Will it be a grave mistake for the ANC to discount the DA in the local municipal elections?

While reclining in bed at the guest house reading the Sunday Times I came across an article in the Review section about last week’s Royal wedding and how many believe that the 30.8 million pounds ( that is more than 300 000 000 “Souf Efrican raaaant”) spent on it, was in fact an excess and the Royals had snubbed their noses at the countries loyal (if somewhat Dof) subjects. That part did not really faze me because to be honest I don’t give a shit about the royal family, what the wedding cost or how it affects the pasty Poms that live on the island. What did interest me however was this piece of information.

“The telegraph reported that as many as 200 000 jobs could be lost this year on the island in what was predicted to be the worst year for jobs in 17 years. UK unemployment recently rose by another 49 000 to almost 2.5 million, basic healthcare is crumbling under dwindling numbers of staff, many of whom are being retrenched. Students leaving universities cannot find jobs. Cameron (That’s the Conservative Prime Minister of Muppet land) recently announced 11 000 job cuts in the army.”

So having read this I was a bit flabbergasted because don’t all South Africans as well as other flotsam from a plethora of countries that drift up the river Thames have jobs on the Island, otherwise why hop on a boat, plane, train or camel? I mean my Brother in law Doug and sister Nicole have jobs (steady well paying jobs), Doug’s 2 sisters have jobs, Doug’s mom has a job. So who are the 2.5 million people that don’t have jobs? Lazy poms, expats from a multitude of countries who are so useless they can’t find jobs?.......”I am confused”. I know many South African’s who go over to the UK are claiming British citizenship, or that of another EU country, because if were honest all white South Africans can trace bloodlines back to most European countries due to the fact the Cape was inundated with foreigners back in the day especially when they heard that the weather was good, there was free land and you could have slaves (which was a bit rich because many were fleeing from persecution themselves)

This week I was in East London for the week, I rode up with Ryan on Sunday afternoon, missing all the rainstorms but getting buffeted by the wind. We had to stop a couple of times to get feeling back into our ass cheeks and once to see if we could find petrol, because 50kms from EL we were riding on fumes, not a good feeling when your 50kms from civilization, it’s getting cold, the rain clouds are building up and the night sky is starting to envelop the remains of the day ....................But help was in hand in the shape of a Spaza shop/hardware/informal petrol station and managed to get 4 litres of premium fuel (Jack sold it in 2 , 5 and 20l Containers and only charged a mere R2 per litre more than at a normal service station). A bit pricey you may say, well when you are stuck out in the boondocks you will pay almost any price.

“So how did you get yourself into that situation Dunkley” I hear you scream, well I assumed (and we all know what assume does “makes an ASS out of U and ME”) that the bike would do the 310 kms from PE to EL on one Tank as the last time i rode there that was the case. I forgot to take into account Ryan was with me , with 3 full panniers and a separate full back strapped on to the panniers, we also hit pretty hectic headwinds that brought the consumption down badly, I also was not riding at excessive speeds as we never went over 140kms per hour.

With the municipal elections coming up on 18 May I find it amusing at all the handshaking, baby kissing and empty promising politicking that’s going on, especially from the ANC, who u never see until election times then they all come out the woodwork and again promise the earth and deliver squat. To be honest I now have no sympathy with those people that love in squalor but still vote for the ANC, surely after 17 years you would say to yourself. “Maybe they are not going to live up to their promises and I should give another party a chance”. I also find it amusing that people who would in the past have tarred and feathered for aligning themselves with certain parties, happily smile down from election posters.............I bet that Mr Badenhorsts friends and family are proud that he is standing as a ANC candidate in ward 5 in East London. There is also an Afrikaans gent (use this in the loosest sense) who looks like a AWB poster boy that is standing for the ANC in PE.............”Chumps”. Near us we have a Retief Odendaal who is the candidate for the DA in my area and a Graham Newton who is the candidate for the Freedom Front.

