So ANC is forever and forever is delayed?

Sometimes I read things on the internet and have a good laugh over the crazy you find. Unfortunately when I realize that the crazy is ‘legit’ I often end up just staring in disbelief at the screen and asking empty air [or the occasional passer-by], ‘How the hell?”

As elections draw closer this seems to be happening more often, so much so that my time set for reading the news has diminished drastically. It’s like watching a movie from five years ago and it’s not even a good one. 

It’s that predictable storyline you could basically know the outcome of. Sure you strongly hope for a different outcome and you watch and wait – maybe this time it’s different. Except as the time ticks away and the same scene rolls by the exact same moments are acted out like clockwork and no matter what you do, you can’t stop watching.

I’ll admit though, 2014’s version of events does have some interesting twists and turns, but sadly corruption remains the constant supporting actor.

The New Year was still shaking off its hangover when our dear president stood amongst the people of Mbombela and was reported to declare ‘that the ANC would rule forever’. I imagine he was handing out some food parcels at the time of that door-to-door campaign in that township in Mpumalanga. Then of course it was reported he didn’t stop there. Well why would he? He was on a preaching roll!

http://www.iol.co.za/news/politics/anc-will-rule-sa-forever-zuma-1.1629708#.UtusaxD8KCi

But it is understandable considering a few days before that there was media chatter floating around of whether or not the ANC could afford to lose him.

http://www.iol.co.za/news/politics/can-the-anc-afford-to-ditch-number-1-1.1628640#.UtukdxD8KCg

My question is, should that really be the only thing worrying for them?

In fairness there are quite a few potholes of issues that could screw them over, but theirs is one that just stands out when you listen to how some of their speeches are tailored. We all knew it was going to happen, so it shouldn’t be much of a surprise, but the ANC pulled the ‘Do it for Mandela’ card. It was probably the last card they really had before going underground dodge, still makes it the lowest level of tact and form of respect I feel the great legend doesn’t deserve. But that’s just me.

But it’s not the man of history I want to focus on. Instead I want to go to those he has left behind.

The Mandela’s have not exactly lived up to the legacy of their predecessor. In fact it would seem almost as if they want to destroy it. Scandals, In-fighting, Grave robbing, Criminal charges… the list goes on and yet the ANC still want to use the name that the majority of the ‘free-born’ children of today know by the faces of the offspring and not by the father?

What message is that? It’s okay to avoid jail and multiple trial prosecutions, if you’re a person of influence?

Mandla Mandela did after all say, ‘It’s all about the money’.

http://www.news24.com/SouthAfrica/News/Mandla-Mandela-Its-all-about-the-money-20130704

Oh but the cherry on top, dripping with chocolate – Nkandla and its ever elusive document.

First it was, ‘sometime’ at the end of 2013 and then it was push back and then it was ‘most likely’ in January of 2014. Slowly the days go by and the distractions of how electioneering goes on and in sometimes ‘goes wrong’ but really just as planned and eventually it’s announced that some officials wanted to have a looksy at the report for some or other reason and once again: the report ‘will’ [apparently] be released on the 9 February 2004, which I later discovered happened to coincide with the day the date of elections would be announced.

http://ewn.co.za/2014/01/17/ANC-disappointed-with-delayed-Nkandla-report

Things get delayed all the time, the truth however rarely does so forgive me for my slight suspicions of this report that’s to be released to the public. Though it would seem the ANC has chosen to deal with this more seriously than I plan to, for obvious reasons.

Aside from finding the delay of the report very ‘concerning’, they have been reported saying many things on how corruption must be dealt with and removed, even if it’s one of their own.

Now doesn’t that sound a bit different to previous tones, ANC rules forever? No..?

Or maybe they do, just without certain individuals at the helm?

But then again, this is all just pre-election talk. So very similar to all those guys whispering sweet nothings to innocent girls, only to leave them in the morning all cold with empty promises… until of course the next time.

Lights, Camera and~ Protest…

January 27, 2014

The young only have their elders to learn from. That is fact.

Whether those elders are their parents, their older siblings, whomever you wish to put there, you will find this a truth that has stayed constant throughout human history. Is it then no surprises that history so often repeats itself?

So I honestly wonder why it is that we keep history books. What are we trying to prove?

As I observe protesters march about blowing that annoying horn, as they dance and sing in grievance into the halls of University of Johannesburg, I try very hard to understand what it is that they think they will accomplish. Of course that’s after I get over the whole mistake of wondering what these bunch of children are doing making a noise everywhere.

Eventually someone was kind enough to beam some light underneath the rock I have apparently been living under and told me that students [or as I now understand it, would-be students] are protesting against the NFS bursary offices who have revealed they are basically broke.

Now my understanding of that office and it’s ever rarely dished out [in my experience] bursaries, is that it is a GOVERNMENT funded type of institute and here is where my confusion comes in.

If this is a government screw-you-I-needed-a-fire-pool situation, then why protest at the university and endanger the lives of the other innocent bystanders? How is that going to garner any sort of return to you as a student?

From what I have seen and heard, things are so bad that even the police are getting involved and UJ’s security is being beefed up more and more. The labs, students use to register and conduct other necessary duties for their registration, are being shut down due to these children [and yes, that is what they are being] and the lines into the finance department are being heavily regulated by a guy who really looks like he wishes he was somewhere else and not there dealing with a bunch of foul-mouthed beings who just stand there and mouth off about how racist the system is.

Well excuse me for stepping up and smacking that race-card to the floor with a sledgehammer.

Speaking as a student, as far as I have gotten in the system with NFS bursaries they are VERY BEE-orientated, how the poor security guys are treated and treating [in kind] the protesters has absolutely nothing to do with that. Two different things!

It angers me when children mouth off like that without realizing the repercussions.

