Moremogolo & Laura on free education

This post is a response to Moremogolo's comments on my post "The ANC Election Manifesto." His comments in green, my responses in black. If you have anything you would like to add, I invite you to comment below.

I will however like to take issue with your view that you are not for things like free education and would maybe support exemption for poor parents to not pay for their kids' education. I would like to believe that this is exactly what the ANC is pushing for but the unfortunate thing is that most of the people in the townships and rural areas cannot afford to pay school fees, hence the exemption of most schools from paying fees.

Maybe we should also define what we mean by free education. I know a lot of white students who received free education through bursaries and scholarships from companies and corporations who got rich as a result of cheap labour in SA. Mind you, rather than paying taxes most of these companies would rather make their contribution through bursaries and scholarships, which is laudable.

A few Black professionals are where they are as a result of being recipients of these bursaries. But there is a lot of bright Black students who were excluded from university as a result of failure to pay for their fees, students whose parents could never afford to pay for their fees even if they wanted to. There are also countless pupils in primary and high school who have been excluded from school because their parents could not afford to pay.

Okay, let me start my response here...
At the moment the government requires children up to the age of 15 (I think) to attend school. This means that up to the age of 15 every child *must* be in school, whether their parents can afford it or not. So to facilitate this, school are required to offer school fee exemptions to parents who cannot afford school fees. And their are regulations for doing this (I found a nice explanation here by googling for school fee exemptions). So if your family earns less that ten times the school fees, you pay nothing. If you earn between ten and thirty times then... etc. etc.
Exactly how these exemptions work is up to the governing body of the school, as I understand it. It is also up to the governing body to decide what the school fees should be to start with.

So there should be no student under the age of 15 who is excluded from school because their parents can't pay.

You have been speaking about school education as well as tertiary education, but in this response let me just speak about school education. I'll reply to your points on tertiary education in another post.

And just one more thing before I continue - there is no such thing as free education. Someone has to pay for buildings and salaries and books and electricity and water and so forth. When you say you want free education you mean you want the government to pay for our education. And the government gets its money from citizens (rich and poor - everyone pays VAT). So effectively what you are saying it that every citizen of the country should be forced to pay to educate all of the youth of our country.

Most of the white kids and a few black ones who went to these exclusive private schools because their parents could afford received multiple bursaries and scholarships to study at university. Whereas if you are poor and black and have been fed inferior education and you manage to escape the trap, chances of you getting those scholarship and bursaries are next to nothing. There are countless number of such students who could not go into tertiary education because they could not afford to pay a registration fee.

Now of we are really serious about doing away with this dependency syndrome and getting a productive nation we have to ensure that our nation gets educated. Not this situation where parents know that if their kids go to public schools in the township they are doomed for failure because education there is free and they ought to be grateful for whatever handouts they get. Free should never be equated to useless.

We should not have any useless school. I completely agree. Why are schools useless? Definitely historical disadvantage is a problem. Some schools have inferior buildings. Inferior equipment. Less well educated teachers. These are problems.
But are they the main thing that makes a school useless?
I put it to you that no, that is not what makes schools useless. What makes schools useless is:
a) Bad leadership
b) Bad administration
c) Useless teachers
Not uneducated teachers, useless teachers. Teachers who miss school a couple of days a week, just for just. Teachers who just couldn't be bothered. The stories I hear about schools in my area blow my mind. Teachers who are late marking exam scripts from the previous term's exams, so they just bunk school for a few days to do the marking.
And bad administration - missing textbooks, not ordering textbooks in time, mismanagement of funds. Buildings falling into disrepair. I saw pictures the other day of a school close to me where the boy's toilets have been out of order and locked FOR TWO YEARS.
And kids coming and going all hours of the school day. Kids lounging around on the playground all hours of the school day. Terrible discipline.

Are these problems that will be fixed by making education free? No. Are these problems that will be fixed by government giving more money to these schools? No. These are social problems, they cannot be solved simply by government throwing money at the problem.

You just have to look at the situation in Zimbabwe to see what education can do. The economy of that country is in ruin but the Zimbabweans are surviving against all odds. This is because they are an educated lot and they are all over the world selling their skills and keeping their families alive at home. Mugabe ensured that each child receives quality and free education.

Cuba is one of the poorest nations in the world but it can export its skills for free all over the world and it has literacy skills unmatched in the world. This is because they have ensured that their citizens recieves free quality education.

Through quality and accessible education we can get our country to dream. What we are being offered now is nowhere near that....

I completely agree that quality education is *really* important. But making it free won't make it quality. In fact, I read an article last year where the principal of one of these new no-fee schools was saying that it was a disaster for them, because the money they get from government is barely enough to scrape by, and now they are not allowed to supplement their money from the government with school fees.

No. There is already an accommodation for parents who can't afford school fees - let them apply for exemptions. But most people can afford to pay something, even if it is a small amount. So let people pay what they can to give their children opportunities in life.

The way schools are meant to be run is that they have quite a lot of freedom to be organised by school governing bodies, who represent the parents. Because ultimately it is the parent who is responsible for a child, and the childs education. Not the government. (The government can step in to help, by subsidising schooling and requiring schools to offer exemptions, but ultimately parents have the responsibility for their children.)

The problem is, in the words of Trevour Manuel - Governing bodies only work in the leafy suburbs. Where there is a long standing culture of parents holding bake sales and sitting on school committees and overseeing the schools finances.

