Reporter on Cape Town's stormy weather has not looked hard enough

A News24 report on the cold weather being experienced by the Western Cape indicates that it was difficult to say whether there was snow on the Ceres mountains. The report quotes Didi Greef of the Matroosberg Nature Reserve as saying that it was difficult to confirm whether there was snow on the mountains.

I don't buy this! I could see snow from my house in Worcester and a 10 minute drive yesterday afternoon confirmed that there was plenty of snow in the mountains! How difficult would it have been for Didi Greef to actually check? How difficult would it have been for the reporter to contact someone else for confirmation?

Believe me, there is snow on the mountains and I expect more to fall today.

Facebook Usernames - Interview video

I've got mine! Have you got yours? You'd better hurry - 500 000 usernames taken in 15 minutes! I wonder who will take www.facebook.com/southafrica ?

Two of the Facebook team explain usernames and the thinking behind the move :

SA's Playboy Bunny Can't Sell Her Tail

Did you know that South Africa has its own Playboy bunny? Born in the former Czechoslovakia at the end of World War 2, Heidi Vos lost her parents to disease in a refugee camp and was smuggled to Germany as a toddler by an aunt. After a stint as an au-pair in the US she moved to New Orleans at the age of 19 to become a Playboy bunny.

She now lives in Mill Park and is the founder of the annual Chilli Festival. In an attempt to raise money for the Barcelone Feeding Scheme she tried to auction off her fluffy bunny tail this past weekend at the festival. However nobody was at all interested! It seems that the bunny tails of 65 year old Playboy bunnies are not in vogue right now! She was hoping to make R10 000 from the little white piece of fluff!

The entire costume was supposed to be returned when she left Playboy but as she says "this one fell through the cracks."

Interesting note - after her Playboy Club days Vos became one of the world's first female disc jockeys.

Oscar Honour For South Africa

It may not have generated as much hype as Charlize Theron's Oscar did in 2004 or as the film Tsotsi did in 2006 but South Africa once again walked away with an Oscar at this year's Academy Awards.

Taxi to the Dark Side, one of the films made for the South African coordinated, global documentary project Why Democracy?, won the Documentary Feature award.

South African producer and film maker, Don Edkins, was the executive producer of the film. Edkins also produced and coordinated the Why Democracy? project for Steps International from their Cape Town offices.

Director Alex Gibney’s film tells the story of an Afghan taxi driver tortured to death by the American government as part of its "War on Terror" and was one of 10 films in the Why Democracy? documentary project.

Edkins as Executive Producer on ‘Taxi to the Dark Side’, and Producer of ‘Please Vote For Me’ says, “This is a great honour for the film. I am very pleased that ‘Taxi to the Dark Side’ won because it deals with a very tough political issue. By awarding the film an Oscar, the Academy has showed it is not scared of films which expose the undemocratic practices of the American Government."

This is yet another opportunity to showcase the talent that this country produces. Well done Don Edkins and your team!

New Blog of the Week - #8 - SA Medical Community Uncovered

Although not technically a "New Blog", with all the furore going on around the antics of our dear Health Minister, I thought it good to give you a blog focused on the South African medical community.,

Describing itself as a blog where one can discover what's under the gown in the South African medical fraternity, All Scrubbed Up covers doctors, surgeons, practices, hospitals and the funny, sometimes controversial stories that go with them.

The site is well written and laid out and has some nice medical videos to peruse - some serious and some funny. It is this mix of the serious and humorous that makes this blog so appealing. At the time of writing there are several posts on male pregnancy - seriously!

With the embarrasment of our national health minister making the headlines, perhaps it is good to focus on other things in our medical fraternity!

Non-performance = violence and murder?

Over the past 13 years millions of previously disadvantaged South Africans have been promised access to basic services. In some areas the ANC government has done remarkably well and people's lives have been changed for the better. The sad reality is that there are still millions for whom access to clean drinking water, flush toilets, electricity and safe housing is nothing more than a pipe-dream.

It is hardly surprising then when communities become angry with local councillors and other local government officials around the issue of service delivery (or non-delivery rather). This anger boiled over to the most extreme political violence seen since the days of the apartheid struggle when a mob killed an ANC councillor in Deneysville in the Free State yesterday.

The crowd was protesting the slow delivery of housing in the area and had set up a meeting with the mayor of Metsimaholo and other local councillors. These fat cats then decided not to show up at the pre-arranged time. Their non-arrival obviously angered the residents who then marched to local councillor Morris Mokoena's home. When he arrived home they attacked him, stoned him and butchered him with an axe to his face. He later died of his injuries.

This act of violence can in no way be condoned. Killing another human being is inexcusable. That said, is there not perhaps place to begin to consider what provokes people to reach a place where that seems like the only way for their voice to be heard? Is that democracy?

The Mayor refused to comment on the incident - how's that for leadership? Imagine Rudy Giuliani refusing to comment after the 9/11 attacks until he had read a report or two!

Non-delivery of basic services and housing and the continual reports of jobs-for-pals is quickly becoming the Achilles heel of the post-apartheid government in South Africa. Recent riots in Parys, Wolmaranstad and other areas of the country show that there is increasing dissatisfaction amongst the electorate. There is no-quick fix but the people must see decisive action being taken by those in senior positions in government. In fact it is time Thabo Mbeki was seen taking decisive action against those who hold back the pace of progress and whose incompetence continues to hurt those who voted them into power.

The bigger picture is of course much more complicated than space on this blog will allow but one thing is clear from these events - as much as we abhor the violence associated with political demonstration, it may be exactly this that brings about the much needed action from those in power. Party loyalty lies deep with those for whom the ANC was a party of liberation from the shackles of apartheid. I wonder for how many years the ANC government will be able to rely on that loyalty before the dissatisfaction currently playing out on the streets of our towns becomes dissatisfaction shown at the polling booth.