Tag: south africa

Zuma’s Spousal Budget – Calm Down!

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Huge uproar around South Africa today as it emerged last night that the country pays a “massive” R15.5m per year to support President Jacob Zuma’s three wives. According to Minister in the Presidency Collins Chabane, the money is spent on:

“…personal support staff – secretary and researcher – domestic air travel and accommodation, and international air travel and accommodation for official visits abroad approved by the President.”

The budget has increased from just over R8.1m in the previous year, when Kgalema Motlanthe was in charge – although he kept his private life private and his wife did not attend any public engagements.
In 2007/8, when Thabo Mbeki (remember him?) was in charge, the budget stood at R8.4m.

Everyone is up in arms, because obviously, if Zuma had less wives, we wouldn’t be paying as much, innit? How dare he follow his cultural path of polygamy. Of course, there are a couple of things that have been forgotten in all the fuss. Aren’t there always?

  • SA is effectively paying R5m per wife per year. Two years ago, we were were paying R8.4m for a wife we rarely saw.
    Last year, we were paying R8.1m last year for a wife we weren’t even sure existed.
    So where were all the complaints then?
  • R15m per year amounts to about R0.30 ($0.04 or 2½ pence!) per head of population per year. That’s 2.5c per month.
    And since you were already paying half of that without complaint before, you’re actually moaning about an increase of just over 1 cent per month.
    Tell me, in all honesty, did you have big plans for that 1c? Did you?

I don’t disagree that there are other things on which the money could be “better spent”: hospitals, education, housing etc etc. But isn’t that always the case? Why the huge uproar over this? 
No, this is just another misinformed and opportunist attack on Zuma’s lifestyle by the media, helpfully egged on by the DA.
When are they going to realise that their efforts would be better served on matters which they have the power (and democratic right) to challenge? Zuma’s polygamy is not one of them.

And if you’re one of those people who are being swept up by the sensationalism of it all before you’ve actually looked at the facts, well, maybe you need to sit down and think why you’re so upset: is it really that 30 cents a year you’re having to fork out or is there actually something else driving that anger?

Fly the flag – could do better

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The Fly the Flag campaign is another event to mark an important day in the countdown towards the World Cup.

There are just 100 days to go before the tournament starts on June 11th and South African Tourism is asking people to get excited about it. And why not? Although, I do have a problem with enforced enthusiasm: the MC-generated Mexican Wave at the Cape Town rugby festival being a case in point. And the fact that schools in SA practice their cheering in the week leading up to a big Saturday rugby match.
Rugby again. Hmm.

Anyway, I think this is a nice idea and I wanted to support it with a post on here a couple of weeks back. But South African Tourism hadn’t got things together and there was nothing on the website address that their radio ads were punting. In fact their 2010 site still doesn’t have a link to the FTF page, a whole day before things kick off, so to speak. But then, maybe that’s a good thing, because the FTF page has all the hallmarks of a rush job:

Mark 100 days to the biggest kickoff on African soil.  Support National Fly The Flag Day on March the 2nd. Put everything on hold at midday. Wear you Bafana jerseys and gather around in public places to sing the National Anthem and wave your Mzansi flag.

The 2nd of March will mark 100 days before the much-awaited 2010 FIFA World Cup officially kicks off.  Come midday on March the 2nd, let’s all down tools for a moment, gather at public places in our Bafana colours to sing the National Anthem and fly the Mzansi flag high in celebration of National Fly The Flag Day.

When the clock strikes midday on March the 2nd, it’s time for National Fly The Flag Day. Drop everything you’re doing, gather around at public places in your Bafana jerseys. Sing the National Anthem and wave your Mzansi flags to mark 100 days to the 2010 FIFA World Cup.

That’s 4 March the 2nd’s, 3 Mzanzi flag’s and 3 gather around in public places‘s in 9 sentences. And not much else.

What could have been a great celebration is only now beginning to catch on and frankly it’s no surprise, when even the organisers’ organisation looks pretty rubbish.

Still, I’ll be there making the effort with suitable attire and with my (English) flag flying on the car.

Helen talks mainly sense

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Grand Emperor of the Western Cape, Helen Zille has been talking up a storm after a police briefing on World Cup security. She warned of the dangers of sensationalist media and their attempts to stoke up negative sentiment about the country and the tournament.
Well said, Helen. We warned you about that over 3 months ago.

“There are a lot of journalists who want sensational stories in the run-up to the World Cup. Be very careful not to be caught off-guard with a sensational quote,” she said.
Zille said it was important not to “pump up” international fears, and mentioned the recent attack on the Togolese football team during the Confederations Cup in Angola as an example of how perceptions could go wrong.
“They don’t differentiate between countries,” she said, adding that she herself had been on the receiving end of journalists “trying to squeeze alarming statements” out of her.

While this is obviously of concern, those journalists should have known better than to mess with Zille. Even when squeezed really tightly, all that comes out is rhetoric; stuff like “ANC”, “totally unacceptable”, “President Zuma” & “morally questionable” with the odd transitional phrase thrown in so it all makes sense.
To her, anyway. 

After savaging the media, she then turned her attention to the equally menacing vuvuzela.

“The vuvuzela is great fun until you sit and hear thousands,” she said.
“You need to warn people. You need to have earplugs on sale at the stadium.”

Seriaas, Helen?

“It is a serious point I am making, I am not being frivolous.”

Oh…  right.
Well, that’s nonsense.
One vuvuzela is annoying. Thousands of them honking together like an army of mad geese is just great.

