South Africans Worldwide Newsletter

Greetings from a hot Spring Day in Harare, where the Jacaranda blossoms line the streets in their purple splendour; also blended with many-coloured Bouganvilla's to splash colours liberally all over.
We enjoyed a super evening of stage dancing given by various ballet schools, the likes of which I've not seen elsewhere.

The first light thundershowers were evident this weekend, but not much rainfall resulted. All we got was the lovely smell of rain on dry, dusty earth.

Getting this newsletter out has been a very time-consuming affair due to the extremely slow Internet connection available.

'Till next week.

Letters to the Editor TOP

Nothing seen-e-mail hassles could be to blame !

Quote/s of the Week TOP

http://www.quotationspage.com/mqotd.html

Retirement at sixty-five is ridiculous. When I was sixty-five I still had pimples.
-- George Burns

To say something nice about yourself, this is the hardest thing in the world for people to do. They'd rather take their clothes off.
-- Nancy Friday

Know, first, who you are; and then adorn yourself accordingly.
-- Epictetus

Never pretend to a love which you do not actually feel, for love is not ours to command.
-- Alan Watts

So if it seems that some of what I'll have to say in the pages to come doesn't reflect the mellowing of age, that's only because I've never found that life and memories respond to time the way that tobacco does.
-- Caleb Carr, 'The Angel of Darkness', 1997

Decide what you want, decide what you are willing to exchange for it. Establish your priorities and go to work.
-- H. L. Hunt

The better part of valor is discretion, in the which better part I have saved my life.
-- William Shakespeare, 'King Henry IV part I'

This art of resting the mind and the power of dismissing from it all care and worry is probably one of the secrets of energy in our great men.
-- Captain J. A. Hadfield

Ad Hoc Article/s of the Week TOP

Telescope: SA a front-runner

2006-09-30
Australia and Southern Africa have been shortlisted in the contest to host the world's mightiest telescope. Paris - Australia and Southern Africa have been shortlisted in the contest to host the world's mightiest telescope, a billion-dollar initiative gathering 17 countries, it was announced on Thursday.
"Both Australia and Southern Africa can meet the full range of requirements for the SKA," the Square Kilometre Array radio telescope, project director Richard Schilizzi said.

Compared with past-generation telescopes which were a single, massive dish to pick up radio emissions from space, the SKA will comprise thousands of smaller dishes spread over 3 ,000 kilometres and a central collecting area five kilometres across.

It is designed to be 50 times more sensitive than today's most powerful radio telescopes.

Astronomers hope it will pick up radio waves which issued from the formation of the first stars and galaxies after the "Big Bang" that created the Universe.

It will also trace the effects of the so-called dark energy that is driving the Universe apart, look for the effects of gravitational waves from black holes at the centres of galaxies and hunt for Earth-like planets orbiting other stars.

Australia's bid puts the core site at Mileura station, about 100 kilometres west of Meekathara in Western Australia. Other dishes would be distributed across the country, with the possibility of an extension into New Zealand.

Sparsely populated areas

In Southern Africa, the central location would be in the Karoo, in South Africa's Northern Cape region, 95kms from Carnavon. Other dishes would be located in Botswana, Kenya, Madagascar, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia and Ghana.

China and Argentina/Brazil had also put in strong bids, but were ruled out, the SKA said.

China had placed "unacceptable restrictions" on the placement of the core site, it said without elaborating.

The joint Argentinian-Brazilian proposal was nixed because low-frequency signals from space would be disrupted by ionospheric conditions above South America.

The SKA's core site has to be placed in sparsely populated areas as man-made radio signals can mask the faint radio waves from the distant cosmos that its forest of dishes is designed to detect.

The decision about which bid will win the SKA beauty contest will be made "towards the end of the decade", the project said.

The scheme is being decided by the International SKA Steering Committee, a consortium of nearly three dozen institutes that have agreed to share the research and development costs.

