The wise words of former chief justice Pius Langa at a Press Freedom Day function last Monday highlighted the importance of freedom of expression. There are many in our society who do not understand this freedom and its responsibility. There is a need to be patient and tirelessly remind them of the dark days when people were jailed, maimed or killed for speaking their mind.
Today the new jailers and maimers take the form of insulters and jesters who use their positions of authority to intimidate independent thinkers to shut up and tow the line. The new emergency regulations are party discipline, employment strictures and so on. Labels such as terrorist and so on have been replaced by “raving lunatic” as in the latest insult by young Mbalula to elder statesman Kader Asmal — an icon of the struggle.
Other labels such as “baboon” and “dog” are reserved for those who dare point out the rot in the ruling party in particular. Today blacks who are critical are called “coconuts” and in the ANC those that dare raise any matter are labelled as Cope supporters. In the recent Caster Semenya saga the media was even threatened by none other than Winnie Mandela: “We gave you this freedom of the press and we can take it away from you.” This must rank as one of the most arrogant yet ignorant statements from someone who is a hero of the liberation struggle.
It behoves all leaders who are responsible to stem this tendency but quite frankly it seems to me that underlying all these incidents is an intellectual intolerance that is taking root in our body politic and a new celebration for those who are, for lack of a better word, brain dead.
Let’s examine a few incidents that demonstrate this:
Pallo Jordan: A fountain of intellectual depth
During the height of the election campaign, Jordan, the then minister of arts and culture, spoke out against the lack of debate within the ANC. His strongest analogy to demonstrate this terrible situation was to say that to try and debate in the ANC is like a “conversation among the deaf”. This citizen, one of few remaining intellectuals in the ANC, could not have uttered this statement lightly. We all know what has happened to his high office of minister. I believe it is not by accident that he has been placed outside the country where he is obliged to say only nice things about the country and his voice of reason will probably fall silent in national discourse.
Trevor Manuel: Minister par excellence
One of Manuel’s sins was to say the unpopular. Earlier this year, when it would have been seen as “coping” to do so, Manuel had harsh words for the deployment system of the ANC. A song now sung by ANC high-ups. He was quoted by a Sunday newspaper as saying that the trouble with the municipalities is that the ANC insists on deploying cadres who have no clue about running municipalities. We now know what has happened to him since. Arguably Manuel is simply one of the best ministers this country has ever produced. But on the altar of political expediency and what can only be described as a phobia for ideas and excellence, Cosatu has ensured that he is excluded from the economic cluster. As the head of the planning commission, which Cosatu itself argued for, the Zuma administration has demonstrated the height of small-mindedness and alliance sycophancy by excluding Manuel from a place where he has demonstrated excellence. How on earth he will be able to do any sensible planning without being privy to the development of economic planning must boggle any mind.
Joel Netshitenze: A bastion of thought leadership
The ANC’s policy guru for the past decade has jumped ship and it cannot be spun. Let’s cut through the pleasantries, he has more intellectual gravitas than the NEC of the SACP, Cosatu and ANC put together. We know that the most sensible documents and speeches that emerged since Polokwane were under his pen. We know that he was responsible as a key architect of the ANC manifesto as well as a few sensible papers including the Green Paper on planning. This is what has earned him a bowl full of insults from the young communist league which can hardly read or write in serious intellectual terms. How on earth they can blame him for the disastrous failures of the ANC government as a whole is beyond me. Their recent revelation that his departure will allow the ANC to change policy is an indictment of the entire leadership — that they could not out-argue one fellow for all these years, that they wait for him to quit before they can see their arguments win any ground. With this banal attack on him they have demonstrated intolerance for excellence and an empty intellectual culture taking root within an alliance.
Fikile Mbalula
Mbalula contradicted Zuma at the BMF forum two weeks ago about the so called “succession battle 2012″ but was annoyed when someone else showed the same conviction. So to get them “back in ANC line” he decided to insult one of the finest minds of the ANC — Kader Asmal. This is a shame. Mbalula who pulled a hat trick last week by getting the Sakhile mayor fired, setting the terrible precedence of mob rule, is clearly better suited for mobilising the party faithful than the boring work of protecting citizens’ rights under the Constitution. If he has his way the police must open fire at random and Asmal must be dismissed as mad and any mayor could be removed if I organise a few friends of mine to march against her down the street. As if this intellectual lunacy is not enough, the MKVA have moved on from threatening the Western Cape government with ungovernability to wishing death upon those who differ with them. A total shame. And what are we to make of Gwede Mantashe’s foolish statement further making light of the use of death as intimidation?
