The Sad Story of Carl Niehaus

Unlike many people, especially those critical of the ruling party, I don't see the story of Carl Niehaus as a sign of "endemic corruption" or a "breakdown of morals" in the ANC.

I know the excited, baying crowds, jumping up and down on the sidelines have been waiting since 1994 to say "We told you so!" (Of course they will deny that they are racists or that they really believe that black majority rule can never work).

They will spew lofty words like democracy and morality and leadership and rule of law. Wonderful, noble and great goals to strive for and exactly the kind of stuff I would love to have in place if I lived in a perfect society.

But I don't.

Do we forget so quickly? We live in South Africa.

It has been a VERY short time in history since we have been a FREE country.

I have Jewish friends who still won't buy a German car and when did the war end? (WW ll)

Does a soldier with post traumatic stress ever not duck and hide when he hears a car backfire? Does a beaten dog ever not cringe when you put out your hand towards it? Does an abused child, when grown, up ever "get over" the trauma?

This generation of South Africans and maybe the next will be too close to the horrors of apartheid - the "Crime against humanity" - to always function in the nicely packaged acceptable Western normal way.

Some escape with less scars, others with more.

We just have to deal with it. And not throw everyone under the bus.

I feel sorry for Carl Niehaus. I wanted to klap him when he went on and on, on TV like this was his last confession. I can only imagine how embarrassing it was for the ANC.

I thought Carl should have got himself a therapist long ago and sorted out his problems. Hopefully we will do so now, and find some peace.

How will the ANC COPE with Transformation?

Unlike many of my friends, comrades and countrymen (and women) I haven't ushed of to join the Congress of the People (COPE).

I'm watching with great interest how the political scenario in South Africa is evolving and developing and how the African National Congress (ANC) is reacting to a potential real opposition.

I hope the leaders of COPE and the ANC are going to a bit more responsible in their rhetoric. The vote of the "masses" that they are competing for is like a Freestate veld in July when a high wind howls and someone throws a stompie out of a car window.

I'm afraid that if they throw too many stompies out of car windows we're doing to have casualties.

The masses are politically aware but maybe not sophisticated enough to understand the robust rhetoric of their leaders and the wild metaphors - it would be a tragedy if some decide to take matters into their own hands to ensure the security of their party.

I don't know whether COPE will last or not, but I believe that it can only be good in the long run for South African democracy, although a right centrist opposition - I don't know.

The ANC has to transform from a liberation organisation into a political party. It has to shake off its arrogance and get better organised, and with COPE nipping at it's heels - it might just emerge stronger.

Will the Congress of the People be just another splinter party or the beginning or a new look opposition - time will tell.

Politicians on the "tube"

Remember the last American Presidential campaign and how Howard Dean built up his numbers by harnessing the powers of the internet? He did something that wasn’t supposed to work in politics – he gave up control to a bunch of bloggers and young voters.

David Weinberger, his online campaign manager explains: “The thing I think the Dean campaign got right was recognizing that... brand does not emanate from the center. Advertising does and marketing does, but actual awareness of and enthusiasm about a so-called brand comes from the market,"

“If you want to build a social network quickly, the only way to do it is by giving up some measure of control. Control throttles growth," he says. "So they very purposefully and explicitly gave up some control, a remarkable degree of control, over their message in order to allow the supporters to find one another" he said.

Well what does that mean for us here in South Africa with our Presidential succession race looming at the end of the year?

Does it not really touch us at all because we aren’t so internet-connected yet?

Or is it that the African National Congress still regards itself more of a liberation movement than a political party?

Maybe it is because the grassroots support – where the majority of votes comes from, after all, lie in the ANC branches? So, I guess we just leave it to the mainstream media to wildly speculate while the ANC does its own thing as it always has.

It would be nice if a few names were put up and people who declared themselves eligible for the position could post a channel with videos of a few topics and we, the voters could interact with them, ask questions. There are plenty of us who truly believe in people centered governance.

Reuters reported on 1 March that top White House candidates have unveiled their own YouTube video channels, pushing the 18-month-old Web video-sharing site even farther into the U.S. political mainstream.

They can post a video in which they speak on a given issue while members of the public will be able post a video response or questions for the candidate.

Politicians have the final say about what appears on their channels, but they still may be unable to prevent being caught up in what became known last year as the "macaca" phenomenon.

Republican Senator George Allen of Virginia, lost a closely fought election after getting some unwanted publicity when a video showed up on YouTube of him calling a rival's staffer "macaca" -- an African monkey and sometimes a racial slur. The rival's staffer was of Indian origin.

Jordan Hoffner, YouTube director of content partnerships, said candidates might get the most benefit from their channels by being as open as possible.

Some of the politicians you can watch and interact with are Hilary Clinton, Barak Obama, and Rudi Giuliani.