Is South Africa ungrateful?

I was listening to BBC World Radio 1 this morning. The subject matter was that of Nigeria's rebranding exercise. It is a whole topic on its own and I will have top dedicate a post to it. However, what came out of the conversation rang a very loud bell in my ears. The Chairperson of the rebranding exercise was bitter that South Africans are an ungrateful lot. She argued with good reason that during the incarceration of Nelson Mandela and apartheid, Nigerian civil servants used to contribute their personal earnings to further the cause of South Africas' freedom, justice and equality for all. She also said that many of the South African freedom fighters were sheltered in Nigeria for long periods. Today, however, South Africans treat Nigerians like dirt.

I remember when I was still in Primary school in the 80s in Zimbabwe. Once a week we would sing songs of solidarity for our oppressed colleagues in South Africa. During our open days and parents' days, we would perfom dramas' of freedom, castigating the white oppressors of our friends in SA. It was emotional. I may need to remind you that Mugabe has always been an avid pan Africanist. Lets suspend the debates of what is happening in Zimbabwe now, for now. As such we felt at one with our brothers and sisters. When I got married, I had the fortune of staying in the very apartment that the former president of South Africa, Thabo Mbeki used to stay in. The apartment is at Gail Court, along samora Machel Avenue, close to Pinsau pub, for those that take the holy waters of babylon.

Today, each time I visit South Africa, I am saddened. I have never sought refuge in South Africa, and never will. But I feel so shaken by the ignorance that is displayed by the average South African, not only towards Zimbabweans seeking refuge there but towards any other African. The situation is particularly bad for West Africans' and in particular Nigerians. South Africans are of the view that they live in heaven. But they forget, that there is not a single African country that was independent that did not contribute towards their indepence. We all fought alongside them.

Isn't it time they were educated about this? Am I expecting too much?

Debunking South Africa's crime rate.

With just under a year before the world's most popular sport descends on South Africas shores, figures just released show that the country's crime rate is far from rescinding. South Africa is the world's most crime riddled nation with a woman being raped every 18 seconds, and numerous murders occuring per day. President Zuma earlier this year appointed a tough talking and seemingly no nonsense police chief who promised to wipe crime off the face of South Africa. However, the figures on the ground are speaking a different story.

The South African crime rate is a problem that does not require populist politicking like President Zuma is always doing. It is a manifestation of centuries of segregation, political upheavals and inadequate distribution of wealth. It needs a multi-faceted approach. South Africa must embark on a massive job creation exercise twinned with a massive roll out of adult education. Most of the middle aged South Africans have never seen the insides of a classrooom, especially the ones that did not go into exile during the 80s and early 90s when apartheid was reighning supreme. During my stay in South Africa, I was amazed at how some South Africans view the killing of another being as being the equal to just killing a goat for a meal. I blame ignorance for such a warped view about life. Education helps in cultivating values and subsequently morals in human beings.

The inequal distribution of wealth makes some sections of South African society to believe that it is right to rob from others who have amassed undeserving wealth. South Africa is a developed country in some sections, and poorer than the poorest place on earth in others. You do not need to be a rocket scientist to know that if there is poverty in a sea of plenty then there is trouble.

The political leadership, black and white, ruling and opposition, must come together and address these issues. The police alone will never be able to curb crime, even if you go and train them on the moon...

"Shower Boy" Clocks 100 Days in Office!

Shower crazy South African President Jacob Zuma has now been in office for 100 days. No one would have imagined we would be blogging about this man as a President two years ago. Pitted against the intellect Thabo Mbeki, all political fortunes seemed against the Zulu Boy who had not seen the insides of a classroom beyond the equivalent of Standard II. Yet, in a shocking turn of events, the man took to dancing in semi naked costumes, rubbished the efforts of Aids Activists by claiming he had taken a shower after sleeping with an HIV positive woman to wash out the disease and the South African masses were mesmerised.

Today, it remains to be seen whether this "Shower Boy" will wash out the poverty strewn across the South African plains, rinse the country of crime and corruption, and flood the ever present threat of colour divide. Some have already started crying foul, whilst others are calling for the man to be given time. Whatever the case, Jacob Zuma has showed such a spirited fight for the presidency that he should re-direct his efforts towards solving some of the problems be-develling South Africa. Of course, it will require much more than asking for a machine gun and dancing semi-naked in front of helpless women.

