Africa, the same story always

When you open a newspaper, magazine or website to read about Africa, you turn away afterwards and wonder when, if ever, will the morality of governance change on this continent, with the aim to do things for the benefit of a country's population as a whole and not only to feather your and your friends' nests. And in the process the country concerned, looking at it from various angles, is slipping slowly (sometimes very fast) into chaos, proverty, conflict and epidemic diseases. In South Africa the incumbent President, Thabo Mbeki, has had his wings clipped properly at the ANC conference in Polokwane, when his arch-rival Jacob Zuma was elected president of the ANC and, provided he does not land in jail for alleged corruption, will in all probability be the next President of the country, in place of Mbeki. It was hailed as a victory by the populace. Mbeki and his autocratic style of governing would be something of the past, they reasoned.

Well, a new National Executive Committee was elected and it seems the delegates to the conference in Polokwane had hardly got back to their homes and the very distressing phenomenon popped up: It seems the person in charge really wants to impress on everybody that he is in charge and if in doing so his behaviour does not agree with democratic principles, so be it. City Press reported that there is already dissent among the members of the NEC and that Jacob Zuma gave them a good scrubbing for "doing things behind his back". Is this the eternal Africa? The people at the top fighting among themselves for the best seats in the circus while very little is done about what really would benefit the country as a whole.

Thabo Mbeki and other leaders in Africa came up with the wonderful scheme NEPAD, which in broad terms is a programme for the upliftment of the African continent. But it seems the name was unfortunate because when you look at Africa you can hardly find any reason to remain positive and you think maybe NEPAD is an abbreviation for the same old African story: Never Ending Poverty And Disease.

Maria the winner

Maria Sharapova won the Australian Open final, beating Ana Ivanovic 7-5, 6-3. A lot has been said and written since this victory of Maria's, but what also impressed me about this tennis champion were her comments after the match. Her words can be construed as "reaching out" for Ana, encouraging her to keep up her good play and that a lot more opportunities await them.I believe Maria is a humble and caring person, notwithstanding her fierce and ruthless approach when she is on court and playing to beat her opponent. This feature of Maria's character is beautifully highlighted in the excellent article by Bonny Ford on ESPN.com entitled Hard work, dedication and life perspective aid Sharapova. Hats off to both Maria and Ana.

Sharapova's done it.

Sharapova crushes top seed Henin at Australian Open

Maria has done it! Now for the nail-biting stretch to the end of the Open. See report on clash between Maria and Justin on Citizen.co.za.

Jacob Zuma and media

The ANC in South Africa seems to be no different than the previous government (apparently referred to as a regime) when it comes to hyper-sensitivity towards the news media. It is known that the pre-1994 era was accentuated by the then government to control what people were thinking and the main conduit for them in manipulating the desired state of thinking of the people was the news media.

The ANC and other "freedom" groups, with the help of sympathetic international support from organizations and governments, could not protest loud and violent enough whenever the apartheid government banned or restricted a news medium. At the same time it was also obvious that the SABC was the goverment's little lap dog.

What have we today in the new South Africa, in terms of the relationship between the government (read ANC) and the news media? Maybe it was best summed up by Jacob Zuma, after he was recently elected the new president of the ANC, when he declared that the media are politically and ideologically out of synch with the society in which it operates. (As reported in News24.com). Then he gives a lot of "reasons" (like the previous government did) why some form or other stricter control would be necessary to make the news media more acceptable.

Mr Zuma, you and your ANC cronies are barking up the wrong tree. There are enough laws and regulations to make sure the news media toe the line like they should in a true democracy (wasn't a true democracy what you were fighting for?). So, don't let the ANC enter the debate around this very important aspect of our new country as bullies and uninformed loud mouths.