Racism and the decoy runner Springbok rugby does not need.

The recent series win by the Springboks in their best of three tests against the British & Irish Lions has proved them worthy world champions and yet the series has a shadow hanging over it with some macabre comedy taking place at press conferences.

Pieter De Villiers as head coach of the Springboks must be doing something right with the Boks winning and yet every time he opens his mouth with the media he says something silly or irrelevant.

He accused the white media of racism when they castigated Rickie Januarie after he proved woefully out of form when he came on against the Lions in Durban and also looked way short of the fitness demanded at this sort of level.

Racism has a bad history in South Africa and accusing people of racism when they are not being racist deflects attention from real racism whcih still exists.

He was also seen to condone Schalk Burger and his eye gouging episode thereby embarrassing South African rugby and he launched into a childish rhyme about being a God given talent which endeared him to precisely nobody.

Gary Gold, assistant coach, has lamented the lack of recognition the Boks have received for beating the Lions in the rubber with one test still to go but the fact is that the De Villiers vaudeville has cleverly deflected attention from rugby on the field.

De Villiers has proved inept at speaking to the media so maybe somebody else, captain John Smit should do the job. After all, De Villiers would not give the job of kicking at posts to Schalk Burger now would he. Watch this space.

A previous Bok coach under admittedly different conditions who also dismissed the media as an irritant was eventually swatted right out of his job.

Bok PR blunders

De Villiers has also persisted in claiming that the Lions never congratulated him after the series win. This has been denied by the Lions management. Confrontation looms every time De Villiers opens his mouth.

De Villiers in further confrontation

We must emphasise that the public broadcaster is not, and should not be, the mouthpiece of government.

The headline of this blog is a direct quote by President Jacob Zuma taken from his address at the SANEF NAT NAKASA Awards Dinner.

It is a bold statement for some, tantamount to treason for others and a simple statement of the obvious to most. Under the old National Party government in a bid to hold on to apartheid the public broadcaster (SABC) was used unashamedly to publicise government propaganda.

After independence the ANC government was content to continue this policy especially under Thabo Mbeki with the public broadcaster effectively run by Snuki and his media dictatorship.

Both the ANC and old National Party simply tinkered with the illusion that the public broadcaster actually had editorial freedom. In fact, for both the public broadcaster has been a comfort zone playground just waiting for government bits and pieces of media spin.

The public broadcaster is currently in tatters with allegations of impropriety, mismanagement, nepotism and cronyism emerging from the ashes and it stands in desperate need of a government bailout.

However, there are sane minds in parliament that want the SABC board and others responsible for the disaster to be removed before recovery can start.

The statement by President Zuma, ” We must emphasise that the public broadcaster is not, and should not be, the mouthpiece of government” comes at a time when not just the existence of the public broadcaster but its entire direction and policy need to be debated.

It is a simple statement but one with severe repercussions throughout government and ANC circles. There has long been dispute about the ANC relationship with the media and whether the organisation needs a media outlet of its own.

Since independence it has had carte blanche with the public broadcaster simply waiting for instructions from ANC cadres and things might now change for media people in government and ANC.

Could this be a turning point in the government and ANC approach to the media where they both accept criticism where criticism is due or will there be extended debate with white papers and qualifications on the actual parameters of media freedom that the SABC will enjoy. Watch this space.

See article here.

Helen Zille and the art of saving money, not wasting it.

Helen Zille has repositioned the goalposts viz a viz her ongoing rivalry with the ANC. As Premier of the Western Cape she has led a sustained campaign to economise on spending of provincial resources and cut back spending on luxury vehicles and entertainment expenses.

Zille will travel around in a Toyota and and it will be tea and biscuits not meals at Five-star hotels when MEC’s make budgetary announcements. The actual figures saved are quite astronomical but the real impact is that she has walked the walk and not just talked the talk.

Not only are we currently trying to negotiate a recession but local and provincial governments have been notorious for spending money on non-essentials and this statement from the Western Cape is like throwing down the gauntlet to other provinces and saying, “Match this!”.

