First sign of a dictatorship is when the politicians start interfering with the Police activities. The Hawks are flying scared and in disarray.

Festive smoke and mirrors

Well, the dope smoking King of the Abathembu has done a complete turnaround. The so-called King, who called Zuma a zulu boy and a liar, and famously turned his back on the ANC by joining the opposition DA, is now sucking up to the president. Possibly he's trying to turn around the 15 year jail sentence hanging over his royal head.

ANC vision

Performing oversight but refusing to see the problems.  Old grumpy guts Gwede insists that the cadres in BCM are innocent until the ANC integrity commission finds otherwise. Yeah right, Another Nepotistic Crony.

the glow of privilege

Zuma says we have good things to celebrate in 2014.  Tell it to the people without lights, water, jobs, sanitation, dignity or hope.  A good reason to celebrate would be if you paid back the damned money!

Unqualified Liar

So she thinks it's over because she resigns.  She has obviously learnt from the Number one denialist, Jacob Zuma, just deny everything long enough and people forget and the whole thing goes away.  Well it wont. Nkandla is still there and the DA is there, taking Ms Tshabalaliar to court for lying under oath to the parliamentary committee. Liar, liar, pants on fire!

putting out fires

Poor old Cyril seems to be taking strain.  Our President seems to be taking care of Number One by dumping all the tough jobs on his deputy. Watch out, soon he might take on the big job !

worldbeater beauty

Rolene Strauss was crowned Miss World recently.  Far from being a dumb bimbo, she is intelligent, classy as well as beautiful.  Although many people disparage "beauty pageants", why belittle someone who is making the most of their god-given assets. You go girl!

dictator in the making

Our beloved "leader in red" has been elected as CIC of the EFF.  Nobody in the organization may dissent or cause trouble, unless it involves parliament and the youthful yobbo himself.

shocking solution

No wonder they call it "darkest Africa".  The "great leader" is really feeling in the dark to try and obscure his party's mismanagement and corruption.  The old apartheid card is getting really worn out now.

nature hazard

Not all the cartoons I draw are based on politics or even national stories.  This story comes from the small coastal town of Port Alfred where the local golfers wanted to get rid of the Egyptian geese that had invaded the course.  However, as it is situated within an urban area, the police were not too happy about any random shooting.  Now they are looking at plan B.

deafening silence

In any other civilized country, if there is a problem that is causing an outcry by the people and devastating the economy, the minister in charge would resign in shame. Welcome to South Africa where our illustrious minister of energy maintains an embarassing silence in the face of the Eskom crisis.  Shame on you Tina Joemat-Pettersson!

It's criminal

Want to pull the perfect crime ? Come to South Africa - you literally can get away with murder.

good grief

It's a real shame - the government (using my taxes) gives him R53 million a year on which he lives. Now he is broke, can't even afford groceries or school fees. What a royal scam - get a job!

lights out

Just so ironic that BCM makes a big splash of switching on the Festive street lights (paid for by us disgruntled ratepayers, but that's another story) at the same time as Eskom whacks us with load shedding in the lead up to the festive season. Lightness and joy ? I think not.

giant

A year has past since Madiba passed on.  He continues to throw a long shadow over the country and puts our current politicians into a rather diminished persepective. He was a unifier of people and is sorely missed by all South Africans, black and white.

out of touch

The CEO of SALGA, the South African Local Government Association, is reported in the press as receiving an annual salary of over R 3.5 millon.  His basic salary alone sees him earning more than the President of South Arica (R 2.6 million).  This is, of course, in the face of government belt-tightening and the shambolic condition of most of the municipalities that fall under Xolile George's responsibility. Just another connected comrade in protected employment, riding roughshod over the poor and needy in this country.

skating on thin ice

Coup de Grace

Amazing Grace - three months to earn a Phd.  Dairy maid, farmer, secretary, shopper extraordinaire, and now - POLITICIAN. Seems like character assasination and unwarranted attacks come naturally.

crash and burn

Oh boy, the Boks are really taking the heat from the armchair critics.  Going down to the Welsh boyos surely makes for some heated discussion around the braai.

down the drain

democracky

Baleka Mbete does her best Miley Cyrus impersonation as she wields the wrecking ball on parliament.Now she wants to recall parliament just to hammer the EFF. As subtle as a wrecking ball!

the cracks are showing

All the troubled paratatals.  If you connect the dots, there is one source from which all the chaos, non-accountability, mismanagement and inefficiency stems: Number One.  This cartoon was  late today because of a power cut brought to you by the ANC.  Arrogance, Nepotism, Corruption.

Sucking it up

Makana Municipality is battling financially and an administrator has been appointed to sort the situation out. Good news. However, there is no cap for salaries so Pam Yako, the incumbent, is receiving R 327 882 per month.  She also only works 3 days a week. Oh yes, irregular expenditure of over R 1 billion was reported by the AG under her watch of the DG of Water Affairs.  She was suspended on full pay for over a year, pending the outcome of this investigation. Still not resolved.  

By the way, Makana municipality has been struggling with chronic water shortages.

 Go figure – she certainly did.

fence sitter

Poor old Cyril Ramaphosa, trying to be the cool head to calm things down in Parliament. Well, he got flack from the opposition parties and found himself under fire from the ANC MP's, who accused him of treading on Baleka Mbete's toes.  Now it turns out that the controversial security features are falling apart, even though we are still arguing about who is going to pay for them. Now who is going to pay in the end ? Just don't ask Cyril.

