First, let's cover the details of the event itself. SA People gives us a good breakdown:

The Centennial logo. Image source: anc.org.za

Thousands of people descended on the quiet Free State province to the city of Mangaung, also known as Bloemfontein, to celebrate the party’s existence since 8 January 1912.
The celebrations were attended by former heads of state, current leaders, the party’s political elite, and throngs of ordinary citizens.
Those in attendance included former Zambian president Kenneth Kaunda; Ugandan president Yuweri Museveni; Namibian president Hifikepunye Pohamba; Mozambican president Armando Guebuza; and Rev Jesse Jackson from the US.

…

The motto for the celebrations is Unity in Diversity – also South Africa’s national motto – and the party truly displayed this sentiment after being plagued with faction fighting over the past year, especially with its youth wing.
But it showed a united front throughout the weekend of festivities.
Former ANC and South African president Thabo Mbeki was seen laughing heartily with the incumbent president Jacob Zuma and suspended ANC Youth League president Julius Malema.
Zuma said: “We continue to have different and differing perspectives on the processes unfolding in our country. Despite the progress we have made, there remain deep fault lines in our society that continue to undermine our vision of a united, non-racial and non-sexist South Africa.”
Nobel Peace laureate and the country’s first democratically elected president, Nelson Mandela, was there in spirit although not in person.
Attendees were reminded of the elder statesman’s contribution to democracy by the many posters of him, and other former presidents of the party, hung throughout the usually quiet city.
Baleka Mbete, the ANC’s national chairperson, said: “He is in good spirits but very, very old.”
Nobody expected the centenary events to be anything else but pomp and ceremony with nearly R100-million (US$12.4-million) spent to commemorate this achievement.

The Daily Maverick gives us some perspective here by pointing out the main conflict that ran throughout the celebrations:

The weekend displayed the ANC’s prevailing attitude – it celebrated its past with abandon and views its future with some trepidation. It is very clear with which it is more comfortable.

The Gateway News lauds the ANC's great past and it's achievements and hopes the future holds something better:

Notwithstanding all its faults, I still cannot imagine where this country would be if we did not have the ANC. They have produced some of the finest leaders this world has ever seen. Can you imagine what might be if the ANC would go back to its founding principles and values? Let us pray for that then.

One highlights a worry amongst certain groups of the ANC becoming too exclusive:

Some observers of this weekend’s celebrations are concerned that the ANC is losing its inclusive, non-tribal and non-racial ethos, enriching the few, mostly politically connected, rather than the poor majority.

In the view of some critics, ANC leaders are increasingly chosen by a small group of people, selected for how best they can capture competing interests. Opposition parties are either poorly organized or racially homogeneous and have little chance to secure broad support, so the ANC will likely remain unchallenged for some time.

Without real opposition, change must come from within. ANC party conferences in June and December are an opportunity for the ANC to return to its roots and maintain South Africa as a global example for genuine democracy, equitable economic development and peaceful racial integration.

Left Foot Forward is positive about the ANC's impact but also highlights the challenges facing them in next century:

South Africa is a different and far better place than in 1912 or 1989. It is a country for all South Africans. Formerly a pariah state it is now a leading player in Africa and globally.
The challenges of achieving political and civil rights for all, and of ending apartheid, were great and many many people suffered and sacrificed to achieve these.
The challenges of building on this great achievement, overcoming the economic legacy of colonialism, imperialism and apartheid, dealing with the globalised economy of which South Africa is now part in ways which benefit most South Africans, providing good quality services to all of its citizens are just as great, perhaps greater, and will be the test for the ANC in its second century.

Muddy roads and dusty trails evokes a sense of nostalgia:

Today 100 years ago the African National Congress saw the light. Today the festivities take place for 100 years of selfless struggle. As an interpreter I have been once or twice the voice of Nelson Mandela after he was released from Robben Island. When South Africa was freed from Apartheid, it became member of the ACP and had at their first attendance the meeting in Cape Town and were given a most moving and enlightening tour of Robben Island by a former prisoner who became a minister in the first Mandela government. It was non-violence which won freedom. was one of his messages and that the embargo gave support to the resistance because even when suffering they knew it was because people supported their struggle.

People's World is positive about the future of ANC:

A potrait of Nelson Mandela, the first democratically elected president of South Africa. Photo released under Creative Commons (CC BY 2.0) by Flickr user Abode of Chaos.

Its centenary is surely a cause for celebration and hope for all who cherish freedom, civil rights and democracy.

Founded three years after the NAACP in the U.S., the ANC is one of the African continent's oldest and most enduring liberation movements.

Its leaders worked alongside W.E.B Du Bois in shaping the 20th century struggle against the color line.

Born in the struggle against white settler colonialism, the ANC's history is deeply rooted the struggle for human dignity and national independence.

…

Like any modern political party in a capitalist country, the ANC is also challenged within and without by big business designs to buy influence and peddle prestige and power.

By keeping its eye on unity and its feet firmly planted in the roots of its century-long experience, the ANC and its Tripartite Alliance partners will continue their steady march down the road to freedom and equality. They will meet obstacles and detours on the way but as Nelson Mandela once famously said, “There is no easy walk to freedom.”

Mick Hartley posted an interesting post questioning ANC's statement on the passing away of Kim Jong-il:

Avi at AfriCartoons posts ANC celebration cartoon with a sarcastic caption:

100 years of ANC through a cartoonist's eyes. Cartoon by Avi Ramjan at africartoons.com.

“SHOCKING!!!! SA editorial cartoonist does a POSITIVE cartoon!
Actually, it's quite refreshing. Perhaps South African cartoonists should do a positive ANC cartoon every 100 years (until Jesus comes, that is).”

Speaking of political cartoons, Tia Mysoa shares Zapiro's take on the ANC's past and future.

If you want details of what exactly the ANC has done in the last 100 years, the Global Black History Blog has a detailed blog post of ANC history right up until 1994 when Nelson Mandela became South Africa's president.

Marcus's Space does a similar post, but a bit more politically motivated:

Economically, the party has drawn praise for steering Africa’s biggest economy into safe waters, rolling out new electricity and water supplies, as well as houses and inspiring a new black middle class, but when I see documentaries of that beautiful country I also still see a lot of shams and misery.

Finally, for a more irreverent take on things, Naked Chiefs post their thoughts covering everything from the conflict of South Africa's “Africanness”:

However, WHY South Africa is conflicted about its Africanness, is a matter for all Africans. It is a conflict that seems to stem from three sources.

First, ignorance about the rest of Africa.

Secondly, the apartheid trauma that seems to have left South African unable to give back full-heartedly to those who supported its liberation.

Thirdly, a bizarre and complex need for international acceptance, especially from the west, born out of the peculiarities of apartheid oppression, and the global stardom that was conferred upon Mandela by the world.

… and after a very long detailed discussion, they describe ANC's main failure in its 100 years:

The ANC failure has been its inability to make South Africa that is comfortable and confident about its Africanness. I don’t see that changing for another 30 years, at least.

As with all things large and complicated in life, ANC has had its ups and downs in its 100 years history.

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Last year, Malema led students in singing an old anti-Apartheid struggle song called ‘Kill the Boer' and a South African judge found him guilty of hate speech because of comments he made about a woman who accused President Jacob Zuma of rape.

In May 2010, Malema was forced into making an apology to the nation and attend anger management classes. He then changed the song ‘Kill the Boer' to ‘Kiss the Boer‘.

Malema is regarded by his supporters as the genuine voice of the poor in South Africa particularly with his call for nationalisation of South African mines.

Fr Stephen's Blog writes about his suspension:

Former President of the ANC Youth League. Photo released under Creative Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0) by Gary van der Merwe.

Julius Malema is to be removed as leader of the ANC Youth League (ANCYL) after being suspended from the organisation for five years.

Malema is barred from involving himself in any activities of the ANCYL and the ANC for the duration of his suspension, which came into immediate effect today after Derek Hanekom,the ANC’s national disciplinary committee (NDC) chairman, announced the findings of a disciplinary process against Malema and the league’s top brass in Joburg today.

Malema was not present at the announcement at Luthuli House for the announcement. He was reported to be in Limpopo writing an exam.

The committee found Malema guilty on two main charges. One related to a statement he made on July 31 – that the ANC was no longer dealing with issues affecting the interests of Africa.

….

Malema was also ordered to vacate his position as league president with immediate effect.

He has 14 days to appeal…

Hardspear's post on Malema [af] is a simple expression of fear for the future:

Julius Malema… Ek sidder om te dink watse kak gaan hy nou aanjaag…

Looking at events leading up to this point, we have to take a look at the recent “Economic Freedom March” led by Malema. Leaboy's Domain gives us a fitting introduction to this by highlighting Zapiro's cartoon on the event in his post titled, “Zapiro has a dig at Malema's ‘Economic Freedom March”.

The biggest argument in the South African blogosphere about this march was the inherent hypocrisy of Julius Malema who highlights the plight of South Africa's poor while he lives in luxury. One Long Minute gives us his point of view in his post titled, “What are you walking for?”:

First the March for Economic Freedom, well that was lead by Julius Malema, when he wasn't too tired and taking a break in his chauffeur driven beamer [BMW car]. There is just so much irony in that I'm headed for sensory overload. Lazy bastard still letting the masses do all the work for him but taking all the limelight for himself.

Vuilblog takes a satirical approach against Malema's followers with a picture of Malema, which has the following text:

You don't have running water, you live in a shack, you ride in a taxi. I buy expensive cars, I buy expensive houses, I only drink Johnnie Walker. You still like me.
Thank you for being a $%^&ing idiot

Other posts discuss the image and character which Julius Malema portrays. Covering what Malema thinks of himself with a hint of sarcasm is 2OceansVibe:

In his recent address at Walter Sisulu University in Mthatha, Malema said it was the job of the youth to introduce radical ideas, but bemoaned the fact that these days, one is hauled before a disciplinary committee for “telling the truth”.

This from the man who was in the media again this morning for a using a racial slur against Indians. Poor Juju. He really just feels misunderstood and unsupported.

Bibliopolit compares Malema to Lady Gaga:

Of course, here in South Africa, we have the equivalent of Lady Gaga in Julius Malema! Just in the political scene. Should we call him Julius Gaga, or Lady Malema? If it were not for Malema’s outrageous statements and claims, he would not have had a fraction of the attention that he is getting currently. For Malema, if it isn’t going to be controversial, it is not worth saying anything about it, according to how Lady Malema thinks.

Malema thrives on attention, and in my opinion, he falls in the same category as Lady Gaga. Although he is physically an adult, he has not matured mentally or sociologically to becoming an adult, and continues to crave attention like a 10-year old girl. And, the only way he can get the attention he so desperately desires, he acts and says things that are controversial.

The Fire in My Eyes gets straight to the point:

Julius Malema has the makings of a dictator.
He encourages the black population of South Africa to procreate and seems to dream of a country where white people are erased.
The way he speaks makes on think of reverse Apartheid and he constantly speaks of white people as the enemy.
He has a huge youth following in South Africa even though he is facing allegations of corruption.
The bad press he has received seems to fuel the fire of his followers and he's become something of a 'saviour' figure for many.

The Property Mag summarises the current state of South African politics in light of recent events:

“The dismissal of two cabinet ministers, the firing of the police chief, the enquiry into the arms deal and the fact that whatever the outcome, Julius Malema has had to go on trial, have all sent out a positive message that South Africa will not be allowed to drift into a chaotic Third World state. These moves by the President along with the financial minister's new mini-budget, have very definitely restored confidence in a leadership which appeared to be losing control.

So we know where we are now, we still have yet to see what the future holds for Malema and South Africa.

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Blogger Constitutionally Speaking sets the stage up nicely with a post titled “A rethink on race?”:

Even if we wish to deny it, race hovers not far from the surface in private or other everyday settings: as an unspoken presence, a (wrongly) perceived absence or as a painful, confusing, liberating or oppressive reality in social, economic or other – more intimate – interactions between individuals or between groups of individuals. In South Africa we (still) cannot escape race.

It will take a concerted legislative, educational and societal effort to dismantle this system of racial hierarchy and race-thinking. That is why the Constitution mandates affirmative action and why legislation like the Employment Equity Act and the Black Economic Empowerment Act was adopted by the ANC government.

…

The problem is that when the law deploys race to address the effects of past unfair discrimination and the ongoing dominance of an ideology of white supremacy, how can this be done without merely perpetuating the very apartheid race categories and the positions of privilege and hierarchical dominance of whiteness implied by it?

The problem is complex. On the one hand, the danger is that the deployment of racial categories in the law can have the effect of perpetuating and legitimising racial categories (and the assumed dominance of whiteness inherent in the deployment of such categories). By recognising these categories and by dealing with them as if they are a given — normal, essentialist, unchanging and unchangeable — and by failing to challenge the hierarchical assumptions underlying the deployment of these categories, the law can do immense harm — even in the name of wanting to do good.

One of the most important stories capturing the minds of the South African public is that of the Reitz 4, a group of four boys (now men) from the Free State who filmed their escapades of “initiating” five black cleaners at their University and creating a racist mockumentary.

A sign from the Apartheid era in South Africa. Photo from Wikimedia Commons released by user El_C

Rooinek discusses the Reitz 4 trial and the judgment in “Ask me how I feel about the Reitz 4?”:

In Bloem there are four young men that wake up everyday thanking the heavens above that they had to pay a R20, 000 fine instead of serving jail time. The Reitz 4 regret the day the decided to film their res cleaners in a mockumentarty that caused consternation and made the front page of newspapers around the country.

