Kevin Wustefeld Janssens - A whole other kind of stupid

According to the farm's project co-ordinator, Kevin Wustefeld Janssens, "As a result of the assessments, we were able to establish the actual potential, understanding and therefore evoke our capability as managers by managing people correctly, therefore creating a spirit of motivation and increased productivity." He added that by doing this, they were able to restructure the business, and appoint and place people with the correct behaviour profiles to the various positions of leadership. (Business Services Industry)

The power of understanding

The process has been an amazing revelation, said Wustefeld, and the fact that real capacity exists in current staff eliminates the need to recruit or rely on outsiders. This debunks the myth of scarcity or inadequate capacity within empowerment projects that enable people to manage their own destiny through the ability to understand themselves and understand how to adapt their own behaviour to motivate another person's behaviour, he said.

As the saying goes, a "born leader" constantly modifies behaviour to draw out the best from others. However, most managers find it difficult initially to act in different ways with different people. With constant practice and awareness, not only will it become second nature; leaders can increase their own awareness and sensitivity to others, and as a consequence, influence others to become more productive and focused in their own self-development.

"By gaining clarity of your own behavioural style and that of others' and modifying your own behaviour, you will then be able to effectively manage and lead a team of individuals with variant personalities."

Constantly modifying your behaviour is not the hallmark of a great leader. It is the hallmark of a lying cheating stealing piece of shit. Your own behavioural style cost the failed farm project R3000 a day!

How can you rape a toddler?

Speaking at a police briefing yesterday, Petros, who took the opportunity to announce new appointees, said his reluctance to visit the bushes where the toddler's body was found was fuelled by his incomprehension of how a three-year-old could be raped. (from IOL)

"When I was told about her abduction, I held my breath in the hope that she would be found alive. I can't imagine how a three-year-old can be raped and stabbed." (Why would you want to?)

He said there was a commitment made by police to see that more capacity was given to units which dealt with this type of crime and thanked the NGOs for counselling families and police officers who visited crime scenes involving children.

Petros said residents should be appreciative of police officers who investigated crimes against children as he "can't imagine the trauma they must face".

Ehe... It's like Hollywood... I kant imagine!

Child abductions in the Western Cape

No police officer anywhere in the world would allow the payment of ransom money, Western Cape police commissioner Mzwandile Petros said on Wednesday at a media briefing on the death of three-year-old Viwe Mnembe. (from IOL)

"Globally, there's no police official who will allow anybody to pay ransom money to anybody.

"Because you know what will happen: you will be hijacked in the garage, and somebody's going to be saying, I want ten rand, and then it's easy money." (It's good to see our top policeman shooting his mouth off like this...)

"It is becoming a normal thing in the Western Cape, which is unfortunate. Each and every weekend we will have child abducted."

"We need to investigate this thing further, why is this thing happening in the Western Cape." (errr R500?)

ALL deserve UNIVERSITY edukation

Higher Education and Training Minister Blade Nzimande, who will take over the troubled Setas, wants experienced workers without matric - or matriculants without exemptions - to study at universities. (from IOL)

"Why should a 40-year-old adult who didn't get a matric exemption, but has 12 years' work experience, go and write matric exams when he has enormous experience?" (Because standing in the garden with a spade for 12 years hasn't made him more intelligent and literate!)

The fact that only 18 percent of matriculants gained matric exemptions last year was not a true reflection of the potential of the youth. (It's not a reflection of the youth, but a reflection on the schools and the teachers at those schools. The problem does not lie in the admission standards.... it lies in the academic standards for the schools. Changing the admission standards is not ever going to improve the quality of the students. Earning a university degree requires motivation, dedication and perseverence.)

A report on post-compulsory school provision, commissioned by former education minister Naledi Pandor, found that 2.8 million of 6.8 million 18-to-24-year-olds in South Africa were not employed, in educational institutions or at workplace training.

Said Nzimande: "This implies 40 percent of our youth are not productively engaged due to very limited access to post-school education and training opportunities, poor resources, the lack of financing and the restricted unavailability of jobs. (Blade does not mention how getting a degree from a university translates to a job nor how many umemployed people there are with degrees.)

"This is a huge wastage of human potential."

Couple lose R30 000 to Sangoma....

Nosive Titsolo of Khayelitsha, who is unemployed, decided to consult a sangoma after her house was burgled and her purse disappeared. (from IOL)

The sangoma promised to perform three rituals to end her run of bad luck. One of these involved buying a bag for R12 000 into which a R1-million gift from the ancestors would appear on a certain day.

Titsolo paid R1 000 for a goat for the cleansing ceremony. She also borrowed R12 000 from a relative for the the bag for the ancestors' gift.

In the third ritual, she borrowed R15 000 from a bank to buy cows which would "protect and cleanse" her house.