The United States had also put in a bid to host the SKA, but withdrew it.
http://www.mweb.co.za/

On the net:

www.skatelescope.org
News24/AFP

Water woes leave Africa in a swirl

September 30 2006 at 05:19PM

Dakar - Africa is going to miss United Nations development targets of doubling access to drinking water and sanitation by 2015, and the situation in many countries is actually getting worse, a UN official said on Friday.

On a global level, the world is on track to achieve the target of improving access to clean water, and progress has also been made on sanitation, according to a report published this week by the United Nations Children's Fund Unicef.

But Africa continues to lag behind. In west and central Africa, home to many of the world's poorest countries, the number of people without drinking water actually rose to 157-million in 2004 from 124-million in 1990.

Read more...

http://www.iol.co.za/

Crime crisis under the spotlight

Johannesburg, South Africa 01 October 2006 08:10

Crime is a crisis, not just a problem, and the African National Congress (ANC) should pay attention to it, said the Sunday Times in a front-page editorial.

The newspaper said that the ANC leaders, getting together next weekend for their regular national executive committee meeting, needed to put the country's out-of-control crime situation on their agenda.

The newspaper, in its unusual front-page editorial, said that "the ruling party and the government it controls merely see crime as a problem, not the crisis that it is.

"Like the proverbial ostrich, they refuse to accept that this country is under siege from criminals. They seem to believe that it is a problem affecting pampered whingers in Sandton, Durban North and Claremont, forgetting that the residents of places like Tembisa, Manenberg and Clermont are as much at the receiving end."

The newspaper called the crime statistics for the past year "horrendous", with nearly 19 000 people murdered, nearly 55 000 raped and almost 120 000 violent robberies, and said the government's response was a gross dereliction of duty.

Read more...

http://www.mg.co.za//

'SA ganging up on crime'

28/09/2006 21:06 - (SA)

Nqakula sees 'a rosy future'

Murder reduction target missed

Johannesburg - Private-sector data on bank robberies and cash heists was being collated and analysed weekly, Safety and Security Minister Charles Nqakula told businessmen on Thursday.

This, after it emerged on Wednesday that cash-in-transit heists were the fastest-rising crime in the country.

There was a 74.1% rise in the number of heists during the 2005/'06 financial year, from 220 to 383, the police revealed in their latest annual crime statistics.

Bank robberies went up 1.7% from 58 to 59 incidents.

"We are working with the SA Banking Risk Information Centre (Sabric), also with the Reserve Bank (SARB) to deal with some of the problems," Nqakula told a Business Against Crime (BAC) briefing in Johannesburg.

Read more...

http://www.news24.com/

SA faces R8.4bn stadium bill

01/10/2006 15:59 - (SA)

Johannesburg - South Africa faces a total cost of R8.352bn ($1.077bn) for the construction of five new stadiums and the renovation of a further five for the 2010 World Cup finals, organisers said on Sunday.

The cost is over three and half times higher than the R2.3bn estimate made in 2004 when the country won its bid to become the first African host of the World Cup tournament.

It is also well over the R3bn the government said one year ago it was setting aside for sport facility upgrades for the tournament.

The 2010 Local Organising Committee said in a statement it expected parliament to pass legislation to enable the disbursement of funds on Oct 24, allowing for the appointment of contractors by the end of the year and a start of construction in the new year.

Read more...

http://www.news24.com/

Bits and Bobs TOP

US tourist takes fatal plunge in Zim

September 30 2006 at 02:22PM

Harare - A US tourist slipped and fell 40 metres to his death last week at a safari lodge in northern Zimbabwe, a newspaper reported Saturday.

Randy Hareza, 60, is reported to have died instantly from the fall last Thursday at Chenje safari lodge in Chirundu, near Zimbabwe's border with Zambia, said the state-controlled Herald.

Zimbabwe is battling to attract foreign visitors in a bid to revive its struggling tourism industry.

Read more...

http://www.iol.co.za/

Mugabe angles for legitimacy in SA law

October 1, 2006 By Basildon Peta

Johannesburg - A controversial case in which South African courts face the very delicate spectre of ruling on President Robert Mugabe's controversial property-grabbing legislation has opened at the Johannesburg high court.

