THE DAILY DISPATCH'S GORY REVELATIONS

Picture of a dead baby found by the Daily Dispatch at a government mortuary in the Eastern Cape

The photo was published as one of the findings by The Daily Dispatch in an invesyigation they conducted in all government mortuaries in the Eastern Cape. During the investigation corpses were found piled high on floors, a dead baby was found rotting in a waste bucket, certain body parts were left out in the open with the employees working under those conditions.

The Daily Dispatch ran the story with the photo of the dead baby on the front page, causing controversy.

The story is newsworthy and I take my hat off for the newspaper for running it with the photo. The photo clearly illustrates the aforementioned findings by the newspaper. An article of  this nature should be accompanied by relevant photographs which will paint the whole picture. What is the use of running an article with shocking details but with no  photographs to grab the reader's attention? Candidly speaking,there are no words that could have illustrated the seriousness of the situation and the conditions in which government mortuaries are in the Eastern Cape better than that photo itself.

   topsy.com/twitpic.com/67e2zj

Daily Dispatch publishes front page photo of dead baby dumped in bin. (. twitpic .com/67e2zj – view page – cached page...



Overcoming our past

Lindiwe Mazibuko | 04 August, 2011

DA spokesman Lindiwe Mazibuko says South Africans need to embrace the spirit of reconciliation.Photo from google.

Are South African politics really only about black politics? The short answer must surely be "no", that is the one thing it is not. Or certainly it should not be if we are trying to achieve the aims of redress, reconciliation, delivery and diversity - which South Africa so desperately needs to undo the legacy of discrimination, the fruits of which are still with us today.

We cannot begin to forge a shared future of freedom, equality and prosperity for all the people of this country if our first assumption is that the politics of one racial group are considered more relevant than those of another. The very words "reconciliation, diversity, redress" speak to the needs of all of South Africa's people, not just some - even if some make up the vast majority of the population.

South African politics may be highly racialised, but this is informed by each and every racial grouping in the country, and within these, a plethora of different needs, views and responses to the past and the future.

The politics in South Africa today are increasingly about the struggle to overcome our past - in particular how to undo the emotional and the socioeconomic damage wrought by policies of racial and gender discrimination under apartheid. In short, it is the struggle to attain freedom for all. Unfortunately, this means different things to different people and politicians.

To some, it necessarily requires the rise of a black ruling class which will ultimately be at the centre of every aspect of public life. In other words, some see black domination today as the appropriate response to the white domination of apartheid. Former president Nelson Mandela spoke eloquently and famously against both forms of domination in his iconic speech from the dock during the Rivonia Trial in April 1964.

To others, redressing the imbalances of the past is about striving towards equality and diversity; in particular, equality of access to opportunity, resources and power.

Indeed, with respect to party politics, as the electorate's voting choices have rendered the fringe ideologies of smaller opposition parties increasingly irrelevant, the debate between the two main parties - the DA and the ANC - has also become about the best way to achieve these goals.

Some people in South Africa want to make this country's politics about "black politics" only. Not all are in the ANC, and not all of those in the ANC want this.

But since the party has failed categorically to repudiate the words of those who peddle the politics of racial division in its name, we can only surmise that it hopes to capitalise on division for electoral success - while at the same time preaching non-racialism and claiming a commitment to the values of a glorious past.

The path of divisive, racial politics is an easy one, fuelled by populist rhetoric and conspiracy theories, straw men and distorted facts. It also appeals to the most wounded parts of the South African people's psyche - the anger, shame, denial, and deficit of self-esteem which apartheid has bequeathed to us. It is the path of easy villains, lack of empathy and understanding, and the peddling of fear, loathing and resentment. This is profoundly bad for South Africa and bad for democracy.

We have a tendency to forget that hatred is a moving target; one that can never be permanently vanquished. Perhaps the political leaps and bounds of 1994 led us to believe the journey to reconciliation was like a river we would cross over, and emerge on the other side, victorious, having slain the demons which followed us into the new dispensation. But if events like the recent massacre in Norway have taught us anything, it is that the battle to extinguish hatred based on ignorance is never over.

It requires constant vigilance, and regular examinations of our history - not to fashion it into a weapon, but to gain a better understanding of how it is that we are here today. It also requires that rational, thinking people who believe in our democratic dispensation and in the constitutional values upon which it is founded, stand up to those who seek to take us down the road of domination by one race group over all others.

On Freedom Day 2011, DA leader Helen Zille delivered a speech at Solomon Mahlangu Square in Mamelodi, Pretoria, in which she reflected upon the emotional and economic scars left by apartheid.

