Violence continues against women

WOMEN in South Africa continue to receive the short end of the stick as more and more become the new victims of rape, abuse and domestic violence.

A young democracy, but a strong patriarchal society with a liberal human rights policy against convicted criminals, including rapists and murderers, SA is fraught with serious problems linked to domestic violence and the abuse of women and children, with rape said to be the highest in the world.

Since November 25, the country has been campaigning hard during the 16 Days of No Violence against Women.

MARLAN PADAYACHEE, a former member of the Durban-based Advice Desk for the Abused, reflects on some of the issues that made news in the past years.

In this post-modern world, the stoning to death of any human being, and not just a woman, is totally unacceptable, if not downright barbaric. A 31-year-old Nigerian single mother, Amina Lawal Kurami, has a boulder hanging over her head after she was condemned to death by stoning under Islamic sharia law. Her crime? She had sex out of wedlock.

Oil rich Nigeria has just emerged from 15 years of economic sanctions, military rule and dictatorship. Having walked on the pariah promenade like the infamous apartheid state, Lagos has been rewarded with the hosting of the Miss World pageant, a television spectacular that is bound to change the polecat image of this secular country.

Over the years Miss World boss Julia Morley has had to deal with some sticky situations, especially when the old South Africa fielded two candidates. Cape Town’s Pearl Jansen, a coloured, was a compromise candidate who draped the dubious “Africa South” sash over her stunning body. Her white counterpart paraded the official South African ticket on the same world stage.

Decades later, Nigeria, on the threshold of a major sound bite revolution, faces a TV blackout from some indignant contestants opposed to the planned stoning to death of Amina by 2004, once she has weaned her baby.

Inevitably, Nigerian President Olusegan Obasanjo, a former general decorated with the inaugural Africa Peace award in Durban 1993, has been drawn into this shameful scenario and is optimistic the appeal court will quash this sentence. Obasanjo is also a key player in President Thabo Mbeki’s New Partnership for Africa’s Development (Nepad). Already, the ANC Women’s brigade has sent a strong signal to Tuynhuys that our silence will suggest that we condone the stoning to death of women who conceive a child out of wedlock.

Unlike his lukewarm stance on the death of democracy across the Limpopo, the African Union CEO is uncomfortable with the ruling by the Islamic lower court. Also, his MPs have stolen the march on the issue, cajoling him to act decisively and not diplomatically.

Sharia law is a complex issue. Obasanjo’s federal government has opposed the use of sharia in criminal cases. His regime is, however, powerless to act against the country’s mainly northern Muslim states that practice this law that also condemned Safiya Hussaini Tungar-Tudu, the first woman to be sentenced for adultery. Today, she is honorary Roman, after the world raised its voice for clemency and Italy granted her citizenship.

Call it a cattle parade or beauty stakes; the high profile status of Miss World could save the life of a shy, sad-eyed woman dressed in modest Islamic garb. The emancipated beauty brigade is willing to sacrifice fame and fortune so the plight of Nigerian women can be highlighted. The dazzling line-up of swimsuit-clad beauties is stridently putting their best feet forward to stamp out abuse against women.

Ironically, India is still grappling with the gang rape of low-caste women by high caste village overlords and the dreadful dowry system, in which the groom’s family terrorizes brides failing to bring a treasure trove of gifts.

Phoolan Devi became a legend in India and a village folk heroine after she pumped bullets into to high caste men who raped her, one by one, and was immortalized by Bollywood as the Bandit Queen. Her popularity took her to parliament and sadly, also a date with a vengeful assassin.

In Pakistan, six tribesmen who gang-raped Mukhtar Mai, 30, and were acquitted, will now face the hangman’s noose. Her crime? Her brother had illicit sex with a woman from a high status clan.

