Index
index a day in pictures It happened overnight South Africa Africa WorlD Business LIFE, ETC Sport
tuesday – 6 september 2011
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A DAY IN PICTURES
monDAY – 5 september 2011
a day in pictures
peru
Children dressed in purple carry a replica of Peru's most revered Catholic religious icon, "the Lord of the Miracles", during a procession in Lima September 4, 2011. Every year, 2,500 children of the "Children's Brotherhood of The Lord of Miracles", between 9 and 15 years old, participate in the procession to carry a 300 kg (661 pounds) replica of the religious icon along Lima's main square, before the actual festival in October. The icon's name originated in the 17th century after an earthquake destroyed most of the city, leaving only that mural standing. REUTERS/Enrique Castro-Mendivil
tuesDAY – 30 AUGUST 2011
a day in pictures
libya
An anti-Gaddafi fighter jokes with his comrades as he sits on crates of shells concealed by Gaddafi's forces at a furniture factory in South Tripoli September 5, 2011. REUTERS/Zohra Bensemra
tuesDAY – 30 AUGUST 2011
a day in pictures
afghanistan
Residents cheer as a U.S. soldier from Task Force Bronco, 3rd Squadron, 4th Cavalry Regiment, entertains them with dance moves during a patrol in Rodat district in Jalalabad, Afghanistan September 5, 2011. Reuters/Erik de Castro
tuesDAY – 30 AUGUST 2011
a day in pictures
new york
Darwin Tenemea, 12, (L) and Christopher Lojano, 4, play on a statue of Danish fairy tale author Hans Christian Andersen, on Labor Day in Central Park, New York September 5, 2011. The statue, which was erected in 1956 to commemorate the writer's 150th birthday, depicts him reading from his book "The Ugly Duckling". REUTERS/Lucy Nicholson
tuesDAY – 30 AUGUST 2011
IT HAPPENED OVERNIGHT
monDAY – 5 september 2011
it happened overnight
briefs
Politics
South Africa Julius Malema’s disciplinary hearing has been moved from Luthuli House because of the protests outside – the building is in central Johannesburg and is disturbing surrounding businesses, as well as causing mayhem in the country’s economic powerhouse’s CBD. The new location has not been disclosed. Mexico Social media has been blamed for more trouble in the world. Two Mexicans have been charged with terrorismrelated offences after wrongly reporting an armed attack on a school in the eastern town of Veracruz. The message spread quickly and panic ensued; the pair could face up to 30 years in jail. Their lawyer claims that some parts of Mexico are so dangerous that people check social media for warnings before leaving the house. South Korea Reuters reported that Google’s offices in South Korea were raided by anti-trust officials in Seoul on Wednesday. The investigation relates to charges brought by two South Korean internet companies, NHN
Julius Malema (Reuters)
and Daum Communications, which claim Google is stifling Internet search competition on mobile devices, as Google is the default search engine on Android devices which makes it hard for users to change if they want to. Google says it is working with authorities in the Asian nation – perhaps teaching them how to spell “B-I-N-G”. Libya As has been the case for quite some time now, Muammar Gaddafi’s whereabouts are still unknown, but some of his honchos are reportedly travelling by caravan towards the capital of Niger, Niamey. Some speculation indicated Gaddafi was going to camp out in Burkina Faso, but the government there denied it had received any application.
United Nations Egypt has been busy at the United Nations, lobbying members of the Non-aligned Movement (countries who believe they aren’t affiliated with a more powerful country or entity) to push for Palestinian independence after a conference in Belgrade, Serbia. According to a conference statement by Egypt’s foreign minister, members would support the Palestinian bid. A majority of Asian, African and Latin American countries are expected to support it. The USA, with veto powers, will not. Haiti Brazil, having staged peacekeeping troops in Haiti for seven years, is due to pull them out as it has determined the military
wednesdAY - 7 september 2011
it happened overnight
briefs
Michael Bloomberg (Reuters)
presence there does not assist Haitian civilians. Troops will be removed strategically, and in consultation with other South American nations and is due largely to the successful staging of two elections, which, according to the Brazilian defence minister means that democracy has been established. France French President Nicolas Sarkozy is enjoying his highest poll ratings – at 37% approval – in the last 12 months, although he is still unpopular with the majority of French voters. The Socialist presidential candidate, Francois Hollande,
leads the popularity stakes in the majority of polls. It probably helps that the exSocialist presidential candidate was dragged through rape charges recently. USA New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg has declared that the site of the World Trade Centre should no longer be called “Ground Zero”. This reporter was in New York City last month, and our suggestion to Mr Mayor, should he wish to change the term, is to build something on it. Democrats have urged congress and President Barack
Obama to deal with China’s trade policies, which are making it harder for America to create jobs, particularly in the green energy sector. This appeal came alongside an oftrepeated message that China’s currency is undervalued, affecting US exports.
Business Bank of America has shuffled its board around, removing two big Wall Street names: Joe Price, president of consumer and small-business banking, and Sallie Krawcheck, president of wealth and
wednesdAY - 7 september 2011
it happened overnight
briefs
investment management. From the outskirts, it seems as if the departures are nothing more than BoA’s current streamlining, which will see another 3,500 job losses on top of the 2,500 announced earlier this year. The company’s share price has almost halved in the last year. Italy is due to hike its VAT rate by another percentage point to 21% and apply a levy of 3% on incomes over €500,000 a year as well as raise the retirement age for women. The proposed austerity plan will be discussed by cabinet on Wednesday with a move to push it quickly through parliament. Yahoo CEO, Carol Bartz was shown the door by the tanking Internet company after two years at the helm. She will be replaced in the interim by CFO Timothy Morse. Bartz certainly made her time count, outsourcing the search facility to Microsoft, reorganising management and removing loss-making services. Yahoo has been unable to increase advertising revenue in spite of having one of the world’s largest audiences.
Conrad Black (Reuters)
Despite a late rally US stocks finished down with the Dow (-0/9%), Nasdaq (-0.26%) and S&P 500 (0.74%) all finishing below where they started the day. Asian stocks began brightly with investors chasing exporters: the Kospi leaping up 2.8% ahead of the Nikkei and Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 which both gained 1.6%. Media mogul Conrad Black has returned to prison to finish serving his sentence for obstruction of justice and fraud. Black was released from prison a year ago while his sentence was appealed, but will return to finish his final 13 months in chooky. Black’s company was one of the largest publishers of English newspapers, with big names such as the Chicago Sun-
Times, Daily Telegraph (UK) and the Jerusalem Post. A Chinese consortium has purchased a minority stake, 15%, in the world’s largest niobium producer in Brazil. What is niobium, you may ask. It is stuff that makes steel stronger, is prevalent in stainless steel and doesn’t have a mineral that can be substituted for it. China is the world’s biggest niobium importer. Brazil is also introducing measures, such as anti-dumping duties, to toughen trade on imports as Brazilian exports are being slammed by the country’s strong currency. Groupon has suspended its planned IPO due to market volatility. Zynga is expected to do the same.
wednesdAY - 7 september 2011
it happened overnight
briefs
Spain qualify for Euro 2012 (Reuters)
Sport England Cricket: England beat India in the second ODI held at The Rosebowl in Southampton courtesy of captain Alistair Cook who scored an unbeaten 80 off 63 balls, and Craig Kieswetter who smacked 46 off 25. In a rain-shortened fixture to 23 overs each India scored 187/8 with Ajinkya Rahane scoring a 50 in his second ODI and Suresh Raina, who has had a miserable tour so far, clobbering 40 off 19 balls. They were countered, however, by Tim Bresnan who took three wickets and a powerful England top order.
Football: England saw off Wales in a Euro 2012 qualifier at Wembley, but a Welsh fan was killed in a fracas outside the stadium after the match due to head injuries and cardiac arrest. London police are investigating and do not believe any English fans were involved. Europe Football: Spain and Italy both qualified for Euro 2012 after respective victories against Lichtenstein and Slovenia. In other fixtures, Bosnia and Herzegovina beat Belarus to move within three points of France who drew away to
Romania in Group D. Denmark moved to second in Group H after defeating Norway and Croatia sit atop Group F after a win against Greece. Spain Football: Zinedine Zidane’s son has begun training with Real Madrid. Enzo Zidane, a 16-yearold left midfielder, arrived at the Spanish club and had his first session on Tuesday. USA Tennis: No US Open fixtures were played on Tuesday due to persistent rain. This should mean that all four women’s quarter finals should be played tomorrow.
wednesdAY - 7 september 2011
it happened overnight
briefs
Eddie Murphy (Reuters)
Tennis: World’s number 1 Caroline Wozniacki has apologised after impersonating the cramp attack that Rafael Nadal suffered at a press conference on Sunday. Our official stance is that it was not funny.
LIFE UK PJ Harvey won her second Mercury Prize, a famed music award, for her album entitled “Let England Shake”, based on TS Eliot poetry, Harold Pinter
and worldwide conflict. Her last win was in 2001 and she was prevented from attending the ceremony due to the 9/11 attack on the World Trade Centre.
Academy Awards on 26 February. This means that James Franco will definitely not be doing it. Who’s buying the champers?
USA A shooting in a pancake restaurant in Carson City, Nevada, left three people dead and six others wounded. Two of the dead were members of the national guard. The shooter, Eduardo Sencion, turned the gun on himself afterwards. His motive is unclear.
Chaz Bono, Sonny and Cher’s child who underwent a sexchange operation and legally became a man in May 2010, believes that his entry into the upcoming season of “Dancing With The Stars” will be all about the dancing, and not the constant cross-examination of his gender issues. Considering how the press and public have treated him before… it’s unlikely.
Eddie Murphy has accepted the role of host at the 84th
wednesdAY - 7 september 2011
SOUTH AFRICA
monDAY – 5 september 2011
south africa
briefs
Wits law school denies opposing Mogoeng nomination The Wits School of Law said in a statement on Tuesday that it had not opposed the nomination of Mogoeng Mogoeng, as claimed in a statement from the Democratic Alliance. The school said some of its staff had sent a letter to the Judicial Service Commission expressing concern over the Mogoeng nomination, but had done so in their individual capacities. It also said the letter was sent so that the JSC may ask Mogoeng questions during his interview and not as an express opposition to his nomination.
Cosatu defends opposition to Mogoeng Still on Mogoeng, Cosatu’s Patrick Craven in a statement that when ANC secretary general Gwede Mantashe said the opposition to the Mogoeng Mogoeng nomination was a proxy battle against Jacob Zuma, “he was certainly
Chief Justice nominee Mogoeng Mogoeng (Reuters)
not referring to Cosatu”. Craven also said that if we allow ourselves to be blackmailed by the logic that any disagreements with the president on issues of principle were an attack on him, then the nation would be reduced to “a choir of yes-men and women”.
accusations from the backyard dwellers movement Abahlali baseMjondolo that De Lille was unwilling to engage with poor people on their terms, and that politicians in this country incorrectly associate being poor with violence and criminality.
De Lille accused of being “unwilling” to meet backyard dwellers
Phosa: Business should get involved in nationalisation debate
Cape Town mayor Patricia de Lille was supposed to be in Khayelitsha on Tuesday to deliver a speech on the city’s plans for residents who have been forcibly evicted. But instead, the meeting was moved to the civic centre, citing concerns over crowds that had gathered to hear her speak. This sparked
ANC treasurer general Matthews Phosa delivered a speech on Tuesday to the South African-German Chamber Commerce, where he urged the local and private sector to get involved in the debate on nationalisation. He said they should talk to the ANC research team studying state ownership and find a
wednesdAY - 7 september 2011
south africa
briefs
Springbok paraphernalia (Reuters)
solution that builds bridges and finds new partnerships, Sapa reported.
SARU: Springbok paraphernalia locally made The South African Rugby Union on Tuesday denied Cosatu’s claims that the official Springbok jerseys had been imported from China. SARU said that the majority were sourced from local manufacturers and
insisted that it was committed to increasing the local manufacturing component of these products in future.
Gauteng’s liquor licence moratorium wilts Spring Day festival The University of Pretoria has been forced to cancel its annual spring day festival as the organisers could not obtain a liquor licence. The university has been holding the festival on the second
Wednesday of September since the 1930s. Spring day activities will now be organised at private venues, but police warned that they would crack down on any street parties.
Policeman arrested from stealing from police minister Sapa reported that a police sergeant who was guarding minister of police Nathi Mthetwa was arrested for stealing a laptop and a
wednesdAY - 7 september 2011
south africa
briefs
President Zuma (Reuters)
cellphone from him. Two others who bought the items from the sergeant were also arrested and are expected to appear in court tomorrow.
Big Brother housemate pleads not guilty Former Big Brother housemate Brad Wood and four others pled not guilty on Tuesday to charges of murder, according to SABC News. The five stand accused of killing four miners at Aurora Empowerment Systems’ Grootvlei mine last year. Woods was the head of security at the mine, which is
owned by Jacob Zuma’s nephew Khulubuse Zuma and Nelson Mandela’s grandson Zondwa.
would result in creating an environment where black industrialists could thrive.
Zuma: South Africa needs black industrialists
Rica helping to catch and prosecute criminals
President Zuma told a black business summit on Tuesday that they should work together to advance the country and transformation. He outlined the transformation issues the country faces – 86% of employees are black but less than 16% of those in top management are black – and said he hoped that the deliberations at the summit
Deputy justice minister Andries Nel told a media briefing on Tuesday that law enforcement officials are finding Rica legislation helpful in catching and prosecuting criminals. He called this a vindication of the legislation, which is estimated to have cost the mobile industry R500 million – mostly for campaigns to raise awareness of the legislation.
wednesdAY - 7 september 2011
south africa
Themb'elihle
Five lessons from Themb'elihle As rocks and rubber bullets and more deadly ammunition continued to be exchanged in a township just outside Lenasia, PHILLIP DE WET looks at what we've already learnt from the latest service-delivery protest – and what it implies for South Africa's future. CONTAGION IS INEVITABLE, NO THIRD FORCE REQUIRED We've seen it before: a belief that some sinister organising entity is behind the spread of service-delivery protests. Gauteng housing MEC Humphrey Mmemezi gave a hint of the same kind of thinking on Tuesday, implying that sore losers in the recent local government elections had been misleading the people of Themb'elihle, confusing and inciting them. That may well be true, but it is far from the
whole story. A whole range of factors gave rise to these demonstrations, and even made the associated violence seem, in hindsight at least, inevitable: a long history of broken promises, a paternalistic attitude towards residents from provincial officials, the trumpeting of development stories that always seem to come from elsewhere, the better lives lived by richer communities in close proximity, the seeming Photo: Gauteng housing MEC Humphrey Mmemezi prepares to address protesters near Lenasia on Tuesday afternoon. Phillip de Wet for iMaverick.
