BILLIONS OF PEOPLE AROUND THE WORLD ARE BEING VACCINATED FOR COVID WITH DRUGS MADE BY BIG TIME AMERICAN CROOKS

 Dear Readers,

Pfizer Chairman and 
CEO Albert Bourla

          Have you had your Covid Pfizer jab yet? Well I have but nobody told me what a shocking record this multinational US pharmaceutical company has for dishonesty on a massive scale.   

            This is how Pfizer’s shameful behaviour since 2002 is described: “Pfizer has been a ‘habitual offender,’ persistently engaging in illegal and corrupt marketing practices, bribing physicians (to prescribe their products) and suppressing adverse trial results. The company and its subsidiaries have been assessed $3 billion in criminal convictions, civil penalties and jury awards.”

          In 2009 its crimes had its subsidiary Pharmacia & Upjohn pleading guilty to violating the Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act (FDCA) for misbranding the anti-inflammatory drug Bextra with the intent to defraud. It promoted this for several uses that had not been approved by the FDCA for safety reasons and eventually took it off the market in 2005.

          For this Pharmacia and Upjohn had to pay $1.195 billion, which was the largest criminal fine ever imposed in the US for any case.

          In addition Pfizer agreed to pay another billion dollars to settle allegations under the civil False Claims Act that it illegally promoted four drugs - Bextra, an anti-inflammatory; Geodon, an anti-psychotic; Zyvox, an antibiotic and Lyrica, an anti-epileptic drug – to cause false claims to be made to government health care programmes when there use was not recommended and therefore not covered by the programmes.

          The civil side of the settlement involved Pfizer paying kickbacks to health care providers to prescribe these and other drugs and it set another record. It was the largest civil fraud settlement ever against a pharmaceutical company.

          Pfizer is evidently a very slow learner, either that or it makes so much money from its crooked business that these huge fines are no deterent. In 2004 it was stung for $430-million for promoting drugs not yet approved by the regulatory authority. 

          In spite of Pfizer deplorable history its Covid vaccine was approval by the US’s Food and Drug Administration for emergency use last December. Since then there has been a lot of confusion as to whether or not it has become the first product of its kind to get the full approval of this regulatory agency.

This tells a story on its own. Does he know something we shouldn't know?

          Johnson and Johnson another Covid vaccine maker is also right up there in the crooked American Big Pharma league. People around the world are also being jabbed with their vaccine.

          In 2013 it was stung by the authorities for a mere $2.2 billion for promoting drugs not yet approved and paying kickbacks to doctors.

          Its morality is such that it knew for years that its famous baby powder was contaminated with asbestos, but did nothing about it because the alternative was more expensive. The result: The Supreme Court in America has told J & J to pay heavily for its greed. It rejected the company’s appeal against an award of $2.1 billion in damages because its powder products caused women ovarian cancer. Thousands were affected.

          In spite of this the 1945 store Pick n Pay supermarket group is one company in South Africa that has not taken this J & J brand of baby powder off its shelves.

          Then there is the British-Swedish multinational AstraZeneca that is also on the dirty deeds list - twice. In 2003 it was fined $355 million for Medicare fraud and in 2010 its dishonesty was in the spotlight again when it had to pay $520 million for giving kickbacks to doctors and promoting drugs not yet approved by the necessary authority. 

          It's difficult to under stand why Oxford University was prepared to tarnish its own name by getting into bed with these crooks to produce the Oxford AstraZeneca Covid vaccine. 

Regards

Jon, a Consumer Watchdog with an eye very much on BIG BUSINESS.

P.S. These huge fines do nothing to change the morality of multi-national drug companies operating in America that are corrupting the whole medical system, not only in the USA but around the world. Paying kickbacks to doctors to use a company’s drugs not only leads to unnecessary treatment but can endanger lives. That’s just one aspect of this deplorable behaviour. Dishonesty certainly pays it seems if Wikipedia’s list of US fines for Big Pharma’s dirty deeds are anything to go by. It goes from 2001 to 2013 and ranks them by the amounts they had to pay. It’s not clear whether they changed their ways after 2013, but I doubt it especially as several companies showed no sign of reforming by appearing twice years apart.

