One good Scorpion
I was glad to see the charges against Gerrie Nel, the Gauteng head of the Scorpions, have been withdrawn. I was shocked to learn of his arrest on charges of alleged corruption and defeating the ends of justice.
I never for a moment believed that these charges could be true. I don't know him well but met him the mid-90s along with Bulelani Ngcuka when I broke a story at the Sunday Times about Xolani Mlilwana, a convicted hijacker who helped me recover a hijacked vehicle while behind bars in C-Max, SA's toughest prison, no less!
Mlilwana helped myself and a colleague recover the car as a sign of good faith as he wanted to blow the whistle on police corruption in assisting the hijack syndicates and on the hijacking racket more generally.
His case was one of the first taken up by Nel and the Scorpions (nevertheless he went back to hijacking after getting an early release and is back behind bars serving 96 years in chookie, but that's another story!)
Nel, if I recall, was later to lead an anti-hijacking unit within the Scorpions which was responsible for cracking a couple of the biggest syndicates at the time. He really struck me as one of those people we should be grateful to have in public service and I am relieved his reputation has been saved by the withdrawal of these charges.
Scridb filterWaterdodos?
Sapa is running a story quoting Die Burger which says that the Western Province water polo team competing in an inter-provincial in Cape Town this week was banned from the finals because it had no black players.
The reports said that another five teams had been excluded earlier for the same reason. So the finals were played between Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal which had come last in the qualifying stages. Gauteng handed back their medals at the end of the game (which they won 14-4), saying they did not consider themselves to be worthy winners under the circumstances.
I find this whole thing a bit of a jaw-dropper. I've written in support of quotas in sport before but I find it astounding that this should be happening at the pool side and not before teams even arrive for the competition. The quotas are not particularly onerous: one black player or manager per team. The report does not specify if these have to be black African, or broadly black.
One of the officials, when asked why they had not excluded Western Province earlier, said it was because they could not tell from the names list which players were black.
I've got a simple solution for swimming's administrators: why don't you just bring back the pencil test. You can use it on the pool deck to see who can compete and who can't.
Or why don't we ask everyone to provide DNA analysis of their ancestry so they can all be nice and comfortably categorised for these dodos?
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Scridb filter
The times are changing
There's a fascinating story on our breaking news blog - Xhosa’s white initiate (pic) - and in the paper today. Check it out. It concerns a young white teenager who has decided to join his best friend in the Xhosa rite of passage ritual in becoming a man.
I think it's a real heartening story that shows that in many small ways our society is changing. Many of our kids seem to be comfortably wearing a new identity while we struggle with ours.
I wonder if there are other examples of this kind of cross-cultural pollination? They may give us a really good idea of how South Africa will be in the future.
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Tags: Xhosainitiation, abakwetha, society
Scridb filterIan Smith, I presume?
IAN Smith was the kind of man you would know well if you have had occasion, as I have, to visit the kind of bar where men are men and where dark skin tones and skirts are scarce.
You would know him at a glance. He would be the chap perched down where the bar counter meets the wall, nursing a long tom and lecturing the black barman whose eyes would be darting desperately for any excuse to break away.
He would be broadcasting his views on sport, politics and the “good old days” to anyone who didn’t care to listen. He would have lots of grudge-laden opinions. That was the kind of man that was Ian Smith, the former Prime Minister of Rhodesia who died this week.
Why MPs deserve more
Few voters will sympathise with the fury from Members of Parliament across the political spectrum over their proposed 5.4 percent pay rise.
The proposal comes from deputy Chief Justice Dikgang Moseneke, who chairs the Commission for the Remuneration of Public Office- bearers. Even more infuriating for MPs is that Justice Moseneke labeled some of them “overpaid” and dismissed and appeal from President Thabo Mbeki to reconsider his position.
The Sunday Times reported this weekend how MPs from all parties plan to meet together and plot a united way forward to have their pay increased.
The proposed increase would lead to MPs’ earning R643800 a year, a substantial package by most South Africans’ reckoning.
Adding fuel to the fire is Justice Moseneke’s proposal that judges get a 17 percent increase, Chief Justice Pius Langa gets 65% increase to R1,7m and that Justice Moseneke himself would get an over 50 percent increase to to R1,5 million.
Mbeki, Cabinet members, Speaker Baleka Mbete and other senior public officials would have increases of up to 57%. The Speaker of the National Assembly would earn about R1,7m a year.
It would be easy to dismiss the complaints of MPs and agree that they are already remunerated appropriately for the jobs they do. However, in light of the proposed increases for senior members of government and the judiciary it is hard not to concede that MPs may have a point in their gripes.