WEDNESDAY - 7 SEPTEMBER 2011
south africa
ineffectiveness of democratic channels, inappropriate spending priorities, poor communication – the list goes on. With only minor variations, those same conditions exist in many places in South Africa. By Tuesday various political groups and individuals without a current platform were sniffing around Themb'elihle, sensing a golden opportunity in the upheaval. By the end of the week, we'd wager, many more of those from places far and wide will be trying to replicate what has happened. Meanwhile, more and more communities will see a reflection of their own frustrations. Neither requires a political conspiracy, but both promise trouble elsewhere, whatever the outcome in Themb'elihle. WHEN YOU'RE ANGRY AT THE GOVERNMENT, YOUR NEIGHBOURS ARE IN THE LINE OF FIRE The black residents of Themb'elihle aren't angry at their mostly Indian neighbours in Lenasia They are very clear on who is to blame
Themb'elihle
for their living conditions: the provincial and national government, their representatives at those levels, and the ANC that ultimately runs both. While many point out the vast disparity between their shacks and the sometimes quite large houses across the road from them, none that we spoke to believed this to be a zerosum game in which Lenasia residents had to be deprived of services so that Themb'elihle could benefit. Yet they waged war on Lenasia and passing motorists, trying to plunge the former into darkness by burning down electrical substations and distribution boxes and terrorising the latter with stones and makeshift barricades. Why? Because they can. They want to spread the pain and gain attention, and their reach simply doesn't extend beyond their immediate surroundings. They were also quite ready to turn on their own. We saw several incidents of intimidation, with children being prevented from leaving for school and those suspected of having left the township to go to work threatened
WEDNESDAY - 7 SEPTEMBER 2011
south africa
with violence on their return. Those involved don't blame their neighbours for their lack of electricity, but they do demand solidarity, and are willing to use sticks and stones to get it. EMOTION TRUMPS LOGIC EVERY TIME A spread of politicians and would-be local leaders have urged the people of Themb'elihle to calm down this week. Their arguments include the geological (dolomite formations in the area, which make development inadvisable), simple logic (such unrest affects the community worst, starting with lost wages and infrastructure destroyed), political logic (showing allegiance to the ANC is better than getting up its nose), logistical (providing temporary electricity infrastructure is silly when you're busy building houses elsewhere) and the historic (the legacy of apartheid, though being eradicated, remains). By the time these arguments were used, though, people had already taken to the streets and to say they were unreceptive would be an understatement. The counters were sometimes wildly improbable conspiracy theories and sometimes selective deafness. There simply is no selling logic to people once they are well and truly riled up. DON'T MISTAKE A HAND UP FOR A HANDOUT It is easy to assume that the residents of Themb'elihle have a sense of entitlement, and want the government to give them an easy life by providing houses, jobs and even cash. The reality is quite different. Many in Themb'elihle are proud of what they consider their relative affluence, showing off jewellery and computers
Themb'elihle
and, in one case, a salary slip. "We can build our own houses," is a common refrain. Some who would be entitled to social grants say they refuse to take them, because making their own way in the world is preferable. Asked if they would be willing to pay for electricity if they were connected to the grid, the answer is an emphatic yes, backed up by calculations on how much they spend on paraffin or petrol for generators every month, and what economic advancement could come with electricity. They demand opportunity, and expect that for free, but don't lack for pride or independence. LISTENING IS NEVER A BAD IDEA The unifying factor in Themb'elihle is frustration, and the root cause of that frustration is the sense that nobody is listening; memorandums of grievances go unanswered, politicians only arrive once the tyres are burning. The number one criticism of MEC Mmemezi's failed attempt to calm the situation down on Tuesday was not his failure to comply with any demands, but the fact that he came and went without taking questions. "What kind of democracy is this?" one resident seethed. "These people, they don't come to talk to us, they come to talk at us." Groups of residents would often mob any journalist asking questions, and react angrily to anyone who threatened to interrupt a conversation. While much time was spent hurling rocks and burning tyres, far more was spent in talking among themselves, endlessly recycling arguments and grievances. They crave an audience beyond those in their community, though, and have come to believe – not without reason – that violence is the only way to get it.
WEDNESDAY - 7 SEPTEMBER 2011
south africa
Constitutional court
Mogoeng’s appointment likely to steam ahead President Jacob Zuma seems to be asserting his power to appoint the Chief Justice by cancelling a consultation with DA leader Helen Zille, while Cosatu told the ANC to stop being paranoid about its president. CARIEN DU PLESSIS reports. The ANC’s parliamentary caucus acted like imbongi to President Jacob Zuma after his decision to cancel a Tuesday meeting with DA leader Helen Zille – which she requested – to talk about the imminent appointment of Justice Mogoeng Mogoeng as Chief Justice. It dished up an explanation, infused with praises, for Zuma’s refusing to see Zille, although the presidency issued a missive of its own, saying he’d met with Deputy Chief Justice Dikgang Moseneke to hear the Judicial Service Commission’s recommendations. “We felt such a meeting was unnecessary as the DA has already canvassed its views, both publicly and in its submission to the President,” ANC chief whip Mathole Motshekga said. “We do not believe that there was anything extraordinary in the DA’s stance regarding Justice Mogoeng’s nomination that necessitated the President’s special attention outside of the proPhoto: Oupa Nkosi for M&G
cess that was initiated with other political parties. “We once again commend the President for demonstrating due diligence to this constitutional process, which augurs well for our people’s continued confidence in our constitutional democracy.” Zille said: “It is a great pity that the President has reneged on his commitment to discuss his appointment to the highest judicial office in the country. South Africa's judicial system will be poorer for it.” Meanwhile, back in the alliance, Cosatu denied allegations by the ANC that its opposition to Justice Mogoeng’s appointment amounted to a “proxy war” against Zuma. It’s a matter of principle, the unionists said in a wordy statement. Justice minister Jeff Radebe at a briefing in Pretoria on Tuesday expressed satisfaction with Justice Mogoeng’s JSC grilling over the weekend. “It was a robust process,” he said, adding that the SABC should be encouraged to broadcast it live in future.
WEDNESDAY - 7 SEPTEMBER 2011
south africa
toilet crisis
Tokyo ropes in Winnie to clean up the toilet mess Human settlements minister Tokyo Sexwale looked flush as he announced that ANC stalwart Winnie Madikizela-Mandela would head his sanitation task team set up in response to the pre-election toilet saga. Which, of course, wasn’t his fault at all. By CARIEN DU PLESSIS. There was a time when many reasonable people thought Tokyo Sexwale would be a good choice for president (the other two choices having been a third term for Thabo Mbeki, or corruption-charged Jacob Zuma) but nowadays he’s really only a human settlements minister talking crap. No, literally. On Tuesday, Sexwale called a big press conference in his spotless, glam departmental boardroom to talk toilets. Flanked by Winnie Madikizela-Mandela – ANC MP seems too pedestrian a title for HRH Mama Wethu – in a white and black Coco Chanel-inspired jacket, Sexwale announced the
team containing a medical doctor and ex-Truth and Reconciliation commissioner (Fazel Randera), the human settlements director-general Thabane Zulu, local government big shots and community workers, among others. Under MadikizelaMandela’s leadership, the team will, for the next three months, look at problems with the delivery of sanitation and make recommendations on policy, budget and regulations. Sexwale, who is smooth enough to sell sunshine to a South African, made it sound like the noblest of missions. People having to go to Photo: Carien du Plessis for iMaverick.
WEDNESDAY - 7 SEPTEMBER 2011
south africa
toilet crisis
We hope we are here to serve our people. Some of the questions you are asking us, they least crossed our minds. The generation we belonged to, they roll up their sleeves and go to work – Winnie Madikizela-Mandela
toilet in the veld “was happening, Mama, under apartheid, and you fought that as well,” he said, looking at Madikizela-Mandela, who was nodding in agreement. It’s a matter of dignity and human rights, he said. Before the local government elections, when the DA and the ANC in places like Macassar, Magaqa and Harrismith scored equal own goals in the dirty saga of unenclosed and unfinished loos, “sanitation became a game of political football, so we decided to do something about that and appoint this task team” - which Sexwale would like us to believe is politics-free. But the bullshit detector flashing: the task team was announced before it had even had its first meeting (the briefing was also the first time the task team members saw each other), and before its budget even had a figure (Zulu said the money was in the department’s investigations budget, but they’re not sure exactly how much the task team would need). Also, it was headed by Madikizela-Mandela on account of the fact that she’s a pro-poor activist and, in general, a mother (also to Sexwale, who made a point of emphasising that he had stayed with her as a son in Soweto for a while, before he ended in trouble for his politics). The briefing was timed to coincide with the
news lull in between ANC Youth League leader Julius Malema’s disciplinary hearing dates. Sitting in that press conference, watching Sexwale and Madikizela-Mandela, all one could think about was the former television game show host’s future ambitions. Madikizela-Mandela had been close to the Youth League, supporting Malema like her own grandson at his Afriforum hate speech trial, and Sexwale had been seen ambulance-chasing with her and Malema in housing and toilet hot spots in the past few months. But Malema is now as good as gone and people need to reposition. Nobody still in the need for a future career would be seen dead with him now. Sexwale had made it clear at the briefing that no questions outside sanitation would be allowed, so journalists couldn’t ask the question that was on everyone’s lips: When last did Madikizela-Mandela kiss Malema? Asking difficult questions from Ma’Winnie is a bit like asking the Queen of England whether she is, well, regular. It’s very, very difficult. So probing whether Madikizela-Mandela would be getting any extra pay over and above her MP’s salary for this position (this question was ignored), or whether she’d be able to fit it
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south africa
… Sanitation became a game of political football, so we decided to do something about that and appoint this task team – Tokyo Sexwale
in with her busy parliamentary schedule (this question was met with a puzzled look), or what qualified her for the job, one was bound to get the double ply treatment. Sexwale told us off with a smile in a somewhat indignant oration: “I would have hoped that you would never ask Winnie Mandela what she brings to the poor; for the first black social worker in South Africa and for someone who has stayed amongst the poorest of the poor; for a mother; for somebody who even if you drive into the hovels of Brandfort (where Madikizela-Mandela had been exiled by the Apartheid government), they build clinics there; for somebody who spent countless nights criss-crossing squatter camps to cover the wounds of the people – because we didn’t have a budget then to the extent that we do now to help change their lives…” And then he suddenly interrupted himself: “I think she brings nothing here. She is a mother who must cover the wounds. Forget the freedom fighter, the social worker, as minister that is what I was looking for: a mother.” The rest of the team was chosen because
toilet crisis
they were credible community workers and people with experience on the ground. Madikizela-Mandela, calling Sexwale her “son”, had mixed feelings about the appointment. She insinuated it was a stinky present for her birthday, “on the 26th of this month, heritage, tourism and cultural month”. Then she said all the right things, such as that it’s an honour for her to serve, that she had wanted to be at the forefront of such a project, particularly “as we are celebrating our (the ANC’s) centenary at 2012. “We are hoping this legacy would be something for generations to be talking about. We are hoping to be helping the poorest of the poor.” She and Sexwale were also asked how they would obtain information about sanitation hot spots, which Sexwale said was through telecommunications and the electronic media (hopefully he wasn’t referring to the preelections sewer-chasing by his department). Asked why Madikizela-Mandela did not simply use her position as MP to ask party constituency offices for input, she said: “We hope we are here to serve our people. Some of the questions you are asking us, they least crossed our minds. The generation we belonged to, they roll up their sleeves and go to work. We are glad you asked us the questions you asked, because they sensitised us on what we will come up against”. Then she emphasised that the task team was not based in Parliament, but that Sexwale would liaise on the issues there. “Us, we are just here to work.”
Read more: 1. The ANC’s scatological election campaign, in Daily Maverick
WEDNESDAY - 7 SEPTEMBER 2011
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south africa
municipal reports
Another municipal year passes – along with wasted chances The treasury released financial results for the fourth quarter of the 2010/11 municipal financial year. PAUL BERKOWITZ compares the numbers with previous years and reflects on another year of wasted opportunities. As a whole, municipalities continue to improve the quality of information they submit to treasury. Three years ago fewer than 50 municipalities produced financial reports, whereas this financial year every single one has submitted data. There’s not much other good news, sadly. The results released on Friday cover the period April to June 2011 and provide a
bird’s-eye view of the financial well-being of all 283 municipalities. In terms of their operating budgets, municipalities on aggregate collected 97% of budgeted revenue and spent 93% of their budgets. This is largely unchanged from the Photo: REUTERS
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municipal reports
More line items in the budgets hopefully means more transparency in reporting and fewer dark corners in which corruption or poor administration can hide, but time will tell.
previous two years. However, the breakdown in operating expenditure shows that the problems identified in last year’s budget are still present: the underspending on “other” expenditures and bad debts. The under-allocation to bad debts is an ongoing problem related to poor credit control and debtor management in some municipalities. The underspending on “other” expenditures will hopefully be minimised with the 2011/12 budget. Treasury has released templates for this year’s budget reporting and there is a great degree of disaggregation in both the operating and capital budgets. More line items in the budgets hopefully means more transparency in reporting and fewer dark corners in which corruption or poor administration can hide. But time will tell. The municipalities’ capital budgets continue to paint a negative picture. Municipalities collected 78% of their budgeted revenue and spent 73% of their budgeted expenditure. This was their worst performance in three years. Just as in previous years barely half the annual budget had been spent by the end of the third quarter – and, just as in previous years, there
was a rush to spend the outstanding budget in the final quarter. In each of the past three years more than 30% of the annual capital budget was spent in the fourth quarter. The reports of metros paints a rosier picture of the overall capital budget performance. They managed to collect and spend 85% of their capital budgets, but only by spending 40% of their annual budgets in the final quarter. Ethekwini continued to lead the pack, spending and collecting 95% of their budget, followed by Joburg (93%) and Tshwane (89%). Cape Town (72%) and Ekurhuleni (67%) were the worst performers. Joburg spent 51% of its annual budget in the final quarter, which included 59% of the budget for water & sanitation and 46% of the electricity budget. In comparison, the 19 secondary cities (which include the growing areas of Polokwane, Rustenburg and Mbombela) only managed to collect and spend 56% of their capital budgets. These municipalities have a population growth higher than the metros and, therefore, have the greatest need to close the service delivery gap, but they spend a little more than half of their infrastructure budgets. Madibeng (Brits
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south africa
As another financial year passes us by and we approach the Clean Audit 2014 deadline we have to ask how serious we are about improving municipal government. Based on our current pace of progress the answer has to be ‘not very’. and surrounding areas) only spent 29% of its budget, while Msunduzi (Pietermaritzburg) spent a staggeringly low 23% of its annual capital budget. A large part of the problem appears to be in raising revenue from the transfers and subsidies line item. Municipalities may be doing a poor job of convincing national and provincial treasuries to release funds for capital projects. Many municipalities do not have properly constituted project management units to administer the spending of capital grants. These are not new problems, and more should have been done by now to strengthen the capacity of municipalities to manage and spend their capital budgets. Lastly, there has been little to no
municipal reports
improvement in the cleaning up of municipal debtors’ books. The outstanding debt owing to municipalities is R64.6 billion, up slightly from the R64.4 billion in the previous quarter. Joburg (R12.1 billion) and Ekurhuleni (R9.0 billion) are owed almost one in three rands of the total debt between them. For years municipalities have been allowed to accumulate debt without aggressively writing off this debt or pursuing debtors. Part of the problem has been a poor understanding by councils of the impact old debt has on a municipality’s financial well-being. Treasury is now pressurising municipalities to account for their debtors’ books. In future municipalities will have to report on their debt in more detail and will have to report on their efforts to recover debt and to write off old debt. A little more than a month ago the auditor general’s reports for the 2009/10 financial year were released, and the results were a cause for concern. The official reports from treasury for that year are not much different from the reports we have for 2010/11. Presumably we cannot hope for too much improvement in the auditor general’s reports for the year. As another financial year passes us by and we approach the Clean Audit 2014 deadline, we have to ask how serious we are about improving municipal governance. Based on our current pace of progress the answer has to be “not very”.
