South Africa

- The Coca-Cola Colab Massive Mix festival sounds like it had major problems with preparations by organisers falling far short of what was needed.

- In a shock win the Sharks downed Highlanders in their Super 14 clash at the House of Pain in Dunedin on Saturday. Coach Dick Muir had the following to say  "We needed that win and we deserved it. I don't want to say I'm relieved ... but, yes, well, I am relieved. This win was overdue."

-  The presidency has responded to the story in the Suntimes (about the Minister's various undeclared business interests) by stating that "A preliminary investigation indicated that most of the directorships found to have been undeclared involved defunct or dormant companies that aren't operating, or companies from which they had resigned"

- A large number of Cabinet Ministers and deputy Ministers are facing ethics charges after failing to declare their interests in a number of companies :

Fourteen Cabinet ministers and deputy ministers, including Deputy President Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, face ethics charges for failing to declare directorships in private companies and closed corporations. Auditor-General Shauket Fakie made the finding in a report to Parliament on an investigation into declarations of interest by government employees in 142 departments. Fakie did not name the offenders, but a Sunday Times investigation has revealed that those who failed to disclose business interests include:

•Education Minister Naledi Pandor;

•Public Works Minister Stella Sigcau; and

•Social Development Minister Zola Skweyiya.

 

- The Media feeding frenzy over Patricia De Lille continues with the news that she may eat humble pie and join the DA coalition and a nice send-up by Hogarth as Mampara of the week.

- Interesting profile of the new CT Mayor, Helen Zille :

Zille’s public image veers between the devotion of voters who see her as someone who walks the talk — sending her children to government schools — and dismissal by some journalists who still see the DA as a white-bread party filled with ex-Nats. “Ridiculous,” she says. “If one party has managed to break through ethnic voting barriers, it is us. More than 40% of coloured voters voted for the DA; a fact never picked up by the mass media. And we doubled our black vote.”

 

- Graeme Smith, Herschelle Gibbs and Mark Boucher talk to Colin Bryden about the big win last week. (mood killer: we lost the Test by 7 wickets!)

- A must read special report on China focusing on the relationship between the growing giant and SA.

- The Tsotsi heroes explain what it was like to bring home the Oscar.

- Thulani Gcabashe asks for our help in averting the SA electricity crises.

- Finally, the mandatory Hogarth read, funny stuff in the land of Z.

- Brett Kebble was one dirty individual! Two separate stories in the M&G detailing how he and various criminally challenged partners defrauded various companies to the tune of Millions of rands. The first story deals with how Kebble and some heavyweights in the ANCYL were implicated "in outright fraud" , while the second story looks at how Kebble has been connected to a bizarre alleged case of identity theft involving former CCB agent Barry Bawden. The Sunday Times was so right...

- Cardinal Wilfred Napier head of Southern African Catholics says that President Mbeki lacks "political will" to deal with neighbour Bob, while the rest of us now the real reason is his lack of...

- The Western Cape needs to prepare for a whole lot of younger residents soon, or so Dr Abry Nhliziyo a Port Elizabeth gynaecologist believes. The good doctor believes "there's a baby boom on the way and that the length of the power cuts will play a significant role. The shorter power cuts would make most people angry. The longer ones would make the difference, because boredom and stress would mount. Nhliziyo said: "Escape into romance is one of the best ways of getting rid of stress. "We can truly expect a fruitful season. That's the way it goes in life, if the one industry stumbles, it helps others to flourish again." 

- News of the Cape powercuts continues to dominate the news today. Officially the cuts will continue in certain areas until next Monday, however Die Burger is disputing the official line and is warning that it has information that the real date may even be next Wednesday.  These power outages are apparently costing the country R331m a day.  

- The "Shills Friends of Jay-Z" are pushing their supporters to contribute more to the fund set up to pay for the big man's defense. Trust administrator Barnabas Xulu stated "We... urge those who have been contributing to our defence fund to continue doing so as it is only through properly funded legal challenges that we can confront the NPA's systematic abuses and unjust conduct."

