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BLOGGER'S INTRO
Under the the watch of Jacob Zuma, the Protection of State Information Bill could easily be translated to Protection of State Involvement Bill (in corruption). But now George Bizos, a respected South African, has put a spanner into the works for Zuma's most fashionable toy for ruling South Africa for the next half a decade or so, if he should be garnering Mangaung, the elective conference of the ruling ANC.
UP WITH AFRICA! AFRIKA JUU IN KISWAHILI! AND “AMANDLA!!!” IN
ANC LINGO
INow, let us start at the beginning of this indaba.
If you by any chance live at the topmost tip of the African Continent (which tip every thinking arbiter will tell you is “South Africa”).
If you by any chance live at the topmost tip of the African Continent (which tip every thinking arbiter will tell you is “South Africa”).
.....
Plus, if you’re sufficiently politically clued.
.....
...You will (maybe, as I did yesterday) suddenly read from
somewhere the name “George Bizos”.
If you do, you are of course going to get neither a swooning moment nor a jolting surprise. Rather, you will probably get that feelgood sense from the lot of other good ideas that are conjured up for you with every synesthetic click of an otherwise aural telegraph that announces: “Headshrinker Bizos, the very George Bizos famed for defending Nelson Mandela in court during the anti-apartheid struggle, is Finally Here for fixing the Zuma Megalomania”.
If you do, you are of course going to get neither a swooning moment nor a jolting surprise. Rather, you will probably get that feelgood sense from the lot of other good ideas that are conjured up for you with every synesthetic click of an otherwise aural telegraph that announces: “Headshrinker Bizos, the very George Bizos famed for defending Nelson Mandela in court during the anti-apartheid struggle, is Finally Here for fixing the Zuma Megalomania”.
Let’s be glad, fellow South Africans, that George Bizos is
an intellectual, rather than a bayonet-wielding combatant in the era of an anti-Gaddafi
Libya or else this blog post would be X-rated indeed for what was announced
yesterday in the name of George Bizos.
Am I so glad that South Africa, being a constitutional democracy, will fight her wars with her own dictators very constitutionally with harmless popping of silly POIB ideas, rather than the popping of other dear things in any man’s netherlands.
Looked and appreciated from another angle, “Bizos” has also
suggested to me the same incisive instrument blowing
to kingdom-come the newly-attempted POIB tool for black racism, Nguni tribalism
and the concealment of state-sponsored corruption at government offices.
IS IT THE SOUTH OR THE NORTH THAT LIES AT THE LEVEL OF THE
HEAD?
Maybe it’s me only who thinks that way; but I am not afraid to think differently alone if need be. For that matter, others may even want to take me to task for suggesting South Africa, so full of so-called pitch-black people (and not maybe the Tunisia closer to the so-called whiteness of Europe) is “topmost on the Continental African map”.
My detractors are free to judge me as they please even to their Eurocentric pleasures. But the fact that the north of any map is capital i.e. “very much on top” and the south relegated to that bottom only fit to be trampled underfoot IS NOT A GOD-GIVEN!
I have in fact seen on-line world maps drawn in such a way that on top lies countries like South Africa and South America with Europe at the very bottom, ready to be drowned by oceas in all the ongoing globally ice-thawing warming!
South African political idiots in whatever power structure that they have been ensconced since 1994, may want to insist that “South Africa must never change from her footstool-image as ‘southern-and-therefore-downtrodden-per-kismet-country’. Be that as it may, it still doesn’t change the destiny of present-day South Africa as the future land leading the entire world towards love, human understanding, respect and HARMONY IN THE MAIN TASK FACING HUMANITY TODAY: REACHING FOR THE STARS!
Nobody today (except of course the ignoramuses and zealots) denies that God’s original Zion/Azania is South Africa and methinks political leaders of any salt should have long campaigned for our country’s name-change to THE ORIGINAL Zion/Azania/Zn/Kusini/Dzonga/etc. But, just because our dancing political leaders would maybe prefer to stay Eurocentric in outlook where the north is put at the top and the south AT THE BOTTOM, they are the ones to blame for South Africa’s continued economic subjugation AND NOT THE EUROPEANS TOO OFTEN FALSELY BLAMED FOR NIEU-COLONIALISM!
