Assertion can change the world

Woolworths traders or traitors?

The ethical woolworths store. image URL

My smooth undisputed logic demonstrates that no matter how thin you slice it, there will always be two sides. The #Boycottwoolworths campaign is a quest to achieve a political goal in Israel which is freedom for the Palestinians. Woolworths however has made it clear that it has no political affiliation with Israel. Now we have two sides of a story which can not be discussed in isolation. I am not gonna offer you a history class but we all know that boycotts of South African products in foreign retailers by citizens of those countries were major role players in ensuring that we gain our freedom. All those brave men and women who refused to to buy food from South Africa for the sake of a "Lesiba" in Limpopo are partly responsible for our access to nutritious food. They also saw Woolworths being able to trade with whomever they want. If they can do it for us, why can't we do it for the Palestinians? I mean if  I have to eat mangoes from Venda instead of the ones from Israel just so a child's life can be spared. Then I will walk from Jozi to Venda every weekend for my fruit shopping, with my cooler box of course.

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We have people who died fighting apartheid and yet we want to help people implement it in their countries. Lemme guess, we are still stuck in the "what's in it for us"type of mentality instead of "what's in it for them". Although Woolworths came out and claimed that it imports food from Israel purely for nutritious reasons, I support the #Boycottwoolworths campaign. If Woolworths and other retailers stop trading with Israel, we will not only help the cause for Palestinians to be free but we will also open the market for South African farmers and create jobs.

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 Nelson Mandela said that South Africans will never be free until the Palestinians are free. If you can not take it from him then humanity is still a vague concept to you. "If you take a neutral position in a case of injustice, you have took the side of the oppressor"- Bishop Desmond Tutu. 

Unwritten privileges

Crime for Comfort

Zuma's private kingdom. image URL

I am only gonna address this once, so make the circle smaller and come closer. The Nkandla report  has armed a lot of South Africans with okapis(opinions) to attack the president of the Republic Mr Jacob Zuma. I refer to most opinions as "okapis" because they are uniformed, irrational and they cut deep. A typical ghetto approach to crises. We have already have established the fact that Jacob Zuma had an in-fringe benefit from the money allocated to security upgrades at his private homestead. Although our lady " chuck Norris" of politics Thuli Mandonsela did not specify how much Zuma benefited, DA studied her report and calculated on an estimate that Zuma benefited approximately R16.8 million. Lets face it, its never really about the money that was spent right. Its always about the person who benefited and how he deals with the reactions of the public to the issue. I mean if we take this horror of presidents benefiting from tax money four generations back, we will realize a trend. 

President Zuma just like PW Botha, Nelson Mandela and Thabo Mbeki was always in line for what I would like to call "unwritten privileges".

The RSA former presidents PW Botha (left)
 and the nation's father Nelson Mandela deep in discussions
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I know R246 million might seem a little steep but if you look here it is highly evident that all three previous presidents had more or less benefits of the "unwritten privileges". The only differences are the power of the rand, communication methods and efforts and public opinion which is controlled by the above mentioned factors. Zuma's first mistake was failing to apply the three effective ways of getting away with corporate crime, which are; 1. Portray a very compromising character 2. Always have control of the evidence 3. Always address crisis management personally. Failure to apply these basic principles was his downfall as the respected president of the nation.

The ever calm former president of RSA Thabo Mbeki
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The worst part about this is that the most concerned people about the Nkandla issue are the small time ghetto thugs. This goes to show how Zuma needs to up his game if he is to ensure that he holds on to his "unwritten privileges". Some of you are probably stuck somewhere between the differences and similarities of crime and "unwritten privileges". Okay I will briefly define the two. Crime is an action or omission which affects other individuals negatively (in a disastrous manner). "unwritten privileges" are benefits that are indirectly intended for leaders, they are there to be taken and not given. Zuma did what any leader in his shoes would have done. He just failed to apply the necessary damage control methods.