbabwe’s prime minister, Morgan Tsvangirai, for using offices in Sandton, a wealthy suburb of Johannesburg.

“They can insult us here from air conditioned offices of Sandton,” Malema told journalists at Luthuli House. “We are unshaken. They must stop shouting at us. They must go and fight for their battle in Zimbabwe and win … why are they speaking in Sandton and not Mashonaland or Matabeleland?”

As Malema went on, Fisher interjected: “You live in Sandton.”

Evidently stung, Malema replied: “Let me tell you, this is a building of a revolutionary party and you know nothing about the revolution.”

Fisher pressed: “So they’re not welcome in Sandton but you are?”

Malema snapped: “Here you behave or else you jump.”

This prompted laughter from Fisher and others.

“Don’t laugh,” Malema growled.

Fisher commented that the situation had become a “joke”.

Malema then erupted, asking for a security guard to eject Fisher and telling him: “If you’re not going to behave, you’re [sic] going to call security to take you out. This is not a newsroom, this is a revolutionary house and you don’t come here with that tendency.

“Don’t come here with that white tendency. Not here. You can do it somewhere else. Not here. If you’ve got a tendency of undermining blacks, even where you work, you are in the wrong place. Here you are in the wrong place.”

Fisher responded: “That’s rubbish. That’s absolute rubbish.”

Malema continued: “You can go out. Rubbish is what you have covered in that trouser. That is rubbish. You are a small boy, you can’t do anything.”

Collecting his dictaphone and walking out, Fisher said: “I didn’t come here to be insulted.”

Malema bellowed after him: “Go out. Go out. Bastard! Go out. You bloody agent!”

Later, asked to explain why he had ejected the BBC journalist, Malema said: “This is Luthuli House. This is the headquarters of a revolutionary party which has liberated the people of South Africa. It’s not a playground. Here you come, you restrain yourself, you behave in a manner that is befitting of being the headquarters of the African National Congress. It’s not a beer hall here.

“You don’t howl here. Especially when we speak, you behave like you are in an American press conference? It’s not America. It’s Africa. You must behave in an African way. You are in Rome, you do what the Romans do … if you feel offended by the removal of this gentleman, you are most welcome to walk.”

This entry was posted by Still Here on Friday, April 9th, 2010 at 11:41 am. You can follow any comments on this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.