I would never condone racism (unless it’s against the French) and to me the idea of racism is one that upsets me. There is uproar across the country that these guys should have been handed down a worst sentence.

This country is very opinionated on hear-say. We have all got an opinion on the Reitz 4 but yet none of us have watched their infamous video. People are basing their opinions on what they heard because their friend’s friend heard from some guy who watched thirteen seconds of it that it is bad. I’ve also heard these stories and I really thin the media could be blowing this out of proportion, but that’s what they good for. My gosh I hate the media; you can’t trust them as far as you can kick them.

The rest of the post by Rooinek is a bit neither-here-nor-there in terms of what his opinion really is but another blogger, Pessimist Incarnate, elaborates his opinion in a post titled “I do believe there is hope for South Africans and the racial tensions”.

True to custom, the four boys - now huge men - were there on time, waiting. I studied their eyes and their body language. You could feel the nervous tension emanating from their bodies with their reserved hand-greeting.

So far they had managed to stay out of the public eye, except for the endless replays of the video footage of the entanglement where what appears to be a series of games played by students and workers turned out to be a racist attack on the black staff as a means of protesting racial integration in the campus residences.

But now, after long and complex negotiations between the three parties involved - the university, the former students and the staff - an agreement was reached to settle the matter out-of-court.

The dinner arranged might or might not happen in Room 16, where family and food awaited the outcome of the drama down the corridor in the Rector's seminar room. This seminar room was the site of many difficult dialogues during my 20 months on the campus; it was also the room where the historic meeting between Julius Malema and me took place late in 2009. If that room could talk .

There was a snag. One, then two, of the women workers wanted to first meet alone with one of the boys. This was risky; what if something went wrong, a private confrontation that could demolish months of hard work by the three sides.

When we heard the request it was clear that this was to be a glorious moment. The first woman wanted to meet with the boy whom she knew longest, and whom she expected to defend her dignity among the other boys. She wanted to know how he could let her down. She wanted an explanation before the bigger meeting with all nine participants.

I cannot imagine what pain these two engagements brought, but I remember leaving the room, with one of the workers crying. I called the psychologist to join them.

IOL News, although not a blog as such, covers a story of Cape Town Mayor, Dan Plato's, intent to move away from the current policy regarding racial representation in the workplace, which is a further evidence of the current discussion and debate around race in the country.

Warwick Chapman in his post, “Voters need to bring balance to our democracy”, argues that the current government has not really delivered on the promise of ”a better life for all' and instead seems to be instigating a reverse policy of the Apartheid regime:

Many South Africans, across the spectrum have not yet experienced a government which is truly good to all. The NP government of white privilege and the ANC government of cadre privilege will be remembered for serving only some South Africans.

The Apartheid government made itself infamous for harnessing the wealth and human resources of a country to enrich a racial minority, and the new government was always going to have a mammoth task transforming it into a government which delivers for all.

But in too many respects, the ANC Government isn’t doing much better than its predecessor. Non-whites in general, and blacks in particular, continue to live in poor conditions, with little real prospect of material improvement. Cadres of the ANC meanwhile have jobs and contracts which they aren’t doing well enough to ensure the required service delivery and economic growth required.

A similar point of view is covered by “Common Dialogue” in his post titled “Zille says ANC is trapped in racial nationalism”…

Democratic Alliance leader Helen Zille says the well-intentioned promises made at the ANC’s 99th anniversary will come to naught because the former liberation movement and its alliance partners were cannot still caught in a toxic trap of racial nationalism.
“As President Zuma revealed in his speech, the tripartite alliance is still caught in a toxic trap of racial nationalism and Marxist-Leninism (including discredited ideas such as “democratic centralism”, a Communist “vanguard” party, cadre deployment, the conflation of party and state, and the predominance of the ruling party over Parliament.) The ANC needs this ideological underpinning because, without it, the “tripartite alliance” would fall apart. Keeping this coalition together is President Zuma’s “unwavering commitment” and his top priority in an election year. But, ironically, this is also the key reason why the ANC will be unable to adopt or implement the policies that can achieve its stated goals. This will become increasingly apparent, in the form of unfulfilled promises, which will eventually lead to the party’s downfall,” said Zille in her weekly newsletter SA Today.

I,ve always questioned the capabilities of the ANC to pursue capitalism while in bed with the Communist Party and a trade union federation (Cosatu). The jury is still out.

South African singer, Steve Hofmeyer, has also added to the race debate with his recent outbursts. Memeburn has a blog post covering it:

Afrikaans singer and celebrity Steve Hofmeyr has “sparked a racial storm” on his sizeable Facebook Page, reports the Times today. The singer’s anger and outrage over recent farm murders of a white couple and their three-year old child spilled over onto Facebook to his 89 000 fans this weekend.
This is not the first time that Hofmeyr has lashed out using Facebook as a channel — and his status updates continue to walk a fine line between justifiable anger and hate speech.

…

In recent months, Steve Hofmeyr has become more than just an entertainer. The outspoken personality has used Facebook and his blog to represent a segment of the white Afrikaans community who feel marginalised and voiceless.
When Hofmeyr posted an update that read “I don’t know how the world thinks we should transform, integrate and let go of our prejudices and stay nice, tolerant Christians when blacks can shoot a three-year-old child in the head”, over 800 comments and 2000 likes followed, ranging from the thoughtful and measured to the racist and hateful.

Apartheid era sign in Durban, South Africa. Photo released to Wikimedia Commons by user Guinnog

MikeZilla from MyDigitalLife expounds on Hofmeyer's rant:

The problem you see has nothing to do with dead farmers, untalented afrikaners or Irish supergroups. The problem is still the highly polarized society we live in. I listened to Radio 702 on Sunday morning en almal wat n Afrikaner is came out and damned Bono to hell for talking about something he knows sweet F*k*l about. The rage dripped from the speakers, while everyone who wasn't an Afrikaner either jumped to the Irishman's defence each person defending what Bono didn't say.

The problem is no one is effing listening anymore. The Hof, the ANC the public we've all turned into little kids with our fingers stuck in our ears as we sing the stem and “Shoot the Boer” at the top our lungs.
Sure I feel for the unfortunate affluent farmers who are being targeted due to the fact that they have lots of money and live far away from cities. Every victim of crime is one victim too many but The Hof needs to stop banging on about them like they're of some kind of environmental importance. They're not Rhino, they're not an endangered species they're victims of crime in the country and they're being targeted as much as people who are getting hijacked or mugged in big cities.

I implore The Hof to stop acting like a petulant child and focus on singing, the old age home circuit sorely misses you

Other examples apart from Steve Hofmeyer have come a blog post by Urban Ministry Live And Unplugged titled “Those Who Don't Count”, which talks about racial profiling in church:

A minister friend wrote to me this morning about what he called “a racial issue” in the Church: the problem of people who “don't count” because they belong to another racial group. This is a phenomenon that I am continually aware of. Usually, in my experience, it is unconscious rather than overt. For instance, people get overlooked — quite unintentionally — when one draws up rosters, or puts together orders of service, and so on. Here's another example of the phenomenon: a woman in our Church said to me one Sunday morning: “There's no one else here in my age group.” I said: “Look, there are lots,” and I pointed out and named several people. She hadn't seen them. OBSERVATION: In our own Church, I see this at work in various directions. That is, it's not just one cultural group that does it. I think one simply needs to be aware of this, continually seek to avoid favouritism (be no respecter of persons), and continually seek to reveal all those lamps hidden under bowls/candles hidden under bushels. The Holy Spirit does a marvellous work in all.

Country of my Skull covers the racial profiling issue from an ANC policy perspective:

Firstly an advance warning

In view of South Africa’s addiction to racial profiling, I’m going to regularly throw about the words white and black to make my point. I don’t speak or think like this, but I’ll use these terms to show how stupid the ANC’s policies on BEE, BBBEE, AA, and EE really are.

Now take a deep breath

The other day @comradesipho made the point that BEE was necessary to “fix economic discrimination.” I agree with a lot of what he says, but this is just lunacy.

Now I’m all for black people making money so the real question is how to do it? The ANC has tabled a whole gaggle of policies to fix this, but all I can see is a bunch of politically connected black billionaires who were at the right place at the right time. These people are not genuine entrepreneurs or risk takers but opportunists. Meanwhile, a whole industry of consultants and companies has sprung up advising companies on how best to “game” their empowerment credentials so the government leaves them alone. This system is working especially well for all the president’s men.

How long must these policies remain in place? “Look to the US,” says @comradesipho, “memories are long”. Well the US has elected a black president and the African American economy is about ONE TRILLION DOLLARS, which would make it the 15th biggest economy in the world crushing that of any country in Africa. That’s a whole lot of social justice. So how did they get there? Certainly not by government programs.

If you need any more information on the Employment Equity Act of South Africa, the blog “All About Jobs Cape Town” covers FAQ on the act.

And finally,Quid Pro Quo covers a pledge to “take back the racial middleground in South Africa”…

My friend Patrick Madden wrote a call to action in April of this year, which was a period of intense racial animosity and uncertainty in the country. He crafted this pledge as a way of restoring some sanity to the discourse surrounding the national question in South Africa, and it bears repeating. See Patrick's explanation as well as the original pledge here.
* I recognise the feelings of tension and anger felt between people of different races in South Africa today.

* I recognise that nurturing these feelings undermines our mutual best interests and our highest ambitions for ourselves, our communities and our nation.

*I recognise my interdependence with all South Africans. I affirm that South Africans of all races and cultures can work together to improve the conditions of our lives and our environment. Recognising our common humanity, I pledge to relate to all South Africans with compassion and respect and to work with them in an atmosphere of openness and mutual recognition.

* I aspire to create a South Africa that is safe and caring for all. Therefore, I personally vow to refrain from violence and from violent speech towards anyone, regardless of their race or culture.

Let's hope this period of introspection and debate around racial inequality in South Africa can really lead to racial equality and ultimately a “better life for all”. But it will take hard work and far less talk.

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“Ons fade nie, ons fokof” covers the Right2Know campaigns point of view on the matter:

The leaking of secret diplomatic correspondence by Wikileaks serves as a warning to all who wish to hide information from the public. As the South African Parliament considers passing the draconian Protection of Information Bill (POIB), they should stop and consider the lesson of Wikileaks: Technological developments with a democratic impulse have forever undermined the ability of states to keep secrets as they have in the past.

The keeping of secrets is a precarious business requiring increasing human and financial resources. The POIB it will have significant financial implications for all spheres of government that the current Bill does not cater for.

As the Right2Know Campaign fights the battle against the Secrecy Bill that would shroud our society in darkness, we take note of another Wikileaks lesson: Governments which mire themselves in secrecy can quickly become enemies to their own people. There can be no doubt that publishing much of the information on Wikileaks is in the public interest – even if it is not in the interests of governments. It is for this reason that we continue to demand that the scope and definitions of South Africa's Secrecy Bill must be narrow in their remit.

The Times Live Blog asks the question as to whose interest does Wikileaks really serves…:

Does this information serve the American public interest? I don’t know, but to me the more important question, as I am not an American, is “does it serve anyone else’s”?

And that I think is going to be one of the great media freedom debates of the next century – now that we are in a world that is truly international, in which a news item can be read worldwide - who do we mean when we say “in the public interest”?

As journalists, which public’s interests are we supposed to be considering?

Web AddiCT(s) covers the best way to search Wikileaks documents:

250 000 new US Cablegate documents. These documents contain top secret information from
around the world and make for very interesting reading but the biggest problem Wikileaks has is
that it is impossible to browse this large database in the way they present it on their website.
Leaksearch.co.cc or http://locallist.co.za/leaks is a website that solves this problem, it allows you to search the cables quickly
and easily. It’s such a simple tool but would clearly make the lives of journalists much easier. Also
great if you’re just curious on different topics. Give it a go.

Africa is a Country covers an interesting comment on two other blogs, one supporting Wikileaks and the other not so much.

Both Biblical Paths and GalloZone cover the news of the soon to be launched “OpenLeaks” platform at www.openleaks.org.

2OceansVibe writes about Julian Assange winning this year’s Person of the Year poll as well as some very humorous advertising a female hygiene brand has come out using Wikileaks:

The man behind WikiLeaks has won the most votes in this year’s Person of the Year poll. Readers voted a total of 1,249,425 times, and the favorite was clear. Julian Assange raked in 382,020 votes, giving him an easy first place. He was 148,383 votes over the silver medalist, Recep Tayyip Ergodan, Prime Minister of Turkey

Another advert by the same company was covered by the OFM Blog.

Finally, on a more zeitgeist note, Memeburn talk about 2010 being the ‘year of Wikileaks' in their post “WikiLeaks provides ‘Napster moment’ in evolution of web”.

If 1999 was the Year of Napster in the history of the internet then 2010 will go down as the Year of WikiLeaks.
Napster, the file-sharing renegade, upended the music industry and copyright in ways still being felt a decade later while WikiLeaks, for better or worse, is likely to have a similar impact on government secrecy and transparency.
For now, WikiLeaks has governments, institutions and individuals around the world searching for answers to difficult questions surrounding US policy, free speech, internet freedom, privacy, secrecy, transparency and the power — and dangers — of the Web.
WikiLeaks has argued that its release of hundreds of thousands of secret US documents about the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq and the inner workings of US diplomacy exposes US military abuses on the battlefield and “contradictions between the US’s public persona and what it says behind closed doors.”
Its detractors denounce the release of the documents as a crime carried out by a disgruntled US soldier and abetted by a self-appointed truth-teller in the person of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange.

I recommend reading the full post on their site covering comments from prominent media and online media scholars and bloggers.

