Global Voices » Bronwyn

A mixed bag from South Africa

Bronwyn — Fri, 14 Apr 2006 09:43:27 +0000

Why do South African broadcasters feel compelled to make horrible remakes of imported reality shows that were stupid and trashy to start out with? Big Brother SA, The Weakest Link SA, Pop Idol SA and The Apprentice SA were bad enough, and now this [Survivor]? Even worse, I am 100% certain that it’ll be a ratings bonanza. At times like this, I despair of my countrymen.

James at Moral Fiber discusses sexual politics in Nigeria which he calls the “most homophobic country in Africa”. He writes about amendments to a bill that criminalizes the activities of gay people. Among its clauses, the bill “Criminalizes belonging to any gay-related organization - everything from social organizations to LGBT rights groups”. ” Bans same-sex couples from living together”, and ” Criminalizes the public display of affection between members of the same sex. This includes real people, and the media”. James has the following comments:

These measures are just as oppressive and inhumane as the more infamous racist measures employed by the South African National Party during Apartheid, if not more so. Of course, no one notices. Why do no countries ever condemn Nigeria for these crimes against human rights?

The fishbowl has an analysis of this week's protests against the lack of democracy in the kingdom of Swaziland. The Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) and Swazi pro-democracy groups clashed with police as they demonstrated at Swazi border posts. Jonty writes about the heavy handed approach of the police towards the demonstrators.

…but the indisputable facts that rubber bullets were used to disperse the crowd, and scores of high ranking Cosatu leaders were arrested are a cause for concern. Cosatu head Zwelinzima Vavi went so far to say that “the general police behaviour has been barbaric and undemocratic.” This puts South Africa in quite a bad light, whatever the provocation from the protesters. All the international media see - and report on - is SA police cracking down heavily on a pro-democracy rally.

Fodder has a short but interesting observation about South Africans who have immigrated to other countries.

Always fun to watch the Afro Pessimists get all steamed up about how bad we have it here in SA. Of course the real irony is that those who left vowing never to look back, then spend their time trolling SA websites and posting comments in an attempt to prove themselves right.

Finally, Professor Anton Harber is one of South Africa's most highly respected former newspaper editors. He currently heads up the journalism department at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, and a writes a regular column in Business Day, one of our top newspapers. Anton has started a blog called The Harbinger that focuses on the media, and it's great to see that he lists Global Voices under his blogroll title “Media sites to watch”.

Fires in focus in the South African blogosphere

Bronwyn — Fri, 03 Feb 2006 00:19:30 +0000

The last few weeks have been slow in the South African blogosphere. The most exciting thing happening this week is the is that nominations have just opened for the second annual South African blog Awards. There are 14 categories including: South African blog of 2005 - The best of the best from SA, most humourous, best political, best photographic, best new, best food. best group and best design. .

Other big news in the blogosphere over the past week has been the terrible fires burning out of control on Table Mountain and other parts of the Western Cape. A British women, a tourist, was killed when she was hiking on Table Table Mountain and was overcome by the smoke. Ironically, the fire was started by another British tourist when he dropped his still burning cigarette butt on the ground. The man concerned has been criminally charged, and goes to court sometime this month. Cherryflava comments, “What where you thinking dude? You don't see Safricans trooping through Buckingham palace, flicking cigarettes around trying to set the thing alight do you?” Lusharazzi is thankful for the great work done by our fire fighters, “To the more than 200 firefighters who have worked non-stop throughout the night in heavy winds, difficult terrain and massive fires, WE SALUTE YOU!” The latest fire, which on Thursday 2nd February was still burning out of control along an 80Km line is in the Overberg region of the Cape. South Africa blog relays the news, “What was described as “the worst fire in memory” destroyed large swathes of the Overberg and Swartland, ruining farms and wiping out precious fynbos. It continues to burn.” Sadly, according to the Overberg fire chief, this fire was also caused by human negligence under conditions of extremely high winds and temperatures.

A new South African blog has recently come on the scene. African Voices and Visions is written by young a documentary and filmmaker with a passion for Africa, and she travels widely through the continent. Her content is original writing with lots of photo's, and she documents some of the fascinating people that she's come accross like the Voodoo Pope from Benin and other interesting characters. Here she writes about Fort Jesus, Mobassa a place “that connects all continents”

It has been standing for almost five hundred years and remains a fine example of 16th century military architecture. It was designed by an Italian and built by the Portuguese in 1583 who wanted to secure their position on the best harbour on the coast of East Africa. There were countless battles as the local Swahili people refused to accept foreign rule which led to Mombassa becoming known Vita or a place of war. Alaway Abzein, the Administrative Officer of the Fort, tells you about how his heroic grandfather was imprisoned in the Fort for standing up against colonial rule.

