Thomas Johnson - The Blog

Following Vicki Momberg's sentence of two years for calling a policeman "kaffir" in 2016, the liberal-left - the usual suspects of government, SA Human Rights Commission, media, politicians, ANC wannabe DA and academics - are praising it as a "victory against racism" and saying " racism is criminal ", which won't be tolerated. Magistrate Pravina Raghoonandan was grandstanding politically with the sentence and denial of Momberg's bail while she appeals.  Even murderer Oscar Pistorius and multiple murder accused Henri van Breda were granted bail. What gives? The usual politically correct rabble are in paroxysms of pleasure at the alleged victory over racism. Racism is an attitude or belief, and privately held attitudes or beliefs like racism, sexism, anti-Semitism, xenophobia, etc are not criminal unless they are acted upon. Hate speech, or in this case, crimen injuria, is the overt – verbal, written or act – expression of an attitude ...

Daily Maverick columnist and Western Cape Premier Helen Zille’s articles (I’m often not sure which role comes first) is always food for thought and a chuckle.   While her army of supporters agree with what she says with fulsome praise, I often find her self-righteousness and know-it-all hubris – her Delphic-like pronouncements – nauseating, to say the least.   When Daily Maverick still had comments, I regularly criticised her centrist, DA navel-gazing arguments and opinions, e.g., her oft-stated view that auditor-general audits of government are hindering service delivery (and here ). When I said she was misinformed, she replied I didn’t “understand” government audits (I was once a contracted AG auditor, and said so).   On a different occasion, she said I was always “insulting and personal” when I pointed out inconsistencies. It’s a pity they discontinued comments (but soon to be reinstated, they promise) because I’d have robustly responded t...

Adv. Rodney de Kock, Director of Public Prosecutions, Cape Town  Copy: National Director of Public Prosecutions Adv. Shaun Abrahams Dear Mr De Kock Refer to my letter of 19 March 2018. My mom died at Groote Schuur Hospital on 7 July 2017 of "unnatural causes".  You have had the docket including post-mortem report and medical negligence opinion since January 2018. Last year, after the South African police did nothing on the case for four months, I literally did their work for them and handed a sworn statement to you and expedited the collection of the post-mortem reports so they could deliver them to you.  You have not even taken statements from any of the accused from the hospital and Western Cape Health Department - the names I gave you including a foreign doctor who might be a flight risk and/or already left the country. But your office and police freely gave Premier Helen Zille's and Western Cape Government's legal representative confidential infor...