I became very tempted this week to actually vote for the ANC in the municipal elections because they gave each household in my area 10 free (yes free) dustbin bags.....can you beleive it "and they were green". However after much deliberation and soul searching i have decided that the DA will get my vote.......I have morals "i cannot be bought with a mere 10 bin bags...if it had been 20 bags a tshirt and a half chicken it may have been another matter"

Politics is a strange animal and the ANC should remember the saying ‘Those who live in glass houses should not through stones”. They made so much fuss about the open toilet issue in the Western Cape (A DA and I may add well run province) saying how racist the DA were because they built toilets and did not enclose them to give people privacy and guess what................The ANC stand accused of the very same thing.

“According to the ANC secretary general Gwede Mantashe the ANC did not know about the 1600 unenclosed toilets that are located in Rammulotsi near Viljoenskroen in the ANC (not DA) run Moqhaka municipality. When the DA do it its racist when the ANC get caught doing it its “lack of funds”..................”Gotcha Mantashe”......The spin doctors will probably say that they did not want to enclose the toilets so they could keep everything transparent just like the ANC.

I also have to laugh because in the Eastern Cape areas are being cleaned up and potholes filled, strange it’s just before an election, in EL the municipality (read ANC) are doing the following a few days before the municipal elections

· Fencing of 10 cemeteries

· A pedestrian bridge is to be handed over

· A clinic is to have its official opening

· CCTV at a taxi rank is being installed

· Highway streetlights being launched (remember to put bulbs in them or switch them off during the day)

· 20 house sites are being excavated

Was supposed to have 15 students on the HIRA course but ended up with 28, I had 20 manuals and had to get the EL office to drop off another 7, (Its’ going to take me ages to do the assessments.) On Wednesday I dropped Ryan off at the airport at 7am and then went back to the office to assess the papers and prepare for the Thursday and Friday training at Mercedes Benz (yep I do get around) ???

Is it just me or does it seem that the very South Africans who again let us down in the Cricket World Cup are having an awesome IPL season, perhaps we need to ensure that they paid more money to win competitions, as it seems to work with regards the IPL.................Oops forgot about Smiffie, seems that so far Graham (what a crap captain) Smith has only managed to score a miserly 42 runs for his team, at a cost of R80 00 per run.

Also reading that Sol Kerzner’s hotel empire is crumbling and may be for sale this to pay off huge debts (3 Billion dollars to be exact/ 21 Billion rand) of which 2,6 Billion id due to be paid by September (and I thought I had financial problems). The guest house I stayed at in E L (Tindale Lodge) owned and run by Carl and Glenda was ok, nice venue, great food and Carl who is a stand up comedian a very nice guy.

Ryan and i went to watch THOR on Tuesday, was ok, not as good as Iron Man 1 or 2 but I have seen worse over the years.

There are some strange people in the States, listen to this......... A man was found in a bra and panties alongside a dead goat (yes a goat) and he told the police he was “high” on bath salts (WTF), the gent from West Virginia (keep a wide birth if going to the good old USA) was charged with cruelty to animals after the goat was found to have a stab wound (so in WV you can bonk a goat just don’t stab it), his defence was he was not in his own mind (or underwear for that matter) due to the effects of the bath salts..................

For those Motorcycle enthusiasts the BMW factory in Berlin produced is 2000 000 bike last week, no wonder every second bike u look at is BMW.

I see that Malema is up to his shit again, this time the Muppet is saying that all Whites are criminals, as they stole the land from the Blacks........I normally don’t get upset at what this Asshole has to say, but when I read that I really got pissed off. Who the F%%5K does he think he is, my message to this twat would be the following.

