[DEBATE] : Vodacom megascam

[Gus Gosling]

Dominic,
Is your take on Murphey's judgement based on your deep knowledge of South
African law?

BTW, your know-nothing understanding of the law aside, COSATU's analysis of
the situation is mostly correct. The sale is an absolute disaster (though,
I'll allow myself a bit of schadenfreude --- it will kill off the beast that
is Telkom once and for all. How I shall mourn.).

2009/5/18 Dominic Tweedie <dominic.tweedie at gmail.com>

> 'Muphrey's is not a judgement of law, but only "analysis". This judge
> has left his legal training out of it, and opted to elect and to
> deploy himself as an "analyst" or an "economist". Murphey's law is
> anything but law. It is only the lowest common denominator of the
> fickle mass-media pundits. We all know how shallow are such
> judgements, how unreliable they are, and how foolish it is to stake
> anything at all on them, let alone tens of billions of rands and the
> country's communications system.'
>
> The above is a slightly abridged version of a post I made to Ray
> Hartley's "Wild Frontier" blog, which is his editorial in today's
> Johannesburg "Times". It has not gone through yet. I don't know why,
> but another of mine did go through and one of a Tebogo guy which is
> what I was picking up on. If anyone else wants to get stuck in on this
> Times blog, the URL is:
>
>
> http://blogs.thetimes.co.za/hartley/2009/05/17/vodacom-deal-fiasco-challenges-zumas-financial-team/
>
> For overseas debaters, the Johannesburg Times posts all its articles
> with Comments facilities underneath. Very "progressive" as they say,
> even if the paper's politics are otherwise of the most reactionary
> possible kind.
>
> It's a good place to practice tangling with the bourgeois rabble.
>
> Ray Hartley's editorial is false in at least two other ways. It casts
> the COSATU/ICASA action as a sudden last-minute surprise with no
> motivation, therefore suspected of being "politically motivated". This
> spin is only possible because Ray has blanked out the Communication
> Workers Union's previous court action, which failed, leading to the
> federation taking up the case and arguing it on the public
> consultation grounds.
>
> The other thing that Hartley blanks out is the unearned R 6 000 000
> 000 (yes, that's six billion) going to a bunch of people who happen to
> be the Polokwane losers and core leaders of COPE. Peter Bruce, editor
> of the Business Day, mentions this in his "Thick End of the Wedge"
> column this morning. Naturally he frames the story as an attack by the
> Zuma-ites of COPE, as opposed to a raid by the COPE crowd on the
> people of South Africa.
>
> The class struggle continues in new conditions!
>
>
> Domza "Aux armes!" VC
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