Zuma and Gaddafi

Zuma and Gaddafi

They say a picture says a thousand words.........

ZUMA: "Oh shit, what have I done?".........

GADDAFI: " Ah ha, I have got you"

Cops Arrested for Theft

2011-05-31

Two Durban metro police officers and a police sergeant have been arrested for pocketing stolen wristwatches, KwaZulu-Natal police said on Tuesday.

Lieutenant Colonel Vincent Mdunge said two metro police officers confiscated 400 watches, worth about R3 000 each, from a 70-year-old Johannesburg man in a hotel in Umhlanga last week.

On the way to the Durban north police station, the two metro police officers each took 25 of the watches.

They handed in the rest, but the sergeant on duty at the police station also stole a few.

The Durban organised crime unit launched an investigation when the owner of the watches complained about the theft.

Mdunge said police arrested the two metro police on Monday afternoon. They found 25 of the watches in the home of one of the officers and 17 at the other's house.

The investigators the took the two to the Durban north police station, where they saw an on-duty sergeant wearing one of the watches and arrested him too.

They found 20 watches in a search of his house.

All three men were charged with theft and would appear in the Durban Magistrate's Court on Tuesday.

http://www.news24.com/SouthAfrica/News/Cops-arrested-for-theft-20110531

R750 000 to Rent House

2011-05-31 

The public works department will spend about R750 000 to rent a house for Gauteng police commissioner Mzwandile Petros, The Star reported on Tuesday.

"Last month, the department hired Siyakula Logistics to provide a house at a cost of R31 042 a month, or R745 008 for the two-year contract," the newspaper wrote.

The award was listed in the Tender Bulletin on Friday and the cost was confirmed by department officials.

The state provided Petros with housing because he did not apply for the position, but was transferred from his previous position as Western Cape provincial commissioner.

He was appointed in Gauteng September of last year.

Housing tender

The Star reported that the housing tender, issued in March, called for a three-bedroom, two-bathroom house in or around Rosebank, Melrose, Oaklands, Dunkeld, Killarney, Morningside, Houghton, Illovo or Saxonwold.

It also called for the house to have electronic access control and a "solid perimeter wall with a minimum height of two metres" with an electric fence on top.

The acquisition of the house followed a report by the Gauteng department of infrastructure development, in which revealed it had 780 state-owned houses in the province.
One of these houses, in Bryanston, which was previously occupied by Mzwandile Kibi, deputy director-general of the department of infrastructure development, "appears to have all the features to accommodate Petros," The Star wrote.

The provincial government owned 826 state houses across six regions, but only 46 tenants had signed lease agreements.

In February, infrastructure development MEC Bheki Nkosi promised to act against those who were illegally occupying government houses.

"He issued a March deadline, but apparently has yet to act on his promise."

http://www.news24.com/SouthAfrica/News/R750-000-to-rent-house-for-Petros-20110531

READERS COMMENTS:

INSANE!

Guarantee you the house belongs to an ANC cadre! 

Prime example of corruption...why do the department have to hire a shipping logistics company to provide a house? I wonder how much of the rent is going into the back pocket mr Siyakula?!

anc -stop your wasteful ways. This is not a senior position. Any state house will do. This is why the anc is losing the vote . You are rip off artists with zero good intentions of doing a job. Your housing department should never have a mandate to go private ,especially when it is not a seniot job. WHY IS HE GETTING A HOUSE ANYWAY . BUY HIS OWN. I HOPE HE GETS TAXED ON THE FULL AMOUNT WHICH ADDS R372000 to his ridiculous package.

What makes this prick so special, he is a PUBLIC SERVANT and should be treated as such. Again we see the excess of the ANC and the waste of taxpayers money that should be used for uplifting the poor and service the country. They have hundreds of houses that would surfice. Why the additional security? if he did his job correctly then he would be a target, but for now he is the puppet and has no enemies!

Not really amased by this. Government issues mansions for government officials while poverty sits at the bottom of their list. Why he need the electric fencing etc. most probably comes down to the fact that he knows the the comunity and tax payers are being hard done to accomodate him. Pathetic! And everyone else in the country is expected to buy or rent their house with monthly income. 

When is this going to end? When the money dries up.

This is the free housing everyone voted for.......