As for the government-funded bursaries that are empty, well at least you seem to have gotten to the ‘notification’ part of that relationship. Some of us get the door slammed in our faces and have to find other ways of funding our education, because we are either not ‘disadvantaged’ enough to be considered or have been classed to have had too many benefits to qualify, all of course, without actually inspecting the person.

But I am biased in this view, so forgive me while I stand neither here nor there in terms of the ever so popular ‘race card’.

But really though, where should the blame lie? It’s not like children learned on their own that yelling until the cameras come and the police round you up, then only ‘they’ will listen.

I cringe at the thought of any news that will come out later where people were harmed due to these protests, that frankly were done at the wrong venue, but hey who am I to say?-

The Value of Education Today

The value of education today

On the 6 January 2014, the basic education department’s Angie Motshekga made what could possibly have been the worst decision in the history of her career. She allowed whoever dressed her to adorn her with a black and white stripped jacket, the kind not so different from those worn by the really old movie villain’s serving time while Elvis Presley sings a little jingle to express their sadness.

Well, that and the whole announcement of the 2013 matric (Grade 12) results of the public sector which has been holding some serious real estate on the headlines of both social media and news stations for far longer than they were even given a set date release.

Funny that, don’t you think?

I like to think of myself as open-minded. So come one, come all: ghosts, aliens, faeries, zombies, magic, and fortune tellers. I’ll take it all in before I go about thinking nothing’s around, better safe than left probed, possessed, vanished or in this case fooled.

http://www.sabreakingnews.co.za/2014/01/06/85-of-private-school-martriculants-look-to-university-as-government-schools-await-results/

In one of the articles I came across in SA Breaking news where they were already covering the release of the ever efficient private sector’s release of results, which proved as always to be outstanding and ‘not to be compared to the public standard’. But aside from covering the success of the private sector and how unfair that side of things always is, I was surprised to find a prediction of the public sector’s pass rate being at 75% [missed it by 3.2%... oh well].

For a department struggling with teacher abandonment, funding mismanagement and lack of care shown to pupils, shown by how ‘eager’ they seem to be when providing them with study materials, I find this kind of prediction a bit of a stretch. Of course you could take into account the students themselves, or at least the ones who stick it out and actually work instead of wait for the government to carry them through, but even then they still have the lack or limitation of resources with a horrible syllabus that doesn’t really challenge or enhance. Couple that with the poor requirement of what’s needed to pass, which doesn’t inspire much desire to even try harder, as well as the growing awareness they are forced to face as they are exposed to the world they face.

Whether it be for further education, immediate job hunting or simply to see what the other side looks like, those children [and yes that is what they still are] with their endless access to the internet or other places they go to are given the overload of information and news that has just grown more louder after the release of the results.

Those students took a peak to the other side and heard what the adults were saying and when the adults say that the value of a matric certificate is practically the equivalent of very expensive tax-funded toilet paper accompanied by an individual that barely has the skills to operate the coffee machine let alone the scanner, obviously the motivation for ‘giving your best’ isn’t really fired up unless you are a true die-hard. 

So where then does that leave such a prediction of 75%?

Okay, granted today’s coffee machines are practically robots that all but converse with you [in full sentences], the fact remains that students are leaving school with deceivingly good marks only to land up in the workplace ‘ill-equipped’ as the business markets would say.

An article in Fin24 addresses these points and even reveals that the Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Sacci) are concerned of the level of standard the students are provided with and who could blame them if our education standard can’t even be compared to an international level, a level we so adamantly want to enter and hold our own on.

http://www.fin24.com/Economy/South-Africa/Matric-not-equal-to-employable-Sacci-20140107

There’s a reason the private schools have exchange programs and we don’t. Any attempt by one of our public schools would only end badly. If it isn’t a straight ‘No' [with possible laughter in the back as all the school council members have a laugh at the syllabus you kindly sent to them to ‘enhance your chances’] and turns out to be a yes due to some favors being called in, these are the most likely things I think will occur to those candidate’s.

The South African candidate will:

•        Burn out trying to compete and just run home, or off a bridge due to the ridicule he’ll have received by his global peers of the apparent same year of schooling,
•        Barely make it, be sent back for his own safety and promptly transfer to a private school,
•         Actually survive, find a way to stay and we are likely never to see that student again.

The international candidate will:

•        If curious and staunch enough, stick it out and make it a holiday experience, a good joke to the folks back home,
•        Get on the first flight out after the first week, having been to school one or two days and deciding seeing the lions were a better use of time. [So, basically (a) with fewer expenses…]

Now these are just my own assumptions and guesses and I would welcome anyone to prove me wrong, because it’s those kids that are our saving grace for the future, the ones who will have the tools to dig our sinking country from the mud. The only question is, will they?

Because I’ll be honest, I wouldn’t, not for a system I was forced to live 12 years of my life trying to cope with. A system that changed more times than the ANC changed its heads of departments, as required by both strong ethical requirement and constitutional law, a system that de-evolved so badly from being about the development of young minds, to that of being a tool for a political game of chess. I’m not hero-material for that.

Sure, given the opportunity I’d sponsor any young mind with the passion and the determination to rise above the raw deal they were given and do exactly that. Give them the chance to prove the Solidarity Research Institute (SRI) local labor markets that even if they view them a financial risk to hire, it would be one with high returns.

http://www.fin24.com/Economy/No-well-paid-jobs-for-matriculants-report-20140106

But the question will always remain, will they dig a failing system that continues to dig itself deeper into ground, stubbornly holding on to greedy, politically-driven goals out? And if they do start, when is enough? Because just like me, the youth that now enters the world that couldn’t give two sticks about their shiny new NSC piece of paper, are also human and every human is known to have their limits.