An epitaph for John Matshikiza

"There is fire here,
Which no prison
Can kill in this man"*

* From his own poem And I watch it in Mandela

Solidarity.

Visible Policing

Solidarity.

Dear Helen, Please shut up now!

In her weekly rantings (otherwise known as SAToday - A weekly letter from the leader 08/02), Helen Zille's logic escapes me.

1. She ponders on tabling "a motion of no confidence in the President and Cabinet."
2. She immideately therafter confirms that "this would simply allow Jacob Zuma to replace Thabo Mbeki as the President of South Africa" - Fair enough, she followed the Pokokwane conference on TV like all of us.
3. She later goes on to say that: "Judging by the poor calibre and dubious backgrounds of senior members of the newly appointed ANC NEC (from which the Cabinet is traditionally drawn), such a motion would entail replacing a failed regime with one that will take our country further backwards."
4. She concludes by saying: "The Democratic Alliance will next week table a motion in Parliament to dissolve the National Assembly in order for a fresh election to be held."

Am I missing something here? South Africa really needs a real opposition to circumvent the ANC from taking the country to the dogs. The DA is far from an alternative government.

Solidarity.

Penada

Home affairs and the psyche of identity

Reading the harrowing IOL article about a 24 year old woman who was driven to suicide because of an ID book delay reminded me of Athol Fugard's Sizwe Banzi is dead, an excellent play I went to see last year at the Baxter theatre. Written 30 or so years ago, starring Winston Ntshona and John Kani, the play deals with issues around identity and the ramifications of the lack of it to the psyche. Set in the apartheid pass-law hey-days, a man unable to get a job due to not having a pass, ends up assuming the identity of a dead person in order to survive.

I am sure for many, the article could also have also reminded them of the story about the 21 year old Kabelo Thibedi who held a Home affairs department ransom with a toy gun in November 2005 demanding the details of his ID to be corrected, after having waited for an initial issue for a number of years, and having struggled for 3 years to have the details corrected. The frustrated Kabelo Thibedi had lost academic and job opportunities due to not having an ID. The 24 year old woman who had similar frustrations as Kabelo wrote in an emotional suicide note: "I am going to rest with my father, where I will not be asked for my ID".

While we are sometimes sympathetic to Home Affairs given the the legacy that they inherited post-1994, the reality that it still takes so long for many people to get their identity documents so that they can find jobs and other opportunities remain disturbing. An ID is both a legal token of citizenship and identity in South Africa, these two cases demonstrate a torrent of frustration in the psyche of thousands of bona-fides whose citizenship and identity is not acknowledged due to inefficiency, lack of competence and corruption.

With the capable Mavuso Msimang as the new Director-General of Home affairs and the newly appointed turnaround action team headed by Kevin Wakeford to fast-track addressing the bureaucratic inefficiencies and curb corruption, one can only hope it will be easier to legally obtain citizenship that to buy it; and that hostage or suicides cases and other humiliations that are attributed to issues outside the immediate periphery of legal identity will become things of the past. Hopefully sooner than later!

Solidarity.

Ousmane Sembène: A personal appreciation

About two weeks or so ago, I went to the local second-hand book shop and picked up a few excellent books by African scholars with themes ranging from the post-independence discourse (Marechera) , the feminist bloc (Emecheta's Joys of Motherhood) to the Marxist challenge (Ousmane Sembène's God's Bits of Wood) and a few plays by Athol Fugard.

From the collection, Ousmane Sembène's epic novel God's Bits of Wood caught my attention and I have been reading it ever since. In God's Bits of Wood, the writer 'factionally' evinces the historic 1947 to 1948 railroad strike that took place in Senegal, the longest strike ever in the world in those times. Sembène, a Marxist thinker, was living in France before the stike, he went back to Senegal to join the railroad strikers in solidarity.