Our corporally flexible but intellectually staid politicians even go to the extent of dancing to the very sublime but most effective weapon for the so-called white racism of South Africa which today has become a tool for Mr Jacob Zuma’s continued Nguni tribalism crying for a indispensable power booster via the POIB.
I am returning to the POIB in much more detail in the nether
paragraphs; but I think I must for now pose a more serious question to the
entire humanity to be found in the South which is top for African map. The indiscriminate question also goes to the
north (particularly Europe), which is “bottom” in my map dictionary:
I know that thinking Europeans have long considered this possibility[1]
and made the contingency plan they will come back home to Zion/Azania a.k.a. “South
Africa” in that eventuality. And they
know they will be happy to be BACK HOME!!!
In the same vein, who, for example, among you, my readership knows that the first country considered by Britain to build a modern state for an Israel in a diaspora was Uganda, rather than Palestine?
Well, if you did not know this, then maybe you should not have been reading a Goodman Manyanya Phiri blog that may later turn out for you to be too hot to handle!
In the same vein, who, for example, among you, my readership knows that the first country considered by Britain to build a modern state for an Israel in a diaspora was Uganda, rather than Palestine?
Well, if you did not know this, then maybe you should not have been reading a Goodman Manyanya Phiri blog that may later turn out for you to be too hot to handle!
Yet, these, for me, are the issues that become real reason why I get livid about people like Mr Jacob Zuma... folks who are not only apparently into so-called black racism in the way they run our 2012 government in the Republic of South Africa, but are even into well-documented Nguni TRIBALISM.
South Africans in all walks of life have as of this day "accepted" that Zuma's fellow-countrymen like Basotho, Afrikaners, Shangaan, Tswana, Pedi, Venda, Khoi, San, and even his fellow-Ngunis like Ndebele and Swazi are not only treated as second-class citizens unworthy to rule South Africa via the venerable ANC Presidency, BUT ONLY ZULU FROM KWAZULU-NATAL AND XHOSA-SPEAKING EASTERN CAPE INDIVIDUALS WOULD HAVE FOREVER BEEN RULING OUR REIGNING PARTY THE ANC FOR THE PAST 60 TO 70 YEARS OF ANC 100-YEAR LIFE.
They also "accept" that, going forward to THE MANGAUNG APPARENTLY EYED BY A MEGALOMANIACAL MAN, no one except a Zulu or a Xhosa can expect to be the next president OR EVEN START OPENLY CAMPAIGNING FOR SUCH (unless of course he wants to be fired from Pixley ka Isaka Seme's ANC like Julius Malema.
OK, maybe it’s me only who thinks “strange thoughts” just
because of the immense pain I’ve been going through in my life for the past 27
years now and counting, all at the hands of tribal Jacob Zuma and his Nguni
comrades from the days of exile in Angola and Tanzania to this one.
Yet “Bizos”, the George who is a lawyer, sounds to me very synonymous to “robust”, “unshakeable” “consistent” and maybe even “the first lawyer ever to be trustworthy in the history of humankind”.
Yet “Bizos”, the George who is a lawyer, sounds to me very synonymous to “robust”, “unshakeable” “consistent” and maybe even “the first lawyer ever to be trustworthy in the history of humankind”.
As Mr Jacob Zuma’s Protection of State Information Bill (POIB) is greeted with a stamp of opprobrium from George Bizos then you know there is going to be serious trouble for South Africa if this law continues to be rammed down the national throat. Nobody in fact wants this law, except those on the Zuma tribal leash who are hell-bent to hide with this lawa corruption likely committed by their fellow-tribesmen and women in government in order to stay in power and lie to us "The Xhosas are the most intelligent tribe" or "The Zulus are this and that" while everybody's aware of the ongoing Zuma-state-sponsored tribal corruption!
Some of us South African constitutional democrats have suffered for decades already (and we are even as of this moment still suffering) at the hands of characters like Mr Jacob Zuma.
Our struggle for respect for all humanity, for all sexes and
their orientations (even from the scars of apartheid-era sufferings) have all been
thrown cold water over by Mr Zuma just because we are neither Zulu or Xhosa.
