Paul Kruger

Stephanus Johannes Paulus "Paul" Kruger (10 October 1825 – 14 July 1904) was one of the dominant political and military figures in 19th-century South Africa, and President of the South African Republic (or Transvaal) from 1883 to 1900. Nicknamed Oom Paul ("Uncle Paul"), he came to international prominence as the face of the Boer cause—that of the Transvaal and its neighbour the Orange Free State—against Britain during the Second Boer War of 1899–1902. He has been called a personification of Afrikanerdom, and remains a controversial and divisive figure; admirers venerate him as a tragic folk hero, while critics view him as the obstinate guardian of an unjust cause.

Born in the Eastern Cape Colony, Kruger took part in the Great Trek as a child during the late 1830s. He had almost no education apart from the Bible and, through his interpretations of scripture, believed the Earth was flat. A protégé of the Voortrekker leader Andries Pretorius, he witnessed the signing of the Sand River Convention with Britain in 1852 and over the next decade played a prominent role in the forging of the South African Republic, leading its commandos and resolving disputes between the rival Boer leaders and factions. In 1863 he was elected Commandant-General, a post he held for a decade before he resigned soon after the election of President Thomas François Burgers.

Kruger was appointed Vice-President in 1877, shortly before the South African Republic was annexed by Britain as the Transvaal. Over the next three years he headed two deputations to London to try to have this overturned and became the leading figure in the movement to restore the South African Republic's independence, culminating in the Boers' victory in the First Boer War of 1880–81. Kruger served until 1883 as a member of an executive triumvirate, and then was elected President. In 1884 he headed a third deputation that brokered the London Convention, under which Britain recognised the South African Republic as a fully independent state.

Following the influx of thousands of predominantly British settlers with the Witwatersrand Gold Rush of 1886, "uitlanders" (out-landers) provided almost all of the South African Republic's tax revenues but lacked civic representation; Boer burghers retained control of the government. The uitlander problem and the associated tensions with Britain dominated Kruger's attention for the rest of his presidency, to which he was re-elected in 1888, 1893 and 1898, and led to the Jameson Raid of 1895–96 and ultimately the Second Boer War. Kruger left for Europe as the war turned against the Boers in 1900 and spent the rest of his life in exile, refusing to return home following the British victory. After he died in Switzerland at the age of 78 in 1904, his body was returned to South Africa for a state funeral, and buried in the Heroes' Acre in Pretoria.

Mmusi Maimane, Do Not Worry, I Won’t Vote For The DA!

Today at the Apartheid Museum Maimane at last took of his blue jacket and put on his green, black and gold jacket!

I am a proud white South African but I am not a racists as branded by the ANC, EFF and also now by the DA. But today Maimane lost it just like Zuma lost it many moons ago.

It is good to say that if you are racist please do not vote DA but in his speech he hint that it is whites who are racists but what the poor man do not understand is that he himself is a racist when he last week tweeted about whites doing shopping but blacks must work in that shops. And what the poor man further does not realize is that due to Equity and Affirmative Action whites are not appointed to work there due to their skin colour – not naked racism Maimane to barr a certain race from working based on racists’ laws? So, Maimane, are you also not going to vote DA as you are a racist? And do you realize that it is the money of the white racists (racists according to ANC, EFF and DA) that pay those blacks’ salaries?

PS: for more than a week I tweeted you with information of incidents of black racism, even of Zuma but you did nothing but when a white is accused of racism you are immediately on your donkey like a Don Quixote storming the racist windmills!

Another PS: Although I am not a racist, I will not vote ANC, EFF or DA because I do not vote for a racist party!

By Nigel Olifaunt

Democratic Alliance (DA): Quo Vadis?

Everyone (except the ANC) was over the moon when Mmusi Maimane was elected in May 2015 as Federal Leader of the Democratic Alliance. It was especially the black constituents and the white liberal die-hards of the party that thought this was the Moses that was destined to lead South Africa out of the political desert  dear old Zuma and his ANC created.

But just like the ANC, the new leader (black for the first time) and his black liberals were not very happy with the whites in the party – their vision was to be a black party just like the ANC.

And then it was when the bells tolled for the demise of the DA. Why? Because the DA’s roots go back to the United Party and De Villiers Graaff, through to Helen Suzman, Colin Eglin, Tony Leon and Helen Zille – all white liberals! So, Maimane it seems was not happy with the white burden his party has to carry and in the process alienating the black supporters.

And then his lucky day arrived with Dianne Kholer Barnard and the joke that she was a racist for sharing a FB post that it was better with PW Botha in charge of the country. And like a true Don Quixote on his donkey started to fight the evil white racists – Penny Sparrow, Chris Hart and all the 4 million odd whites.

But, that was his party’s death knell!  What he forgot is that the DA and its predecessors were the traditional home of the liberal whites who were against Apartheid. And now with his ‘war against white racism’ is going to cost him the white conservative and liberal vote The author of this article do not support white racism but what about black racism? Here Maimane is mum on black racism because he cannot afford to alienate black majority voters.  There are many examples on the social media of incidents of black racism but Maimane turned/is turning a blind eye. Remember for what Kholer Barnard was called a racist for? But when Tutu and the Zulu King publicly said that SA was better off during Apartheid than under Zuma and the ANC did Maimane jumped on his donkey to fight these “vicious racists”? NO!!

Maimane is full of confident that the DA will give the ANC a hiding in the Municipal elections of 2016 – yes with the white vote but the conservative whites will see through him.

And what Maimane does not realise is that the majority of black voters will only vote DA to get rid of Zuma. But once Zuma is gone, there will be an influx of black voters back to the ANC!

So DA, with alienating white voters and black voters to go back to the ANC once Zuma is gone, quo vadis? (Where to Then?)

Easy: Get rid  of Maimane and start fighting racism per se!