Sembène was born in the South of Senegal in 1923. He was highly acclaimed as a poet, short-story writer, novelist, essayist and later as a film maker. His well-researched work was centered around political and aesthetic debates around post-war decolonization & independence of West Africa and the shortcomings of modern African governments. He also explored the ironic contrasts between 'modern culture' and tradition.

Ever since I got hold of his book, I have been preoccupied with his work and have been doing some research around the 1947 railway strike. I was actually hoping to write do a posting contrasting the railway strike and the current public sector strike. It was with a heavy heart that I learnt this afternoon that he passed away after a long illness at the age of 84 on the 9th of June, just a few days ago.

With more than 8 films, 9 novels and countless essays and short stories, one can take solace from the legacy of his important contribution to post-colonial and modern debates in Francophone Africa.

Solidarity.

Propaganda: Does it thrive only on rhetoric?

South Africans are a very lyrical people. I am always amazed how we catch on very easily to certain phrases. I remember how after Shabir Shaik was convicted, the media got on with the phrase "Generally corrupt" like a squatter camp shack on fire. The phrase was big,it was used in a variety of contexts in bars, stokvels and other social gatherings. After a good weekend for an example, if someone would ask me how my weekend was, the reply would typically be "Generally corrupt", the query would have be adequately responded to.

Of perculiar concern, phrases currently doing the rounds are: The succession battle or The battle of the Soul of the ANC or The Polokwane conference or The presidential race. Our media has milked these out so much so that I get sick whenever I hear them. They frequently make headlines and advertisement billboards.

What really irks me about the articles that bear the above phrases in their headlines is that they are neither informative nor thoroughly researched and the format is consistent amongst most newspapers, to a point where I am beginning to suspect they are all written by the same person.

The format is simple: Get a a few potential ANC presidential candidates, write a bit about each candidate's profile, do a speculative discussion on a candidate's attributes on economic policy, leadership, support base and relations with the so called 'Left'. A superficial ranking on a candidate's chances is then made. There you have it, done! It works, It sells!

It is irrefutable that the ANC "succession race" or " the battle of the soul of the ANC" is an interesting topic for readers, what baffles me though is whether there is still interest in these stale articles. Could it be that the readers are just always hoping to get something different and new? I really think the whole ANC succession obsession is suppressing real debates.

Gatvol.

A bit harsh....

I ran into this piece rage a few weeks ago at the bathroom at Carnival Court (a bar & backpackers joint) on Long Street. I did not find it a corrective measure to discipline a typical five year old delinquent. A bit too harsh I thought.

Solidarity.

The Four Stages Of Life

bad_planning != open_source_is_bad

Well, even though I am not particularly passionate about my current job, I also take solace from the fact that at I am not one of the engineers who are bravely firefighting the eNaTis chaos that appears to me both as bad planning and an apparent lack of foresight. eNaTis is the government's ambitious plan to replace the previously inefficient and severely technically limited 14 year-old National Traffic Information System.(NaTIS).

While the government's motivation to replace the old system is both sound and logical, I think the way the roll out was planned and implemented was so rush-rush and ambitious that eNaTis' current unstableness not only irritates the public but the also seems to overshadow its intended initial benefits. eNatis was rolled out in provinces on a small scale in December 2006 then a National full-out national roll out performed on the 17th of April.

The pilot roll-out was marred by performance problems in that pilot phase, which clearly do not seem to had been properly resolved before the go-live date. Service delivery has obviously been severely affected. Also affected has been the Retail Motor Industry as they have reported lost in sales in the April/May period due to eNaTIs' erratic downtime. An unlikely casualty has been open source software, as eNatis is reported to have been implemented in Java, Redhat Linux and Jasper Reports (all open source projects).

Open source software has unfortunately become a casualty because of the perception that what is free can certainly not be reliable, hence cynics are quick to blame open source projects than the apparent failure in project planning and incremental piloting from the side of the government's and the eNatis developer.There are many successful open source projects: Google.com, Amazon.com, DaimlerChrysler, DreamWorks, US Department of Defense, to mention a few. It is both ill-informed and malicious to attribute the failure of badly planned project to the use of open source software.