Read more: 1. Official press release on fourth quarter figures, National Treasury 2. ‘Analysis: SA municipal finances? The horror. The horror.’, Daily Maverick
WEDNESDAY - 7 SEPTEMBER 2011
south africa
siu
Very many SIU probes, very few results Justice Minister Jeff Radebe proudly announced that President Jacob Zuma has initiated a record 18 probes by the Special Investigating Unit in the past year. But government is still dithering on one such case, more than five years after the alleged corruption. CARIEN DU PLESSIS reports. Ministers who look after our safety and justice love bombarding the public with statistics. It provides a semblance of security in an unsure world, where perceptions of crime often count more than the crime itself. Tuesday’s security cluster briefing in Pretoria – these briefings are scheduled about twice a year – was no different. Justice minister Jeff Radebe, who heads the cluster, read the statement, which contained many numbers. Among the stats were figures on corruption. Headed “Output 5: Levels of corruption reduced thus improving investor perception,
trust and willingness to invest in South Africa” (“output” has to do with the new way government is setting results-based targets), the statement, read by Radebe on autocue, proudly said: “During the last financial year, the President issued no less than 18 proclamations authorising the Special Investigating Unit (SIU) to conduct investigations – the most ever in the history of the SIU. Most of these focussed on procurement-related irregularities as it is a major priority for government to deal with Photo: Carien du Plessis for iMaverick.
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south africa
siu
Some progress has been made with the arrest of two former senior managers of the City of Ekurhuleni and a businessman for alleged tender fraud in relation to a R32 million IT tender.
corruption in procurement, and to ensure better value for money”. Nice on paper. Some of the investigations include irregularities in Tshwane and Ekurhuleni metros, the SABC, a number of Western Cape municipalities, the Department of Rural Development and Land Reform, the procurement of accommodation by the national Department of Public Works (fortunately for the frail-looking Police Commissioner General Bheki Cele, who was also in the room, we all know where the investigations into police leases is – with the Public Protector), the broadening of the investigation into contracts for building low-cost housing, and the on-going investigations into the irregularities in the social grant system. Some progress has been made with the arrest of two former senior managers of the City of Ekurhuleni and a businessman for alleged tender fraud in relation to a R32 million IT tender. So far so good. So with all the relevant ministers in the room, we decided to try to find some answers to an old SIU case (proclaimed end 2007, finished almost two years later), where corruption was reported but no action had been taken yet. It relates to prisons security tenders awarded to Bosasa worth well over R1 billion, and the SIU has reportedly found clear evidence of
corruption, such as that a mansion was built for former prisons boss Linda Mti by a company that received tenders under his watch. Prisons Minister Nosiviwe MapisaNqakula tried to answer the question, giving a stock answer which is already long past its first birthday: “We don’t know what to say anymore. This matter is not in the hands of Correctional Services, we are the department being investigated”. She said the SIU report was with the police’s office for serious economic crimes, and when they’re done with their investigation, the National Director for Public Prosecutions Menzi Simelane would decide whether it’s worth prosecuting. This is the head of the same department which has awarded Bosasa Security, which is part of the Bosasa group of companies, a R400 million tender to protect our courts from the beginning of this year, despite knowing of the findings in the SIU report (which was handed to Mapisa-Nqakula two years ago). Neither police minister Nathi Mthethwa, who was also at the briefing, nor Radebe, volunteered to give more clarity on this. Even current investigations like the Public Works one, which was gazetted over a year ago, seem to be going nowhere fast. DA spokesman for public works John Steenhuisen said he had written to SIU chief
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south africa
“Many investigations drag on for years and seldom reach a conclusion. If they do eventually, and once they get to the courts, much of the evidence has disappeared or the witnesses aren’t available.”
Willie Hofmeyr to ask for an update on the case. “Information was brought to my attention that the investigation has been stalled and that the chief investigator was taken off the case. I wanted to establish how the investigation is doing and what the completion date is. “Many investigations drag on for years and seldom reach a conclusion. If they do eventually, and once they get to the courts, much of the evidence has disappeared or the witnesses aren’t available.” Fighting corruption clearly requires endless patience. Nevertheless, we shall take heart in the statistics presented to us. Government’s anti-corruption task team (there are probably more government anti-corruption bodies than actual kickbacks paid – this one is a team of government’s corruption fighters with the aim of performing high priority criminal investigations when more than R5 million in assets would be seized) has started with “actual joint operations”, and 116 accused would
siu
be hauled off to court in relation to 42 cases involving R579 million restrained assets. Within our crime-busting and security government departments themselves, a reassuring (not!) 362 cases of corruption were investigated in the past year, 291 arrests made (167 of them officials, the others plebs), and this has resulted in 155 convictions so far. Other things that came out of the briefing was that government has not made a decision on regulations to intercept BlackBerry messages, despite a call by deputy communications minister Obed Bapela to look at laws around this. Other than that, we had a short overview on how well government’s crime-fighting efforts are going, ahead of the release of the latest crime statistics on Thursday. The killing of 56 police officers in the past financial year was a setback to crime-fighting, Radebe said. Prisons are also getting more fancy new electronic gadgets that will allow prisoners sentenced for more minor offences to be sent home with tags that will make them traceable. This initiative is set to start in December. Phase one of the National Register of Sex Offenders is also finished, with 1,612 names of those who had been convicted under the new Sexual Offences Act on it.
Read more: 1. DA calls for action on prison bribery report in Mail & Guardian Online
WEDNESDAY - 7 SEPTEMBER 2011
AFRICA
monDAY – 5 september 2011
africa
briefs
The secret plan to topple Tripoli Reuters reports that the fall of Tripoli was no accident, but was meticulously planned and executed with extensive help from Gaddafi insiders, including soldiers, policemen and, crucially, the man who supplied meals to government departments. Sensitive information was passed to the rebels in Benghazi – and then onto France and Nato – by flashstick, and this was used to formulate the rebel attack.
Somali leaders announce plan to end transitional rule A gathering of the official Somali government, Parliament, government militias and representatives from some of Somalia’s plentiful semiautonomous territories met in Mogadishu and announced an ambitious, if somewhat over-optimistic, “roadmap” to holding nationwide elections by August 2012. Apparently no one present appreciated the irony of the term “roadmap” in a country almost entirely without roads. Al-Shabaab was not represented at the talks.
Tripoli, Libya (Reuters)
Nigeria raids illegal bomb factory Nigerian authorities on Tuesday arrested six men after raiding a bomb-making factory near Abuja. The contents of the factory was described by security forces as “merchandise of death”. The men arrested were thought to have links to bombings of a church and electoral commission offices, but not the recent explosion at the UN headquarters in Abuja.
Mugabe tells government men to keep it in their pants According to state media, Robert Mugabe has accused
male government officials of “running from one woman to another” and consequently spreading HIV. “Our men are not satisfied with one woman even if they know that they are HIV-positive,” he told a national HIV/Aids conference. Zimbabwe has recently seen a big push from government on HIV/Aids, with MPs being publicly encouraged to get circumcised.
Tensions rise ahead of DRC election An opposition activist was killed on Tuesday as the offices of the Union for Democracy and Social Progress – the main challengers to the ruling party
WEDNESdAY - 7 SEPTEMBER 2011
africa
briefs
Tunisia bans “anarchic” street stalls
Robert Mugabe (Reuters)
in next month’s elections – were attacked by a gang wearing ruling party T-shirts. The DRC’s interior minister said this was probably a revenge attack after the ruling party headquarters were sacked on Monday.
Teachers strike shuts schools in Kenya According to union officials, this week’s teachers strike in Kenya has shut all primary schools and 40% of secondary schools, with no sign of the deadlock breaking. Teachers are demanding that government honour previous promises to employ more teachers, needed after free primary and secondary education was introduced. Government critics say that money earmarked for new teachers was instead used to cover MPs taxes.
Kuwaiti lawyers join Mubarak defence The Egyptian court overseeing the trial of Hosni Mubarak controversially agreed to allow five Kuwaiti lawyers to represent the deposed president. The lawyers volunteered to defend Mubarak in recognition of his support of the US-led coalition which kicked Saddam Hussein out of Kuwait in 1991 – everybody is popular somewhere.
Drogba misses TRC opening Cote D’Ivoire’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission opened without its star member. Surprise, surprise, Didier Drogba was in London as the TRC began its unenviable task of sorting through the mess of the country’s civil war and postelection violence. The chair of the commission joked that he was absent due to injury.
In a bid to clean up the streets of Tunis, the government has clamped down on the street vendors and stalls which were proliferating in the capital. Under former president Ben Ali, informal markets were tightly regulated. In the wake of his departure, they popped up everywhere, with some residents complaining of the mess and chaos they left behind. Their banning has sparked intense debate, especially given that Mohamed Bouazizi, the man whose self-immolation is widely credited as sparking the Arab Spring, was a street vendor himself.
No verdict yet in Lubanga case Ten days after lawyers delivered their closing arguments, alleged Congolese war criminal Thomas Lubanga still doesn’t know his fate. Prosecutors were expecting a decision within a few days, but the lengthy deliberations at the International Criminal Court in The Hague suggest that the case isn’t as open and shut as they believed.
Read more: 1. Rwandan opposition leader trial opens on AFP
WEDNESdAY - 7 SEPTEMBER 2011
africa
rwanda
IngAbire’s trial becomes a litmus test for Kagame government The trial of Victoire Ingabire, the opposition presidential candidate locked up by Rwandan President Paul Kagame, begins in Kigali this week. But while Inagbire argues her case, Kagame’s government finds itself facing judgement in the less pliable court of international opinion. By SIMON ALLISON. A recap, in very broad brush strokes: The Rwandan genocide of Tutsis by Hutus was halted by the Tutsi army of Paul Kagame, who has been in power ever since. Kagame’s developed and modernised Rwanda at an unprecedented speed, and is the darling of the development community which showers his government with aid money – Tony Blair even had an office in Kigali to advise him. But questions remain about Kagame’s approach to power, with opposition figures saying he’s brutal and authoritarian. Last year, as Rwanda went to the polls, a new opposition leader emerged – the charismatic Victoire Inagbire, returning from the diaspora to challenge the dictatorship which she said Rwanda had become. Ingabire’s a Hutu, and she campaigned successfully around the great unresolved issue from the Rwandan genocide: the atrocities committed by Tutsi forces on Hutu civilians, for which no one has been brought to justice.
But she didn’t campaign for long. She was arrested and charged with fomenting insecurity and ethnic divisions. Specifically, she’s alleged to have strong links with the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda, the remnants of the Hutu movement which orchestrated the genocide and now operates out of eastern Congo. Her trial begins this week, and it’s not just Inagbire who’s under the spotlight. The international community which has invested so much in Kagame’s government will be watching how the court conducts itself very closely. If Ingabire is genuinely guilty, and can be shown to be so, Kagame will be vindicated. If she’s found not guilty, or proceedings degenerate into a show trial, Kagame will have serious questions to answer about abuse of power and his commitment to democracy.
Read more: Photo: REUTERS
1. Rwandan opposition leader trial opens on AFP
WEDNESDAY - 7 SEPTEMBER 2011
africa
kenya
Two weeks of love and hope in Dadaab In a world where the hyperbole of disaster teeters on the brink of becoming vapid hype, NICOLE JOHNSTON found resilience, resourcefulness, hope, dignity, ubuntu and humanity at Kenya's Dadaab refugee camp. Secretly, I was rather dreading Kenya's Dadaab refugee complex. For weeks I’d seen the images on TV: babies so emaciated they looked like a bundle of twigs wrapped in cloth, elderly people dying, their faces shrouded in a cloud of flies. I was bracing myself, mentally preparing to try to bear the unbearable and do the best job I could. I hadn’t reckoned on being buoyed by the incredible energy that is generated by the halfa-million people living in the world’s biggest refugee camp, by engaging with people as
three-dimensional human beings instead of cardboard cut-out caricatures of suffering - and most of all by their hope. This is not in any way to diminish the real tragedy that is unfolding in the Horn of Africa – and will continue to unfold if the famine worsens in Somalia, as the UN predicts. But while those terrible pictures of death and suffering – the “famine pornography” as it has Photo: Nicole Johnston
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africa
kenya
What humbled me most were the many stories I heard about villagers who themselves had almost nothing, sharing food and water with the refugees as they fled Somalia, simply because their humanity would not allow them to turn starving people away. come to be known – are undeniably part of the picture, they are not the whole picture. What those images do not show is the incredible resilience of the refugees, their ability to envision a better life for themselves and their fierce dignity in the face of experiences that would leave most of us crushed. What humbled me most were the many stories I heard about villagers who themselves had almost nothing, sharing food and water with the refugees as they fled Somalia, simply because their humanity would not allow them to turn starving people away. I met a man who had walked for five days – in the “wrong” direction, against the streams of people leaving - to rescue his late brother’s child before turning around and collecting his own family for the 30-day trek to Dadaab. In Ifo camp we met a refugee who had been diagnosed with breast cancer, had a tumour removed in Somalia and subsequently lost her breast. She reminded me that being a refugee does not exempt you from the other horrors of life. Along with her four children and elderly mother she had been taken in by a member of the long-standing refugee community in Ifo, who had managed to build a brick house. “I couldn’t let this woman go stay in a tent – it is my responsibility to help her and make sure she
is taken care of,” her host told me, surprised that I would even ask why she was helping. Doctors in the camp say her cancer is too far gone and there is nothing more they can do for her, but that hasn’t stopped volunteers from Global Somali Emergency Response, a group of Somali students from the across the diaspora, raising money to help her access more specialised treatment. We visited her several times, and each time we joined the road to her house, total strangers would flag us down and ask, “Are you going to visit the sick lady? Please try to help her.” During Ramadan I was touched to see members of the long-term refugee community distributing dates, milk and maize meal to newly arrived refugees. Abdulahi Mohamed Sahal has lived in Dadaab for 20 of his 23 years, his family having arrived during the last major famine in the early 1990s. “This food is a welcoming gift from our community, bought with donations from mosques. We see people who are hungry, so we should help,” he explains simply. Within days of arrival, those refugees who have the means will set up small shops while others will sell their skills as tailors or teachers. Many will sign up for “cash for work” programmes run by NGOs like Oxfam,
WEDNESDAY - 7 SEPTEMBER 2011
africa
where refugees and members of the local host community can earn money by digging trenches, laying water pipes and casting latrine slabs. Parents club together to pay a teacher to run a madressa, where children sit in the open under the harsh sun. They have no books, or blackboards or pencils so they practice writing on wooden boards using homemade ink. No one I met was sitting around with their hands out. Everyone was making a plan to improve their lives. The reality is that people in Dadaab are as complex and human as anyone else, anywhere else. On more than one occasion we were told to bugger off by people who have had enough of foreigners with notebooks and cameras. Those who portray the refugees as either uniformly
kenya
tragic, or as unvaryingly grateful happy people do not do justice to their humanity. What the TV cameras cannot capture is the energy and commitment of the scores of aid workers in the camp. The majority of the people who work installing water tanks, processing refugee documentation and distributing food are Kenyans - a far cry from the stereotype of the “White and Western� aid worker who parachutes into a context they know nothing about. Many of them are Muslim and I was awed by their capacity to work a full day in the field, in extreme heat and dust, while fasting. The feminist in me enjoyed the fact that our team was managed by a group of no-nonsense East African women, all experts in their technical areas and nothing
Photo: Chidren playing at Ifo reception centre (Nicole Johnston)
WEDNESDAY - 7 SEPTEMBER 2011
africa
like the stereotype of the disempowered African woman. It was gratifying to see their hard work bearing fruit and to witness how donations from across the world were transformed into tangible humanitarian aid: clean running water and latrines built, sleeping mats, soap and pots and pans for new arrivals. It was good to witness progress in improving refugees’ living conditions, as families were moved from Dagahaley into newly erected tents in the Ifo II camp, where there are much needed facilities such as schools and clinics. But most of all, as an African, this crisis has also increased my conviction that we can make a difference. It has galvanised a sense of ubuntu, with ordinary citizens across this continent showing solidarity with fellow Africans. The fundraising efforts of groups like Kenyans for Kenya and Gift of the Givers have encouraged people to dig deep for the crisis,
kenya
Photo: Child collecting water from tap stand at Ifo. (Nicole Johnston)
with citizen contributions often surpassing the amounts donated by national governments. While the amount pledged by most African governments in Addis Ababa recently was, as civil society coalition Africans Act 4 Africa put it “paltry”, the bright spot of the day was an address by 11-year-old Andrew Adansi from Ghana. He became a media darling when he was so moved by TV reports on the plight of Somali children that he raised money from his school friends. To date, he has raised $4,000, and wasn’t taking any prisoners at the AU. He warned the leaders who hadn’t coughed up that he would visit them personally to collect their cheques. There is a Somali proverb that says “If people come together, they can even mend a crack in the sky”. It won’t be easy, but my experience in East Africa has shown me that the will and the courage are there.