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Here's two articles from South Africa's premier newspaper, the Mail and Guardian on the issue:The cartoon, the prophet and suburban radicals and Uproar over M&G Prophet Muhammad cartoon.

From the Blogosphere, as you can imagine, two camps distinctly emerge… those in support and those against.

First, let's examine arguments against the cartoon simply because arguments in support have already been well represented in the mainstream media. To set the scene, we'll begin with a piece I posted on my own blog, Waiting in Transit:

I can’t understand why the media, the west and everyone else who engaged in the “Let’s Draw Muhammad” contest recently couldn’t, in all their secular intelligence, attempt to first UNDERSTAND and then to act instead of the other way round. I am also extremely disappointed with Zapiro for simply “jumping on the bandwagon” which is very unlike him. The Zapiro I’m used to has deep insight, sharp wit and gets to the heart of the issue at hand. Zapiro’s cartoon depicting the Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) shows only deep ignorance… but I’ll analyse that later.

First, let’s get to the heart of the matter. Why are Muslims going crazy when this happens? Well, at the essence, we do not draw the Prophet Muhammad or represent him in any way or form even though we do have detailed, verified and ratified descriptions of him because it is mentioned in the Quraan not to fall into the trap of our Christian Brethren and end up worshipping the Prophet instead of God. Secondly, Muslims believe in ALL of the prophet’s of God – Moses, Jesus, Noah, Jonah, Adam, etc. (peace be upon them all) and we don’t DRAW any of them.

But still… why is there so much passion in this issue? well look at the content. The depictions are ignorant and horrible. There is no mistaking the intent behind them. It more represents some Hard-line Iranian ‘Terrorist’ Mullah than have any insight into the Prophet Muhammad (pbuh). Muslims LOVE the Prophet Muhammad (pbuh), I mean truly love. For Muslims he is the ultimate example of what a human being is supposed to be. We actually implement the idea that whenever we’re faced with any situation in life the question is automatically… “Well, what did the Prophet (pbuh) do?” You can’t underestimate this point, it leads to the next point in this issue.

Let’s make it personal. Take someone you truly love and would do anything for… say it’s your mother. Now, if someone was talking badly (or drawing nasty pictures) of your mother but did it amongst themselves and, obviously, they have a right to say what they want. It’s all absolutely fine. But when someone comes up to you and waves it about in your face and swears your mother to your face, what would you do? Yes, it is the ultimate example we need to follow to hold our peace and deal with it in an intelligent and civilised manner (in fact this is what the Prophet (pbuh) himself would have done. But being realistic… Your first move would be a punch in the gut of the offending perpetrator. This is the line between having the freedom to say what you want, but respecting the people around you.

A blog post written by Khadija Patel has garnered some media attention. Khadija is an editor of Al Huda, a community newspaper in South Africa. She appropriately entitled her post “Lest we become caricatures of ourselves”:

That message plays into the victim mentality so many in this community are handicapped by and it is disappointing that most Muslims, myself included, don’t batter an eyelash when other religions are made the butt of the cartoonist’s pencil. There certainly is a duplicity of values that needs to be addressed.

It is interesting too that on the two occasions publishing cartoons of the Prophet has been made an issue in South Africa, both times the judges deciding the matter were Muslims. A clear indication of how much more integrated Muslims in South Africa are. In the first case of the infamous Danish cartoon, the late Judge Mohamed Jajbhay decided that publishing it would amounted to hate speech. A reminder that even the most liberal constitution recognises limits to free speech but the ruling came under great scrutiny as it was felt the judge was ill qualified to hold an objective perspective in matters pertaining to his namesake. This time the Judge was a Judge Mayet who insisted that her Muslim identity would not interfere with her ability to judge the matter.

I’m not sure if Zapiro’s cartoon can be judged a victory for free speech. As I conclude this a couple of friends are coyly tweeting admission they find the cartoon funny, that’s all. And that doesn’t make them any less Muslim. Nor does my disappointment in the cartoon make me any less South African.

It seems in one way or another there is some disappointment with Zapiro's drawing and it does prompt a lot of soul-searching amongst the more intelligent of the community and amongst the supporters and those against.

Undiagnosed ADHD points out in his post that the cartoon shows a total lack of respect some people have towards others:

The campaign to draw the holy Prophet (PBUH) has garnered all sorts of support and opposition. Personally I don’t care. Why? Because I am not the one doing it and secondly, it underline the ignorance and total lack of respect some people have towards others. Zapiro’s Cartoon was published by the Mail and Guardian. You can access it here. The argument is that Zapiro is exercising his right to expression and press freedom. Press Freedom is one of those tricky areas of democratic society that will never be settled in a Capitalist Democracy. Agreed that Press Freedom is vital for safeguarding the values of democracy, but its also used as a shield for sensationalist journalism. The people have the right to know and the media carrier has a right to make a profit. But consider this, what harm does exercising your right to press freedom cause when it insults the belief system of another group. In that case I would argue that the Mail and Guardian are acting in a deliberate manner with the aim of creating an unfair prejudice against the Muslim community. Could we call it incitement?
While press freedom is vital cog in the protection of human rights, it is also a self serving weapon. It cares not for the greater good or for other democratic values which protects every group within society from prejudice. For those people unable to understand, Islam specifically forbids the depiction of God, the Prophet Muhammad [PBUH] and other prophets. Muslims are to be blamed here as we have not stood up and voiced our disapproval of the various prophets in film, television and other media. But this is no excuse for the specific day set aside to, in effect insult the belief system of Muslims. Zapiro might call it not having a sense of humour but where a religious injunction exists, who of the believers would be brave enough to challenge that.
Here are the questions which you as the pretend judge have to ask yourself: Who will be harmed by my actions? Will harm occur? Is this harm justified in a civilised society? In other words, is it unfair discrimination?

The Voice in the Wilderness asks “Freedom of Expression or Freedom without Responsibility?”:

A cartoonist makes fun of Prophet Muhammad (Peace be on him) and a court rules in his favor citing ‘freedom of expression’. Welcome to our insane world and the new definition of the word ‘freedom’ which seeks to absolve the one who exercises that freedom from the consequences of his actions. Effectively what this means is that when we exercise our freedoms, the rest of the world can go to hell. How many of you want to live in such a world? If you don’t then you’d better consider doing something about those who seek to change your world for you. At the very least raise your voice and speak out against unbridled freedom without responsibility – which until now used to be called anarchy.

I don’t agree with the ruling of this court. I will continue to do what I can to show that freedom of expression does not mean freedom without responsibility and that when your freedom of expression hurts someone else it is not freedom but oppression. I’m sure we can think of many ways in which we can make fun of Hindu, Jewish, Christian, Muslim, Sikh and other beliefs. Should we do this and claim this is our freedom of expression even though it would hurt people and insult their beliefs? I don’t share their beliefs but I still hold myself to the creed that I will not say or do anything that hurts the beliefs of others, even though I don’t share those beliefs. This is not a question of a sense of humor but of manners, being appropriate, being sensitive to others and being civilized.

…

Just ask yourself, ‘Which kind of world do I want to live in and leave behind? A world in which people are considerate to one another or a world in which each of us will do whatever we want in the name of freedom of expression’ and to hell with the rest? Ask yourself because we will have to lie in the bed we make.

MyUmmah blog has a piece written by a Muslim Scholar, Imam Suhaib Webb, during the first time the Prophet Muhammad(pbuh) was drawn in Denmark.

Of course, there are those in support of the cartoon in South African Blogosphere such as Pessimist Incarnate who writes:

People need to learn that if you ignore this kind of thing it goes away but as a religion if you keep attacking all and sundry it won't go away in fact people will keep challenging you. However I think this religion likes the controversy as it is actually publicity even though it is negative and probably in the long term doing more harm to there cause than good

Synapses comments on public response to the cartoon:

If you are a believer who is not inclined to fanatical – and criminal – action, you certainly should feel aggrieved when cartoons like this are published. But the cause of your aggrievement should be your less civilised brothers and sisters, who make such comment necessary – not those who make the comments. The points made by Zapiro, as well as by past examples of this same issue, are a reminder to you to get your house in order, so that there is no longer any need to mock or ridicule. You do this most effectively from the inside, by persuading people who take faith as a way to justify paedophilia, homophobia, oppression, murder, censorship and all sorts of other social ills that they have lost their way, and that surely a god worth taking seriously would not want you to do those things.

MarkLives blogs about the support Zapiro has gotten from the Journalist association, ProJourn. It is more of a press statement, but it does make its point:

The Professional Journalists’ Association supports the court ruling, made late last night, that has allowed the Mail & Guardian to publish a cartoon, drawn by Jonathan Shapiro/Zapiro, depicting Mohammed in today’s edition.

The Association supports the ruling on the grounds that it is an important ruling in support of the right of the media to comment on important issues without fear of intimidation.

In Islam it is forbidden to depict Mohammed, in any way, hence the objection to the cartoon, and while ProJourn supports the ruling, the Association notes that issues like these need to be dealt with with tolerance, respect and consideration for our fellow human beings. We are a country in transition, with very disparate communities, we’re still getting to know each other, and people need to be aware and mindful of each other’s differences.

ProJourn recognises that there is a need to balance the requirements of strengthening our democracy through vigorous debate and interrogation of social issues – even in a humorous or tongue-in-cheek fashion – and of strengthening it through the mutual appreciation of our differences and diverse beliefs. While we have constitutional restrictions relating to hate speech that do not exist in some other democracies, these have so far been interpreted in the courts, correctly in our view, in a narrow fashion so as not to unduly limit healthy public debate and engagement.

The balance between rigour and tolerance in the media’s coverage of socially sensitive matters needs to be read through the lens of the intent of the cartoonist, writer, or other media worker. In this case, we believe that fair comment and not insult was Shapiro’s intent so we welcome the court’s decision. However, we recognise that South Africa’s very diverse social landscape does make social commentary difficult, so we urge journalists to professionally apply their minds to these complexities in a way that is unbiased and respects the dignity of people adhering to differing creeds.

We take note of and salute leaders in the Muslim community who, although they do not agree with the judgement, have urged restraint by their community and respect for the law of the country.

Finally, I'd like to end with a quote from a friend, Ayesha Jacub, who had mentioned this in an email discussion around the topic of drawing the Prophet Muhammad (pbuh), “The Sacred is not so fragile that it NEEDS our vehement defence. We feel thwarted, a little disappointed in Zapiro. But generally… we need to get over ourselves.”

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Still not sure what exactly the World Cup is and especially clueless on any information about the World Cup 2010? The World Cup Blog has a great Beginners' Guide to the World Cup which covers the basics very succinctly.

First up in the blogosphere, though, let's start with traffic situation. The Portfolio Travel Blog points out various road closures which will be taking place in Cape Town around the time of the World Cup:

The City of Cape Town has released the following road closure information for all in the Mother City during the World Cup.

“Traffic will be affected on match days in Cape Town during the 2010 FIFA World Cup™ due to a number of necessary road closures. The City asks the public to be aware of these and to plan their routes and travel times accordingly.We apologise for any inconvenience caused,” said the City’s Director: Communication and 2010 Spokesperson, Pieter Cronje.

Public transport services have been extended as part of the City’s transport plan for the event.

“We encourage commuters to utilise these extended public transport services offered by the City,” said Peter Sole, Manager: 2010 Transport Operations.

All trains and certain train stations will have additional security for the duration of the World Cup. In addition, the use of non-motorised transport and car pooling is greatly encouraged.

You can get all the additional details on these road closures by visiting the full blog post. I hope the same is not the same for the other host cities. I'm sure this is a special case.

Keeping with the theme of transport, The Mpumalanga Explorer highlights how the FIFA World Cup Official page is misrepresenting information about one particular town which will host a few World Cup Games, Nelspruit.

The Mpumalanga Province is regarded as one of the most tourist-friendly provinces in South Africa. Despite its close proximity to some neighbouring countries, such as Mozambique, the province is also less than three hours drive from Johannesburg and some four hours from Polokwane” Fair enough all this is factual. I am guessing that at some point along the border of Mpumalanga you could get to Polokwane in four hours, but the facts are that it would take another 2 hours from there to Nelspruit. The FIFA World Cup™ tournament games are being held in Mpumalanga, but more specifically Nelspruit which is approximately 360 km's from Johannesburg, which distance can be covered in 3 hours with no stops and no other traffic if the rules of the road are adhered to. Polokwane is another couple of hours from Johannesburg going north.

Aside from the world-acclaimed Kruger National Park which is the main tourist destination in Mpumalanga Province, very little is known about this province and its surroundings.” What utter claptrap. Mpumalanga is known for more than just the Kruger Park. Making it sound like Mpumalanga is largely unexplored and wild is foolish. The roads in Mpumalanga, specifically in the Lowveld are largely tarred. We have many tourists visiting the smaller towns like Graskop, Hazyview Sabie and Barberton because of the attractions they offer. These towns are not unknown as much as FIFA wish to claim that.

The blog does go into other inaccurate information on the FIFA World Cup page. It seems FIFA's not done it's homework on this one.

Some great news now for World Cup Ticket Holders from Capeinfo blogs…there is free Metrorail for World Cup ticket holders:

Metrorail will transport match ticket holders of the 2010 FIFA World Cup free of charge on its special dedicated trains to host stadiums.

Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa (Prasa) will run special commuter services through its Metrorail and Shosholoza Meyl intercity services during the tournament.

This is an additional special train service over and above the normal services provided, and will be synchronised according to match schedules.

Additional rail services will be scheduled to cope with the demand as government has promised that by 2010 there will be a train available every five minutes during peak times. Train services will be running between 14 and 16 hours every day.