- Don't dare bring in any Castle Lager, Nando's or Nike clothing to any of the games at the 2010 World Cup - you won't be welcome! This was the word from Jerome Valcke, the CEO of Fifa Marketing and TV who went on to explain how Fifa would "prefer" fans to wear Adidas, drink Coke/ Budweiser and  eat McDonald's when they are at the stadiums - those brands being the official sponsors.

- Truman Prince has finally been fired, surprisingly (or not, depending how cynical you are about politicians) Icosa has stuck to their man saying the ruling "changes nothing". Good riddance to bad rubbish.

...lots if you're a sucker for news like I am!

- Day 2 of the Zuma rape trial was a complete non-event with only a few supporters turning up at the High Court and defence's request for a postponement till March 6 being granted. One bit of skandaal that has emerged is that Jay-Z the playboy may have fathered a love child with the Minah Shongwe, the sister of Transvaal deputy judge president Judge Jeremiah Shongwe (the most likely candidate to replace JP Ngoepe). This would make him an unacceptable candidate to the defense "[the defense] had some issues with him [Shongwe]", said Mike Hulley Zuma's attorney (although Hulley refused to explain why).

- Social Development Minister Zola Skweyiya gets himself burnt after he tries to respond to charges of a conflict of interest by the M&G :

11) Please state why we should not regard the payment(s) by Majali/Imvume to your benefit, as well as the employment offered to Mrs Skweyiya by Majali, in late 2003/early 2004, as an attempt to influence you?
I conduct my work with integrity, and within the parameters of regulations and the law of the land. I would not be unduly influenced by anyone. (if you say so Doc.)

 

- This is a good one. The Zimbabwean ambassador to South Africa "has lodged a complaint with the South African Broadcasting Corporation for "negative" reporting on his country, the Herald newspaper said on Wednesday". Of course the current state of Zim has nothing to do with the country's government but rather because "of a bilateral disagreement with its erstwhile colonial master Britain."

-A bit of good news for bloggers and SA at large is that efforts are underway to end Telkom's controversial control of bandwidth in SA.

The government talks the talk; Deputy President Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka in a briefing at Parliament announced that cheaper broadband was a pillar of its growth strategy. But it is walking the walk too; soon-to-be promulgated legislation taking on Telkom’s SAT-3 monopoly states that the Minister of Communications, Ivy Matsepe-Casaburri, will declare any exclusivity provision contained in licence agreements invalid.
 

I was a bit disappointed by last weeks Suntimes, but this week they make up for it by delivering a fine mix of interesting tales.

- Tomorrow is the big day as the rape trial of Jay-Z gets underway in the Johannesburg High Court. Transvaal Judge President Bernard Ngoepe will preside over the trial and the prosecution is expected to call 28 witnesses while the defence's strategy will focus on trying to challenge the credibility of the complainant. There has been speculation that another senior Cabinet minister may also be called as a defence witness.

- Nice cluster of stories focusing on the upcoming budget speech, the men behind the economic stats and a bit of history leading up to SA's current economic success. For something a bit off the wall checkout this story on how SA is losing out through not taxing the sex industry.

- The cartoon debate rages on in the Suntimes Opinion pages. Check out these thought provoking articles here here and here

- This is a shocking story - twelve THOUSAND government officials face prosecution in connection with social grant fraud amounting to millions. This was the finding after work done by SA uber-nerd (an all round good guy) Willie Hofmeyr, head of the Special Investigating Unit probing grants fraud. The state pays out more than R50-billion a year to more than nine million beneficiaries and it is believed that fraud takes a R1.5-billion chunk of this every year.

