Just pick 'em of the street

Last week I tried to get my hands on some tickets for the rugby match SA-France in June. Monday morning at 8 we were standing in front of the Checkers supermarket waiting for the doors to open so that we would be the first ones to get tickets. Checkers/Shoprite has the monopoly to sell rugby tickets in SA and you've guessed it, where there is a monopoly, there is very bad service.
When the doors opened we raced inside to find the printers off-line. We were not the only ones there. Two white guys where as flushed and stressed as we were. Time was ticking and in other supermarkets tickets were being sold. The lady tried her best, but nothing...One of the other guys grabbed his phone and said in the receiver: you go to sea point, we will go to Mowbray. Wow! Somebody is organised. I dropped my boyfriend off at work and raced on to the supermarket in Mowbray.
It was a weird situation when I entered. The dudes from the other supermarket were there already (i don't know how they managed to do that that fast, flying?), but they were not alone. Ten black men were standing with them waiting. Waiting, because here the printers and/or systems were also off line. The tension was building up now, because we all were aware of one thing...THE INTERNET. While we were there waiting for stupid machines, people at home were booking online. Why didn't we do that? Because we're in Africa here and even Africans realise that unless you're holding the tickets in your hand there is always something that can happen to screw it up.
The one dude was again very pro-active. Take five of them and go to Rondebosch Shoprite, he said to his white companion, who immediately left with five black guys following him. What is that about?, I had to ask him. Well, you can only buy ten tickets per person and I want 120 tickets so I needed some more people, he said. Where did you get them? Oh, I just picked them of the streets in front of the supermarket. They were hanging around there.

To make a long story short. I didn't get tickets there. I raced back home and after ten tries I was able to book tickets online. We don't have them in our hands yet, so every night we go to bed praying that when we go and collect them they will be there.
Oh, did I mention I am not even going to the game myself? The tickets are for my boyfriend and his friends.

Tampon crisis

Besides great poverty, a lack of democracy and an inflation topping 1000% Zimbabwe is also dealing with a Tampon crisis. Menstruating women are using anything to control the bleeding i.e. rolled-up newspapers. Health organisations fear for the health of these women, because the wounds in their vaginas make them more vulnerable to the HIV virus. And Zimbabwe isn't a very nice place for women to start with. Their life expectancy is 34 years, the lowest in the world.
The tampon and sanitary towel crisis started when manufacturer Johnson&Johnson left the country due to the crisis and Zimbabwe was forced to import these goods. The inflation has made them unaffordable for anyone except the elite. The minimum wage is 6 million Zimbabwe dollars a month, 20 tampons cost 3 million Zimbabwe dollars.
When an MP tried to raise the issue in parliament, government ministers couldn't stop laughing.

Autumn in a vineyard

Still waiting

I' m still waiting for a letter someone send me last year may. It contains some pictures so I was quite eager to receive it, but I decided to give it up after two months of waiting. That's a reasonable period right? Or am I being very hard on the South African postal services?
On feb. 12th of this year I posted two letters to Amsterdam, the Netherlands. One arrived ten days later as planned, the other arrived two months (!) later.
A month later I found out that sending a card from Cape Town to Jo'burg takes as long as sending it to Holland (when it arrives according schedule that is).
I realise I am spoiled by the postal system in Holland. When you post something there it arrives according to plan and you don't have to send anything via registered mail, the regular service is reliable enough. Here everybody is very quick to ask "do you have a tracking number?" the minute I start complaining about missing letters. No, I don't. Isn't the postal service obliged to deliver ALL the post safe?

One last comment about post: our house doesn't have a post box. I so take that for granted that only when was I about to receive mail I noticed that wasn't even possible, because of a lack of space for the postmen to throw it in. Turns out that because of the security complexes lots of people live in (and the gates that go with those) hardly anyone has a post box attached to the house. They all rent a p.o. box. Ours is 500 metre down the street where we live in. And don't ask me how people in some townships receive their mail. The stone houses can receive mail, but what about the people who live in self-made shacks? Do they ever receive mail?

(Some of the things that did arrive)

Sunset on Signal Hill

( Double click on picture to enlarge)

I'll be back

Zuma is back, just as he promised. Or at least he's willing to come back and become the deputy president of the ANC again. The ANC is not as eager, but really doesn't have a choice since they agreed to take him back if he was found innocent of raping the daughter of friends. But things aren't over for him yet. In July he has to appear in court on account of corruption and some of the things he said in court have raised (more) questions about his character. I've written it before but to refresh the memory some examples:
- He (the former leader of the national Aids council) took a shower after the sex with HIV positive woman to decrease changes of infection
- She was wearing a skirt and had her legs crossed instead of neatly next to each other, ergo: she was asking for it
The list is longer, but I hear it here all the time, so I'm getting a bit bored of it.
One of the things he said after the verdict kindda stood out for me. He was thanking his supporters for standing by him and not 'judging' him before the trial was completely over "in contrast to the educated people of this country, who found me guilty before the trial was finished. You know the constitution better then the so called wise people".
After that the crowd of mostly unemployed people cheered. Some of them had actually quit there job to go to Jo'burg and support their hero. He's their absolute champion, he's alsoborn and raised in a poor, uneducated family. But what is their leader telling his fans? Education = bad? One thing is clear though. The woman who accussed him of rape, can't live in this country anymore. She's packing her things and is leaving for an unknown destination. (Zuma's fans are a bit unpredictable, that's why)

Verdict update

Monday May 8th, 12.20u: The nation is waiting for the verdict. It's expected around 14.30u.

3.14u: Zuma is found not guilty of rape

After-apartheid kids

SA has had democracy for 12 years now. That means that there's a whole new generation who wasn't alive during the apartheid. The Mail&Guardian tried to find out what these kids now about the nations struggle and went to different kinds of schools and talked to kids from all colours and background. Here are some of their findings:

A 14 year old girl from Soweto was asked which foreign country she would love to travel to. Answer: "Robben Island, because it has all the history I want to see, where Nelson Mandela stayed and more about the way they lived"

A white boy from Jo'burg "Black people are cool. I like their music and I like how they dance. Its better than white culture. They got sangomas (traditional healers) and stuff and we only have churches"


A black boy from Pietermaritzburg responding to what was apartheid . "A white person would buy first in a shop even if you were there first". He also wasn't a fan of politics " Political matters have resulted in many councillors getting killed. I just heard on the news that some councillors got killed recently"

A boy from Soweto shares his thoughts about the USA. "There are better opportunities there and less poverty. There are no hobos and street kids. I also would like to see how celebrities like Mario and Chris Brown live".
A boy from Jo'burg agrees with him "I think people there don't steal like in SA. There's crime there, but it's not worse like ours. i think I'd feel safer there". Another boy would love to go to the USA to "see lots of things and learn about them and then come back and help black people. The economy is big there".

(source: Mail & Guardian, April 28 2006)

The mountain has disappeared

Behind the round tower in this picture you should be seeing Table Mountain, but it has been so cloudy these last days that is has completely vanished from sight.