Photo: New arrival waits with children at Ifo reception centre (Nicole Johnston)
WEDNESDAY - 7 SEPTEMBER 2011
africa
swaziland
Protests, MTN and King Mswati’s autocratic regime MTN denies reports that its mobile service was cut before and during anti-government demonstrations in Swaziland on Monday. But their protestations of innocence are undermined by their exceedingly cozy relationship with King Mswati III and his monarchy, and their need to protect their lucrative monopoly. By SIMON ALLISON. Swazi protestors organising themselves for the first day of anti-government protests on Monday found communication difficult as mobile phones stopped working in the capital Mbabane, according to organisers. The People’s United Democratic Movement (PUDEMO),
one of the instigators of the planned weeklong protests, claims that MTN Swaziland deliberately suspended service, and that it’s not the first time they’ve done so. PUDEMO Photo: King Mswati III, Reuters.
WEDNESDAY - 7 SEPTEMBER 2011
africa
swaziland
King Mswati III personally owns an unspecified percentage of MTN Swaziland, while the government telecommunications company, the Swazi Post and Telecommunications Company (SPTC), is the major partner in the company with 51%.
say that mobile service was cut on the morning of the protests, just as it was last year during the first week of organised anti-government demonstrations. Mancoba Nxumalo, a Swazi freelance journalist, confirmed reports that MTN service was down for a period on Monday. “Yes it is true, I use my Swazi number and it was down yesterday. Whether this is a routine 'maintenance problem’, as it is always claimed, or a deliberate plan cannot be verified for now. But in times of protest action in Swaziland it has become more like a norm that MTN would suddenly have 'network' problems. This is seen as a strategy to disorganise those who use cellphones to communicate leading to protest actions.” Other sources, however, disputed this version of events, saying that cellphones worked and that the allegations against MTN were likely to be exaggerations by the pro-democracy activists. MTN itself denies that service was cut on Monday at all, saying the only interruption in
service came on Sunday night and was swiftly resolved. “There has not been nor will there be suspension of service. We experienced high volumes in calls on Sunday. This resulted in a system failure for a few hours… The technical glitch was resolved early on Sunday evening. MTN is operating normally in Swaziland,” said Rich Mkhondo, spokesperson for the MTN Group, in response to an iMaverick query. MTN did not respond to requests for further comment. But MTN’s operations in Swaziland have never been that normal. The company’s in the unusual position of enjoying a complete monopoly in the mobile market, which is lucrative. They’re also extremely close to the monarchy. King Mswati III personally owns an unspecified percentage of MTN Swaziland, while the government telecommunications company, the Swazi Post and Telecommunications Company (SPTC), is the major partner in the company with 51%. But SPTC is in dire financial trouble, and had the bright idea of starting their own mobile
WEDNESDAY - 7 SEPTEMBER 2011
africa
swaziland
According to a Wikileaks cable released last year, MTN was poised to sell extra shares to SPTC until the deal was blocked by Mswati, who wanted to buy shares for himself at a lower price.
network to compete, even though they own the majority of MTN Swaziland. MTN wasn’t happy; they’ve got a written monopoly agreement, and they’re not keen on any new competition. The matter is currently before the judiciary, which is ultimately controlled – as is customary in an absolute monarchy – by the king. MTN, in other words, have a strong motivation to keep him happy, especially as they’ve been in trouble with the monarch in the past. According to a Wikileaks cable released last year, MTN was poised to sell extra shares to SPTC until the deal was blocked by Mswati, who wanted to buy shares for himself at a lower price. In apparent retaliation for MTN’s curious desire to sell shares to the highest bidder, Mswati refused to renew the work permit of the MTN Swaziland CEO, insisting that a Swazi national be appointed in his place. MTN Swaziland has been implicated in allegations of political abuse before. According
to the Swaziland Solidarity Network (SSN), MTN was involved in a furious King Mswati’s investigation into reports in South Africa that one of his wives was having an affair. “MTN Swaziland, being the primary electronic means of communication between journalists, has been secretly ordered to investigate all phone calls made in the past week to in order to identify those who might have communicated with South African journalists,” the SSN claimed.
Read more: 1. Phones cut as nation protests from Swazi Media Commentary via AllAfrica 2. Hundred join Swaziland anti-government protests on AFP
WEDNESDAY - 7 SEPTEMBER 2011
africa
angola
Human rights group slams crackdown on Angolan protesters At least 30 demonstrators were arrested during an anti-government protest in Luanda on Saturday. As pre-election politics hots up in Angola, the opposition and Human Rights Watch are calling for them to be released. By THERESA MALLINSON and KHADIJA PATEL. An anti-government protest in Luanda on Saturday attracted about 200 youthful demonstrators calling for President José Eduardo dos Santos to resign. Twenty-four of those protesters are now in prison. The protest, which was not officially backed by any opposition party, had been granted permission by the local government to take place. On Thursday a video was uploaded to YouTube with a call to action. Its title was short, but to the point: “32 anos é muito” (32 years is a lot). The “32 years”, of course, refers to the length of Dos Santos' presidency. (Unbelievably,
he's not Africa's longest-ruling leader - now that Gaddafi is no longer in control of Libya, that dubious honour goes to Cameroon's Paul Biya, who's been in power since 1975.) A police statement, quoted by Angola's state news agency, read: “Against police guidance, some individuals forced the security cordon in an anarchical way, insulting passersby and police officers and saying they wanted the head to the palace. That led to a climate of the violence, which led to the throwing of heavy Photo: President Dos Santos of Angola. (Reuters)
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africa
HRW issued a statement on Tuesday requesting Angolan authorities to immediately end the use of “unnecessary and disproportionate force against demonstrators”.
objects and caused the injuries.”[quotation verbatim] Police claimed four police officers and three citizens had been injured. Witness accounts, however, contradict the official version of events, contending instead that scores more were injured in scuffles with the police. However, organisers of the protest have accused the police of “acting with brutality”. And now Unita, the main opposition to the ruling MPLA party, has come out in support of the protesters, and called for those arrested to be released. “Unita has concluded that the violent acts committed on Saturday against citizens exercising their rights, are a result of the brutal nature of the regime and a grave violation of the constitution,” the party stated. Several journalists quoted by Human Rights Watch have also reported intimidation and persecution by Angolan authorities during the bungled protest. Alexandre Neto, a journalist with the Portuguese radio service of Voice of America, told Human Rights Watch that
angola
unidentified men knocked him down and took the backpacks that contained his mobile phones. Paulo Catarro, leader of a camera team from the Portuguese state television RTP, said unidentified men attacked the team and broke his camera. Journalists and demonstrators told Human Rights Watch that the unidentified perpetrators seemed to be well-trained and infiltrated the crowd in a coordinated manner. According to them, police arrested a number of protesters, including the movement’s leaders, but did not intervene or arrest the attackers. Human Rights Watch alleges the attacks on journalists appear to have been a coordinated attempt to prevent media coverage of the violent incidents. HRW issued a statement on Tuesday requesting Angolan authorities to immediately end the use of “unnecessary and disproportionate force against demonstrators”. The detained demonstrators are reportedly being held incommunicado and their whereabouts are unknown. “The Angolan authorities should disclose the whereabouts of those arrested during the demonstrations and grant them access to lawyers and their families,” said Daniel Bekele, Africa director at HRW. “Deliberately withholding such information not only raises concerns about mistreatment in custody, but also violates fundamental due process rights.” Only six demonstrators have been released thus far. Since 2009, Angolan authorities have acted strongly against any ripples of dissent against the government, but with the general elections set for next year, political tensions in Angola aren't going to disappear any time soon.
WEDNESDAY - 7 SEPTEMBER 2011
africa
rwanda
Rwanda's Ishema newspaper self-suspends After a run-in with the Kagame government, Rwandan fortnightly Ishema has ceased publication for a month – presumably until the heat is off. Given the current media climate in Rwanda, the everpresent danger of self-censorship looms large upon its return. By THERESA MALLINSON. In July Rwandan fortnightly newspaper Ishema published a column calling President Paul Kagame a sociopath. The column in question was originally published on African Dictator, and it seems no one at Ishema took the trouble to read it thoroughly before reprinting it. Reaction was swift – from the government, from the wider media community and from the paper's management. Rwanda's High Media Council, a state regulatory body, ruled that the article was defamatory. And Rwanda's Forum for Private Newspapers suspended Ishema from
membership of the organisation for six months – although how exactly this penalty would bring about accountability was unclear. On top of this, Ishema management has taken a spirited approach to self-flagellation. Editor-inchief Didas Niyifasha fell on his sword, saying: “I have stepped down because the entire issue was published without my approval as a chief editor. I don't want to fall into another trap like this, in case it happens in future.” While the gesture may seem noble at first glance, we think it might Photo: The front page apology to Paul Kagame
wednesDAY - 7 september 2011
africa
show stronger character to stay around and help sort out the mess. In the following issue of Ishema, managing director Fidele Gakire responded with a grovelling cover. Headlined “Imbabazi”, which means “sorry”, the cover showed a picture of Kagame accepting Gakire's apology. According to local journalists, the entire issue was devoted to saying sorry to the president. It ran a letter of apology – as well as several positive stories the paper had previously published about Kagame. Writing in the Sowetan, Avusa public editor Joe Latakgomo stated: “While it is clearly unacceptable for a newspaper to call anybody – including the head of state – a psychopath (unless declared so in a court of law), and while the actions of the FPN are all praiseworthy, to dedicate a whole newspaper to atone for misdeeds is just as bad for the media as the initial report. This action would erode public trust just as much as the initial report would.” (The original word used by Ishema was reportedly “sociopath” and not “psychopath”, both of which are medical terms and not legal ones.) He goes on to point out: “We need to ensure that we do not sink to the level where newspapers are so scared of the government as to be cowed into the kind of action taken by Gakire and his newspaper's management.” But even Gakire's sycophantic mea culpa wasn't enough to placate the Rwandan government, and late last month, the paper decided to cease publication for a month, after its staff received unspecified threats. “Declaring that he is subject to serious threats, the publisher of the fortnightly Ishema, Fidele Gakire, decided on 28 August 2011, in consultation with his editorial committee, to
rwanda
suspend publication of the newspaper for one month,” said a Reporters Without Borders statement. There are two separate issues here: Ishema's editorial processes, which clearly need to be jacked up (an issue also present in many South African newsrooms); and Rwandan media's fear of their government. Strangely enough, in March this year, the Rwandan government actually proposed a move from state-regulation of media, via the High Media Council; to self-regulation in the form of an industry body composed of media professionals. But perhaps it's not so strange after all. As the Committee to Protect Journalists' Tom Rhodes writes: “With few independent media voices left (in Rwanda), a self-regulated media may prove little different from a governmentcontrolled body. With a largely pro-government press and a fledgling private media with little editorial clout, the self-regulated ombudsman may prove keener to rebuke writers in a bid to win favour with the executive.” Written before Ishema took the unusual (if not unprecedented, think News of the World) step of suspending itself, these words now seem even more apt. But unlike the British tabloid, Ishema should be back on the shelves by October. We hope the newspaper's management uses the hiatus in publishing to appoint an editor-in-chief who is willing to read – and stand by – the copy in the paper, as well as review newsroom processes. Because if the only aim of suspending publishing is as a sop to the government, then no one's winning.
Read more:
1. Rwandan paper suspends publication after 'threats', on AFP
wednesDAY - 7 september 2011
WORLD
monDAY – 5 september 2011
world
briefs
Texas fires (Reuters)
USA More natural disasters in the US – you'd swear God had it in for them. Wildfires in Texas have destroyed about 1,000 homes and forced around 5,000 residents close to Austin to evacuate. Texan Governor Rick Perry, who is gunning for the Republican presidential nomination, raced home from South Carolina to prove to his home state that he hasn’t forgotten where his duties lie. Blood thicker than water, and all that.
SWITZERLAND The Swiss currency is too damn strong. Sounds like a problem you'd be lucky to
have, but the Swiss National Bank has now stepped in to weaken their franc, which was at an export-damaging high, and also risked damaging the tourism industry. The franc rose over 20% against the euro in the last year. It's a similar move undertaken by Japan, who took steps to weaken the strong yen.
USA In Obama's speech to a reportedly boisterous union crowd in Denver on Monday, Obama issued a challenge to the Republicans: are they willing to put their country before their party? He suggested that the major obstacle to rebuilding the economy and boosting
employment was the notoriously intransigent Congress, which is why he was attempting to appeal to their better nature. The answer to his rhetorical question is, of course, probably not.
