Some good news for a change today! The retail price of all grades of petrol will decrease by R1.61 a litre on Wednesday December 3. Diesel prices will also decrease, with 0.05% sulphur falling by 81 cents and 0.005% by 80 cents. Wholesale paraffin decreases by 75 cents and illuminating paraffin by 100 cents. Petrol in Gauteng now costs R7.35 a litre from R8.96 before, and it is now R7.11 at the coast from R8.72 before.
Many of us have been wondering why former president, Nelson Mandela, has not said anything or tried to stop the divisions which have been formed in the ANC. The answer is simple, Mandela has steadfastly maintained his public silence on the ructions in the party, with aides repeatedly saying he has retired fully from public life and does not want to be drawn into politics. Fair enough. Mandela has already done a lot for the ANC and subsequently the country and he needs to rest now. It is a pitty that all his hard work over the years is not starting to dwindle.
Read the rest of this entry »
The battle between COPE and ANC is heating up. COPE’s youth leader, Anele Mda, and labour convener Willie Madisha went on a bashing spree during a rally in the Eastern Cape where Madisha, referring to Zuma, said: “We will be the laughing stock of the world when we have a leader (who) says ‘I will rape and shower’.” COPE leaders have quickly come out and “unconditionally” apologised to the ANC and it’s president Jacob Zuma for the inflammatory statements. Mda told the crowd that should Zuma become president, then we would “have a government that is going to make raping official.”
Read the rest of this entry »
Has this come a little bit too late? I think so. ANC Youth League leader Julius Malema has apologised for creating the impression that he was inciting violence with his “kill for Zuma” statements, a spokesperson confirmed on today (Tuesday). “If we did sound like we’re inciting violence, we are very sorry,” Malema said. Malema then added “That was not our intention; we’ll never incite violence. We will never do anything unconstitutional. We are law-abiding citizens of this country and we will protect the Constitution of this republic.”
Read the rest of this entry »
I was reading a Sunday Newspaper and the headline was: “Cracks appearing in Cope”. I found this a rather interesting headline so decided to read further. What they were basically saying is that all does not seem to be going as smoothly as we may be lead to believe behind the scenes in COPE. Apparently there is a struggle for power within the new party with regards to who is in charge. From what we had gathered, Mosiuoa Lekota was the leader of COPE. But now they say that there are tensions between Lekota and Shilowa with the later apparently undermining Lekota and being said not to ‘respect’ Lekota.
Read the rest of this entry »
It is not too often that we can sit here in South Africa and be happy with all three of our major sporting teams. Most of the time, one of them is loosing (most times it is Bafana Bafana) or one day all the talk is about how the rugby coach is letting the country down. I am referring to Bafana Bafana, the Springboks and the Proteas; Soccer, Rugby and Cricket respectively. All three teams won this week that has just gone by. I actually can not remember the last time that all three of these teams have one in the same week.
Read the rest of this entry »
The Congress of the People (COPE) continues to gain momentum. Deputy leader of the Independent Democrats (ID), Simon Grindrod, has left the party and has joined COPE. Grindrod announced on Thursday that he had resigned from the ID’s leadership, as well as from the City of Cape Town where he serves in the DA-led multi-party coalition as the mayoral committee member for economic development and tourism.
ID leader, Patricia de Lille said, “As much as we are surprised and disappointed by Mr Grindrod’s resignation, the ID has many capable candidates to take over his duties.”
So now not only are people leaving the ANC to join COPE but members of other political parties are looking at COPE as the future of the country. Interesting times surely lie ahead in South Africa.
Finally, Bafana Bafana is now winning! Last night Bafana Bafana beat Cameroon 3-2 in the Nelson Mandela Challenge played at a packed Olympia Park. This was a game Bafana Bafana just had to win to restore some confidence to a nation which is not 100% the national soccer team. Many have doubted Bafana’s ability as they always seem to let the fans down due to some poor performances. But now after three successive victories over Malawi, Equatorial Guinea and Ghana they have added to that by claiming the scalp of Cameroon.
Read the rest of this entry »
As the political climate in South Africa is gathering a lot of momentum in the build up to the elections next year, there seems to be a lot of debate about which party one will vote for. A lot of talk of late has been about the new Congress of the People (COPE) party that was formed as a result of a break away from the ruling ANC. COPE is set to provide a lot of competition to the ANC come the elections. With all the hype about COPE, some may have forgotten that a party called the DA (Democratic Alliance) exists. Maybe that is why the DA relaunched themselves recently so that they can remind people that they still exist and they to are an alternative to the ANC. So now with two fairly large opposition parties emerging in South Africa (COPE and DA) why is all the hype behind COPE and not the same hype being behind the DA?
Please share with us your views on “Why COPE and not DA?” if you do not want the ANC.
Finally sense has prevailed. Earlier in the year, it had been suggested that the South Africa rugby team stop using the Springbok emblem as it was part of the apartheid era and that the King Protea should replace the Springbok. Not many people were too happy about loosing the Springbok but now Saru president Oregan Hoskins and his deputy Mark Alexander, and the sports minister, the Reverend Makhenkesi Stofile met in Cape Town today and decided the the Springbok emblem can continue to be used but will now be put on the right hand side of the jursey.
The King Protea will be placed on the left hand side of the jursey. So now the Springbok and the King Protea will happily ‘live’ together side by side and hopefully this will be the end of this Springbok emblem issue.
