Kill 'em all, says Sutcliffe... Beware! Anti-democratic vandals on the loose.

Some stories just go from dumb to dumber. Best of the street name changes is S'bu Mkhize, who was 'a combatant young lion who sacrificed his life for our freedom and was killed by the police.' The Murder and Robbery Unit, to be precise. The council report doesn't mention that his mother was on the name-change committee, nor that the TRC found that all of the crimes he was implicated in occurred after the ANC officially laid down arms. Which rather implies that he was shot for murdering and robbing, but never mind. Also changed has been Essenwood Road, named after a tree (but then, we all know how racist trees are. Bastards.) A spate of vandalism continues, with people blacking out the road names as fast as they're put up. City manager Sutcliffe says its anti-democratic, and hopes "the community [is] not supporting lawlessness". Although, of course, if the community supports it, it is democratic, right? Still, "democracy is about all having to accept the end result"; or, to put it another way, about accepting Sutcliffe as lord and unquestionable master of all Durban. Ho hum. http://blog.ecr.co.za/newswatch/wp-content/uploads/2008/08/street-sign.jpg http://cache.daylife.com/imageserve/05MZfs3bXfbwo/340x.jpg (attached jpg) Freedom of speech OK in army, not in university. All that stands between SA being taken in the same direction as Zim by the ANC is the constitution. It guarantees all kinds of things that stop power-hungry maniacs in their tracks. One of these things is that you have a constitutional right to criticise your boss, established by cases in the SANDF - hardly the most free of environments. Which is what two lecturers at UKZN did; the Vice Chancellor suppressed a report on academic freedom at the senate, and they told people about it. And are now being disciplined for bringing the institution (i.e the vice chancellor) into disrepute. The FXI wrote a statement, pointing out that "Academics should be encouraged to play a public intellectual role, not punished for it. It should be a condition of service." The pro-VC, Chetty says it's incomprehensible that the FXI dont accept there are limits to the freedom of expression within institutions. Presumably because there aren't; I mean, it's not like you can go round calling your boss a cunt; unless he is, in which case you're protected by law for doing so. The premier university of African scholarship indeed... Link to FXI statement: http://www.fxi.org.za/content/view/204/1/ http://www.menassat.com/files/images/censorship2.jpg http://www.canadianconstitutionfoundation.ca/files/graphics/Freedom%20of %20Expression.JPG A hero in an age of villains You know, I'd almost given up entirely on local politics, what with the rampant corruption, lack of accountability, and the like. Still, there's always hope; Mescheck Radebe, for example, is such a good man that he's probably going to get shot in the face. He took over the department of social development last year, you see, and has since been gathering a case file on huge corruption; R3m of computers paid for and never delivered, R17m paid in tax to a company that's not registered with SARS, security companies not registered with the regulatory authorities... it's an impressive list. Sensibly, no names are being released until arrests and charges have been made.

Sure, very few of the big boys really running these things will go down - seeing as how they're right at the top of the council and business community and all - but it does my heart good to see someone in power who actually doesn't see stealing money intended for housing and infrastructure from the poor as a good thing. Perhaps hope isnt all that stupid, after all... http://www.cando.co.za/dosd.gif http://bp2.blogger.com/_DSJ9Aa8JEtw/RsrNzjyE2MI/AAAAAAAAAd0/WozxxTX1W8A/s160 0-h/24mec.jpg