[DEBATE] : (Fwd) Barnes: 'Zuma a big step to the right'

[Dominic Tweedie]

I agree with everything you have written, Hanif.

I have one query on a point of information: What is the status of Schabir
Shaik's appeal at this time?

I am asking because I need this information for my own writing about the
case. I have been under the same impression as yourself, i.e. that the
appeal is still alive, but some stuff I read today has put the matter into
quesiton.

Please advise.

Dominic Tweedie.



On 27/12/2007, hanif manjoo <hola at absamail.co.za> wrote:
>
>
> The transgressions of Zuma which Barnes refers to needs some explanation.
>
> There are two distinct aspects to this- the rape and the Shaikh connection
> (a convicted fraudster!).
>
> 1. The Rape Issue
> >From what I recall, Jacob Zuma was charged for the alleged rape of a
> woman;
> on that charge, he was acquitted.
>
> However, there has been a major media (and religious) hype about the
> complainant being HIV/AIDS infected and the parodies about the shower
> after
> such sex.
>
> Herein-
> (i) Was Zuma told beforehand by the complainant that she was infected?
> (ii) At no time during the trial was evidence of the complainant's status
> submitted or examined, except her own claim.
>
> So, how does anyone judge Zuma for having slept, knowingly, with an
> infected
> female without proof thereof?
>
> 2. Fraud Charges
> For almost 7 years, the National Prosecuting Agency (Scorpions) is
> formulating charges against Zuma. To date, he has not been judged and
> found
> to be corrupt.
>
> In terms of due jurisprudence (from a layman's point), I cannot reconcile
> a
> judgement whereby a judge finds an accused that stands before him
> (Shaikh),
> guilty together with a third party (Zuma) who is not on trial before him.
> Bear in mind also that Shaikh's case is on appeal.
>
> Finally, I was a business partner with Zuma's late wife Kate in a travel
> agency. Before the charges that were brought against Shaikh and Zuma, I
> was
> questioned by the Scorpions at their head offices.
>
> I was asked who financed the travel agency. I was told that Zuma was being
> investigated on orders from the top. On disclosing that it was businessman
> Vivian Reddy, they were surprised. They then virtually inveigled me into
> incriminating Zuma with Shaikh- I told them that I knew nothing untowards.
>
> However, as a member of the Gauteng Gambling Board during the casino
> licensing process, I was approached by an applicant and offered a
> substantial amount of money to support their bid. I was told that Mrs
> Mbeki
> (Zanele) was a fronted-partner in the bid.
>
> When I asked them to investigate this, they turned a deaf ear.
>
> Now, having been there, I am fully entitled to wonder if this whole
> strategy
> of denigrating and harassing Zuma at every twist and turn... is not a
> well-planned conspiracy, going back years?
>
> Whether he goes left or right; are the critics are right?
>
> Hanif Manjoo
>
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Patrick Bond" <pbond at mail.ngo.za>
> To: "debate at vodamail.co.za:SA discussion list" <debate at lists.kabissa.org>
> Sent: Tuesday, December 25, 2007 8:40 AM
> Subject: [DEBATE] : (Fwd) Barnes: 'Zuma a big step to the right'
>
>
> > (I thought the Zuma-Clinton comparison is better than Bush. But Terri's
> > right on target with good 'ol boy critique.)
> >
> > Terri Barnes
> > Associate professor of history at UWC
> > Just a ?good ol? boy? from Nkandla
> >
> >
> > In December 2000, I stayed up every night watching CNN as the challenges
> > to George Bush?s election never quite achieved tidal-wave proportions.
> > They ebbed away when Al Gore finally quit. In South Africa people shook
> > their heads: ?Do the Americans understand what they have done??
> >
> > Now the shoe is on the other foot. In December 2007, people around the
> > world are asking the same thing about South Africans. How on Earth has
> the
> > ANC elected Jacob Zuma its president?
> >
> > Zuma is not a blathering idiot like Dubya, but there are many
> similarities
> > between them. Americans elected Bush in a reaction to the (weak) social
> > democracy of Bill Clinton and in revulsion against his liberal personal
> > habits. Bush?s election represented a clear turn to the right, and Bush
> > himself was only a talking head for the forces to which he was indebted
> > and dedicated: the silent American machine of big business, the old
> boys?
> > club and old money.
> >