Keep voting ANC people...you will keep voting for your children to be uneducated, for your health system to continue in the downward spiral it's already in and you'll keep living in shacks and having lower class income through blue collar jobs!!!
 

Exactly why does this house have to be in so-called elite areas? Is Millionaires row in Soweto not good enough?

 

CAPE TOWN MUNICIPAL BANK

Did you know that commercial banks create money out of nothing, and lend it to you at compound interest, and moreover insist that you pledge real assets for such loans? Let me repeat - banks create money out of nothing. So why not have our own municipal bank which creates money out of nothing and which will enable lower property rates, low interest home loans and low interest student loans for the benefit of all our citizens?

The myth, which private bankers maintain, is that they accept deposits and then lend these deposits on to borrowers, earning the difference between the higher and lower rates of interest. This is not the case. Banks lend on those deposits, which can be withdrawn by new borrowers either by cheque or electronically. In terms of the latest Basel III agreement, banks are only required to have share capital and reserves of 12%. The other 88% of loans and advances represent money created out of nothing. This is known as the fractional reserve system.

How we will benefit:
(i) The City of Cape Town currently has outstanding borrowings and bonds of R5,5 billion. A municipal bank would enable the redemption of these loans and the funding of all infrastructure programmes at zero interest. As a result of the municipality not having to pay interest and the bank’s profits, ratepayers will enjoy a permanent reduction of at least 15% in annual property rates, and future increases will be lower than the official rate of inflation.

(ii) A ratepayer who deposits for example R60 000 for a fixed period of 5 years, will receive a competitive interest rate of say 6% per annum and be entitled to a home loan of R500 000 at a fixed rate of 2% p.a. Remember that the municipal bank will create this money out of nothing. It will pay R3 600 p.a. on the fixed deposit and receive R10 000 p.a. on the home loan.
Currently, Capetonians who have home loans spend 52% of their income on interest and repayment of capital per year. A drop in the home loan rate from 9% to 2% p.a. would result in a substantial boost to take-home pay and a rise in overall levels of prosperity.

(iii) In order to assist all our young people in obtaining the best education possible, student loans for tertiary education will be available at a nominal rate of 2% p.a. Applicants will have to be South African citizens permanently resident in the city for at least 5 years, with those born in the city receiving preference.

A municipal bank will not only help to eradicate poverty, it will make Cape Town one of the most prosperous cities in the world. Are there any precedents? One may look no further than the state bank of North Dakota in the USA, which was founded in 1919. North Dakota is the wealthiest state in the USA, having full employment and is one of only two states reflecting a budget surplus.

Visit http://www.banknd.nd.gov/
STEPHEN GOODSON is qualified in all aspects of banking and currently serves on the board of the South African Reserve Bank, where he has been a director for the past 8 years.

http://www.abolishtax.org.za/    
tel/fax (028) 2738887

Tea Farm Looted

30-May-2011 

The largest tea estate in the southern hemisphere, Magwa Tea outside Lusikisiki in the Eastern Cape, faces ruin after being looted and abandoned by its workers earlier this year.

The 1803 hectare farm had a turnover of R65 million a season and  provided jobs and career training for 1200 permanent and 2300 seasonal workers.

In February, the farm was shut down when workers, the highest paid in the tea industry, went on the rampage after management refused their demand for a 104% increase.

By May, tea plants usually kept pruned to waist height, for ease  of picking were shoulder high and useless.

The plants stretch as far as the eye can see on both sides of the dirt road that winds across the hills from Lusikisiki to Mbotjie on the Wild Coast, in Transkei.

“The crop for the year has been lost,” says Pierre Leppan, a director at the Eastern Cape Development Corporation (ECDC) which has managed the farm for the past seven years.   

 

“The names of six managers are on a hit list and the ECDC is unable to guarantee their safety. They are having to run the farm on their cellphones.”    

The farm had started thriving in recent years, after decades of plundering, corruption and mismanagement.

A Magwa manager, who declined to be named for fear of his job and his safety, says the trouble started last year, soon after a Farm Workers’ Union (Fawu) official was redeployed to Cape Town and  replaced by two others.

The original union official had understood Magwa, its history, and what was and was not viable, but his successors had not.

“The workers and the management had a harmonious relationship until then,” the manager says.

“The two new officials were confrontational from the start. They misunderstood how Magwa worked. They thought, for example, that the  management were the owners of the farm.”   