Solidarity.

Too pleasant a banking experience

I am not sure if I am the only one, but whenever I am queuing at the the bank, the Post Office, or even chaotic traffic department in Greenpoint, I cannot help but always notice the inefficiencies in the logistical processes in these service places and in my boredom and irritation while waiting on the queue so I always conjure in my mind better ways in which they could improve the way they do things in to serve the customers (who they always claim come 1st) more efficiently.

I do not understand for example, I have to wait on a long queue for 20 minutes to buy a stamp at the Post Office, or to wait on three queues at the traffic department to replace a lost drivers license.I went to an FNB branch (my bank) this afternoon to collect a card and withdraw some cash ( that was 2 queues) only to be told that I could not withdraw the money yet as the money was still pending clearance, that in all, was about 45 minutes, my precious lunch hour gone!

From FNB (with a mild irritation), I had to go to a Standard Bank branch again to deposit some cash and was already pissed off thinking I might have to spent at least another 20 minutes. To my pleasure, that was not to happen, I was in-and-out in less than 5 minutes. In that 5 minutes, I had filled in the deposit form, queued and was assisted.

Too good to be true? Yes. You see, at Standard Bank branch I visited, they were doing a 'service-time measurement' survey, so when I entered the bank, I was given a magnetic card at the entrance and was explained to drop it off on exit. The card would be able to tell them how much time I would have spent at the branch. I took the card and looked at the clock to do my own counting.

After filling in the deposit form and joining a queue, a pretty lady wearing a well-fitting knee-length skirt with white high-heels was going around the queue and asking people how he can help them, when my turn came, I told her I had just come to do a simple cash deposit and was taken off from the queue gently escorted to an 'Express' till. The lady behind the till asked for my card (the one that I got at the entrance), scanned it and started helping me. After she had finished helping me, she scanned the card again on her side to record how long she had taken and gave me the card back so that I could hand it over at the exit. I was done!

When I left the bank, besides the fact that I was impressed with the technology they employed, I also left with a pleasant feeling that Standard Bank, or at least the branch I visited, cared about people who visit their branches. A few people in the branch too could not help but comment at the 'sudden' improvement in service delivery.

With the advent of online banking, teller banking took a big knock in my opinion as there became visible staff declines in branches. It felt good to know that Standard Bank was at least doing some formal research into how they can improve their branch banking. Perhaps your Post Offices, other banks, Traffic departments and most definitely Home Affairs would do well to take a leaf out of Standard Bank's book.

Big ups to Standard Bank!

Being on the safe side of the law....

I had a nightmare a few days ago. Here I was, in a very hazy mood, being arrested by the police for carrying something that is, lets say err... "illegal". I hardly remember my dreams but for this particular one, quite unfortunately, the memory still recurs.

Solidarity.

A necessary form of materialism?

According to Wikipedia, US marketing tags Valentine's day (a tradition that started in the Middle ages) as a Hallmark holiday, i.e. "a holiday that exists primarily for commercial purposes, rather than to commemorate a truly significant religious or secular event. The name comes from Hallmark cards, a company that presumably benefits from such manufactured events."

While business obviously makes a killing out of these days, one can only hope that the victims (in context) also salvage whatever feel-good sentimental little that they can out of the day.Whatever little, its fine, it does not matter.

Very soon we will be hit with Mother's day and Father's day posters in our shopping malls, both also Hallmark holidays, also accompanied by similarly concocted short-lived sentimental crap.

Friends & Lovers: Happy St. Valentine's!
Disclaimer: Sweetie, this posting does not apply to us :-)

Lala Ngoxolo Robert Kirby

It was with a lot of sadness that I learnt of the passing away of Robert Kirby, whom I had got to know and like through his M&G satirical political column Loose Cannon. While I had not met him, through reading his column over the years, I almost felt like I knew him very well, so much so that I felt like if we were in the same room, I would approach him and discuss a variety of issues.

