More South African Revalations

By JP

10. The Marklives! blog post breaking the story that FIFA's lawyers had just squashed Kulula's "Unofficial National Carrier of the ‘You Know What'" advertisement:

The website reported that "News broke on [the airline's] official Twitter account (@kulula) with the following post; "oh dear letter from FIFA's lawyers says we broke their trademark of the use of "South Africa" and think our non-WC ad was about soccer..." Apparently the lawyers are objecting not only to the use of "South Africa" but also to the use of soccer balls and the image of a stadium. Even use of our national flag was an issue." The offending advert follows below:

9. John Kane Berman's column in Business Day on the bright side of the ANC's internal squabbling:

Kane Berman notes that, "Apart from its entertainment value, the antics of the three-ring circus keep the comrades occupied. The more they party the better, since they then have less time to interfere with universities, impose import tariffs, undermine the judiciary, or gatecrash schools as Malema likes to do." He also observes: "The ANC loves power, and the trappings of power (blue-light convoys), and grandiose projects (the World Cup). But they lack interest in all the things that governments have to do at the level of the nitty gritty, such as fixing broken traffic lights or making sure that public hospitals have enough medicines and schools enough text books. This is why we need a professional civil service."

8. The Carte Blanche report on the brutish arrest of one Magdel Steyn by a gang of Tshwane Metro Cops for a traffic violation:

Steyn was parked outside the CIPRO offices in Pretoria waiting for her mother, when she was accosted by a Tshwane metro cop in mufti. The incident escalated until Steyn and her mother were surrounded by a crowd of about ten cops. Steyn told the programme: "'I just remember someone grabbing me at my shoulders. They were like picking me up. The next moment I was thrown against the towing truck.' A female officer hauled Magdel to a waiting police car, while verbally abusing her. Magdel: 'She just told me, 'Walk you f****** 'white' cow'...Magdel was taken to the Sunnyside police station about a kilometre from where the incident had happened... She would spend the next 15 hours locked up in police cells.'" Footage of the incident itself was captured on CCTV and posted on You Tube by Solidarity:

7. Rob Brand's web post on the potentially worrying consequences of the Equality Court's finding that ANCYL President Julius Malema was guilty of hate speech:

Malema had been taken to court for his statement that, "Those who had a nice time will wait until the sun comes out, request breakfast and ask for taxi money. In the morning, that lady [Zuma's rape accuser] requested breakfast and taxi money." Brand notes: "Malema's words were undoubtedly hurtful to many people. They may, at a stretch, be construed as ‘advocacy of hatred' based on gender. But did they constitute incitement to cause harm? I think not. And so, offensive though the words were to our sensibilities, they should be protected by the Bill of Rights."

6. The eyewitness account in the Daily Maverick by Stephen Grootes on the assault of Eyewitness news photographer Tshepo Lesole by Jacob Zuma's bodyguards:

Grootes, an Eyewitness News reporter, had asked Lesole to take a photograph of the presidential motorcade parked outside Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital. As the two of them were walking back into the building Lesole was grabbed by two VIP unit thugs. Grootes writes: "Tshepo was dragged around a corner. I was still with him, and by this time the head of the detachment was there. He and his colleagues were refusing to talk to me, saying that they would only talk to him. I said that was ridiculous; he was my colleague. Once around the corner, he gave in. I really can't blame him. He deleted the pictures."

5. S'Thembiso Msomi's column in The Times expressing disquiet at the way in which the ANC had condoned Julius Malema's singing of ‘shoot the boer':

Msomi concludes his survey of the history of struggle songs by arguing: "Sure, freedom songs should continue to be sung. But there is a rich repertoire of songs that could be chosen that are no threat to non-racialism. If there is a lesson to be learned from the slogans and chants of the South African revolution, it is that each song spoke to the realities and demands of the time. Now is the time for nation-building, and the songs we sing should not undermine that objective."

4. The Star report on how ANCYL President Julius Malema had visited the hip hop artist Molemo ‘Jub Jub' Maarohanye, in prison, ahead of the latter's bail application following the killing of four schoolboys in a car crash:

Alex Eliseev wrote that an anonymous warder from the facility "has described how Malema and his entourage were escorted by warders, allowed to meet in a private room and forced some officers to work overtime. The warder, who asked not to be named, claimed Malema and Maarohanye were treated to Nando's chicken. Another witness claimed to have seen the group of visitors at the prison. They had parked their luxury cars - including a 4x4 and a BMW - outside a gate where normally no parking is allowed."

3. The complaint by 19 political hacks against the ANC Youth League spokesman Floyd Shivambu:

In the document, published in the Daily Maverick, the journalists stated that Shivambu's actions in trying to peddle an intelligence dossier on City Press' Dumisane Lubisi - and then threatening those who refused to report on it - "was less about exposing unethical behaviour in the media, and had more to do with wanting to silence us with threats of public embarrassment over our private lives. We wish to place it on record that Shivambu's efforts sought to intimidate political journalists from doing their legitimate work."

2. The announcement by Kumba Iron Ore that the Department of Mineral and Energy Affairs had allocated a "prospecting right" to the 21.4% share in the Sishen mine previously held by Mittal to a "third party":

The company stated that its subsidiary, the Sishen Iron Ore Company had "lodged an appeal against the grant of the prospecting right and Kumba is currently engaged in discussions with the Department of Mineral Resources in relation to the 21.4% residual right in respect of the Sishen mine." It was reported the following day that the "third party" was an ANC linked shell-company Imperial Crown Trading 289.

1. Rian Malan's special report in the Daily Sun (see here and here) on South Africa's municipalities in crisis:

Malan compares the way the best and worst district municipalities in South Africa are run. On the one side, West Coast, north of Cape Town. On the other: Alfred Nzo municipality in the old Transkei. He writes that when the DA took control of West Coast municipality new executive mayor Rene Kitzhoff "decided senior managers were spending too much on themselves. So she told the ‘fat cats' to hand over their credit cards and cut them up with a scissors!" Over at Alfred Nzo meanwhile financial management is so lax that when government auditors arrived to check the books in 2008 only R108m out of R203m of income "actually showed up on its statements!"

The Daily Sun also published eight ideas for fixing the problem. The included cracking down on lazy workers, enforcing the law, making skills a top priority, having strong opposition, and saying phansi to bad affirmative action:

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