The manager said the officials postponed a Magwa workers’ council election to allow seasonal workers to “boot out” most of the permanent workers.

Last year, the new council demanded a 104% wage increase,  even though Fawu had negotiated a 7% nationwide increase  for agricultural workers.

Magwa management told the council it was not authorised to approve the increase, but that the decision was up to the ECDC board and the department of agriculture.

Incensed, the workers cornered managers in their office and assaulted them.

A violent strike, which was later declared illegal,  went on for three months.

“Throughout the strike, the managers had shots fired at them,” the manager says. “Vehicles were stolen and vandalised. Houses were looted and burned.”    

 The strike ended when the department of agriculture offered the Magwa employees a financial package to return to work.

Production was soon back on line, but the mood at Magwa remained  tense.

“Workers were not following management’s instructions, which led  to the suspension of programmes around the farm,” says the manager.

Magwa security manager Daan Schoeman recalls the tension when he  returned to work in July.

“When I went back in July, I could feel that something wasn’t lekker [right],” he says.

In March, workers went on the rampage again. “They destroyed everything in sight. They stole what they could. Fridges, freezers,  ovens and vehicles — everything,” says Schoeman.

The police were called and rubber bullets and tear-gas were fired.

He received a desperate call for help from a manager.

“He said ’Help Daan, they’re killing me’, but I couldn’t do anything. It was impossible to get in.

“They chopped him up with pangas, but he made it out [alive]. One of the security guards, though, was shot dead.

“It was terrible; that day, I started becoming an old man,” he says.

Permanent workers, who lived in houses on the 13 settlements on the farm and refused to take part in the strike, were chased off their properties.

Police spokesman Captain Mduduzi Godlwana confirmed that one person was arrested for murdering the security guard and another 48  for public violence. They are to appear in court soon, he says.

Fawu official Tonga Mbaliese blames the management for the strike.

He says the initial dispute was about the imposition of a 253kg a day tea plucking quota, up from between 180kg and 200kg.

“The target was set unilaterally without employees agreeing with  it. The workers are not the cause of the problems on Magwa. The problems are caused by the style of management,” Mbaliese says.

“There is no transparency at Magwa. Management can’t cry foul and blame everyone when they are the ones who are not working.”    

Surrounding communities, politicians and tribal leaders have all  laid claim to the land in past decades.

The plantation is in the Pondoland magisterial district of Lusikisiki, which falls under the Qawukeni Tribal Authority.

In the 19th century, the land was used to graze cattle, according to University of the Western Cape land and agrarian studies programme lecturer Thembela Kepe.  

  

In a study titled “Magwa Tea Venture in South Africa: Politics, Land and Economics”, he writes that cattle was herded to the coastal grasslands during the winter months, when upland grazing was limited.

In the 1960s, Johan Mills, the then secretary to the Chief Minister of Transkei, suggested to Paramount Chief Botha Sigcawu that Pondoland needed a commercial venture to provide a local alternative to migrant labour to the sugar cane fields of Natal.

“When people rejected the notion of tea being good for the Mpondos, Sigcawu is said to have intimidated the residents, claiming that the land belonged to his father anyway and implying he could force them to move,” Kepe writes.

The residents retaliated by burning down Sigcawu’s supporters’ houses. Several deaths were reported, including that of Sigcawu’s brother, Chief Vukuyibambe Sigcawu.

Even after the plantation was established, it was beset by problems. Its assets were regularly plundered through corruption that continued into the 1990s.

Another problem was a demand by Fawu that workers receive higher  wages at agricultural schemes.

It was thought that state-run enterprises should set a good example in labour practices. As a result, Magwa workers became some  of the highest paid tea estate workers in southern Africa.

The high wages and poor profitability plunged the farm into financial trouble.

A plan to lay off workers sparked violence in mid-2003 when 15 offices and a boardroom were burnt down.

In 2004, the ECDC, which was brought in as a custodian of the land, appointed a team of specialist tea farm managers to make the farm viable.

It seemed an impossible task.

Magwa was producing just 1.2 million kilogrammes of “made” tea a  season. Exports were at a minimum and the cost of production was “extremely high” at R25 a kilogramme.

However, by 2007, Magwa was achieving its highest-ever production figures, with 2.7 million tonnes of “made” tea a season.

