Bloemfontein

Bloemfontein, the capital of the Vry Staat (Free State) province, is a city with 256.185 inhabitans. The majority of the population is Black, 56.1%, followed by whites, 29.8%, and coloureds. Afrikaans is the most spoken first language, 42,5%, followed by Sesotho, 33.4% and then English and Xhosa.

History

Bloemfontein was the original farm of Johannes Nicolaas Brits so it was the owner of that piece of land. Historically it was an Afrikaner settlement but the city was officially founded in 1846 by major Henry Douglas Warden as a british outpost in the Transoranje region. However with colonial policy shifts the region changed into the Orange River Sovereignty and to the Oranje Vry Staat republic in 1854. The city became the capital of OVS and it growth at the same time that the republic growth and developed.  A railway line was built connecting the city to Cape Town in 1890. In 1899 was held in Bleomfontein the Bloemfontein Conference which failed to prevent the outbreak of the Second Boer War. On March 1900 the after the Battle of Paardeberg the british troops capture the city and build a concentration camp nearby. The National Women’s Monument, on the outskirts of the town, pay a tribute to all the victims of the British concentration camps during the war especailly the women. In the period of the Union of South Africa and the Republic of South Africa the city continued to growth becoming one of the biggest south african cities. In this period the city became the sole judicial capital of the country. After the fall of Apartheid the city remain as the judicial capital of the country and it is all an important administrative and industrial center.

Climate

Bloemfontein is located in central South Africa in a plateau with small hills being located at an elevation of 1400 metres. The climate is semiarid with hot summers, sometimes over 35ºc with frequent and intense rain especially in the afternoon and evening. The summer lasts for 6 months in the city. The winter is short, from June to August, and is characterized by sunny days, around 17ºc, and cold nights frequently with below 0º temperatures. In the winter, spring and fall the difference between the maximum and minimum temperature is very big.

Culture

The city is culturally rich. It has a numerous theaters, museums and churches. The most known teater is the Sand Du Plessis one of most modern theatres of South Africa with a capacity of 1000 people and that houses the Free State Symphony Orchestra . It terms of museums, Bloemfontein houses the National Museum, the War Museum (Oorlogsmuseum), the National Afrikaans Literary Museum and the already referred National Women’s Monument (Vrouemonument). The city has a famous two towers Dutch Reformed Church. One important site is the old Raadsaal building with a statue of Christiaan de Wet in that square.

Sports

Various sports are played in Bloemfontein. The most popular are soccer, rugby and cricket. The city has an important soccer team the Bloemfontein Celtics and some of the games of the 2010 World Cup were played in the Free State Stadium. The stadium also host the Central Cheetahs team which play in Super Rugby. The Knights Cricket team represents the Free State and the Northern Cape in various series and it’s located in Chevrolet Park. Another popular sports are Motor Sports, Shooting, Swimming and Rock Climbing. Rugby is the favorite sport of the Boer-Afrikaners in the city.

Education

Bloemfontein is home to a large number of schools. Lessons are generally teacheded in Afrikaans, Sesotho or English. Some schools are bilingual. The University of the Free State (Universiteit van die Vrystaat) is also located in Bloemfontein and is one of the best in the country. There’s also a Central University of Technology.

AfriForum opens case against ANC

”Johannesburg – AfriForum on Thursday opened a case against ANC secretary general Gwede Mantashe and his deputy Jessie Duarte for allegedly contravening the Public Protector Act.

“The charges flow from a series of insults which were made by Mantashe and Duarte at a media conference two days back against Public Protector Thuli Madonsela,” AfriForum deputy CEO Ernst Roets said.

According to sections nine and 11 of the act it is a crime to insult the public protector, he said, adding that any person found guilty could be fined R40 000 or sentenced to a year in prison.

The case was opened at the Brooklyn police station in Pretoria.

Station spokesperson Colette Weilbach could not immediately be reached for comment, nor could provincial police spokesperson Lungelo Dlamini.

On Tuesday, Mantashe told reporters Madonsela was abusing her office and trying to get the media’s attention by saying things that were not in any report or being investigated.

Mantashe said Madonsela’s conduct prejudiced the work of Parliament and its committees.

“That is why we are not attacking the public protector or her office but we are attacking the behaviour that is wrong,” he said.

Mantashe said it had become a norm that all public protector reports were leaked to the media before she had released them.

Duarte said Madonsela’s attitude was that she was superior to the Constitution and Parliament, and above all institutions in the country.

The two were reacting to a letter Madonsela reportedly wrote to President Jacob Zuma last week about the R246m spent on upgrades at his private Nkandla homestead in KwaZulu-Natal.

In her letter she reportedly cautioned him that he was second-guessing her recommendations that he repay part of the money spent on features unrelated to security, such as a swimming pool, cattle kraal, amphitheatre, and visitors’ centre.

In his reply to Madonsela’s report on Nkandla, Zuma indicated that Police Minister Nathi Nhleko should determine if he should repay any of the money.”

Source: News24

This news in another example of the typical attitude done by the ANC in several situations. In this case the ANC secretary general, Gwede Mantashe, and his deputy Jessie Duarte insulted publicly the Public Protector Thuli Madonsela. It’s consists in an abuse of power and a disrespect against the South African constitution and the South African parliament and being also a lack of education. In a constitutional democracy as South Africa is, or atleast should be, this kind of insults of politicians against a Public Protector are simply unacceptable and it is a sign that South Africa is not a true democracy but is still a flawed democracy. The ANC and not Madonsela is the one with an attitude superior to the parliament and the constitution. The Afriforum has a protect of a democratic South Africa opened this case against the ANC with all the right. This christian afrikaner civil-rights organisation has been doing since it’s foundation in 2006 a good work in protecting the Boer-Afrikaner people, denouncing the discrimination that the whites suffer in South Africa done by the Afirmative Action politics of the ANC and the racist statements of politicians like Julius Malema and other members of his EFF party. It is also a big supporter of the Afrikaans language. Besides the insults of Mantashe and Duarte towards the Public Protector Madonsela we can see the megalomaniac of President Zuma made at excess of public money that came from the tax-payers. And make a pool, a cattle kraal, an amphitheatre and a visitors center in their own house in something that is very expensive and should not be done with public money. So it’s perfectly normal that Madonsela recommended Zuma to repay part of the money spent on those features unrelated with security. In our opinion all the money spent in features unrelated with security should be repay. President Zuma has a spending problem and a man as him should not be president of any country or have any important public functions. And thus Gwede Manthase and Jessie Duarte hastened in defending their beloved leader by all means in an attitude typical of a dictatorship not of a democracy.

South Africa as a country needs to get rid of the ANC because all of harm that already cause to the country and may cause in the future. A party with a leader as Zuma or a secretary general as Mantashe cannot govern a country. The Boer-Afrikaners as a people need to build an alternative that congregates all of them and even some other people to make it’s interests be heard with the main goal of a Volkstaat and with the more close goal of stop the discrimination that the whites suffer in South Africa.