Metrorail Gauteng Region will service a total of 12 routes namely Soccer City with 14 train sets, Coca-Cola Park with 13 train sets and Loftus Versfeld with 14 more trains.

The short routes include Pretoria to Rissik station, Johannesburg to Nasrec station, Westgate to Nasrec station as well as Westgate to Doornfontein station.

All stations will start operating from 5am to 10pm on match days while for late games, stations will operate until midnight.

Each soccer train will be staffed with a team of ten ticket officers, both to and from venue stations. One inspector or supervisor will be deployed on each soccer train.

Shosholoza Meyl, with an active coach fleet of 1 223, already runs on 19 scheduled routes stopping at 95 stations, while Metrorail services 468 stations in Gauteng, Cape Town, Durban and the Eastern Cape.

Regional and cross-border train services have been revised to coincide with matches in the various host cities, this includes the scheduling of dedicated trains to matches and from outside the Gauteng region.

Passengers will be able to choose between the various products such as the Tourist Class Train Service, Economy Train Service and Premier Class.

The train services will run from Musina in Limpopo, Komatipoort, Rustenburg, Durban, Bloemfontein and Cape Town. Passengers will then connect to Metrorail trains to take them to their respective games.

Great news for World Cup enthusiasts wondering how they will be able to attend matches in different cities.

VOANews blog has a post giving a high five to the South Africa World Cup 2010 official Mascot, Zakumi.

World Cup mascots usually show a characteristic feature of the host country. One of my objectives during my first trip to South Africa in June is to give a high-five to Zakumi, the official mascot of the 2010 World Cup.
Zakumi is a leopard, a common animal found in South Africa, and his green and gold colors represent the national colors of South Africa’s national sports teams. A high-five for you, Zakumi!

Green Point Stadium and Capetown Daily Photo's gives us a great picture of the New Green Point Stadium taken from the old one:

Covering some humorous content around the World Cup, Dizzy Dee blogs about a US broadcast which actually confused which continent the World cup will be held on:

Note the photo in the article above shows South America, while the heading over the image reads “South Africa“. Seems like there is some confusion in the US as to which continent exactly hosts the Soccer World Cup during 2010.

Kameraad Mhambi blogs about a Netherlands based group called De Zoltans, which sings a song “Zuid-Afrika” based on the tune of YMCA and is all about the World Cup, absolutely hilarious:

A friend Lizelle living in the Netherlands sent me this. A song called Zuid-Afrika about the Football World Cup.

Moenie my glo as ek sê die Hollanders is sokkerbefok nie. Check maar gewoon hier.

Not quite Die Antwoord. The Dutchies are one of the teams with a chance of lifting the cup.

Just for your information, Die Antwoord are a white South African Based Hip-Hop group which has gained tremendous popularity with their music being spread solely over the internet. They are available on Youtube.

Bringing it all back on a more sombre note, Medialternatives blogs about Fifa, Racism and the World Cup.

FIFA continues to fund apartheid-era companies in South Africa. DSTV SUPERSPORT for example has rights to broadcast live coverage of the World Cup event in High Definition, but its holding company Sanlam/Naspers remains engaged in a lengthy labour dispute involving racism and discrimination in which gross failures in the coverage of issues affecting previously disadvantaged communities have come to light.

SuperSport channels “will provide spectators with full coverage of the World Cup event”. A DSTV official has stated: “there will be a 24-hour coverage and we will be bringing the games on High Definition (HD).” Yet millions without the luxury of HD languish in poverty caused as a result of FIFA partners.

Racism, whether in low or high definition is still racism, and apartheid however misconstrued via Satellite or Cable TV is still apartheid. FIFA should not allow its brand to be associated with a company which failed to make a submission to the Truth & Reconciliation Commission.

In the final report Archbishop Emeritus and Nobel Peace Prize winner, Desmond Tutu questioned the sincerity of Afrikaner-dominated media houses such as Media24: “Is silence from that quarter to be construed as consent, conceding that it was a sycophantic handmaiden of the apartheid government?”

In the commissions findings Naspers/Media24/MNET were condemned for their complicity in the apartheid system: ‘[Naspers] chose to provide direct support for apartheid and the activities of the security forces — many of which led directly to gross human rights violations.”

It's an interesting viewpoint and one that isn't much covered in the blogosphere, let alone mainstream media.

An element of hope is stirred by kameraad mhambi again in a blog post on two rugby teams (one being known as the most ‘afrikaner' team) who, because of the World Cup, will be playing their match in Soweto of all places…

This weekend, due to the Football World Cup, history will be made when the Blue Bulls play the Crusaders in the Super 14 Rugby tournament in Soweto.

The Bulls, from Pretoria, traditionally are seen as the most Afrikaner off all South Africa Rugby Unions. The game will be an opportunity to smash or reinforce some stereo types.

Ending off on a very inspirational note, especially when it comes to motivating the teams themselves, Hyundai have had a competition coming up with Team slogans for each country which has qualified for the World Cup. Below are their results…

Algerie - Star and crescent with one goal: Victory!

Argentina - Última parada, la gloria - Last stop: Glory

Australia - Dare to Dream, Advance Australia

Brazil - Lotado! O Brasil inteiro está aqui dentro! - The whole of Brazil is in here!

Cameroon - Les lions indomptables sont de retour - The Indomitable Lions are back

Chile - Roja la sangre de mi corazón, Chile campeón - Red is the blood of my heart, Chile will be Champion

Cote D Ivoire - Eléphants, battons nous pour la victoire! - Elephants, let's fight for victory!

Denmark - Det eneste der kræves, er et dansk hold og en drøm - All you need is a Danish team and a dream

England - Playing with Pride and Glory

France - Tous ensemble vers un nouveau rêve bleu - All together for a new dream in blue

Germany - Auf dem Weg zum Cup! - On the road to get the Cup!

Ghana - The hope of Africa

Greece - Η Ελλάδα είναι παντού! - Greece is everywhere!

Honduras -Un país, una pasión, ¡5 estrellas en el corazón! - One Country, One passion, 5 Stars in the heart

Italy - Il nostro Azzurro nel cielo d'Africa - Italian Azzurro on African sky

Japan - 侍魂はくじけない！日本勝利！ - The Samurai spirit never dies! Victory for Japan!

Korea DRP - 또다시 1966년처럼, 조선아 이겨라 ! - 1966 again! Victory for DPR of Korea!

Mexico - ¡Es tiempo de un nuevo campeón! - It is time for a new champion!

Netherlands - Let niet op de grote 5, maar pas op voor de oranje 11 - Don't fear the big five, fear the Orange eleven

New Zealand - Kickin' it Kiwi style

Nigeria - Super Eagles super fan united we stand

Paraguay - El león Guaraní ruge en Sudáfrica - The Guarani lion roars in South Africa!

Portugal - Um sonho, uma ambição…Portugal campeão! - One dream, one purpose… Portugal victorious!

Republic of Korea - 승리의 함성, 하나된 한국 - The Shouts of Reds, United Republic of Korea

Serbia - Igramo srcem, vodimo osmehom! - Play with the heart, lead with a smile!

Slovakia - Rozbehnime to: Slovensko do toho! - Shake the green field: Go Slovakia!

Slovenia - Z enajstimi pogumnimi srci do konca - With eleven brave hearts to the end

South Africa - One nation, proudly united under one rainbow

Spain - Ilusión es mi camino, Victoria mi destino - Hope is my road, victory my destiny

Switzerland - Hopp Schwiiz! - “Hop Suisse!” - “Forza Svizzera!” - “C'mon Switzerland!”

Uruguay - El sol brilla sobre nosotros. ¡Vamos Uruguay! - The sun shines upon us. Go Uruguay!

USA - Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Victory!

All in all the country and the world are excited about the upcoming World Cup. There will be a few hiccups I'm sure, but overall it all seems to point to a hopeful and colourful World Cup 2010.

Written by Muhammad Karim · comments (0)
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Let's see what digital citizens in South Africa are saying about his death and the future of race relations in the county.

From the Old has been following the entire fiasco so far and here's what he's posted on the South African Scouts Association: “Statement by the Verkenners Beweging van Suid-Afrika about the murder of Eugene Terreblanche”

PLEASE NOTE THIS IS A ROUGH TRANSLATION FROM AFRIKAANS TO ENGLISH, PROPER VERSION WILL BE UPDATED IN A FEW MINUTES.

The Scouts Movement of South Africa has learned with sadness of the brutal murder of the elderly Eugene Terre'Blanche. Mr. Terre'Blanche devoted his life in bondage to his people whom he loved had. It is sad that his life was lost, for his bondage.

It is instructive to note that the murders are less than a month after Mal-emma the first time the commission had sung “shoot the farmer.” This follows two days of court order against Malema and can rightly be asked whether this court order an influence on the killing of our uncle Eugene. Whether there is a connection between the death of the communist Hani Paassaterdag in 1993 and the murder of Uncle Eugene Paassaterdag in 2010 for the Scouts Movement irrelevant. The fact is, a vulnerable elderly farmer in his bedroom on barbaric way with sticks and PanGas beaten to death and the regime of the day, the climate created for this genocide being committed against our people are.

The link between Julius Malema's provocative statements and the Murder of Eugnene Terre'blanche is a consistent theme when looking at the list of blog posts on the subject. DBS on MyDigitalLife calls the event a big opportunity:

The murder of Eugene Terreblanche is a big opportunity for South Africans.

This is a great opportunity to take a big breath and show the world that we are able to be sensible, think before opening mouths and talk to each other before doing anything physically rash.

The hatred stirred up by different leaders in the past months is not good for the country. Let us use this man's death as a turning point to reconcile ourselves to the different views of the people in the country rather than lying the blame with someone singing a song.

Can we do that? Yes we can! Will we? Well sadly I suspect not.

Obviously having a bone to pick with the AWB. KickMugabeOut hopes the former AWB Leader suffers eternal torment. He does cover the story with some very interesting pictures and comments. One of the pictures shows a guy wearing a T-shirt with the old Apartheid flag as well as an Israeli flag on a fence.

South Africa's president, Jacob Zuma, has made a statement on the murder of Eugene Terre'Blanche. One is covered here by the Times Live Blog. And another perspective on Jacob Zuma's statement by From The Old:

Today Jacob Zuma will speak to South Africa at 2pm.

He will most likely tell South Africans to forget about the event and that we should move on, however many claim this is not possible and that the boers are under attack.

Jacob Zuma also said today that “South Africans not to allow agent provocateurs to take advantage of this situation by inciting or fuelling racial hatred”.

However he seems to forget that in the past few weeks white South Africans have been constantly attacked by Julius Malema that cant seem to stop the racial hatred and blaming of white people.

From The Old also covers another statement, this time by the AWB, claiming the murder was political:

The AWB came forward and said in a press conference that the murder was in fact political and that they will retaliate against Julius Malema whom they believe is the cause of the murder.

Julius Malema in the last few weeks incited hatred against white Afrikaners and Boers by insisting on singing the “kill the boer” song.

As tensions grow in South Africa just as the World Cup is heading this way. In under two months South Africa will hold the biggest sport event Africa has seen while polarization and racial tensions are peaking.

Continuing on this line, Common Dialogue asks, “Is Terre Blanche’s blood on Malema’s hands?”:

Eugene Terre Blanche died a violent death allegedly at the hands of his farm hands. Is this as a result of Malema singing “kill the boer”?

Terre Blanche was allegedly hacked and bludgeoned to death on his farm near Ventersdorp, in the North West province, allegedly by farmworkers during an argument over R600.
Emotions are inflamed with some rightwingers even threatening to avenge the killing. The question is just how “miraculous” was South Africa’s transition from apartheid to democracy?
And just how dangerous are the racial utterances by people like Malema and other politicians who are fond of racial political posturing?

From The Old, covering many aspects of the case on his blog, says this yet again from the AWB's perspective agreeing with a perspective revealed on Facebook:

“The BWB sympathizes with the family of Eugene Terreblanche and wants to point to the fact that this deed was politically motivated by Melama as revealed on Facebook”

White farmers all over South Africa are still under attack, now one of the biggest known boers have been murdered on his own farm because of a wage dispute allegedly. Many find it hard to believe that a normal pay dispute could lead to the death of Eugene Terreblanche the leader and founder of the AWB.

Eugene Terreblanche is said to not sleep at his farm at all and the fact that it came out that he was “sleeping” also brings up more doubts about the reality of what happened.

Whether or not this is politically motivated is another story, a white farmer employing black people on his farm gets murdered. The first thing that comes to mind is the song the ANC is so desperate wants to get unbanned. The same song Julius Malema was gagged not to sing but continues to sing in Zimbabwe despite court orders.

Tony Lankester puts up his opinion in “What Would Malema Do?”:

So Eugene Terreblanche has been murdered. And although it is probably unrelated, the fact that it happened while the country debates the appropriateness of struggle songs like “kill the boer” is going to put the whole debate in stark relief. It is a real life example of what the song’s critics have been saying, and Malemaphobes will gloat into their G&T’s. And while it is unlikely that a tubeless rendition of the song inspired anyone to put a bullet into a sleeping Mr Terreblanche, it will be interesting to see what Julius Malema does next. Will he back down and stop singing it? Will he publicly condemn the murder and say that actually doing it is not what he meant? Or will he stick to the principle he’s been holding forth and sing it at the next opportunity?