“The department of agriculture would give us R15 million a year,  and we were giving them R65m back,” says the senior employee. “The tea was sold in advance on contract, making in roads into huge markets such as China, Pakistan and the [United Kingdom].”    

This success was despite the infrequent and late arrival of government funds and a monthly wage bill of R3.5m.

Before operations at Magwa shut down, workers were earning five times more than those in Malawi, the farm’s general manager says.

They were also earning bonuses and being taken out of the fields  and mentored.

“We were taking from the bottom and building up skills so that they could take over the running of the farm one day,” says the manager.

“Tea industry skills are in enormous demand around the world, so  many of the Magwa workers were poached, but this was fine. We would  train more. We became something of a university for the tea industry.”    

Now Magwa’s future remains uncertain.

Eastern Cape Rural Development spokesman Ayabulela Ngoqo says a new Magwa board will be appointed on June 30, and will be tasked with finding a solution to the problems.

“The board will be given the prerogative to deal with all administrative matters affecting operations,” he says.

“We won’t have a harvest this year, but our main aim is to get it up and running again.”
http://www.sowetanlive.co.za/news/business/2011/05/30/tea-plantation-faces-collapse-after-worker-rampage#leaf 

NewSA

The history of the tea estate follows a pattern now becoming apparent: when
the new government came to power in 1994, they moved to rid many old “homeland”
structures of personnel from the old regime. Affirmative action candidates and
political comrades replaced what was an efficient band of people, whatever their
political affiliations. Thus the rot set in. The plantation was already in trouble in 1997
and was liquidated. The state pumped in R10,6 million to get it back on its feet, and in
1998, the workers became co-owners of the estate in a land reform initiative, funded
by South Africa’s taxpayers.

In May 2003, a South African agricultural magazine alerted readers to the fact
that the Eastern Province MEC for Agriculture Max Mamase was budgeting R20
million for a “turnaround strategy” to salvage what once was a successful tea
project.(7) Democratic Alliance agriculture spokesman Athol Trollip declared that
the corporation was ailing and “doomed to financial failure”.
In July 2003, another press report declared that workers on the estate hadn’t
been paid for six months and “years of gross mismanagement” had led to the torching
of the Magwa Estate’s offices by thousands of workers.(8) Fifteen offices, a
boardroom, computers and financial records succumbed to the flames. “The fate of an
entire rural economy is balanced on a knife edge”, said the article. “Workers children
have been pulled out of school to plant vegetables as their parents can no longer make
ends meet.”
The 2 500 ha estate has the potential to produce more than 3,5 million
kilograms of good quality tea per year. Last season, output was budgeted at 2,3
million kilograms, but only 955 000 kilograms were produced. To remain viable, the
operation needed to produce at least 2,4 million kilograms of tea. It is the only tea
estate in South Africa that is not irrigated.
In October 2003, the DA’s Athol Trollip issued a press statement declaring
that certain creditors had foreclosed on Magwa. One of the creditors had already
begun attaching tractors computers and office furniture. The debt dated back to 1998!
Trollip said he and DA MP Stuart Farrow had brought the plight of “this
magnificent tea estate” to the attention of MEC Max Mamase and the Minister of
Agriculture and Land Affairs in September 2002. R20 million was appropriated in
April 2003 to effect a turnaround to save the estate. Seven months had passed and no
management company had been appointed.
“Magwa lies idle as workers are not paid and the estate is now faced with
liquidation, a classic case of ‘too little, too late”.(9) If nothing is done, “Magwa will
follow the path of other failed parastatals” said Trollip. It later transpired that R15
million was owed to the Land Bank and others, and these debts would have almost
swallowed up the R20 million “turnaround” money. Further, Magwa workers had
taken management to the Labour Court over disputes arising out of non-payment of
salaries.

Zuma and Gadafi

SOME SOUTH AFRICAN VIEWS.........

What exit strategy ?

This thug is wanted by the Hague so how he can be offered an exit strategy ?

Please tell me Zuma does not plan to give him refuge here !

Why not just send in the Navy Seals? They know all about arranging exit strategies.

Another criminal that we must support?

Didn't you know?!
South Africa is an official retirement
haven for despotic African dictators.
Mad bob already has a R100,000,000
retirement home built in Llandudno,
Cape town. 