Some members of provincial government in other parts of the country are going to look a little stupid driving a vehicle that cost almost a million and then trying to explain why the budget for essential services like hospitals is not enough.

It will also be very interesting to see what certain sectors of the media make of this development and what Zwelinzima Vavi and Cosatu have to say as this kind of saving frees funds to use for upliftment programs and delivery of essential services to poor and informal settlements.

Cynicism from media who have heard the rhetoric before might just change to belief when results come out. It could just a similar story to Bafana Bafana at last playing soccer on a professional level.

Where I got the info from

Bafana Bafana have turned a corner in self belief.

For years it seemed inevitable that Bafana Bafana would always break the hearts of their South African supporters and mess up at a crucial moment thereby snatching defeat from the jaws of victory.

The stories of holding their bosses to ransom for higher pay, indiscipline and not arriving for training, arrogance and not maintaining fitness levels and playing glory football with individuals hogging the ball and show boating.

All of the above were regarded as synonomous with the South African soccer (football) team. With the performances against Brazil and Spain in the semi final and third place playoff in the Confederations Cup held here in South Africa, this is at last no more.

Holding Brazil to a 0-0 scoreline until the 88th minute and only succumbing 1-0 was a huge achievement but the discipline on the field with players holding to their formation and zones and playing a passing game, at times one touch, that seemed beyond the team only a short while ago was the personal memory that will live on.

Against Spain yesterday in the playoff for third place Bafana were up against the number 1 ranked team in the world and they would have been excused had they been a bit intimidated. Not a bit of it as they took the game confidently to the Spaniards and then had the audacity to score first.

There were a couple of half chances that could have put the game beyond Spain but Bafana fought tooth and nail and only two Spanish goals within seconds of each other seemed to have knocked the stuffing out of them.

Yet with the sands of time running out the never say die spirit from Bafana produced a goal to equalise and send the game into extra time. The first peroid saw Bafana with a couple of clear chances which they failed to take.

Spain started to take a stranglehold on the game and in the second period of extra time got the all important goal. The Spaniards knew that they had been in a tough game and despite losing Bafana were not disgraced.

Life is made up of turning points and this one proved to all and sundry that Bafana can play prfessional football and not disgrace their country. Maybe the most important proof was for the players themselves as the cycle of embarrasment had been turning and repeating fo so long that many players could not remember when last Bafana were competitive at the top level. Now everybody does.

No names have been mentioned specifically as the results have bonded a team together with some in the media claiming that certain talented individuals being left out for disciplinary reasons was detrimental to the team. Now we know that no individual is greater than the team.

What price a ticket to watch the British and Irish Lions?

The tour by the Lions class of 2009 is in danger of sinking without a trace. There are no supreme stars besides Brian O’Driscoll and whilst the team do the scrums and lineouts very efficiently and their ball retention is at times phenomenal, one gets the feeling that the Boks might have too many gears and too much gas in the tank.

Then there is the other little factor of the financial outlay necessary to get a seat at the stadium. Approximately triple the price for seat to watch the All Blacks is just a bridge too far in these times of recession and real rugby value for money.

The buildup to the tests has been lukewarm at best as all the best SA players are being rested, leaving those past sell by and those yet to reach Bok contention to try and stem the red flow.

What this has done is build a false sense of security for the Lions, a misplaced belief in their own myth and the wake up call when it sounds in Durban on the 20th might be devastating for some people.

Lastly, the sports enthusiast has been spoilt for choice and I know pubs where cricket takes precedence over the rugby where in days of yore there was never so much as even a hint of a debate.

What exactly this might mean is that the Lions might be seen in retrospect as being simply a warm up for the Tri-Nations and not the 1 in 12 that they are alleged to be.

This does of course presuppose that the Lions don’t have another gear and players to step up to the plate when Juan Smith, Pierre Spies, Victor Matfield and Jean De Villiers start asking questions.

Answer the question as to whether these Lions have what it takes to stretch the Boks and then find a place to bet the ranch. Somebody is going to win big and others might end up staying after school with lines, not powder but ink.

