Attempted murder suspect arrested

A 24 year old male from Hlohlolwane who was arrested for attempted murder yesterday is appearing before the Clocoland Magistrate court today.


The suspect was linked to a crime after Mrs. Elsabe Hugo 67 and his children sustained serious injuries during an illegal protest march when they were stopped by protesters in the R708 road running between Clocoland and Marquard.

Police spokesperson Phumelelo Dlamini said the suspect was identified by witnesses as he was the only one who approached Mrs Hugo’s car and ordered her and her children to get out of the car.

Dlamini said Mrs Hugo and his children had to be taken to Pelenomi hospital as they had sustained serious injuries to receive medical treatment.

The decision of the court on whether or not the suspect gets, will be heard later today.

Zuma vs the Spear

In the sound and fury that has accompanied the decision by President Jacob Zuma and the ANC to take the Goodman Gallery to court for displaying Brett Murray painting of Zuma with his genitals exposed, I say Zuma brought this upon himself: the past seven years have been defined by his flaunting of his sexuality in the guise of nebulous precepts of "African culture".


To many people Murray’s painting is an assault on blackness and that “whiteness" still has the upper hand and that it continues to dictate and defile black people in South Africa today.

Did the failure to recognise the deep wounds of our past make us miss a moment in which we could have defused The Spear issue?

Could Zuma, in his anger and his shame, have decided to let the matter go - or was his and his advisers' anger so overwhelming they decided to go ahead?

Could Murray have, before raising his brush, wondered about the hurt that we all still carry inside us?

Could City Press have done justice by not publishing the already painting that was public knowledge or rather go with the masses by saying that the artist ought to be arrested for the violation of human right to dignity?

These are painful matters however, remains the fact that we are a constitutional democracy. We have a president who is deeply flawed at various levels, and that rights and responsibilities are entrenched in our constitution.
These rights and responsibilities will not be tested by normalcy. It is when Murray comes along, uninvited and unwanted, that we have to stand up and contest this space.

With these bags of pain by my side and by the sides of the President’s family and the ANC, I return to our constitution and its Bill of Rights.

We wrote this constitution. We adopted it with Thabo Mbeki's majestic "I Am An African" speech ringing in our ears and hearts. We brag about this very constitution every day.

For us to enjoy all these and to continue to enjoy them, we have to acknowledge that this same constitution will allow things that pain and kick us to the core.

I feel pain, but the painting must stay up, and newspapers must be able to report about it without being boycotted and burnt.

7 arrested for dealing in dagga

Ficksburg police arrested 7 suspects for dealing in dagga on monday (27 August 2012).

Police spokesperson Phumelelo Dlamini says the confiscated dagga weighed 498kg with street value of R69788,60.
It is alleged that this dagga was being transported to North West.
Dlamini says the suspects are charged with dealing in dagga and will appear before the Ficksburg magistrate court tomorrow.

The Marikana Massacre

The Marikana Mine massacre. Workers became fed up with promises of a better wage. They went as far as killing two security guards after management had spoken with them that talks were on the table. Due to the miners rage, the management called the help of the police. Media reports say some miners had guns and were ready for war. Journalists even said they heared a gunshot from the mob. Instead of analysing the situation with care, the police fired back saying it was the only way since their lives were in jeopardy killing our brothers, fathers and uncles. Cyril Ramaphosa is now believed to have put 2 million aside for the burial of our own. The big question: If he had that amount of money packed aside, why couldn't he add it onto the workers wages - the very same workers under his employ?

A Country in Mourning

We demean our common humanity when we resort to violence. We debase our


Constitution when we turn on one another in deadly clashes and we

devalue human life when we snuff it out with such ease.

The past weeks have brought home the horrors of what we believed we left

behind with our apartheid past.

The violent and dreadful crisis at the

Lonmin Marikana Mine in Rustenburg stirred in all of us memories of our

traumatic past where Black life and in particular, African life, was so

cheap and easily discarded. The Lonmin tragedy speaks to the many ills which continue to plague mine workers in the mining industry.

A typical day as a miner at Lonmin mine can be characterized as such:

“Every single day, the drill operators are expected to drill through

30 metres of rock. The tunnel is only about 1.3 metres tall, and so he has to squat and point the heavy drill into the rock and hold it as steady as he can as it thumps

away. He does this for eight hours per shift, in stifling heat,

surrounded only by the din of the drill and the occasional presence of a

shovel.

Almost a third of Lonmin’s workforce is contracted labour, and community demands

for employment have led to protests and unrest. The company was also in

a union dispute, after which Lonmin dismissed 9 000 workers at the

Marikana operations.

It is necessary to contextualize the situation of Lonmin especially in

light of the impending Commission of Inquiry instituted by President

Zuma. It would be necessary and extremely important to examine all

underlying socio-economic tragedy and should be broad enough to encompass all the variables that played such important roles in the escalation of the violence. As a

nation, we have seen and heard many media reports, heard many voices,

felt many emotions and we require resolutions that are not a quick-fix

or merely superficial bandaging of wounds. This inquiry must be able to

give us a comprehensive understanding of how we descended into such

anarchy and how we move forward.

Ours is not to apportion blame on the parties involved. But we should be

worried that 18 years after achieving democracy and laying to rest the

ghost of apartheid, we could so easily regress into possibly the worst

tragedy since the end of apartheid.

We are a country in mourning this week, as we remember the lives lost in

this tragedy. What was a fight for a better wage in order to live a

better life, took a desperate and catastrophic turn resulting in 44

deaths.

Happiness

What is happiness? Money or knowing that you are loved unconditionally regardless of your class or standard of living