Yep, another tin-pot despot living of the South African taxpayer.

Exit plan by giving him asylum in South Africa?That must be it since nobody else in their right mind would want the ****er in their country but us.

Zuma's actually gone over to discuss an ENTRANCE PLAN for mad old Gadoofus to come live with us here in Mzansi. Can you imagine if someone invited a murderer into your home without asking your permission first! Surely a public referendum would at the very least be in order?

As the racist anc says..."there are too many Coloureds in the Cape". So he is going to dilute them with an arab!

Zuma should rather focus on his own exit stratgey

JZ - best you work on your own exit plan........ You can go to Libya.... 

And then he can work on his own exit strategy. Maybe he and Looney Tunes and Bad Bob Mugabe can move in together.

No dictator will give up power on a 'pretty please' from Zuma. Just another expensive trip to get some lessons from his buddy.

The deal will probably go like this :
Gadhaffi leaves Libya.
Gadhaffi gets amnesty for crimes committed.
Zuma and ANC gets cash.
Everybody is happy, except lady justice, who gets raped again.

Who does Zuma think he is? I voted for the ANC in 2009 and regret it. We should work on an exit plan for Zuma and his merry thugs so that this country can start progressing instead of becoming another African basket case.

Zuma couldn't plan a piss up in a brewery...

Please Zuma...this is higher grade stuff...

Hey Zoom Zoom,forget his exit plan - please rather work on yours.

zuma is getting in some work experience so when it comes the time he can organise his own exit stategy

I am working on an Exit Plan for Zuma and his anc cronies. Any suggestions?

I bet the rest of the world is laughing at us poor South African suckers.

We've got no money to uplift the millions of poor people in our country, but we can spend millions on another country's criminal. Just like we did with that guy from Haiti. All this, without the people of SA having any say in the matter, and many not even knowing about it.

Just exit the psycho to anywhere other than SA. Preferably 20,000 leagues under the sea.

 

Zuma is about to discover what NATO thinks of him and the AU. 

Somehow the ANC and Zuma has some policital clout outside SA...news is they dont. The Americans and Europeans dont give a hoot about some horny phoney president from the tip of Africa trying to score brownie points by trying to persuade Gaddafi to go into exile. Neither CNN, BBC nor sky or any major tv news channel has reported that Zuma has been trying to mediate. Nobody knows and nobody cares!!

I HOPE HE DOESN'T BRING HIM BACK HERE TO RSA! WE HAVE ENOUGH DESPOTS LIVING OFF US. THE ONLY EXIT STRATEGY I WANT TO SEE IS THE ANC PULLING THEIR FINGERS OUT OF THEIR POEPHOLS AND DOING SOMETHING CONSTRUCTIVE. 

Here is a thought for NATO - put a tracking device on Zuma or whichever fat wife that has gone with him to "negotiate", then you don't have to guess in where Gaddafi is hiding - no more wasted bombs. Do us all a favour, why don't you....

This coming from the ANC who last week in Limpopo said they salute the work of Robert Mugabe...

Zuma visited Tripoli on April 10 as part of a high-ranking AU delegation to broker a truce, but a peace plan fell through" This costly exercise was hailed as "a huge success" by our government.
NATO : Stop this bombing immediately. The man has spoken.

Hope one stray missile lands on showerhead 

With his thick scull, no effect, will probably only bend the missile.

UN please don't bomb tripoli whilst Zuma is there, cause just maybe Zuma will die and we have to deal with Malema the clown. 

Let him be castrated by a stray missile. he thinks with his little head. jacob Dick Dooma. Lots of people skills. Little else.

hahahaha I think we actually really under estimated the ANC! They are so stupid that they think that the rest of the world gives 2 hoots about what the gibbering African circus has to say!!!!! the ANC is a joke and an embarrassment to the world!

The Exit strategy is RSA. The discussions are simply about how much Gaddafi will pay Zuma into Zuma's undeclared offshore bank accounts to give him asylum in RSA. Just like what was done for Jean-Bertrand Aristide.

Sounds to me like one criminal aiding and abetting another

Thoughts from South Africa

This week’s Southern Man – Letter from New Zealand comes to you from South Africa.

This is my first trip back for around a year. I thought I might share some thoughts with you.