Britain’s GlaxoSmithKleine had the dubious distinction of topping the list for its $3 billion fine, or ‘settlement’ as the Yanks tactfully like to call them, in 2012. It’s crimes were things like ‘failing to disclose safety data’ and paying ‘kickbacks’ to doctors to get them to use its medication. Nothing really dishonest you understand. It was listed earlier at No 8 for having to pay $750 million for ‘poor manufacturing practices’. Is this really important when you are making something to heal people? I don’t want to leave a bad taste in your mouth but you might know of GMK as the makers of Aquafresh toothpaste.

Not to be outdone there was Pfizer at No 2 and No 17 with Johnson and Johnson a close third. Then there were Merck, Bristol-Myers Squibb and Schering-Plough all listed for Medicare fraud and in some cases giving kickbacks as well.

When are the Yanks going to wake up and start sending the heads of these crooked firms to jail as fines don't change the behavior of many of them at all?

So if you are getting any kind of treatment that involves medication made by any of these companies (you can Google the full list) on this list of shame my medical advice to you is to ask your doctor for an alternative. How can anybody possibly rely on crooks to keep them alive?

 

 

 

 

IS PICK N PAY DOING THE RIGHT THING BY CONTINUING TO STOCK BABY POWDER LINKED TO CANCER?

Dear Readers,

Pieter Boone
Pick n Pay's new CEO

          In spite of the appalling history of Johnson & Johnson’s (J&J) baby powder Pick n Pay the South African 1945 store grocery chain has no intention of discontinuing to stock this giant US pharmaceutical company’s product.

          “We assure you that the talcum powder has been approved by the relevant authorities in South Africa,” Mary-Anne Hattingh Pick n Pay’s National Customer Service Manager told me. I wonder what sort of endorsement that is.

          For something like 50 years J&J was endangering  the lives of it’s customers by selling talc, including baby powder of all things that contained asbestos that has been shown to cause women ovarian cancer.

          As far back as 1973 the firm rejected the advice of its own scientists to replace the asbestos containing talc it was using with cornstarch. Like most big companies profit came before saving people’s lives as the talc was cheaper than the alternative.

          Now the Supreme Court in America has told J&J to pay heavily for its greed. It rejected the company’s appeal against an award of $2.1 billion in damages because its powder products caused women ovarian cancer.

          Ken Starr, a former prosecutor representing the women with cancer, urged the justices not to review the case saying that the firm had known “for decades that its talc powders contained asbestos, a highly carcinogenic substance with no known safe exposure level.”

          After I tried to contact Pick n Pay’s new CEO Pieter Boone I got Mary-Anne Hattingh instead and then quite unsolicited I received an email from somebody named only as Joy from J&J’s Consumer Services. This is what she told me:

          “We empathize with anyone suffering from cancer and understand that people are looking for answers. We believe these can be better understood through science – and decades of independent scientific studies by medical experts around the world shows that our talc is safe, does not contain asbestos and does not cause cancer.

          “We understand that lawsuits in the United States and media headlines have caused confusion about our products and we are committed to ensuring the facts are understood. The science supporting the safety of our product is central to why our Company continued to defend itself in court.”

           She admitted that J&J had discontinued the sale of its talc-based baby powder in the US and Canada, but claimed this had nothing to do with its safety. “It was rather to address declining demand in North America due in large part to changes in consumer habits fuelled by misinformation around the safety of the product through a constant barrage of litigation advertising”, she went on. Presumably this was to trace the people who claimed to have got cancer. She added that they do not offer a cornstarch-based product in South Africa, but its talc based baby powder is available and continues to be sold in other markets around the world.

          In a follow-up email she described the headlines I had been reading as “concerning” and again emphasised that their powder was “safe”.

          I replied: “This is very strange. How did various women manage to get a compensation judgement for billions against J&J because they claimed to have got ovarian cancer from its powder and when this went to appeal it was dismissed? That’s what I read on Google. If this is total fiction it must be one of the biggest fabricated stories of the century. What you keep telling me to read appears to be all about what J&J is claiming for its powder, not an independent assessment. And for you to describe the headlines I have been reading as ‘concerning’ must be the understatement of the decade considering you represent J&J. What really stands out is that at no stage have you told me that there is absolutely no truth in the ‘concerning headlines’ that I have been reading.”

          J&J’s already tarnished reputation over the cancer claims took another serious knock when it was among the drug companies that a group of US attorneys general obtained a $26bn settlement with for fuelling the deadly nationwide opioid epidemic. They were accused of lax controls that allowed a massive amount of addictive painkiller to be diverted into illegal channels, thus devastating communities. J&J was said to have down played the addiction risk in its marketing.