Ghost president

Our white elephant president continues to hide away from the tough questions in parliament over the R246 million Nkandla debacle.  He might not be there but he is responsible for all the chaos that has happened in the past few weeks. Naturally he will avoid responsibility for this as well.

black humour

A couple of quite dark cartoons, literally and figuratively.  In the first, the political parties at war with themselves and each other.  Then, of course, our local politicos busy covering up another scandal.

Parasites

Our scumbag president really takes the cake.  He appoints a girlfriend (not counting four official wives) to chair the board at South African Airways, our famous national carrier that has to be bailed out regularly with taxpayer's money.  This brilliant manager has been caught lying about her non existent academic qualifications. She appoints a dodgy CEO who is supposed to have been suspended but is still at work.  At the SABC, another ailing parastatal with financial baggage, another girlfriend is appointed as chairperson of the board.  She is currently embroiled in a court battle to prove she actually has the degrees she claims on her CV. She has just appointed a dodgy acting CEO (who was supposed to be suspended) to CEO so he can make some dodgy appointments before he is booted.  How I wish they'd all end up behind bars permanently.

blows my mind

Riot Police in parliament. Police and thieves!

cracking up

so far this week

 

Whenever I feel discouraged and am struggling to come up with fresh concepts, I thank the universe for the silliness and utter chaos of the politics of this country.  It must really be boring to be a political cartoonist in a country like Switzerland !

dirty laundry blues

The expulsion of NUMSA from the federation of unions, COSATU, has been the main talking point this week. Seems like they are getting rid of the blue collar worker unions and maintaining the mainly white collar public service unions like Sadtu, Nehawu, Samwu and others that are invested in maintaining the ANC status quo.  The damage has been done though, so let's see what comes out in the wash !

praise singer

Same old song.  The president refuses to face hostile questions in parliament so he sends in his supporting act to demand respect for No. 1.  Mr. president - respect is earned, not demanded, and you need to work a damned lot harder to even earn minimum wage in that department.

going off the deep end

What's going on? Numsa wants to break away and form a worker's party then they shout about not getting suspended on expelled from Cosatu.  Make up your mind Comrade Jim, or is it a case of uinty in diversity?

bush party

It really makes me feel good to know that my tax money is being put to good use, paying for ANC member of parliament, Zoleka Capa, to enjoy a jolly trip to our Northern neighbours.  Makes me proud that I didn't vote for the kleptocratic ANC.

keeping us in the dark

Let's just fix all the problems, please ! And stop the lies !

Dead and buried

Over the past couple of years, a number of dodgy deals have been done at BCM.  Two forensic reports were commissioned, one for a refuse bag supply tender and one for the infamous Make a Difference campaign, that aimed to spend 80% of their budget in the last few months of the financial year.  Well, the mayor let these two little documents conveniently get lost in her office for the past few years. Now, questions have been asked so what do the ANC cadres do, the vote in a closed door meeting to summarily rescind the reports so the guilty all go free. No questions asked because swift justice was denied the accused. Kleptocracy in action.

diplomatic fallout

Both governments seem to be antagonizing each other and nothing gets solved.  Unfortunately it seems that the little people get caught in the fallout.  A number of South African pilgris that were killed come from the Eastern Cape. RIP.

ebola blobe

Debate is raging about the stopping of visas by the Australian government to visitors from Ebola hit countries in West Africa. I personally applaud the Australian government for protecting it's citizens. Pity the same can't be said for our country with it's porous borders. Ask any of our Northern neighbours who slip through daily - how long will it be before Ebola decides to visit?

His master's flunkeys

This one got away from me a bit.  Once all the editorial comments were made, the whole thing had changed quite a bit. I thought my other concepts were better but I'm not the boss.

Feeling really Teed off

What could've been a real good news story for the local government gets destroyed by uselss and corrupt management and workers. Google Magwa tea estates and read the whole sordid, sorry story. Now they want to waste more money on a dead project. Crazy!

Flagship airline

A billion reasons not to fly South African Airways.  So the Minister of Public Enterprises cans the whole of the SAA board, except for Zuma's two comrades. A billion Rand in debt and another govt bailout looming. Pass the air sickness bag, chief.

Economy Class

Minister Nene has said he would slash government spending. Well, tell that to the political high flyers who insist on flying business class. One wonders if their egos will fit into economy class seats.

Door to door service

Good luck to Oscar in his new home.  I think he deserves to stay there for quite a while. Let's hope he doesn't try and do a runner!

explosive meeting

 

Cosatu is busy with a showdown meeting to decide it's future and whether to expel NUMSA.  Poor Uncle Cyril has the unenviable task of trying to keep the anticipated split in check.  This is a difficult type of cartoon to draw as the meeting is still in progress and one has to make some sort of anticipatory yet telling comment. Let's see if the whole thing blows up or not.

Economic cycle

It's the mid term budget tomorrow and a debut for our new Finance Minister, Nhlanhla Nene. It's bound to be a balancing act and a juggling act and the result looks certain to be a shortfall with no safety net!

You've got to be in it, to Winnie't !

What a chancer, Nelson Mandela's ex is now challenging his estate so that she can get her hands on his house in Qunu and other assets.  She claims that both the marriage certificate and the divorce papers were forged.  Well then, no legal marriage then, so no windfall, or should that be winniefall.  As the old struggle saying goes : A loota continua.