To end off on a lighter note, we had a new cartoonist on one of our online news sites and he's a blogger. Lots of cultural and social commentry on offer at Urban Trash.

Mixed musings from Southern Africa

Bronwyn — Fri, 20 Jan 2006 14:38:40 +0000

There's never a dull moment in South African politics. It's January and we already have our first political scandal of the year. Every political scandal gets a name - most of them ending in “gate”. Last year we had Travelgate (MP's scamming the parliamentary travel voucher scheme), Oilgate (ruling party political funding foulplay linked to the oil industry) and Zumagate (the axing of deputy president Jacob Zuma over corruption allegations). Our latest shennanigans however, makes bold departure from the “gate” terminology, it's been dubbed the “gravy plane”. Our new deputy president Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, it transpires, took a December holiday that wasn't strictly kosher. She took her family on a jaunt to the United Arab Emirates (possibly via Mombassa) using a luxury military jet at the taxpayers expense. She was accompanied by the wife of a cabinet minister, and it's alleged that the three adults involved had more than sightseeing in mind, and were rather more interested in furthering their private business interests.

Commentary joins the debate over whether the trip was legal or not: “I'll concede that Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka's state-funded shopping expedition probably was legal (if only because nobody bothered to cover it up), and I'll even concede the principle that high-ranking government officials are entitled to use state-sponsored transport for personal use, due to security concerns and so on. But the real problem here is the amount. R700,000 is insanely high. How did she manage to spend this much on a week-long holiday? Was she perhaps chauffeured around the United Arab Emirates in a gold-plated Rolls Royce Phantom? Ultimately, even if the whole thing was absolutely, 100% legal, it still reflects poorly on the content of her character. “Right and wrong” is not the same thing as “legal and illegal”, and this was definitely wrong, irrespective of what the lawyers say about it.”

Scandal aside, the political atmosphere is becoming hot and steamy as we count down to local government elections on March 1st. The main election issues are the high levels of corruption in local government and the lack of service delivery for the poor, relating to housing, water & sanitation, and the provision of electricity. These two factors have given rise to a series of violent grassroots protests in the poor informal settlements of the country. Last year there were around eighty such protest actions, and we've already had two so far this year. African Houseit takes a look at a study on the housing crisis in the Western Cape: “The housing backlog has increased proportional to the growth of the population in the province and has reached a crisis point where it is about to spiral out of control. This study argues that the exacerbation of the crisis in housing is as a result of the overall shift towards market-oriented policies, which shapes the approach of housing authorities. “

Politics.za writes about tensions within the ruling African National Congress (ANC) relating to their election candidate lists: “The ANC is finding that drawing up electoral lists is harder than expected. [President] Thabo Mbeki has stated that he intends to use these local elections to rid council of corruption and ‘populists’ but he’s going to find that hard to do when local ANC branches submit lists full of the people he is trying to get rid of. I don’t think that the national ANC structure can override to much of the choices of the local ANC wards without straining tensions in the ANC even further.”

Well, it's not all seriousness and politics in South Africa, Red Star Coven is of the opinion our country has finally managed to deliver the great South African movie: “went to see “Tsotsi” in Glasgow the other night. What an amazing, powerful film. For those who know nothing about it, maybe saying it’s South Africa’s answer to “Trainspotting” or “City of God” will give you a picture. It’s about a township gangster in Soweto who hijacks a car, finds a baby in the back seat and decides to look after it.” Cherryflava shows off a set of gorgeous photo's from a recent trip to Zanzibar, and Lusharazzi tells us why we should avoid going to Cape Town's annual high society J&B Met horse racing event.

Finally, moving beyond South Africa's borders to our north western neighbour, the Botswana blog Mr. Twice, has this to say: “Botswana needs to change and needs the change soon otherwise we’ll end up in the same mess as other african countries who used to have plenty but are now starving. …. i would like to say that there are two fundamental things which do not exist and their lack thereof is already eroding our economy and society like cancer. These two things are 1. Meritocracy and 2. Accountability.”

