Now lest you think Kubatana is resolutely anti World Cup, we’re not! We’re busy drawing straws to see who gets to leave the office early on Friday to watch the opening ceremony and first match, and we included this announcement in our newsletter today:

Regional soccer solidarity . . .

Get your fingers tapping today!
Deadline: Wednesday 9 June 2010

Over the next few weeks the eyes of the world will be on South Africa for the 2010 FIFA Soccer World Cup. The tournament starts on 11 June 2010 with the official opening ceremony and the opening game between South Africa and Mexico.

The hosting of the tournament presents us with an opportunity to get behind our neighbours and Bafana Bafana as they take on the best teams in the world.

SANGONeT, a South African NGO, is collecting and coordinating “NGO messages of support” for Bafana Bafana and the successful hosting of the World Cup.

All you need to do is to forward a short message of support from Zimbabwe (no more than 50 words), to info@sangonet.org.za by Wednesday, 9 June 2010. Please copy info@kubatana.net

All messages will be published on NGO Pulse – www.ngopulse.org

A consolidated document with all the messages will be submitted to the South African Football Association (SAFA) on 10 June 2010 to be handed over to the Bafana Bafana team before the start of the World Cup and their first game on 11 June 2010.

We’ve already received these messages of support from our subscribers:

Bafana!Bafana…this is an African cause . . . “Cry the beloved vuvuzela” . . . from the Cape to Cairo the echo of victory shall be heard!
- JM

You are like Excalibur, the great and mighty sword that never lost any battle. You have been given the platform to show the world what Africa is made of. Here is a good luck note from a Zimbabwean lady who is wishing all the best. I salute you.
- RZ

I believe I speak on behalf of many fellow Zimbabweans as I say to Bafana Bafana – “what ever the outcome . . . .we are proud of your our brothers, raise your flag high, and play from the heart . . . for Africa”
- IC

Bafana Bafana, you are the pride of our land,
South Africa, your light will shine to all,
You have already shown the world what you are made of,
You prepared for these games with pride and courage,
Now this is the time for you to shine to the whole world.
- CM

Congratulations on hosting the tournament. Play fair and do it the South African way. Make Africa proud by seizing the opportunity to keep the World Cup in Africa. Ishe Komborera Africa
- ZS

Viva Bafana Bafana Viva. I wish you and the people of South Africa triumph at the prominent Fifa Soccer World Cup Finals. Hold high the golden trophy for victory is already Africa’s. Viva Bafana Bafana.
- KM

Bafana Bafana 2010, it’s historic! Remember it is an African World Cup and belongs to Africa! Go Bafana Bafana you can win it. It is very possible!
- CM

Wish all African teams competing in this year’s World Cup all the best. Make Africa proud. To South Africa: Thank you for bringing the World Cup to our doorstep.
- SC

Get involved! Send your congratulatory message to Bafana Bafana. Write to info [at] sangonet [dot] org [dot] za by Wednesday, 9 June 2010 and cc info [at] kubatana [dot] net

Read this article on slum clearance South Africa-style written by Dan McDougall.

Red Ants beat residents of Alexandra Township with crowbars

WAVING iron bars and pickaxes, the Red Ants, a rented mob of thugs in bright red overalls and crimson helmets, used the half-light of dawn for cover as they marched into the slum. Stamping out the first cooking fires of the day with heavy boots, they spread out in a long line. Then they attacked.

Bleary immigrant women dropped plastic water containers and ran in panic towards their corrugated iron homes. “Grab the children,” they screamed.

By sunrise their shacks on the outskirts of Johannesburg had been razed. They were forced to watch as their few possessions were burnt.

The Red Ants, described as state-sponsored mercenaries by their critics, have become a growing force in the past few months as South African cities have begun a campaign of “beautification” before the World Cup begins in June. This means clearing away unsightly immigrant squatter camps.

This month, more than 100 Zimbabweans were beaten and evicted by Red Ants from a derelict building on the main road to Ellis Park stadium in Johannesburg, one of the football tournament’s main venues.

It followed a series of Red Ant evictions ordered by the provincial department of public transport along main roads within a mile of the stadium, which will host five matches. Hundreds more Zimbabweans were forcibly evicted from properties in central Johannesburg.

Red Ants also flattened more than 100 shacks within a two-mile radius of the Mbombela stadium, near the Kruger national park. Most of those evicted were Zimbabwean.

Human rights groups are warning of a return to xenophobic violence that led to the deaths of scores of immigrants during township riots in 2008.

According to Braam Hanekom, chairman of Passop, a refugee rights charity based in Cape Town, the Red Ants are doing the government’s dirty work. “They are essentially a militia that ruthlessly and forcefully displaces people from their shelters under government instructions,” he said. “They are notorious for their brutal and violent approach towards the poor.”

The ruling African National Congress regards beautification as a policy that extends beyond the building of new stadiums, roads and airports. It sees the World Cup as an opportunity to showcase its achievements since it came to power 16 years ago.