For example, our children and spouses (probably I speak for many voiceless former freedom fighters of both the ANC and the PAC who happen not to belong to Zuma’s Nguni tribe) are still in exile despite getting a modicum of declaratory support from mercurial Xhosa-speaking Bishop Tutu and his Truth and Reconciliation Commission that found many of us and our foreign-founded families “victims of human rights abuses of tribalism at the hands of Zuma's Nguni tribe even in the camps of exile”.
The problem we are facing today with a Zuma reportedly hungry for a second term in office (complete with the POIB to shore up a sick-minded ethnic ambition for a legal steering wheel with which to direct or even commandeer the nation towards his ill-will riding on a POIB-fear-inspired omnipotence where he otherwise has no inspirational resources for commanding national respect as a leader, is historical.
You may recall that 1994 saw Mr Zuma and Company re-introducing the Exile-Camp Tribalism and Dissenter Victimization. They did not even have scruples of going on with their daylight blac racism and xenophobia even within the national security forces of a constitutional democracy like that of ours in the Republic of South Africa!
For them it was: "To hell with the constitutional prescriptions over the country's Security Services: Us Ngunis, particularly fellow-Xhosa-speakers with Zuma's Super-hero Mandela, are ruling here".
For sure, right now, if you are “white”, you dare not criticize corruption conducted by Mr Zuma’s fellow-Ngunis in the South African National Defence Force of Year 2012, or else false charges will be meted out against you.
Yes, indeed! If you are “black”, but still falling outside Mr Jacob Zuma’s Nguni tribe, you will wind up being hounded at home by military police. And for good measure if your first name is Goodman, you will get suspended for no apparent reason over and above getting CHARGED FOR “EXPOSING STATE SECRETS” whereby “divulging secrets” means divulging the fact that in Zuma’s -state-sponsored corruption, one too many government offices of the Security Services prescribed by our sacrosanct constitution are being turned into prostitution dens.
It all boils down to this: if you do not have sex with your supervisor who wishes to sleep with you, YE SHALL NEVER BE PROMOTED NADA!
And that, my dear reader, is the South Africa that our friend Jacob Zuma has presented us with!
VERBAL DIARRHOEA
As a reader you can already tell my verbosity on a subject as broad as blogging.
Of course, sometimes I wish I had even the clue of a cat how tweeting is conducted on computer software because I’m sure I would be saved all the pain of editing and re-editing my original writings!
Indeed, the inexorable brevity of tweests would have long forced me to say one short sentence:
“Thumbs Up and Bravo, Mr George Bizos!”
Of course, sometimes I wish I had even the clue of a cat how tweeting is conducted on computer software because I’m sure I would be saved all the pain of editing and re-editing my original writings!
Indeed, the inexorable brevity of tweests would have long forced me to say one short sentence:
“Thumbs Up and Bravo, Mr George Bizos!”
As I should like to reiterate a point, not only Phiri will for 15 years be locked up with keys thrown away if POIB (a Bill) sees the light of day as POIA (an Act); but all those officers (men and women of honour from all colour and creed of South Africa's security services), will also be charged and dismissed from work, for doing nothing less and nothing more except pointing out South Africa's pernicious and corrupt modus operandi for Mandelasque Xhosa trbalism!
Indeed, Mr Bizos, if this Bill is allowed to stand as law,
IT SPELLS THE DEATH KNELL TO OUR DEMOCRACY where we will end up being a
Gaddafi-era Libya with the Army, the Intelligence Organizations, the Police etc FORCED BY CIRCUMSTANCES TO BE NOT ONLY DISLOYAL TO THE HEAD OF STATE, BUT TO ALSO MUTINEER AND
FINALLY DRIVE A BAYONET UP "HIS" (Zuma’s) like they did to Smart-Alec Gaddafi!
So, and very once again: Thank you for standing for what is right, Mr Bizos.
END OF BLOGGER'S COMMENT AND HERE FOLLOWS
WORD-FOR-WORD, THE BIZOS' CONTRIBUTION TO THE SUBJECT OF POIB
Cape Town - Veteran
human rights lawyer George Bizos argues in a submission to
Parliament that the protection of state information bill is unconstitutional on
several counts.