The week that was in the South African blogosphere

Bronwyn — Sat, 10 Dec 2005 23:39:54 +0000

Jonty at The Fishbowl comments on the findings of a new survey showing that Afrikaners have experienced the “most radical change in political outlook” of all groups since the 1994 elections.

“This is probably understandable, given that by fair assumption that Afrikaners had the furthest to move politically after the fall of apartheid. In saying that though, I am in no way meaning to diminish the positive nature of that development. Afrikaners could very easily not have embraced the new rainbow nation, and we would be sitting in a far worse position as a country than where we are right now.”

Daan at In my Nes brings up the ongoing debate of whether a white person and an Afrikaaner can be an African.

“Aha, yet another post on the Afrikaner identity crisis, and now I add another term, African, to the mix…Ha, but try and explain this identity to a black person (or a foreigner for that matter), most often in my experience it would illicit seriously mixed reaction. Interesting, maybe because they are mostly completely and utterly unprepared to deal with such an idea, or maybe they view it as a threat to their ‘New South African' identity. I don't know, but it's not going to stop me from being, and calling myself an African.”

Bilal's Blog notes the profusion of exclusive golfing estates in South Africa, and comments on how as in other capitalist countries, only the rich can afford to experience some of the country's most beautiful places.

“I found myself at the Hartebeesport Dam- really beautiful place! There's something about water that attracts people- even dirty, green water like what we find at the Zoo Lake! But like a true capitalistic nation that we are, prime natural spots like that have been heavily inflated so that only rich, bourgeoisie can afford to live where previously poorer people have been displaced! All in the name of premium golf estate living!”

Vas Lube questions South Africa's foreign policy move towards strengthening ties with Iran.

“ZA policy in this regard with Iran is unacceptable and counters to ZA’s liberal values which Iran regime is opposed to. ZA will be better off if we moved closer ties with US than those countries like Iran, Cuba, et al. ZA fingers will be burnt very badly. I find this events very unsettling and disturbing.”

One of the big events being reported on in the media this week is that gay marriage became legal in South Africa- although gay people will still have to wait another year while the Constitution is amended to reflect this. Moral Fiber contrasts the South African situation with that in Cameroon where homosexuality is illegal and punishable by up to five years in jail.

“It is painfully ironic that South Africa is one of the most progressive countries in the world in regards to equal rights, while so many countries on the continent are completely backwards when it comes to equality. One would have thought that centuries of struggle against colonialism and racism would have bred some sort of tolerance among Africans for people who are different. It really isn't surprising that many of the continent's anti-gay laws were actually put on the books by the colonial oppressors of yesteryear. One wonders what the African Union is doing about human rights.”

Blogging the latest news South African style

Bronwyn — Fri, 25 Nov 2005 13:08:26 +0000

As we approach World Aids Day on the 1st of December, South Africa's controversial and unpopular Minister of Health, Manto Tshabalala- Msimang, has caused yet another stir. Known as “Dr.Garlic” for her advocacy of garlic, lemon juice and olive oil as a solution for Aids sufferers instead of supplying much needed anti retro-vital drugs, this time around she has been the subject of media attention by blaming the old apartheid government for South Africa's HIV/AIDS pandemic. Jonty at The Fishbowl has the story:

There have always been those (including myself) that have blamed apartheid for some of South Africa's worst social ills, but Manto's statement that “the apartheid government was to blame for the rapid spread of Aids in South Africa” is far off base…Blaming the apartheid regime here is more of Manto's ‘head in the sand' mentality. The meteoric rise of AIDS (unfortunately) took place on the watch of the Mandela government, and whilst the early Nineties held the seeds of that exponential growth, the transient Government of National Unity had influence on health policy for the majority of that period. Rina Venter, the National Party who was the health minister of that time alleges that Manto was personally involved in drawing up the AIDS policy in the early Nineties.

Dr Garlic has been lucky to avoid too much attention with her latest blunder, because hogging the media headlines as always, and particularly over the past week, is the saga of South Africa's embattled former deputy president Jacob Zuma. Not only has Mr Zuma been charged with corruption, but adding to his woes, he has now been accused of rape. His police docket was yesterday handed over to the National Prosecuting Authority who will decide whether or not to prosecute him on the rape charge. He has also been asked to provide blood for DNA testing to see if this matches the semen on the alleged victim's underpants. Fodder takes a look at how this latest development is affecting Zuma's support base which comes from Cosatu (the Congress of South African Trade Unions) and the communist party:

The problem for COSATU was their support for Zuma was never a rational policy decision and it soon gathered a life of their own. Unfortunately Zuma was not their best option for a workers leader and slowly they are figuring that out, but now they're too far down that road for the break up to not be very messy and at the end of the day they're going to look very stupid and probably weakened.