“I have never stolen anything, never mind land from the black population, what I have got in this country I worked extremely hard for, I do not drive a fancy luxury car or live in a multimillion rand home, I struggle to make ends meet every month and I am a productive member of society...Can you and many of your BEE buddies say the same thing........No you cannot, you use my tax money to live a lavish lifestyle and thank me by telling me I am a thief. The only reason you have gotten somewhere in life is of who you know and not what you know. I love this country and believe for it to be a better place I need to stay here and help to do so, I have never contemplated leaving this country, but to be honest if you and your ilk (that means your kind) were to come into power in this country I would leave here faster than you could say NATIONLIZATION

You complain about the whites and the apartheid regime and about colonists etc etc, however you like the trappings of the whites, you like the houses the whites live in, you like the cars the whites drive and if it not be for the colonists you would be sitting under a tree in a loin cloth herding goats you Asshole”. Can you imagine the shit that would have hit the fan if the headline had been “Blacks are criminals, Zilla”

Malema also pushed his nationalization agenda, saying the government could not afford to create jobs or build a university in the Northern Cape as per a 2009 campaign promise, that was made by Zuma because “there was no money”. He said the Oppenheimers in mine diamonds in Kimberly and leave nothing behind. Hey DIPSHIT the government would have money for a university if for instance

a) People like Sicelo Shiceka (minister of co-operative governance and traditional affairs) did not misuse tax payers money for visiting a jailed girlfriend in a Swiss jail, living it up in luxury hotels with a huge entourage (including a Sangoma)............This cost the tax payer close to 1 000 000 rand. And he is just a drop in the ocean

b) Ministers drove normal cars instead of 2 luxury vehicles

c) Municipalities were run correctly (for the residents , not as a personal fiefdom/bank)

d) We actually made people work or create work instead of having them stand with their hands out)

e) And if it were not for the Oppenheimers you would not have had Kimberly to go to to talk your shit.

As for Jacob Zuma, he is worse he was at the rally where Malema said this and did not say anything why is that ? Does Malema have a hold over him, does, he agree with Malema................as the president of this country (everyone’s president) he should be telling Malema to act like a human being and to choose his words carefully. I also see that like the medieval days the ruling party is playing on the common folks superstitions. JZ this week told his illiterate electorate that if they vote for any other party other than the ANC, their ancestors will be seriously pissed off.............Only in Africa

Must say while I enjoyed the training this week , I had 2 great groups but I could not wait to get home and was counting the minutes on Friday when the gents were writing their assessment. Riding back to PE was a little worrying as the bike did not seem to be responding the way it should (taking the bike in today for them to look at................. The last 50km going home is always like a horse after a long outride, when it gets near the stables it picks up its pace and seems to have a life of its own.

Sports news this week is that the Stormer’s having a 20-3 lead at halftime succumbed to the Chiefs and lost 23/30. This is their second defeat in a row and gives the Sharks (who were not playing this week) an opportunity to catch up. The Lions beat the Brumbies 29/20 for only their second win this season.............The Bulls beat the Rebels 47/10 and the Cheetahs beat the Crusaders 33/20, must say they played awesome and one of the upsets of the tournament.

News from “Devils Valley” is that my good friend Kelvin (owner of Friends restaurant and pub) was in court this week and received a fine and a 4 years suspended sentence for the crime of .................wait for it............ “Loud music” . Yep it seems that a few of the locals have branded Friends the “Devils Jukebox” and now Kelvin has to shut down at 12 midnight, hopefully they will also ensure all other places making loud noises after 12 are also closed.

To be honest while I sympathise with Kelvin as well as the other restaurants/pubs/waffle and cocktail venues if i was living near them and the music was loud i would also be pissed off, but somewhere a happy medium has to found to accommodate the residents as well as those involved in tourism (the very thing that has made Clarens what it is today and pushed up prices of houses of the very people who are complaining) In fact the instigator has a guest house that she set up to benefit out of the tourism boom in Clarens..................

This morning Tania and I went to get some garden stuff from Builders warehouse had breakfast and then took a drive to Kini Bay to collect some stones and shells to use in the garden, did a little gardening and then took Gabby to the local mall on the scooter so she could buy some headphones. now I am finishing off the Blog for this week. All in all not a bad Sunday...Weather started of “Blah” but really turned out “Yay”

after the good rains last wekend the combined dam levels have risen to 37% thats a 6% increase, so hopefully we have some more rain this winter.

Well that’s about it for this week, don’t forget to vote on Wednesday and ensure that your ballot paper has a stamp on the back of it otherwise it’s an invalid vote.

Ciao

SPAD