          All the companies denied the allegations. Attorneys general from 15 states were involved in negotiating the deals and the money will be used for addiction treatment, family support and efforts to eradicate the scourge of drug addiction.

          The bulk of the money will be paid by the three largest US distributors over 18 years with J&J paying $5-bn over nine years $3.7-bn of which has to be settled in the first three.

          “There’s not enough money in the world frankly to address the pain and suffering caused,” said the Connecticut attorney general William Tong.

With its history of serious unethical behaviour how can J&J be trusted to provide safe Covid vaccines to South Africa and the world? Will it be cutting corners to save money once again or will it have learnt its lesson.

Unfortunately we will only find out the answer after millions of people will have received the J&J one dose jab.

          Barron’s the American financial magazine listed J&J among its World’s Most Admired Companies and Fortune Magazine has included it in its list of World’s Most Respected Companies. I wonder where it will come now after these scandals.

          Alex Gorsky J&J’s Chairman and CEO was named one of the 100 most Inspired Leaders by Pharma Voice. He joined J&J, this 131 year old firm in 1988 and has headed it since 2012 so he deserves a great deal of the blame for what happened under his nose to a baby powder that has been in shops around the world. And the same goes for his firm’s dubious painkiller marketing.

Regards,

Jon, a Consumer Watchdog who is always sniffing out funny business that needs exposing.

P.S. It’s absolutely deplorable the way huge companies that are often leaders in their field think about nothing else other than making a profit, even if it means devastating the lives of their customers. As this case proved BIG BUSINESS, far too often, doesn’t have the morals of an alley cat.

P.P.S. A few weeks ago, before I became aware of the background, I tried to buy some J&J baby powder in Pick n Pay and I was told there was no stock. I was mystified as to why they would not have such a well known brand. But as it turned out there was no question of Pick n Pay no longer stocking it because when I was there a couple of days ago the shelves were full of it.

 

           

  

NO FUN AND GAMES AT THE COVID OLYMPICS - EVEN BEFORE THEY START

 Dear Sports Fanatics (that excludes my wife of course),

Alan Witherden

          Here’s what competitors and even judges have to go through to pass the Tokyo test for an Olympics that is like no other, as given to me by South Africa’s permanent Games canoe judge Alan Witherden.

          He hasn’t exactly been doing this at every Olympics but he would have been if he had been born earlier. He adjudicated this sport at Athens, not at the first modern games in 1896, but in 2004; at Beijing (2008); Rio (2016) and now at Tokyo if this one takes place. Alan surely deserves a long service medal.

          Although he has been a judge since 1997 until now at every annual Canoeing World Sprint Championship that is held (not in Olympic years) in various countries around the world, mainly in Europe, he was not considered for the Sydney Olympics in 2000. Lack of experience ruled him out. How ridiculous can you get?

          He also didn’t do it at the London Olympics in 2012 because he was managing Brigitte Hartley, the winner of the bronze medal for South Africa.

Alan looking his usual smart self at the Beijing Olympics

         As an international business consultant I don’t know how 72 year old Alan has found time to do any proper work because his life has certainly been international alright, but it’s been one canoeing holiday after another. Here’s a run down of his paddling life. I’m sure a lot of you would have loved to have been in the same boat.

• Founder and Honorary Life member, Dabulamanzi Canoe Club, Emmarentia Dam, Johannesburg.   
• Secretary, Transvaal Canoe Union. 
• Chairman, Peninsula Canoe Club, Sandvlei, Muizenberg, Cape Town.
• Secretary, Western Province Canoe Union.·     
• Chairman, Transvaal Canoe Union.·     
• Executive Member, Canoeing South Africa.·      
• Canoe Representative, South African Sports and Olympic Committee.·    
• Chairman, Canoe South Africa Sprint Committee (the Olympic discipline).·      
• Manager, CSA Sprint Canoeing Teams to Spain, Italy, Hungary.
• Honorary Life Member, Gauteng Canoe Union.
• Honorary Life Member, Canoeing South Africa.

