Friends of Gaddafi II

The ANC Youth League has strongly condemned the death of the deposed dictator Gaddafi, hailing him as an “inspiration to many freedom fighters across the continent and the world”.

They also refer to Gaddafi as “Brother Leader” who was “ ruthlessly killed by rebels armed by Nato forces.” 

Cosatu has also referred to battered images of the dictator before his death as “triumphalism” and “an example of imperialist barbarism at its worst”.

Zuma himself has also opposed the killing of Gaddafi, saying he believes the dictator should have been arrested as he had a warrant out for his arrest by the International Criminal Court (ICC).

The very same warrant that Zuma as well as the rest of the African Union refused to recognise.

The ANC had offered Gaddafi asylum even with the arrest-warrant in place so their statements are blatantly hypocritical.

It's also quite suspicious that a team of South African mercenaries were involved in trying to help Gaddafi escape.

Even more suspicious is that one of these mercenaries is apparently a South African 'spy'. 
He is now in a Libyan hospital and has stated that their convoy during the attempted extraction from Sirte was overwhelmed by rebels and Nato air support forcing them to escape and leading to at least two SA mercenary deaths.

The question is: what was a South African agent doing with these mercenaries?

The response of the ANC has been that the SA government did not “officially” support such an operation.

The wording in their statement is quite telling since why would they have needed to add the word “officially” into their response if they were opposed to the attempted extraction?

This is not the first time that SA mercenaries were involved in an “extraction” in Libya, they have also helped Gaddafi's daughter and other family members escape to Tunisia. Possibly even the same team that tried to do the same for Gaddafi himself.

Documents were also discovered indicating that the SA government were in negotiations with the Gaddafi regime after the initial uprisings in order to provide weapons as well as military advisor's and training personal. 
These negotiations however collapsed after the no-fly zone was declared.

In February this year a massive arms cache was discovered in Kimberly which seems to have received a total media blackout locally. 
According to a SA Police Service spokesperson two opened containers were discovered at the local railway station containing: “18 tons of explosives, missile warheads, 20 tons of ammunition, 9mm pistols and AK47s”. 

The containers were from Durban, possibly arriving from the port and were headed to another destination but the police would not say where.
Though whether the arms were intended for local use of course leads to other questions especially which group/s they were intended for.

But it is strange that the government would keep quiet about the discovery of such a massive arms cache, the most shocking contents being the missile warheads. And why was there a media blackout?

With regards to the ANC's sympathies for the “gruesome killing” of Gaddaffi, the sight of a corrupt dictator covered in blood and violently killed by his own people with support from the West is probably not one they wish to dwell on too much.

African Union refuses to recognise Libyan Rebels

The African Union has still refused to recognise the rebel National Transitional Council as the legitimate government of Libya, despite the fact that Gaddafi's regime is no longer in control of the country or the capital.

President Zuma who is also the chairman for the AU committee on Libya has stated the reason for this is that Tripoli is still not under full rebel control, “fighting is still going on. That is the reality. We can't say this is a legitimate (government) now. The process is fluid.”

The AU has called for the formation of "an inclusive transitional government, the establishment of a constitutional and legislative framework for the democratic transformation of Libya as well as for support towards the organisation of elections and a national reconciliation process".

The stance of the AU is the same as the ANC, they both want an “inclusive” government also represented by Gaddafi's regime and will not solely recognise the rebels as the legitimate government while fighting carries on.

To expect the rebels to invite their enemy whose military were on the path to “fill the streets with blood” of the rebel held cities back into government, and who have now been militarily defeated would be illogical and would simply allow the regime they defeated to reassemble again.

Zuma and the AU's argument that they won't recognise the rebel government because the rebels don't have 'full' control of Tripoli lacks credibility.
They are equating a governments control of a country on account of it's possession of the capital, which is absurd, but even more so since all that is left of the 'government' are a few scattered enclaves of armed groups.

The government has already fled and is in hiding.

The remaining die-hards still fighting are those that now have nothing left to lose, and know that if they are captured their end would be worse than to die fighting.

If the AU and ANC really want to look at some sort of historical basis to base their views on that of 'those who control the capital control the country', then unfortunately for them: the walls have been breached, the enemy have stormed the city, and the King has fled.

