From: "Raynard Looch" Subject: KLASS LOOCH ASSOCIATES : OHS CHAT & SKINNER Date: 18 June 2002 06:46 AM Hi Folks I thought perhaps it is appropriate for me to share with you my views of a variety of aspects, mostly founded in law and hopefully with an OHS slant, but not necessarily. (You know me by now)? Firstly why the title "Devils Advocate"? To me a Devils Advocate is like a schizophrenic, always seemingly advocating something but in reality advocating something totally different. A "teaser" of sorts. And believe me, as those of you who recently logged on to www.klasslooch.com, will know, I'll be using that (in)famous strip-joint "Teasers" in Johannesburg as an example, of what I believe to be, our constitutional right to freedom of expression! And guess what? Strip-joints ARE legal. See www.sabcnews.com/south_africa/crime1justice/0,1009,36621,00.html This past weekend I have been shaking my head in disbelief. We experienced Peter Mokaba's funeral. And with all due respect to his family and followers, he was not my favourite person. An intellectual some called him. Well, how intellectual does one have to be to drum up with that obscene slogan "Kill a farmer. kill a Boer"? Why not change the slogan to "Kill the bread-basket and let's all starve"? That human rights criminal Mugabe will surely show you the way. Over 900 farm attacks and more than 100 farmers murdered. Is that perhaps merely poaching? Maybe we should start poaching the perpetrators of hate speech themselves. They seem to have nothing better to do than attend one funeral after the other. Invariably a high-ranking government official whose demise is due to an "undisclosed " ailment. And how intellectual is it to challenge - despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary - that the root cause of AIDS is not HIV? And how surprising that another high-ranking government official has died of an "undiagnosed" disease. Aren't we supposed to be trying to get rid of stigmas? Aren't there enough HIV/ AIDS sufferers out there bearing the brunt of stupid stigmas already? And at his funeral our beloved President remained stonily silent as people exhorted each other to slaughter fellow citizens! And some were indeed slaughtered that same day. My condolences to the Dent family. I don't shed a tear for Mokaba! And to crown it all our esteemed Vice-President has deemed it fit to orally comment on certain "unnatural" sexual practices that does not easily transmit the HIV virus! What is a natural sexual practice, pray tell? We now have a President who thought he was an expert on AIDS/HIV and now we have a vice-President who knows what a natural sexual practice is! Are you guys supposed to restrict yourselves to governing the country (properly)? But I promised that I would share my views on our constitutional right to freedom of expression and that I would try and give it an OHS context. (I may fail)! And in the midst of all the slaughtering frenzy and other oral nonsense, our under-staffed and over-worked and under-manned (under-personned) SAPS decided to raid that popular strip-joint in Johannesburg called "Teasers". Under media glare of course. At least it wasn't the Nazi-like Stormtrooper raid on "The Ranch" where everyone in sight was bliksemed! Now you tell me. What is the difference between the constitutional right to freedom of expression i.e. the right to innocently strip off one's clothes (OK include a little hanky-panky) and that of exhorting your fellow countrymen to kill and maim? Can someone explain it to me? Mr Ngema? You naturally (again) capitalised on controversy. Didn't you get away with too much with the Sarafina fiasco? Now you want the Zulus to bash their fellow citizens of Asian descent? You. Sir, are a opportunist! Personally I hope your CD is a huge flop. In my view it is hate speech at its worst! And the Human Rights Commission agrees. Ag, pleeze Ngema, and now you say all you only wanted to encourage a debate. We are not all that naive, you know! Enough. Lets talk OHS matters! I wrote a letter to the Department of Labour expressing certain concerns that I and may others have about the section 31 Investigation in terms of the OHS Act. Go to my website and click on the button entitled "OHS Act Matters of Concern" for a copy of the letter. There are some other issues I raised in that letter too. I'm hoping for a response. I'm bitterly unhappy about that Department's lax response to and feel that they are courting constitutional danger. Actually there appears to be little of OHS interest in the news. I have been surfing the Net since 04h30 as well as most of our newspapers. So perhaps a joke will do? Something to lift the spirits as you start the new week. It has an occupational slant! WHY MEN ARE NOT SECRETARIES..... Husband's note on refrigerator to his wife:"Someone from the Gyna Colleges called. They said the Pabst beer is normal." Remember folks my website also contains loads of information so visit it at your leisure. The Devils Advocate PS. Views expressed are the personal views of the Devil's Advocate and do not reflect necessarily those of Klass Looch Associates or any of its clients. __________________________________________________________________________________________________________ This electronic communication may contain privileged and confidential information and is destined solely for the addressee(s). If it inadvertently reaches you, kindly forward to the addressee(s) or delete the mail. The author accepts no responsibility or liability for such an occurrence. raynard@klasslooch.com KLASS LOOCH ASSOCIATES PO Box 40 Melville 2109 Visit www.klasslooch.com & subscribe! Tel 0117267839 Fax 0117266463 Cell 0825749882