Besides being a newspaper columnist, I learnt (with delightful surprise) that he had also worked in broadcasting, was a novelist and playwright. He died on Friday evening, apparently from a heart related disease.

Satirical journalism is almost non-existent in our print media, so it is in this vein that I feel Kirby will certainly be missed by his fans, mostly for being witty, comical and cynical.

May The Cannon retire in peace.

Look, if it's not yours, don't dare touch!

Over the past two weeks, my thoughts have been preoccupied with the sexual harassment and victimisation claims levelled against Professor Malekgapuru Makgoba(vice chancellor of UKZN) and Dr Vincent Mapahai (UKZN council chair). The claims are made by a colleague of theirs, Pumela Msweli-Mbanga (former dean of the Faculty of Management Studies).

What has become a trend is that in cases where high profile individuals would be accused of sexual harassment, there it always seems to be an opportune time against them, so it would seem as if the sexual harassment claims are purposefully intended to discredit them.

For ANC chief whip Mbulelo Goniwe (charismatic but shady, I think), he cited the fact that it was a deliberate attempt to lambast his character ahead of some ANC provincial conference. In the case of Jacob Zuma, he cited the fact that it was a political conspiracy.

Professor Makgoba and Dr Maphai are extraordinary academics whose work has certainly contributed positively to our country. Both are actually rank high in my list of favorite academics in South Africa. Msweli-Mbanga is an accomplished academic as well. I do not know much about her to be honest though.

Makgoba says Msweli-Mbanga awarded a masters degree to a colleague, Professor Kanthan Pillay. who did not deserve it. The masters degree has since been nullified by the university council.

All egos considered, Why would such respectable men in the face of the public connive to sexually abuse, victimise and frustate Mseli-Mbanga? On the flip-side of the coin, why would Mseli-Mbanga falsely accuse Makgoba and Maphai? For me this particular case is a difficult one, and whichever way this case goes (currently under investigation), I would still be torn apart by the outcome.

Even though both Makgoba and Mapahi have stepped down from their positions while investigations take course, I would be utterly disgusted should the claims against them be true. They would be perpetuating the sick mentality that men in positions of power can solicit sexual favours from their subordinates. Basically thinking with their testicles.

Equally disturbing would be if Mseli-Mbanga's claims are manufactured. She would also be riding of the wave of women, who use sexual harrassment claims against their superiors, in an attempt to destroy their images, thereby using their vaginas as a source of power (the Iwe-we mentality), effectively undermining the fight against women abuse.

All-in-all, I think men and women in all levels of society should be extra careful with respect to how they relate to each other in the workplace.

16 Days of Activism!

Mango Mango Business - Going Bananas

The introduction of low cost airlines has really brought some form of excitement to the airline business. Mango, an SAA subsidiary is a new player in the business. Other low cost carriers include Kulula.com and 1Time, so Mango airline competes directly with those, and to some extend Nationwide airlines. The introduction and price competition amongst this airlines has obvious spin-offs for customers. Flying is much cheaper and therefore more accessible than a few years ago.

Last week Thursday, I had my first Mango flying experience(Cape Town to Jozi to attend a friend's wedding). I had attempted to book a few weeks earlier in an attempt to get an cheaper ticket. As most would know, their website was not functional due to high traffic volumes. An excuse that I am not buying as I think given the strategic time of their launch (Obctober 2006), they should have expected that or should have fixed that swiftly. I somehow excused them, and finally managed to book, I chose to pay using a bank deposit as I was not willing to use my credit card on a site that was unstable.

Anyways, flying to Joburg was a typical flying experience, even though I had to pay for beers(R12 an Amstel) on the flight and obviously did not get to Joburg as tipsy as I typically prefer as drinks were not for free. I had anticipated that cost though, so was not complaining.