So schools in disadvantaged areas are... disadvanteged... by this. But again, it is not a problem that will be solved by making education free.

You said in your post here, "And free education here does not mean the kind of education that our students receive in the townships." So it seems to me that he emphasis of your request is not actually on free education, but quality education. And you also say, "And schools should be well resourced and if parents want to contribute to the resourcefulness of the school they should be allowed to do so." Isn't this just a description of school fees? School governing bodies, representing the parents, get together and decide on an amount of money they will pay towards their children's schooling? Then that amount of money becomes binding on all of the parents, and they all pay (if they are not exempt). And of course this means that in more opulent areas, at schools that more opulent kids attend, fees will be higher...

... and they will receiver better education.

Probably. But is their better education primarily because fees are higher? Well, yes and no, I would say. Money does help. It may mean they have a fancy pool and a computer lab and more hands on science equipment. Which is helpful. For sure. It may mean they have better educated teachers, which is helpful, but not critical. It could also mean smaller classes, which is a good thing.

But I expect that the main reason that their education is better is that their teachers are in class every day. Working hard. That kids sit in school for the entire school day. Working hard. They get their textbooks at the beginning of the year. Their school time is structured. Classes are kept in order and difficult kids are disciplined. Kid's aren't coming to school hungry or missing a lot of school. Year after year after year.

And many years of getting these small basic things right adds up to a good education.

Of course, another issue is that they have probably been taught in their home language for their entire school careers - but that is another discussion for another day.

I suppose to summarise:
I definately think we need to up the quality of our schooling. And it is something government need to take part in (especially in provinces like the Easter Cape where the Education Department is in shambles and really making things bad for schools) and it is something that parents and communities need to take part in. Things as simple as insisting your child goes to school every day, and on time. And sits down to do school work after school every day. And kids need to take their education seriously. Even if you are learning in a class with 50 other kids and no electricity, you still make the choice whether to go to class or not. Whether to listen in class or not. Whether to do your homework or not. Whether to take advantage of additional programmes that are run all over the place - extra maths maths lessons, science lessons, dance, sport, clubs.

But I think cries for "free education" are misplaced. It is just not the solution to the problem we face. If we tomorrow made all schooling free it would only make every school equally financially disadvantaged. And the schools that are "socially" disadvantaged will remain socially disadvantaged, the schools that are socially advantaged will remain socially advantaged.

And anyway, parents should have the right to better their children's education by financing it. Sadly in SA not everyone has the means to do that. But that is not a problem with the education system, it is a problem with our society. And lack of finance is not the key issue anyway, as I have said.

BUT

I definately think drastic measures need to be taken to impove our education system.

Making education free just isn't one of them.

I think it is interesting that educaion was one of the major tools the apartheid government used to oppress people. And for the sake of justice I think that education for "previously disadvantaged" communities must be a priority of our nation. Our government too, but also our whole nation.





(Gosh that got long! Apologies for long windedness!!)

An appeal

I was going to do a blog post about Gadaffi's female bodyguards. (He is such an odd man - on the new yesterday he was quoted as saying that Somalian pirates are just protecting themselves from the greed of the west... see here.)

But instead I put to you this semi-urgent appeal...

My church is having an "African fusion" evening this week. Which should be much fun. We did it last year too and the theme was "telling our stories" and it was great.

Anyway, one of the organisers of this years event asked me this morning to participate, to share some funny stories about race.

So I impulsively said yes.

Eeek. Silly silly of me.

Now I am completely blank. And I have to stand in front of a crowd of people and tell stories about race that:
a) Make people laugh.
b) Don't offend people and ruin the evening.

And there are few more sensitive issues than race. Eeek. So I'm really not sure what to do.

So yes, I call upon you all, gentle readers, to help me out. Please, any ideas? And stories? :)

Blog Post of the Day

I was going to write a post about Gadhafi and his female bodyguards (it's true! I will blog about it tomorrow!) but I just found this most fantastic blog entry that I will share instead:

In defense of Jacob Zuma.

It is incredibly informative.

I tried earlier in the year to figure out what actually happened with the Zuma trial(s) over the years, by wading through online news articles. Which was a bit of a pain really, hacking my way through the search function on iol.co.za and mg.co.za. It was not particularly illuminating either.

But the blog post above is fantastic. And I'm only half way through reading it
:)

The ANC Election Manifesto

I'm sorry, I promised ages ago that I would say something about the ANC election manifesto. And I had very good intentions and looked for it online and everything... then somehow life got busy and we now have this prepaid internet at home so I feel less free messing around online...

Excuses excuses!

Anyway, so let me add my random thoughts on the ANC election manifesto:

* Jobs
I must say, I am a bit cynical about this one. Their emphasis in the manifesto is on "decent" jobs - Blande Nzimande (I think it was him) who spoke before Zuma at the manifesto launch mentioned that the staff in the hotel they were staying at had been contract workers for something like 15 years. So the ANC wants to create not just work, but decent work. And the manifesto speaks about "laws regulating contract work, subcontracting and out-sourcing." Which maybe has some merit, but makes me a bit nervous too. I definitely think people shouldn't be exploited, but you also just don't want give government too much control... Next thing you will have to apply to government whenever you hire or fire anyone...
They mentioned an expanded public works programme, and that I think is a good idea.
I don't know... I really am cynical about the government saying "job creation!" I really think the government has very limited power to create jobs. And it has been "creating jobs" for 15 years now without dramatic effect. I think the "creating jobs" line is something we would all really like to see happen. But government can't actually promise to deliver on it...