Brigitte Hartley

       This is what Alan sent me about what is expected of him at this very, very unusual Games:

“The reason being advanced for opposition to the games is the threat posed by the Covid 19 epidemic that will spread the infection exponentially due the influx of thousands of athletes, support staff, officials, TV crews, journalists and many others from all over the world.  Is this a valid concern?  Is there a risk? The answer is a definite NO!  The reason is that in true Japanese style, the measures to prevent infected incomers from entering Japan are detailed and surely bullet-proof.  The publication of a 69 page Olympic Playbook that describes the requirements to be met before entering Japan and conduct once part of the Olympic process in Japan is evidence of the concern to conduct a Covid-free Games.  The measures include:

·      All entrants to Japan must be fully vaccinated. Fourteen days before departure, one has to enter a daily health report (temperature, fever etc) onto a Tokyo Olympic Committee – arranged mobile ‘phone App. 96 hrs and 72 hrs before departure, two negative Covid tests by a TOC approved testing centre.

·      Covid Test upon arrival at the airport in Japan. If positive, ushered into isolation. Note: The SA Sevens team was sent into 10-day isolation on Wednesday 14 July because a passenger on their incoming flight tested positive.

·      Proof of a contact-tracing App on one’s smart phone upon arrival. Should one test positive or come into contact with an affected person during the games, immediate isolation will result. Proof of the health-status App with a preceding 14-day report is required on one’s phone. There will also be a daily Covid test.

·      While at the Games mask wearing, social distancing etc are required. Note: My co-officials and I will each have our own hotel room during our stay where we will live when not on duty. Meals will be delivered to us there and no socializing will be allowed. If we want anything else we have to ask the hotel staff and they will bring it to us in our room."

Alan with his Catamaran driver Hiryoypki Izumi at the Games Preparation
Competition Tokyo, Sept. 2019 

For once Alan will not be having his usual holiday being confined to his room when not on the water. Sight seeing will be out, but as canoeing has already taken him to most parts of the world it shouldn’t be much of a hardship. Many athletes and their support staff have already arrived in Tokyo and he will be flying out on Friday 30 July.

Regards, Jon

P.S. Apart from canoeing Alan’s other claim to fame is that he is married to our daughter Sally and we always thought he had a steady job.

   P.P.S. Here’s hoping that Alan and all the athletes and officials will have a Covid free Olympics so that we can all see the usual spectacular performances on television siting at home in isolation so we don't interrupt anything.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

TWO CAPTAINS OF INDUSTRY IN A MILLION

 Dear Readers and Bishops' Old Boys,

Richard Brasher

          Richard Brasher, who has just retired from Pick n Pay after eight years as CEO of this 1945 store grocery chain never ceased to amaze me.

          He doesn’t know me from Adam, yet when I sent him an email to his personal email address on a Saturday this year at 02.07 pm he replied less than half an hour later at 02.30.

          I asked him to pass on the following email to Raymond Ackerman as I did not have an email address for him. It went like this:

Dear Raymond,

Congratulations on your 90^th. I presume you are going for your century. Thanks again for the attached. It brought back good memories of somebody like you who could fit my little triumph into your busy schedule. Well done for making your 100^th – in anticipation.

Raymond Ackerman & his wife Wendy

Yvonne Cummins, who I assume is his PA, replied: “Mr Ackerman sends his sincere thanks for the birthday wishes sent to him via Richard Brasher. He really appreciates you thinking of him and he had a very special 90^th”

        

           The attached I referred to was this letter (those were the days when the postal service worked) he sent me in 1974 congratulating me on being the runner up in the Stellenbosch Farmers' Wineries' National Award for Enterprising Journalism for my series in the Business Section of the Sunday Times about crooked business. "This was a first-class effort and I think you can deserve all the congratulations you can get for your forthright reporting," Raymond wrote.

          I would never have thought that he would have been following my career like this. Alright we did go to school together at Bishops in Cape Town where we were borders in School House, but he was three years ahead of me. And that’s a life time at school. I can only assume he read about it in the paper.

          In 2017 in my role as a Consumer Watchdog on my blog I was trying to get a promised refund of R320.50 for our daughter Mandy from Aramex Couriers that has drop boxes in Pick n Pay branches, but all I got was the same run around as she was given. In desperation I sent an email to Richard asking him if he could get somebody to sort this out. The following day on the 25th working day after Mandy had been promised payment within 7-14 days I got the proof from Aramex that she had been paid.

          I then asked Richard: “Was this your magic? Just after my email to you R320.50 was paid into our daughter’s account. Thanks a lot.”

          He replied: “We are always happy to help.”

          My email to him was sent at 07.30 am and he replied at 09.39 from his iPhone the same day. How’s that for top notch service.

          After buying four stores in Cape Town trading as Pick n Pay in 1966 Raymond built them into one of Africa’s largest supermarket chains. He was Chairman until 2010 when he stepped down in favour of his son Gareth.