Flying back was another one. My flight was scheduled to leave Jozi to Cape Town at 20h30, so by 20h10, I had checked in and all. Came 20h30, 20h45, 21h00 the baording gates had still not open. Generally patient myself, I began to feel a bit agitated. So I asked the gentleman at the boarding gate what was going on and he admitted he was not very sure. I went to the News Cafe(close to the boarding gate), had a double shot of whiskey and chilled a bit.

Come 21h15, we are told the plane had just arrived so we would be boarding soon, by the same gentleman at the boarding gate. We could see the Mango staff running up-and-down. 10 mins later, we are told that there will be another delay as the Cape Town cabin crew went into the wrong plane (the one to Durban). At that point, I thought how unproffessional. More so, it was not communicated to us why we had to wait for more than an hour to board.

Low cost carriers are cool when one is on holiday and/or in no immediate rush, where waiting for an hour will be an irritation but not a massive inconvenience. Also inform the people who are picking you up to expect such unexpected delays. If you are flying for business purposes or going for an interview for example and time is critical to the tee, take SAA or Nationwide. Low cost carriers boast about being on time (78% in the case of Kulula), so that sends the message that they are not always timeous.

Mango Airlines flies to Bloemfontein, Johannesburg, Durban and Cape Town using Boeing 737-800s leased from SAA. The cheapest flight is claimed to be R169 and the most expensive just under R1000.

Solidarity.

Capturing The Black Imagination

I popped into the Iziko National Gallery this afternoon during my lunch break. I still do not get over Ira Aldridge's bronze and white marble bust as Othello (1872) by Pietro Calvi. The bust is part of the gallery's permanent collection.

I was reminded of the Ngugi wa Thiong'o's title of his 4th Steve Biko lecture: "Recovering our Memory: South Africa In The Black Imagination".

The title of this post is stolen from the title of that lecture.

Solidarity.

You know it's summer .1.

Traffic to the V&A Waterfront.

Last friday it literally took me 25 minutes from the the city to get to the V&A and another 15 minutes to find parking. Local and international tourists are flocking the city where the sun sets after 8.pm. I took the picture in irritation.

The Cape hosts the best summer in the country.

One Love.

Web sites that should work, but don't! Part I

My main source of information is the internet. I become very frustated and pissed off if I go to a web site looking for something and discover that it has broken links, not as informative, has not been updated in a while or is just plain and useless.

I have a feeling that corporate South Africa does not really appreciate the web as as tool of disserminating information. I really hate that! It seems like Some companies just want to have web presence and that becomes the end.

Below is a list that I will be updating regulary and posting it on this blog to vent my frustation. I use Mozilla FireFox version 1.0.7.

1. Wits Business School. (www.wbs.ac.za) on 24/11/2006 - All links are broken and do not work. Unbelievable!
2. The Bassline. (www.bassline.co.za) on 24/11/2006 - Gets updated regularly, but site is plain and boring, they could do better. Tourists, hello...
   
3. 
   

Uuurghh!!!

Desperate Housewives Season Three!

Yep, I have been indulging in the first eight episodes of season three. Just keeps getting better and better! It reminds me of how I used to love the Cosby Show is the 80's. Carlos and Gabrielle remain my favorite.

Escapism.

Noma award for Special Commendation

After all the riff-raff that was created by the Sunday Times and other envious journalists about Mervin Gumede's excellent book being a product of plagiarism, Gumede has gone on to win the Noma Award for Special Commendation for the book.

I remember how almost embarassing it was when Mervin Gumede had to defend the allegation that he had committed the worst crime by an writer at this year's Cape Book Fair (sponsored by the Sunday Times). It's always a warm feeling when sanity prevails as it seldom does.

This year's winner of the Noma award is another Lebo Mashile, A black South African female poet for her poetry anthology In a Ribbon of Rythm.

The Noma award is the highest literary award an African writer can recieve. Previous winners include Mariama Ba, Mamphela Ramphele, Chenjerai Hove and Mongane Wally Serote.

One Love.