Attacks have increased on immigrants drawn to South Africa by the hope of work on projects for the tournament. And the onslaught may intensify after the World Cup. Unemployment, already at 27%, is expected to rise as thousands of construction jobs disappear. In the run-up to local elections next year, many politicians are expected to exploit fears that immigrants are “stealing” jobs.

The South African commission for human rights said it had been bombarded by claims from immigrants that they had been warned they would be “dealt with” after the tournament.

Lawrence Mushwana, the commission’s chairman, said: “African foreigners living in South Africa must brace themselves for a new wave of xenophobic attacks after the World Cup is over.”

Walter Da Costa, chairman of a migrant support group in Johannesburg, believes local authorities bear responsibility for much of the violence. Council agents pay the Red Ants and give them their distinctive uniform on a casual basis, he said.

“As they are recruited from the bottom rung of the ladder, is it surprising that their actions usually amount to little more than intimidation and terrible violence?”

Many Red Ants are drawn from vigilante groups in townships in Durban and Johannesburg which are already intent on ridding the country of immigrants. They routinely refer to migrant families as “parasites” and “cockroaches”.

“We will not stop beating them until our work is done, until they leave this land forever,” a Red Ant member in Soweto told The Sunday Times.

“It’s our land and we have the right to help the authorities move them on. If the municipality asks us to destroy these cockroaches then we’ll do that and flatten their homes to dust.”

Attacks by the Red Ants and a growing number of vigilante groups are nationwide. In the Breede Valley, in the Western Cape, more than 1,200 Zimbabwean refugees struggle to survive in a camp built on a rugby field. Many are victims of Red Ant raids in the north; others have been burnt out of their homes by hate mobs.

“I was among a few hundred Zimbabwean refugees taking shelter in the Central Methodist Church in Johannesburg when the Red Ants came and sprayed us with brown sewage water,” said Chenzera Ndbele, 14. “When we moved to a local slum with my mother they came back with pickaxes. When they forced us out they made us watch as they burnt our belongings.”

Dorcas Chinomera, 17, a refugee from Zimbabwe, recalled the day when a mob arrived outside her shanty home in De Doorns, two hours’ drive from Cape Town. “They were screaming ‘kweri kweri’ [parasites] at us. They spat in our faces and stole our furniture and burnt our home to the ground as the police looked on.”

The caption from The Herald front page on Friday sums up more than this photograph – it seems sadly apt for the progress of Zimbabwe’s inclusive government as well: “Morgan Tsvangirai (out of picture).”

Writing in Business Day last week, Allister Sparks argues that Zimbabwe’s inclusive government is not working – and that it needs to be scrapped. Whilst there’s a lot about the inclusive government not working that I’d agree with, the solution Sparks outlines is optimistic – if Mugabe isn’t willing to see the inclusive government work, why would he consider internationally supervised elections in which all citizens can vote – without the ability to gate keep through the voters’ roll. And in the mean time, what about Zimbabwe’s dream of a new Constitution – and a new political framework that guarantees democratic elections which can usher in a government elected freely by the people?

It’s time for South Africa, as the leading power in SADC, to say, “Enough!” If President Zuma has any political balls at all, he should tell Mugabe so during his visit to Harare this week.

He should tell him the GPA is obviously not working, that it is clear Mugabe is determined not to allow it to work, and that the South African Government is therefore going to call on SADC, as guarantor of the deal, to declare it to have been irretrievably violated and so nullified — and to demand the holding of an early election so that a new government with a genuine public mandate can take over.

This election should be supervised — not just observed — by a large team of electoral specialists from the SADC countries, especially South Africa. Moreover it should not be run on the basis of Zimbabwe’s hopelessly defective voters’ roll but by letting all adult citizens vote as has been done with the first elections of all newly independent countries in Africa.

Zuma should tell Mugabe, too, that if he and his ZANU-PF cohorts refuse to accept such a process, South Africa will press for Zimbabwe’s membership of SADC to be suspended, and for any regime that might be unilaterally installed not to be recognised by SADC and the African Union. The country would then be isolated.

Only South Africa has the influence and power to do this. If necessary we could do it unilaterally. It’s time we acted on behalf of the people of Zimbabwe and the whole region, to say nothing of our own image as a nation whose internationally assisted rebirth surely imposes a moral obligation on us.

But don’t hold your breath. Decisiveness is not Zuma’s strong suit on any issue.

Spot the difference . . . this is exactly what we’ve been through, and are still experiencing in Zimbabwe. If only it were as simple as civil society and trade unions standing up.

Below is a letter printed in Business Day:

TS Eliot perfectly sums up our gloomy state of affairs: “we are the hollow men, we are the stuffed men … shape without form, shade without colour, paralysed force, gesture without motion … this is the dead land, this is cactus land”.

