Bafana Bafana - what's in a name?

Last week, SAFA (the South African Football Association) maintained its firm stance that it will not be purchasing the rights to use the Bafana Bafana name. And so, South Africans wait anxiously to know what to call their usually failing soccer squad.

Minister of Sports, Fikile Mbalula, offered his full backing to dump the Bafana name for a more intimidating option. The South African squad's current name, Bafana Bafana, translates to "the boys" in Zulu. One can only hope the SAFA has the foresight to register the trademark beforehand this time.

Given the rather sloppy election strategies by the ANC this year, it's not surprising that they haven't decided to campaign on the name change for the national team as part of the election process - a name for the people, by the people.

Perhaps they could call it Banyana Banyana, oh wait... that's taken too!

South Africa - Local election campaign strategies

It's that time of the year again and the Democratic Alliance (DA) and the African National Congress (ANC) are at loggerheads once more. What is interesting though is that there is a dramatic about-turn in campaign strategies between these two parties.

In 2009, the DA was determined to communicate that a vote for them would be one more vote against getting Zuma in power. There was absolutely nothing of substance in their campaign about how they were going to improve the lot of anybody. It was fear-mongering and nothing more than that. Their tack this year has changed significantly. There is talk about delivery and asking the public to give them a chance to prove their mettle - that is positive, and exactly what South Africa needs. More talk and perhaps even some credible promises will help build a credible opposition to the ANC.

The ANC strategy, on the other hand has been to put up huge billboards with Jacob Zuma's smiling face all over the countryside. They show pictures of him with towns folk - a man of the people. Julius Malema, as usual is their hardcore campaigner that drives the message of what people (and usually not businesses) want to hear home. It appears that the ANC is pushing the fear message this year - quite ridiculously so at that. Malema's statement at a town hall campaign meeting in Port Elizabeth warned residents of the Nelson Mandela Bay municipality that should they vote for the DA, they are risking Madiba's health getting even worse because of the additional strain (caused by a DA victory there).

The whole situation is quite a bizarre role reversal from 2009. If you haven't already, be sure to check out Wonkie's latest ANC vs DA local elections cartoon capturing the point exactly.

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On Jimmy Manyi and Racism in South Africa

It seems over the last few weeks there has been a return to the days of old in South Africa - with a small difference. That difference is an inversion of race from white to black.

Recent distasteful public comments by Jimmy Manyi to the tune of there being an over-supply of coloured people in the Western Cape and that Indians seem to be negotiating their way into senior corporate positions make me and no doubt many of my compatriots - regardless of their race - cringe.

So much for Nelson Mandela's ideals in terms of aspiring to a non-racial South Africa. Minister in the Presidency, Trevor Manuel, told Manyi in an open letter that:

"I now know who Nelson Mandela was talking about when he said from the dock that he had fought against white domination and that he had fought against black domination...

Jimmy, he was talking about fighting against people like you."

Manuel's letter whilst expressive did not garner as much support from the ANC powers that be with many critics like Paul Ngobeni calling him the worst order gangster. Interesting timing for the letter though given that the ANC is poorly placed in the Western Cape, particularly in the coloured community after Manyi's racist comments.

Considering Manyi is the president of the Black Management Forum, he should know better than to add fire to the flames by opting for a silence is golden strategy in response to Manuel's open letter. The Press Club has invited him to elaborate on his comments but he has refused to comment.

Until South Africa overcomes racism - regardless of whether it comes from black or white, or coloured or Indian for that matter - there is little chance of realising Mandela's dream. Judging by recent events, including the sacking of journalist Kuli Roberts for racist remarks in her column, South Africa sadly appears to be moving backwards instead of forwards.

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Nelson Mandela's health scare

This morning I woke up to an interesting take on the whole Nelson Mandela debacle that took place in South Africa over the last week. It is certainly understandable for people to be sad or concerned for the wellbeing of Mr Mandela but one cannot help get the feeling right now that there are more consequences around the frail leader's passing. This seems to be the point of view of our favourite South African blog at least, and I have to agree.

So the interesting take was this: if the public knows that Madiba is 92 years old and weak, why panic? What impending disaster does his death bring to the country? Instead of allowing an old veteran his dignity (and yes, I do accept that he is an iconic leader - but he is still a human being!), it seems the press and other local drama queens and kings are intent on being the last person he speaks to before he dies. Surely Mr Mandela has effectively said his goodbyes already some time back? Why make a big scene about it at every possible opportunity?

