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Monday 11th April 2006  — posted by PDU on PDU website

Can't remember when last so many emails and sms's about a political hiccup in our daily roundabout have appeared. The Jacob Zuma Circus has certainly made many people in SA and around the world gasp a sudden intake of breath and realise that the great second chance we got thanks to Nelson Mandela might be dribbling down the sewer.

The main question seems to be centred not around what Zuma is saying in the dock. Most stand-up comedians know the effect of stupid punchlines to serious issues. But why the SA Government of which he till recently was a major cog in the wheel is saying nothing. Yes, 'innocent until proved guilty' is the primary issue. Comments at this stage are not helpful. But when the former head of the Moral Regeneration Movement appointed by the President - and that included the leadership of the Official Aids response - exposes a mindless arrogance and chilling misinformation about the crucial details around Aids-prevention, everyone hopes that the man responsible for all this will make his voice heard.

Thabo Mbeki? Come home! Otherwise all will never be forgiven!

There is also the Angel of Death disguised as the Minister of Health who keeps trumpeting on about garlic and potatoes as a prevention for HIV and supporting latter-day Dr Josef Mengeles who convince sick people to believe in the cure of vitamins and placebos. She says nothing.

The ANC, once respected as a great liberation movement and in the eye of history, still a fair and successful political party, is silent. The many excellent members of the decision-making apparatus of the party would rather bite their tongues than give vent to their contempt and anger. OK, Comrades, but then don't cry if in a few years all the good deeds are forgotten and history refers to the African National Congress as 'the party of genocide'.

Because that's what it is.

'Ignore them and they will go away.' The new apartheid so brilliantly  reinvented by Thabo Mbeki means the rich will live and the poor will die. And as his policy seems to be to keep confusing the people about the facts round the treatment and acceptance of HIV/Aids, soon we will have lost 20 million South Africans. We are already losing one thousand per day thanks to this carelessness. Every 3 days we have a 9/11 trauma.

And no one says anything.

As long as we speak. If I have an answer to any of these questions - and I don't - one thing is becoming clearer by the issue: Thabo Mbeki is not relevant any longer. The reaction of the ANC doesn't matter. Jacob Zuma is just a passing madness. Because if the people care and if the people talk, solutions will be found in spite of a democratically-elected executive that looks the other way.

No one in power must be allowed to one day stand in the dock at The Hague on counts of crimes against humanity and conveniently say: 'I didn't know what was happening.' As long as we shout it out from the rooftops, Mbeki will know, Tshabalala-Msimang will know, Zuma will know, Dr Rath will know. And all the denialist-collaborators will know.

Their day will come.

We all have had a second chance after the darkness of apartheid. We will not get a third chance.

* * * * * * * *

Zuma Quotes of the Moment

"You cannot leave a woman if she is already at that stage (of sexual arousal)."

"Under normal circumstances, if a woman is dressed in a skirt, she will sit properly with her legs together. But she would cross her legs and wouldn't even mind if the skirt was raised very much."

"I had no problem having sexual intercourse with her, bearing in mind that she had needs."

"It would minimise the risk of catching the disease." (Zuma explaining why he took a shower after having sex with an HIV-positive woman.)

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