· The sunsets – as magnificent as ever. There is nothing like an African sunset. I can’t even describe the colour of our sun here just before it sets – it isn’t orange and it isn’t red – it is something in between. Fiery but comforting. I can understand why the ancestors worshiped it.

· Everything is far more expensive. When I first started coming here 20 years ago this month I thought the place was pretty cheap. Even ten years ago. No longer – it is anything but cheap. Even with real money.

· Woolworths cooked chickens – still the best cooked chickens on the planet. But what happened to being able to buy a half? Now I just pig out on the whole thing!

· Middle class South Africa is getting poorer – I made a prediction about ten years ago having assisted many Zimbabweans that South Africa will in the end financially trap much of the skilled middle class who will if they decide to emigrate no longer be able to afford it. I get the strong feeling that day is here for many. Unfortunately.

· Unemployment is still going up and is now officially 25% yet the country has extreme skills shortages. Plenty from the skilled classes have left (at last count around one million – mainly whites – have voted with their feet). A social and economic time bomb quietly ticking.

· Poverty – I just cannot get used to it. Coming from a country like New Zealand I do not think you can ever get used to it. Our ‘poor’ may not lead glamorous lives but they get a (three bedroom Government owned) house to live in and nobody goes hungry.

· Politics – there are local elections this week. Strangely and possibly uniquely, the country votes on a Wednesday and everyone gets a holiday to do it. What exactly is wrong with voting on weekends?? South Africans seem to always be on holiday.

· Direction signs at the airport are almost all green, black and yellow – the colours of the ruling ANC party – coincidence or subtle propaganda?

· Frustrated people – road rage rules. It all spills over when people get behind the wheels of their cars. Ugly and frightening.

· Political standards are shall we say, not as high as they might be. The Minister for State Security’s wife was sentenced to serve twelve years in jail for cocaine importation while I was here. The Minister saw no reason to resign. Did he think the white powder under her nose was incorrectly applied make up? The wife works as Director ofHealth Servicesfor a local Municipality……

· Corruption from the top down is as bad as ever – you can’t pick up a paper without reading about who in Central or Local Government is on the take and they deny it with wonderfully straight faces;

· Politicians can sing ‘Kill the Boer”, tell their supporters ‘All whites are criminals’ and should be treated accordingly and one of the President’s favourite campaign songs is ‘Pass me my machine gun’. Senior politicans can stand up in Court and ask ‘Hate speech? You are joking…..’

· You can still get really great wine really cheap. A man could easily slide into a life of quaffing the finest wines around here without denting the bank balance.

· South Africans still walk r-e-a-l-l-y slowly – do these people have all day to get to Nandos for that chicken and chips and then back to the office?

· If so why do they drive so fast as if today is their last? (given the driving habits of many and if road death statistics are any indicator - for many it probably is).

· Cape Town– at last it has sorted out its airport. Nice. Pity the porters are so, well, persistent. I only carry one suitcase when I travel but thanks for the constant offers of assistance guys. Thanks. But no. Thanks. Really nice of you but no. Thanks. No. No I won’t tip you because I have just hauled my own suitcase to the taxi while you walked along beside me.

· The weather – you gotta love the weather but I forget how chilly Johannesburg gets at this time of year – always feels colder than Auckland (no humidity). Cape Town airport, sunny, cloudless sky and 25 degrees yet 20 minutes drive away at the Waterfront - sea fog, windy and 15 degrees. What is this? Auckland? Four seasons in two suburbs?

· It never rains in Durban – except when I am here apparently.

· The whole countryside is a tip – rubbish everywhere.

· Gautrain in Johannesburg – what a marvel. I, along with the other 4 people catching this train after my arrival in SA, each had a carriage to ourselves.

I assumed some dignitary was arriving in town and the platform had been cleared such was the security from airport platform to Sandton. I felt like President Zuma – carriage to myself and personal security posse!

The 15 minute ride cost me about NZ$20. A taxi would have cost me five times as much. I can but extend my thanks to those hard pressed South African taxpayers who have stumped up something like R35 billion (nearly NZ$7 billion) so folk like me don’t have to risk death with the local taxi fraternity and their fellow road users.

Wish Auckland had one of them.

Thank you South Africa. And your great grandchildren who I suspect will still be paying for it.

Oh and did I mention I was robbed at knifepoint by two thugs in Cape Town? I was walking back to my hotel at 2pm at the Waterfront which is the main tourist area for those of you that know the Mother City.