LIBYA A bunch of Gaddafi loyalists have fled across the Libyan border into Niger. They include the head of Gaddafi's security brigades, Mansour Dhao. The Nigerien (that's Nigerien, not Nigerian) authorities gave them permission to cross over, and Dhao is reportedly on the way to the Nigerien capital, Niamey. Meanwhile, still not so much as a trace of the Brother Leader. Maybe we'll never see him again?
wednesdAY - 7 september 2011
world
briefs
Turkish PM Recep Erdogan (Reuters)
UK This traditionally sleepy period for the UK Parliament is turning into all action. First of all, the media committee was in session yesterday grilling former News of the World editor Colin Myler and former News International legal manager Tom Crone about the phone hacking scandal. Next up, the parliamentary Gibson panel will investigate the issue of rendition, after Libyan evidence has emerged to suggest that MI6 was in the habit of shipping terrorism suspects off to Libya for torturing.
TURKEY Turkey is getting serious with Israel. Yesterday it announced
that it was suspending military trade ties with Israel and threatened further sanctions if Israel continued to refuse to apologise for the deaths of nine activists on a Gaza-bound Turkish vessel 14 months ago. Turkish PM Recep Erdogan has also promised to back Palestine in their bid for UN recognition, which Israel won't be happy about. For Israel, though, seems like sorry really is the hardest word.
AUSTRALIA After a 12-hour standoff, a dramatic hostage situation in Sydney has been resolved. A 52-year old man took his own 12-year-old daughter hostage in a lawyers' office and claimed to have a bomb in his backpack. The man grabbed his daughter and threatened to
blow everyone out after asking for an unknown person at the reception of the lawyer's office and being told the individual did not work there. Seems a slight overreaction, so we assume there was more going on there.
HOLLAND Ex-Yugoslav army chief Momcilo Perisic was yesterday sentenced to 27 years in jail by the UN criminal tribunal on Yugoslavia in the Hague. Perisic was found guilty of 12 of 13 of the charges levelled against him, and in particular his role in the Srebenica massacre, where Bosnian Serb forces murdered around 8,000 Muslim men and boys. Perisic was a close ally of Slobodan Milosevic, and is now the only senior Yugoslav official to have
wednesdAY - 7 september 2011
world
briefs others for what the documents only refer to as "rhetoric". You know, that damn rhetoric.
USA Mitt Romney (Reuters)
been sentenced for Srebrenica after Milosevic died mid-trial.
USA Unexpected news: the US has been spying on their close tjommies, Israel. The New York Times reported yesterday that an FBI translator was sentenced to 20 years in jail last year for leaking secret US wiretaps of the Israeli embassy. Apparently it is completely routine for the FBI to tap all foreign embassies in the US in order to track foreign spies, but there's a kind of gentleman's agreement that you don't do that to your allies. Oh dear.
SYRIA Syria has opened its biggest prison in Damascus to observers from the Red Cross after international outcry over the torture of prisoners. The
visit to the Damascan jail is unlikely to provide an accurate picture of conditions, though, because the detainees there are largely criminal, as opposed to political. Activists say the political prisoners are held in secret detention centres that the Red Cross has no hope of getting close to. However, the organisation called the visit "a major step forward".
USA The Associated Press, who are racking up an impressive amount of scoops these days, has obtained confidential police documents that show that the NYPD has been spying on mosques and Muslim student groups around New York for the past decade. Rudy Giuliani's finest also used undercover informants to scrutinise the community. Some mosques were flagged for potentially harbouring criminal activity, others for having links to hardline Islamic movements, and still
Mitt Romney has stolen Obama's thunder by giving his jobs speech on Tuesday, two days before Obama's. The Republican presidential hopeful wants lower taxes (unusually for the GOP), less industry regulation (typical for the GOP), and to scrap Obama's health plan, of course. Romney played up his personal business experience, jabbing at Obama with the line "Unlike career politicians who've never met a payroll, I know why jobs come and go". The ball's in Barack's court now.
USA Private equity giant Carlyle has filed to go public, but it's a risky move in an atmosphere of uncertainty about global equity markets. It's suggested that the poor performance of other private equity players is also going to dampen investor appetite. The Carlyle filing is listing an offering size of $100 million, a comedown from its valuation at $20 billion in 2007 before the recession broke everyone's heart.
wednesdAY - 7 september 2011
world
france
Chirac’s trial starts sans Chirac The long-awaited corruption trial of former French president Jacques Chirac began in Paris on Monday. Those hoping to see Chirac face the music in the dock will have been disappointed. His mental condition will likely prevent him ever setting foot in court. By REBECCA DAVIS. Corruption allegations against the 78-year-old former leader date back 15 years to the period when he was still mayor of Paris. Chirac is accused of using state funds back then to pay the salaries of seven staffers within his own political party, the Rally for the Republic, and no less than 21 of his friends, who were required to do absolutely nothing in return. The total financial misuse amounted to around €2 million, though anti-corruption campaigners say this is only the tip of the iceberg. As soon as the case opened on Monday, however, the judge was handed medical records testifying to the fact that Chirac is unable to participate in the proceedings. As a result, he has been granted a dispensation from attending his trial for the foreseeable future, with his lawyers taking care of the necessary representation.
It is alleged that Chirac now suffers from a neurological condition called anosognosia, a term derived from the Greek "noses", disease, and "gnosis", knowledge. In other words, people suffering from the condition are unaware that anything is wrong with them. Chirac is thought to have developed it following a minor stroke. In its most extreme forms, sufferers may be unaware that they are, for instance, blind or paralysed. In this case, it prevents Chirac from remembering much about the past, which is why he’s considered unfit to stand trial. If convicted, Chirac could be sentenced to a 10-year jail term, although in practice this would be commuted to a suspended sentence and a fine.
Photo: Former President Jacques Chirac sits in his car as he leaves his apartment in Paris September 6, 2011. REUTERS
1. Jacques Chirac brain disorder likely to wreck trial, in The Telegraph
Read more:
WEDNESDAY - 7 SEPTEMBER 2011
world
US
Obama says ‘yes’ to business, ‘no’ to environment US President Barack Obama chose to curry favour with Republicans and big business late last week by scrapping plans to tighten up existing US smog laws. It’s a move that has done him no favours with environmentalists. By REBECCA DAVIS. More than 12,000 American lives, 58,000 asthma attacks and 2.5 million missed days of school or work each year. That’s the tally the Environmental Protection Agency reckons could be saved if the acceptable air quality standards in the US were revised. What they’re calling for is cracking down on smog, and it’s a proposal they’ve had on the table for years. But industry groups have been doing their own counting up, and claim that tougher regulations on air pollution would cost the economy up to $90 billion a year. So while health and environmental activists have been furiously lobbying Obama’s administration for the smog crackdown, groups like the US Chamber of Commerce and the American Petroleum Institute have been (less visibly) lobbying against it. It seemed that the environmental corner had it in the bag, but last Friday Obama suddenly Photo: REUTERS
did an about-turn. In a short statement, he said, "I have continued to underscore the importance of reducing regulatory burdens and regulatory uncertainty, particularly as our economy continues to recover.” With that in mind, he said, he was withdrawing the draft legislation. An undoubted influence was the fact that on the same day, the Bureau of Labour Statistics reported that no new jobs had been added to the US economy in the past month, which economists fear might presage the slip into a new recession. But the Greens are spitting mad. "This is a decision we'd expect from George W Bush," said the director of environmental advocacy group MoveOn. Damned if you do, damned if you don't, Barack.
Read more: 1. Obama's Ozone Standards Retreat Angers Environmental Groups, Ignores Science, on the Huffington Post
WEDNESDAY - 7 SEPTEMBER 2011
world
uae
Prisoners in Dubai: the Quran shall set you free The UAE government offers various incentives to prisoners – memorising the Quran gets you a reduction in jail time; losing weight can earn you cash. However, such initiatives do little to improve the country's reputation when it comes to human rights. Releasing the five activists detained in April on what appears to be trumped-up charges would count for a lot more. By THERESA MALLINSON. The United Arab Emirates is hardly known for upholding human rights; it's a country where you can be thrown into jail for being raped, critising the government , or even for a bounced cheque. In an effort to boost its image, it now appears the UAE is embarking on a bit of a PR campaign relating to its rehabilitation of prisoners. Last week Abu Dhabi-based newspaper The National, which is owned by that emirate's government, ran an article on the latest programme for inmates: those who weigh more than 100kg will be given an undisclosed cash incentive if they lose weight. But if you're looking for your sentence to be reduced, you're going to have to put in a bit more Photo: REUTERS
effort. For the last decade the UAE has run a programme where prisoners can decrease their jail time by memorising the Quran. Learning the entire holy book off by heart gets you 20 years off your sentence; three parts of it earns you a sixmonth reduction, with a sliding scale in-between. In April, the UAE arrested five men – blogger Ahmed Mansoor, lecturer Nasser bin Ghaith, and online activists Fahad Salim Dalk, Ahmed Abdul Khaleq and Hassan Ali al-Khamis – who were charged in June with insulting the country's top officials. Dubbed “the UAE 5” by Amnesty International, which is calling for their release, their trial resumes in late September. We wonder if they qualify for the weight-loss or Quran-memorisation programmes. Somehow, we suspect not.
DAY - 00 month 2011
BUSINESS
monDAY – 5 september 2011
business
briefs
Caption (Reuters)
South Africa The JSE All Share Index followed global markets lower as euro zone crises fears worsened. The index fell 1.2% to close at 29,525. Comair, the airline services company fell 6.5%, with mining contractor Sentula Mining shedding 6.1%. Of the Top 40 stocks, Richemont led the losing counters, down 4.4%, with media company Avusa shedding 3.8%
Switzerland would implement weakening measures for the franc, other EM indices slid on euro zone fears.
UK
Allied Electronics surged 7.8% with African Rainbow Minerals leading the Top 40 shares higher, up 2.3%.
The FTSE 100 gained 1%, bucking global downward trends. Whitbread PLC, operator of leisure businesses and fitness clubs, gained 7.3% on the back of accelerated sales growth. The Royal Bank of Scotland again led financials lower, dropping 2.8%, closely followed by Barclays PLC shedding 2.2%
Emerging Markets The MSCI Emerging Markets index fell 0.4% to 986, taking its three-day loss to 5%. Even as Eastern European counters gained on the news that
The Basel Committee on Banking Supervision announced the delay of the effective date of its long-term liquidity standard which would see banks having to
raise further capital. The standard, under pressure from European and American banks, has been delayed to 2018, resulting in an 85% decrease in additional funding demand by banks over the next four years.
Europe The Swiss central bank imposed a ceiling on the franc as recent market turmoil has seen a surge in the currency. Viewed as a safe haven from the euro zone crisis, the bank pledged to defend the currency with utmost determination prompting a record drop in the currency. The price of gold fell as investors looked to cover losses in Swiss franc positions.
wednesdAY - 7 september 2011
business
briefs
ever. The model takes into account interest rates, growth, and inflation.
Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou (Reuters)
Bullion fell 1.4% to $1,873 after touching new record highs of $1,921. The precious metal is currently in the 11th year of a bull market, the longest upward streak since 1920. Greek bond yields fell to record levels as deepening economic woes may make the country’s second bailout obsolete even before it’s implemented. The spread between German and Greek ten-year bonds widened to biggest levels since 1998, with the cost of credit default insurance on Greek paper rising to record levels.
US Microsoft is beefing up its internet display advertising features and products to prevent further market erosion
by Google and Facebook. Sales of internet ads are expected to grow 25% this year, in a market already worth $12.3 billion. The software giant is unveiling partnerships and tools that will allow more focused tailoring and measuring of placements. Shareholder Jaguar Financial Corp, urged Blackberry maker, Research in Motion to spin off its patents or consider selling itself to boost investor returns. The company has seen a 48% decline in its share price as it continued to lose ground to Apple and Google. Treasury ten-year note yields fell to an all-time low as concerns that the euro zone financial crisis would cripple financial institutions. A financial model created by economists at the Federal Reserve showed ten-year notes at the most overvalued levels
Yields on the 30-year notes also reached lowest levels as speculation grew that the Federal Reserve would ditch shorter-term securities in favour of longer-duration bonds. The service industry in the US, expanded at a rate faster than August slightly easing the slumping economy concerns. The index grew from 52.7 in July to 53.3, with a reading above 50 signalling expansion.
Australia Apple may have to furnish courts with detailed sales figures of iPad and iPad 2 devices if it wants to improve chances of preventing Samsung’s sale of Galaxy 10.1 tablets in Australia. A judge said that the figures would be necessary to draw conclusions about the effect on iPad sales in Australia by the alleged patent infringements of Samsung’s tablet.
wednesdAY - 7 september 2011
business
amazon/apple
Could the Kindle shake iPAd out of its tree? Critics are positively slobbering over the new Amazon Kindle. No images of it have been released yet, but those who have played with it say Amazon may have made a device that will give Apple’s iPad a run for its money. One clue they may be right? It is very well priced. By SIPHO HLONGWANE. MG Siegler at TechCrunch has played with Amazon’s Kindle, and has some very good things to say about it. He was allowed to play with a 7-inch prototype (almost 18cm), which he described as being a “capacitive touch screen”, full-colour (a first for the Kindle), back-lit device. And it will cost $250. Exactly half of what the entry-level iPad costs in the US. Amazon is hoping to launch the new Kindle as soon as November this year. A larger, 10-inch device will follow next year. Siegler spends most of his article explaining what the device looks like. Amazon lent it to him on condition that he didn’t take any photos, he claims. So what makes this a possible strong rival to Photo: Amazon's Jeff Bezos with the original Kindle. (Reuters)
the iPad? All of Amazon’s services are deeply integrated. “Amazon’s content store is always just one click away,” Siegler says. Besides the Kindle app, the music and video player devices are Amazon’s own. Amazon will reportedly give the device away to its prime subscribers. At half the price of a 16Gb wifi iPad, the new Kindle will make a strong sell to people who just want an e-reader. The company doesn’t release figures on sales, but according to one analyst, there could be 5 million Kindles in the world.
