When no news is good news

The dilemma faced by cartoonists over the holiday period is that all the politicians and other news makers go on holiday too so today I was faced with drawing a cartoon about Nelson Mandela coming out of hospital or about the dire road fatality rate. Well, you don't joke about the nation's favourite old man when he's sick, so I had to think about the road deaths. South Africans seem to have a death wish when behind the wheel and with the holidays only half done and the death rate already over 1000, how does one make this remotely humorous? When in doubt, drag up an old joke and retell it. Here's the old overtaking/undertaking concept made tragically new again because one of the major causes of road death seems to be reckless overtaking. Sometimes I'm glad to stuck in my studio over the holidays - at least I'm off the roads.

Past their sell-by date

The ANC has decided it needs to do some serious fund-raising and has come up with some seemingly not so serious ways of doing this. Seems to me the ANC has sold the whole country down the river years ago.

Party split

Good move Kgalema. Try to do something ethical in the ANC and they'll walk all over you.

ExYLed

Out in the cold and nowhere to go. I think many South African are feeling between a rock and a hard place. With Jacob Zuma re-elected by the faithful, we are not sure what to expect apart from more of the same. The only positive is that old JUJU and his pals stay out in the cold without a snowball's chance of getting back into the ANC fold.

Trevor drops a bomb

Minister for National Planning, Trevor Manuel, has declined a nomination to the ANC National Executive, saying he wants to make room for the younger generation. Methinks he no longer wants to be associated with the kleptocrats in the ruling party. Good move, clever Trevor, you know when to make a plan!

Keeping the lid on

The SABC is adamant to show itself as biased and only representing the Zuma faction of the ruling party in the run up to the Mangaung conference.Now they've canned an interview with controversial cartoonist Zapiro. Even without cartoons, the government and their sycophants are the laughing stock of the country.

Never talk religion and politics

Be careful of getting into the face of someone from a spiritual perspective when they have an ANC card and therefore a direct line to Heaven.

Charity begins at home

Those generous Santas to the greater population of SA, The department of Social Development, are at it again. Following the lead of their illustrious leader, Minister Bathabile Dhlamini, who favours staying in the Radison Blu Hotel, the Westin Grand Arabella Quays, the One & Only hotel and the Hilton in Durban when visiting the "very rural areas", the East Cape Department of Social development has been on a spending spree and has run out of money, three months before the financial year ends. This is the same department that has, again following the Minister's example, become involved in a controversy earlier this year for its exorbitant spending on luxury accommodation and travel for senior officials, including MEC Pemmy Majodina. Their Seasonal message to the taxpayer - "Remember it is more blessed to give than to receive " !

shadow boxing

Will it be a TKO or will Motlanthe stand up and step into the ring ? Who knows - ANC politics is all smoke and mirrors anyway.

Kak service but betaal anyway

Accountability - obviously a word that doesn't appear in any government documentation. Mr Masualle, one question, if the financial buck for the province stops with you, how can you bemoan the poor audit results ? fire yourself !

blinnkered outlook

How can the man make such utterances that are just patently obviously untrue? Seems like he's making a horse's @$$ out of himself.

bad eggs

Five Eastern Cape municipalities are about to be put under administration by the local Government due to poor delivery and paralysis of the councils by ANC factions fighting for control. Come on ANC, get rid of the rotten eggs and the stink of corruption.

building up a head of steam

The run up to the Mangaung conference highlights the devastating split in the ANC although the top brass are busy blowing smoke to hide this possible derailment of the gravy train.

fight to the finish

medical emergency

Our emergency medical services are currently on an illegal strike and have effectively shut down most of the regions hospitals. Naturally we sympathize with their pay problems but when there are stories of intimidation, shooting at patient transport vehicles and comments such as "if they die, they die", then it becomes another matter. As if public healthcare was not risky enough in this province !

something fishy going on here

The supposedly public broadcaster is continuing to protect the image of the president from disrepute, this time from nefarious fast food vendors. Maybe the president should behave like a leader before he gets chucked out like yesterday's fish and chip wrapper.

Reaping the Rewards

Well, Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, Tina Joemat-Pettersson obviously didn't join the struggle to be poor. Another comrade caught plundering the cookie jar and will probably just get a slap on the wrist and a pardon. Talking about fishing, the government obviously believes in catch and release!

Clamming up

Still trying to get some answers from behind the walls of secrecy about Nkandlaville. Mrs Public Protector go get him!

Scary, very scary

The Daily Dispatch has done an expose about the poor conditions at EC public school hostels. Bad food, overcrowding, no security, poor supervision, pit toilets, no running water and, worst of all, NO HOSTELS. Yes, the taxpayer has been paying for over 40 hostels that only exist on paper. What with ghost teachers and ghost pupils, no we have ghost hostels. This is after national government has intervened to help the provincial education department. Failed government = failed generation of kids!

Pulling the wool over their eyes

Factions trying to influences voting at branch level in the leadup to the ANC elective conference. A scam was uncovered where a guy was going around getting people to sign an attendance register for a meeting they had never been to. These are the people that choose the leaders in my country ! The sheeple keep voting these criminals into power.

pothole capital of the country

Well, good old Slummies sure has a whole lot going for it - huge potholes and the @$$holes who never fix them.

His master's voice !

How the hell can we believe you, you lie, you 8@$$**%#, you lie !