She said: "Let us be honest and give name to the feelings that oppress us still. There is anger and resentment, natural human responses to humiliation. There is a deficit of confidence and self-esteem. There is embarrassment and guilt. And there is that most pernicious of responses to our past, the anti-feeling that is denial. In all of us, there is a yearning to be seen and heard; to be understood.

"We cannot engage these feelings, nor reconstruct our relationship with ourselves and each other, by means of confrontation. And we cannot overcome the feelings that oppress us in court rooms. Nelson Mandela showed us the way forward. Reconciliation takes courage and generosity. And it takes time."

Likewise, Dr Mamphela Ramphele, in her book Laying Ghosts to Rest - whose entire premise is that the ghosts of our oppressive and repressive past must be named out loud before they can be laid to rest - takes a similar view.

Unless responsible leaders are willing to work daily to facilitate such discussions, based on the truth and on understanding, the populists and their cynical, short-term political ends will gain ground, our society will be driven deeper into re-racialism, and our chances of reaching mutual understanding so we can commit to protecting and defending each other's rights will be irrevocably extinguished.

• This is an extract from a speech by DA National Spokesman Lindiwe Mazibuko MP, to the Cape Town Press Club, earlier this week.

·         TAKEN FROM TIMESLIVE.CO.ZA

Let's save our children from dying like Amy Winehouse

Jackson Mthembu | 31 July, 2011

All parents would like to see their children grow up and become useful members of society. This is what has driven me to speak about our pain when our first-born son veered from a normal life.

It was only after he failed matric twice that we discovered he had been a drug user and addict since grade 5.

He would have been around 11 or 12 years old at the time.

We became aware of his drug use through his peers at high school, but we had already become suspicious. His performance at school had gradually deteriorated from best performer to average - and ultimately a worst performer in matric.

We had become puzzled at the disappearance of home appliances and expensive toys belonging to his siblings, like a Sony PlayStation.

Television sets vanished, as did video recorders and sound systems, his younger brother's clothes - even bottles of expensive liquor .

When we found out the truth, we persuaded him to go to a rehab centre where he spent about six months .

When he came back we thought our difficulties were over. But after a month or two, he was back on the drug trail. He said the environment in Nelspruit was not conducive for him to stay clean; he pestered us to let him live with his biological mother in Witbank. There, he said, the supply of drugs was "not as huge".

In Witbank he got worse and stole appliances and groceries.

On his return to Nelspruit he started living on the street. We again made efforts to take him to rehab.

When he returned again, we organised with some of our friends to have him employed by their company in Johannesburg.

He fooled us all by pretending he was clean. But then he started stealing from them and from his co-workers. Then, as usual, he disappeared.

Again, he lived on the streets until we found him and took him to rehab after talking to him at great length. He came back and pretended to be "a good person and clean".

But it was only a matter of time. When he stole money we had put aside to pay for his school fees for his siblings, we took him to the police and brought a complaint of theft against him.

After a few weeks, we withdrew the complaint - but he was back at the police station after robbing someone else.

We have lost count of how many times we took him to rehab. At one stage we enrolled him at a further education and training college and paid all the fees. But he was there only a month before disappearing into the streets.

It was then that I said to his mother, stepmother and siblings that I would have nothing to do with him until he decided what to do with his own life.

I believe as a family we have done everything possible to help my son and support him. I told him I had reached the point of walking away from him - and the only way he could come back into my life was when he proved he could lead a life without drugs.

I even told him that if he did not change his ways, we would be available only to bury him.

I said these things - and they hurt me. But what do you do as a parent to save your kid from this disruptive life? What do you do when you have other kids who need your parental love, support and look up to you?

We have received a message of support from Archbishop Desmond Tutu. I was fortunate to receive a prayer from the Arch and I believe that he was not only praying for me but all parents in a similar situation.

I believe that as a country we need to close the drug supply line. I believe we need to remove the suppliers from our streets, our schools and our public and private places.

If not, we will not win this war against drugs and we will most likely have a lost generation. I believe my son is already in that category.

We need to have a way of coming together to fight this scourge. We need to form forums and associations to help in the war against drugs.

We feel - and live - the pain of being the parents of children who are drug addicts. The time to stand up is now.

Let us not have a host of Amy Winehouses in South Africa.

We must come together, work with our government agencies and institutions. We owe this to our country and our children.

• Jackson Mthembu is the national spokesman of the ANC

Does YOUR child need help?

If you have a child or know of someone who is in dire need of help to fight a drug addiction, contact the South African National Council on Alcoholism and Drugs at centres countrywide or dial the helpline: 0861 173 422.

·       Taken from Timeslive.co.za