> > Bush, however, appealed to ?the average American? because he was, in
> > American slang, a ?good ol? boy?. That?s a phrase from American South
> and
> > it means he is one of us. He?s a white guy who knows that the victory of
> > the North in the Civil War was a travesty, and he values the same things
> > we do: Mom, pecan pie and the National Rifle Association (NRA).
> >
> > The fact that George Bush comes from old, old money and is as firm an
> > establishment figure as they come didn?t bother his support base. Who
> > cares about all that? He?s someone to whom we can relate!
> >
> > As Bush did with Clinton, Zuma has benefited from a popular personal
> > revulsion with Mbeki: his distance, his imperiousness, his sterility.
> > Zuma, on the other hand, incessantly displays manly traits: possession
> of
> > women, possession of children, that belly and the deep lovely singing
> > voice raised in constant defence of the local version of the NRA. He?s a
> > man?s man! And he has drawn the wool over people?s eyes with the same
> kind
> > of evasive, fake folksiness that Bush deployed with such success in
> > America.
> >
> > Zuma isn?t even a populist. He?s a good ol? boy from Nkandla who will be
> > the front man for a set of business interests from which the public will
> > avert its eyes. People starved for respect and friends won?t want to
> know,
> > and the media are too inept to notice. The old white-tradition media
> will
> > go on narrowly about Zuma?s lack of education and his rape and
> corruption
> > problems. What they seemingly will never understand is that a large
> > percentage of the population ? the very same percentage that they
> trampled
> > on happily and refused to educate during apartheid; what a coincidence ?
> > doesn?t care about any of that. Do they care about Winnie?s
> > transgressions? Zuma?s alleged transgressions? No. Not a damn. Who cares
> > about all that ? they are people to whom we can relate. And they seem
> > actually to like us (unlike the white establishment, which generally
> still
> > dips itself in disinfectant after every encounter).
> >
> > The defining characteristic of American life is total amnesia. It?s a
> > nation (with exceptions, to be sure) of people who live in the present
> > maxing out their credit cards. The movie where Drew Barrymore loses her
> > memory every night and wakes up every morning to Adam Sandler?s cue
> cards
> > reminding her who she is: a potent symbol of modern American life.
> >
> > Under the impact of an unrelenting dose of 13 years of genuine and
> wannabe
> > American TV blasting into every South African home that has achieved
> > electricity, one sees the blank fog of amnesia rolling thickly over the
> > Mzansi brain as well. Is there any other way to explain how the national
> > media can call Zuma a left candidate when one of his happiest
> > Johnny-come-latelys was the Grand Poobah of the local version of The
> > Apprentice a few years back? Money, money, money, money? Money!
> >
> > The Bush-Zuma comparison is made complete by Gore and Mbeki ? two highly
> > intelligent, bloodless, stiff men. The camera is not their friend. We
> can
> > thank our lucky stars that the Mbeki camp didn?t roll out a long,
> > passionate smooch for the president with Mrs Mbeki on national TV as a
> way
> > of trying to prove his latent sexiness, the way the Democrats tried and
> > failed with Al and Tipper. Wouldn?t that have been something.
> >
> > To conclude: Jacob Zuma is a big step to the right for South Africa. His
> > allies in Cosatu and the SACP have by definition also taken a big step
> to
> > the right. Zuma and his camp: that is what the real right in South
> Africa
> > looks like. To non-aligned people hoping to now get themselves and their
> > children out of the sand, out of the mud, out of the rain, out of the
> > public hospital queues, out of the sewage ? don?t hold your breath. To
> the
> > Yengenis and Agliottis of South Africa, on the other hand: roll right up
> > to the trough in your 4?4s.
> >
> >
> >
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> DEBATE mailing list
> DEBATE at lists.kabissa.org
> http://lists.kabissa.org/mailman/listinfo/debate
>
>


-- 
Blog at: http://domza.blogspot.com/
Communist University web site at: http://amadlandawonye.wikispaces.com/
Subscribe for free e-mail updates at:
http://groups.google.com/group/Communist-University/
Library of documents (CU "CD") at: http://cu.domza.net/
dominic.tweedie at gmail.com