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.

Workshop for Democracy

Captions: Top - DDP's Manju Marimuthu with presenter Martin Challenor, project co-ordinator Pinky Naidoo and Marlan Padayachee of GreenGold Africa Communications, facilitator of the KAS DDP Multiparty Media Workshop for KZN political parties at the Kingfisher Conference Centre, Mount Edgecombe from 9-11 September.

Above: Me - "working the room".


With a general election looming in South Africa, multiparty cooperation and networking (even if it is behind the scenes) is essential.

What is also necessary is that the political parties and their designated players learn to establish better relationships with the media.

The Democracy Delvelopment Programme (DDP) a partner project of the Konrad Adenauer Trust in Germany, has been running multi party programs since the early 90's, "supporting capacity building on governance and civil society levels to ensure that both are empowered for meaningful participation in South Africa’s social transformation"

I recently enjoyed participating in one of these three day workshops through the involvement of my old speechwriting colleague Marlan Padayachee of GreenGold Africa Communications.