The Lions are in Cape Town to take on Western Province this afternoon and some people are talking up a storm. Can Province ignite the stuttering tour or will they also struggle to even score one try? Too many questions and not enough answers. The bell is tolling and it’s not picky and choosy, live up to the hype or die all hyped out.

There is a book out concurrently about the Lions and their history. ‘Once were Lions’ might be a better bet than watching the games live at the stadium. Return on investment is at least assured.

The media have done as good a job as they could have under trying circumstances and yet the knives could be out after the first showdown in Durban. Either a giant killing act or a walk in park. It’s as simple as that.

Dan Retief on the Lions

Green Day stream of consciousness at the 21st Century Breakdown.

Green Day obviously needs no introduction but the thing that struck me instantaneously about this album was the immediacy, the intensity and the energy. Whether one argues successfully that this is no longer pure punk but rather a diluted and refined remix of all that’s worth keeping of punk and ditching the baggage, it works and retains the edge.
In the order of tracks and the breakdown between different sets the album has a certain concept feel, almost a punk opera idea without the rock pretensions.
‘Know your enemy’, track number three was the first single and all too predictable for that. There are better single options in ‘Viva la Gloria’ and ‘Before the lobotomy’. That’s all personal opinion and the Green Day brain’s trust must know what they are doing with marketing and spinning the band into the nether regions of mega stardom.
Some of the lyrics betray a band that are American through and through and despite this patriotic vision being a little off-key on a punk styled album these guys stood up to George W. Bush in his own backyard in Texas so they have the street cred and dare I whisper it, the pedigree.
Whatever my opinion is this album is set for the heart of the sun and personal memorable moments include the throwaway one liner lyrics like “I never made it as a working class hero” and the bass attitude on ‘Last of the American girls.
The bleeding edge riffs, the manic drums, plaintive almost 70’s style vocals and the split second timing and tempo changes betray a band so together they can turn on the gas at will and then level out again only to amp it up on a cue. There is of course the little matter of stadium rock anthems that sticks in my throat like a fishbone, but that’s a personal matter.
I bought the CD before I had seen any hype and I have kept it that way by not really chatting arbitrarily about the album with musical, feedback clones and running for the door if it comes on the radio, in the pub or uninvited on a vehicle sound system.
I am thoroughly enjoying it but want to keep it that way and the surest way to kill the beat is to be forced to listen to something ad infinitum when you never chose to.
These guys have a serious passion that reminds me of a great book, ‘Passion is a fashion’, written about the legend that was and still is The Clash.

See book review here

Vavi confuses democracy with dictatorial statements of control behind President Zuma.

Zwelinzima Vavi, Cosatu Secretary General, has stated that President Zuma will serve two terms as President of South Africa regardless. He claims that Cosatu has met with President Zuma to clarify the President’s statement that he would only serve one term.

‘”We have engaged with him on that issue and it’s no longer on the table. He’s no longer going to be a one-term president. (Zuma) will run the full course of the journey. Two terms, and no discussions about it – and we are very happy,” Vavi said.’

Even before 100 days of a Zuma presidency are passed these are sweeping statements made regarding the future of the presidency and they come from the left wing who are attempting to bring the hammer down on their alleged control of the ANC. It raises all kinds of dreaded fears and nightmares about dictators and presidents for life across the African continent and to any outsider must resemble something from the Stalinist era of fascist dictators.

Vavi goes on to say that people complaining about Zuma being a stooge of Luthuli house should understand and accept that that is how it should be. Luthuli house runs the country and not the government. This also conjures up images of the politburo back in the dark ages of Soviet-style communism. The politburo ran the Soviet government and could recall and deploy at will.

The point about control by the back office is that it happens all over the world, even George W. Bush was forced to toe the line of the oil barons and other industrial giants that won huge paybacks in post invasion Iraq. The only difference is that Vavi has sen fit to remind all and sundry that he is the power that matters.

