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Tasteless cartoons, Easter and pulling wire

All of this in one short week? That must be nothing short of a miracle...
Martin Czernowalow
By Martin Czernowalow, Contributor.
Johannesburg, 20 Mar 2008

While short, this week proved to be somewhat of a cracker. Let's face it, we started with that dubious "Hay-soos" Dilbert cartoon. Apologies to our Latino readers as well as our Christian readers.

Which brings me to why this is a short week. Happy Easter! Apologies to our Jewish readers, you folks enjoy the long weekend...

Anyway, the JC/Hay-soos cartoon practically started a Holy War in the discussion forum section. Someone even dragged Mohammed into the discussion - irresponsibly risking the start of a Jihad. Apologies to our Muslim readers.

Talking about "out there", we stumbled upon a story of good BEE gone bad. It emerged that the son and grandson of esteemed struggle legend Walter Sisulu had been booted out as BEE partners to telecommunications company Itec Tiyende.

Yes, it appears Shaka Sisulu (the grandson) added no value to the business, while Max didn't put in much of an appearance, says Itec Tiyende director Simbo Ntshinka.

However, what's even stranger than the Sisulus getting their struggle-credentialed butts kicked out of the partnership is Itec's choice of new BEE cronies.

Enter iKamva Labantu, a Cape Town-based non-profit organisation. Now these guys specialise in assisting in building sustainable community-based organisations that focus on primary healthcare, education and skills development, food security and enterprise development, as well as land and buildings. Impressive, except that Itec Tiyende is a telco.

But, says Ntshinka, the new guys are "quite business-oriented people" and he does not see any reason why their role as BEE partner should be problematic. Perhaps they'll be more hard-working than the Sisulus. Then again, perhaps they'll look great on paper.

When it rains, it pours

This week has seen much rain, and more punishment meted out to beleaguered Sentech - government's new scapegoat, sacrificial lamb and whipping boy.

Martin Czernowalow, news editor, ITWeb

This week has seen much rain, and more punishment meted out to beleaguered Sentech - government's new scapegoat, sacrificial lamb and whipping boy.

In the past few weeks, Sentech's management has been denounced as incompetent and irresponsible, resulting in the company having its budget severely slashed. In addition, it has also been accused of squandering R500 million.

But wait... there's more: this week Parliament came down again on this hapless bunch, when it emerged that Sentech has failed to pay its annual licence fees - for the past five years. This means the signal distributor could owe the telecoms regulator as much as R40 million.

Hey, I sympathise. I have piles of unopened post lying around and I'm sure there are many things I've neglected to pay. Many of my piles of post predate my divorce - more than a year ago - and I'm just one little man. Imagine the amount of post a company the size of Sentech has to deal with. No wonder a bill or two went unnoticed.

Just remember, pay your licence fees... it's the right thing to do.

MPs of mass destruction

At the risk of starting that Jihad, after all, I was happy to see that our Parliamentarians will not rest until you and I are safe. Yes, before even thinking of accusing the powers-that-be of doing nothing, please bear in mind that these guys are working hard.

Take Inkatha Freedom Party MP Hennie Bekker, for instance. This guy clearly doesn't rest. It must have been during one particularly bad night of tossing and turning that Bekker came up with this beauty... Copper cable theft should be prosecuted under an amended version of the Protection of Constitutional Democracy against Terrorist and Related Activities Act of 2004.

Good idea, except what's going to happen when cops have to prioritise cable theft as terrorism, at the cost of putting violent crimes on the back-burner? After all, what's a rape or murder when some dangerous terrorist is threatening state security by pulling copper cable out of the ground somewhere?

Good going, Hennie. You seem like the type of paranoid man that George W Bush could use. Ever consider applying for the US secretary of defence position?

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