Some years ago I had the pleasure of driving a minister of the Saharawi Arab Democratic Republic and her ambassador from Durban to Johannesburg.

Several times along the N3, she said: “Look at this world class infrastructure. Do you know what you have? Do you appreciate it.”

I recall feeling rather proud and expressed the wish that one day the Saharawis too could  have a motorway across their desert land. 

What might the minister have said had we been traveling along the road on Sunday?

With the burning trucks, it might have reminded her of the war her people have fought to rid their country of Moroccan occupation.

Together with arterial roads closed by demonstrators in Johannesburg, Port Elizabeth and Cape Town in recent days, they are certainly not showpieces for a developing country heading for prosperity.

How do we explain this motorway mayhem to potential investors or tourists?

The authorities warned motorists on Sunday not to use the N3 at night.

Their caution is laudable, even though it sends a dire message to potential investors in and visitors to South Africa.

Such caution is invariably expressed by countries concerned about the well-being of their citizens abroad.

It invariably attracts fury from the targets of their warnings because it tends to deter tourism.

We saw this last month when Minister of International Relations and Cooperation Lindiwe Sisulu  angrily responded to a travel advisory from Australia.

She says it casts a slur on the country. 

Sisulu appears to have been responding to media  reports rather than  facts.

The Australian travel advisory was first issued in the year 2000.

True, it advises travelers to South Africa  to exercise a high degree of  caution.

Actually, it places South Africa on the second lowest degree of danger – in the same category as  countries like Belgium and France.

In much the same way as an advisory would use a health ministry warning of cholera to urge travelers take health precautions, the Australian document uses material from SAPS annual reports  to advise of the potential of murder,  rape, mugging and robbery.

The advisory has been updated to include water shortages in the Western Cape – again using language  deployed by the local authority.

I remember after contracting malaria in Zimbabwe , I asked the South Africa health authorities in high dudgeon: why did no-one warm me?

True, there were posters at the border posts. Surely I have a right to expect more from a caring government?

If you are traveling to a country where protestors make nocturnal travel hazardous, would you not expect your own people to tell you so?

It is axiomatic that there are good things and bad things about any destination: from insect-born lurgies and pickpockets to dread diseases and flat out terrorists.

The simple answer to avoiding them is stay home.

If you can’t or won’t accept this option, arm yourself with the information you need for your security. Above all: don’t shoot the messenger.

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The group says the ICC decision gives victims hope that those responsible for grave crimes over the past two years could be held to account,

The panel of three ICC judges will investigate how President Pierre Nkurunziza’s decision two years ago to run for an unconstitutional third term ignited protests in Burundi that were suppressed by his security service and the youth league of his ruling party known as the Imbonerakure.

It will look at the allegedly unchecked abuses by these groups including rape, torture and executions.

Last month Burundi became the first country officially to withdraw from the ICC.

The court still has jurisdiction over crimes committed during the 13 years that it was a member.

The post ICC to probe crimes against humanity in Burundi appeared first on Jean-Jacques Cornish.

Judge Thokozile Masipa’s  rejected the State’s bid for leave to appeal the six-year jail sentence for murder she eventually  imposed on Pistorius.

ends intro

It was Judge Thokozile Masipa who found Oscar Pistorius guilty of culpable homicide and sent him to jail for five year  years.

The Appeal Court overturned that last December and found the legless athlete guilty of murder – giving rise to the  heavier sentence she imposed.

She pointed out that time that there was not a shred of evidence that Pistorius knew when he was firing through a toilet door that his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp was on the other side.

Pistorius’s defence has been that he believed he was shooting at an intruder.

Masipa said in the Pretoria High Court today (Friday) that she’s  not persuaded that there are reasonable prospects of success for an appeal. She dismissed with costs the application for leave to appeal.

Earlier, Barry Roux, for Pistorius, argued that the State was merely dragging out legal processes and subjecting the former Paralympian to continued uncertainty.

Prosecutor Gerrie Nel argued that deviating from the prescribed 15-year minimum sentence for murder induces a sense of shock.

The post Prosecution loses bid to get an even tougher sentence against Pistorius appeared first on Jean-Jacques Cornish.

He has to serve half this sentence before being able to apply for parole.

Judge Thokozile Masina, who sentenced him in October 2014 to five years for culpable homicide, found the mitigating evidence outweighed the aggravating factors to be considered in imposing the sentence  for the murder conviction imposed by the Appeal Court last December.

She found Oscar to be a good candidate for rehabilitation.

Masipa says there was no a shred of evidence offered that Oscar has knowingly shot his lover Reeve Steenkamp, so this was not a case of domestic violence or violence against women.

This is, however, the public misperception about the case.

Masina says she has to serve the public interest not address public opinion.

Pistorius’ defence  will not appeal the sentence.

Masipa is waiting in her chamber to see if the prosecution will seek leave to appeal.

The post Oscar Pistorius is back in prison appeared first on Jean-Jacques Cornish.

Dr Jonathon Scholtz tells a sentencing hearing in the Pretoria High Court that Pistorius should be hospitalised not returned to prison as is expected after his manslaughter conviction was upgraded to murder.

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The sentencing hearing for South Africa’s disgraced golden boy is set down to last until Friday.

Judge Thokozile Masipa, who’s manslaughter conviction was overturned by the Appeal Court who found Oscar Pistorius guilty of murder, is once again on the bench.

She has to impose the harsher sentence on the accused, who insists he fired the fatal shots that killed Reeva Steenkamp through the bathroom door of his apartment believing there was an  intruder.

South Africa’s criminal law lays down a mandatory 15 year sentence for murder.

1. Masipa may reduce this if there are extraordinary circumstances. She may also take into account that Pistorius has served a year in prison of  the five-year sentence she originally laid down.

Psychiatrist Jonathon Scholtz reported during the original trial that there were two Oscars – the Olympic hero with his prosthesis and the insecure frightened boy on his stumps.

Now he says there’s a third Pistorius  who’s too broken-sprited to give evidence in mitigation of his sentence.

He’s suffering deep anxiety, paranoia and post traumatic stress.

He should be hospitalized not incarcerated.

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The High Court judge, who is a white woman, says in a Facebook  exchange with a friend that rape is apart of black culture.

Judge Mabel Jansen says  in her message that black men believe a woman is there to pleasure them.

She adds that this is is seen as an absolute right and a woman’s consent is not required.

Jansen holds that she  still has to meet a black girl who was not raped at about 12 years old

Concluding that murder is also is not a big deal, she says   gang rapes of baby, daughter and mother are  a pleasurable pastime.

The Democratic Alliance  has reported the messages

to the country’s Judicial Services Commission to be investigated.

The party says the judge’s  comments are hurtful and demeaning and undermine the dignity of South Africa’s people.

The women’s league of the ruling African National Congress says the judge’s  racist comments misrepresent facts about black culture.

Jansen says her postings, made  confidentially to somebody in a position to help,  have been have been taken completely out of context .

She says the real issue… is the protection of vulnerable women and children.

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