If Nelson Mandela was our nirvana, the new leadership is our nadir. Despondency and gloom have replaced hope. Greed and plunder have taken over from selflessness and servant leadership. Without any skill, education or hard work, one can accumulate millions in a week, more than Raymond Ackerman did in the first decade of running Pick n Pay.

Your green and gold political membership card is more precious than a university degree or values. If you are connected, a phone call to a well-placed minister will open doors for you. Talent and competence are irrelevant. State institutions are paralysed by inept leadership and infighting.

It is twisted irony that the new rulers praise apartheid monsters such as PW Botha for their leadership. Spare a thought for his victims. Like his predecessor, Adriaan Vlok, our current police minister is smiling, as the blue light brigade harasses poor citizens.

Sixteen years ago, Africa looked up to us for inspiration — today we are Africa’s cartoons.

Be warned: these are the first signs of post-colonialism blues that destroyed most of Africa’s young democracies. This is our Damascus moment. If we do nothing — we go the Zimbabwe direction. Zimbabwe is a state of mind and not a place.

Please do not blame Julius Malema for milking the system. It is not his fault. All he did was rent out his name to interested parties. Our flawed democracy was designed to benefit the elite and not the masses.

Yesterday it was Thabo Mbeki ’s group to enjoy the fruits of liberation. Now it is Jacob Zuma ’s turn. Moaning will not help. Every comrade wants a taste of the state honey.

Like cancer, political decay has spread to all parts of our body. It is sad for the African National Congress — the party of Sisulu — to be seen defending the looting of state resources.

Lord have mercy on us if our leaders cannot separate what is legally right but morally wrong. Do not look to President Zuma for answers. He is part of the problem and a pawn in the game. Our democracy and our future need defending from our leaders.

The media, civil society and trade unions must stand up. Our loyalty should be to the constitution, instead of to leaders. Building democracy is hard work. We cannot afford to be complacent.

Dr Lucas Ntyintyane
Cape Town

The constant hoopla around Zuma’s polygamy really is getting exhausting; with journos shifting attention to what he is up to each time they are suffering the diary draught. It has become nothing short of selling tabloid headlines. Can’t they get it through their thick heads? The man said it loud and clear – much to the indignation of feminists and gender activists – it is his (Zulu) culture, and the problem with most of us is indeed “thinking that our cultures are far more superior to those of others”. What Zuma is doing is to be expected, those are some of the hazards of having a clown for a president.

My bone of contention is; are the women involved in all this being oppressed? Have any of them been forced into marriage by this lunatic? Are not the majority of them young, pretty and educated but found jostling amongst themselves to be the next best lady? Do they not make public appearances next to the imposing Zulu President all smiley and beaming with self-importance and contentment?  Why are they being made to look like the victims? I mean so what if he has just fathered his 20th child and married his umpteenth wife? Though old-fashioned, the man can afford it for Pete’s sake and it is clearly not illegal in his country? In any case, those children are lucky at all to be born of the President of the most powerful country in Sub Saharan Africa.

I agree the man has a strangely colossal libido, is possibly a paraphiliac, a fool and whatever else the media choose to label him, but I think the fascination with Zuma’s polygamy deserves nothing more than the attention of National Geographic to ‘Africa’s Strangest’. The media are having a field day and the feminists have developed a serious bone to chew, yet the Swazi King Mswati leaves the most polygamous green with envy and for him, marrying is an annual exploit. His father before him had 70 wives by the time of his death too.

If anything, the only sad thing I find about Zuma’s actions is the fact that he claims he loves all his women equally. I feel a certain amount of pity for his first wife, the rotund (read solid) MaKhumalo – who clearly looked unhappy alongside her husband during his inauguration as President of South Africa. It is common knowledge that this woman rarely appears in public, let alone at the arm of her husband. One could almost guess what was going through her mind – probably that her being taken along for this auspicious occasion was just for show: Zuma, the family man who respects his first wife. God only knows he would have preferred to make that grand appearance with one of the younger ‘trophies’ as the young men here would say it.

This – my colleagues is the battle of the ” Desperate First Wives”, and they are all vying for the title of first lady. From the South African Foreign Affairs Minister Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma to the youngest (and currently prettiest) wife Nompumelelo Ntuli, I can tell you, none of then went kicking and screaming to their Umshado wesiZulu (Zulu wedding). New word on the street has it that Zuma has impreganted another youngling, and she is none other than businessman Irvin Khoza’s daughter! I daresay the media spotlight must beam on these women; they are the bigger fools for embarrassing themselves and allowing themselves to be treated in this way. Who are they, what makes them tick, what made powerful people like themselves fall for this man? Just what was it for each one of them – wealth, fame? Trust me; that would make interesting reading and ‘news’ for a change.

The way Investigative Zim sees it is that; either South Africa is reinventing the concept of political morality and public responsibility among its leaders, or something is seriously wrong with the presidency and the nation just hasn’t woken up to it yet. I shant say more.