* Rural development
Personally, I think this is a really important issue.
I often drive past these little villages in the Eastern Cape and wonder how things are for them. I really don't have much of an idea, actually. But every now and then I hear stories of horrible crimes in the ruralish areas around East London and I just hope they have some sort of access to police out there...?? I wonder. And every now and then I'll bump into some poor lady in the street who has come into town to buy prepaid electricity and doesn't really know what to do (Its probably a scam, I'm such a sucker).
Anyway, those incidences just made me wonder about it.
So yes, its just something I think is really worth focusing on as a nation. Lots of SA citizens live in rural areas and I hope they are benefiting from our prospering society like we are.
And then of course there is the land reform issue. I know it makes some people hyperventilate, but it really does need to happen. And we are either going to do it carefully and properly now or its just doing to become a disaster further down the line...

* Youth
I am really not a socialist at all. I don't believe that grants are the answer to anything. And I am not a fan of the "free education" ideal. And the idea of "no fee" schools... I can totally understand what motivates that, but it seems to me that is just strangles the schools' ability to run themselves. I really understand the desire to make education available to people, but I think having school fee concession that poor families can apply for is a much better idea than generic no fee schools.
So anyway, the ANC's free education plan doesn't appeal to me. But I do appreciate that they are emphasising youth development, which I think is important.
Interesting that they said that they will "provide incentives for mathematics and science teachers" - I would like to see what comes of that!

* Corruption
Zuma specifically mentioned the issue of local government corruption, of giving tenders to friends and that sort of thing. I thought that was *really* good. Of course, speaking about it is one thing and actually doing something to sort out the problem is another. But I thought it was pretty significant that the ANC prioritised it enough to put in on the election manifesto.
Interesting that the manifesto explicitly says - "Establish and strengthen the new unit to fight organised crime"
Maybe they should just rename the new unit "the scorpions" and use the same logo and pretend they never disbanded the old one ;)


All in all, I though the election manifesto was pretty good. Again, I am anti big-government-control and large-scale government hand outs... so I really don't agree with the ANC's emphasis on grants and free this and that. But I also know that poverty needs to be tackled somehow. I just don't think that's the best way. Which is one of the reasons I myself do not vote ANC.

I also think the manifesto was a bit pie in the sky. But I suppose things like election manifestos always are. *Everyone* wants to fight crime and create jobs and empower the youth... the difficult thing is not saying it, its doing it.

But beyond that, I thought the manifesto hit the right notes. It addressed the things that I would consider pressing issues at the moment. And I really appreciated the emphasis on things like tackling corruption and "putt[ing] every elected official and public servant to work for our people, and ensur[ing] accountability to our people..."

(You can find the manifesto on the ANC website if you want to read it for yourselves.)

Sunday thoughts

I know I said I would blog about the ANC election manifesto this weekend. But right now I am supposed to be working, and also, to be honest, all of this current affairs talk has tired me out. So I am still going to blog about the manifestos (ANC and others!!). But for now a quick quick entry with three random things that are on my mind this sunny Sunday.

1) I aske my flatmate if I could join her visiting a new church in a couple of weeks. So she warned me that I would be the only person of colour... which made me laugh :)

2) There is a SADC meeting tomorrow to salvage the Zim unity talks. One of my flatmates suggested that we fast and pray for the talks tomorrow, which I thought was a great idea. So I'm just putting it out there as a suggestion to all who read this.

3) I was watching this adorable little girl in church this morning and it reminded me of a thought I had while watching the movie "Australia" recently. The movie is so-so (it depends on your taste I suppose), but the little boy who plays one of the lead roles is the cutest thing *ever.* And he is what they used to call in Australia a "half-caste" - someone with mixed a white and Abouriginal heritage. But wow, he was beautiful. People of mixed descent are generally just the most beautiful people. I think it must be God's way of approving :)




Oh an I just read MoAfrika's blog post on the COPE election manifesto launch (THANK YOU FOR GOING!!!) I had been looking for pictures of it an finding nothing so I was wonderfully pleased to see he put pics up! I recommend eveyone go and check it out!

COPE Manifesto launch

I'm pretty disappointed that I can't attend the COPE Election manifesto launch in Port Elizabeth on Saturday.

So this post is an encouragement to others to go. And take pictures and report back to us. So we can live vicariously through you :)

News reporting of these kinds of events is usually awful, all you see is shots of people in yellow shirts and two minutes of some big shot making a speech. But what we really want to know, is how did it *feel* to be there? What were people talking about, what were people getting excited about? What was the response of the crowd like?

So yes, please go and let us know!

The details are:

THE MANIFESTO LAUNCH, PORT ELIZABETH THIS WEEKEND!!!