Enough said. It seems to be in with the biggies in the ruling party that you must be what we used to call … well … a dunderhead. Dare switch on your brain and you will be in the exit lounge.
In your article Mr Tabane(National Spokesperson for COPE)you mentioned the word ANC 20 times and Cope only twice.
Just couldn’t resist.
They are simply verbally banckrupt hence their crude replies. You cannot engage idiots. Malema is the worst but then he did follow Mbalula and learn well from him. These idiots speak on behalf of the ANC. If not then why are they rebuked for what they say? They will never reach the heights of Asmal,Mandela,Biko, etc……..
If there is such a thing as South African ‘Founding Fathers’ Asmal is one of them for his role in drafting our Bill of Rights and being one of the draughtsmen of our Constitution. I do however want to remind you of the incident where the accused – er, I mean Jackie Selebi – trampled Asmal – perhaps the one person in this country who does not see every issue through racially tinted glasses – into the dust like an enraged elephant bull in musht. Why? Asmal had the temerity to suggest it might be fun and educational for black schoolkids to engage in target shooting as a school sport, exactly like kids in the white suburbs.
The ANC has always been like this.
True. But will the masses see it?
It seems to me that the ANC know the calibre of a lot of their voters – who are mainly uneducated thanks to apartheid and our subsequent poor education system. Shout empty slogans, shout about free stuff, shout anti minority, belittle any contrary discourse as racist. Its effective and the fact that their own actions of self enrichment seem to preach the opposite doesnt seem to matter, your popularity rockets. Malema is doing this very effectively.
So when will the educated middle class who pay all the taxes stand up and be counted? I hope soon, cause dunderheads is a great word for the current crop of fools. What must Mandela think of his not very worthy successors. In terms of politicians we’ve gone from caviar to quarter bunny pretty fast.
This article is a beauty piece of work and there should be more voices like this in SA. I say to this author of this article to keep up the good work by showing the people in SA that there are other voices besides Blade and Malema.
Is incoherent spewing a prerequisite to being a Shikota member. Parlo Jordan once opined that the ANC Stellenbosch Conference of 2002 was a ‘historical cul-de-suc’ and represented a qualitative regression to ANC’s progressive elements. Ofcourse, this was the time that our movement was being spiritually soaked in neoliberal trajectory led by the Shikota brigade.
During the election campaign in Cape Town, Jordan compared Shilowa’s intelligence to that of a dead donkey!
Trevor Manuel- the current economic crisis is a scathing indictment of the economic policies that Manuel advocated and persued. Whilst we were deep in recession, Manuel, was still in denial mode. What makes him so brilliant in any case? The jobless growth? The devastation of our textile industry?
Joel Nietetzenze- How do we measure that Joel is more intelligent than the entire NEC of the SACP? This is typical Shikota reasoning. You disagree with someone, and therefore they are stupid, and you are intelligent- though evidence for the assertion is very thin.
Kadar Asmal- Is he not the man who oversaw the disastrous merger process, which has entranched the culture of commodification in higher learning.
Though we disagree with some of Manuel’s positions, we will continue to treat him like a comrade. You don’t seem to have recovered from your pre-election delusion and propaganda that Manuel and Joel are secret Shikota members.
Thanks for bringing this up Onkgopotse. Your observation point clearly the gathering danger leveled at any interllectual in the country. I hope this will in no way limit brave minds to speak truth to power. Name calling is their best weaponry used today, but now what will be the ultimate resort to silence brave young minds. If I have to quote from the great poet Mzwakhe, ” South Africans are not from a jumble sale of wrong ideas” and so forever they will speak their mind.
And still many South African intellectuals keep voting for this Party citing Historical Loyalty… Historical Loyalty is fine if you want a leadership with the intellect of troglodytes to become the norm over time.
Fine minds will be jettisoned or will find the dearth of ideas and marginalisation of thought too hard to bear.
While differing opinions are defined as racist and undemocratic to suit the lazy who do not wish to (or do not have the wherewithal) to debate the issues of the day, we are doomed.
Well, why do u bother about what happens in the ANC instead of concentrating efforts on COPE, if you needed a rallying point to defend certain principles, surely you did not need to find that point in the ANC members,enough said
Excellent analysis of specific cases.