I had been thinking as I walked along a very main road lined by beautiful multi million rand waterfront apartments how nice it must be to live in one but I had noticed the security was intense. Fences, electrified wire around the top, boom gates, security guards – what price luxury I asked myself?

Then I found out first hand why.

Seemingly from nowhere two guys approached and asked for money (as they do here). I said I had nothing and then one of them pulled a knife. Thug number one was standing in front of me and thug number two behind. I found some coins (as you suddenly do) but they said they wanted ‘notes’. I assumed they didn’t mean they wanted me to hum a tune.

I told them I was not giving them any more money, went to push past and then thug number one waved his knife at me and said 'Don't make me use it'.

No time for arguing I thought and quickly pulled a R20 note out of my pocket. Then the other guy wanted some and he had an even bigger knife. So he got R30 but he still demanded more.

And I started to sweat ever so slightly....how in a country of 50 million people could I be alone on this footpath with my new friends?

I had a satchel slung over my shoulder with my wallet and cellphone in it but pushed the second guy out of the way and said I didn't have any more. He still demanded more and was flashing the knife so I turned my pockets inside out and said I haven't got any #$@! more. What I was thinking 'But I wish I had a BIG $#@! gun........'

All the while cars roared past.

Could happen anywhere? Yes I guess it could but it just seems to happen a whole lot more in South Africa.

Wouldn’t happen in Knysna right?

Nice to be back in South Africa where I love the sunsets, the red wine, most of the people but strangely always feel safer inside the game reserves with the wild animals than outside them with the humans.

Which is where I am headed for a couple of days R and R.

South Africaremains a beautiful country but it just ain’t beautiful enough any more to make people stay.

Until next week (with I hope less excitement in my life)

Iain MacLeod - The Southern Man

http://www.immigration.co.nz/southern-man/southern-man-18-may-2011.html 

Zimbabwe

 Vegetables 5 million

It costs 100 billion for ONE egg, not three. Three eggs cost 300 billion.

 

 

For a beer after office hours.......

 

If you don’t want to carry a lot of money, change it to USD.

Nobody wants to count the money, just weigh it.

Just for perspective, the Australian Dollar has a 100 dollar note with 2 zeroes. Zimbabwe's 100 trillion will have 15 zeroes. Take that............

‘It was them or my family’

May 29 2011

“I am just so grateful I had the privilege of being able to save the people I love,” such a sad statement for a grandfather to make...........

The 55-year-old building contractor chainsmoked as he paced the lounge floor of his daughter and son-in-law’s home in Winklespruit, marking out the events that led to the fatal shooting of a robber in the early hours of Tuesday. 

“When I entered the house it was dark and completely silent; even the five dogs were missing. I thought my grandson and his parents were dead. My heart turned to stone,” he said. 

The traumatised man, who asked that his identity be withheld until the final member of a four-man armed gang who raided the property is apprehended, said the country was in “a state of siege” – families needed to barricade themselves in their homes and make sure they had the means to protect themselves. 

“I am consumed by anger at what happened. I am not a violent man, but I do not feel a shred of remorse for shooting him,” he said. “It was either them or my family.” 

The night before, the family’s home had been filled with laughter and conversation as the man’s daughter celebrated her birthday with their extended family. When her parents left for their home in nearby Amanzimtoti, she went to bed, allowing her seven-year-old son to sleep with her as a special treat. Her husband watched television, before turning in himself in the early hours. 

“At around 2.30am the dogs started barking aggressively,” her husband said. “I got up to check on them, and three men were squeezing into the kitchen past a faulty burglar guard.” Unknown to him, there was a fourth man standing lookout in the garden. 

Screaming, to wake his wife to call for help, he picked up the nearest possible weapon – his son’s hockey stick, and flailed at the intruders until it broke. One of the men pulled out a knife, and another said: “Move again and we’ll shoot you.” 

In the bedroom, his wife had managed to phone her parents, “They’re in the house,” she screamed. 

Her father sprang into action, taking his .38 special from the safe, then covering the distance between the two homes in minutes. CCPO and Blue Security company officers were already at the scene and followed close on his heels as he activated the gate’s remote control and inched around the building to the kitchen. 