Unfortunately none of the media are asking the glaring question, namely: 'What does such fervent support for Gaddafi and his regime say about the nature of the AU and ANC?'

And why does a 'liberation movement' and the AU so strongly support African dictators instead of those struggling for democracy? First in Zimbabwe and now in Libya.

The African Union and the ANC have shown that they would rather support a dictatorship than to see a 'liberation movement' deposed by a popular uprising backed by the West and thus setting a precedent.

For their leadership, this is an uncomfortable thought.

Friends of Gaddafi

South Africa has still refused to recognise the rebel National Transitional Council (NTC) as the official government of Libya. 

They still recognise Gaddafi's regime as the legitimate government.

They have also blocked the releasing of £1 billion in frozen accounts from Gaddafi to the NTC.

Zuma has defended the ANC's actions by saying that the Nato backed Revolution has undermined the “African Union's efforts and initiatives to handle the situation in Libya”.

He also stated that the new government should be partly comprised of Gaddafi's regime:

“Our expectation as the South African government, consistent with the AU, is that this will be an all-inclusive process. So you will have elements of the NTC as well as elements of the regime or government of Colonel Gaddafi.”

He has also stated that several nations had used the UN resolutions “to further interests other than to protect civilians and assist the Libyan people”..

The stance from Zuma and the ANC comes as no surprise.

Gaddafi supported the ANC during Apartheid by providing financial support and weapons as well as specialised training in sabotage and terrorism.

Gaddafi has also donated generously to the ANC since they have come to power.

Likewise the African Union has also received generous donations and full support from Gaddafi.

He also personally gave Zuma $2 million to cover the costs of his rape trial.

This information had been leaked to the local press by the National Intelligence Agency (NIA) and stated that Zuma had personally flown to Tripoli to receive these funds.

His visit had been preceded by the leader of the SACP and representatives of Cosatu, his biggest backers in the ousting of Mbeki as president of the ANC and the country.

It is highly likely they were negotiating assistance for their presidential candidate.

This may be one of the biggest reasons for Zuma's support, since Gaddafi had personally helped him when he needed help the most.

The ANC had also till recently offered Gaddafi asylum in South Africa which would have allowed him to escape prosecution for his crimes and access to some of his funds. And with the rest of the AU they refused to recognise the UN arrest warrant against Gaddafi.

The hypocrisy and irony of the ANC choosing to support a dictatorship instead of a democracy supported by a popular uprising is hard not to notice.

Considering that the ANC relied heavily on international support and funds in achieving their objectives the hypocrisy is even more striking.

The ANC has stated that their policy is to not interfere in the affairs of other African countries, their choice of dealing with the situation without a UN resolution would be via so-called 'quiet diplomacy' which entails no sanctions or military intervention but only dialogue.

This was used in Zimbabwe and proved to be a catastrophic disaster leading to the virtual collapse of the country with an imploded economy, massive unemployment, hunger and repression.

Their second method, now that Gaddafi and his regime have effectively been ousted, is to allow them back into government via a 'national unity' type government.

Once again these are exactly the same tactics used in Zimbabwe.

The ANC encouraged and helped facilitate a government of 'national unity' between Mugabe's Zanu-PF and the opposition MDC.

This has led to the MDC being almost totally controlled and virtually absorbed by Zanu-PF who still have total control of the country and with no signs of any change in sight.

The ANC support Mugabe because he supported them in the past and because they did not want to see a fellow 'liberation party' removed from power by a so-called 'neo-colonialist' party even though they had lost the election.

Likewise the ANC support Gaddafi and his regime because they received support in the Apartheid-era and have since they've been in power have continued to receive donations to their party.

And more recently Zuma has personally been given funds by Gadaffi.

One would have thought that the ANC would have put the priorities of millions of people before those of a single dictator and his clique.

By supporting Gadaffi, they would have accepted misery and repression of the entire Libyan population if it guaranteed them the continued funds and anti 'neo-colonialist' stance of Gadaffi and his AU support.

The fact that the ANC openly supports Gaddafi and his regime says much about them.