The big picture of future – dream destroyed.
My analysis:
Repeat of 64 yrs Nats power. 1948 + 15 ANC
Nats ruled for 48 years and by 1987 the economy sank with disinvestment.
The end of NP dictatorship. The West turned on us; supported ANC.
Nats gave the best infrastructure in Africa. From a 1st World country – ahead of Australia/ New Zealand who grabbed all our markets.
ANC are hailed Liberators, untouchable and lauded in praise.
15 years later:
Name a Liberator; not a Dictator ?
In 15 yrs infrastructure destroyed,
utilities collapsed,
uncontrolled banisation and borders.
GULLIBLE masses DELIBERATELY illiterate, uneducated ensures state manipulation.
Dictatorship visible.
I predict we have no future as ANC will not honour election loss.
Capital will disinvest in another African “dictatorship.”
China fills the void to rape and give cash for ANC without investing.
AFRICAN METHOD OF TRADE.
The mighty destroyed us – for benefit of the few.
A world record for plundering country’s wealth.
Corruption will NEVER be controlled.
ANC destroyed us faster than Mugabe destroyed Zim.
All people who have skills will emigrate.
SAZIM is alive and growing.
Is the right to reply not part of freedom of expression? Is insulting and be insulted back not freedom of expression. Is being a jester not part of freedom of expression. Stop advocating censorship of views you don’t like, just engage them. We cannot not always quote the bible to express our thoughts. The youth leader of your party has been hauled to a disciplinary hearing for expressing herself. Most of the problems that Mda has had stem from her outspokenness.Your blogs are always riddled with selective morality.People cannot use their past role in an institution to justify their biased utterances.Worship your holy cows but don’t expect others to follow suit,as you’ll be dissappointed. I know this sounds like matric stuff to you.
could not said it any better. now lets wait for the insults….am waiting, still waiting
Fair enough, is cope not faced with similar problems Mr Spin Doctor?
1. Leadership Battle
2. Opposing criticism remember Simon Grindrod and Lynda Odendaal?
3. politics of stomach
Oh on cadre deployment, you were also one the incompetent cadres………Ministerial Spokesperson for various ministers, Head of Ministry of Environmental Affairs, Communications Advisor to the Chamber of Mines Communications Vice President and General Manager at South African Airways as well as Chief Executive of Graphicor and Simeka Communications.
Were you competent?
You’d have to be extremely ignorant to not know what it is that drives most people occupying positions of leadership in the ANC. Ideas/policy matters are just a smokescreen – don’t get me wrong, in the bigger scheme of things they are important. But the number one motivation of most people in the ANC is money, pure and simple. And because political connections are the only way for many to make money, they’re willing to do anything to protect their turf.
Think of a starving mongrel that has come across a meaty bone. You’d be foolish to try and remove the bone from its jaws. Even if under other circumstances the dog would easily give in to your actions, it would never give away its bone without a fight. Thus the best way to respond to those who raise ideological questions is to shut them down precisely because addressing their questions through reasoned and logical debate would expose the vacuity of the minds of our leaders. As a black, I gave up a long time trying to reason with the cadres – long before JZ became the head honcho.
The trouble with all of the ANC so called fat cats and supporters is very simple and this applies from the top to the very bottom.
THEY DON’T KNOW THAT THEY DON’T KNOW”!!
I spoke with a professor the other day and he said to me “The more I learn, the more I understand that I know very little”. An ANC membeship card should not qualify anyone for anything other than to learn how to toyi toyi. They are not qualified to do anything else. Running the country into the ground shows all the above to be true. Peter Joffe.
I like the ANC, but their problem is they insult those with a different and honest opinion. Especially if those people come from within the party. How do they expect instill a sense of respect in the young South African’s minds. I wish they could change and learn to debate issues and not personalise them.
Couldn’t agree more on the article,well written!
The question that has always bugged me is, why does the ANC let people like Mbalula have a go at Asmal, do they not have a backbone, then again the alliance partners always dictate!
I guess if you raise money to build a school or church, it gives one the sanctimonious right to lambaste critics as racist, biased, stupid. However, Julius will remain as much of an enigma as Oprah, just at different ends of a scale.
