16
17 - 23 September 2013 Issue 532 www.thesouthafrican.com p3 | ‘We are all to blame for Malema’ - outgoing SA High Comissioner INSIDE: p10 | Building Africa’s ten Cities of the Future p5 | Nelson Mandela biopic triumphs at Toronto International Film Festival Continued on page 2 ZUMA: SECRECY BILL ‘UNCONSTITUTIONAL’ by HARRIET MANN PRESIDENT Jacob Zuma has sent the controversial protection of state information bill back to parliament for redrafting, as two sections are “unconstitutional”, he announced on Thursday. In a surprise move, Zuma said that sections 42 and 45 lacked “meaning and coherence, consequently are irrational and accordingly are unconstitutional.” Campaigners applauded the decision, saying it is an opportunity to redraft all “draconian” and “unconstitutional” sections in the dubbed secrecy bill. However, celebrations may be short-lived as the Joint Rules of Parliament state that the bill can not be revised in its entirety. Rule 203(2) says that the committee “must consider, and confine itself to, the President’s reservations”. President Zuma has only spoken of sections 42 and 45. Section 42 relates to the failure to report information that should be classified and Section 45 relates to the improper classification of state documents and the punishments for those who knowingly classify information to achieve any “purpose ulterior to the act”, government run sanews said. Constitutional law expert Pierre du Vos claims the initial rejection of the bill may not be to fix “unconstitutional” elements but actually to ensure corruption is kept secret. While admitting he may be “overtly suspicious” and even hoping he is wrong, Vos suggests that the bill as it currently stands will be more constitutional than after the review by parliament. He claims that “wrongly invoked” classifications are currently concealing whether R£200 million of public money was spent on Zuma’s private property at Nkandla. “A minister who wished to classify information about Nkandla as secret or top secret would, in terms of the Secrecy Bill as it now stands, have to think twice before classifying information about Nkandla. “Section 45 would prohibit any official (including the minister of public works) from intentionally classifying information as secret or top secret “to achieve any purpose ulterior” to the act,” Vos writes in his blog Constitutionally Speaking. However, ANC spokesman Moloto Mothapo said he was sure the changes would ”further strengthen the bill and its objectives of protecting citizens’ information and enhancing national security through protection of sensitive government information,” Times Live reported. Democratic Alliance parliamentary leader Lindiwe Mazibuko said, “While corrections to these sections are critical, they are merely technical and the protection of state information bill will remain unconstitutional. “Should the scope of the ad hoc committee be only limited to amending sections 42 and 45, it will become clear that President Zuma’s referral of the |Zuma’s surprise decision to send the “unconstitutional” secrecy bill back to parliament has been celebrated by campaigners, but, with months to go until the 2014 elections, can there be an ulterior motive? GOT THE THE ‘XHOSA FACTOR’: South African singer Jeanette Akua secured her place in The X Factor bootcamp with her rendition of Bon Iver’s ‘Skinny Love’ on Sunday night. The 21-year-old beauty consultant has lived in Essex for the last two years and surprised the judges and crowd when she spoke fluent Xhosa ahead of her performance. Read the full story on www.thesouthafrican.com 41565 0808 141 2315 www.1stcontact.com/mast1 TAX, FINANCIAL AND MIGRATION EXPERTS: Money Transfers, Tax Refunds, Visas, Limited Companies & Accounting, UK Bank Accounts, CV & Job Assistance, Travel Clinic, Shipping, Legal and Umbrella Services 100,000 MONEY TRANSFERS EACH YEAR - BEST RATES!

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Page 1: The South African, Issue 532, 17 September 2013

17 - 23 September 2013 Issue 532

www.thesouthafrican.com

Ref No. F201000144

Third Floor, Cutlers Court,115 Houndsditch, London,

EC3A 7BR

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The Leading Name in UK Immigration

UK Immigration• UK Visas• Permits• EEA visas• Residency• Citizenship •• Appeals• Sponsorship Licences South African Immigration

p3 | ‘We are all to blame for Malema’ - outgoing SA High Comissioner

INSIDE:

p10 | Building Africa’s ten Cities of the Future

p5 | Nelson Mandela biopic triumphs at Toronto International Film Festival

Continued on page 2

ZUMA: SECRECY BILL ‘UNCONSTITUTIONAL’by HARRIET MANN

PRESIDENT Jacob Zuma has sent the controversial protection of state information bill back to parliament for redrafting, as two sections are “unconstitutional”, he announced on Thursday.