Last week I came across an interesting article on legacy coaching. South Africa knows what legacy Madiba leaves behind. his life has been an impactful one in so many different ways. One can only hope that the remaining time he has left he can spend with some grace and dignity - and most importantly in a way that he chooses to. At this stage in life, he should not be pandering to the public and least of all to the media.

Be sure to check out the full article and leave your thoughts on what will happen in South Africa when Nelson Mandela dies. In the meantime, one can only hope that Nelson Mandela Foundation and the SA government have sorted themselves out and implemented an agreed upon policy to communicate news about Mandela and other future country leaders.

Happy New Year and Happy Birthday!

Thought I'd start this year off with a bang and a blog post - there's been some delay in posting over the last year mostly because I've been in Canada and other more exotic places around the world.

All is well and I'm back in South Africa at least for a few months before leaving on my travels and work abroad with the UN.

So in terms of New Year's resolutions I've been a little slack over the last umm... decade or so but I do hope to be more diligent this year.. at least one blog post per month in 2011 - should not be a huge stretch (except for laziness!) Needless to say I also continue to endeavour to write for our beloved South Africa news blog whenever I get a chance. I think there's going to be plenty of material coming forth over the next few months so certainly no shortage of writing topics.

All the very best for the New Year - 2011 is going to be a great year!

Mechanics of Justice: Form and Substance

One can only wonder what the South African public are thinking when issues such as the one around PigSpotter come about. Of more concern to me though is what the government itself is thinking.

Without repeating the content of Mistry's excellent article on Wonkie, the function of government in any country is to serve and protect its citizens. And it is necessarily this underlying intention that needs to drive the justice system. So in the case of PigSpotter, a twitter account that basically warns the public of speed traps, road blocks and other traffic disruptions, the question remains: does the public ultimately benefit? And certainly I believe they do. If the goal of the traffic authority is to ensure people drive prudently especially in high accident risk areas, then certainly PigSpotter is aiding the cause. In fact rather than reprimand him, the government should probably be hiring him to continue with the same job.

Unfortunately that is not the case and the authorities are trying to legally gun the rogue public reporter down. Is it that the traffic department is motivated primarily by the revenue generation opportunity that speeding fines represent? And is it possible that PigSpotter is seen as merely reducing this revenue stream? Quite possibly so.

Another argument is of course that the rule of law needs to be followed objectively and without discretion if corruption is to be kept at bay. Is it ok to warn the public about speed cameras and also crime check roadblocks? Clearly both of those are not the same. The latter certainly does defeat the ends of justice and the public should quite rightly be willing to bear the inconvenience of those delays.. particularly given their regular whinge about crime.

In the end, the point is that the substance of the law - not the form of it - should be the deciding factor in whether the action is just or not. So in the PigSpotter case, the authorities should catch PigSpotter because he is breaking the law. Upon judgement though, he should be found not guilty only for the disclosure of the speed trap locations and guilty for defeating the ends of justice with respect to disclosing roadblock locations.

I miss Africa

The fact that I'm sitting out here in the freezing cold in the middle of nowhere apparently doing some good and charitable work is unfortunately little consolation to me right now. I miss Africa and I miss it dearly.

Not that there aren't creature comforts in Canada (yes, there are - even out here in rural North America). In fact you can barely even feel the cold given you don't often wander around aimlessly in the street at subzero temperatures. What I miss most of all is the people.

People here admittedly are warm and friendly despite the harsh climate. But there's a certain colloquilism missing, for lack of a better term. It's a different kind of warmth I have struggled to find outside the developing world. I miss feeling relaxed and able to speak my own language... any of them actually besides English - and actually have people understand me and the expressions I use.

Sigh - I guess I am entitled to whine and rant once in a while on my blog instead of just discussing issues that really matter. For once I can say though that I miss home - the diversity, the sense of humour, the stinky taxis and even the crime. Some real issues to deal with instead of the intellectual ones debated in the first world - i.e. whether we should be calling policemen policemen or police people... grrr..

I really do miss writing on the South Africa news too - have barely had the time to cover anything on Wonkie recently, let alone the executive coaching articles I promised I would mug up for friends after my last post on personal development. Still, it's just a few weeks more before I'm back to the motherland - I rarely say this about going home but I cannot wait this time! I miss Africa!