Nelson Mandela.

July 18th has been declared Mandela Day in South Africa. Seen as an iconic figurehead in the fight against apartheid, "Madiba" is reverred across the globe for his ability to hold together a fragile black and white fusion of South Africa Society in 1994.

Whilst some hardliners argue that he has not spoken out enough about white dominance, I unreservedly respect him for his ability to let go go of power when the whole world wouldnt have minded him being in power till death. He is indeed, a very great man.

Is a Mercedes yet to be Zuma`s Achilles Tendon?

With less than two weeks into office, President Zuma`s government has been caught in a storm over yet another Mercedes. Zuma himself, who is not a stranger to controcersy, was fired from being V.P. because as part of the corruption charges against him, he had received a Mercedes ML from Thint, a French Arms Company which the SA government was purchasing weapons from. Now his newly appointed Minister of Transport has also just received a Mercedes from an assortment of transport contractors as a gift for his appointment to head the transport portfolio. These guys went further, they threw a lavish party at the hand over ceremony.

We have always suspected the Zuma administration would not be above board. I warned the South Africans before going to the polls to be very careful with their vote. I strongly feel, South Africans are yet to go through what most of us in Africa have gone through. They are still new to this game. And as such they still vote with emotion, rather than reason.

There is a pattern that most African nations have travelled. A country gets independence, and at that time it is endowed with all the instruments you can imagine, perfectly capable of cataputing the country into prosperity. Between ten and twenty years afterwards, people vote with their emotions, and dictatorships take root. It is only after a devastating downward spiral that African nations begin to realise that they need real leaders with vision rather than emotional personalities who they hope to use to spite their past with.

I wish "Shower Boy" very well. I just hope he will not take South Africa down the same route that we have all travelled. I dare him to prove me wrong!

Dragging Mandela out of his cocoon...

Yesterday was the last day for campaigning in South Africa. The South Africans go to arguably their most important poll since the new constitutional dispensation in 1994 on Wednesday.

I was not amused at all when Jacob Zuma dragged poor old Mandela from wherever he was resting to a rally in Johannesburg. I respect the old man so much that I felt a lump on my throat seeing through what was happening. Zuma does not need Mandela to help him on anything. The old man must be left out of the shenanigans of these blood thirsty leaders of todays ANC.

Zuma sings about getting his "Machine Gun" each time he is confronted by any of his misdemenours. The new ANC Youth Leader, a school drop out called Malema, was successful in constructing one English sentence when he unashamedly announced that "We are prepared to kill for Zuma" Now for any one mortal soul, to drag Mandela from wherever he was with his private life to be paraded with these blood thirsty hounds, is surely taking our elder African statemen for a ride.

The ANC should not have allowed this to happen, regardless of how desperate it is for Wednesdays vote.

South Africa is sweet-oh!

It was the only African country at the G20 in London last week. It is Africas biggest economy. If you havent been to Cape Town, then you havent been anywhere! Welcome to South Africa, beautiful, rich, powerful...and disgusting. After 8 years in which the SA media went overboard in exposing Jay Zee`s (Short for Jacob Zuma) seemeingly insatiable appetite for corruption, the man has walked free today. There is nothing surprising here, after youth leader Malema threatened to "kill" for Zuma last year, something had to give. Chief prosecutor Mokotedi Mpshe said phone-tap evidence suggested political interference in the investigation. What else could the man have said, the ANC was blowing so hot Zuma had to be dropped like a hot potato.

The media in SA has already predicted that in about 4 weeks time, Zuma will take the reigns of Africas most powerful nation. Having grown up in a poor rural KwaZulu Natal, it remains to be seen whether the "Shower Boy" will finally transform South Africa into an African country. I actually had a friend who argued that South Africa is not part of Africa, and he was right. You just need to see how the most powerful nation on the continent can afford to have so many poor shack dwellers in such a sea of plenty. Or is it because SA, has not yet been liberated?