          I evidently didn’t pay as much attention as Raymond when I was at Bishops or I just didn't have what it takes upstairs.  

           My career was as a journalist on various papers including the Sunday Times where I did investigations and also wrote a hard hitting weekly column Business is Business for two years. My newspaper days ended when I became a self employed private eye specialising in life insurance.

          At a function at my old school to mark the 60^th anniversary of my year a former master who was organising it said to me: “I couldn’t find anything about your matric.” He had evidently researched the school records of those who attended.

          On another occasion my wife and I went to a lunch for Old Boys like me at the school and on the wall inside the building where the function took place there was a list of Bishop’s Rhodes Scholars. I had a job finding it and at one stage I said to my wife "Was my Dad making this up?"

But sure enough there it was: the 1921 Bishop's Rhodes Scholar - Cecil Willoughby Abbott, who went up to Oxford I think.

It must have been rather embarrassing for him having his first born at this very expensive school where he had done so brilliantly plug his matric. Putting the shot and throwing the javelin to provincial standards was no compensation. This might explain why I never became a millionaire like Raymond.

Regards to you all and here’s hoping you can keep Virus free,

Jon

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

THE SPCA IS ENDANGERING THE JOBS OF 50 PEOPLE BY MONKEYING AROUND WITH BABOON MATTERS

 Dear Baboon Lovers,

            About 10 years ago baboons from mountainous areas rampaged through residential parts of the City of Cape Town, threatening people, damaging houses, badly injuring pets like dogs and destroying anything edible in people’s gardens.

People were prisoners in their own homes until the monitors, employed to keep them out of the urban areas were armed with paintball guns – not to shoot them, but just to scare them away. This worked very effectively and where I live near Kommetjie the situation went from having baboons all over our houses and gardens on a regular basis to virtually none at all. My wife even had the pleasure of twice having a big male beside her in our kitchen. Their canines are longer than a lion’s so she could have been badly mauled.

          Now the goody goods at the Cape of Good Hope SPCA, who appear to have great difficulty defining exactly what cruelty is, have decided that these paintball guns that they originally sanctioned are actually cruel. This has made the work of the monitors, who are employed by a private company contracted to the City Council, totally ineffective. Without the paintball guns to scare these primates they just give the monitors the two fingers and carry on raiding homes and gardens just as they used to do.

          A spokesperson told me that unfortunately the City had no choice but to comply with this decision, as the National Council for the Societies for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, being the oversight authority for animal welfare, had withdrawn its support for the use of paintball guns on baboons, declaring this method “cruel to animals.”

           Helpfully Belinda Abraham, the Communications Manager of the Cape of Good Hope SPSA “clarified” the position by saying that the SPCA has not “banned or prohibited the use of paintball guns” but had merely withdrawn their endorsement of their use.  

          To show how mixed up the SPCA is about the use of these guns she added: “A method that was reviewed and supported previously may no longer be relevant, appropriate or humane now. The SPCA will not support methods that are considered inhumane and cruel or that have insufficient supporting information.”

          How many other inhumane methods of controlling animals has the SPCA supported or ignored for years before backtracking?

          The SPCA believes “there may be alternative methods” of dealing with the baboons that “can be used to achieve the same outcome, which have not been explored.” But as it does not disclose what these might be the inference is that if they do exist the SPCA has no idea what they are.

          However Ald. Marion Nieuwoudt Cape Town’s Mayoral Committee Member for the Environment told me that as there was no effective alternative to the use of paintball guns they might have to withdraw the baboon monitors. “This will have an impact on the properties and lifestyle of residents living in areas close to baboons’ natural habitat as we anticipate that baboons will frequent these areas more often,” she said.

          Will this mean that some 50 or more people will be added to the already huge number of unemployed in our country?  People’s Lives Matter more than baboons but not in Cape Town evidently.

          The various parties will hopefully meet soon to sort out this mess that is entirely due to the SPCA’s incompetence.

          The mixed up thinking at the SPCA is not doing the baboons any favours either. Their numbers have increased from 350 in 2009 to 430 in 2021, but the way things are going they could soon be on the decline.

Jenni Trethoven, founder of the Baboon Matters Trust revealed on the Trust’s blog that when the Covid lock down began in March last year she was optimistic that there would be a radical decrees in baboon activity in urban areas, but the reverse happened.

