My Haven ( http://matubalemurphy.blogspot.com/2008/02/still-in-dark-past.html ) by Matuba Mahlatjie.
Matuba Mahlatjie is a gay blogger living in Pretoria. He comments on the possibility of Jacob Zuma becoming the next President of South Africa. He is particularly concerned over the recent acceptance by Zuma to attend a luncheon by Black Journalists Forum in South Africa.
“This forum of black journalists is so anti democracy and transparency. I listened to all their excuses for barring white journalists and they did not make any sense. The truth is they are making us look like uneducated savages who are comfortable with being repellers of change.
It is unfortunate that the people (Journalists) who are supposed to help the nation eradicate the evil spirit of racism - are the ones who are painting the country black and white. All media houses in South Africa have black journalists, but I like the fact that Talk Radio 702 and e.tv deliberately sent white journalist to expose the devil that possess the Black Journalist Forum here in South Africa.”
Lesbian Rules ( http://www.lesbianrules.iblog.co.za/2008/02/21/garlic-showers-and-prostitutes-some-of-the-solutions ) by Madra Butler
South African ministers have taken to suggesting various alternative remedies for curing ailments and making pronouncements on why rape is so widespread.
“So there you have it ladies and gentlemen.
To be cured from aids, eat garlic and beetroot.
If you don’t want aids, take a shower, and
All we have to do to stop the electricity crisis is to go to bed early so we can grow and be cleverer and rapes only occur because people don’t have access to prostitutes.”
Bandwidth ( http://www.bandwidthblog.com/2008/02/18/5-south-african-blogging-platforms ) by Charl Norman is a technology blog focusing on new start ups and technology innovations in South Africa. This week he introduces 5 South African blogging platforms: My Digital Life, Amagama, iBlog (see Lesbian Rules) Blog 247 and 24 Blogs.
“Blogging in SA has really taken off with thousands of South Africans looking to their blogs to express themselves. Testament to this is the success of Amatomu.com which is responsible to sorting the SA blogosphere and Afrigator.com which indexed the thousands of blog post in a social media aggregator and directory.”
Despite South Africa having the highest numbers of bloggers in the continent the fact remains that by far the majority are white and male.
The Fish Bowl ( http://jontyfisher.blogspot.com/2008/02/anc-not-neccessarily-moving-left.html ) comments on an article by Dr Steven Friedman on the political and economic realities of the ANC
“The article summarises what I have been trying to push for some time. We keep trying to look at the ANC through Western prisms, when the leader of the ANC party is not usually the decision-maker. Mbeki was the ultimate decision-maker in his cabinet, but it is this type of leadership that has sparked the current "revolution" in voter sentiment. There are many players in the NEC and the NWC who hold vast business interests, the it is much more likely that a third way scenarion will occur.”
YblogZA ( http://128.241.192.81/2008/02/total-eclipse-of-past.html ) uses the total eclipse of the moon as a metaphor for the downward spiral of South Africa largely due to the ANC.
Moeletsi Mbeki, brother of President Thabo Mbeki, told the Cape Argus that South Africans had to face the fact the rest of the world had reason to be "very concerned" about the direction in which the country was moving.
“[Moeletsi] Mbeki also criticised new ANC president Jacob Zuma for "bad-mouthing" his own country's political and justice system in a foreign country. Zuma claimed in court papers in Mauritius this week that fraud charges against him were part of a political move against him. Moeletsi Mbeki, who is deputy chairperson of the SA Institute of International Studies at the University of the Witwatersrand, said: "Here we have the president of the ANC, the possible future president of the country, claiming that the 16 charges of fraud against him are part of a political campaign to keep him out of office.”
Khanya ( http://khanya.wordpress.com/2008/02/23/249/ ) has a philosophical discussion on “political and spiritual identity and personal values” and the separation of the church and state.
“Earlier today I got a message from another blogger about the liberation struggle in South Africa and its spiritual basis. Here are some preliminary thoughts, linked to the example above. I was a member of the Liberal Party, and while the humanist student in the example I gave was not, there were several others with views similar to his. The student whose banning we were protesting against was, however, both a Christian and a member of the Liberal Party. And one of the interesting things was that people with radically different religious backgrounds and worldviews were able to work together in a political party for common political goals. Christians, atheists, humanists, agnostics, Jews, Muslims and Hindus worked together for a common political goal of a democratic nonracial South Africa. Their reasons for pursuing that goal may have been very different, and almost opposite. But no matter what the reasons, they were able to agree on a political goal and a political programme.”
Abahlali baseMjondolo ( http://abahlali.org/node/3352 ) is the blog of the Durban Shackdweller Movement. The members living in Motala Heights being subjected to ongoing illegal evictions, dumping of toxic waste and threats of arson. In Cape Town Delft location 1600 residents were evicted and three children were shot by the police.
“Police have started shooting people at close range in Delft. There is pandemonium and brutality. Following yesterday’s ruling in the High Court which uphold’s Thubelisha Homes and the state’s eviction order against the community, the residents decided to appeal at the Supreme Court of Appeal in Bloemfontein. The lawyers worked through the night doing the paperwork for this appeal.
Right now, Ashraf Cassiem, Anti-Eviction Campaign Legal Co-ordinator is still finalising the paperwork for the case to go to the Supreme Court of Appeal but the police decided to proceed with the evictions anyway. All the Anti-Eviction Campaign co-ordinators have advised the police that there is another legal case pending and they have no authority to evict until the legal process is exhausted but they are doing it anyway. This is unlawful.”
Black Looks ( http://www.blacklooks.org/2008/02/behind_levievs_empire.html ) has another report on the diamond empire of Israeli billionaire, Lev Leviev whose diamond mines in Angola have been cited for human rights violations and which fund illegal settlements in the West Bank and his real estate business in New York using underpaid workers in hazardous conditions.
“Leviev’s wealth was built while trading with a business that was a huge pillar of the South African apartheid regime. He then went on to use the proceeds to construct an apartheid reality in the West Bank.”
* Sokari Ekine blogs at Black Looks and http://www.africanwomenblogs.com