Lets Blackball Crime

Lets Blackball Crime Before It Whitewashes Us

Expatriates start to lobby for change in SA
Expatriates have put a new spin on crime in South Africa. They have begun doing the right thing from the leftist ranks to raise the profile of a blotted crime sheet that has sullied our spectacular transition to democracy.
Crime has touched the hearts of all races. Almost everyone knows someone who tells a real-life story of a hijacking, smash-and-grab, murder, rape, housebreaking, armed robbery and petty theft.
In the past year, almost 150 police officers have been killed in the line of duty. The daily murder toll of 50 and 350 acts of violent crimes has turned the “Darling of Democracy” into the top three violent-country status behind Iraq and Colombia.
Against this black canvas of shocking statistics, its time to give crime a bad name and hang it.
Under apartheid’s police state, crime was worse, but it just got better under post-apartheid democracy. The legacy of a violent society continues to haunt us.
There are a range of organizations and agencies that have joined the anti-crime lobby, but more action, especially vocally, is needed to collar this scourge that bedevils a highly successful and vibrant society, as epitomised by Johannesburg, SA’s New York.In June 2007, the national annual crime statistics from April 2006 to March 2007, revealed: murder across SA increased by 2.4% (19,202); home invasions up by 25.4% (12,761); motor vehicle hijackings up by 6% (13,599); aggravated robbery up slightly (92,021); business robbery up by 6.5% (6,689); cash in-transit robbery up by 21.9% (467); and bank robbery doubled (129).
Before he was gunned down violently in a Durban restaurant, building contractor Marc Joubert appealed to his expatriate friends to raise their voices against crime. In a knee-jerk reaction, hundreds gathered in London’s high streets to highlight crime, putting a new focus on how to make a powerful statement on this issue through world exposure.
Before that Charles Nqakula, Safety and Security Minister, who told people complaining about the country’s rampant crime rate to “pack your bags and go”, landed in London where he assured expatriate groups that he had declared a war on crime.
In his controversial budget speech spat with opposition MPs in Parliament who had been vocal about SA becoming the crime capital of the world, Nqakula said: “The whingers )complainers) can do one of two things. They can continue to whinge until they are blue in the face … they can be as negative as they want to … or they can simply leave this country."
Apologetically, he later straightened the record: "I must admit I was a bit surprised when what I had said and done had been brought into the public domain in a way which was not intended by me in the first place."
In the UK, he said the legacy of apartheid, widespread poverty and social breakdown had resulted in SA experiencing one of the highest rates of crime in the world.
“I do want to admit right at the outset that the crime levels in South Africa are high. Crime has fallen but not as dramatically as we would have wished.”
According to SA diplomats, 400 000 Britons visited SA every year and all, but a handful emerged unscathed.
The clarion call, therefore, is for all stakeholders to raise the ugly head of crime at a higher pitch.
With this in mind, I joined the KwaZulu-Natal MEC for Community Safety and Liaison, Bheki Cele, on some of his out-of-town anti-crime road shows that brought me face to face with Safety and Security Minister, Charles Nqakula.
Speaking to stakeholders, police and community near the Mozambican border recently, where ordinary folks have become victim of the cross-border activities of gangs and thieves, the Minister preached a different gospel from his parliamentary parlance, instructing his police to adopt a “shoot to kill” attitude if they reasonably believed they were going to be shot at or attacked by a suspect. He is not mincing his words.
Government alone cannot fight crime. The people can help blackball the monster.

Marlan Padayachee is an independent freelance journalist in South Africa. This article was first published in Juluka in the United States and www.reporters.co.za in South Africa.

Movers and Shaikers in the New South Africa

Post Apartheid Economy
The Movers and Shaikers


By Marlan Padayachee and Farhana Ismail

Mention the word Shaik to the average South African and an image of shadowy political operators insinuating themselves into the very fabric of South Africa's political elite emerges.
How did the Shaik brothers from middle-class Reservoir Hills, Durban, end up with massive influence in South African politics? They are well connected, are on every elite guest list and are close friends of deputy president Jacob Zuma. The family name has been splashed on newspaper front pages over the R66 billion arms deal and other political scandals.
They take centre stage in politics despite bad press which implies two of the brothers, Schabir and Shamin, known as Chippy, have hijacked the democratic process for their own ends. Of the brothers, it is Schabir who is at the heart of the scandals which are tearing the family apart.
In spite of these accusations, even the Scorpions don't have enough to nail the brothers on the arms deal.
It was claimed in a report two weeks ago that Schabir gave money to former transport minister Mac Maharaj. Zuma was also alleged to have received money from Schabir.
Questions are now being raised about this information which is in the possession of the Scorpions since they seized documentation from Schabir's office two years ago.
Second eldest brother Yunus, a lawyer and part time commissioner in the Commission for Conciliation and Mediation in Johannesburg, said: "Schabir was never questioned about this. Why is all this information being exposed now?"
He believes the claims about Schabir, chief director of Nkobi Holdings and director of African Defense Systems, one of the companies which benefited from the arms package as a sub-contractor, constitute a "firm intention to embarrass our family and never to prosecute".
The Scorpions are investigating a single charge against Schabir - contravention of the Protection of Information Act, relating to documents about the arms deal - a year after he obtained the tender.
Reeves Parsee, acting for Schabir, said: "My client faces a single charge with a maximum fine of R10 000. We challenge the constitutionality of the search warrant the Scorpions used to enter his premises. If the information links Schabir to corruption, why has he not been charged?"
Chippy, who was on the arms deal negotiating team, made no secret of the fact that his brother was involved in the arms industry. Third brother Mo, now special adviser to foreign affairs minister Nkosazana Zuma, was previously SA ambassador to Algeria. The youngest brother, Faizel, a businessman, and their sister, Rehana, are not involved in politics.
Said an ANC activist: "During the struggle days when things were hard and we had no money or nowhere to hide, you would turn to the Shaiks."
Mo, Chippy and Yunus were political activists. And it was their activism and networking in the ANC intelligence community that brought them closer to the political elite.
Schabir was streetwise, smart and a businessman who made sure the struggle gave him rewards.
"When exiles, such as Zuma, started returning, it was Schabir who integrated them," said the ageing activist.
"The Shaik brothers made their presence felt by helping ANC returnees, setting up companies for them. The rock was set and payback came after 1994."
It was their father Lambie Rasool Shaik (popularly known as Rasool), an upholsterer and shopsteward with the then Leather Worker's Union, who introduced the brothers to politics.
They formed the Mandla Judson Khuzwayo unit - and began building ANC support. Mo was the mastermind in the province's intelligence network. Frequently the brothers spent time in detention.
Maharaj and Ronnie Kasrils, minister of water affairs and forestry, were among those smuggled into the country by the Shaiks.
Now relatives are convinced the Shaiks are being used as pawns in a bigger game of political cat and mouse.
Mo claims "right-wing elements" are using state resources to embarrass the government and his family.
"They touched my family and that is OK. But now they have touched the deputy president that is not OK. Do you not think that if there was evidence after such a long investigation, they would have proceeded with the trial?
"Just as we did in the case of political detainees, we call on the Scorpions to prosecute or exonerate."
Yunus adds: "This time we are being embarrassed and money is tainting our name.
"Everything is being linked to the arms deal. Yes, there were payments Schabir made. He managed the finances of Zuma and other comrades. There is a fair explanation for everything. We are willing to co-operate for good governance. But we are being burnt at the stake.
"You will notice that every time a scandal breaks it happens just prior to an ANC congress," said Yunus.
Sipho Ngwema, the public face of the Scorpions and spokesman for the National Director of Public Prosecutions, said: "The probe continues."
With acknowledgements to Farhana Ismail, Marlan Padayachee and Sunday Argus.