Well summarised. Many are concerned with the direction the current administration is taking. No better than the previous. Signs of a dictatorship are evident and coupled to the extreme arrogance and gross incompetence our future does indeed look bleek. Those of us who have some assets and skills still have a chance by moving north of our borders but the real victims are those very people who’ve voted in the leadership, who are and will continue to let them down(service delivery). They are the future refugees nobody wants. Million Rand vehicles and prime beef washed down with Johnnie Walker Black for the leaders and starvation and death for the supporters. So sad. So African.
Wow! It’s just like listening to SAFM! Lots of rude insults flying and no one talking any real sense. I’m backing off, as should all of us not directly involved, I think. After all, give it time and it’ll probably implode.
How are you Coping JJ?
Nowaday intellectuals do not hold court and pronounce on any topic, and speak to anyone that is ready to listen to descenting views.
Todays intellectual “meet with triumph and disaster And treat those two imposters just the same”.
Latterday intellectuals allow “neither foes nor loving friends can hurt” them, they “talk with crowds and keep your virtue, Or walk with kings – nor lose the common touch”, and they “keep your head when all about (them) Are losing theirs and blaming it on” them.
(to borrow from ‘If’ by Rudyard Kipling)
Todays intellectuals are not being silenced, they have the freedom of expression. They apply their intellect to matters worthy of intellectual debate, and when they feel that you have the intellectual capacity to comprehend their such intellect.
Keep Coping JJ.
Zuma is the new intellectual.
Yu Suk Big Taim – Cope is not the subject. Cope is not the RULING PARTY.
It has no say in National Policy or Fiscus spending.
ANC does and is answerable to the tax payers who fund their obscenity.
The Nats did it and were masters.
As a Liberal (to my eternal regret) my character was attacked, belittled, insulted. I was called Commie, K-boetie, and did not deserve to live in RSA.
“I must go back to England.
( I am descended from Dutch, Scot & Brit – where do I belong ?)
2009 I am told this again – go back to….
BTW – Never be a Liberal thinker -its a road to nowhere.
I am still that person but reality has hit home. I blow bubbles in a hurricane.
The poorest of the poor are vote fodder and, as the underdogs, are doomed to remain just that – no matter WHO has the power.
Let us debate the subject please – not the author who is giving his opinion.
Argue where his opinion is wrong without attacking his character and his beliefs.
The attackers prove you right, sir, they will not tolerate criticism in any form.
Thank them for confirming your belief about ANC.
Cope needs to get organised fast without power battles – 2010 is a heart beat away. They must get out into the townships. The game has never been more fortuitous.
ANC CIRCUS
I am just wondering about the level of luting, disrespect, intolerance and back stabbing the day icon Mandela dies. Zuma is just lost in the mist. the leftists and the rest of anc henchmen are throwing him left, right & centre. todays ANC is a shame. i am thinking of other icons who have been laid to rest. Hani, Tambo & Sisulu.
@Sipho
Your right to freely express your opinion remains, but are you seriously suggesting that anything that the author of this blog says is untrue? Yes COPE may have problems of their own, but does that take away from the accusations levelled against the ANC big fish? Do you not see the corruption around you and are you not alarmed?
Fish rot from the head down, just like the ANC. It starts at the top and pretty soon the whole thing is rotten. I am not a South African so don’t bother accusing me of being aligned to this party or that. I can read and see for myself the destruction going on around you and I can see the causes. I am baffled why you cannot. Are you in line for a BEE appointment or an arms contract?
One of the pillars of democracy destroyed in Zim was freedom of expression. It is yet to be re-built. Destroy the pillars and you will sooner rather than later, destroy the fabric of the SA economy, while the destroyers will remain at the top of the heap ‘driving million rand vehicles, eating prime beef washed down with Jonny Walker Black label’. Beware of any attempt to limit freedom of expression if you want to hold on to a future for all South Africans
I have some email correspondence from Mr Pallo Jordan that proves him to be a racist and a bigot of the highest order.
Sad to see that he is held in such high esteem.
@ “…underlying all… is an intellectual intolerance that is taking root in our body politic…”
Not intellectual intolerance, but Intolerance of Intellect.
@”…new celebration for those who are…brain dead”.
Rather: Celebration OF those who are brain dead. Agreed. Starting at the top with JZ and ending on the bottom with Malema-Amin.
@”…they have demonstrated intolerance for excellence and an empty intellectual culture taking root within an alliance”.