- And finally a big Happy Birthday to the Suntimes. I am looking forward to seeing the paper document its history in the next twelve months and you'll definitely be seeing references to those stories here on Someamoungus. One thing for sure is that for the last 10 years the Suntimes and M&G have been at the forefront of investigative print journalism in SA. Keep it up guys!

- After all the furor surrounding the Cartoon interdict, it seems only appropriate that we start off with this story. Ever since the story broke the reaction (from what I have seen and read) has been 90% negative towards the High Court's ruling. As I noted in my previous post I doubted this interdict would stand and awaited a challenge from some interested party in the matter. Well it seems the Sunday Times has stepped up to the plate saying it has "every intention of challenging the ruling when the matter returns to court" later this month. Now, I predict the people who originally proposed this ban will try to frame the debate in terms of religious "dignity" - we must not fall into this trap. This is a matter of Freedom of Speech and giving newspapers the right to decide the content they want to publish. Note that the Sunday Times never said they were actually going to publish the pictures, instead they were just reserving their right to do so. We'll watch this story closely. 

- As you may have noticed, we here at Someamongus have a natural aversion to political opportunists and sham artists. In KZN it doesn't get any more opportune or shamtastic than the Minority Front and their paper-tiger in chief Amichand "the chameleon" Rajbansi. Taking responsibility has never been one of the Raj's strong suits and so he plays on with his natural style in the latest furore. A newspaper advert by someone (wink wink nudge nudge) was placed in a Chatsworh newspaper stating :

 "Certain people are targeting poor Indian people. They say they want to put low-cost matchbox houses next to your Chatsworth houses. If that happens, these houses will be given to people from informal settlements. I don't have to tell you what will happen."(sic)

The Raj's reply to these statements : it was not him but some underling who had did the deed. Proving once again in the Raj's world the buck stops anywhere but with the Raj!

- Something a bit different but having an effect on SA's image is the story of how SA crime is big news in China. "Armed robbers in South Africa have shot dead four Chinese people in one month, state press reported on Monday, with the events making front-page news of many papers in China...The most recent events were carried on the front page of a wide range of papers in the Chinese capital on Monday, including the China Daily, the Beijing News and the Beijing Morning Post."

- Finally the State has made clear its intention to move away from the willing-buyer-willing-seller principle. I will be making a more thorough analysis of this in the next few days.  

- Check out this link for an excellent summary on the growing controversey over the racial abuse by spectators of South African and Sri Lankan cricket players.

- I thought we had moved passed the days of racially identifying suspects in the news unless it was completely necessary, unfortunately this doesn't appear so : "The State's case would centre on a confession by Dlamini which implicated the four, and three other whites in the murders, which allegedly took place over a labour dispute." (Sunday Times)

- The stakes have been raised as the M&G approaches the High Court in an attempt to get Public Protector Lawrence Mushwana's report on the so-called "oilgate" scandal overturned.

- We blogged about the issue of racism in the Judiciary being swept under the carpet last year and warned that it should be dealt with in a transparent and speedy manner to avoid further problems. Well, it seems National assembly chairperson Fatima Chohan-Kota agrees with this stance and on Tuesday expressed concern over the "unfinished business relating to last year's internal probe into racism and sexism in the judiciary." She said this matter should not be allowed to "fester" going on to say "I can't tell you how inundated I am - sometimes I think I am being harassed - by people who had been fingered during the racism allegations, but never got a chance to defend themselves."

- Another well-boo-friggin'-hoo moment happened yesterday when Shabby Shaik tearfully and in a breaking voice explained "I'm now the victim in Thabo Mbeki and Jacob Zuma's political fight...." Is that right? Well I know Shabby's powers of deduction haven't been at full strength recently but the rest of us seem to remember the split between Mbeki and Zuma happening after Shabby was convicted and the "generally corrupt relationship" revealed.

- Great news for SA is that Charlize Theron and the film Tsotsi have both been been nominated for an Oscar.  Theron was nominated for her role in the drama North Country while Tsotsi is competing in the category for best foreign film.