The case opened as Mugabe told party supporters that legislation to compel foreign mining firms in Zimbabwe, mostly South African firms, to cede at least 50 percent equity to his government was nearing completion.

The legislation is likely to affect Impala Platinum, Anglo Platinum and Mettallon Investments, among other South African firms.

The latest case pits Zimbabwe's state-owned multimillion-rand asbestos producer Shabani Mashaba Mines (SMM) and local companies including Africa Resources Limited (ARL), ECC Properties and Africa Heritage Management Services (AHMS), all owned by local citizens Nathan Mariemuthu and Mutumwa Mawere.

Read more...

http://www.busrep.co.za/

Man fined for smuggling wine into Zim

Fri, 29 Sep 2006

A bid to smuggle 33 litres of wine from South Africa into Zimbabwe has landed the culprit with a Z$500 000 fine, Harare's Herald newspaper reported on Friday.

Its website said Paterson Alasdir Robert's bootleg was also forfeited to the State. The assortment of wines were valued at Z$745 000.
Beitbridge provincial magistrate Mercy Siti-Rukoni sentenced Robert to 18 months' imprisonment with an option of a Z$500 000 fine.
He pleaded guilty to contravening a section of the Criminal Law and Codification Act.
Robert arrived at the Beitbridge border post from South Africa last Sunday, driving a Toyota Hilux. He was carrying an assortment of wines.

He undervalued the goods upon declaring them to Zimbabwe Revenue Authority officers, who then seized the wine and handed him over to the police.
Had Robert not been caught, the state would have lost Z$744 775 in revenue.

Sapa

http://iafrica.com/

The inflation alarm is ringing loud

With bad PPI numbers adding to the depressing inflation picture and a rand increasingly under pressure, Nedbank chief economist Dennis Dykes warns consumers to slow down.
Read more...

http://business.iafrica.com/

Gautrain construction steams ahead

Thu, 28 Sep 2006
The Gautrain link between O.R. Tambo International Airport and Sandton will be finished in time for the Soccer World Cup in 2010, Gauteng premier Mbhazima Shilowa said at a sod-turning ceremony for the project on Thursday.

"Bombela [International Consortium] has given me their assurance that we will be well in time for the Soccer World Cup � a promise I'm going to keep them to," Shilowa said at Alexandra in Johannesburg.

Bombela and the provincial government signed the 30 000-page construction contract on Thursday.

Read more...

http://business.iafrica.com/

MEC: Use public transport

01/10/2006 20:30

Johannesburg - Gauteng's commuters must be encouraged to use public transport, the province's transport MEC Ignatius Jacobs said on Sunday.
He acknowledged that Gauteng's public transport system was underdeveloped, but said it was also underused.

Research indicated that half of motorised passenger trips were made on public transport and the other half using private transport.

"Most trips during peak times are made to schools, while 32% of trips are made to work," said Jacobs.

The research also showed that 68% of households did not own cars.

Read more...

http://www.fin24.co.za/

The Legal Beagle TOP

There has been ongoing correspondence from a reader which I'll publish when concluded-ED.

Help Desk TOP

Nothing to report.

Where are they now? TOP

I would like to place a request in to try and locate a friend who returned to SA some years ago.
How do I go about this?
Cheers
CarolBaker

Reply:- Just send me the name, last known location and date and let's see what results from that.-ED

Club and Other News TOP

Ramblings of a Francophobe

Such is our global world these days that events on one side of the world can have repercussions in a household on the other side of the planet.
Yesterday there was a military coup in Thailand.

My partner works for a multinational company which has a support centre in Bangkok. The situation in Bangkok meant that the office there would probably not be manned today, so she had to go in to our local office to help, and had to be in before dawn. This meant that I had to take our son to school, and I was not prepared for this, and was also in the middle of packing for a trip overseas, so I was running late. Hence my son's improbable, but truthful and valid, excuse for his lateness to school.