Rather: a culture EMPTY OF INTELLECT.
The paucity of intellect in the Alliance is both the symptom and the cause of the popularity of such champions of idiocracy as Malema-Amin, the most dangerous man (posing as a ‘youth’) in SA.
@”As if this intellectual lunacy is not enough…”
Rather: the substitution of lunacy in place of intellect!
The combination of bloody-mindedness with inherent lack of intelligence is a recipe for disaster. Not that intellect alone cannot be dangerous. The examples of Mugabe and Mbeki are testimony to the damage that can be done when ego and arrogance replace intellectual honesty in the hierarchy of values in those entrusted with the care of their country.
The shallowness of thought, the ignorance of those with scant experience of the world, an inability to foresee the long-term consequences of precipitate actions taken in the present (nationalising the mines, for example), and a contempt for those with both intellect and demonstrated competence, makes the rise of a dictator inevitable. And President Zuma has chosen him already.
Hi Onkgopotse JJ Tabane
I think Biko said, “I write what I like.”If he was around today then I suppose the ANCYL will want him”killed” Intellectual debate or the extent of it is usaully determined by the leaders of an Institution. So don’t expect much from the ANCYL.Anything of intellectual content is dismissed as “colonial” and any criticism is just “anti- ANC” or anti- Black.
I found Biko,Hani,Asmal,Joel Netshitenze and Palo Jordan intellectually stimulating.One is able to engage their thoughts and arrive at a better understanding of issues in our country. When I listen the the ANCYL I despair. The terrible thing is the Youth League had some great leaders(Madiba being one of them) who are being used to prop up simpletons like Malema and Fikile Mbalula.
I think we have a responsiblity to ensure that these fickle leaders from the ANCYL are not imposed on us.That will remain our challenge for 2012.
@Alan in Botswana. If you see rampant corruption and not report it to the relevant authorities you are complicit in the commission of that corruption.Are you implying that every South african is corrupt, which follows that the relevant authorities are corrupt as well, hence your informers have no one to report to. If we have reached that stage why bother Alan.
Unfortunately, alternative political parties do not provide alternative choices, If COPE, DA or may be IFP could somehow strategically position themselves as real alternative as oppose to being just oppositioin parties, this country would prosper. For instance, Sakhile township was up in flames, it took the ANC to go there and use bulldozer tactics to calm the situation, Why didn’t any of the opposition parties go there and try to understand what the community needed, Do they (opposition parties) need permission from someone to interact with South Africans?. Come election time they will be there promising all kinds of nice governance vissions and the like without demostrating it when needed. For as long as they appoint themselves as ANC critics, ANC will continue its arrogance and intolarance unabted. We hear more about what ANC is doing from other parties than from Media and ANC itself.
@Sipho
Good point Sipho. There isn’t really anyone left in a position of authority that I could reliably report corruption to. Not every South African is corrupt as these pages bear witness to, but I suspect that there are very few ANC leaders who could be described as clean. As for your police service, need I say anything? The scorpions had some successes but we know what happened to them. By all means support the ANC, but please don’t try to make them out to be clean and corruption free. They are not.
What happened in Sakhile (and elsewhere) is a purely ANC matter. Disaffected cadres who failed to get a lucrative post or contract stirred gullible unemployed youths to burn and loot infrastructure. These were not service delivery protests, but a sneaky attempt to replace those who won elected office with cronies who didn’t.
Pigs at the trough spreading muck, and the ANCYL leaders bought it and removed the elected officials from Office. Now what will happen in Sakhile? Unelected and inexperienced officials will attempt to achieve the impossible, ie provide honest and trustworthy leadership to a community ravished by ANC infighting.
Ntate Tabane,those are symptoms of a transformation of the AFRICAN NATIONAL CONGRESS into the AFRICAN NATIONAL COMMUNIST PARTY.It takes “Patronage dependency or Sheer stupidity” to deny that.
I have news for you lot and ANC haters. Ohhh, I hear that only the illeterates vote ANC and it still managed to win overwhelmly. What are the qualifications of those that speak of illiteracy when the ANC is concerned.
The ANC is the only Political Party in SA and will rule the country for the coming 50 years and no one can argue with that. All the mickey mouse parties must moan and fight amongst themselves while the ANC runs the country. Mr. J.S. Malema will be a leader if not necessarily a president and that is clear to everyone with a brain.