In a surprise move, Zuma said that sections 42 and 45 lacked “meaning and coherence, consequently are irrational and accordingly are unconstitutional.”

Campaigners applauded the decision, saying it is an opportunity to redraft all “draconian” and “unconstitutional” sections in the dubbed secrecy bill.

However, celebrations may be short-lived as the Joint Rules of Parliament state that the bill can not be revised in its entirety.

Rule 203(2) says that the committee “must consider, and confine itself to, the President’s reservations”. President Zuma has only spoken of sections 42 and 45.

Section 42 relates to the failure to report information that should be classified and Section 45 relates to the improper classification of state documents and the punishments for those who knowingly classify information to achieve any “purpose ulterior to the act”, government run sanews said.

Constitutional law expert Pierre du Vos claims the initial rejection of the bill may not be to fix “unconstitutional” elements but actually to ensure corruption is kept secret.

While admitting he may be “overtly suspicious” and even hoping he is wrong, Vos suggests

that the bill as it currently stands will be more constitutional than after the review by parliament.

He claims that “wrongly invoked” classifications are currently concealing whether R£200 million of public money was spent on Zuma’s private property at Nkandla.

“A minister who wished to classify information about Nkandla as secret or top secret would, in terms of the Secrecy Bill as it now stands, have to think twice before classifying information about Nkandla.

“Section 45 would prohibit any official (including the minister of public works) from intentionally classifying information as secret or top secret “to achieve any purpose ulterior” to the act,” Vos writes in his blog Constitutionally Speaking.

However, ANC spokesman Moloto Mothapo said he was sure the changes would ”further strengthen the bill and its objectives of protecting citizens’ information and enhancing national security through protection of sensitive government information,” Times Live reported.

Democratic Alliance parliamentary leader Lindiwe Mazibuko said, “While corrections to these sections are critical, they are merely technical and the protection of state information bill will remain unconstitutional.

“Should the scope of the ad hoc committee be only limited to amending sections 42 and 45, it will become clear that President Zuma’s referral of the

|Zuma’s surprise decision to send the “unconstitutional” secrecy bill back to parliament has been celebrated by campaigners, but, with months to go until the 2014 elections, can there be an ulterior motive?

GOT THE THE ‘XHOSA FACTOR’: South African singer Jeanette Akua secured her place in The X Factor bootcamp with her rendition of Bon Iver’s ‘Skinny Love’ on Sunday night. The 21-year-old beauty consultant has lived in Essex for the last two years and surprised the judges and crowd when she spoke fluent Xhosa ahead of her performance. Read the full story on www.thesouthafrican.com

41565

0808 141 2315www.1stcontact.com/mast1

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Page 2: The South African, Issue 532, 17 September 2013

2 | 17 - 23 September 2013 | thesouthafrican.com

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Each week we profile one of the many writers who contribute to The South African.

David Chislett

My name is David Chislett and I am a freelance writer from Johannesburg. In April of this year I packed up my life in Joburg to embark on a journey around the world. Not unusual in the slightest. Except that I am 43, should know better and am going to try and get all the way round without climbing into an aeroplane and flying.

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Continued from front pagebill back to Parliament is merely an election ploy and not a genuine commitment to ensuring the bill’s constitutionality,” she claimed.

This has been denied by presidency spokesman Mac Maharaj. “The allegations that he is doing this as an electioneering stunt is unjustified… we are heading for an election period and there is a tendency for parties and individuals to dub everything as if it’s electioneering.

“The reality is government has to

continue functioning whether there is an election or no election. The legislature has to make legislation; the judiciary has to continue to function and the executive has to continue to rule the country. Those duties do not disappear by virtue of the fact that there is a looming election in 2014,” he added.