As for my trip, I still haven't decided whether or not to take off tonight, because, where of all places was I going to, and this is a complete coincidence .... Bangkok! My suitcase is half packed and open on my study floor as I write this, a guilty reminder that I should make a decision soon.
_______________________________________________________________

On another matter, I was going to write to you to comment on the tourism statistics you published in the last SAW. They are devoid of any relationship to reality, like so many government statistics. If you delve a little deeper into these statistics, you will see that most of these 'tourists' are in fact travellers, as defined by STATSSA below. Figures for bona fide tourists are not given, but are probably in the region of 25% of the quoted figures.

"Traveller is any person on a trip between two or more localities. An international traveller refers to any person on a trip between two or more localities in different countries.
It is important to note that travellers include (a) same day visitors and tourists of which some might be in transit; and (b) other travellers such as migrant workers from other countries paid in South Africa, diplomats and so forth."

Facts, taken from http://www.statssa.gov.za/ are as follows :

In April 2006 approximately 724,000 'travellers' arrived in South Africa, 558,776 of them were from mainland Africa, of which 91.7% arrived by road.
30% of them were from Lesotho
16% from Zimbabwe
15% from Swaziland
14% from Botswana
13% from Mozambique

Clearly these are not 'tourists in the proper sense of the word, many do not depart again, but that's another story. All arrivals into South Africa are counted, this includes traders from neighbouring countries who come in and barter a soapstone animal for a sack of flour with which they return.

South Africa is a phenomenal tourist success, and deservedly so, but those who compile statistics should be a little bit more truthful and transparent when publishing figures.

As a matter of interest, South Africa is not the only country to count 'tourists' in this bizarre manner, France is another one, but then, one never expects truth or transparency from the French, people who are incapable of giving a clear 'yes' or 'no' answer to a question, but will always blather on about 'maybe, it depends, you see ...........'.

Finally, I read that the latest twist to the Zimbabwe tragedy is that all internet acess has been cut off. I hope you soon get round this problem and that we will be reading the next SAW in due course.
___________________________________________________________

Cape Town

From Uncyclopedia, the content-free encyclopedia. Edited version

Cape Town is a city on the coast of South Africa so called because the wearing of capes or cloaks is compulsory within the city limits. Founded by Batman on his way to Melbourne from Holland in 1652. Cape Town is also called "The mother city", believed to be due to the highly expressive vocabulary of the local dialect (in which the words "your mother" feature regularly) and the cheap and nasty (but potent) local wine A different school of thought believes the origin of the name lies in the fact that it takes 9 months to do anything in this sleepy hollow.

Cape Town is situated on a sandbar under Table Mountain (so called because unlike most mountains, it is flat) at the bottom end of Africa.

Cape Town became famous for the first successful heart transplant operation at its "Great Skewer" Hospital by Christian Barnyard.

Cape Town is neither as wealthy or as large as Johannesburg , so the inhabitants compensate with a superior attitude based on the claim that they were there first. Which none of them personally were, unless they are over 300 years old.

It is socially unacceptable for a Capetonian to talk to people that they have not previously talked to, which severely limits social interactions. If the opportunity should somehow present itself, a traditional Cape Town greeting is "Jou ma se ....", often abbreviated to "Jou ma", which means, roughly "Good day and good health to you and your good mother, sir!"

"Robin Island", in the bay, was named after Batman 's faithful sidekick. Later it was renamed "Robbin' Island" and used as a jail, like Alcatraz but with colder water around it and more sharks in it.

In spite of the revolution in 1994 severe social inequality still persists. Efforts to redress this historical imbalance are progressing well, particularly the "muggem" initiative.

Popular sports are, pretentiousness, drunk driving , pole-vaulting, homosexuality, French dressing and Mexican standoffs. The summer sport of setting fire to the mountainside is more popular with tourists than with locals, though all enjoy the cheerful spectacle of the flames and smoke.