Juluis is the only honest politician in the country and will pull no punches in saying what the masses say behind closed doors.
The most interesting thing about this debates is that they are centered on what’s wrong with ANC and not on what we need to do unseat the ANC, the electorate needs someone who can match the ANC rhetoric on bread and butter issues. JJ you presided over a state department as a communication manager but till this day an ordinary south african cannot tell what the hell is the relevance of environmental affairs and tourism to my daily struggles, you spent much of your time responding to the ANC rather than giving alternative policy positions which can take this country forward, i dont think there is anyone in this country currently not thinking of how best to unseat the anc, but because you lot have taken the electorate for granted for the past 15 yrs they have learnt to listen to the anc through the many platforms and structures you created to sustain and hold on to power. It is for this reason that as cope you cannot succesfully dismantle and dislodge this structures. JJ work has to begin to fight the anc where it matters, rhetoric and mass based rhetoric, get off those high walls as cope and start talking to the people, these people were once your constituency, how can you fail to reconnect with them, simple, you have taken them fro granted for too long and now your voices are unheard, your legitimacy will now prevail because of Juju boy,
@Alan in Botswana, me thinks you deliberately take a simplistic world view to reinforce your prejudice. South Africa is doing far better than Botswana in many areas .e.g infrastructure development just to give you one example. Don’t you think maybe Botswana needs a dose of corruption sothat it can develop beyond being just a cattle ranch. I wonder why you care about South Africa so much when you are happy in corrupt free Botswana. I have my guess though.Can you personally be described as clean (you can lie if you want)
@Sipho
Fair point, I definitely do have a prejudiced view of South Africa, maybe even simplistic. And yes, Botswana is not as infrastucturally developed as SA, or as blatantly corrupt. My interest in South Africa stems from a belief that whatever happens there is going to have very real effects in this country. We get everything we consume through your harbours and ports. We even get three quarters of our electrical power from SA. So I do not want to see your country fail or even falter, because it will have disasterous concequences for us up here, and for others to our North. The ANC deserves to rule, but do they have to steal so much of the peoples money and spend it so conspicously on flashy cars and lifestyles; while so many are suffering the concequences of poor governance?
And yes, I’m clean, too clean to do business with my own government, which is becomming increasingly corrupt. I wonder where they are learning that from?
@Alan in Botswana. How about stretching your concern about corruption or public money wastage to listed companies? Has it ever worried you that CEOs of JSE listed companies drive cars that would make the ministers’ newly acquired cars look like scorokoros.Some of the even helicopters and landing pads on their buildings. How about the impact this has on poor workers’ pensions that are invested in these companies. What about the erosion of dividends payable due this extravagance on the part of management. If you are concern about the abuse of public money you should condemn it across wherever it happens.
Sipho, the fact that those companies are still listed means they are not irrepairably mismanaged. In every sphere of governance the ANC has run the state administration into the ground (except SARS!).
If a company is well run, successful, it is not completely inappropriate that shareholders reward the succesful managers with some of the loot by way of incentives. (Although I would point out to them, if asked, that Jesus rode into Jerusalem on a donkey when He could have chosen a golden chariot….)
In a failing state – with a collapsing administration, increasing unemployment and massive poverty and service delivery riots – for politicians to clothe themselves with ostentatious trappings of wealth in the ashes of their incompetence – is simply shameless.
Hey I agree with you Sipho, I don’t condone ostentatious behaviour in the private sector either. Lets not forget that the title of this particular blog refers to the fact that the ANC (and its supporters) must learn to embrace cricicism. It doesn’t make sense to attack people when they point out corruption or wastage of public funds, just to protect the ANC. Surely even an avid supporter has a duty to hold their leaders to account when things go wrong.
@Allan in Botswana & Brett Nortje. You’re missing my point, I have no problem with owners of private businesses spending their own money as they wish. I’m all for private jets and holiday homes as long as there are no public funds involved.But I have a problem where public funds whether through endowmnnet policies, unit trusts, pensions funds are creamed off to fund lavish lifestyle for management. The principle is that government personnel wastage is as bad public companies wastage. Brett I’m a minority shareholder in some companies, and I have never voted for management to buy BMs or Mercs instead of Hundais or Tatas.You can’t condemn the one and condone the other through silence. I haven’t attacked anyone, I’m just pointing out inconsistencies. I hope you’re not gonna rush through this to spot “ANC support”.