A QUIZ FOR WOMEN’S LEAGUE ACTIVISTS

I WISH to send this note to all activists of the ANC Women’s League (ANCWL), specifically those in leadership positions who claim to champion women’s rights.

Do you remember a woman called Khwezi?

What did you do when Khwezi was violated, insulted and vilified by your own comrades, because she laid charges against Jacob Zuma for rape?

What did you do to address the issue with Zuma as your colleague in the ANC?

How did you contribute to discussions in the ANCWL on the issue?

Khwezi’s father was your comrade and brother in the struggle. What did you do to support his family during this ordeal?

Why did the ANCWL not support Khwezi the same way they supported the Steenkamps during the Oscar Pistorius trial? Did you raise these double standards in the ANCWL? If not, why not?

If you are a mother of a girl-child, how do you explain your position, your omission and/or commission?

Why do you think South African women should trust you to protect their mothers and daughters ?

If Khwezi was your daughter, would you have behaved the way you did?

Magilogilo Cele

SO THE hooliganism permeating our society has now reached the mayoral chambers at council meetings in Joburg, Tshwane and the Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality in Port Elizabeth.

What a bunch of sore losers the ANC are. They denounce the actions of the EFF in Parliament, and now they do the same thing, only with more violence.

They are no better than the destructive “students” who resort to violence and lawlessness, with no respect for people or property, and with nothing better to offer.

It’s laughable that their excuse is that “they were just defending themselves” when approaching the Speaker.

Perhaps a quote from Nelson Mandela will help: “If you want to make peace with your enemy you have to work with your enemy. Then he becomes your partner.”

Sound advice! Will they follow it? I doubt it.

JR Whitlock

THE National Prosecuting Authority has decided to withdraw fraud charges against Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan unconditionally. This fiasco has cost the economy over R50 billion.

The Gupta debacle drives home the fact how seriously the political process can be manipulated by money. When the purchase of special access and influence becomes a feature of our democracy something has clearly gone awry.

Politics in South Africa is a dirty game because, in the pursuit of the holy grail of politics (government positions), the megarich use every trick in the book and every means at their disposal to get what they want. This deadly embrace is the reason why corruption is inevitable and endemic.

Farouk Araie

TOM CRUISE tells us that he owes his success and achievements to Scientology, what he calls this “beautiful religion”.

He states that L Ron Hubbard, an ex-science fiction author, avers that “billions of extra-terrestrials” were sent to Earth by Xenu, the dictator of the Galactic Confederacy – made up of 26 stars and 76 planets including Earth – who then destroyed them with hydrogen bombs.

The aliens’ souls attached themselves to chosen humans, known as thetans, who would eventually develop extraordinary abilities, allowing them to be termed “operating thetans”.

It would seem that Tom Cruise regards himself as one such. Scientology, being denoted as a church, had its roots in tax evasion. Despite its practitioners wearing clerical garb there is nothing holy or clerical about them.

I joined their “cult” many years ago and soon became disgusted with their methods. They exploited people badly in need of psychiatric care with assurances of an end to their problems – at a price, of course.

During the six months I was with them I never once saw them fulfil these promises.

We actually gave unpaid (to us) “counselling” to very traumatised and vulnerable people using methods and equipment provided by Scientologists.

I know of much harm done to these unfortunates on the basis of such “counselling”.

Don Krausz