Has anyone given much thought about how the current xenophobia attacks in townships in South Africa could affect South Africa’s preparations for the FIFA World Cup in 2010? The whole world is seeing pictures and videos of the attacks and it can not paint a pretty picture at all. Crime has always been a huge issue about South Africa hosting the world cup but the world was assured that everything possible would be done so that crime does not affect this world event in 2010. Now with the scenes being beamed across the world from townships in Johannesburg, one wonders why South Africa can not stop this current crime sweeping across them. Read the rest of this entry »
The violence across townships in Johannesburg continues to escalate with foreigners loosing their lives and some being seriously injured. It is said that the attacks are xenophobia related with South Africans calling upon foreigners to leave the country. Many of the foreigners, mainly Zimbabweans, Malawians and Mozambique nationals have been the victims of these attacks. Over the weekend, many shops in central Johannesburg that are owned by foreigners were looted. This now begs to ask the question, are these attacks strictly xenophobia related or there is another motive for these attacks? Read the rest of this entry »
Foreigners who are residents in the township of Alexandra in Johannesburg were beaten by South Africans yesterday on the reported basis that the foreigners are depriving South Africans of job opportunities. Who is right and who is wrong?
There is no denying the fact that there are many foreigners in South Africa today and there are a large number of them who have entered South Africa illegally. Many maybe Zimbabweans but there are also foreigners from Malawi, Mozambique, DRC and other African countries who are moving to South Africa in order for them to seek a better living. Read the rest of this entry »
It looks like we are finally set on seeing South Africa’s first 24 hour news channel being launched soon by e.tv. This 24 hour news channel is reported to be built along the lines of CNN, BBC and SKY’s own 24 hour news channels. Having viewed these channels for many years now, one wonders if e.tv is going to be able to pull this off. I certainly hope they can as this would be massive for South Africa. Read the rest of this entry »
We now know that MDC leader, Morgan Tsvangirai, will contest in the presidential runoff against Mugabe. But the million dollar question is, “When will this runoff take place?” Your guess is as good as mine. By law the runoff has to take place within the next 2 weeks but chances of that happening are almost zero. The current ruling party will try as best as it can to delay this runoff vote so that they get their house and strategies in order. Read the rest of this entry »
As I sit here and write this today, I can not help but think that was is happening currently in South Africa has a few similarities to how it all began in Zimbabwe a couple of years ago. It started with the whole loading shedding by Eskom. Zimbabwe too started load shedding to help ease their electricity problems. Fast forward a few years and Zimbabwe is literally plunged into darkness now with very little electricity being produced in the country and lack of foreign currency to import any electricity. We in South Africa now are complaining about load shedding but we may have to brace ourselves for even more power cuts if a solution is not made. We are busy fighting about whether there should be a 50% hike in electricity tariffs or not. Either way, we are going to suffer if the hike is met or not. If the hike happens, inflation will go through the roof and prices of commodities will become unaffordable for many. A rising inflation is not good for any economy, just ask our neighbours in the north. Read the rest of this entry »
The drama in Zimbabwe continues. It is now official that Morgan Tsvangirai beat Robert Mugabe in the Zimbabwe presidential elections but he did not win by more than 50% so there has to be a run-off vote between Tsvangirai and Mugabe to determine who the winner is. In soccer terms it would be like, the two are now going into a penalty shoot out to decide who the winner will be. Read the rest of this entry »
The elections were held on March 29 in Zimbabwe and it is now almost one whole month since then and no one still knows what the results of the presidential elections were. Surely it does not take one month to count and verify results? It does not take a brain surgeon to see that Mugabe clearly lost the vote and in delaying the release of the results he and his government are figuring out a way to rig the poll so that they stay in power.
Unconfirmed reports today say that the presidential results have now been released and the MDC leader, Morgan Tsvangirai won 47% of the vote with Mugabe winning 43%. Read the rest of this entry »