South Africa is home to a fairly large Muslim community that is highly emotionally attached to the Palestinian/ Israeli conflict. It is also home to a smaller Jewish community which also has a strong emotional attachment to the Middle East conflict. Middle East politics relating to Israel and the Palestinian territories get a lot of media coverage in South African newspapers, and is often the subject of heated debate on radio talk back shows with the two groups seeming to be unable to understand one another or find any common ground. The issue has found its way into the South African blogosphere, most notably with two blogs, one writing from a pro-Israel point of view, and the other from a pro-Palestinian point of view. Steve at It's Almost Supernatural aims to highlights what he feels is media bias in favour of the Palestinians. In his latest post he blogs about Professor Solomon Hussein, a South African Muslim academic who recently visited the Middle East on a fact finding mission:

Solomon recently visited Israel and the Palestinian territories on a fact-finding mission to explore the conflict. His conclusion? Most South African Muslims do not understand the conflict and at best have a simplistic understanding of it. Solomon’s conclusion is hard hitting and he will no doubt face a backlash from the South African Muslim community…

Muhammad at The Front Line highlights what he seems to feel is the unreasonably brutal treatment of the Palestinians by the Israeli's. He takes a look at the recent protest by Palestinian school children:

“The most powerful weapon in the hands of the oppressors are the minds of the oppressed.” - Steve Biko
…You can take our land, but you will never take us… you will never win… you will never sleep peacefully while this injustice lives in your name.

Finally, Trudi at The Hope Flower raises interesting questions about so called Black elitism in South Africa:

…the judgement from the left is that Mbeki has contributed to the creation of a ‘parasitic black elite'… I guess the white elite was parasitic from day one. Now it's not clear what the left thinks on the matter of meritocracy and excellence, but I think they have diagnosed the elite problem correctly. I resent that the fact that any developing world elite is assumed to be predatory, wheras a western one is assumed to have some basis in achievement…

From corruption to culture - a taste from the southern tip of Africa

Bronwyn — Fri, 11 Nov 2005 11:07:43 +0000

As the holiday season approaches, in South Africa this time of year has also become known as cash heist season. As more money is put into circulation to meet the needs of christmas shoppers and holiday makers, armed gangs consisting of up to 15 or 20 members, armed with R4 rifles and AK47's attack cash-in=transit vans with military precision. The blog It is the Question brings up the debate of whether South Africa should be trying to encourage a cashless society.

The fate of South Africa's former deputy president Jacob Zuma who is to stand trial for corruption in July next year is never far from South African media headlines, and is always a popular topic of conversation in the local blogosphere. The Hope Flower looks at whether the struggle for power between Zuma and President Thabo Mbeki in the ruling African National Congress is indicative of a greater underlying struggle in South Africa. She raises the notion that instead of a struggle between black and white, the country is now embroiled in a class struggle between rich and poor. On the same issue fodder writes about Jacob Zuma's many supporters who are expected to show up at the Durban High Court in their thousands on Saturday when Zuma is to make a brief appearance. Zuma will be formally indicted and given his trial date.

Finally, hip hop/spoken word poetry is undergoing something of a rennaissance in South Africa, particularly in the city of Johannesburg, fondly known by its inhabitants as Jozi ( a word that has emerged from the slang of the black townships). Lebo Mashile is one of the country's hottest spoken word poets and is known for her incredibly beautiful and fiery feminist performance poetry.

Lebo has been an inspirational force to many young South African poets, and now some of them have started blogging their poetry.

The dust of the soil from this streets,
The “WOLA” shouts on the streets all day,
cheerfully I shouted “HEITA” back to this streets,
they groomed me, spoilt me,
They made me cry Im Black, young, powerful,
therefore dangerous…..

Thami - The Celestine Truth

they read our destiny
from the cracks
beneath the soles of our feet
and we bleed

they whisper truths
in the swirling dust
and we close our eyes
blinded by unrelentless truth….

