Do you believe anything Thabo Mbeki says? I don't. He's the man who 'acted as soon as I knew' about the charges against National Police Commissioner Jackie Selebi. (Currently holidaying at our expense.)
Nyet! (as his confidant Manto would say), he knew a year before as everyone now knows. (She mutters in Russian when under duress, you'll recall.)
That means that President Mbeki lies to us and lied to the religious leaders he urged a year ago, to 'trust me'.
The Deputy President, Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, also lies. She had the bare-faced gall to excuse the power cuts during her homily at a Johannesburg school - delivered by candle-light - by claiming our economic growth had outstripped expectations. [Click on 'continue reading' below to read what she said]
Que? Or should that be 'Vot?' Does Thabo and does 'Phumzie', as the Citizen newspaper persists in calling her, think we're total idiots?
This is a case of 'cry wolf' once too often. So when Mbeki, Mlambo-Ngcuka or that dolt, smart-Alec Erwin open their mouths, all they do is testify to the veracity of the old saw which goes: 'How do you know when a politician's lying? Answer: 'When his mouth is moving.' Right....having cleared that up.
It doesn't really help for anyone to 'give assurances' that all will be well, power-wise for 2010. All of their assurances to date have come to nought. In fact the outcomes have been way worse in blackout terms than any of them, or we, could remotely have imagined.
Alec Erwin must be on hallucinogenics. First, in his economics 101 bluster, he claims that the current power problems 'won't affect the economy'. A junior-school kid reading the newspaper knows that just one affected mine is losing R 100 million A DAY. Thank God this jackass isn't Minister of Finance.
Now he says (see the second yellow bit in the article) "By 2010 there would be a far more comfortable margin between supply and demand." From where, precisely, Alec? The savings we might effect (I switch off my geyser for 20 hours out of 24 and I'm a minority) - even if we ALL got into the act - will never be enough to offset the urban growth, business development and industrial expansion until that date. Even if everyone heeded the Eskom FD's Pollyanna notion, and canned any development until 2013.
As for Sepp dearest, 'Blattering' on about South Africa being 'Plan A, Plan B and Plan C' for the FIFA
Soccer World Cup in 2010 - yeah, right. Wait until his ample gelatinous butt is on the line and international soccer bodies are baying for his blood. Why? Because he still wants the tourney to go ahead in what may literally then be 'darkest Africa'. He'll no doubt whip out Plan D, for which read 'dodge', and we'll find some other country had a marketing plan in the wings as 'back-up'.
Bottom line: Mbeki, Mlambo-Ngcuka, Blatter et al should just shut up as the Spanish King Juan Carlos would say to Hugo Chavez. Whatever they now say, they're just utterly unbelievable. They have no credibilty left. Only the most naive will even bother to give their belches of hot air the time of day. 'Reputation in tatters' is approximately right for 'Little Foot'. Oh, that's Mbeki's shoe size, a seven, in soft leather - bought by Jackie Selebi, according to his close chum, self-confessed fraudster and drug baron, Glen Agliotti. God, all this is better than a script for reality TV. Sophisticates must be burbling behind their dinner napkins...
| The Deputy President apologises for the power crisis 1/25/2008 7:51:05 AM |
Deputy
President Phumzile Mlambo Ngcuka has apologised for the first time, for
the country's power crisis. It comes as Eskom warns South Africans to
brace themselves for at least two to four more weeks of rolling
blackouts.Mlambo-Ngcuka has come under fire, for failing to act on the energy crisis ten years ago, when she was Minerals and Energy Minister. A White Paper drawn up by the Energy Ministry in 1998 predicted that without investment by the end of 1999, the country would start to run out of power by 2007. Mlambo-Ngcuka last night admitted that they underestimated economic growth and an increased demand for power at the time. Ironically, the Deputy President had to address the awards ceremony at Parktown Girls High, by torch light, because of a power cut. |
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