Manifesto Launch Programme – Kwa Zakhele township, Wolfsen stadium, Port Elizabeth, 24 January 2008

A New Agenda for change and hope for all

08:00 Gates open for arrival of attendants
09:00 – 10:30 Light entertainment by Deborah Fraser and other groups
10:30 – 11:00 Arrival of leadership and a walk about.
11:00 – 12:00 Commencement of formal Programme
MC: Mbazima Shilowa
• National anthem
• Welcome address by COPE chair in the Eastern Cape
• Interfaith prayers
• Item of song: Bala Brothers
• Acknowledgement of dignitaries
• Messages of support
12:00 – 12:15 Recruitment announcements by MC
12:15 Manifesto keynote address by President of COPE:
Mosiuoa Lekota
13:00 Change for Hope concert MC: Hlomla Dandala
Various artists
15:00 Rally concludes

If you are in need of transport, there are contact details for regional COPE leaders on the COPE Eastern Cape Facebook page, and details of transport arrangements should be up on that same Facebook page soon.

And if you are in the Grahamstown region and you want transport you can also drop me a line and I will give to contact details for COPE people from here
:)

Election Debates

Some friends and I have started a Sunday night Election Debate tradition. We all meet up to watch the SABC 2 Election Debates and then fight with each other about it afterwards. It is awesome.

We are planning a special extra session for the Obama inauguration tomorrow :)

The Election Debate this Sunday was on crime. It wasn't too exciting, to be honest. But there was one priceless moment:
The ANC was being represented by Deputy Justice Minister Johnny de Lange. There was a lot of talk about corruption in the police force, and in local government. So, exasperated, Deputy Minister de Lange burst out with "If anyone is aware of any corruption, I invite them to contact me personally about it!!" (Or something along those lines). It was pretty hysterical, the whole audience responded with a spontaneous outcry to the effect of "are you kidding??!" And the four of us watching on TV practically fell off our couches with laughter.

Lets assume for a moment that he was serious. I looked up his email address...

Advocate Johnny de Lange: jdelange AT justice DOT gov DOT za

So guys, if your local Home Affairs officials want some cash before they will sort out your work permit, or a cop offers to overlook your speeding if... or you've experienced any corruption from police or whatever... drop him a line :)

Drama in East London

I was in EL last week for the ANC election manifesto extravaganza. The whole town was abuzz... cars like the one in the picture above and ANC posters on all of the streetlights.

I went to the election manifesto launch on Saturday, which was an experience and a half. My brother and I were dropped off in a car park a few blocks away from the stadium and we walked to stadium from there, following the crowds. Unfortunately I was too skaam to take pictures of the event itself... I felt rather conspicuous being the only white person (alongside my brother) I saw there, and taking out my camera and taking photos seemed like it might be pushing my luck. I took one or two surreptitiously on my cellphone though:


The event started at 9 or 10 am (different posters advertised different starting times) but I'm told people were arriving at 6am... and I think many out of town people were bussed in and arrived the pervious day, or in the wee hours of the morning. The formal televised speeches were to start at around 11 so my bro and I arrived at about 10:30. And made our way to the stadium, as I said.

It took me about half an hour to realise the stadium we were in was actually the OVERFLOW stadium! In East London the rugby stadium is right next to the athletics stadium thingy. We were on the athletics field, watching the speakers on those big screens you can see in the picture above. I was looking around to see where they were actually speaking from, thinking the stage might face another part of the stadium. Till I realised the actual event was happening in the ABSA rugby stadium next door! People were pretty packed into the athletics stadium, so I can only imagine what the rugby stadium must have been like. So it is a pity I missed out on being in the main stadium - but maybe for the best!

But anyway, it was very worthwhile. I got to see Julius Malema semi-live, up to his new "selling South Africa to the British" antics (shame I actually felt for him, he was given about 3 minutes to speak, before the proceedings went live! I think he must be persona non grata in the ANC at the moment), Vavi (eish boring), Nzimande (charismatic, lots of "amandla"-ing), Zuma (mshini wam!) and a couple of other speakers. But mostly it was nice just to be there and catch the vibe. And get horribly sunburned.

And maybe the best part of it all was that my brother, who I draaaaged to come along with me, said it really gave him food for thought.

On TV we often see snippets of events like these, and it always seems like angry scary chaotic yellow-T-shirt people shouting. Which is so bad really, because it wasn't like that at all. But let me not begin a tirade against the media, I'm beginning to sound like an ANCYL ;)

Random

Yesterday I walked to the shops a block or so from me. And for most of the way there was a man walking a bit behind me. Maybe about half way or three-quarters of the way there he caught up with me.

And for the rest of the way, he walked beside me. Lecturing me about the dangers of women walking alone!!

Really. He was almost irritated. "What would happen if some men jump on you?? And if I tried to protect you? I might get shot!" etc. etc.

So I just repeatedly mumbled "yes sir, sorry sir." :)

Which reminded me of another incident...

Some time ago I completely impulsively picked up a hitch hiker. In town, I was turning a corner and some guy walking past the corner asked me for a lift. And it was really hot and he was walking and really just impulsively I stopped the car and told him to hop in and asked where he wanted to go.

He only wanted to go a couple of blocks in the direction I was going. But he spent the whole trip lecturing me about the dangers of picking up hitch hikers. For serious.

I think he was just chancing it and it *completely* surprised him when I picked him up.

But it was pretty funny to be chastised for picking up hitch hikers by... a hitch hiker. :)

Pretty Graphs

Nomalanga recently accused me of being an odd sort of a physicist.