Besides the blatant disregard for South African democracy and the South African tribe that voted in recent elections, Thabo Mbeki was ousted at Polokwane for exactly these kinds of dictatorial staements and policies. Although his dictatorship was located in government at the Union buildings it is all too familiar and bears uncanny similarities to this domination from Luthuli house.

Furthermore, Cosatu is in an alliance with the ANC and South African Communist Party and it is not the dominant member in this alliance, or are we as the electorate missing something crucial here. Maybe this is a miscalculated statement betraying the person who is the kingmaker or just a calculated shot to preempt any challenge to Zuma at the next party congress in 2012.

Vavi goes on to say that there are ambitious people out there but that the debate is now effectively over thereby positioning himself as the power behind the throne.

The most disturbing part of the article is as follows, ” Vavi said the alliance would determine policy.
“We are the policymakers in the alliance, and the government implements. The government does not lead anymore.”

There are all kinds of warning bells and alarms going off here. That Vavi as leader of a minor partner in the tripartite alliance feels free to dictate and make absolute sweeping statements like these is cause for concern in ANC circles never mind the South African tribe who have just voted in a democracy.

Together with this statement of power behind the scenes, Vavi has expressed doubts over the Zuma government and its ability to deliver on 500 000 jobs by end 2009 and 4 million by 2014. He went further to state that more strikes and industrial action are imminent and these would include essential services, normally prevented from participating in strike action.

These statements taken together display a desire for total control. Not only as the kingmaker behind the ascent to the throne of President Zuma, but the force behind workers strikes and demands and also casting doubt and suggesting the cabinet are not capable of doing their job. In effect he is also positioning himself as the monitor in chief of the government despite the fact that there are people in positions to do just that.

There were many conspiracy theories behind the appointment of communists to the cabinet but it seems the greater danger to South African democracy might come from outside, might just eminate from a man who states emphatically that Zuma will reign for a decade and then proceeds to question the cabinet policy and talk of a “ticking time bomb of rolling mass action.

Is President Zuma in power regardless of whether the jobs target is reached or not and if Zuma is recalled who will Vavi put in his place. Vavi has raised the stakes in the ongoing battle for democracy and answers to these questions are needed asap.

In the space of a week he has threatened the democratic election process of the ANC president, the working of the cabinet and has spoken of “his” workers bringing the government and country to its knees. Crazy miscalculations or simply staking his claim in the scramble for control of South Africa.

Watch this space.

http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=79&art_id=vn20090605060908453C502610&newslett=1&em=202990a1a20090605ah

http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=79&art_id=vn20090605110713168C462333&newslett=1&em=202990a6a20090605ah

South African Lions throw in the jersey.

Wednesday night saw a woefully inept and gutless display from the Lions against the touring British and Irish Lions. A tour that comes around to South Africa once every 12 years was thrown into the kindegarten class as the touring team were met by whimper and all they had to do was go through some motions as if they were doing a non-contact practise.

Barring some outsiders, the Lions from Johannesburg had no real Springbok contenders but if they had played a better game then Pieter De Villiers and his Bok coaching team might have been given some idea of potential weaknesses in the touring team.

The blame has to be aimed higher than those on the field and squarely between the eyes of the administration.

As it is Johannesburg has seen it as a right to have a team in the annual Super 14 competition playing teams from New Zealand and Australia. That right to financial returns and status might be coming to an end rather soon as a team from the Eastern Cape starts to take shape.

The Southern Kings looking at possible inclusion in an expanded Super 15 have been criticised as not being up to the mark but the the Lions from Johannesburg have proved so inept this season that anything else would be better.

The Lions summarily fired their coach last week after stating that he would be in charge for the game against the touring Lions. The coach the Lions fired two years ago has led the Bulls to their second Super 14 championship win. Many senior players and young talents are joining the exodus away from Johannesburg and the list of players deemed expendable by the Johannesburg brainstrust that have then made a mark elsewhere in Currie Cup and Super 14 rugby is a lengthy indictment of the inept and woeful team running rugby in Johannesburg.

None of this has seemed to worry these complacent administration individuals but now it seems that sponsors and advertisers might start to object to their brands being associated with such ridiculous and spineless displays of amateur rugby. Money is all important and this might turn the tables and highlight the actual crisis that exists in Johannesburg rugby.

