A chronology of events

A chronology of events:
(I will finish it later! Incomplete at present)

June 2005 - Rumors of political conspiracy against Zuma.
14 June 2005 - Thabo Mbeki fires Jacob Zuma as deputy president of the country.
29 June 2005 - Zuma makes his first appearance in court, charged with two counts of corruption. There were more than a thousand supporters outside the courthouse. Zuma says that he his pleased that his day in court has finally arrived.
31 June 2005 - Zuma's trial was due to start, but postponed for four months.
2 November 2005 - The night on which Zuma was accused of raping a lady.
12 November 2005 - Zuma handed the NPA's provisional indictment against him, at the Durban magistrate's court. The court proceedings were much more low key, with less supporter chaos, than the June court proceeding.
10 September 2008 - At ANCYL anniversary function, Julius Malema tells us: "We will crush you and it doesn't matter who you are - even if you're in the national executive committee of the ANC. Zuma is going to Pretoria. Zuma will be the face of the ANC election campaign, so be careful when you deal with Zuma because you are dealing with a president-in-waiting. We expect Zuma to march with us to the Union Buildings and (President Thabo Mbeki) knows that there's a new person coming in."
11 Spetember 2008 - Approximately 500 people attend a night vigil for Zuma, opposite the courthouse where his case will be ruled on the following day.
12 September 2008 - Zuma wins court application, Judge Chris Nicholson rules that the NPA's decision to prosecute Zuma on fraud and corruption charges was invalid because the state did not consult Zuma before it prosecuted him. The judge also implicates the presidency in a conspiracy against Zuma.
12 September 2008 - An informal caucus of NEC members meets on the courthouse steps and decide to remove Mbeki.
13 September 2008 - Thabo Mbeki told to resign by ANC NEC.
14 September 2008 - Thabo Mbeki hands in his resignation.

Reeling from the news

I was writing the blog post below last night and I left it to finish today. But I just have no stomach for it now. Today President Mbeki was recalled as president by the ANC. He has agreed to resign, and will probably do so early next week. Tomorrow evening at 7:30pm he will be addressing the nation. No guesses where I will be at 7:30, in front of the TV!

I think Pitso's why questions sum up the situation pretty well at the moment.

The post I started last night:

Okay okay I admit it, I'm a not so secret Thabo Mbeki fan. I just like the man. What can I say? I suppose thats a bit ridiculous really, I've never even net him. But nonetheless, I quite dig our president.

I think it was my season of reading his "Letter from the President" on ANC Today. They really were one of the highlights on my week.

Anyway, however you feel about our president, he is having a bit of a hard time at the moment. I normally quite like people and I try to be sympathetic to their views, even if I don't particularly agree with them. But on this occasion, people are being downright stupid, disrespectful and vindictive.

Thought of the day: Simulcast

Remember watching Beverly Hills 90210 on Simulcast?

For the youngsters and the non-South Africans, let me explain. Beverly Hills 90210 was a show based in the USA, in English. But for broadcast in South Africa it was dubbed into Afrikaans. And for those who wanted to listen to it in English, there was a radio broadcast of the show, in English, at the same time as the show was aired on TV. So you could tune in your radio, turn off the TV sound, and listen to the show in English. Sometimes the speech and pictures would get a bit out of sinc, but that was just par for the course. Some TVs even came with "simulcast" radio featues, where the TV itself could be tuned in to the radio and you could get your sound from the radio station automatically.

Remember?

Now lets think about this for a moment. The programme came over to us from the US in English. We then dubbed it into Afrikaans and broadcast it in Afrikaans. And made secondary provision for those who wanted to listen to it in English.

Wow, what a mission.

But it just goes to show that people were serious about promoting their language. And it also goes to show that it is quite possible to find innovative ways of including many languages, if we care to do it.

Question of the day: MK

My question of the day:

What happened to former Umkhonto we Sizwe (MK) soldiers?

Reading around a bit, it looks like some of them joined the SANDF. What proportion was this? Did most of them join the SANDF? Or relatively few? And those that didn't? Were they helped out in any way? By the ANC or by government? What about families of deceased MK soldiers? I read about the MKMVA - the MK Military Vetrans' Association. What do they do? Do they actually help former MK guys out? And MK widows and families?

I was looking at an old 1994-ish era newspaper and I noticed a big picture of about five MK soldiers, looking pretty happy, in their camo. Celebrating the beginning of democracy I guess. And the picture made me sad. Because I thought, a former MK soldier, maybe he was 24 in 1990, and apartheid was ending, hooray, and MK was disbanded. And I wondered what happened to him? He probably didn't have much of an education. Maybe he left school at 17 to go for MK training over the border. So what then, for him? Does he have a family to support?

And really I don't have much of an idea of what happened to guys like those in the picture. I hope someone helped them out. I hope there were measures in place for them.

Because I would hate to think that people who fought for the freedom of my country were marginalised when that freedom was won. Young people who sacrificed a lot. Took up arms. Probably left their families and even South Africa for a time. Constantly under threat. Goodness I hope they didn't wake up to a country that didn't have place for them.

We may or may not agree with the armed struggle, what was done and what motivated it, but either way I think we need to acknowledge people who sacrificed a lot for our country.

So does anyone know? What happened to former MK soldiers?

The one with the knife

This blog is another shameless Grahamstown plug, I'm afraid!

Yesterday I was waiting for someone on the street outside my block of flats. I got an sms to say that they were going to be late so I walked back into the flats, past some workmen who were working on the front of the building, preparing to paint or something.

I caught their eyes as I walked past, so I greeted them. One of the guys called me over and asked me if he could borrow a knife.

Borrow a knife?

So I thought that maybe they wanted a butter knife. For sandwiches. In which case I would be entirely happy lending it to them. Then I thought, maybe they need a knife to scrape paint off the wall. Because that is what they were doing. In which case I do not want to lend them a knife, because it will get messed up. Then I thought, perhaps they want a knife to stab me with. And then I definitely don't want to lend them a knife.

So I asked them what they wanted to use the knife for. And they kind of mumbled about. So I persisted because I didn't want to lend them a knife to be destroyed scraping a wall and I most certainly didn't want to give them a knife to, uh, knife me with. Also, I wanted to know what kind of knife they wanted. Eventually they came out with it - they wanted it to peel a pineapple with.

Okay.

So I walked upstairs and as I got a little bit past them they turned to each other, made some comments and laughed. Probably because of the ridiculous girl who was scared to lend them a knife in case they stabbed her. Embarassing.

After having a laugh at what I expect was my expense, one of the guys followed me to fetch the knife.

And as I was walking I thought, oh dear, I hope this guy doesn't actually have bad intentions. Because a strange man is following me into my home and I am going to give him a knife with pineapple cutting capabilities.

But I was pretty sure it would be fine.

So I lent the guy a knife.

And he took it and they cut their pineapple.

And returned it.

Yayi for living in a town where I don't have to feel scared lending knives to strangers.