So in order to prove my physicistness! :)
I love numbers. I love statistics, making sense of numbers. I *love* graphs. When I heard the matric results were out I typed a whole lot of them into a spreadsheet to see what the mark distribution looked like (I was wondering if it was more bimodal or normal, but that is another blog post for another day!)

So for this blog post let me tell you about some pretty graphs I noticed the other day on the IEC website.

"We are deeply concerned though over low levels of registration and voting among younger people." Ms B Bam, chairperson of the IEC, from here.

Ok. Lets see what the data says :)
First a pretty graph from Statistics SA, Census 2001 data, made by yours truly:


Ok what is this graph saying? It is the percentage of the population in each age group (15-19, 20-29, etc) per province. The provinces are in the key on the right: EC = Eastern Cape, FS = Free State, etc.

But what does is it actually tell us? Lots... but the things to note are:
1) More young people.
The population of younger people is bigger.
2) Not much difference between provinces.
The trend of more young people is pretty much the same over all of the provinces. Some differences, here and there, which are interesting in and of themselves. But overall, the trend of "more young people" is present across all of the provinces. Particularly the population increase from 30-39 to 20-29.

So because there are more young people, we would expect more young registered voters. In every province.

Okay, now some pretty graphs from the IEC website:


Okay, now what is *this* pretty graph saying?
Again, lots. But for our purposes, the important thing is that there are *less* registered voters in the 20-29 bracket than in the 30-39 bracket.

But wait, our first graph showed that there are *more* people in the 20-29 bracket than in the 30-39 bracket. (For the purpose of this discussion, lets ignore the 18-19 bracket because it is only 2 years. So "youth" = 20-29.)

Ok, so that is interesting. So there really are problems with low levels of young people registering to vote.

Is the registration trend the same across all 9 provinces? Well, rather than bore you with more graphs (that you can find on the IEC website yourself), let me just put up the two most extreme ones:

Gauteng on the left has (relatively) the least number of youth (20-29) voters. In Gauteng there are 50% more voters in the 30-39 bracket than in the 20-29 bracket. And the Western Cape pretty much the same. Thats a pretty huge difference.

On the other end of the scale, the Eastern Cape has a similar number of voters in the 20-29 bracket and the 30-39 bracket. When you compare the numbers across sexes, the Eastern Cape has about 5% more voters in the youth bracket and Limpopo is much the same. In Mpumalanga the numbers are pretty much equal in the two brackets.

Ok. Thats interesting. So in Gauteng, and the Western Cape, we have significantly lower levels of youth voter registration. Probably the two wealthiest provinces, and amongst the most urbanised.
And on the other hand: in the Eastern Cape, our poorest province, and Limpopo we have relatively the largest number of youth voters. The numbers in the youth bracket are still lower than we would expect from the first population demographics graph. But youth registration is best in... the Eastern Cape, Limpopo, Mpumalanga.
Poor provinces. More rural. Better youth voter registration.

Interesting huh?
I certainly didn't know that.
I wonder why?

As an aside: Lets look at the first graph again for a second. Gauteng is the only province where the percentage of people in the 10-19 bracket is *less* than in the 20-29 bracket. (Perhaps because of adult movement to the province?) And in the Western Cape the percentage in both brackets is almost equal. So relatively less teenagers in the wealthiest provinces. Also the provinces with the highest matric pass rates. Interesting!

See, look what we discovered from looking at four little graphs :)
What fun.

Strange stories at The Sowetan

I just wrote a post about the strangest series of articles recently published by The Sowetan. I eventually decided to post the ... uh ... post on ONC Today, here.

But seriously, check it out. It is mostly about this "expose" The Sowetan did of a guy in Meyerton who was accused by his domestic worker of assaulting her. But then it turned out he had quite a few other charges against him. But the local magistrate was his buddie, so he had been getting away with all of it.

What is really interesting though is that I can't find any other newspapers reporting on it. I tried iol. I tried news24. I tried the Mail and Guardian. I even tried google. And had no luck.

Maybe The Sowetan is not so reputable - is it? I have no idea myself. But even if The Sowetan was blowing it out of proportion, it still seems newsworth to me. Why no cover in other papers? It is all very curious.

My 2c on JZ

For whoever cares. My 2am 2 cents on Jacob Zuma.

Firstly, concerns I have with JZ:

• Casual sex - not the kind of morality I would like to see in my president.
• That odd idea that as a Zulu man he had some responsibility to "fulfill" an aroused woman? Huh? And she was asking for it because she was wearing a Kanga? Thats a pretty unsettling view of women.
• The fact that he has so many wives and children. I fully accept that this is just a matter of a person's culture and people are quite free to live as they please in that respect. But along those same lines, I am free to want a president whose culture best fits in with my idea of how the world works and my morality. Biased? Of course. But that is why we have many parties to choose between. Everyone follows their own bias.
  And even if we set aside the polygamy thing, I think that is it pretty impossible for someone to run a household that big. So completely outside of the morality issue, I just think that it points to someone who is not managing his life, his affairs, his relationships well. Who can be a father to 18 children? Who can pay for 18 children to go to university?
  