Read more: 1. Amazon’s Kindle tablet is very real. I’ve seen it, played with it in TechCrunch 2. Tablet War: Amazon Kindle 2 vs Apple iPad in International Business Times 3. Amazon tablet could take on iPad on price, more in USAToday
WEDNESDAY - 7 SEPTEMBER 2011
business
Google shuts down 10 useless products Google is to trim the fat off its product line-up. Ten of its products will be discontinued in the very near future. You’ve probably never used any of them anyway. By SIPHO HLONGWANE. “Technology improves, people’s needs change, some bets pay off and others don’t.” Wrote Google’s senior vice president for engineering Alan Eustace, as he announced that Google is folding on 10 of their bets. Aardvark, Desktop, Fast Flip, Maps API for Flash, Web Security, Pack, Image Labeller, Notebook, Sidewiki and Subscribed Links are the products being retired. Some of them, like Image Labeller and Desktop, were applications and gadgets invented for a more rudimentary Internet. Others like Web Security and Aardvark have been integrated into the basic Google experience, nullifying their stand-alone value. Google co-founder and current chief executive officer Larry Page promised to improve on the company’s efficiency when he took over as Photo: REUTERS
CEO in April, and it looks like he wasn’t joking. As part of Page’s efficiency drive, project managers had to explain themselves to the new CEO. “Product managers were asked earlier this year to pitch a 60-word explanation of their projects to the 38-year-old Google founder, with a view to slimming down the number (of products),” The Guardian reported. One product that Google will be pouring resources into, rather than cutting it down, is Google+ which was launched earlier this year. It still works on an invite-only basis, but should take off in a big way once Google opens it up to the general public.
Read more: 1. A fall spring-clean in Google’s blog 2. Google+ launch: search giant closes 10 products in Guardian 3. Google to discontinue products in Wall Street Journal
WEDNESDAY - 7 SEPTEMBER 2011
business
honda
Honda drives headlong into another global recall The Honda Motor Company has announced a worldwide recall of its Jazz and the CR-V models due to a fault in the driver’s window, only months after Toyota untangled itself from a three-year recall scandal. Insert your own “Jap scrap” joke here. By SIPHO HLONGWANE. The fault in the models Honda wants to recall is that the plastic in the driver’s side window power switch unit may melt, possibly leading to a fire. But don’t worry, Honda says, it’s never happened before. This is all precautionary. According to The Washington Post, Honda “will recall 936,000 units of the Fit (what the Jazz is called in many markets) subcompact, CR-V crossover and Fit Aria in North America, Asia, Europe and Africa”. The model in question was made in 2006. Honda will also recall 26,000 CR-Z compact hybrids (made in 2011) due to engine control unit trouble. Honda said the fault, “In the affected vehicles, when the gasoline engine has stalled with the
IMA battery in a very low state of charge and the transmission in gear, it is possible for the electric motor to rotate in the direction opposite to that selected by the transmission. If this occurs and the driver has not engaged the brakes, the vehicle may slowly roll in an unexpected direction (e.g., backwards when the transmission is in a forward gear), potentially leading to a crash.” It doesn’t help that the world is still dialled to “panic a little bit” mode when it comes to this sort of thing after the recalls of Toyotas in the last three years.
Photo: REUTERS
2. Japan’s Honda to recall 936,000 vehicles globally in AFP
Read more:
1. Honda recalls Fit, CV-R because of power window problems in The Washington Post
wednesDAY - 7 september
LIFE, ETC
monDAY – 5 september 2011
life, etc
briefs
MALAYSIA Malaysia is in kak, or rather, Malaysian cats are. Animal activists in Malaysia found almost 300 starving cats soaked in excrement fend for themselves over Eid. The owners of the cats – many of whom had returned to their hometowns for Eid, hence the need for a service to look after the pets – became concerned after employees failed to answer their calls. Rescue volunteers ended up breaking into the centre on Sunday. No arrests have yet been made but activists are pushing for stronger animal-cruelty laws.
9/11 (Reuters)
the same question asked again has returned the figure of just 25%. It's probably the irritation of airport security that has lowered the figure.
USA USA Americans are more protective over civil liberties than they are scared about terrorism these days, a new poll suggests. In January 2002, shortly after 9/11, a USA Today/ Gallup poll found that 47% of respondents were happy to have the government violate their "basic civil liberties" to prevent terror attacks. Now
A Californian organisation has assembled a television news archive of footage of 9/11 and the week after, which amounts to 3,000 hours of recorded television. And not just US footage, it incorporates the broadcasts of international TV news stations as well. Obviously it's a goldmine for historians and researchers, but their stated aim was also to enable the general public to go
back and remind themselves of what the day was actually like. You can check it out at www. archive.org.
SA Those spoilsports at the Advertising Standards Authority are at it again, ruining the pleasure we all derive from seeing Lolitas flashing their breasts. A Virgin Mobile ad, which features four horrifyingly youthful-looking girls flashing a celebrity on the red carpet to get his attention, has now been banned after consumer complaints. Virgin Mobile South Africa said in their defence that the actresses
WEDNESdAY - 7 SEPTEMBER 2011
life, etc
briefs
Gwyneth Paltrow (Reuters)
were in their 20s, but one complaint suggested they looked "10 or 12".
USA An apparently famous rapper called Game, whose musical oeuvre we must admit to lacking familiarity with, has urged gay rappers to come out of the closet. Not because he is himself gay, we hasten to add, or even because he is a high profile advocate for gay rights. No, because he has a
problem "with people who are pretending not to be gay", but because, he suggests, they might give you AIDS. There are so many holes in this, shall we just pretend we never heard it?
difference is that Paltrow's partner is Coldplay frontman Chris Martin. But if even he is sick of the stuff, maybe it's time for the rest of us to give it up too.
UK
FRANCE
Gwyneth Paltrow has more in common with many of us than we might have imagined! She has admitted that her partner bans her from listening to Coldplay. We've all been there, haven't we? Of course, the
This is one of those supposedly light and humorous little pieces you read in passing that could actually set a dangerous legal precedent. A French man has been ordered to pay his ex-wife 10,000 euros for failing
WEDNESdAY - 7 SEPTEMBER 2011
life, etc
briefs
Daniel Craig aka James Bond (Reuters)
to have enough sex with her during their marriage. The court ruled that sexual relations "must form part of a marriage", and that by signing your marriage papers, you essentially sign a contract to have sex. Um, nobody seems to be talking about the implications of this for the concept of marital rape...
USA Only slightly infuriating news: a poll of 30,000 people in 15 countries by social networking site Badoo has found that Americans have been voted the world's "coolest nationality". In second place
are Brazilians, with the Spanish in third. Proof that the poll is screwed is that the British are in at number seven, with the Russians at number ten. The least cool nationality on the planet was voted to be Belgians. No arguments there.
illegal in India and cannot be encouraged. Perhaps there's been an epidemic of it since the rooftop train scenes in “Slumdog Millionaire”.
INDIA
There's an extra mouth to feed for pig-farmers in Jilin Province, northwest China. Literally – one of the piglets in their latest litter has been born with two snouts. He can use either mouth to eat with, which would be helluva useful at an all-you-can-eat buffet, and his owners say he's doing very nicely, thank you. His name is “Xiaobao”, by the way, or “Babe” in English.
They're making the latest Bond movie at the moment, currently known only as "Bond 23". Bits of it are set in India, and there's a scene in it where Daniel Craig (007) is supposed to jump from a motorcycle on to a moving train roof. But the Indian Railways Minister has put an end to that idea, saying that rooftop travel is
CHINA
WEDNESdAY - 7 SEPTEMBER 2011
life, etc
etv
Keeping up with the Kunenes Sushi-and-champagne-guzzling millionaire Kenny Kunene hit the headlines – again – this weekend when comedian Loyiso Gola used the occasion of the launch of his reality show to make some hardhitting criticisms. It’s just the latest controversy to hit the TV programme before it even airs. By REBECCA DAVIS. The former teacher from Odendendaalsrus is in the news again for reasons unconnected with sushi. Kunene is about to star in South Africa's first "super-rich reality show". “So What” promises viewers thrilling insights into Kunene's personal and business life, interspersed with "the truth about his rags-to-riches life story". So far, so good (if you like that sort of thing). The problem is that Kunene had promised the show to SABC1, with the first episode scheduled to air this Thursday. In fact, SABC1 is still advertising it as going to air on that date. The first the producers found out this wasn’t to be was the same time as the public did: when Kunene made a surprise appearance at an etv bash last week to announce that the show would, in fact, be broadcast on the independent channel.
Rumour has it the paperwork wasn't sorted yet and Kunene decided etv would be a better fit (without informing the SABC). But that wasn’t the element of the etv bash that attracted the most attention. That honour went to Gola, hired for the occasion to tell a few light jokes, who took advantage of the platform instead to tell Kunene what he really thought of him. “How can you fuckin’ come here revving your Lamborghinis while outside here people are starving; you speak about women like that while there is Aids out there killing people!” Gola is reported to have yelled. The thickskinned Kunene probably welcomed the extra publicity. No doubt we’ll find out in the first episode of “So What”.
Read more: Photo: REUTERS
1. Gola insults King Kenny, on IOL
WEDNESDAY - 7 SEPTEMBER 2011
life, etc
index award
Ives Béhar wins Index for a second time San Francisco industrial designer Yves Béhar became the first designer to win the prestigious Index Award twice. Recognising that in the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is king, Béhar’s design solutions simultaneously tackle both the stigma and cost involved with wearing eye-glasses for schoolchildren in Mexico, proving that beautiful design can, in fact, solve some of the world’s problems. By CARIEN ELS. The world’s largest monetary prize for design, the Index Award aims to recognise and support “design to improve life”. First winning the award in 2007 with his “One Laptop per Child” campaign, Béhar made design history by following this up with the award-winning “See Better to Learn Better” project. The basic aim of the program is to test and correct children’s vision. Since launching in Mexico in 2010, Béhar and his team at design agency Fuseproject realised that, besides the high price of acquiring eye-glasses, one of the most inhibiting factors to children wearing glasses was the social stigma attached to them. Wearing glasses was seen as a handicap, a sign of weakness. Because many Mexican schoolchildren were not receiving much-needed eyecare they were falling behind at school, a situation that was perfectly avoidable. Fuseproject (in partnership with Verbien/Augen Optics and the Mexican government) took a
“design” approach to the problem. Students are given an eye exam, and if glasses are necessary, encouraged to build their own colourful mixand-match frames from a selection of colours, shapes and sizes of locally manufactured frames and lenses. Since the launch of this project, 500,000 Mexican children have received optometric care, and 358,000 of those have received donations of these attractive, low-cost glasses. Béhar intends to use the €100,000 in prize money from the Index Awards to fund the expansion of the project into Indonesia.
Read more: 1. 2011’s Top Do-Good Design: Yves Béhar’s Glasses for the Poor in FastCoDesign 2. Yves Behar: improving kids’ vision via eye-catching design on Smart Planet 3. Yves Béhar Wins Second Index Award on Change Observer
WEDNESDAY - 7 SEPTEMBER 2011
life, etc
canada
Something wrong is afoot in Canada It’s a mystery that has consumed the Canadian province of British Columbia for four years: human feet keep washing up on the beaches. What on Earth is going on? By REBECCA DAVIS. Apologies in advance: this is a little grisly. But the fact is, last week a single human foot drifted up on to the beach in Vancouver. It is the 11th foot in four years to wash up within an area of 200km. Some are right feet, some are left feet, and – the only commonality – all of them are encased in running shoes. Two of the feet were found to be a pair, but the rest are unconnected. Exhaustive forensic testing has just been completed on the first feet, and they found that in none of the cases was there any sign of "mechanical disarticulation", to quote the Vancouver City Coroner. In layman's language, that means the feet weren't hacked off legs – they came off naturally. There are a number of high bridges over the waterways where the feet wash up, leading officials to suggest that perhaps Photo: A combination photo shows the shoes that have washed ashore with feet inside over the 2007. REUTERS
these are the feet of suicides. But conspiracy theorists aren't satisfied by that explanation. The Daily Beast quotes a forensics consultant as saying: "There are so many coincidences taking place. Everybody who jumps off a bridge is wearing runners [takkies]?" One of the more intriguing alternative theories holds that the feet belonged to people who died in the Asian Tsunami in 2004, carried across the ocean by currents. In support of this is the fact that all the running shoes are said to have been manufactured or sold in 2004 or earlier. Whatever the explanation, it’s a statistical anomaly. The chances of finding even two feet so close to each other have been given “million to one” odds. Eleven is just plain spooky.
Read more: 1. Canada’s severed-feet mystery, in The Daily Beast
WEDNESDAY - 7 SEPTEMBER 2011
life, etc
anton hammerl
Friends of Anton Hammerl raise funds for his kids This writer never met late photojournalist Anton Hammerl, slain in Libya on 5 April. What is abundantly clear though, is that he was a kind-hearted man who formed strong, lasting friendships. Now his friends around the world have banded together to set up “Friends of Anton”, an online campaign to raise money for his children's education. By THERESA MALLINSON.
The Friends of Anton website launched on Monday 5 September – five months exactly since South African photojournalist Anton Hammerl's untimely death at the hands of Gaddafi loyalists. The website sells photographs by world-famous photographers who have rallied round the cause, with proceeds going towards the education of Hammerl's three children, Aurora, 11; Neo, 7; and Hiro, 6 months. The contributing photographers include South Africans Greg and Leonie Marinovich, and João Silva, as well as several international photographers. Winner of the World Press Photo of the Year 2011, Jodi Bieber, is also planning to contribute a photo.
And if buying a print is too pricy, donations of any amount are also accepted. As of Tuesday evening, $2,306 had been raised in donations, getting the fund off to a good start. Bronwyn Friedlander, a friend of the Hammerl family who has been involved in the campaign, said that three prints had been sold so far. All money raised will go to the Hammerl children – with the exception of 2%, which will be given to Reporters Without Borders (RSF) to recoup the organisation's administrative costs in managing the campaign. Friedlander explained that RSF's share would support the costs of reaching out, staff time, and Photo: REUTERS
WEDNESDAY - 7 SEPTEMBER 2011
life, etc
As of Tuesday evening, $2,306 had been raised in donations, getting the fund off to a good start. responding to donors. “They're kind of doing the back-end; doing all the admin stuff,” she said. RSF had originally set its cut at 5%, although this has since been brought down to 2%. One expects that if the campaign is hugely successful, this percentage will be decreased even further. While the website states that the prints are available “for a limited time only”, Friedlander did not specify a date that the campaign would run for. “I think there will be agreements with specific photographers as to how long their prints will be up there,” she said. “New prints will be added as well, and the site will be refreshed. Really, it's for as long as people are interested”. If you'd prefer buy a photo taken by Hammerl himself, rather than one shot by his famous and talented friends, you can go to Africa Media Online, which is managing sales of the last pictures Hammerl took in Libya. Clare Gillis, James Foley, and Manu Brabo – the journalists who were travelling with Hammerl when he was killed, are among those supporting the effort. “We’re hoping to get people from
anton hammerl
all over the world to purchase these amazing prints,” said Gillis. “It will be like a central gallery showcasing some of the finest photography in the world. The gift of the prints from these wonderful photographers is truly a way of honouring Anton by his colleagues in the field.” At Hammerl's memorial service in Johannesburg in early July, his wife Penny Sukhraj spoke of her last Skype chat with her husband. “The last time I chatted with Anton was the night before he died, on 4 April. He was dishevelled, had stubble several days old with wild hair and a chequered scarf around his neck – but he glowed. He had the shine of a man alive, all senses keen, alert and excited, and in his element with a lightness of being that so obviously indicated that his being there was right. I was happy for him. Happy that the opportunity he’d worked so hard for, was paying off – especially after I saw his first lot of pics – which he shared online.” As his friends and family gather again in London on 8 September for a memorial service at the “journalist's church” on Fleet Street, Gillis will fly in from the US to be there. Fellow prisoner, Manu Brabo, has also spoken of his desire to help the family: “What happened to Anton was horrific. I feel compelled to help his family in any way that I can”, a sentiment echoed by the third captive, James Foley. But neither Brabo nor Foley will be in London on Thursday – the intrepid journalists are back in Libya. Which seems as good a tribute to Hammerl as any – chances are if he were still alive he'd be right there with them.
