- This is fascinating - by Mbeki himself. The reference
to the "Expatriate South African woman in the USA" is unquestionably
a reference to Jani Allan herself... as he mentions "Cape Town"
where she lived and he mentions "listeners" (she had a radio
show). So, he is basically calling her a racist liar.
-
- But... if Jani Allan is a racist liar... then so, too,
are most South African newspapers... because nobody believes the latest
Govt crime statistics. Even at my work... when the Govt announced crime
was improving there wasn't a single one of my co-workers who expressed
any positive sentiment and belief in it - and my co-workers are a very
far cry from the anti-ANC views I have... yet even they don't believe it.
-
- Nobody believes that crime in this country is improving.
Why? Because a few years ago when crime was exploding through the roof
the ANC went and put a moratorium on releasing crime statistics... then
for a year nobody heard a single thing. The ANC changed the way the Police
counted the crimes... then a year later... the new crime stats came out
and HEY PRESTO... as if by magic crimes were coming down... and have been
doing so ever since!!! Suspicious huh? Nobody believes it... back then...
Doctors in the casualty wards of hospitals pooh poohed the crime stats
saying that their daily experiences contradicted what the Govt was saying.
-
- And so... NOBODY in this country believes crime is going
away... Security firms are doing as much business as ever. It is interesting
that Mbeki had to take a personal pot shot at Jani Allan who was once the
most famous journalist in this country. But in my opinion, she speaks the
truth and I say our President is a black racist liar who is taking cheap
shots at a white woman who is telling the truth. That's how I see it. --
Jan
-
- (SAPA) -- President Thabo Mbeki lashed out on Friday
at the media and others for questioning the integrity and reliability of
the crime statistics released by the South African Police Service.
-
- Writing in his weekly newsletter on the African National
Congress' website, ANC Today, he cited a newspaper which published an editorial
headed "Crime stats lack credibility".
-
- The editorial had said, among other things, that the
statistics were not believed by ordinary South Africans, who experienced
the realities of everyday life in this country.
-
- Nor did the "massaged figures" carry any weight
overseas, where the perception remained that South Africa was one of the
world's crime capitals.
-
- Another newspaper had carried an article headed "Police
statistics on child abuse do not reflect reality, activists warn".
-
- On the same page it had another article entitled "Rape
has become a sickening way of life in our land".
-
- Mbeki said the author of the article on rape was described
by the newspaper as "an internationally-recognised expert on sexual
violence and post-exposure prophylaxis".
-
- This "internationally-recognised expert" had
written, among other things, that South Africa had the highest rates of
rape in the world, according to Interpol.
-
- "To her, this assertion would have been obviously
correct, because, after all, we are an African country, and therefore have
the men conditioned by African culture, tradition and religion to commit
rape.
-
- "If she is telling the truth that Interpol has said
what she says it said, it will have to explain how it arrives at this conclusion,"
he said.
-
- In 2003, Interpol had 181 affiliated national police
services. Of these only 21 submitted reports on the incidence of crime
in their countries.
-
- "It would be most instructive to know how Interpol
arrives at 'world' figures enabling it to arrive at the conclusion about
our country it is reported to have reached.
-
- "... on July 7 this year, the United States Washington
Post quoted the UNAIDS deputy executive director, Kathleen Cravero, as
having said, 'Most of the women and girls, as much in Asia as in Africa,
don't have the option to abstain (from sex) when they want to. Women who
are victims of violence are in no position to negotiate anything, never
mind faithfulness and condom use'.
-
- "Clearly, the views of our own 'internationally
recognised expert' are shared by other people in high places, that as African
(and Asian) men, we are violent sexual predators," he said.
-
- However, a demographic and health survey for South Africa
carried out by an organisation called Macro International, funded by the
US government through USAID, showed rural African women in South Africa
reported a lower rate of rape than women in the US.
-
- "The reference to our rural women is especially
apposite because it is in the rural areas that we should find entrenched
habits that derive from African culture, traditions and religious beliefs.
-
- "But of course, for those who are determined to
propagate the view that our crime statistics have been 'massaged' to tell
a lie, and are therefore not credible, such research results do not exist."
-
- Turning to an article on the Internet about crime in
South Africa, written by a South African expatriate in the US, Mbeki said
what she was conveying to the rest "is an outright lie".
-
- But, people elsewhere in the world who did not know the
country, might take her at her word, having no reason to suspect that there
"are some from our country who will not hesitate to tell the lies
she tells".
-
- "Having convinced her listeners that she fled from
her white suburb in Cape Town, because the black savages were at her door,
some editor in our country will then seize on her victory triumphantly
to proclaim that 'overseas the perception remains that SA is one of the
world's crime capitals'.
-
- "The psychological residue of apartheid has produced
a psychosis among some of us such that, to this day, they do not believe
that our non-racial democracy will survive and succeed.
-
- "They dare not allow themselves hope for the future,
because they know that the pain of having it dashed, which they are convinced
will happen, will be too great. So they look everywhere for evidence of
decline, in order that they cannot be disappointed.
-
- "Crime in our country provides them with the most
dramatic evidence of that decline, the evidence that they are right to
foresee a hopeless future for our country, the proof that sooner or later
things will fall apart," Mbeki said.
-
- Source: Sapa Site: WWW.Africa.Com
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