• The corruption trial hanging over him. And although it looks like the NPA bungled the investigation beyond redemption, it does look like JZ is guilty on some counts.
• What I view as a lack of honourable, inspiring leadership. Maybe I am wrong in this, but I feel like he has had SO MANY opportunities to impress in this respect. He could have taken a strong stand against Malema's statements. He could have asked the angry crowds outside his various court cases to calm down, stop burning posters. He could have called for people to stop attacking the judiciary when it was inconvenient for him to do so (not when things had just gone in his favour!). He could make a strong statement about ANC members not harassing COPE members, and COPE's right to do their thing. So very many opportunities for him to stand up and lead virtuously. Take the moral high ground. He has just never done it, as far as I can see. Even his criticism of the Zim situation - it might sound noble, but it is a cheap nobility. Because he is not involved in the talks, he is not responsible for the outcome, he is not dealing with the situation himself. Let us see him take a noble stand on something that actually costs him something.
  

Non-concerns:

• The shower thing. (WHAT?? Did she just say the shower thing isn't a bit deal?? IT IS!!) Nah, I really think it was probably just something he said in the moment. And I think this idea of "OUR PRESIDENT CAN'T THINK SHOWERS CURE AIDS!!!!" is just people who already had issues with him exploiting (ad nauseum) a mistake he made. And Zapiro's cartoons with Zuma with the shower head? Irritating.
• JZ is a rapist. Eish I have qualms about his morals, his treatment of women, his attitudes toward women. But he wasn't found guilty of rape, so lets not call him a rapist. Even if the way he treats women makes us very angry and we want to insult him.
• The corruption trial. Wait, but this was on the "concerns" list! Yup, it was. And it does look like he was guilty, doesn't it? But at this stage the NPA have been trying to nail him for about 5 million years. And messing things up repeatedly. Also, lets be real about this, it does look like there has been something of a conspiracy against him. By pretty high level people. And whatever dodginess he was involved in, there were surely other high-profile people also involved - who are not being investigated. So if Zuma's hands are dirty, there are many dirty hands around. And I'm not saying that we should ignore corruption, just that given the NPA's inability to get this right, and the fact that Zuma seems to be taking the fall for something many people were involved in, and the fact that there has been all sorts of political manoeuvring to get him out of power... well I say we should admit he has been used as a scape goat and if the NPA doesn't get it right, and *quickly,* we should just move past this.
  
• His level of education. This is why presidents have advisors. Even Obama has them. And he want to ... uuuh... Yale. Or Harvard. Or something. And anyway, a lack of education is not the same as a lack of intelligence or leadership ability or capability to govern. Especially in South Africa, where your level of education is often more a consequence of your race and the income level of your parents.
• JZ is a communist socialist COSATU SACP sympathiser!!!! Ag, you know. We already know that the ANC is in the tri-partheid alliance. And they already have pretty well documented policies. So I don't think that JZ is going to steer the ANC in a dramatically different direction from where it is already headed. Maybe I am wrong. Personally, the ANC alliance with the SACP does not make me happy. And I am not for socialism. But I don't think that having JZ as president is going to cause us to veer dramatically in that direction.
  

Okay, so taking all of these points and summarising. For me, I would not like to have JZ as a president. Pretty much for personal reasons: I have no respect for him, in some areas. And I feel that he doesn't represent me.
That said, there are other areas where it seems he really had earned our respect. In his role in the struggle and in the early years of our democracy. And he does seem to be a personable sort of a guy. Which I think is important for us at the moment. And he seems to be someone who connects with the more rural and poor citizens of our country. And if that means he is going to represent and look out for their rights, I think thats not a bad thing. But what about the SACP leaning? The socialist leaning? Something to keep an eye on, I think. But not something to consider emigrating over.

And we couldn't have TBoz for another term. So the Polokwane outcome was the preferable one. Ja, JZ is not our ideal choice. But for the moment he is what we have.

So I say, let him have his term. Lets stop tearing our hair out. It will be fine. And hopefully over the next four years the ANC will sort themselves out a bit. Raise up some quality young leaders. And the opposition parties will gather some more support.

Then upward and onward :)

(I am keen to read the new Zuma biography - though I'm told it is not as illuminating as we might have hoped.)

de Villiers interview

Yesterday I watched the most brilliant 3 Talk episode. Noeleen was interviewing Springbok (Protea??) coach Peter de Villiers.

Now I haven't followed rugby for years and years. Pretty much since 1995 actually. Crying to the sound of "the world in union" and then epic last minute drop kick by Joel Stransky. And spontaneous street parties. Wonderful. That was something to remember.

So all I know about Peter de Villiers is that he is the SA rugby coach at the moment, and that he is the first black SA rugby coach. And maybe that there is some unhappiness with him - is that even true?

Anyway, my ignorance of the present state of SA rugby aside, I thought it was a great interview. Noeleen was pretty pointed, she asked him direct questions about some of the drama he has been embroiled in (A sex tape scandal? Accusations of various sorts from the press? Having a cold relationship with the players?). And he was so down to earth. The ideal type of person to interview. Open. Gave explanations and background stories.

Apparently he was quoted in a paper as saying something along the lines of "we should give the rugby coaching job back to the whites" - which sounds quite angry and bitter. When Noeleen asked about it he explained the kinds of accusations that had been levelled against him, he explained how he had phoned the black lady who was beaten up at a springbok match. And how it was all just reminding him of pre-apartheid years. And "give it back to the whites" started to seem less like an angry closed fist, and more like a tired, frustrated de Villiers throwing his hands up, wondering if it was all worth it.

