Turmoil as whites flock to join ANC coalition (HOLD MY CASTLE LAGER ALERT)

South Africa's once dominant white political parties were in chaos last night as hundreds of white politicians defected to set up a coalition with the ruling African National Congress.

The defections delivered Cape Town and Durban councils to the ANC, the only major areas where it had not won control since coming to power in 1994 after the end of apartheid.

The turmoil also led to the ANC seizing control for the first time of the university town of Stellenbosch, the cradle of Afrikaner intellectual thinking and alma mater of Hendrik Verwoerd, chief architect of apartheid. The winner is the ANC, whose hegemony over South African politics is ever stronger.

The crisis had its origins in the uneasy union of South Africa's two mainly white opposition parties, the Democratic Party and the New National Party, under the single banner of the Democratic Alliance two years ago.

The alliance's main aim was to create a single, joint opposition party to combat the ANC, the dominant force in South African politics with about 67 per cent of the vote.

But the historical enmity between DP, traditional home of the Anglo-South Africans, and the NNP, home to Afrikaner-South Africans, has proved too strong. The parties had differences dating back to the Boer Wars of the 19th century.

In public, the party leaders hid their differences. Tony Leon, of the DP, presented a warm and united front with the NNP's Marthinus van Schalkwyk for the municipal elections of December 2000. But behind the scenes Mr Van Schalkwyk was riled by Mr Leon's domineering style. Mr Leon, who is Jewish, accused his rival of anti-Semitism.

Tempted by an offer from the ANC of a possible seat in the national cabinet, Mr Van Schalkwyk did something unthinkable just a few years ago, committing his party, successor to the "Nats" who created apartheid, to an ANC-led coalition. His members crossed the floor in parliament and in provincial councils, but Mr Van Schalkwyk did not get a cabinet seat, instead becoming premier of the Western Cape.

Meanwhile a legal battle broke out over whether municipal councillors elected on the joint Democratic Alliance ticket could join the alliance with the ANC in defiance of Mr Leon. South Africa's Constitutional Court eventually ruled that local councillors could legally cross the floor in a 15-day window that ends next Tuesday.

The result was a tide of defections and by last night 249 of the Democratic Alliance's 1,400 councillors had left. Mr Van Schalkwyk proclaimed his rival's demise.

But Mr Leon said that, of the 612 former NNP members elected as councillors under the DA flag, only about a third had followed their party leader to the ANC. The crisis would clear the air in South African politics and allow the DA to fight on a clear ticket as the main opposition party to the ANC, he said.

The DA's roots are exclusively white, but in one election in a black rural area it won 30 per cent of the vote, mainly from black South Africans frustrated by the ANC's failure to provide jobs and basic amenities.

Perhaps the white South Africans (in particular the Afrikaners who did this), will next offer to evict themselves and shoot themselves in the head for Mbeki's benefit. After all, it's only a matter of time before they impersonate Rhodesia (Zimbabwe).

This is unbelievably stupid - rather than agree with Leon for the good of the country, the Afrikaners just gave the Marxists more power. Truly a "Hold muh beer" moment.

Regards, Ivan

June 15, 2002 - Gaddafi 'aims to hijack' African Union organization***Mr Mbeki fears Colonel Gaddafi's bid to control the AU will derail the New Partnership for African Development (Nepad), which is backed by Tony Blair and other G8 leaders and is due to be an AU project. Under Nepad, countries adhering to democracy and good governance will receive aid from richer countries in addition to other concessions. The Libyan leader has deployed several diplomats to lobby African countries to delay the Durban ceremony because he wants the AU to be launched in Sirte, Libya. That would automatically give him the chairmanship of the AU.

Colonel Gaddafi wants the Durban meeting downgraded to an annual summit of OAU leaders pending the launch of the AU in Libya at a later stage. But diplomats attending an OAU-Civil Society summit here say his ambitions will sabotage any programmes intended to help Africa's recovery. "Mbeki knows that any move to put the AU under Gaddafi will immediately kill both the AU and Nepad because no Western country will pour aid into a programme or institution run by Gaddafi," said one diplomat.***

August 9, 2002 Group Faults Libya's Nomination to Head U.N. Commission on Human Rights***UNITED NATIONS, Aug 8 (IPS) - A leading human rights organization has appealed to African nations to reverse their decision to nominate Libya as the next chairman of the Geneva-based U.N. Commission on Human Rights. "Countries with dreadful rights records should never be in charge of chairing the Commission on Human Rights," Rory Mungoven, global advocacy director for New York-based Human Rights Watch (HRW), said Thursday.

"Libya's long record of human rights abuses clearly does not merit such a reward," he added. But a spokesman for the Libyan Mission to the United Nations refuted the charges made by HRW. "They are entitled to their opinion," he told IPS. "Ours is an open society. We have nothing to hide and we are not in violation of human rights," he added. Moreover, he said, Libya's nomination had been endorsed at the highest levels of government - at a summit meeting of more than 50 African leaders in Durban, South Africa last month.

The original decision to nominate Libya was taken by the U.N.'s African regional group, comprising all 54 African members. It was reaffirmed by heads of state attending the recently concluded inaugural summit of the new African Union (AU), the successor to the now-defunct Organisation of African Unity (OAU). ***

Indeed. I've been watching South Africa in free fall ever since the ANC came to power, even more so with Cuban-trained Mbeki.

I've worked closely with the South African military back in the mid-90's. We had a delegation of South African senior officers come to Wash DC. Each one had a black guy stapled to his hip. The black guy was his replacement. I spoke to the then-head of the South African Medical Coprs. He was distraught, as his replacement had no medical training or experience, no management or adminstrative training or experience, no executive training or experience. Perfect for running a complex organization of a highly technical nature.

Tragic. Zimbabwe all over again.

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