FliMflaMfLiK argues that instead of focusing on “kill the boer” the song, and we should focus on this facts: “Terreblanche = White Earth”:

Everyone seems to be focussing on “the song” but nobody is looking at “the facts”. Getting knickers in a twist is what people do best and what they should be doing is sitting back and looking at the logical:

1. They were 16 and 21 respectively - very young.
2. They did not run, they waited for the cops.
3. They were angry about not getting their monthly salary of R300.00 each (shocking).
4. Apparently Eugine treated them very badly in the past (this I can well believe). He had threatened to kill them before.
5. Given the above, could these young lads have thought (in their minds), that they were acting in self defense?

Just because Eugine was famous, it's an issue?

These young men may not have known anything about any song in their parts. We don't know.

Perhaps it's wise to wait and see what other facts present themselves?

And finally, in a satirical twist, Azad Essa uses the Terreblanche event to pick apart issues and stereotypes in the South African Muslim Community in his post on Thought Leader “Was Terror’Blanche a Muslim?”

Overall, one of South Africa's leading figures of the “Afrikaner Resistance” movement has been put to rest in violent circumstances.

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Let's see reactions from South African bloggers.

Blogoff!!! writes a post entitled “Shoot the Boers, they are rapists!!!!”:

Julius Malema

He is such an imbecile, and they think that this little Pedi will become our next president. I am so immigrating to another country if he becomes our commander in chief. People think that Zuma makes us look like monkeys; well Julius will do way worse than the honourable JZ. . .in his sleep!!!

He sang an old struggle song “Shoot the Boers, they are rapists”! Wha! I love the fact that he believes in Democracy, but spreads hate speech!

Mr. Jackson Mthembu, spokesperson of the ANC, is actually defending him, saying it is not his fault and that he was quoted, or whatever, out of context. Well I think Julius is stupid and ignorant and a racist, but please do not quote me out of context! That is so not what I mean, hello!!

Rea from “My Life and World” discusses Malema's outburst in a post entitled, very aptly I might add, “Put down that scissors Malema, before someone gives you a damn hiding!!!!!”:

We all know what happens when you run with scissors right? Well that is exactly what Malema is doing right now, running around like a spiteful child who doesn’t want to listen to his mother. The moment when he falls down and stick himself in the eye all his little friends are going to abandon him and run away leaving him bleeding like a stuck pig. He won’t listen to anyone telling him what he should do.

You won’t believe that we are hosting the Fifa World Cup Soccer, the way he is acting. If he thinks any overseas visitors will come here to pump this country full of money when it seems as if unrest is at the order of the day here, he is in stall for a very rude awakening.

But coming off from Malema's rant, the ANC and the South African President were quick to defend one of their executive leaders.

Common Dialogue writes, “The ANC will talk to Malema about his racial utterances? That would be a first!”:

The ANC says it will “engage” Youth League president Julius Malema on his recent racial outburst at a student rally. Fat chance!
The party’s spokesperson Ishmael Mnisi said:”We are always in contact with the youth league, we will continue talking to them… even in this instance we would engage with them,” he said.
Malema, according to media reports, led students at the University of Johannesburg in a song saying: “Shoot the boere [farmers], they are rapists.”
Now, we all know that Malema has been insulting people including senior members of the ANC and its alliance partners at will. Nothing has happened to him.

A few old-school white South African's have joined the fray in the blogosphere pointing out the hypocrisy. Wessel's Place puts up his frustrations on his blog:

While Julius Malema was singing “Shoot the Boers” at an ANC Youth league rally, farmers were being killed in the Limpopo province.

And no black political leader said anything.

I find this sad. I find a great inconsistency in our country. If any white person uttered the words “Shoot the Zulu's” or “Shoot the Xhosa's”, they would have reason to fear for their lives. In fact, when someone dared finger the presidential convoy, this person was arrested and humiliated by the authorities.

I want to believe in this country. I want to believe in its potential. I want to believe that my children can grow up here without having to apologize for being white.

Blogging at My Digital Life, The Source puts up a fairly long rant entitled “Kill the Kafir song?” …

So the ANC is defending Julius Malema for singing a song containing the lyrics, “Shoot the boere, they are rapists”.

ANC spokesman Jackson Mthembu told Sapa by phone on Thursday morning that he will defend Malema and that the song should be seen in context (Read full article).

He continues to say:

“The issue is, indeed, some people might be correct that there might be songs we should not sing. Let them put them on the agenda and convince the ANC that we should not sing those songs and tell us why.

“But then they should also look at songs that were sung by the forces of oppression.”

Let’s look at this statement

Forces of oppression would most probably refer to the white government in the apartheid era and thereby extend to all whites I suppose.

Now I was in an Afrikaans school and I was also in the Voortrekkers. For those who don’t know, the Voortrekkers is like the boy scouts, but it celebrates the heritage of the Afrikaner nation who moved from the coastal regions inland toward what is now known as the Freestate, Gauteng, Mpumalanga and Limpopo.

Alex Matthews at Thought Leader asks, “If killing the boers is OK, how about blacks, women and gays?” :

ANC spokesman Jackson Mthembu has defended Julius Malema’s lusty renditions of the infamous “kill the boers, they are rapists” song, arguing (according to this Sapa article) that the “the lyrics of the song had been quoted out of context”.

“This song was sung for many years even before Malema was born. Julius doesn’t even know who’s the writer of the song. He got it from us [the ANC]. You must blame the ANC, don’t blame Julius. But when you blame the ANC, then contextualise it,” Sapa quotes Mthembu as saying.

By Mthembu’s logic, it is completely acceptable inciting people to kill others, provided there is “context”. What does that mean? Well, so as long as “kill the blacks” was an old apartheid song, embittered racists can chant it from the rooftops. So long as “kill the women” was some sort of misogynist anthem, chauvinists can do the Macarena to it in male-only clubs. So long as “kill the gays” was a major hit for bigots as they set lesbians alight, they can scream it as they throw the gays off bridges and into manholes.

Consequently, Malema has apologised, which ClassicMalema.co.za covers in “Malema Says Sorry”:

A very rare moment for this moron to apologise for his statements. I think the ANC came down on his ass big time. Is the road coming to an end for Ju Ju?

Azad Essa at Thought Leader posts up a brilliant satirical piece covering the dodgy contracts Julius Malema has amassed in his very well-endowed position in government,“Two kilo's of tenderised Malema, please!”:

With the country in a tizz after sizzling reactions to severe price hikes as “tenderised Malema” hit the newsstands, fictitious members of the ANC top-brass met at an emergency meeting on Monday to resolve the latest crisis in the party.

As news of government tenders enhancing the meagre salaries of government officials, their families, and their families’ families, appeared to have boosted newspaper record sales over the weekend, ANC leadership came to a set of binding resolutions in a bid to root out corruption in government.

In a dramatic shift the ANC released a statement early this morning saying that it is within the right of a senior cadre not to partake in government deals.

And what does Google think of Julius Malema?:

So heres the deal. Open www.Google.com and type in “Julius Malema is” – wait a second or two to see the suggestions that Google will recommend.

Hilarious

Definitetly, Zuma and Malema will remain a hot topic in the South African blogosphere for a long time.

Written by Muhammad Karim · comments (21)
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I will keep it simple: The South African President Jacob Zuma has had a child out of wedlock despite having 3 wives of his own. What do South African bloggers think of a president with 3 wives, who has been married 5 times and now has a child out of wedlock?

WE'll start off with Blog South Africa:

I often wonder what goes through the heads of some of these ‘leaders’ in South Africa. Today I opened up IOL as I usually do and found this article about Zuma wanting to initiate a national dialogue on what constitutes South Africa’s “moral code”.

At first glance I thought that this was probably a good idea - especially cming from a man whose morals are dodgy at best. Perhaps he was having a pang of guilt regarding his recent misdeeds. It didn’t take long however, for me to see another side of this plan.

In the article he talks about people respecting other cultures, but what I think he means is that all cultures in South Africa need to accept all the things that HE believes is culturally right, while disparaging everyone else’s beliefs.

The problem I have with Zuma and this morality ‘conversation’ is that they are probably going to come up with a set of morals which THEY believe are correct and then put that into law. The result will be a slew of ‘moral’ crimes and crimes against culture. This is precisely what has already happened in many of the Islamic states. Does this mean that we too will get a ‘morality’ police, where the morals of the chosen few are forced onto the rest of us?

From “The Wild Frontier”, we get some interview insight into Zuma:

JACOB Zuma really he can hide his bizarre sexual behaviour (impregnating multiple women out of wedlock) behind the fig leaf of “culture”.
He appears blissfully unaware of how this whole thing is playing out there. He has lost respectability and is the standing joke at the taxi rank.
Instead of accepting this he wants to accuse those who are unhappy of disrespecting his culture. Is he seriously arguing that it is good idea for a 67-old man to have frequent unprotected sex with multiple partners half his age? This in addition to several marriages?
Yep, he is. Read this extract from the Sunday Times interview with him today:

“We need this conversation that must help us reach a common understanding as South Africans,” he said.
He appeared shocked and surprised by the outrage that followed the scandal, telling the Sunday Times: “There are Muslims, Christians, Jews, Pedis and so on … How do we live together with an understanding that we understand each other?
“Values may not exactly be the same, but how do we bring harmony to this?
“Since Madiba (Nelson Mandela) said we must live together in harmony, we have not taken that discussion further.”
He said that while the constitution championed “unity in diversity”, South Africans were still looking at “things differently”.
In an apparent reference to concerns about his polygamous marriages, Zuma urged “all (South Africans) to respect all cultures”.
“How do we judge our values as a society? How do we judge other communities with whatever they practise? We need to create some platform to strengthen the respect of one another. We need to create a platform where there is no community that does not respect another.”

Tannemys en Sinterklaas post up Zapiro's extremely funny cartoon on Zuma.

Synapses gives us this response which includes some thoughts on Zuma's uninspring State of the Nation address:

February is turning out to be a rather uncomfortable month for South Africa’s President, Jacob Zuma. First we had Babygate, and now it appears that some of his goons have taken to abusing and arresting those whom they believe to not be showing sufficient respect to the Father of the Nation (or at least, a growing proportion of it). Last week, JZ gave a completely uninspired State of the Nation address, which included the embarrassment of being laughed at by some parliamentarians when he mentioned the father of his most recent (known) lover/ prospective wife. And, to top it all off, it appears that the trade union Solidarity’s campaign to highlight the dissatisfaction felt by some (many? most?) South Africans on the Government’s response to crime “has no basis in fact”, at least according to Presidential spokesperson Vincent Magwenya.

Although too long to post here, SoapBox.fm gives a very humorous account of what the State of the Nation address should of said.

Common Dialogue gives another humorous account of a jogger who flipped the bird at the presidential convoy:

I think National Intelligence made a meal out of a molehill regarding the Cape Town jogger who may or may have not flipped President Jacob Zuma the birdie.
The poor guy, Chumani Maxwele, told Times LIVE that he made a dismissive gesture to a VIP convoy taking President Jacob Zuma to his Cape Town residence.
Maxwele says he was simply expressing his annoyance at the excessive noise caused by the convoy.
He was detained but not charged and shunted from one police station to the next, and even spent the night in the cells as a bonus. He says he was told that the NIA wanted to interview him, and they were coming all the way from Pretoria (soon to be or not to be Tshwane).
When the man in black finally came the following day, Maxwele says they asked him what his views were on Zuma. Now, methinks there was no need to fly all the way from Pretoria to ask the guy what he thinks of the President.
When I listened to the audio interview, I expected Maxwele to reveal some serious questions posed to him before he was released.
He says he was released when he told them that he respected Msholozi as the president of the country blah, blah, diblah.
He was lucky he didn’t live in Lybia, Zimbabwe or the United States of America.

And finally… Biltong shares a joke with us… Zuma and a Psychiatrist:

A noted psychiatrist was a guest speaker at an academic function where Jacob Zuma happened to appear.

Jacob took the opportunity to get close up to the good doctor a bit and asked him a question with which he was most at ease..because he did have something..well ”troubling” his mind..

‘Would you mind telling me, Doctor,’ he asked, ‘ Some people think I am a bit ..well, you know..’ ehh stupid’..How do you detect a mental deficiency in somebody who appears completely normal?’ Im really not liking it when people are thinking I have lost my marbles..

Well Mr Zuma ‘Nothing is easier,’ the Doc replied. ‘You ask a simple question which anyone should answer with no trouble. If the person hesitates, that puts you on the track..then you have a feeling as to whether you are actually having a stupidity problem, or not.’

‘What sort of question?’ asked Zuma.

Well, you might ask something like, ‘Captain Cook, the greatest ocean explorer… made three trips around the world and died during one of them. Which one did he die on?”

Jacob thought a moment, and then said with a nervous laugh, ‘ Hehhe you Doktor…eishhh, you are trying to trap me with a trick question right?? You wouldn’t happen to have another example would you? I must confess I do not really know that much about history.’

(If you don’t know the answer..it’s time to worry too:)

You cannot disagree with one thing. Zuma is one very colourful character, but whether the final judgment will be to mar or to benefit will remain to be seen. However, in my view, any economic prosperity without a moral foundation will be short-lived and lead the country into greater dangers.

Written by Muhammad Karim · comments (0)
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The President of South Africa has decided, once again, to marry. The number is up to 5 this time with recent news saying he's engaged to his sixth. The man moves fast, and works fast too… he is now up to 18 children and with a new wife I think we can expect more.

Here's what South African bloggers say…

Glasspearl.co.za questions the acceptability of the entire affair and comments on Zuma's previous misdemeanours:

As we are all aware of now, President Jacob Zuma married his fifth wife last week.

I’ve been reading an article in the You magazine of 14 January which claims that 74% of South Africans found the practice of polygamy unacceptable.