He told Noleen that the thing that frustrates him the most is that over the past year, no rugby writer has ever asked him a technical rugby question.

I have no idea if he is a good coach or not. But if you are into rugby, I would recommend you try catch the rerun. If I knew when it was. Does 3 Talk have reruns?

Two lists

Nice things:

• Coming home.
• Arriving in Joburg to a thunderstorm, the smell of rain.
• Warm weather.
• My gran's chocolate cake.
• Cheesy fanstasy romance novels that you can read in one sitting.
• Reading the Daily Dispatch.
  

Not nice things:

• Nose bleeds on public transport. (In particular, trying not to bleed over everything while waiting for my baggage at Joburg International).
  

In a Different Time

I recently finished reading In a Different Time, The Inside Story of the Delmas Four by Peter Harris.

It is the story of a unit of four MK soldiers who were working in South Africa during the 80's. Each of them left South Africa in the late 70's to sign up for ANC military training and ended up in Mozambique, Zambia, in Angola, Tanzania and even East Germany. On returning to South Africa, their jobs were to carry out general acts of terrorism, like bombing army casspirs, and asassinations.

They were ultimately caught and tried in the city of Delmas - becoming "The Delmas four" in the media. The author, Peter Harris, was their lawyer. Although they faced a probably death sentence, the four chose to neither plead guilty or to plead not guilty. They did not deny the facts, the people they killed, but they considered themselves soldiers fighting for the freedom of their people. So they refused to participate in the trial, on principal, as a political statement. Knowing that this would mean the death penatly for them.

The majority of the book is about their trial, punctuated with accounts of the events the four men had lived through. The accounts of the torture they and others endured after they were caught by the police were particularly harrowing. It's horrible stuff to read, but it's important to know the truth about our past.

I highly recommend this book. I learned a lot that I didn't know about what was going on in our country in the 80's. About the South African police, the secret service, political violence, about umKhonto we Sizwe, the ANC in exlie. I even leared a bit more about our potential president in waiting, JZ.

It made me understand why we had those odd "terrorist drills" at school back then.

What I think is particularly good about this book is that it is quite a personal story. It made me think about what it must have been like to have lived through all of this. As a lawyer or activist like Peter Harris. Or to be one of those four guys. Or the many other like them that left home, left South Africa, to be trained to fight. I have nothing in my life experience to know about this, what it was like, why they did it, what their experiences were. How they feel about it all now.

I do wonder how they feel about it all now. I think these four guys are still alive and well, working in various capacities around South Africa (sorry if I spoiled the story for you!) And I wonder how they feel about the state of our country at the moment, and where we are headed.

I wish that as a nation we did more to honour guys like this. Or maybe we have done so, maybe i just missed it...

So yes, it is a good book. I think I will re-read it.

Some culture

The Road Not Taken
Robert Frost

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

Take me out to the ball game

Take me out to the ball game, take me out with the crowd :)
On Saturday I went to a basketball game in Chicago. Our team, the Fighting Illini, were playing against the University of Georgia team, the Georgia Bulldogs.

So here are some pictures! The Fighting Illini colours are bright orange and navy, and Georgia is navy and red. My camera doesn't like movement so some pics sre blurry.

I will provide some commentary so you can learn from my American cultural experience.

This is just to illustrate the dedication of the fans - all decked out in Illini orange!

And this to illustrate the size of the stadium. That big square of TV panels at the top shows close ups and replays and game stats during the game.

And between the levels of people are more LDC panels that show team logos during the match, and psychadelic light show colours at opportune times too. Like before the match when the lights go off and the players huddle and the spotlight fall on them and the do a bit of a phyching themselves up go team thing. And the players are announced by name, and they run on to the court.

On that note - the match commentary is pretty funny. And mostly consists of a WWF style voice going "Miiiiiiiiiike Davis for three points!" whenever Mike Davis shoots a three point shot.* :)

The guys on the floor during the above picture were a local is lekker dance group doing some halftime entertainment. What is that dance style where people spend a lot of time spinning on their heads? Yeah, it was that.

This picture is here for two reasons. First, see the huddle of men in suits and men in orange in the top corner? That is the basketball team with the suited people I assume to be their coaches. These huddles happen during time outs, which are approximately every 1 to 2 minutes. I'm not kidding. These college basketball matches are 20 minutes per side, but the whole game takes about two hours (including a 15 minute half time). Because there are 30 second or minute long time outs every minute or two.

What happens during time outs? The answer: all sorts of theatrics! That is the second part of this picture. The girls you see are the pep squad. They do some dancing to music. They are not to be confused with the cheer leaders, pictured below.

The cheer leaders are more like gymnasts than anything else. Or maybe circus acrobats. They are amazing. They do all sorts of death defying feats, one of which is pictured above. And they stay standing up like that for ages. Wow.

And this is the band. They play before the match and in time outs sometimes and during halftime. And they don't just play, they dance. Awesome.

But the main attraction is not the band or the pep squad or the cheerleaders. It's the ballgame:

We won the men's game against Georgia. But sadly lost the woman's game against Bradley (our ladies were wearing white):


I am also pleased to announce that I could follow the match. I sort of understand basketball now. As indicated by the asterisk (*) above, I know the difference between a two point shot and a three point shot. I understand what plays are about. I sortof understand the walking issue. I don't really understand fouls though.