"The current draft of the bill, as it stands, runs
contrary to and indeed threatens many of the fundamental values and principles
enshrined in the Constitution," he writes.
Bizos, from the Legal Resources Centre's constitutional
litigation unit, prepared the submission on behalf of human rights organisation
Passop.
It is one of 293 written presentations sent to the National Council of Provinces' ad hoc
committee processing the bill after it was passed by the National Assembly last year amid a
public outcry.
Flaws
Nelson
Mandela's former defence lawyer enumerates seven flaws in the bill,
starting with the absence of a public interest defence.
"We view a public interest defence as imperative. Such a
defence would exempt from prosecution certain individuals in limited and
appropriate circumstances where the disclosure has been made in public
interest."
In Bizos's view,
the bill would undermine the provisions of the Promotion of Access to Information Act (PAIA) of 2000 and its
status as the supreme law giving effect to Section
32 of the Constitution, in which citizens' right to access to information
held by the state is enshrined.
PAIA makes
disclosure in the public interest mandatory in cases where the information
would reveal the commission of a crime, or the existence of imminent public
safety risk or environmental risk.
Section five of PAIA
also states that it applies to the exclusion of any act that restricts
disclosure or is materially inconsistent with its provisions.
Trumps any other law
Yet, the protection of state information bill in section 1(4)
explicitly states that "despite" section five of PAIA, it trumps any other law relating to classified information.
Writes Bizos:
"Any proposed legislation that seeks to displace the clear provisions of PAIA also violates section 32 of the
Constitution and is thus unconstitutional.
"The bill's attempt to trump PAIA, a constitutionally-mandated statute, is a further indication
of the bill's overall unconstitutionality."
He notes that those who defend the absence of a public
interest defence have argued that such a clause was unnecessary because the
bill criminalises wrongful classification.
The argument is wrong, Bizos
says, because the draft law does not allow those prosecuted for disclosing
state information to argue in defence that it was wrongly classified to begin
with.
"This further ignores the practical reality that
improperly classified information will be difficult, if not impossible, to
detect and challenge without the efforts of investigative journalists and
whistleblowers who will be hamstrung in their ability to bring these illegal
classifications to light if they fear lengthy jail terms."
Criminalise disclosure
Constitutional law expert Pierre de Vos said he agreed with Bizos because the bill was drafted in such a manner as to
criminalise disclosure of classified information, regardless of whether the
classification was lawful.
Bizos also
faults the bill for allowing the minister of state security to confer the power
to classify information on other ministers.
This usurps the principle of accountability enshrined in section
one of the Constitution because it removes the oversight of a particular
function from Parliament, and places it with the delegating minister.
He goes on to say that the legislation runs counter to
criminal law by basing liability not on the accused's intention, but on the far
lower standard of proof that he or she "ought to have known" they
were disclosing a secret.
Bizos also says
that imposing prison sentences of up to 25 years for the offences in the bill
is excessive and that the Classification Review Panel it seeks to establish
will not be seen as independent or impartial.
Suspicion of political bias
This was because a member of the panel could be removed by a
majority vote in the National Assembly, raising a reasonable suspicion of
political bias.
Finally, he says the bill flouts the
constitutionally-mandated Promotion of Just Administration Act by potentially
ousting the jurisdiction of the High Court to review classification - which is
an administrative act.
The submissions include a 20-page letter from Public Protector Thuli Madonsela, who
warns that it jeopardises freedom of expression and her ability to do her job
by preventing journalists and whistleblowers from reporting abuses.
Cosatu, in its
contribution, calls for the inclusion of a public interest defence and foresees
that the bill will "worryingly" have the effect of "entrenching
authority through a security state".
Cosatu has, along with rights groups, media houses and
opposition parties, threatened to challenge the bill in the Constitutional
Court if it is signed into law in its current form.
The ad hoc committee will meet on Wednesday to schedule
further hearings on the bill.
[1] It
is a possibility for me as a layman in the science of global warming and
techtonics combined; but if scientists find out that I am crazy it is going to
make the two of us!!!!
Info bill unconstitutional - George Bizos | News24:
'via Blog this'
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