The article also states the majority of those disapproving of the custom are women of the same culture.

Here’s what I don’t understand…

If an adult woman wants to marry a man who is already married and the wife/s agree, what is the problem?

We all have choices and although it would NEVER be my choice, I can accept that another woman might choose differently.

Where I grew up on the Cape Flats, we knew of two different Muslim families where the dad had two wives. They were all kept apart and didn’t live together.

A few years ago a Muslim friend’s husband asked her whether he could take another wife. She said no, but he went ahead anyway.

She moved out and divorced him.

Jacob Zuma’s newest wife is 37 years old and is a financial manager at a Durban cellphone company. She likely has the means to take care of herself and chose this life of polygamy.

Now if he married an underage girl handed over against her will, it’s a whole other story.

But as long as the adult woman has a say in the matter, it’r none of my business.

I have much more of a problem when a man like Zuma have all those women and still has sex with a woman who did not consent.

Pessimist Incarnate simply posts a picture and a caption…

Terrorbyte gives us a breakdown of what went down at the Zuma Wedding…

South Africa’s President Jacob Zuma has married his fifth wife (Technically third) , in a spectacular Zulu ceremony attended by his other wives.

Some 2,000 guests saw the 67-year-old marry Thobeka Madiba, 36. The ceremony had been postponed from last year because of his political commitments.

Under Zulu tradition, Mr Zuma’s two current wives had to approve the wedding and attend the ceremony. This ceremony is the last traditional event before a wedding and is done after ilobolo (dowry) has been paid to the bride’s family.

Monday’s ceremony was Mr Zuma’s fifth wedding – he married his first wife Sizakele Khumalo-Zuma in 1973 and Nompumelelo Ntuli-Zuma two years ago.

He is also divorced from Home Affairs Minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma.

Mr Zuma’s home in Nkandla, in the province of KwaZulu-Natal, was a hive of activity in the run-up to the ceremony.

Large tents were erected to accommodate guests, some of whom arrived in a number of buses on Monday.

Several cows, sheep and goats were slaughtered for the wedding feast.

Locals including Mr Zuma were dressed in traditional Zulu attire – mostly made from animal skin.

And hundreds of people were there to witness the traditional wedding, which though initially dubbed a private affair, was later opened to the villagers. They mingled with businesspeople, politicians and celebrities dressed in the latest fashions.

Zuma and his bride were resplendent in traditional garb. He wore his Zulu attire, while the newbride looked bright in her equally impressive outfit.

Madiba wore colourful Zulu traditional attire of black (isidwaba) with a red hat and danced for a few minutes before the groom, his family and community members.

While his bride performed the Xhosa dance, Zuma sat quietly and smiled. Later he also performed a traditional dance.

He was accompanied by warriors while Madiba came surrounded by maidens from abaThembu clan. The clan was led by Nelson Mandela’s grandson, Mandla, who is an inkosi.

Earlier the couple were declared husband and wife after an elder had asked Madiba if she would join the Zuma family. She agreed, and was pronounced Zuma’s wife, joining Sizakele Khumalo, the first wife he married in 1973, and Nompumelelo Ntuli, who became his wife in 2007.

The couple and their guests were treated to a feast of traditional entertainment amid tight security. For three hours, Xhosa and Zulu traditional dancers entertained those gathered. Celebrations were scheduled to continue late into the night….

Zuma was previously married to former home affairs minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, whom he divorced in 1998, and Kate Mantsho-Zuma, who committed suicide in 2000.

… some very interesting insight there into the political and social construct of the Zuma clan.

My Rosebank sobers us up with an HIV point of view…

We live in a country with the world's highest HIV deaths. Let's state it even more simply: South Africa is the country with the world's largest number of people dying from a sexually transmitted disease. Thereare approximately 950 AIDS-realted deaths each day in South Africa [as opposed to 50 murders a day]. In TV advertising people are asked to stick to one partner. One of the ways AIDS is transmitted is by having multiple partners. Polygamy is institutionalised multiple partnering. Nice going Mr. President.

as well as these random clippings from News24.com which give some context and further insight…

Durban - The leader of the Christian Democratic Party has described President Jacob Zuma's traditional wedding on Monday as a “giant step back into the dark ages”.

Zuma's wedding “to a woman he is reported to have already fathered three children with, and the alarming return to ancestral worship is a giant step back into the dark ages,” said CDP leader Reverend Theunis Botha.

It was the same ancestral traditions that had plagued Africa in the past and that had kept it [Africa] in superstition and poverty, and not colonialism as some people believed, he claimed.

Zuma is the father of 18 children.

He is also engaged to Gloria Bongi Ngema from Durban. Her family presented umbondo (gifts) to the Zuma family at the end of December.

Umbondo is the last Zulu traditional ceremony before the wedding. It was done after ilobolo had been paid.

It was not known when Zuma would tie the knot with Ngema.

However, apart from all the criticism, someone finally gave the man a congratulations… SA Rocks gives us this…

Not bad Mr Prez. I must say you have scruples. Not only can you run a country but you can manage 5 wives and families, I am impressed. Good job.
I’ll join the nation in welcoming another “first lady” to the country: Tobeka Madiba.

Source: HWT Image Library
So all in all, congrats to President Zuma.

Terrorbyte further enlightens us with this tidbit about the actual wedding night of President Zuma…

A huge bed has been delivered to President Jacob Zuma’s compound at Nkandla, in northern KwaZulu-Natal ahead of his wedding to his fifth wife.

The Real Jenty gives her view of the President's recent actions, it speaks for itself…

I read an article in the Saturday Star yesterday about Jacob Zuma’s many wives. I don’t know what rock I’ve been living under, because I knew that he had more than one wife, but as sure as heck didn’t know he had that many!! I found this article in the Mercury tonight that explains them all, and I see that there’s an article in the Sunday Times today about the same topic too!

And not only does he have 4 wives currently (he divorced one, and one committed suicide)… but he has 18 children from them and other woman. The youngest of which is 7 months old!!

I also didn’t realise that the wife that he married last year was 34 at the time… that’s almost the same age as me. And the mother of the 7mth old is about the same age (according to another article I found).

Now, I get that polygamy is quite acceptable in Zulu culture, and in fact that’s not what bothers me about this whole thing. As far as I’m concerned he can have 10 wives, I don’t really care. But dude… he’s not exactly a spring chicken at 67… what’s the deal with marrying more young wives… he’s apparently going to marry the other woman who he’s had children with. Maybe he’s only marrying them so that they’re legal and can be supported by the government?

But that’s besides my point… he’s old… why does he feel the need to have so many young wives… some of them are about 30 years younger than him… and what’s the deal with him wanting to procreate at his age! Isn’t 18 kids enough?! After all, the taxpayers are going to have to support them all!

From now on, I’m going to look at him in a new light… and it’s not a flattering one… he’s a dirty old man in my eyes.

And to end off with a confusing rendition about the inspiration President Zuma has instilled in one particular blogger, Kolobe gives us his rant about how his “polygamist dreams have been dashed!”

Ok so everyone is aware that I secretly admirer Jacob Zuma in his quest as a polygamists, in the African culture the first wife must permit the husband to marry other wives otherwise the it would be illegal marriages, so how can I convince my monogamous wife to agree to polygamy I still wonder, in fact those that are aware of the Zuma debacle is that the second Nompumelelo and third wive Thobeka are not in peace with each other, but all the wives are blessed to have Ma khumalo the eldest of the wives for support, in fact the second wife is angry and bitter of the third wive, this of course was evident on the latter’s day of the weeding when Nompumelelo was absent, it was only makhumalo who gave her blessings as the first wife. Traditionally before lobola negotiations takes place the uncles would consult the first wives for her blessing.

Believe me Zuma had a reason to take other wives and using the weakness in the first wife Ma khumalo, he managed to convince her to agree to polygamy, And the one obvious reason that comes to mind is the fact that Getrude khumalo the first wife seems to be having a problem conceiving and obviously raising children for Jacob Zuma, to date they don’t have any children. Perhaps this is the reason that Msholozi used against her and hence she can agree to this kind of marital arrangements.

Good, having studied the Zuma scenario, I had then decided to create a point of weakness so that I can have a reason against Mrs Kolobe to twist her hands in agreeing to my requests, I thought out a good plan and from Monday it was my implementation date, on Monday after work I took her by surprise when she walked from work by acting like a bull , she found me naked already and we had good sex, while she was trying to clean the house I demanded attention and off we went for another shagging session, as if that was not enough I requested another session around 11 in evening and obviously feeling tired she refused. Good the plan was coming as planned.

On Tuesday I was late at work obviously of back pains and all, shame man the Comrade seems to be losing his mojo I guess, Tuesday I repeated the same, and when she pulled the am tired plug out, then I knew it was my opportunity to attack, I jumped out of bed and switched on the lights and demanded a meeting immediately, fine she said and there we where,
You remember in 2002 when we you could not do your house chores we found a nanny for us? Then she looked at me and said yes ,so now it seems that you cannot cope with my sexual demands cause your work is exhausting you, don’t you think that it is better if we get an assistant to assist you in my demands, goodness me, there she was furious and tempers flying all nasty stuff and quoting the bible and all, it was nasty.

Fine I pulled the verses about Abram and Sarah looking that other chick that Abram shagged to produce that dude Ishmael, yaa but I was told if I wanted that I should go out of the house and find another place, in short I cannot become a polygamist, but at least I tried.

and here's some Twitter feedback on the topic which even hints at the term being coined ‘Doing a Zuma'… meaning ofcourse, polygamy.

@DevillaCruelle While Zuma is courting wife-to-be no. 6, Obama is sending 12000 troups to render aid in Haiti. Priorities, priorities….

@MonsieurPolk @mathoto_m Somebody is trying to get married! let me talk to my wife about doing a Zuma. Home cooking & great movies whats not to love?

@PrinsesLV This is where our tax money goes: Zuma's wife wearing a LOUIS VUITTON headscarf…… Ek meen rerig! http://tweetphoto.com/8643407

@Sliloza RT @DJFreshSA: RT @euphonik: Mr. President Jacob Zuma you are truly on to something! Why cheat on your wife when you can just take another?

The President's polygamist tendencies raises important questions for South Africa… the relevance of traditional culture in a modern era, the permissibility of polygamy by law and what this would mean for traditional vs. modern interpretations of culture in South African society… and probably a lot more. At least its educational.

Written by Muhammad Karim · comments (1)
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She was known as Dr. Beetroot because of promoting the benefits of beetroot, garlic, lemons, and African potatoes in the fight against AIDS.

It is for these reasons that she never ceased to be a favourite topic in the mainstream media and indeed the blogosphere. Even Global Voices Online has seen her name in its headlines, twice.

Her death has sparked comments in the blogosphere but the responses on Twitter to her death have garnered more attention.

Some Twitter Responses To Manto's Death

@charliehuman: don't think ‘cultural tradition' comes into speaking about Manto at all. It's not like there's a cultural monopoly on respect for the dead - Link

@aidencholes: Fact about SA's response to Manto's death: it's the whites who are happy she is dead - Link

@hayibo: More than 300,000 unable to forgive Manto - because they are already dead after being refused ARV's. http://tinyurl.com/y9eq8m2

@ne3tz: Who gives a shit about manto?Now ppl want to respect her cos she's dead? reminds me of when MJ was alive n ppl hated him, then respected him - Link

Blog posts around Manto's Death
Stuff posted a picture in a tribute to the health minister with no adjoining explanation so it could mean anything you want it to…

Democratic Capitalist has this to say on Manto…:

Its amazing how when somebody dies all of her supporters suddenly can think of all the good things she did for society. The reality is that her policies around HIV / AIDs cost hundreds of thousands of lives and have been one of the largest post-apartheid social injustices perpetuated on South Africans.

She is not a hero and should not be treated as one. She was out of her depth from the time she was appointed health minister and her refusal to acknowledge her short-comings meant that many other people suffered.

For those jumping out to defend her, just clarify whether you are doing it as a way of taking advantage of some easy PR or whether you truly believed she offered a lot.

Its interesting to note that according to a poll on News24 - 93% of recipients believe she will be remembered for her failure to tackle HIV in South Africa.

Betty Noire has a lot to say not so much on Manto but on her replacement in the Health Ministry:

One would have thought that it is impossible to achieve a more insane appointment than Manto Tshabalala-Msimang in the national health portfolio. Turns out, not.

What is Aaron Motsoaledi thinking? And WHERE does he find the time to produce draft regulations LEGISLATING THE AMOUNT OF CAFFEINE IN DECAFFEINATED COFFEE? Proposed legislation would, apparently, make it mandatory for ground decaf coffee to contain “not less than 0.12 percent caffeine”.

…WHY?

This question rang in my head, like a crazy bell, the moment I heard Jenny CW mention it on 702 at lunch time. And then I read the story in the Star when I stopped at Vida for a take-away between Atlas Studios and Interbrand Sampson. And then I googled it when I got home tonight. And nobody, NOBODY has provided an answer. Is this an international standard? Does Illy’s water-method decaf actually contain that much caffeine anyway? You would THINK that any journalist worth their salt (WE ARE SO DEVOID, IT WOULD SEEM) would ask WHY?

WHY? WHY? (It’s on the front page of the biggest daily broadsheet in the country. You would hope that the story would get more attention than a 5 minute edit by a junior sub.)

How can this possibly be important in a country where the doctors are either on strike or filling in work application forms for Canada, where the public hospitals are a disgrace, where no working strategy for dealing with HIV and Aids have been put in place and where the concept of primary health care is, well, like… prenatal.

AND WHY?