Friends of North Korea

Recently I watched a documentary called 'Friends of Kim', it was about a group of foreigners of a pro North Korean organisation called the 'Korean Friendship Association' who visited North Korea as a tour group.
All cancelled their memberships after the visit.
After seeing for themselves the living nightmare of this failed state and the oppressive nature of it's government and officials.

I had read before of the links between the African National Congress (ANC) and North Korea during Apartheid and wanted to see whether they still had friendly relations with the regime.

And while searching I quickly stumbled upon an article with the headlines:

 “ANC Youth League Unapologetically Supports North Korea”.

A delegation of the ANC Youth League visited North Korea in September last year in preparation for the World Festival of Youth to be held in South Africa.

The spokesperson of the ANCYL in his own words stated “we support North Korea unapologetically” and confirmed that the meeting took place.

His speech and several quotes from the spokesperson were recorded and published by the North Korean state-owned news agency KCNA including him stating that their cause “ is just and fair”.

To be honest, I wasn't really too surprised, as the beliefs of this totalitarian Communist state are very much similar to those currently voiced by ANCYL.

They openly call for the banks and mines to be be seized by the state and for white-owned land to be taken without renumeration and 're-distributed'.

Combined with the fact that they openly oppose capitalism and a free-market system and are Marxist-Leninist, and like their parent organisation they believe in a centralised state of “total hegemony in all sectors of society”.

North Korea is a failed state.

A country that has fallen out of the developed world, that once had a functioning infrastructure, albeit one that was heavily subsidised and propped-up by the Soviet Union. 

But some of the people still remember a time when things still worked.

It is a totalitarian dictatorship that keeps hundreds of thousands of its people in concentration camps, even testing biological weapons on entire families of 'traitors' at a time, locking them up in glass tubes and using deadly gas on them to see the reactions, and to see how they die.

This is a place where there is no such thing as freedom of speech, belief or of association, where the people are kept in constant terror by the state police and army. Just criticising the regime could get you and your entire family sentenced to the 'fifth degree', meaning your cousins, second-cousins and anyone even remotely related to get the same punishment, namely a death camp or a labour camp if they're lucky. Where they'd be tortured, starved and literally worked to death.

The cities are utterly run-down, littered with gaping abandoned factories that have long been stripped for parts and scrap metal.

People are so hungry so they even resort to eating grass, as much of their farming has collapsed due to disastrous government policies, creating a barren wasteland of useless soil unable to grow anything. This had lead to a landscape of mountains stripped bare of all trees and any sign of living life in order for people to survive.

In this country, people consider pine-cones and bark as food.

There is barely any system of functioning electricity in the country with the exception of their capital Pyongyang, yet even this city is hit regularly with power-failures. While water in the capital is often only running at certain hours.

And their transport network is likewise barely functioning. Even if one gets permission to travel, the trains still regularly break-down while even going at a slow pace and their buses are literally antiques.

Much of the city outside the capital has regressed to the levels of living of peasants pre-World War II. Life is a constant struggle of inactivity to save energy and burn as little calories as possible and a relentless search for food. Everything on their mind is about the next meal, how to catch the next bugs, where to find another rat, or who has some food stashed away to steal?

One could understand if the locals support their regime. 

They've been brainwashed from an early age, have weekly 'self-criticism' meetings where they have to openly admit their failings to their family, friends and colleagues, and make sure to show enough conviction and grief with a sufficient amount of wailing and despair to satisfy the officials.
They are conditioned to a life of non-stop never-ending terror.

They're sleep-deprived and are forced alongside their long work shifts to 'volunteer' for state construction projects overseen by armed guards while vehicles blare a constant stream of propaganda and music from loudspeakers.

There is barely any machinery or anything even as basic as electric drills so the labour is utterly back-breaking and at Victorian-era levels in terms of technology.

While some are forced to work in the mines in slave-like conditions, virtually in darkness and exposed to chemicals which will usually kill them over time if they haven't already died due to the harsh conditions. Their shift can only end if they've reached their quota and nce again there's no electricity, they're using picks and have to push, drag or often just carry the rocks in their arms without any protective clothing.