But I know enough to be able to clap at the right time and gasp at the right time, and thats the most important thing!

Bringing back the draft

A few days ago Tash asked me what I thought about bringing back the draft. So I thought about it, and here is my 0.5 cents:

It seems to me that there are two benefits of compulsory conscription:

1) A few months ago I read about some political someone or other suggesting that we bring back the draft. And if I remember correctly, her reasoning was to do with so many young people being unemployed. So conscription was viewed as a way to help get these kids on their feet, in some sort of employ. And also give them some skills and teach them some discipline.

2) It is a good thing for a country to have a populace who is able to defend themselves. In the form of an army, protection external attack. And also just having citizens who are able to defend themselves from crime and potentially the government, if the government ever goes haywire.

I'm out of the loop of what is going on in SA at the moment, so maybe those are not quite the reasons people are giving to bring back the draft. If not, please enlighten me - what are they?

When I first read about the suggestion of bringing back the draft I didn't think it was too bad an idea. Then when Tash asked me I gave it some more thought. And now I'm not for it.

Why? Well, looking at the two benefits the draft could possibly give us (starting with 2):

2) Having a ready army and citizens who are ready to defend themselves is good, yes. But I think this needs to be balanced with the fact that although I am really not worried about the future of SA, we are still not 100% politically stable. So the idea of us having a massive army makes me feel more nervous than secure. Just in case the day does come when our government decides to use the army against the population. Also, in a country where we see so much violent crime already... I'm not excited about training young people to use weapons.

1) Okay, this is the more interesting one for me. Because the problem with youth unemployment really weighs on me and I support efforts to do something about it. And I can see some benefit in doing it through the army. That is is a good environment for young people to learn to be disciplined, to maybe find some direction and to open some doors for them. And the military does already have some infrastructure for this, for training young people. So in that respect I think the draft has some merit.

BUT I don't think it is the best way to do this. If the government are going to spend an enormous amount of money on this, with one of the main goals being to help young people, then I think this money could be better used in another way.

I once read about Khama III, king of the Bamangwato people in Botswana around 1900. They used to have an initiation ritual for young men which included circumcision. Khama got rid of the ritual itself, but instead used the groups of young men who would be going off for this manhood ritual as work groups. So he effectively changed the ritual into a six month stint of community service, where young men would go and build hospitals, schools, infrastructure. I don't know if they still have that tradition today. But I think what he did was great, taking a tradition they had and turning it into something that really benefited their communities.

Anyway, along those lines: would it not be better to use school leavers for some sort of community service? Some sort of public works programme? Much better than conscription, I think, because it actually results in infrastructure development. And also because I think something like that has the potential to equip young people for the working world better than time in the army. It wouldn't only have to be public works, perhaps it could be extended to helping in other areas of government service, or even have an option of working in NGOs.

The problem with this is that it would be an epic thing to organise. If the government can't even sort out their own Home Affairs department, or the schools, how do they think they will be able to organise something like this? Which is a benefit of the army - they already have some capacity to do this. It would need to be expanded, but they already have the framework.

I read a while back about the army being used to build RDP houses in the Eastern Cape. Which I thought was rather good. So perhaps the military could be used as a structure through which a year or six months of community service could be facilitated.

But on the whole, I would prefer not to use the military!

Okay, those are my 0.5 cents!
Any thoughts anyone?

Compatriots

South African politics at the moment is more exciting than a good Isidingo story line (which were far and few between when last I was watching Isidingo, incidentally. Maybe that is why the nation has turned to politics for some excitement).

I really don't know how well COPE is going to do. I'm waiting to see what their policy documents say, for one. That must be one major job, putting together their policy. Because as much as they protest, they are really just a group of people united by their desire NOT to be the ANC.

But in spite of that, I think COPE is an organisation whose time has come. Khaya recently wrote about COPE being a response to the "fierce urgency of now." Exactly. Exactly exactly.

In ancient Greek there were two words for time. Chronos time is the ordinary sequential step by step time. And then there was Kairos time. Kairos time is a time in between, a moment of undetermined period of time in which something special happens (wikipedia). Kairos time is the time of opportunity. It has the connotation of being a time of crisis, where things can change dramatically.

As Galadriel said in Lord of the Rings, "The quest balances on the edge of a knife."

What Lekota and Shilowa and COPE have done is to recognise the kairos moment South Africa is in. A few years ago the announcement of an ANC breakaway party would have fallen completely flat. Today COPE is riding on the urgency of now, on the frustration of masses of people in our country.

Me, I haven't decided who will get my vote yet. I have toyed with the idea of joining COPE, just because I want to be part of moving our nation forward. But I haven't decided yet if the best way to do that is through COPE. We will see.

I once took note of Thabo Mbeki adressing a speech to "compatriots." I noted it because it was different to the usual struggle veteran, "comrades." And because I liked it. Compatriots - fellow patriots. Nice. Comrade is word that only includes people with a certain mindset, and a certain history. And for the people with that mindset and history, that is great. But that is not all of us. Compatriot. Fellow patriot. That is all of us.

I read on the Friends of Democracy webpage comments, someone suggest we change our language to move from "comrades" to "compatriots". Which I thought was excellent. And very discerning.

So yes, to my fellow patriots!

Americans

From XKCD:


Yes Americans, any view of the world where you are not in the centre... gosh it just doesn't make sense!

;)