No doubt because the baboon monitors were not working at all during lockdown or at a much lower level and baboon troops had not yet heard of the Virus.

Baboons, she wrote, have been visiting the village of Kommetjie where she lives almost every day since then and “sadly incidents of shooting at baboons with pellet guns, shotguns and paintball guns increased as did the number of dog attacks on baboons.”

Dogs attack baboons at their peril. Male baboons have ripped even the most ferocious ones apart causing thousands of rand in vet bills for the owners of those that survived.

In May a baboon belonging to the Simonstown troop was shot dead by a pellet gun and that was believed to be as a result of the withdrawal of the monitors. 

So the evidence is abundantly clear that what the SPCA is doing by classifying paintball guns in this case as cruel is having an affect that is the opposite of what the Society stands for. And is it going to compensate residents for any damage done by the bad behaviour of baboons?

In the short time since the monitors have been rendered ineffective a dog on our estate near Kommetjie has been badly mauled by baboons resulting in a heavy vet bill for the own. How many more times will this sort of thing have to happen before the monitors are once more empowered to do their job effectively?

Regards,

Jon, a lover of baboons that know their place – in the wild not in our garden or our house.

P.S. Baboon lovers expect people like me and my wife to have desert gardens so there is nothing like vegetables, fruit trees or anything else that might attract them, bearing in mind that they eat just about everything and seldom come in just ones and twos. Bird feeders are also out because they eat seed as well and they will rip apart anything it might be in. Our little dog would have to be kept inside at all times especially when we are not at home and every opening window would have to have bars on it. Our house would also have to have reinforced gutters that don’t collapse when baboons swing on them. If the SPCA has its way this is what it will be like for a lot of us living in the City of Good Hope? We’ve had some experience of this before the advent of paintball guns and WE CERTAINLY DON’T WANT IT REPEATED.

P.P.S. Ironically while this baboon business was going on the City has been updating its animal-keeping bylaws to ensure that pets like dogs, cats etc are not a source of danger or a nuisance.

         

 

ROLL UP, ROLL UP, TO SUNNY SOUTH AFRICA WHERE IT'S OPEN SEASON FOR MURDERERS & RAPISTS

Tina Joemat-Petterson

 Dear Readers,
          If you or any of your relatives ever get murdered or raped in South Africa don’t expect the perpetrators to get convicted any time soon, if at all.  The DNA testing backlog is increasing at such an alarming rate that there seems no hope of our *Keystone SA Cops (SAPS) ever getting anywhere near catching up.

          Thousand of criminals of all kinds are laughing at a system that can’t produce enough DNA evidence to convict them. The backlog at the National Forensic Science labs has just jumped from 117 000 cases in December to a shocking 173 000. According to Brig.Vish Naude the National Police spokesperson, about 70% of these numbers involve rape with murder accounting for a high proportion of the remaining 30%.

          No wonder the USA has issued a travel warning to its citizens that South Africa is no place for a holiday if you and your family hope to return in one piece.

          However scary the figures are we don’t have to worry too much because the problem is in the good hands of Tina Joemat- Petterson.  She became Chairperson of the Government’s Portfolio Committee on Police in 2019 based no doubt on her reputation for honesty and an unblemished record as Minister of Agriculture and Fisheries (2009-2014) and then Minister of Minerals and Energy (2014 -2017).

          You could not possibly have a person with dubious skeletons in their cupboard heading this important Police Committee could you? 

          But like many of the African National Congress’ (ANC) recycled ministers Tina’s history in these top jobs is picturesque to say the least. While in charge of Agriculture she famously said: “You can’t have mud slinging in agriculture.” Unfortunately it seems she was wrong and some of the mud stuck on her.

          As a result of complaints from the opposition Democratic Alliance party the Public Protector twice found her guilty in 2012 and 2014 of recklessly dealing with state funds and services resulting in wasteful expenditure in the fishing industry and not using public funds reasonably when it came to her accommodation expenses.

          What more could you want as a reference for somebody to head the Committee on Police? Cyril you must be so proud of this choice or is he perhaps ‘shocked’ as usual.

          While she was the Minister of Energy the mud slinging continued and a mere 10-million barrels of the country’s emergency oil reserves mysteriously disappeared. This time the Public Protector found that this former school teacher was mislead by the former boss of the Strategic Fuel Fund Association. I could not establish what happened after that, but who cares it’s only more taxpayers money down the drain.