“I left my bakkie’s lights on, because the house was in complete darkness,” he recalled. “I got in through the sliding door to the kitchen, and took the safety catch off the gun, praying that the kids were not already dead.” 

He called out: “This is the police. Come out or I will shoot.” Two men emerged from a room, pushing his son-in-law before them as a shield. He repeated the command, as the taller of the two angled a knife blade into his captive’s neck. 

“Then he threw himself towards me, slashing with the blade. I aimed low and fired, knowing it would not be a fatal shot,” the man said. “He stumbled and I fired again, then he got behind the couch and a second man attacked me.” 

The grandfather fired at his assailant, hitting him in the throat, but still the attack continued. “The first man reared up when I prodded him with my boot, and grabbed the gun with both hands.” 

At that point his daughter emerged from the bedroom, where her son was cowering under blankets, and threw a battery-operated stun gun to her husband. He shocked the man clinging to his father-in-law’s back until he fled – back the way he had come in. He was apprehended a short while later by security guards – along with a third man spotted hobbling along a nearby bridge with a bullet wound to his foot. 

Speaking of her ordeal, and her father’s bravery, the woman said: 

“I told my son to keep his eyes shut tight, and pretend he was sleeping, and I piled blankets and pillows over him. I had the Taser in my hand under the blanket while one of the men shone a torch on our faces. He would not have got to my child unless he killed me first.” 

“I am just so grateful I had the privilege of being able to save the people I love,” the grandfather said. “We all need to do whatever it takes to keep our families secure. If our homes have to become fortresses, then it’s a small price to pay.” 

He praised the community watch body, the security company that had provided backup, and the SAPS for going the extra mile in the aftermath of his family’s crisis. 

“The police could not have been more professional, or more caring,” he said. 

George Snodey of the Amanzimtoti CCPO, had recently warned people living in the area to be extra-vigilant. 

“If you see suspicious-looking people on foot or in a vehicle, contact the SAPS and security as soon as possible.”

http://www.iol.co.za/news/south-africa/kwazulu-natal/it-was-them-or-my-family-1.1075353 

Fifa Probe ‘will shock the world’

May 29 2011

Blatter faces allegations that he ignored the alleged corruption attempts in Trinidad after bin Hammam succeeded in persuading Fifa to investigate its own president.

Geneva - Fifa vice president Jack Warner has predicted that “a football tsunami” that would shock the world was about to hit the governing body, as he prepared to face a bribery hearing alongside presidential candidates Sepp Blatter and Mohamed bin Hammam. 

Speaking in his native Trinidad, Warner told the local media before flying off to Switzerland to face Fifa’s ethics committee in Zurich, that he was not guilty of “a single iota of wrongdoing”. 

Fifa vice president Jack Warner

 

 Mohamed bin Hammam

 

Warner, a 28-year veteran of Fifa’s executive committee, and Qatari challenger bin Hammam are accused of offering bribes to up to 25 Caribbean voters on a campaign visit. Bin Hammam has suggested it’s a conspiracy to remove him from the election contest. 

Blatter faces allegations that he ignored the alleged corruption attempts in Trinidad after bin Hammam succeeded in persuading Fifa to investigate its own president. Fifa’s ethics code imposes a duty of disclosure on officials to report corruption. 

Blatter was formally placed under suspicion only on Friday. 

Warner, long recognised as a key Fifa power broker and who presides over the North, Central American and Caribbean (Concacaf) regional body, promised he would publish his intended statement to the ethics panel and “all of the supporting documents” backing his case. 

Caribbean Football Union members who have votes in the Fifa election were allegedly offered cash bribes at the May 10-11 conference in Trinidad, where Warner is a government minister. Delegates were allegedly offered $40 000 (R277 000) in cash for “development projects”

Bin Hammam denies vote-buying. 

Fifa’s case against Bin Hammam and Warner is based on evidence supplied by Chuck Blazer, their executive committee colleague and Warner’s longtime No 2 at Concacaf. 

In confirming Blatter’s summons, Fifa said the evidence file included Warner’s comment that his president “would have had no issue” with cash payments to delegates. 

Two Caribbean Football Union staffers from Trinidad, Debbie Minguell and Jason Sylvester, have also been summoned to the Fifa ethics hearing.

http://www.iol.co.za/sport/soccer/fifa-probe-will-shock-the-world-1.1075354