Read more:
1. Friends of Anton website
WEDNESDAY - 7 SEPTEMBER 2011
life, etc
booker 2011
Booker 2011: Julian Barnes’s year, surely The man who once called the Booker Prize “posh bingo” has just been shortlisted for the fourth time. Below is a list of reasons why he should finally win it this year, and an equally compelling list of reasons why he may not – chief amongst the latter being that, as ever, the Booker is just plain unfair. By KEVIN BLOOM. The following sentence doesn’t really mean anything: At 13/8 Ladbrokes odds, Julian Barnes, who has been shortlisted four times but never won, is already the bookies’ favourite. The following sentence does: Barnes’s The Sense of an Ending is one of six books on this year’s Man Booker Prize shortlist, and it’s the work of a person who’s deservedly hailed as one of the world’s most distinguished writers. Implying, with prizes like the Booker and just about every other literary award going,
it’s always safer (as in, based more deeply in reality) if authors are pleased simply to be on the final list of nominees. But authors aren’t, of course; like the rest of the world, authors want to win. Good thing for Barnes, then, that every review of his latest book has been scintillating. “With its patterns and repetitions,” wrote Justine Jordan in the Guardian recently, “scrutinising its Photo: Julian Barnes (Reuters)
WEDNESDAY - 7 SEPTEMBER 2011
life, etc
Good thing for Barnes, then, that every review of his latest book has been scintillating. own workings from every possible angle, the novella becomes a highly wrought meditation on ageing, memory and regret. But it gives as much resonance to what is unknown and unspoken – lost to memory – as it does to the engine of its own plot.” Which is typically Barnesian – his 2008 non-fiction work, Nothing to Be Frightened Of, focused on the same themes – and which is why, despite being born in Leicester, he is the only writer to have won France’s Prix Médicis and Prix Fémina. Barnes is also a Commandeur de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres, and a recipient of the Somerset Maugham Award, the Geoffrey Faber Memorial Prize, the E.M. Forster Award from the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters, and the San Clemente literary prize. This year, he was awarded the David Cohen Prize for Literature, a biennial prize that honours a lifetime’s achievement. All that’s missing from the list is a Nobel and a Booker, the former a long shot (the Nobel committee seems to have developed a distaste of late for authors of Barnes’s profile) and the latter now a very real possibility. If literary prizes were an exact or even a
booker 2011
fair science, Carol Birch and A.D. Miller, at 7/2 odds, would do well to beat Barnes. But they’re not; they’re partial, subjective, influenced, limited and unjust. Not that Birch and Miller aren’t great writers – whatever else you can say about the Booker, you cannot say that people who can’t write make it onto the shortlist – just that this should be Barnes’s year. Why? Because, well, it kind of feels that way; and because the Booker judges have always hated Martin Amis, and to give the award to Barnes, a contemporary and friend of Amis, would make Amis mad. Still, here’s the opening passage from Birch’s Jamrach’s Menagerie: “I was born twice. First in a wooden room that jutted out over the black water of the Thames, and then again eight years later in the Highway, when the tiger took me in his mouth and everything truly began.” If anything, an amalgamation of Jeffrey Eugenides’s Middlesex – whose protagonist was also born twice in the first sentence, first as a girl and then as a boy – and Yann Martel’s Life of Pi, where a tiger lands up in a small boat with the only survivor of a shipwreck. Given that Eugenides won the Pulitzer and Martel the Booker, Birch could be in with a shout. Miller? He’s kind of different. Noted The Independent: “A former Moscow correspondent for The Economist, A.D. Miller is an expert on the land of contradictions that is postCommunist Russia. His debut novel is an electrifying tour of the dark side of Moscow, and of human nature.” Probably a bit too – something, I don’t know, but something – to win the Booker, although you never can tell. At 9/2, 13/2 and 8/1 at Ladbrokes respectively, Stephen Kelman, Esl Edugyan and Patrick
WEDNESDAY - 7 SEPTEMBER 2011
life, etc
deWitt are the bookies’ outsiders. Pertaining to Kelman and deWitt, I recently received the following release from House of Anansi Press, who published my own book in Canada last year. "We are beside ourselves with joy that these two extraordinary novels [Pigeon English and The Sisters Brothers] have been recognized by being considered for this prestigious literary award. House of Anansi was last recognized by the Man Booker Prize in 2010 when February by Lisa Moore was on the longlist. We have never before had a novel advance to the shortlist! So we are very proud that two novels from our list have been honoured this year.” Needless to say, House of Anansi don’t publish these books in the UK, Bloomsbury (Kelman) and Granta (deWitt) do, but the excitement is understandable – a shortlisting boosts sales and publisher prestige across the world, and a win is a guaranteed instant bestseller. Also, Kelman and deWitt are the only two Canadians on the list (the other four are British), so Anansi are rightly proud that they spotted the talent first. Knopf, on the other hand, will be borderline apoplectic right now. Alan Holinghurst’s The Stranger’s Child, dubbed one of the finest novels of the year by the Guardian and a favourite on the 2011 Booker longlist, has been snubbed. As for Hollinghurst himself, having won the Booker in 2004, for The Line of Beauty, he’ll probably be able to deal with it – and he may well be the one consoling his publishers, not the other way round. And so finally back to Barnes. Book types everywhere will be, with not a small amount of glee, rediscovering an essay from 1987 in the London Review of Books, where the 2011
booker 2011
shortlist favourite called the Booker “posh bingo”. He also, in that essay, wrote this: “The Booker, after 19 years, is beginning to drive people mad. It drives publishers mad with hope, booksellers mad with greed, judges mad with power, winners mad with pride, and losers (the unsuccessful short-listees plus every other novelist in the country) mad with envy and disappointment. The dinner itself is a painful experience for five out of the six writers, made worse by the fact that four weeks’ expectation (during which no regular work can be done) usually produces some psychosomatic malady – a throbbing boil, a burning wire of neuralgia, the prod of gout. The only tip I can give future short-listed candidates is how to work out just in time that you haven’t won. While the writers themselves never know the winner’s identity in advance, various people in the hall do, including the TV technicians. You could ask them directly, of course (or bribe the judges’ chauffeur, who is always a good source): but you will find out surely enough whether you have landed the big pot by following the movements of the hand-held camera on the Guildhall floor. Ten or fifteen seconds before the announcement is made it will head towards you – or, more probably, head towards someone else. This will give you time in which to prepare a generous smile, a quietly amused eyebrow or a scornful nostril.” It’s the above passage alone, quite aside from the quality of his books, which makes me want to root for Barnes.
Read more: 1. Ladbrokes odds 2. Julian Barnes on the Booker Prize, LRB, 1987
WEDNESDAY - 7 SEPTEMBER 2011
life, etc
us
Every lecturer's dream: outsourcing marking to robots Developments in artificial intelligence mean that software can now mark assignments – and not just multiple-choice tests, but complex, written answers. Counterintuitively, students have responded well to this automated feedback so far. By THERESA MALLINSON. Anyone who's ever taught will probably attest that marking is the most tedious part of the job – certainly when it comes to assessing hundreds of undergraduate essays or exams. (A friend who shall remain nameless, once exclaimed in exasperation: “If the students are going to write their exams drunk; I may as well mark them drunk!”) In the US, there are at least three artificialintelligence marking programs currently being tested. And this isn't as simple as a computer marking multiple-choice tests (which is easily done already), but assessing answers that run to whole paragraphs. So far though, the software isn't being used to actually award final marks, but to give students feedback so they can improve their performance. At the University of Central Florida, lecturer Pam Photo: REUTERS
Thomas found that her students' end-of-term test scores improved dramatically – an average of 12.5% higher than achieved in previous years – after they'd been assessed by an automated program called SAGrader throughout their course. There have been similar findings at the New Jersey Institute of Technology, where work has been evaluated by a program called e-rater. The marked improvement in the students' results may be attributed to the fact that they could use the automated software to assess draft assignments – and then resubmit their work for final evaluation. Which seems obvious, but getting students to understand the importance of drafting and rewriting is an achievement in itself. If automated marking does become more widely used in time, we suspect it won't be long before the students cry: “If a robot is going to mark my exams; I may as well get a robot to write them!”
WEDNESDAY - 7 SEPTEMBER 2011
life, etc
catch 22
Crazy to be sane: Catch 22 turns 50 There’s something about 2011. Besides being the 10th anniversary of 9/11, it’s the 50th anniversary of the Berlin Wall, the 100th of the neon light, the 200th birthday of Franz Liszt, the 400th birthday of the King James Bible – and the half-century mark for Joseph Heller’s “Catch 22”. By J BROOKS SPECTOR. Virtually unique among modern novels, it’s very title snaps into clarity whether one has read the book or not. It has become a clarifying term bringing an ancient truth about the world into modern linguistic garb. “Catch 22” takes place on the Mediterranean island of Pianosa where the US Army Air Force has a airfield during World War II. As one of its characters, Doc Daneeka, explains to Yossarian, a bombardier and the novel’s central figure, about yet another flyer's situation “Orr would be crazy to fly more missions and sane if he didn't, but if he was sane he had to fly them. If he flew them he was crazy and didn't have to; but if he didn't want to he was sane and had to.” Now, doesn’t that finally explain how the world really works? Author Joseph Heller had been in the war himself and had actually flown some 60 combat missions. Given the enormous attrition among bomber crews, his mission total meant that statistically Heller shouldn’t have survived the war. As it was, it took him seven years to complete the book and it surely served as a form of therapy for a delayed case of battle fatigue (today known as post-traumatic stress disorder). Unlike more heroic war novels like “From Here to Eternity,” or even “The Thin Red Line”, “Catch 22” is one of those picaresque works that reaches back through “Slaughterhouse 5” and on to “The Good Soldier Svejk” and ultimately to “Don Quixote”. In fact, Heller said he never could have writ-
ten his novel if it hadn’t been for the inspiration of “Svejk”. And Kurt Vonnegut, the author of that other iconic, angry, surreal, absurdist novels from the war, “Slaughterhouse 5”, had exclaimed upon hearing of Heller’s death in 1999, “Oh God, this is a calamity for American literature!” When it was first published, “Catch 22” garnered modest critical regard. But, in succeeding years, as the horror and futility of the Vietnam War came into clearer focus, Heller’s novel grew in importance and impact. While its explanations of war’s futility remain true, descriptions of another of the book’s characters, supply sergeant Milo Minderbinder, with his business interests selling building materials to the enemy offers more than a frisson of contemporary astonishment, now that it has emerged Muammar Gaddafi’s Libya was also a partner in the CIA’s extraordinary renditions. Eventually, it came to be understood as a work that mercilessly exposed the reality that war was an insane project which a sane man would desperately try to avoid. Now, of course, “Catch 22” is a required work for literature courses around the world – and it remains a great read for us all.
Read more: 1. “Catch 22”: the full text of the novel 2. The Enigma of Joseph Heller (a review of two biographies of the author) in The New York Times 3. What is Catch-22? And why does the book matter? From the BBC Book Club website
WEDNESDAY - 7 SEPTEMBER 2011
life, etc
us
And a side-order of fried bubblegum, please Is there anything Americans won’t fry and eat? The latest horror to come out of the land of the brave is fried bubblegum. No, we’re not comforted by the revelation that it isn’t technically bubblegum. By SIPHO HLONGWANE. The State Fair of Texas organisers announced that the contestant who made ‘fried bubblegum’ was the winner. The, er, connoisseur in question, Justin Martinez, said that his culinary monstrosity doesn’t contain any bubblegum. “It does not work to fry bubblegum”, he said to a local paper. “It doesn't taste good, and you can't chew it.” What Martinez fries is batter-dipped marshmallows enhanced with bubblegum essence. If you’re tempted to think this can in any way pass for food, banish such thoughts from your mind. Having once tried fried Oreos in New York City, and found them to be most foul, I find fried bubblegum marshmallows even less appealing. Photo: REUTERS
Some of the losing entries at the state fair included a deep-fried sauerkraut and pork sausage number, a deep-fried pineapple upside down cake and a deep-fried Walking Taco (a taco “served in a nacho cheese-flavoured Doritos bag”). We thought it was impossible to beat the foul depths of deep-fried butter, but we were wrong. This is much worse. America’s arteries and hearts have long ceased to shriek out for help.
Read more: 1. How to make fried ‘bubblegum’, the latest Texas treat in Gawker.com 2. Fried bubblegum in Indiana News Centre
WEDNESDAY - 7 SEPTEMBER 2011
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SPORT
monDAY – 5 september 2011
sport
briefs
South Africa Tefu Mashamaite admits he is looking forward to running out in front of thousands of fans when Kaizer Chiefs take on Soweto rivals Orlando Pirates in the MTN8 final this weekend. Any match involving Chiefs and Pirates sees stadiums filled to capacity, and Saturday's Wafa Wafa showpiece should make finding even standing room next to impossible.
New Zealand A record 17 sets of brothers are participating at this year’s rugby World Cup. For those who doubt the genetic requirements to be a rugby player, think again. Hardman, Bakkies Botha, could be in doubt for Sunday’s opening game of the World Cup against Wales. Botha has a chronic Achilles heel condition that has once again flared up. Danie Roussouw is set to replace Botha, should he not be deemed fit for the clash. James O'Connor has failed
Bakkies Botha (Reuters)
to regain his starting place for the Wallabies' World Cup opener against Italy on Sunday. Instead, the 21-yearold utility back – who served a one-match ban imposed by the Australian Rugby Union for missing an official team function – will take his place on the bench. Wallabies coach Robbie Deans has retained the starting XV that beat New Zealand 25-20 last month to clinch the Tri-Nations crown. Ireland full-back Geordan Murphy believes the USA will be better prepared for Sunday's opening World Cup clash under his team's former coach, Eddie O'Sullivan. The Irishman was in charge of the Irish team that failed to make it out of the group stages in France four years ago, before taking over as coach with the Eagles.
UK Football With two Uruguayan players already on Liverpool's books, director of football Damien Comolli claims the duo might not be the last. Luis Suarez welcomed compatriot Sebastian Coates to Anfield last month from Nacional – the very same club the former Ajax Amsterdam forward once represented. Comolli now reckons the Reds are aiming to build on their good rapport with the South American outfit with the Coates deal in a bid to procure more players in the future. F1 The BBC is refusing to comment on reports that they will not show full reruns of the
wednesdAY - 7 september 2011
sport
briefs
Arsene Wenger (Reuters)
races they are not broadcasting live next year. The public broadcaster will show only half of the 20 grands prix live in 2012 after Sky bought the F1 rights a few months ago. How the highlights coverage of the other ten races will work is anyone's guess with Bernie Ecclestone saying that 75 minutes of very race will be broadcast.
in the absence of Ricky Ponting. Australia seem to be making a habit of putting their cards on the table well in advance of the toss in terms of the make-up of their side, having confirmed their XI the day before the first Test began in Galle.