ANCestors speak !

The stalwarts of the ANC must really be rolling in their graves at the goings on in party today. I wonder if the President's shenanigans will come back to haunt him ?

defender of the farce

As they say,respect is earned, not demanded, and can't be legislated either, unless your a fascist dictator. Mr. President, you're a dishonest, bad leader and you'll get all that you deserve, and that doesn't include RESPECT. The nation deserves better.

party hopping

Looks like our ex-premier, "Barefoot Balindlela" is making another political jump. A political leap of faith as it were. The question is, can a leap frog change its spots?

Slap in the face

What to do as a city manager or municipal official when you get bust for fraud, corruption, business as usual. a/ Leave before the investigation is finished - charges get dropped. b/ Go to court and win on a technicality - get paid a huge settlement and get released from your post. c/ Resign while suspended and investigations just lapse. Get a job as HOD for the Dept of Housing. Your boss the Premier says: "No court of law has found him guilty of any charge". What a slap in the face for the citizen's of this country.

unhappy holidays

The nanny state is now considering a proposal to remove the Christian holidays Christmas Day and Good Friday from the official calendar. How about we look at such notable and important days such as Human Rights Day (ask the poor and unemployed), youth Day (think of our brilliant education system for a moment, Worker's Day (unemployment again). Trying to fix inequality and redress discrimination, Mr. Zuma? Fix what's broken first!

On the defensive

Princess Sisulu has been called out about her abuse of luxury plane travel courtesy of the the SA Air Force and our tax money. As usual, she believes the best form of defence is obfuscation and attack. Luckily she's been demoted and must now use ordinary boring old SAA, which, come to think of it, has just been subsidized by our tax money yet again in order to keep it flying.

sanitized viewing

Just when you thought that the SABC was the national broadcaster - after all your tax money and licence fees pay for it- it seems that they answer only to the ANC. What a crock. No wonder they call it TELL/LIE/VISION.

breakaway meeting

The meeting apparently didn't even get to happen because they couldn't make a quorum. Then the chairs flew. Luckily the didn't get to TABLE the agenda!

tough race

The world holds its collective breath as the US election race enters its final stretch. As a cartoonist, its fascinating to look at the work of US cartoonists over the past few weeks. There is no other news story (apart from Sandy)and they dissect each and every utterance of the candidates, resulting in some brilliant cartoons. Have a look at http://cagle.com.

Long time no post

Been pretty slack at posting so here are the latest five.

whoosh!

Economic free fall in our lifetime.

fingered

The Public Protector released a damning report on the financial shenanigans of Julius Malema and the company that fronted his wealth creation scams, On Point engineering. With all the evidence pointing in his direction, some cartoons just write themselves.

talking rubbish

Our municipality is currently hosting a national conference on waste management. Oh the irony, considering our history of dirty streets and uncollected refuse and, of course the fact that our city is affectionately (or not), known as "Slummies"!

slow progress

The country is being held to ransom by the unions as well as wildcat strikes by non aligned workers. What does the government do, ignore the situation and carry on driving the road to Mangaung. Keep the unions happy until voting at the ANC is done then all alliances can again be abused.

Stormy times ahead

It all seems to be doom and gloom at the moment. Strike season has turned into a disaster area and it affects us all. All the government is interested in is protecting its own interests and is ignoring the fact that the country is going down the tubes while they fight over the spoils. You kleptocrats!

roll over plan

Buffalo City Metro is in danger of losing government funds for infrastructure development such as housing and electricity and transport because they are too useless and corrupt and poorly managed. Now there is a big plan in place to implement this spending so the money doesn't disappear. I'd say more cover up and less roll over, if you ask me.

surfing elvis

Just a caricature I drew recently. What's up with a surfer wearing an Elvis jumpsuit being chased by a shark while drinking a beer as a vulture flies overhead carrying a newspaper? Don't ask me but that's what I was asked to draw !!

Throw the rubbish out

This is the state of our local govt. Scandal after scandal. We need to recycle these crooks and wasters out of business.

flights of fancy

BCMM has been outed by national treasury as having only spent 32.8% of the Capital Budget for this year. This against a background of failing infrastructure, moans, letters in the paper and even the odd service delivery protest. Get this, during during the first quarter, the city spend only 1% of a R107 million housing budget and 1% of a R 221.6 million transport planning budget. Despite power outages, the city spent NONE of the R36 million of its electricity budget and a whopping R 1000 of its support services budget. Naturally, none of this worries our mayor as she enjoys flights, smooth roads, hotel accomodation and uniterrupted services in overseas countries. She is currently visiting Germany on official business of course. Oh yes, the municipality did, however, manage R 150 million in irregular, fruitless and wasteful expenditure.

Birds of Prey

Waiting like the rest of SA to see if Juju gets his comeuppance. Preying on the poor miners to further his own political ends, lets see if the Hawks can take down the vulture, or will they chicken out?

passing the buck

Will it be possible to find out who's to blame for the Marikana tragedy? Not likely, good luck with the commission of enquiry. Oh, maybe we could blame Apartheid!

poor reflection

According to comrade president, service delivery is going exceptionally well. Pity he didn't tell that to the local government and municipalities in the Eastern Cape. Oh, Comrade President, maybe you should let the service delivery protesters know as well. There's definitely something wrong with this picture.

another week's worth sort of