Also, this gives the ANC a great indication as to how to disrupt the next DA rally that they want to disrupt. No – not the thousands of vuvuzelas thing, the opportunity to sell earplugs to people on the way in.
And then they could do the thousands of vuvuzelas thing just to annoy Helen.

A Day of Twitter in South Africa

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There have always been a lot of discussions about the use of social media service twitter in South Africa. Apparently allegedly, there are those who tweet too much, over-utilising and polluting the service and there are those under-utilisers who tweet too little. Then there are the ones that use it for work – the creative types, the geeks, the wine traders and the newspaper people. There are the twits who just tell us about their daily life and their kids. And, of course, those that only use it for telling us about their problems. Joy.

Having recently cracked the 500 follower threshold and with the vast majority of those followers coming from the Rainbow Nation, it dawned on me that while everything changes on a daily basis, there has emerged a typical day of tweets in South Africa.
I have attempted to describe this below, without using any twitter usernames whatsoever. However, it’s my guess that many people out there will recognise some of themselves somewhere in the next 24 hours:

  • 0600-0700: Tweets about waking up and requiring coffee. At least one smartarse is in the office already.
  • 0700-0800: First tweets about how nice/not nice the weather is in Cape Town this morning. Most descriptions will include some reference to the mountain and its current state of visibility.
  • 0800-0900: Traffic and coffee dominate this hour. Swear at the BMW driver who’s using his phone while driving and tweet his registration to us all from behind the wheel. And then order a coffee from that coffee shop (or, if you want to be different, that other coffee shop). Make sure you give us all the details and remember that the more complicated the name of the coffee you order, the cooler you are.
  • 0900-1100: The first challenges of the work day arise. Spreadsheets fail to spread, clients become annoying and Julius Malema has said something silly again. At least one person has got a headache and the more rotund twits have already mentioned lunch twice.
  • 1100-1200: The morning is dragging. Just like yesterday’s did at about this time.
  • 1200- 1400: The accepted lunch period. It is vital that South Africa and the rest of the world, plus any aliens who are tuning in, know that your posh sandwich from the local posh sandwich shop is the best thing you’ve ever tasted since your intricate coffee order three hours earlier. Talking of which, you’ll probably be getting another coffee about now. If you brought your lunch from home, tell us. Well done, we’re proud of you.
  • 1400-1500: The work day. Your tweets drop to an average of 3 per minute. Tweet continually to remind us that you are working and please don’t disturb you. Really. You’re working. And don’t need to be distur – hey! – check out this picture of a fluffy kitten!
  • 1500-1600: There’s a thunderstorm in Jo’burg. The clouds are dark, and the rain/hail is like coming down like you’ve ever seen before since this mid-afternoon period yesterday. There is, apparently, nothing like a Highveld thunderstorm. Please feel free to remind everyone of that fact.
  • 1600-1700: The wind down. You leave work at 5pm and because we never learnt to tell the time, you are happy to give us frequent reminders of exactly how long it is until that particular hour. About every 10 minutes should suffice.
  • 1700-1800: Damnit! It seems that everyone else has left the office at the same time as you. Again. Consequently, the roads are clogged and you may complain about the traffic like you did this morning. Taxis are especially good to moan about as everyone hates them and will understand and empathise with your angst.
  • 1800-2000: It’s about this time of evening that I always wonder what other people are eating, as I stare at the assorted crayfish, oysters and swan lying upon my vast and heaving table. Fortunately, that wonder can be remedied with quick check of twitter. Popular choices always include “2 minute noodles”, “tjops on the braai” and “Steers burger”. The usual accompaniment for each of these delicacies is the phrase “nom nom nom”.
  • 2000-2400: Mainly sport and irritating imported american prime-time TV prefixed with a hashtag. And a mention of what you’re drinking. You can even twitpic it if you want. Don’t forget to say goodnight when you go to bed, will you?
  • 2400-0600: Do you suffer from insomnia? Complain about it during these hours. No-one is listening. The only other people awake are other insomniacs who are too concerned with their own mental issues to be bothered about yours.

And that’s about it. We’ll do the same thing again tomorrow. And the day after.

You can follow 6000 on twitter here.

Peter Delmar – Greed killing our World Cup prospects

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Following on from my Ashanti Lodge post (and their manager’s “charmless reply“), this from Peter Delmar in The Times yesterday:

You can stay at the two-star B&B for under R600 a night per room, including breakfast, which is about as much as it’s worth. But, the proprietor told me, she was doubling the price for the World Cup.

“Oh,” was all I managed to say in response. I wanted to ask: “Why?”

Why double the price just because of the World Cup? Did she have any bookings for the soccer? Not yet.

Just about everyone else is up to the same jiggery-pokery: jostling with their snout in the trough to milk fans, who are all supposedly as rich as Croesus, for six weeks or so. And now their chickens are coming home to roost. We’ve realised with a nasty shock that even the Germans, the richest soccer fans in the world, can’t afford us.

The greed-mongers are not only shooting themselves in the foot, they’re shooting the poorest of the poor as well.

None of us particularly likes our airline industry and it hardly came as a surprise to learn it was being investigated for collusion on pricing during the World Cup. The only real surprise was that it took our somnambulant competition authorities so long to twig to what was going on.

I’ve been to a few world cups in my time. Admittedly, none of them were soccer-related, but at all of them the profiteering was kept within limits. Or wasn’t even noticeable. But not South Africa 2010, it seems.

It’s not too late to tell the world: “Sorry, we got a bit carried away there for a moment and thought you okes were much richer than you really are.

Good points, good sense.

Are you reading, Sue?