           This was so typical of the ANC to expect a Minister, who got mucky in Agriculture to suddenly be an expert in the Energy field that is rife with big time, international crooks.

          To emphasise the state our police forensics are in the SAPS has just put an advertisement in the jobs section of the Sunday Times for no less than 133 Forensic Warrant officers (salary R304 851 per annum) to be stationed in various parts of the country working in labs or doing other aspects of forensics.

          Is this what Tina meant when she said the National Forensic Oversight Board (NFOB), which clearly has been doing a great job up to now, must find solutions to the long standing backlogs problem.

          Our Minister with the Hat Bheke Cele, who heads the Police, evidently believes that giving more cushy jobs to the boys, or girls, will solve the problem. He recently appointed 10 members to the NFOB Board. He sure knows how to pick them. Benedicta Monama was made a board member in spite of her dodgy background in other government departments only to be removed by Bheke for non attendance of more than three consecutive meetings.

          Presumably if she had had the sense to miss just two or perhaps three, but not consecutively, she would be still there. 

How many of them know anything at all about forensics is anybody’s guess. As long as they fit the description of cadre employees that is all that matters.

Regards,

Jon, an Investigative Journalist and Forensic Expert of note.

P.S. Have you heard the story about the best part of re-cycling? It’s when you are going down hill on your way home. In the ANC’s case it is no joke.

 

*The Keystone Cops were humorous, incompetent policemen featured in silent film, slapstick comedies. One of the stars was my namesake Bud Abbott. When can we expect to see our President Cyril Ramaphosa featured in a similar film with our Keystone Cops? It would take our minds off the mess he and his ANC have made of running our country more effectively than changing the names of towns and streets.

         

         

         

         

         

ROUGHEST SILK IN THE LAND - DALI MPOFU THE BLACK SENIOR ADVOCATE TELLS FEMALE WHITE ONE TO 'SHUT UP'

Dear Readers, 

    Is Deputy Chief Justice Raymond Zondo too nice a guy to be in that snapping advocates pool that forms such a major part of the State Capture Commission that he is heading? 

    Here’s an example of how the farcical side of it works: I give evidence about you which you don’t like. Weeks or months later your advocate is allowed to cross examine me about what I said about you. That can go on for almost as long as it took me to give my evidence in the first place. 

    Various statements as well as Judge Zondo’s comments that have been made along the way are repeated ad nauseam. Eventually my advocate is allowed to re-examine me to clarify and perhaps correct what your advocate said about me. This second stage of the farce can go on for half a day or more with the main characters earning huge sums, making it very much in their interests to extend their arguments as long as possible, so ones that tell colleagues to ‘Shut up’ clearly do not have the system at heart.

Whoever said ‘the law is an ass’ was spot on. 

The characters in the now famous ‘Shut up’ wake up moment at the Commission’s hearing were:

    Dali Mpofu (59): He is an advocate, who as an ANC member was CEO of the SABC for four years where he did such a brilliant job that he was rewarded by being give an 18 month holiday – suspension on full pay. In 2009 he ended his association with the controversy plagued national broadcaster with another even more impressive ‘thank you’ for his good work - a R12-million golden handshake. In 2014 he left the African National Congress party and joined Julius Malema’s Economic Freedom Fighters where he was this party’s Chairperson for a while. Rumour has it that it was under Malema’s tutelage that he learned his good manners. 

    Michelle le Roux: She is the advocate lady Gentleman Dali told to ‘Shut up’ when she was representing Pavin Gordhan, the Minister of Public Enterprises. Her background is without any blemishes like being suspended from her job and being a member of a pock marked political party. She is an Adjunct Professor at the University of Cape Town’s Law School and was named as one of Who’s Who’s Notable Women among Legal Competition Professionals in Europe, the America’s and Africa who are in their forties. She is also a Global Competition Review Litigator of the Year (Non-cartel) winner, SO WHO SHOULD DEFINITELY BE TOLD TO ‘SHUT UP’? 

    They need a naughty corner for advocates like Dali where they can be sent for a week or two. SC's earn around R50 000 a day so that might encourage the foul mouthed to to keep their traps shut. Fortunately 'Shut up' and similar outbursts are a rarity among advocates. If they weren't our courts would make for far more entertaining TV viewing than they do  now.

You be the judge, 

Regards, Jon, a Manners Judge of long standing, although I am not sure that my mother would agree with this if she was still around.

P.S. The Sunday Times put into words what everyone else was thinking: