Elections in South Africa

Zuma: A Nation Mourns

Following the NPA's election rally on national TV, the nation is in shock and mourning. How anyone can have charges against them dropped because other people broke the law is a mystery to most of us.
So now we have crooks getting other crooks off the hook by engaging in criminal activity. The mind boggles. If Zuma is innocent, then Shabir Shaik's trial should be overturned. But enough of that: South Africa's legal community will attempt to recover its tattered reputation somehow, I'm sure.
Of course, the political fallout has yet to be determined, and I'd hate to be anyone in governement who has to deal with foreign governments. Oh the shame and humiliation! The rest of us just mourn the passing of democracy, justice and rule of law. It was a fine illusion while it lasted.
Some cynic said "Democracy is where the majority gets what the majority deserves." Sadly, in SA this is true. The majority is going to elect a party of ciminals into office, as they have done in the past, and they will be screwed once again by the likes of Julius "Fork and Knife" Malema. They deserve what they get. Unfortunately the idiots will not be the only ones to suffer.
NPA: Non-Prosecuting Authority, no longer the National Prosecuting Authority
Update 9th April: The ANC's dufus response to these posters (actually they are pretty awesome) was to blame "mischievous forces of darkness". Actually that's a pretty good ANC definition of the word "voter". Do they really not have a clue? Electorate = "mischievous forces of darkness".

Update 14 April: It would appear that the NPA plagiarised their statement from a Hong Kong judge. It sounded too clever to be genuine.

Saving Soweto - 24 Hours of Trauma

"A woman born in South Africa has more chance of getting raped, than learning how to read".



Aljazeera English has produced a documentary series about "Bara", which you can read here. These videos are not for the squeamish. According to Wikipedia, "Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital is the largest hospital in the world, occupying 173 acres (0.70 km2), with 3200 beds and 6760 staff members. The hospital is in Soweto, Johannesburg. It is one of the 40 Gauteng provincial hospitals," and is under-funded and under-staffed by the callous, uncaring politicians who supposedly run this country, but who prefer to waste money on perks and dinners, while the people suffer. Our former Minister of Health has a lot of blood on her hands.



"We have no ventilators available, and no ICU beds available. We can't take rescuscitation patients at the moment because we have nowhere to put them."

"On average we see about 3000 trauma patients a month. Approximately 300 resuscitations a month. That's an average of 10 a day."

Soweto Beach Party

I was aghast at this video, which I saw last night on Aljazeera English TV. The traffic cops didn't show up, so there was traffic gridlock and a near riot. The newspapers I read didn't even mention the event! Is this how the city plans to host the 2010 Soccer World Cup?
I'm glad that a concert of this size has been a regular event, and just wish I'd heard about it locally. See you there next year!