Industries are growing the cash crops of wine and marijuana , making mousetraps, drug abuse, watching paint dry, crime and mugging tourists (not generally considered to be a crime). Cape Town holds the record as the site of the largest car park in Cape Town.

Since 2006, the town council of Cape Town has embraced an "Amishisation " policy, and has turned it's back on the use of electricity, declaring it a decadent bourgeous luxury. Electricity is slowly being phased out in a series of "power cuts", and it is to be replaced by the use of candles, paraffin lamps and fires for illumination and sing-alongs for entertainment.

Cape Town is the first place to boast an Invisible Bridge. However, the bridge is currently not in use as the city council refused to believe the claims of the construction company when they informed the council that they had developed a new building material which was stronger than steel but could not be seen by the human eye. The city council is said to have likened the bridge fiasco to "the Emporers New clothes".

Roads Memorial celebrates the fact that Cape Town is where roads were invented. This delightfully done by means of a momument which includes important tools to road-making such as lions, a man with a horse and some dude's head.

Bergies are Cape Town's world famous mountaineers who live on table mountain and often come down into the city to welcome foreigners with the traditional Capetonian greeting of "Jou maaaa se ....!"

Best wishes

MIKE

Humour TOP

A woman was at her hairdresser's getting her hair styled for a trip to Rome with her husband. She mentioned the trip to the hairdresser, who responded, "Rome? Why would anyone want to go there? It's crowded and dirty. You're crazy to go to Rome. So, how are you getting there?"

"We're taking Continental," was the reply. "We got a great rate!"

"Continental?" exclaimed the hairdresser. "That's a terrible airline.
Their planes are old, their flight attendants are ugly, and they're
always late. So, where are you staying in Rome?"

"We'll be at an exclusive little place over on Rome's Tiber River called Teste."

"Don't go any further. I know that place. Everybody thinks it's gonna be something special and exclusive, but it's really a dump, the worst hotel in the city! The rooms are small, the service is surly, and they're overpriced. So, whatcha' doing when you get there?"

"We're going to go to see the Vatican and we hope to see the Pope."

"That's rich," laughed the hairdresser. "You and a million other people
trying to see him. He'll look the size of an ant. Boy, good luck on this lousy trip of yours. You're going to need it."

A month later, the woman again came in for a hairdo. The hairdresser
asked her about her trip to Rome.

"It was wonderful," explained the woman. "Not only were we on time in one of Continental's brand new planes, but it was overbooked and they bumped us up to first class. The food and wine were wonderful, and I had a handsome 28-year-old steward who waited on me hand and foot. And the hotel was great! They'd just finished a $5million remodeling job and now it's a jewel, the finest hotel in the city. They, too, were overbooked, so they apologized and gave us their owner's suite at no extra charge!"

"Well," muttered the hairdresser. "That's all well and good, but I know you didn't get to see the Pope."

"Actually, we were quite lucky, because as we toured the Vatican, a
Swiss Guard tapped me on the shoulder, and explained that the Pope likes to meet some of the visitors, and if I'd be so kind as to step into his private room and wait, the Pope would personally greet me. Sure enough, five minutes later, the Pope walked through the door and shook my hand!

I knelt down and he spoke a few words to me."

"Oh, REALLY! What did he say?"

"He said, 'Where'd you get that lousy hairdo?'"

Recipes TOP

African food
Feel like a plate of Sebete se halikiloeng? Ever eaten Mashonzha? And what about some Umfino and Morogo served with Inyama Yenkykhu? If you're thinking "what on earth?" - don't stress - these are traditional South African dishes, enjoyed daily by millions of South Africans.

Like our Madiba, whose favourite dish is Umngqusho. It's made with stamp mealies (broken dried maize kernels), sugar beans, butter, onions, potatoes, chillies and lemons, and simmered a long time until all ingredients are tender.

If you want to go the whole African hog, get out those new Kwaito CDs and pour yourself some Umqombothi (home-brewed sorghum beer). If you don't have a contact for beer in the townships, get yourself a home-brewing kit from your nearest supermarket.