In the their houses, if they're lucky enough to get electricity, they're allowed to have a single 40 watt light bulb for the entire house. And their TV (if they're privileged enough) is mostly a never-ending loop of military parades, while shows deal with issues such as conforming to Socialist hairstyles while viewers follow agents confronting men in the streets whose hair is not in millimetrical conformity with the specifications outlined by their Dear Leader Kim Jong IL. And where state television teaches people how to cook bark and grass, leading to their own death if they follow this advice.

This is a country where soldiers die in their barracks from starvation. Where they roam around the countryside in armed groups and take food from peasants by force in order to survive since they barely get enough rations to live on. And virtually all fuel available in the country is allocated to the military. No-one owns a car except the small elite of the Workers Party.

This is a place where in order to survive one must learn from an early age to break the rules and steal, or die from starvation, since if one is lucky enough to get their rations it's still not enough to live on.

It is a country of midgets, where people are considerably shorter than those in the in the South, despite being of the same race. Their growth has been stunted due to malnutrition and they're about a foot a shorter than their countrymen in the South. 

And where as a result of such malnutrition women have been known to only have their first period at 21, while late teens is common.

North Korea is a place where state television has to blur the visuals if they show footage of riots in South Korea or of people outside their borders so that the population cannot see how well they're dressed. Since most North Koreans only have a single pair of clothes, mostly ragged and threadbare. Those 'fortunate' enough to live in the showcase capital Pyongyang are the political elite and even their supposedly good clothing such as a suite, is very poor in quality and made of a mass-produced cheap material unique to North Korea.

The fact that the ANCYL support this regime and it's system of government, even after seeing it themselves first-hand, says much about them. 

Not to mention what it says about their parent organisation, the ANC. Who according to the Youth League use them to publicly test some of their more controversial policies and see the public reaction to them.

Before the fall of the Soviet Union, the ANC was talking about creating “East Germany in Africa”, their socialist vision of a South Africa under their total control and with Soviet backing. Most had been trained in the Eastern Bloc countries and the Soviet Union and have still not abandoned the Marxist-Leninist ideology that was ingrained in their minds. As a result they still largely view the world from an archaic Cold War perspective where capitalism and the West are the enemies.

Today they still call each other 'comrade' and use Marxist and Communist terminology in their manifestos and openly on the publications on their website.

They talk of the 'National Democratic Revolution' which is the second-stage after taking control of the country, the third-phase is to implement full-blown Socialism and where the state has total control in all sectors. If one reads their literature it's right there, it's not a hidden agenda, most local whites don't understand the terms so think nothing of it, but to their followers, they know what the 'National Democratic Revolution' is referring to. Many of the ANC have dual memberships with the SA Communist Party, and prior to coming into the power the majority of them did.

The ANC are allies with North Korea, they are also allies with Cuba and Hugo Chavez's Venezuela. 
And before Saddam Hussein was ousted they used to give the visiting Ministers from his regime red-carpet welcomes to SA. And they still support Libya, arguing against the bombing of this regime and of Gaddafi's arrest if he flees and offering him asylum. Once again, Gaddafi and his ministers also used to receive official red-carpet welcomes to South Africa. They're also on friendly terms with the terrorist group Hamas and have voiced their support and have also declared solidarity with Iran.
The ANC are friends with every single enemy of the West.

Then there's Mugabe, who doesn't only get the red-carpet welcoming but is also usually embraced and holding hands with the previous and the current President as a sign of solidarity.

They support him and his regime because the notion of a 'liberation movement' being ousted from power by the public is not a pleasant reality for them and not one they want to dwell on too much. The ousting of a fellow liberation movement from power would have set a precedent, a dissatisfied public would see it is possible and that there is an alternative. Meaning that the ANC could be next.

So by all means possible they could not allow Mugabe's regime to end, even though they were elected out of power by a democratic vote. They gave political support and most important of all large financial support to prop up their regime which would have collapsed if it weren't from the funds given to them by the ANC.

There's a saying that says you can usually judge the nature of a person by the company they keep.

The ANC and their ANCYL are morally bankrupt.

There's not much else one can really say about a government that supports regimes which brutalise it's own populations and are ruled by one-party dictatorships.


(Friends of North Korea II can be found here)