South Africans are upbeat

Be Happy, Don’t Worry
People are Proudly South African in the Old Home Town
By Marlan Padayachee


WORRIED about the old country or home town? Don’t worry, be happy because 95% of South Africans are upbeat about how democracy is reshaping their lifestyle and the landscape.

A recent survey conducted reveals that the overwhelming majority of citizens are proud to be South African. The nation prefers democracy as a governing system, saying it will ultimately develop a positive future for the world’s youngest democracy.

Thirteen years later after founding president Nelson Rolihlahla
Mandela cast the first all-race vote on April 27, 1994, heralding the birth of the new South Africa with its rainbow flag, South Africans, according to the latest sample of 3 000 randomly selected interviewees, 19 out of every 20 said they “very” or “quite proud” of their country.

This show of optimism in a country battling the post-apartheid pangs of crime, domestic violence, poverty, unemployment, illegal immigrants, HIV-AIDS, racism, nepotism, cronyism and the high cost of building materials and telecommunications ahead of the 2010 World Cup Soccer, reached the public domain on the eve of Freedom Day.

According to Mari Harris of Markinor, these results were extrapolated from the World Values Survey, conducted every five years, for the Centre for International and Comparative Politics at the University of Stellenbosch.

Apart from the proudly South African feedback, more than nine in every ten respondents across all population groups were also strongly committed to the country: (Blacks 96%, Whites 92%, Coloureds 98%, Indians 92%).

Harris said: “The overall result (95%) is on the same level as that measured in the 2001 World Values Survey, although the proportion who are “very proud” increased from 72% in 2001 to 78%.”

However, the proudest people came from the Northern Cape, Limpopo and the Free State.

In an overall sample of 95%, the ANC (98%) eclipsed the Democratic Alliance (94%) and Inkatha Freedom Party (94%) were among the three biggest political parties’ supporters who revealed that they were “very and quite proud” to be South African. South Africans gave apartheid a rating of one (very bad) and ten (very good) for democracy as the system of governing the country and a future political system on a 10-point scale.

Black South Africans, who form the bedrock of support base for the ANC, appear to be the “most positive” about the current and future political systems, while their White counterparts were the “most negative”. The three minority population groups were more positive than negative, averaging more than 5 out of 10.

Black South Africans who form the bedrock of support for the ANC appear to be the “most positive” about the current and future political systems, while their White counterparts were the “most negative”. The three minority population groups are, however, more positive than negative, averaging more than 5 out of 10.

When it comes to trusting each, South Africans need to work on their interpersonal relations. On a 10-point scale, 1 meaning “most people can be trusted” and 10 meaning that you “need to be very careful”, the total score was 7.7 out of 10 and with results revealing that older people were likely to be slightly more trusting than others.

With foreign investments flowing, South Africa is on a roll ahead of the happy days as police collar the criminals and the brain drain reverses its ugly head.

Marlan Padayachee is a freelance journalist and independent political and social commenator who heads GreenGold Africa Communications in Durban, South Africa.