Koko - The imperfect poet

A child of about just over teen years
Strolling the streets of Jozi
Empty stomach, empty handed
Only 5 bucks for a taxi home
Home being a single roomed shack in township house backyard
A child full of unattainable ambitions….

Floyd - Floyd's Perspectives

Voices from South Africa

Bronwyn — Fri, 28 Oct 2005 12:03:42 +0000

South Africa has been painted as being a political wonder, and our transition to democracy is often described as a miracle. The country tries very hard to present an image of wellbeing and success in order to attract much needed tourism and overseas investment. There is no doubt that remarkable strides have been made, and the democratic era ushered in with relatively little violence and bloodshed. However, the reality on the ground is that the legacy of apartheid is still with us, and presents a major challenge for government and society.

One of the major problems facing the country at the moment are the deep divisions within the ruling African National Congress (ANC) that have begun to emerge over the past year. These divisions have arisen as a result of a power stuggle for leadership of the ANC and the country when President Thabo Mbeki steps down in 2007. At the helm of this battle is Mbeki himself and his popular rival, former deputy president Jacob Zuma. Zuma was fired by Mbeki earlier this year as he has been charged with corruption and is due to stand trial in 2006. The ANC gains it strenth from its left wing Alliance partners, the Congress of South African Trade Unions and the South African Communist party who have come out stronly in support of Jacob Zuma. Mbeki draws his support from the neo-liberal camp and from business leaders. In the meantime, there are concerns that the rift in the party is slowly eroding its capacity to govern. As Commentary. co.za writes:

I have to confess that South African politics has become almost incomprehensible to me. And while most newspapers won't admit it, I'm not convinced they know what's going on either…I've said this before: in a dominant-party state, one of the first casualties is ideology. There is no longer a “party of the left” or a “party of the right”: instead, the ruling party simply becomes “the party of government”. This happened to the LDP in Japan, the Liberal Party in Canada, and it long ago happened to the ANC. This doesn't mean that political conflict goes away - it just gets shifted to the interior of the ruling party, where people can't vote on the outcome. As a result, politics ceases to be a battle of ideas, and becomes a battle of personalities instead.

South Africa Blog expresses the opinion the the Zuma camp is hypocritical:

These Zuma Acolytes, have their talking points set over their cups of coffee in accordance with whatever the Zuma-focused needs of the day prove to be. Give him his day in court, don't give him his day in court. The rule of law is important, except when it's no big deal. Always put the poor first, but never mind. Our constitution is important, except when applied to “Our Boy”. Mbeki is the greatest president ever, but that bastard stabbed us in the back! The media can be used to spin our stories, but not their's!

Indymedia South Africa has emerged as strong voice for grassroots social struggle and civil society groups particularly in the fight for housing and service delivery for the poor. Millions of South Africans live in shacks in informal settlements, and a huge problem is that lives are lost when shacks burn down as people are forced to use candles and paraffin stoves. In the latest incident a one year old boy died in the Kennedy Road informal settlement in KwaZulu Natal province:

Last Friday 16 shacks burnt down in the Kennedy Road informal settlement in Durban. A one year old boy, Mhlengi Khumalo, was very badly burnt and died on Saturday night. This was the third conflagration this month. The fire started when a candle was knocked over. Until 2001 pre-paid electricity meters were being installed in shacks. To get electricity you needed to pay R350 and to be able to represent your case in a certain way. According to S'bu Zikode from the Kennedy Road Development Committee “It all depended on who applied. If you seemed ignorant because you can't speak English you were just told to wait outside.” The eThekwini Metro has since informed Kennedy Road residents that there is a “new policy not to install electricity in informal settlements”.

South Africa recently held its first ever Car Free Day, and the event was much written about in the local blogosphere with most people being of the opinion that it was a complete waste of time seeing that the country has a highly inadequate public transport system. Moral Fiber expresses the general feeling of most South Africans in his post on the topic:

Members of government, including the minister of transport, and other officials apparently used taxis and buses to commute to work this morning. It's so typical of government to launch into one of these PR missions without actually bothering to worry about normal people's concerns. Public transport is in crisis. Encouraging more people to use it will only make things worse. We need government to stop their public relations gymnastics and actually sit down to try and sort out the problem. When the minister builds a public transport system that actually works, then he can start trying to promote its use.

Finally on a lighter note, Cherryflava blogs about a whiskey festival taking place in Cape Town.