An adjoining story which garnered far more attention was Radio Presenter Gareth Cliff's response to her death and the subsequent fallout. Upon hearing about Manto's death, Gareth wrote on his Twitter page:

Manto is dead. Good. A selfish and wicked bungler of the lowest order. Rotten attitude and rancid livers — all 3 of them …

Radio Review covers off Gareth Cliff's Twitter postings…:

I see Gareth Cliff from 5FM is taking some flak in the Twitterverse (big whoop) and the media about some comments he made about former health minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang.
A couple of his “Tweets” included:
“That woman – Manto – and her policies on AIDS sent many thousands of people to their graves early. She added no value to SA”
“Why do people think the dead deserve respect? They’re dead. Even the law is unequivocal: dead people have no rights”
“Manto is dead. Good. A selfish and wicked bungler of the lowest order. Rotten attitude and rancid livers – all 3 of them… “
Personally I think he is just saying what other people were thinking. I find it amazing that everybody is suddenly jumping to Mantos defence when they were happy to kick her when she was making stupid policies…

Other Twitter posts around the same subject (there are, ofcourse, many more)…

@GarethCliff: Relieved about Manto. I was worried she'd finish all our Phuza before 2010 - Link

@steenbras: Not really @garethcliff's greatest fan, but nothing wrong with what he said about Manto. Wholeheartedly agree. - Link

@bregre: i agree with gareth cliff, screw manto, dead or alive. What kimd of cretin ups herself on the donor list, then dies, and then everyone actl - Link

@tsa_london: “Manto is dead. Good, ” tweeted shock-jock Gareth Cliff. Should he be fired? http://bit.ly/6O3bkb - Link

@6000: @garethcliff on his Manto tweet http://bit.ly/7FO5w7 < - misses the point. You don't HAVE to vocalise every feeling, control yourself! - Link

From Democratic Capitalist…

It has been interesting today to watch the media fall-out today from the death of former health minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang.

Of course without fail, the ANC Youth League has jumped on the band-wagon and hammered radio presenter Gareth Cliff for his “tweets” which many described as thoughtless / careless / inappropriate.

Appropriateness of the tweet? Who knows who cares?

And Gareth Cliff's own rebuttal on his blog in his post “Much Ado About Manto!”

I am astounded by the emotional overreaction of a group of people over my comments about the death of Former Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang.

My opinion of her in life was not a particularly favourable one and I am sure she might have thought the same of me - but this is of no import. Now that she is dead, it would appear I am required to put up the pretence that I am sad for it. I'm afraid I can't be quite so pious.

To her family: Losing a mother, grandmother or relative is a horrible experience. You have my sympathy - on a human level - but you can take heart from all the notables paying their respects. I doubt mine would matter.

Minister Tshabalala-Msimang presided over the most disastrous policy decisions in South African medical history. While Minister she resolutely refused to accept the wide scientific consensus on the links between HIV and AIDS and brooked not a stitch of opposition to her refusal to provide anti-retroviral medication to, among others, pregnant women suffering from AIDS. Her tendency to accept the theories of widely discredited quacks like Matthias Raath and the unquestioning support of her boss, Thabo Mbeki, further distanced her from the people she was appointed to help.

An Open Letter to Gareth Cliff from Tumi:

Dear Gareth Rhydal Cliff,

I don’t follow you on twitter, I don’t listen to your radio show, I have never tried to watch your talk show and I can’t ignore you on Idols, I try. I am not a fair man, but if I were, I would say you make valid layman critiques of people’s talents or lack thereof. I would say you are a successful and loveable South African personality worth all the attention and endorsements you get. But I am not saying that. Oh no, I am saying you are an idiot.

The death of South Africa’s former Health Minister Dr Manto Tshabalala-Msimang has brought the worst out of you. I heard/read of her death through a tweet of yours retweeted by someone I follow.

Should Gareth Cliff be Fired?, wonders South Africa's YouTube celebrity Khaya Dlanga:

We have long tolerated Gareth Cliff, earlier this year when Mike Tyson’s four-year-old daughter died, he wrote on twitter that he couldn’t believe that people were mourning the death of a member of the Tyson household. Of course we will not dishonour his death by saying the things he said about others when his time comes.

A gentleman by the name Clive Simkins then defended Gareth and said to me, “Truth must always triumph over ‘compassion’ or we live a lie”. Truth and compassion are not contradictory virtues. One can be truthful and compassionate at the same time. Just as one can be truthful and still be merciful towards Manto, no matter how angry one is at the policy she had to push. Mercy means ceasing to hate. What is the point of hating a dead person? What makes us human and makes us better than who we are is forgiving the unforgivable. This is why so many hold Nelson Mandela in such high regard. As La Rochefoucauld once said, “We forgive so long as we love”. Much anger I sense, anger leads to the dark side Gareth, I’m sure Master Yoda would have said that to you.

Recent speculation said that Gareth Cliff got suspended for his comments, however this was rejected by Gareth himself…

@GarethCliff: Nobody has been suspended. Again, unless you hear it from me, it's bulls*%t. G - Link

Overall, the main element which stands out from this event is the power of Twitter and Social Media and its effect on mainstream media and politics. There are many examples worldwide of similar effects and politicians and celebrities would be wise to heed the warning and think before they tweet.

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This week Monday, the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) dropped all charges against him citing taped evidence, obtained by Zuma's lawyers, of a ‘conspiracy' against Mr. Zuma. Evidence which should have never made the light of day in a public forum, which begs the question of how they got there in the first place…

Here's the buzz in the blogosphere…

Subversive Africana: The Luck of Jacob Zuma:

Well gosh, he dunnit again: he got off. I am reminded of a piece of liturgy…wait (rifles through her library looking for the relevant Book)…here it is:

‛They were bound to clear you,’ said Hermione, who had looked positively faint with anxiety when Harry had entered the kitchen and was now holding a shaking hand over her eyes, ‛there was no case against you, none at all.’

‘Everyone seems quite relieved, though, considering you all knew I’d get off,’ said Harry, smiling.

Mrs Weasley was wiping her face on her apron, and Fred, George and Ginny were doing a kind of war dance to a chant that went: ‛He got off, he got off, he got off…’

The difference here is, I wouldn’t mind Harry Potter for president. Jacob Zuma…well, no shining endorsement there, the man mispronounces “divisive”. I see this as an omen.

I watched both the National Prosecuting Authority’s announcement, and the Zuma press conference the day after that announcement, live, because hey, I have no life, and I had a few thoughts on the long-winded speeches that I’ll share with you, the lucky and beautific reader of this blog!

They are: if the (acting) head of the NPA (I forget his name) uses the words “process”, “abusive” or the phrase “offends one’s sense of justice” one more time, we’ll have to shoot him. Those jingles are still reverberating in my head, and I wasn’t even paying close attention throughout; I was reading, aloud and with an unexpected flair, about Shylock and his pound of flesh, too, because speeches are boring mahn.

Newswatch Blog:NIA deputy chief leaked recordings:

The National Intelligence Agency’s (NIA) deputy head, Arthur Fraser, leaked secret recordings to ANC leader Jacob Zuma’s lawyers — evidence that ultimately halted his prosecution, according to a report today.

Quoting from three independent sources, the weekly Mail&Guardian said Fraser was once closely linked to former president Thabo Mbeki but had “changed his political tune some time ago”.

“The office of the Inspector General (of Intelligence) is investigating it,” NIA spokeswoman Lorna Daniels told Sapa.

“We strongly deny it. We have no further comment,” she added.

Based on information obtained from the recordings, the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) this week announced it would halt the prosecution of Zuma, who was facing fraud and corruption charges.

The charges were dropped by the High Court in Durban on Tuesday.

The tapes are recordings of phone conversations between former NPA head Bulelani Ngcuka and former Scorpions boss Leonard McCarthy, discussing, among other things, the timing of an announcement to re-charge Zuma.

These conversations happened in the weeks before the ANC’s conference in Polokwane in December 2007, when Zuma was elected its new leader, in a race closely contested by Mbeki.

NPA Acting National Director Mokotedi Mpshe said on Monday the recordings showed that McCarthy had abused the legal process.

The Times Blog: DA lays charges against Zuma lawyer:

The Democratic Alliance (DA) has laid criminal charges against ANC president Jacob Zuma's attorney Michael Hulley and the National Intelligence Agency's deputy director Arthur Fraser at the Durban Central Police station.

Hulley was charged on the grounds that he was allegedly in possession of illegal or stolen recordings of intercepted telephone conversations while Fraser, the brother of the former minister of public service and administration, Geraldine Fraser-Moleketi, was charged with distributing the illegally-taped conversations.

On Monday, the National Prosecuting Authority announced it would drop corruption charges against Zuma, saying the taped conversations between former NPA head Bulelani Ngcuka and former Scorpions boss Leonard McCarthy pointed to an “abuse of process” in handling the Zuma case.

DA safety and security spokesman Dianne Kohler Barnard said: “Neither Mr Hulley nor his client is a state official and Mr Hulley appears to have obtained these tapes specifically for the purpose of assisting his private legal client, Mr Zuma. As such Mr Hulley appears to be in possession of stolen property.”

Kohler Barnard said the charges were laid in terms of the Regulation of Interception of Communications and Provision of Communication-Related Information Act 70 of 2002.

She said: “We believe that an investigation must take place into the circumstances surrounding this intercepted communication.”

Orion Spur:Zuma takes aim at Constitutional Court judges’ “godly” powers:

All 783 corruption charges against him withdrawn by a de-toothed National Prosecuting Authority before the court case could even begin, soon-to-be South African President Jacob Zuma:

has blasted the conduct of the judiciary and questioned the supremacy of the Constitutional Court as the highest court in the land, saying it “is not God”.

Maintaining a posture of sneering, laconic cynicism just doesn’t do it for me anymore. I’m not in the mood to deconstruct the message, or interrogate the fricking subtext, or expose the hidden agenda of the publisher of the message. Academics have always been useless in the face of thuggery. We’re heading towards an epic fuckup and we’re too civilized to stop it.

From the Yfm Political Blog, we get a scary idea of the large following Mr.Zuma has backing him…

About 71% of ANC Supporters - believe Party President Jacob Zuma - is innocent of fraud and corruption charges - but 31% of South Africans - believe Msholozi (Zuma) should face the music.

This according to a survey by Ipsos - Markinor - into how the Mzansi(South African) public - perceive the ruling party’s presidential candidate.

Anneke Greyling the Director of Ipsos Markinor says - the survey questioned over 3000 citizens - who have registered to vote in this years general elections.

Mr.Zuma is still running for elections and PaintBall Craze blog shows us how the public are creatively reacting to his running for the presidency now that all charges are dropped against him…

THE ANC is not amused by fake election posters mocking its president, Jacob Zuma.

The posters appeared on streetlights on Jan Smuts Avenue and Oxford Road, in Johannesburg, yesterday. They have been placed above real ANC posters that feature Zuma’s face. One fake poster says: “What a lovely kanga you are wearing.” The next asks: “Was it made in China?” All the fake posters use the ANC’s colours and carry the slogan: “Vote Zuma. A better life for me.” One poster declares: “Justice is the name of my next wife.” The ANC has blamed the posters on “mischievous forces of darkness”.

ANC spokeswoman Lindiwe Zulu said the ruling party would complain to the Independent Electoral Commission and would open a case with the police . “This is sabotage. First they were defacing our posters, but now they are doing this. We are going to act,” Zulu said. Some of the fake posters are written in German, Portuguese, French and Italian. One, in Sotho, declares: “Ke nako ya go ithuta sezulu” (It’s time you learned to speak Zulu). Another proclaims: “Bush and I have plenty in common.”

And finally, a word by SA-Essay summing up the general feeling of bloggers and South African citizens alike when it comes to the effect this will have on its government structures…

African National Congress President Jacob Zuma - likely to become the country's next president - has blasted the conduct of the judiciary and questioned the supremacy of the Constitutional Court as the highest court in the land, saying it “is not God”.

And Matthew Phosa doing the same for the treasury:

The government under ANC leader Jacob Zuma would set up a commission after the election to oversee all the ministries, including the National Treasury, a senior official of the ruling party said yesterday.

The commission would co-ordinate the implementation of government programmes, as well as spending, budgets and “how they are being handled from top to bottom”, said Mathews Phosa, the ANC's treasurer general.

These are the 2 sections of government which have fared well for the last few years years. They have both been consistant and (mostly) effective.

Interference in either of these WOULD be the final curtain for stability in south africa. And they are already celebrating their victory, and revenge.

God help us all.

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From Cape Town Property Bubble…

Finance Minister Trevor Manuel is among 11 Cabinet ministers and three deputy ministers who have resigned.
Their letters of resignation had been received by President Thabo Mbeki “which, regretfully, he has had to accept”, the presidency said in a statement on Tuesday.

In my own blog, Waiting in Transit the post “South Africa’s Government disbands, WTF?” goes:

“What the Hell?!?” is almost every South African's response right now as the news is coming thick and fast right now with news of 11 Ministers in Government resigning today, including Trevor Manuel (No! Don’t Go!) including 3 Deputy Ministers. This after The Deputy President, Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, resigned yesterday citing that she wants to allow the “new president” to choose their own deputies and “personal reasons” (Yeah, right.)

The Ministers who have left are…

Deputy President, Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka;
Minister of Finance Trevor Manuel;
Minister of Defence Mosiuoa Lekota;
Minister in the Presidency Essop Pahad;
Minister of Intelligence Ronnie Kasrils;
Minister of Correctional Services Ngconde Balfour;
Minister of Public Enterprises Alec Erwin;
Minister of Science and Technology Mosibudi Mangena;
Minister of Public Works Thoko Didiza;
Minister of Provincial and Local Government Sydney Mufamadi; and
Minister of Public Service and Administration Geraldine Fraser-Moleketi.

