Zikalala said that he was leaving with his head held high. Snuki Zikalala has always been surrounded by controversy especially for his support of the ANC and in particular his support for the Thabo Mbeki faction. Zuma supporters accused him of using the public broadcaster to promote Mbeki at the expense of Zuma. In 2006, Zikalala was at the centre of a ‘blacklisting’ scandal, involving the barring of political commentators believed to be critical of Mbeki. In 2007 Snuki manouvered the resignation of the veteran SABC journalist John Perlman. As a result of Zuma’s election victory at Polokwane and again in April 2009, it was only a matter of time for Snuki Zikalala to go. Click here for more Zapiro cartoons on Snuki Zikalala
As Nandos had promised us last week, they aired a new advert on Friday in response to the initial one featuring Julius Malema. I do not think we should be calling this new ad the ‘Malema Nandos ad’ because Malema does not feature in it anymore! Instead they have blocked out the face and edited the voice. But the ‘damage’ has already been done as everyone will still be calling it the Malema ad. I wonder what the ANC Youth League have to say now in response to this new ad? Theoretically they can not say anything! Watch this space. You can view the new ad below.
On the 9 May 2009, African National Congress President Jacob Zuma will become the President of South Africa. This comes after the ANC won an outright majority in the country’s fourth democratic elections which were held on the 22 April.
Before these elections, there was much talk from political and media analysts that the ANC would lose much of its support to the newly formed Congress of the People. This follows after former president Thabo Mbeki, was recalled from the presidential office, causing much of the electorate to lose confidence in the ruling party. This belief was fuelled by the increase in the number of registered first time voters since 1994, as this seemingly indicated an increase in the number of people disillusioned by the ANC. As the first day of counting drew to a close across South Africa however, it became clear that the ANC still had a vice grip over the majority of the vote of the people. In the end, the party obtained 65.9% of the national vote, just shy of the highly anticipated two thirds majority, proving once again that the ANC was still the people’s party and that Jacob Zuma would became the number one citizen of the Republic.
Many analysts had assumed the vote would swing away from the party with COPE taking a large portion of the ANC vote. This election victory can thus easily be described as momentous, as the party seems to have come out of an apparent crisis, with much of its support still intact. Despite the formation of break-away party COPE and the numerous legal woes which have plagued Jacob Zuma (which saw many people questioning his eligibility to stand for public office), 65.9% of registered South Africans still voted in favour of the charismatic leader.
The Malema vs Nandos saga continues! After the ANC Youth League had called for Malema’s Nandos ad to be taken off the air and Nandos had agreed to do so, we are now hearing that Nandos marketing manager, Sylvester Chauke, has decided Nandos will be airing a new Malema-related advert today (Friday). Chauke has said, “We agreed to address the youth league’s concerns and we will respond in a way that it is true to Nando’s.” One can only start to imagine what Nandos have up their sleeve now. I have a funny feeling the ANC Youth League is not going to be happy again with what we will see today, and this time it is really going to push them over the edge.
Is it wise for Nandos do be causing all this controversy? They are getting good publicity one must say and from a business marketing perspective that could be great for them. But at the same time the Youth League’s threats of militant action against Nandos should not go unnoticed.
I wonder if Malema himself will ever go and buy anything from a Nandos again?
Click here to view the new ad.
The Democratic Alliance (DA) can celebrate one thing: the got the most overseas votes and they won them by a land slide. It is a pity that they can not win by that margin when all the votes are put together. But then again, we asked this question before the elections with regards to how much these overseas votes would contribute to the bigger picture. The Democratic Alliance received 7 581 votes of the 9 857 cast from people who voted overseas. The African National Congress received 673 votes and the Congress of the People received 918.
What this result just goes to show is that the South Africans living overseas are not behind the ruling ANC party and that is probably the reason they left the country in the first place. And it is also interesting to note that COPE got more overseas votes than the ANC. Those in the diaspora really don’t like the ANC!
If you have not already watched the Nandos advert everyone is talking about then you need to watch it below! The ANC Youth League has been quick to come out and ask for this advert to be taken off the air or else it will “mobilise the people of South Africa to take militant action against Nandos and anything associated with Nando’s”. Does this mean they will go in and ‘invade’ every Nandos shop in South Africa like the war veterans did in Zimbabwe?
This is not the first time, and I do not think it will be the last time, that the media has a go at Malema. They seem to find him as an easy target to make fun of. There was the prank call not so long ago when Malema apparently spoke to Barack Obama.
What do you think of this Nandos advert?
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It is reported that former President Nelson Mandela was whisked off to an ANC rally last week by his grandson, chief Mandla Mandela and former ANC Youth League leader Fikile Mbalula. Why are they making the 90 year old Mandela do all this? I had thought that Mandela had decided to stay away from active politics now and take a much deserved break but that looks like it is not the case after his appearance at the ANC rally in Idutywa, Eastern Cape. Some have come out and said Mandela was ‘forced’ to go but I do not believe that. Surely Mandela can not be forced to do something he does not want to do so this trip to the rally was his own free will.
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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.”
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With the current political situation in South Africa, there is a fear that we could be headed into a phase of political violence in the build up to an election as we saw in Zimbabwe. Now many would think that this is not possible in South Africa but believe me, anything can happen and the writing is already on the wall.
The newly formed Congress of the People (COPE) has already had some problems from ANC supporters who have tried to stop their meetings from taking place or just purely pitched up at the COPE meetings and started to make noise and chant ANC slogans. It is clear that there is a section of ANC supporters out there who do not like COPE and would want COPE to fail and one way of achieving that could be through violence.