Sri Lanka
F1 Gerhard Berger has urged Michael Schumacher's detractors to back off and has also come to the defence of Lewis Hamilton, saying the Briton "is not to blame for every collision". Schumacher
Michael Clarke has confirmed that Shaun Marsh will make his Test bow in the second Test between Australia and Sri Lanka in Pallekele, and will bat at No. 3
Europe
has come in for some sharp criticism since coming out of retirement, but Berger says the seven-time World Champion is still enjoying his driving despite his struggles. Football UEFA have rejected Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger's appeal against a two-match suspension for the start of the Champions League. Wenger will be absent from the dugout when the Premier League outfit travel to Borussia Dortmund for their opening Group F game next Tuesday. The 61-year-old will also be a mere spectator when Olympiakos head to the Emirates on 28 September.
wednesdAY - 7 september 2011
sport
RWC
Boks in good shape – Butch James Springbok fly-half Butch James says his team-mates have the same quiet belief they had heading into the 2007 Rugby World Cup in France. By PLANETRUGBY.COM Having only recently returned to the national set-up after a stint with English club Bath, James said the build-up to the previous World Cup – where South Africa clinched their second title – was similar to the approach they had taken ahead of this year's showpiece in New Zealand. "It feels pretty similar, I think," James said. "The same vibe is around the team and the guys are excited and have that quiet belief of going all the way, just like we did in 2007." While he joked that he would rather play in rain than in the windy conditions that had been forecast for Wellington's Westpac Stadium on Sunday – when the South Africans start their campaign against Wales – a much more serious James warned that the Welsh back-line would provide a formidable challenge. Photo: REUTERS
"I think they have a good mixture in their backs, they have their ball players and play makers in (Stephen) Jones, James Hook and Mike Philips," he said. "They've also got some big, strong ball carriers in (Jamie) Robberts and (George) North. "They are a really good back-line and tough to handle." Like the rest of his teammates, James said he could not wait for the tournament to get under way. "I think we've had that feeling for about a month now," he said. "We just wanted the tournament to come around and get that first game going and then you are into it.” Getting back up to speed with what had happened to the southern hemisphere game over the last few years was crucial for the fly-half who joined the struggling Lions towards the end of their 2011 Super Rugby campaign.
WEDNESDAY - 7 SEPTEMBER 2011
sport
football
Suarez out to dazzle Whether it is a step-over here or a neat jinx there, Liverpool ace Luis Suarez is confident he can overcome any opposition defence. By FOOTBALL365.COM The Uruguayan striker hasn't failed to make the required impact for the Reds since his January transfer arrival from Ajax Amsterdam. But while the 24-year-old's impressive form is bound to garner him extra attention from defenders, he reckons he is more than capable of handling it. "I feel no pressure at all. In fact when a defender studies you, it almost makes it easier because you just don't do what he expects you to," Suarez told the club's official magazine. "If he thinks you are going to go to your right, you go to your left and so on, and you just keep switching it round so you are hard to read. "It keeps you on your toes but really it's harder Photo: REUTERS
for the defender because he can't know what you are going to do." Despite three Premier League goals already in the bag, the recent Copa America winner says the only target he has set himself for the season is to help the Merseysiders succeed. "I don't set a goals target and I never really have personal goals, just collective goals for the team," added Suarez. "That is far more important than what I do myself. It is about team targets. "We want to get Liverpool back into the Champions League and maybe win a cup. "But we also want to get as high as we can in the league. It might be a little bit early but if there's a chance to win the league, we will go for it."
WEDNESDAY - 7 SEPTEMBER 2011
sport
football
Barcelona the greatest? – “No way, Jose” says Fergie Sir Alex Ferguson wishes people wouldn't get carried away with the debate over whether Barcelona are the greatest ever football side. By FOOTBALL365.COM The Scot has sufficient insight into Barca's dominance under boss Pep Guardiola with his Manchester United side twice going down to the Catalans in Champions League finals, their most recent loss at Wembley in May. The Spanish champions have lifted the European trophy three times in six years, along with winning La Liga three years in a row. But the Red Devils manager expects observers to weigh up the achievements of past sides before proclaiming the present Barca's god-like status. "It's certainly among the best sides of all time. But so was the Milan side with Franco Photo: REUTERS
Baresi, (Carlo) Ancelotti, (Roberto) Donadoni and the Dutch players," Ferguson told Corriere dello Sport. "There's a short memory in football. Now everyone says Barcelona is a fantastic squad, but at the time they said the same thing about Milan. "I don't think there's any sense in asking which is the best team of all time. The important thing is to remember that a certain squad was special. "That makes me think of the Dutch squads in the 70s, Bayern and Celtic, which beat Inter in the European Cup in 1967. That was a squad in which the players were born within a 25-kilometre radius."
WEDNESDAY - 7 SEPTEMBER 2011
sport
RWC
‘I got World Cup fever; she got World Cup fever!’ It’s T-Minus three days, and counting, until the most euphoric (or depressing) event of the South African sporting calendar kicks-off. And we can’t wait. STYLI CHARALAMBOUS previews Rugby World Cup 2011 and what we can expect from each pool. Deemed somewhat of a poorer cousin to its Football World Cup equivalent when it debuted in 1987, the Rugby World Cup has matured into a global spectacle, with each tournament surpassing the milestones set by its predecessor. At the inaugural event hosted by New Zealand and Australia, the full IRB board member countries, bar South Africa - excluded due to the apartheid global sporting ban automatically filled seven of the 16 places.
The balance of the participating teams was specially invited by the IRB, albeit with a few controversies along the way, as Western Samoa was snubbed by the IRB and the USSR declined the invitation, as a protest against the fact South Africa was still a full IRB board member. Since then the tournament has prospered to the extent that the 2007 tournament achieved Photo: REUTERS
WEDNESDAY - 7 SEPTEMBER 2011
sport
The RWC now boasts fourth place on the list of most-watched sporting events, after the Fifa World Cup, the summer Olympics and the Tour de France. several notable landmarks. The global TV audience grew from 300 million in the maiden tournament to surpass 4 billion for the first time, and was broadcast to 238 countries. And in France, the television audience was split 5050 between men and women. The RWC now boasts fourth place on the list of most-watched sporting events, after the Fifa World Cup, the summer Olympics and the Tour de France. As RWC 2011, looks to break all records, we take a look at each pool and the likely road to the play-off rounds.
Pool A The opening match kicks off at 10:30 CAT on 9 September, with hosts New Zealand taking on South Pacific rivals, Tonga. The All Blacks are talking up Tonga’s chances saying how tough the match will be, but with the subplot of trying to defuse the pressure of a nation’s hopes. Tonga, as they showed South Africa in 2007, are capable of scaring higher-rated teams, but are still unlikely to cause an upset. The Kiwi’s
rwc
have never lost a pool game in the RWC and the Tongans have never progressed to the playoffs, which is why the bookies are expecting a 65-point rout by the hosts. The main game of Pool A will be when the mercurial French and so often the Achilles heel of the All Blacks, take on the tournament favourites on 24 September in Auckland. Billed as THE match of the pool stages, French fans hope for another surprise performance that will throw playoff predictions into disarray. France have had a decent warm-up campaign to this RWC, with wins over Ireland, while the All Blacks are coming off the back of consecutive Tri-Nations losses. France will be counting on the psychological weight of the islands to deter the home side along with some Gaelic magic to emerge as Pool A victors and a slightly easier playoff voyage. While Graham Henry and his men will be wary of the French challenge, they will know that past embarrassments at the hands of the Tricolours have come in the playoff stages, and not in the pool stages where the pressure is less intense. Expect New Zealand to edge out the French in a close, yet comfortable encounter and the rest of the teams to battle for third spot. iMaverick Prediction: New Zealand, France, Japan, Tonga, Canada
Pool B This group, along with South Africa’s Pool D, is viewed as the most likely to offer an upset victory. Scotland upended Ireland in their first RWC warm-up match and are one of three challengers that could top this pool. No doubt Andy Robinson’s charges will be watching endless re-runs of “Braveheart” in the lead-up to
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While the Irish do not have a proud World Cup pedigree, they do have a history of running Australia close, twice losing out to last-gasp scores by the Wallabies. what could be the pool decider against England, on 1 October in Auckland. If the all-British encounter were played earlier in the pool stages, when the depth of the Scottish squad were less likely to be tested, we’d be putting a few bob on a close win for the Scots. Similarly, if they get to play England without any key injuries, we wouldn’t be surprised to see a poor English performance to hand the Scots the pool. Argentina will be hoping to emulate their stellar 2007 performance, by upsetting the northern hemisphere applecart in this tough group. Having been well beaten by Wales in their warm-up campaign, and losing several playmakers to retirement and injury, many will be writing off the challenge of the South Americans, albeit at their peril. Eastern Europeans Romania and Georgia will offer some resistance to the second-string teams of their bigger rivals, but ultimately battle it out to evade the wooden spoon. iMaverick Prediction: Scotland, England, Argentina, Romania, Georgia
Pool C Australia, one the pre-tournament favourites after beating New Zealand to lift the TriNations trophy, are likely shoo-ins to top this
group. The only real challenge should come from Ireland, even though they clocked up three consecutive warm-up losses leading into the tournament. While the Irish do not have a proud World Cup pedigree, they do have a history of running Australia close, twice losing out to last-gasp scores by the Wallabies. Nick Mallet’s Italians will be looking to send off their coach on a high, but realistically will only be hoping to pilfer second place from the Irish when they meet in the final encounter of this pool. A lot will depend on the state of the Irish psyche after the Australian test. If they run the Aussies close, expect the Irish to close out any challenge from the Italians. However, if Australia manage to obliterate the men in emerald green, the Azzuri could sneak into second position. USA and Russia will play out their version of the cold war, without offering any real challenge to the other teams. iMaverick Prediction: Australia, Ireland, Italy, USA, Russia
Pool D The desires of 50 million South Africans will be egging on their team to avert any slip-ups before the knockout stages. A physically tough series of examinations await the Boks as they line-up against the Welsh on 11 September and
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then Fiji on the 17th. Both teams are capable of upsets, with the Welsh beating England in a warm-up match and Fiji nearly providing South African fans with complimentary heart-attacks in France 2007. And to round off the pool, the every physical Samoans await the Boks, fresh from defeating Australia in a Tri-Nations warmup match. Fiji, will be eyeing the Welsh encounter as their opportunity to book a ticket into the next round, hoping to repeat their feats of the previous tournament where they shocked the Joneses and effectively ended their slim chances of progressing past the pool stages. Wales should, however, deal with the Fijian challenge, but it’s against the ever-improving Samoans where they could blush. If South
Africa beat the Welsh convincingly in the opening encounter and impose an injury concern or two, the men from the South Pacific could turn the dragons over in the surprise result of the tournament. If South Africa finish the pool unscathed, in defeat and injury, they will be in a good position to take on challengers in the next stage of the tournament. But that is a biggish “if ”. Expect a tight group finish, with results having to be ground out with numerous penalty goals for infringements against the lower-ranked teams that will struggle technically at scrum time. Namibia, will unfortunately for them, provide the cannon fodder for the group. iMaverick Prediction: South Africa, Samoa, Wales, Fiji, Namibia.
Pool Play-Off Schedule (all times CAT) Quarter Finals
08/10 - 07:00 08/10 - 09:30 09/10 - 07:00 09/10 - 09:30
Winner C + Winner B + Winner D + Winner A +
Semi
15/10 - 10:00 16/10 - 10:00
Winner QF 1 + Winner QF 2 Winner QF 3 + Winner QF 4
AUCKLAND AUCKLAND
3rd Place Play-Off
21/10 - 09:30
Loser SF 1 + Loser SF 2
AUCKLAND
Final
23/10 - 10:00
Winner SF 1 + Winner SF 2
AUCKLAND
Runner-up D Runner-up A Runner-up C Runner-up B
WELLINGTON AUCKLAND WELLINGTON AUCKLAND
Here’s to tries, drop goals and a flurry of upsets. Here’s to growing the reach of the game and most of all, here’s to an enthralling month-and-a-half of rugby pleasure, that will no doubt keep SAB Miller’s share price elevated.
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Should England have picked an injured captain? It came as no surprise when England skipper Lewis Moody was ruled out of his team's opening Rugby World Cup clash with Argentina on Saturday. By JULIA HARRIS. Despite the standard line coming from England's management that the full squad would be fit for the clash with the Pumas, the outside masses seemed fairly certain Moody wouldn't make it. After all, Moody was given an initial prognosis of five weeks on the sidelines after limping off against Wales in early August. Furthermore, the flanker has only played five
competitive matches since first injuring his knee ligaments in January. It really seemed an unrealistic notion that he would be ready for the upcoming game. The injury and the lingering doubts regarding just when Moody would return to fitness put England in a less than ideal position Photo: Lewsi Moody (Reuters)
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Despite the apparent lack of top class replacements, one has to wonder if Moody will prove a better option if and when he returns to fitness. as they begin their campaign and raise serious questions around the wisdom of taking Moody to New Zealand at all, especially as the captain of the Red Rose. Mike Tindall will take over the job from Moody for the Argentina game and for any others that the Bath man may miss. The centre is an adequate replacement; he is the first choice in his position, has bucket loads of experience and led the England ship during the Six Nations. It's hard not to draw a comparison with South Africa at this point. The Springboks will not start with their best hooker at the World Cup, with inspirational – yet waning – skipper John Smit favoured ahead of the in-form Bismarck du Plessis. It's not an ideal situation but at least Peter de Villiers knows he has plenty in reserve. Whether it's a worthwhile gamble playing Smit primarily for his leadership capabilities remains to be seen. However, England differs in this respect in that occupying the number seven role is not quite as easy. James Haskell filled the openside jersey admirably during the Six Nations, but it was Hendre Fourie who took over against Wales
and Ireland after Moody was injured again. Fourie, of course, is not even in New Zealand so the men vying for the openside position would be Haskell, Tom Wood (who while a number six for England plies his trade at seven for Northampton) and in a sign of drastic times – Tom Croft and Courtney Lawes. Despite the apparent lack of top class replacements, one has to wonder if Moody will prove a better option if and when he returns to fitness. With the flanker likely to miss England's second match with Georgia too, it's possible that one of the aforementioned candidates will have taken their opportunity with both hands. And even if they haven't, will Moody – who has played so little rugby this year – walk straight back into the side? It's here that Martin Johnson should perhaps have taken a leaf from Robbie Deans' book. With regular captain Rocky Elsom having played little Super Rugby and no longer an automatic choice, Deans made the big call and axed Elsom in favour of James Horwill, skipper of the Reds and guaranteed starter. It's a move that can only bear fruit for the Wallabies; it already has begun to do so.
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