Comparisons with the Zimbabwean dictatorship under Robert Mugabe are not exaggerated or out of place and quiet diplomacy has not worked. The last piece in the puzzle is the Johannesburg based media who gloss over the rotten state of rugby and talk the team up every year before major competitions. How much longer will they be deflected by decoy runners sent out by the Lions administration media spin.

The illusion that the media help the administration to build each year is that something has changed when all that happens is that the administration tinkers with bits and pieces and makes yet another mess. The Lions used to be in the same boat as the Bulls at the bottom of the jukskei river but now languish on their own.

About time for a change.

United chase the blue and red carousel shadows.

This Champions League final was no mere matter of football, this was sheer artistry.The Catalan legends mesmerised their opponents from Manchester in what was billed as the ultimate showdown this season and then turned IT into one way traffic.

There will be comparisons drawn between the carousel at the fairground as Barcelona spun and passed the ball, retaining possession for lengthy periods leaving United players shell-shocked and dizzy.
Passing the ball the way they do Barcelona don’t make many more passes than other teams, they just make sure that the ones they do make hit the mark about 86% of the time.

Wizardry does not describe the effect on their opponenets as Barca played patiently and waited for the minutest gaps to tear in the United ranks before taking advantage. Picasso or maybe Duchamp might have made something abstract from this perpetual motion but for the viewers it was one of those, “I was there occasions”.

Chasing carousel shadows seems to arty and abstract a portrayal of what was just a simple game of football but if you’d watched it you’d understand the poetry in motion, the ghosts of artists long gone participating in a whirlwind on a kaleidoscopic canvas. Football might just never be the same again.

Earlier in the season, I had a prophetic moment when I posed the question as to whether there was a team that could beat Barcelona. The answer is, going on last night and it’s tutorial in abstract football, no club team and very few national sides.

The Road is a haunting, haggard tale that can leave a reader feeling hunted for days after the journey.

The Road by Cormac McCarthy is a journey through a ravaged land where the reader is in no danger of becoming entangled in a dense, word-filled bush and verbose, overgrown crops that need a bushknife to hack through.

Minimalism and an economy of words drag the reader kicking and screaming through this ultimate apocalyptic survivors tale. Ultimate because it could so easily come true. No real imagination necessary to download this nightmare in the early hours of a sleepless morning.

The blurb is curiously uninformative, “A father and his son walk alone through burned America, heading slowly for the coast. Nothing moves in the ravaged landscape save the ash on the wind. They have nothing but a pistol to defend themselves against the men who stalk the road, the clothes they are wearing, a cart of scavenged food – and each other.”

McCarthy does not build plots, he weaves tales endlessly using only words. I was warned about this book by an English Literature grad student from Rhodes University, Grahamstown, South Africa. She simply said that I wouldn’t be able to put it down and when I stumbled upon it on the backpackers communal shelf I snapped it up forthwith.

She was right about not being able to toss it aside, even when I had to squint through matchsticks. This book stands as a challenge to anybody who does not enjoy reading. Defy this book and you might as well defy life, the universe and everything. It doesn’t get more real, visceral and tactile than this.

A sample follows that I throw out as bait, knowing I won’t lack for plenty of catches.

“In the morning they came out of the ravine and took to the road again. He’d carved the boy a flute from a piece of roadside cane and he took it from his coat and gave it to him. The boy took it wordlessly. After a while he fell back and after a while the man could hear him playing. A formless music for the age to come. Or perhaps the last music on earth called up from out of the ashes of its ruin. The man turned and looked back at him. He was lost in concentration. The man thought he seemed some sad and solitary changeling child announcing the arrival of a travelling spectacle in shire and village who does not know that behind him the players have all been carried away by wolves.”

The idle and inane, kindergarten sqabble that goes on around the planet about global warming is brought into bold, believable relief against a background of stark, lifeless skylines that do nothing but highlight what used to be there.

The Road
Cormac McCarthy
Picador
2006