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NOTE: Apologies for the poor quality pics!

SABC2 had a special telecast of the IEC which was aimed at addressing certain issues which affect political parties. Most importantly INTOLERANCE.  They called upon faith based organizations and faith based representatives from the various parties to plead obviously to ANC. To stop abusing them for exercising their democratic choice. So it took very little brain processing to add A+N+C or figure the pseudo name “government”


The answer to their issues should have been, in my opinion, dealt with by ensuring that the people who pass such bad statements, the likes which are Vavi and the ANCYL President are brought to some of sort of legal or public repremand. It is possible that we may be facing another election war as experienced in the pre-1994 elections in some areas such as KZN and Gauteng between party political supporters, were innocent people ended up killed because of ideas and statements by people in positions of leadership.

Now the IEC tries to address this in a diplomatic manner. I say, find another solution. Party members addressed certain points which are of note whilst others were campaigning as usual. I then wondered what the whole mess was about since it appeared to me that "if they wanted to show us that they wanted change they should debated the issue like grown ups for the benefit of voters (the public)". All those parties were appealing for democracy and tolerance but they are the ones instigating intolerance…how pathetic can this people be. Politicians, they are like Satan’s Pets – they lie, cheat, provide false promises and never admit to anything. Yet we vote for them!

Here is what happened with snippets of their comments. They were all given a short amount of time to give their speech or thoughts. This is what they said…those I managed to catch



And the parties gave their input:

"Rejects early election"
"Show respect to the democratic process"
"Ruling party can’t just call for early election just because the ruling party has just received big donations from its BEE supporters"


"Some will go into election with body guards and leave the election process without"
"We commit ourselves at the rule of laws"
"Bombard each other with ideas"


"Accepted the responsibility to work for peace"
"Not threatened by competition or contradiction"
"Our policies can secure a peaceful and prosperous future"
"If the donkeys kick us, we will not kick back, as we want people to see the difference"

When you take RELIGION + POLITICS = LIVING HELL. What's the first thing do you do after winning the presidency and goverment, declare that we should join your church and all become christians and pay tithing whilst you give jobs to people who go to your church and meanwhile you discrimante against other denominations and those who don't believe in God or go to church? And launch CEE "Christian Economic Empowerment" to enrich christian folk, like BEE? C'mon...

We urgently need a "separation of church and state" in South Africa. A "separation of church and the republic" to be more exact.

"Commits the ANC to working very closely with the law and parties to establish a culture where FREE and FAIR political activities will take place"
"They believe in a freedom of association and expression"
“They also believe in what happens because of such freedoms"
"It’s important for the ANC to guarantee a spirit of tolerance amongst parties"

"6 million did not vote in the last election based on their research"
"Some parties even complain to the IEC on matters outside its mandate"
"Some have copied our logo"
And went on and on about issues which were alien to me and the audience
....got cut off by the program manager


"AZAPO wishes to state that IEC should screen election officials”
"Political tolerance should not mean none existence of robust political debate and criticism"
"Political parties should be free to criticize each other’s policies for the people to judge for themselves"
"The media should project all views from political parties in a fare manner"
"SABC should dig down in their hearts and be responsible"

"The democratic process can not be lost"
"Events by opposing parties have been disrupted"
"DA supporters have been intimidated with death threats"
"2 members of DA hacked with axes"
"Appeals to all role players to support multiparty probe....even with the ANC (she then laughs)"

"Thanked a long list of people"….who cares and who are you!
"We have joined the Christian consortium"
- sounded scared with a shaky voice...shame man! The pressure of telling lies!
"Supports rights of every person" Wait I thought you opposed gay rights and things like abortions! Or maybe you don't consider them people, unless you need their vote!
"Rejects the promotion of violence from Parties as political instruments"

"Teach and preach tolerance"
"Political parties have a right to campaign in any community"
"Sincerely hope that the 2009 election will be an opportunity for a mature exchange of ideas"
"We are all citizens of the country first"

"Democracy means freedom to choose"
"Pledges the support of the IFP for a free and fair election"
"Elimination of no go areas"
"Negative language from the ANYL should be censored"
"Underage voting must be stamped out"

"SA belongs to all who live in it"
"Don’t worry about turbulence and shift"
"The Indian government collapsed because they had one party and one vote. The day the leader raised his hand... the government collapsed" – the room laughed. He went on and on about stories, and he.....got cut off by the program manager


"This is a country of great possibilities"
"IEC must find us a fair dispensation"
"Concerned about political appointments who are elected as IEC officials"
"Concerned about union leaders working for the IEC"

This is when I laughed hysterically……. He meant schizophrenic and probably wrote it correctly in his notes, but sounded exactly like this.

"Violence has made us sqwizofrenic"

I know… master of pronunciation blah blah blah...... but this made me laugh.


"Our Nation (in zulu thou - got a translator)......then he laughs" I gathered it must have been a popular PAC thing by the reaction of the attendees
"Commit ourselves to a peaceful election"
"Political violence is not academic"
"A PAC member was gunned down in KZN"
"Strong allegations that police tried to cover up the murder"
"We find it strange when the media covers threats of violence than violence itself"

After watching all that, I found it useless because it seemed to be a way for the SABC to give other parties some airtime. Since every party has been making noise about the lack of TV-TIME.

In fact, I think if TVSA held a blogger conference to discuss ways of enriching TVSA in order to share and discuss ideas of how to turn the site into the best online experience for visitors and readers of blogs and bloggers alike. That would be more interesting than having to watch or listen to this putrid telecast by SABC2.

• I would move for a discussion on how TVSA will cover the upcoming election as per the broadcasts by SABC and ETV.
• Debates by TVSA bloggers leading to - - during  - - and  - - after the; elections
• Interviews with parties to present their campaign ideas and have them questioned by TVSA bloggers, reviewed by members and readers alike during the election

Just a thought……..

If you observe how ANC works, when they have taken a decision, they will announce it in the media like it’s a story and days or weeks later its announced as a new law or an already passed decision. If that’s anything to go by, we have a problem. This early election idea is designed to create confusion so that people VOTE ANC out of sheer frustration not intent.

Meanwhile, ANC is hemorrhaging members to COPE. The DA has also lost a member to the new party..

Until such time that we see a political party which ensures that the world sees us a solid country.  So that when our national teams go to compete with other world teams, all they see must be a  South African team not a fraction of South Africa. When our identity - is our identity not that of a single or few races. When we are South African not politically South African. We will start to see change. This change has to be brought by a party that is true to the South African identity. The reason why people find South Africa great is because we are very much like AMERICA in that our national identity is made up of a mix of identities, hence AMERICA and the AMERICAN dream is not a person but an IDEA which is only possible through the diversity of its citizens. The Irish, British, Italians, French, Africans, etc brought something to America which makes the American Dream possible. Amen

By The Observer

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