The ANC cannot speak on behalf of South Africa regarding the events in Venezuela or its foreign policy. The Freedom Front Plus (VF Plus) has repeatedly pointed out that the ANC’s ideologically driven anti-Western policy does not reflect the sentiments of all South Africans.
The Freedom Front Plus welcomes the actions of the United States against the illegitimate regime of Nicolás Maduro in Venezuela. The free world is under a moral obligation to act against countries with autocratic governments where human rights are trampled and criminality cannot be separated from policy.
The Irish philosopher and politician Edmund Burke rightly said that evil triumphs when good people do nothing to stop it.
While the US actions are now being condemned from various quarters – especially from South Africa – it can rightly be asked why these critics remained silent for years while the people of Venezuela suffered under an illegitimate head of state and a regime without recognition.
Maduro’s government was fundamentally illegitimate and corrupt. After losing the 2024 election, he clung to power with the help of his armed forces, Cuban intelligence, and allies such as Russia, Iran, China, and even North Korea.
These ties transformed Venezuela into a hub for international crime: Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, have been internationally indicted for large-scale drug trafficking through cocaine networks, arms trafficking with terrorist groups such as the revolutionary FARC in Venezuela, and even links to Hezbollah and Iranian militias.
His government drove millions of Venezuelans into poverty with hyperinflation, food shortages, and a refugee crisis that uprooted more than 7 million people. Human rights organisations such as Human Rights Watch cite torture, unlawful executions, and the suppression of opposition as violations under Maduro.
Maduro was not a legitimate president, but a dictator whose rule was denied by more than 60 countries. He plundered Venezuela’s oil wealth for the benefit of foreign creditors such as China, while immersing the people of Venezuela in poverty.
The US action was not an invasion or regime change, but a targeted intervention based on international indictments against Maduro.
It was necessary to dismantle a regime that not only terrorised its own people but also posed a threat to the region and the world. National sovereignty cannot be a shield for such atrocities – that would be a licence for tyranny.
The ANC is now conveniently grasping at international law to act against the US, while it itself failed in 2015 to comply with the same international law by executing a court order regarding the arrest of Omar Al Bashir. This is dishonest.
The ANC was also silent about Ukraine’s sovereignty when Russia attacked that country in 2022 and occupied large parts of Ukraine’s territory.
Dirco’s request to refer the matter to the United Nations Security Council was not a joint decision of the Government of National Unity (GNU), but unilateral ANC action presented as “South Africa’s” position.
The ANC’s Nomvula Mokonyane even dismissed the Freedom Front Plus’s view on the matter, as a government partner, as “poorly informed” and “minimalistic”.
It is this ideological blindness of the ANC that places it in the company of countries with proven human rights violaters such as Iran, China, North Korea, and terrorist groups such as Hamas, with which the Freedom Front Plus cannot associate itself.
No one should be safe when they violate the civil liberties or property rights of their own people as part of an institutionalised system of government.
If no one stands up against countries where clear human rights violations occur, no one can expect to be helped later when they themselves become victims of it. Evil indeed triumphs when good people do nothing to stop it.
FF+ Manifesto on Digital transformation: Embracing digital technologies to improve services.
Omega Sub
Interview with a pirate:
There was a pirate who had agreed to do an interview with a local tv station. The reporter was very courteous and professional, giving a bit of background as to the pirate\’s business. She then began interviewing him.
\”So Mr. Longbeard, are there any risks to your business? I see you have a peg leg- how did that come about?\”
\”Well, y\’see I were sailing along the coast of South Africa, looking to plunder some locals when as I boarded the small boat from the ship, a great white shark came up and got my leg clean off. \’twas scary yes, but thus is the life of a pirate.\”
\”Wow, that is pretty scary- well, how about your hook? What happened to your hand with that?\”
\”Oh now that\’s quite the tale, y\’see I were fighting a rival pirate, and we had locked swords. We had been fighting for a few hours, and were both terribly fatigued. I had a bit of exhaustion and confusion, and when I went to block one of his sword blows, I met him with me hand instead of me sword. Took it right off, but it shocked him so much I managed to get him back pretty good and have him submit. So the hook hand was given as a replacement.\”
\”Wow. Simply fascinating. Now, what about your eye patch? How did that happen?\”
\”Well, one day, a seagull was flying overhead, and I looked up. It pooped right in me eye.\”
\”… Well wow. I must admit, I wouldn\’t think just seagull poop could damage the eye that badly.\”
\”Oh, I forgot to mention… it were me first day with the hook.\”
Firedog
The Man who could only Drink Milk
I know an old man who had lived a life full of adventure, but his health started to catch up with him. He\’d run the Boston Marathon, was an avid surfer, and climbed Everest, but he\’d started to have abdominal pains around his 85th birthday and went to see a doctor. Sadly, he ultimately was diagnosed with a rare degenerative liver disease that slowly made him allergic to everything he ate.
He kept copious notes, and as an avid gastronomist slowly grew to despair as everything he\’d spent his life enjoying became something he could no longer eat. Alcohol went first, then mushrooms, then bread, then root vegetables, then coffee, one at a time he had to remove them from his diet. The doctor was clear: if he kept eating something his liver rejected the autoimmune response would be quick and severe, and would lead to a painful death. Little by little, everything was taken away as an option, until the only thing that remained was milk.
In some ways, this actually made life easier, because the mental strain of remembering what he could and couldn\’t eat was gone, but then so was the joy in variety. But he took it in stride, and got his own cow and took classes from a farmer to learn everything he could about the only thing that could give him sustenance. And even within milk, he could still have yogurt, butter, cream, some cheeses, and other milk-derived products he hadn\’t fully rejected yet, so it wasn\’t all bad. But then one day a few months later he felt the pain again, and he knew cow\’s milk was no longer an option.
Lacking other options, he tried goat\’s milk, and he was delighted that it worked! The protein structure is just different enough that his body still tolerated it. That bought him another month. And that\’s when we came up with a wonderful plan to go on one last grand adventure around the world. If he could get one month of life out of the milk of every mammal, he\’d actually have a few more years to enjoy life to the fullest and see the world in all its beauty. Each month, we\’d pick a place with a new mammal, and he would immerse himself fully with the locals, learn all the ways to prepare the milk, and just enjoy the hand he had been dealt as much as he could.
We milked sheep in New Zealand. Camels in Egypt. Zebras in South Africa. Giant bats in Indonesia. Do you know how many Peruvian cuy you need to milk to get a single glass? I do. Even as his health slowly faded, he stayed cheerful, and I felt lucky to join him on the adventure of a lifetime. That brings us to today when he got to the very end of his spreadsheet, and declared that he was now allergic to every mammal. He\’d enjoyed his journey, but his time had come to an end, for there was nothing left to milk.
To which I said nonsense, I bet we can milk a few thousand karma out of this post.