She was also charged a consultation fee, bringing the amount she said she paid to the sangoma to R30 000. She was told to open a bank account and deposit the money in it.

But the day she was due to receive the R1-million "gift from the ancestors" came and went.

Titsolo went back to the sangoma, who was based in Harare, to find out what had gone wrong, only to be told by his assistants that he had gone to the "mountain in Kenya".

"My husband and I believed in him and trusted him, but we now realise that he brainwashed us," said Titsolo.

Titsolo's husband has a job.

She says they had expected some good luck, but had just had more bad luck.

Titsolo said she had tried to lay a charge with the Khayelitsha police but they refused to open a docket if people were going to be so stupid?

Minister's racist view underpins agricultural policy

Government will make R1bn available for support to emerging farmers, the SABC reported on Wednesday. (from News24)

Agriculture Minister Tina Joemat-Pettersson said 2 000 land reform beneficiaries and 1 000 extension officers would be trained. She said broad-based black economic empowerment would also be monitored.

"We have, with the industry stakeholders launched the Agri BEE charter council to monitor and report on BBBEE initiatives.

"Not enough has been done to monitor BBBEE in agriculture and this will be intensified and monitored with scrutiny."

The government wanted to tap into the goodwill that existed among white commercial farmers to help grow the black farming sector, she said.

Speaking at the end of debate in the National Assembly on her department's budget vote, she warned it was wrong to label white commercial farmers as "the enemy". (Too late, she's already let it slip?)

"We must work together to do more. We will listen to all stakeholders. We will listen to those who have competence and skills. We do not have the luxury of time to reinvest in these.

"There are historically advantaged commercial farmers who have the knowledge and who have the know-how. And there is goodwill among white commercial farmers. There is goodwill; they want to help.

"It is tapping into that goodwill that is important, and not to always blame and label white commercial farmers as the enemy. There are patriotic white South Africans who want to help this country," she told MPs.

Government would work together with farmers who believed their collective future lay in South Africa, but not with those who were "condescending, patronising and racist" in nature.

"We are going to need... [farmers who] will share the risk of failure. If a farm collapses, it is going to be the responsibility of both white and black white farmers to address the failure," she said

The goodwill the minister crows about was all dribbled into the dry dusty earth by one Lulu Xingwana. It will take more than just saying that "they are not the enemy" to get that trust back. Does it matters to you what the colour of the skin of the person growing your food is? It matters to the minister. That is the racist foundation of the minister's approach. I will see you as black and white, but will not work with anyone who is "condescending and racist"? The minister just turned her back on South African farmers investing in the rest of Africa in a "condescending, patronising and rascist manner". These are farmers heading INTO Africa, so how does that make them rascist? To see a hypocrit the minister need only look in a mirror.

Agricultural minister unveils first harvest of sour grapes

Agriculture Minister Tina Joemat-Pettersson said the government will not stand in the way of farmers investing in other African countries but "cannot help protect their investments." (From IOL)

Duh UH DUH! The minister can't get it into her teensie little brain that the white farmers of this country are seeking greener pastures elsewhere because of this government's policy targetting their farms. The minister is also ignoring the matter before the Constitutional Court regarding the governments dismal failure to lift a finger to help Mr von Abo when he was losing his farms in Zimbabwe. No pressure, no request, nothing from our government. Perhaps it is because Mr von Abo is white?

"South Africa would not be able to protect their risk in another country, and we wouldn't be able to provide them with any security or any insurance for their money. So if they invest, they face the risk like any other investor." (She means to say South Africa WILL not protect their investments in other countries? She is the person in the position to negotiate bilateral protection treaties with these countries? Maybe she knows something about the way Africa seems to work. An area is colonised and developed until the local population decides to lose the plot Zimbabwe style? What are you saying to foreign companies wanting to invest in South African agriculture when you are not willing to provide our citizens basic protections on racial terms? What about black entrepeneurs who want to invest in African agriculture?)

"We have also spoken about security of tenure and security of land, that they should understand the policies of the countries they are investing in - particularly around land." (You don't think the farmers have read the LARGE print regarding this country's land policy? Why do you think they are looking elsewhere?)

"We had high risk impacts in Zimbabwe, where South African farmers went to Zimbabwe, lost their farms and were looking for some form of compensation," she said. (While the South African government fiddled on the sidelines?)

"We are not trying to scare away South African investments in the rest of Africa...but we caution our farmers to say that make sure that you understand what you are negotiating, what you are signing up for. You need to read the fine print." (She is doing her best to discourage external investments and sounds panicky. Could it be that the grass really is greener on the other side? Or could it be that the minister realises that the white farmers are just leaving, taking their skills, money and equipment and escaping from under her jackboot? Lady, use the royal "we" all you like, you still sound panicked!)