…and that’s not including the three deputy ministers: Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Aziz Pahad; Deputy Minister of Finance Jabu Moleketi; and Deputy Minister of Correctional Services Loretta Jacobus.

Following the President’s resignation, which was a blow enough to the country in terms of stability, etc. and now this… This is DEVASTATING. With no doubt, this is the biggest Political upset in South African history. No doubt, the ANC National Executive Committee is probably shitting itself after coming to the decision to chuck Mbeki out of the presidency, citing the recent case against Jacob Zuma in which the case was thrown out of court due to “political interference” (which they blamed on Mbeki)… I bet they didn’t see this coming, or maybe they did, maybe this is what they wanted.

Kgalemo Motlanthe, Zuma’s ally has already been chosen as the care-taker president since the other Deputy President had resigned, os now they have the opportunity to replace EVERYONE.

I don’t know what’s going to happen now, this cannot be good for investor confidence in the country , the Rand is most probably going to get shot to hell and there goes the 2010 Dream. Negative, I know, otherwise I’m hoping for a miracle.

From the East Coast News Watch Blog…

President Thabo Mbeki has lodged papers in the Constitutional Court for permission to add his name to an application to appeal Judge Chris Nicholson’s judgment.

*Plus, read his full resignation speech *

Mbeki filed the papers yesterday - a day after announcing to the nation that he has resigned.

The move follows Nicholson’s statement in the recent Pietermaritzburg High Court ruling, that Mbeki and the former Justice Minister may have interfered in the decision to prosecute Jacob Zuma. Last week, the cabinet said it was considering taking legal action over the judge’s comments about political interference. It is understood that cabinet has also lodged papers in the con court.

Dispatch Now speaks of plans for new Political party in South Africa…

Outgoing President Thabo Mbeki’s mother, Epainette, is backing moves to split the African National Congress (ANC) and form a new breakaway political party.

News of the plans by Mbeki supporters to form a new breakaway party emerged this weekend after the ANC national executive committee (NEC) announced that it had resolved to recall Mbeki from his office.
Defence Minister Mosiuoa Lekota, his deputy Mluleki George and Gauteng Premier Mbhazima Shilowa are believed to be spearheading the campaign to start the still-to-be-named political party.

On Sunday George would neither confirm nor deny the moves, saying only that an announcement would be made soon.

On Monday, Ma’Mbeki, as the 92-year-old struggle veteran is affectionately known, said she was aware of the the plans and backed the move to split the ANC as she saw no future in the organisation under current president Jacob Zuma.

The East News Watch Blog also wrote of the ANC's favoured candidate for the position of president, before the ministers mentioned above had resigned…

The ANC has confirmed that its Deputy President Kgalema Motlanthe has been chosen as the party’s preferred candidate to serve as the country’s interim president after Thabo Mbeki leaves office on Thursday.

The ANC’s Jessie Duarte says while parliament still has to vote on the matter today - that will just be a formality.

“Mr Kgalema Motlanthe is the ANC’s preferred candidate to become the next president of the Republic of South Africa. He will probably be sworn in immediately after the resignation of President Mbeki takes effect on the 25th of September.”

Many South Africans right now are in absolute shock as to the events which are unfolding before their eyes, what the future holds, no-one knows, all we know is that right now, people are fearful as to the outcome of this situation.

Photo above of the South African Houses of Parliament in Cape Town is by Nick Boalch and shared under a Creative Commons “Attribution-Non-Commercial-No Derivative” license.

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This has got to be one of the baddest cartoons I’ve ever seen and I am sure that Zapiro’s going to get in trouble with the protagonists in the cartoon, if he hasn’t already. The thing is, even though I sort of cringe at the story unfolding in the cartoon, it rings true. The thought ( or the concept) has crossed my mind a few times about Zuma and I know the same thought has crossed the minds of many others. Zapiro, utilising his creative licence just put those thoughts into pictures.

Another reason why I’m one of Zapiro’s biggest fans

The cartoon has prompted Zuma to publicly condemn the cartoon and he has threatened to sue Zapiro. Zapiro doesn't seem to have been phased by Zuma's comments as Waiting in Transit also did a follow-up post - “Zapiro's Double-Whammy on Zuma” in which he covers Zapiro's second cartoon which wasn't covered by most media…

Zapiro’s at it again today with this absolute gem, given the current fight launched against him by the protagonists in his first cartoon. Well, here they are again with another satirical Zapiro-style hit.

Glass Pearl Marketing shows their support for Zapiro…

By 6.15 am though I was wide awake when Aden Thomas mentioned a new controversial Zapiro cartoon published in the Sunday Times, on Cape Talk.
It is so good to know that someone out there is brave enough to take on Zuma and his supporters on a level that is as base and crass as they are.
Well done Zapiro!

In The News has an interesting point of view on it…

It seems like there is no getting ANC President, Jacob Zuma out of the news headlines these days. This past weekend, cartoonist Jonathan Shapiro who publishes under the pen name Zapiro released a cartoon showing Zuma unzipping his trousers while his alliance partners hold down the Lady of Justice and egg him on suggesting that Zuma is about to “rape” justice. As most had expected when they saw this cartoon in the Sunday Times, Zuma was not going to take this cartoon lightly and it is suggested that he is going to sue Zapiro. Zuma would be suing Zapiro for defamation. This would not be the first time as in the past Zapiro published cartoons of Zuma after his acquital on charges of rape in 2006.

It looks like this latest tussle between Zuma and Zapiro is headed to the courts. Zapiro has since come out and said after the cartoon was published, “I stand by the cartoon and I won’t apologise. If he does decide to sue me, then I will fight it.”

If you have not seen the cartoon yet, click here to see it and let us know what you think. Is this cartoon wrong? Should Zapiro be sued for this? Is the ANC right to say this cartoon is wrong? Many questions are being thrown around. Let us hear from you.

According to Pierre De Vos the metaphor of rape used by Zapiro was inappropriate:

Perhaps one could still argue that a cartoonist may use the metaphor of rape in his cartoons to address a situation that he sees as dangerous and immoral - although I am not a woman and have never been raped, so maybe I am not the best one to judge this point. The metaphor of rape is definitely a powerful one - especially in a country like South Africa where so many woman have been and continue to be raped.

But I do wonder whether by using the metaphor of rape, Zapiro is not cheapening the horror of rape and - given our deeply patriarchal and sexist society - is not helping to desensitize us to this scourge. In a society where many men still see woman as something to be owned, I worry that this kind of cartoon might somehow send a signal to some men that rape is not such a bad thing.

Another cartoonist, The Paper Boy, comes up with an interesting cartoon of his own showing the battle between Zuma and Zapiro.

South Africa - A local editorial cartoon artist with International Awards, Jonathan Shapiro AKA ‘Zapiro’ raised the fury of the President of the ANC, Jacob Zuma. (with a cartoon published in a National Newspaper - The Sunday Times.)

Here’s another take on the event, after all it’s not often lowly cartoonists receive such public recognition from the high office of public servants, ergh read politicians… View the offending cartoon here

… and finally, I Luv Sa, but… has just recently put up a piece commenting how the cartoon has increased the governments attempt to censor the media…

You liked the Zapiro cartoon recently, yes? The ANC is pressing ahead with a Bill that will outlaw cartoons like the one from Zapiro.
These are people that preach hatred and threaten to kill but woe betide anybody who draws a silly cartoon picture or writes something that throws muck back at them. Suddenly they scream ‘we need censorship!'
Too bad we can't get a Bill that prevents morons from speaking in public. The country could do with the quiet.

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Stii writes:

So I just read Mike’s call for help. Mike is so damn right. We’re all sitting on our asses behind our computers and saying things like “shame, poor foreigners” [sic] while we do the sum total of zero. Great bloody help that is, hey?!

I’ve though of this idea for a long, LONG time now, but I do not have a clue how to instigate such a thing, nor do I have the know-how of how it works. My idea is to have like a trust fund, NGO or something to which bloggers/technology people can contribute to financially. I’m more than willing giving money to any organization, but it would be nice to do it collectively as an organization I believe in, like this blogosphere I belong to. I do know that this is a fairly touchy subject and might well be a shitload of work, but I’d like something like this to happen!

Bloggers need to do more than just write:

Yesterday I wrote about how I felt we needed to do something more as bloggers (i.e., more than just write) about the xenophobia crisis in our country. I’ve had numerous responses, Stii came up with some suggestions and I also gather that a march has been organised.

I’ve also just received an email from my friend Dion Forster, who is a prolific blogger, respected leader in the Methodist church and a Mac and Vespa evangelist to boot, referring to his blog post from today. This hopefully provides you or your company with another practical avenue for contributing to the situation…

SA Rocks finds a list of things that South Africans can do to help foreigners:

Here’s a list I found from a facebook group:
Speak with your local councillor, individually or in a group, and ensure that (s)he calls a ward meeting to condemn violence.
Start conversations with family members, friends, neighbours, colleagues, fellow learners and students, etc. about xenophobia and violence and about taking a public stance against it.
Call a meeting at your place of work and organise a discussion on the violence and on xenophobia.
Join your community policing forum and ensure that the CPF acts to protect foreign nationals and anyone else being threatened or targeted in your area.
Report any agitation or threats against foreign nationals or groups of South Africans to the police.
Check with police stations, community centres and churches sheltering victims of violence on what material donations are needed, and donate blankets, food and clothes, as needed.
Participate in any public forums you can access, including calling into talk radio shows, public meetings, writing letters to newspapers, etc.

My Afritude blogs about “The SA Bubble Divide”:

After chatting to people I think that bubble has got bigger because certain sections of the population are ‘shutting down’ from communication and what’s happening around them in order ‘to cope’… How much can people take with the constant reports of corrupt officials, lack of leadership, greed, crime, violence, rape [including children] etc etc. it all seems to have just got too much for some to bear.

….

No matter what anyone says, the recent events have shown that this time, we are very much part of the ‘pity box’ that is seen as Africa and we clearly don’t have the tolerance or control we should have for our African brothers and sisters or their children. Even when our people [in years gone by], have been hosted by other African countries in their time of need. Someone mentioned the government is to blame for allowing poor communities to be burdened with more poverty. I agree with that, but we as South Africans still have a choice, why such violence?

Waiting in Transit wonders, “How could this happen in South Africa?”:

This xenophobia problem is getting way out of hand. What the mainstream media has failed to give significant coverage to though, the climate of fear which is being created across the country. This is not only facilitated by the violence which is spreading from province to province and town to town. Just this weekend, one of my friends whose family is originally from Malawi couldn’t leave his house because his dad was getting death threats over the phone.
This aspect is very scary, so many expats from other countries who I work with and deal with on a daily basis are now forced to keep low profiles so that people won’t hurt them or their families. It’s even gone to the point where these “Xenophobics” are using the Zulu language to distinguish whether a person is a foreigner or not. Many South African citizens are now being attacked because they don’t speak Zulu and hence are regarded as immigrants.

An Update from the Waiting in Transit blog highlights the United for Africa site which was launched using a mashup of Google Maps so that the xenophobia attacks can be tracked live and anyone can report further attacks in the country.

Fred publishes statistics regarding foreigners in the country:

Was interested to find out that most of visitors to our beautiful country were from our own continent. According to Eighty-20, out of the 779,094 tourists and visitors to South Africa in February 2008. 549,428 were from Africa. 69% of urban South Africans agree with the statement ‘Immigrants are a threat to jobs for South Africans, they should not be allowed into the country,’ and two thirds of South Africans agree with the statement ‘Most of the problems in South Africa are caused by illegal immigrants / foreigners.’
I think this is also interesting: The number of people the ANC brought back from exile at the end of apartheid was between 13,000 and 16,000.
What must the inhabitants of those countries be thinking now?

In The News changes focus onto how the attacks in South Africa are affecting Robert Mugabe:

Before the attacks took place, the focus was on how the runoff vote in Zimbabwe would pan out amidst the current violence that was taking place in Zimbabwe. The violence in Zimbabwe was getting worse in the build up to the runoff vote with the ruling party being accused of causing the violence so that they strike fear in the country and get people to vote for Mugabe in the runoff vote. There had been calls from the opposition MDC leader, Morgan Tsvangirai, for there to be international monitors for the vote and for there to be UN troops in the country to ease the violence. The SADC region where all looking very closely at Zimbabwe to see what the outcome of the runoff vote will be but now they have to cast an eye on South Africa and Zimbabwe. Mugabe would feel much more comfortable with only one eye on him instead of having both eyes on him. With only one eye on him he may increase the violent attacks on opposition members and maybe find a way to rig the election result.
Mugabe now also has the luxury of turning to the South Africa government and telling them to keep quiet about commenting and trying to interfere with Zimbabwe, until they can sort of the mess in their own country being caused by the xenophobia attacks.

A blog at the University of Cape Town gives information on how the university is undertaking intiatives to help those affected by xenophobia attacks, offering help in a variety of ways:

There are a number of other initiatives underway, such as establishing a register of staff who can provide emergency accommodation for staff and students who may be displaced by the violence, the issuing of statements beyond simple expressions of outrage, the harnessing of analytic, intellectual and professional skills residing in the University community and the mobilisation of networks to bring political pressure to bear. In addition, students and staff are asked to raise issues of xenophobia among peers and in other contexts where challenges to attitude and practice can be effected.

The current situation seems to have stabilized, however there are still foreign nationals living like refugees and in need of desperate help.

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