More meal ideas
-select a meal idea
All souped up Around the world with kebabs.
Baking breads Beans and pulses Braai/Barbeque.
Breakfast Bunny Chow Calamari and octopus Chilli fever Chillies Citrus fruits Classic desserts Classic sauces Cocktail evenings.

Comfort food Cookery class Cooking with chocolate Crunchy upper crust.
Cuban cooking Easter, Passover and Pesach Easy, flop-proof meals.

Fabulous focaccia Fishcakes Flowers in food Fondue Food for fuel.

Food on a stick Foods that fight flu French bakery Fusion food.

Gourmet dinner Grown up desserts Honey Hot puddings Hot salads Lasagnes Lemon grass Let's go nuts.
Let's stop for padkos Lovers' food- Mash Meals for men Meringues.

Mince Mouth-watering marshmallows Mushrooms Noodles Nutmeg Olives.

One-pot wonders Ostrich Oysters Party nibbles Passionate food Pepper.
Picnic ideas- Piquant peppers, Portuguese cooking Ramadan fast and feast.
Saffron Seafood feasting Sinful cinnamon Smoking food Sporty snacks Swahili cuisine Tea culture Terrines.
The (not so) humble pie The cake of cheese Traditional SA bakes Treats for Mom Vegetarian cooking Waffling on Watermelons Wok cooking Wraps

10 things to do with African food

- Mashonzha (Mopani worms)
- Wild leaves and grinding corn (Umfino)

- Samp and beans (Umngqusho)
- Stewed ox tripe (Ulusu Lwenkomo)

- Chicken casserole (Inyama Yenkukhu)
- Vegetable stew on phutu

- Mandazi
- North African chermoula

- The African brunch
- African ribs with peanut sauce and futari

Tip

Tip for cooking traditional African food
Moro wa Phiri (Phiri is Tswana for wild dog) is traditionally enjoyed as a sauce to go with biltong or anything else if there is no gravy. It's made by mixing chopped, very hot chillies and a teaspoon of salt into a cup of hot or cold water. It's also often drank as a freshener after a meal or an intensive beer-drinking session...There's more....

http://www.food24.com

MADAME ZINGARA, CARA LAZULI BURNT DOWN
story by Food24 from Food24

Terrible news for all those who loved the chocolate chilli steaks and chocolate cigars that you could find at the mother daughter restaurants of Madame Zingara and Cara Lazuli in Cape Town. Unfortunately, the two restaurants burnt down last night. Luckily no one was hurt and it is hoped that it will not be too long before these two restaurants are restored to their former glory.
Anybody got any further information? Please go to our forums and discuss.

http://www.food24.com/

Sports News TOP

Plain sailing for Sharks, Western Province

Durban South Africa
The Sharks, needing a full house of five points to be sure of an away semifinal berth, made sure when they convincingly beat the Valke -- their old Red Devils nemesis -- by 48 points to 10 and seven tries to one in their Absa Currie Cup rugby match in Durban on Saturday. Later it was reported that defending champions Free State will be their hosts in Bloemfontein next Saturday.
Read more...

http://www.mg.co.za/

Advertising on South Africans Worldwide TOP

Readers are invited to place adverts on the website, www.saw.co.za as well as place ads in this newsletter, SAWmail.

Costs:

An article about your service or site - R 3000

Your banner - R 3000/month [on SAW home site & run of site]

Ad in SAW-mail- 4 lines of text - R 1000/issue.

[There are 27 000 subscribers to the Newsletter plus many thousands of "hits" on the web-site - Ed]

Credits and Contact Info TOP

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Subscribing and Unsubscribing TOP

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Disclaimer TOP

The editors, publishers, directors and shareholders of Maesti Web Consulting (being the holding company that publishes SAW) place on record that opinions and comment published in this newsletter are those of the authors, contributors and correspondents.

It should not be construed that we agree or disagree with any of the material. All information about events is published in good faith as received from the correspondents.

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