The protection of state information bill was passed by 189 votes to 74 in April after first being tabled in 2008 and undergoing a reported 800 amendments, The Financial Times reported. The

bill has long been criticised for restricting access to information and threatening journalists and whistleblowers with up to 25 years in jail. Vos claims that the definition of ‘national security’ in the bill is “vague” and “open-ended”, which leaves it open to individual ministers’ interpretation.

More worrying still, the definition of “espionage” remains unclear. Right2Know said, “There is a real fear that this bill can’t tell the difference between people publishing information for social

justice reasons and those doing it for private gain or with malevolent intent.” Speaking to a class of journalism students last week, Zuma attacked South African media, saying it was concerned only with profits and should instead focus less on the negative stories in South Africa and more on the positive ones. When asked if the secrecy bill would limit journalist’s freedom, Zuma said, “A state must have some secrets, there’s no state that would not have secrets, otherwise it’s not a state.”

Nominations open for SA Business Awards 2013| Nominations have opened for the annual South African business awards, which will recognise trailblazing South African business people in the UK within five categories

by STAFF REPORTER

AFTER the huge success of last year’s awards, The South African Chamber of Commerce endeavours to continue the recognition of excellence within the South African business community here in the UK.

“As the largest organisation of South African businesses in the UK, it is our great honour to distinguish outstanding leaders in business with an award in appreciation of their accomplishments,” said chairperson Mary-Anne Anderson.

This popular annual event, to be held this year on 28 November at at Dexter House in Tower Hill London, will recognise trailblazing South African business people in the UK within the following categories:

Business Leader of the YearThe recipient must have

demonstrated personal excellence and integrity in their business and or

profession by conducting an ethical, profitable business or showing exemplary leadership while working within such a business. They must also have shown dedication to the community by giving time, energy and resources.

Entrepreneur of the YearThe recipient must possess

the qualities which epitomise successful entrepreneurship – drive,

ambition, vision and tenacity, to inspirational leadership, inventiveness and confidence. The recipient must also demonstrate significant levels of growth and financial performance and how they have achieved these through, for example, innovative culture, market awareness and operational efficiency.

Innovator of the YearThe recipient must have

demonstrated exemplary innovations which could be related to any aspects of a company’s or organisation’s activities in terms

of new services, products, work policies and approaches.

Rising Star of the YearThe recipient must be a young

professional who has demonstrated exceptional leadership and service within their profession and the community.

Woman in Business of the YearThe recipient must be a woman

in business who has made her mark, inspiring and empowering those around her to develop their potential and reach their goals. The recipient must have demonstrated initiative, excellent leadership

and a proven track record of achievements in terms of growth and returns and have contributed to a changed perception of women in the workplace.How you can get involved

Nominate your friends and colleagues and get them the recognition they deserve. Nominees will then be contacted for their approval and their complete CV and biography before being submitted for public vote. Vote for your chosen nominee once their bio goes live on this website. Each comment posted on their bio, which is connected to a unique, legitimate e-mail address will be counted as a vote. Register to attend the awards on 28 November.

Members’ Registration: £30Non-members: £40Book your place now!Time: 18:30 – 21:30Venue: Dexter House, No 2

Royal Mint Court, Tower Hill, London, EC3N 4QN

Members Registration: £30 Non-Members: £40

Until 22 Sept 2013London African Music Festival: Come and experience the finest in African music at multiple venues across London. Organisers Joyful Noise have brought together most of the biggest names in contemporary music from our continent. 07956 227 012thelondonafricanmusicfestival.com / joyfulnoise.co.ukFor more events and details: www.thesouthafrican.com/events

President Zuma declares Secrecy Bill ‘unconstitutional’

Page 3: The South African, Issue 532, 17 September 2013

3thesouthafrican.com | 17 - 23 September 2013 |

NewsLike us on Facebook:facebook.com/thesouthafrican

Motlanthe visits UK to promote trade and investmentby STAFF REPORTER

SOUTH Africa’s deputy president Kgalema Motlanthe is in the United Kingdom to promote investment, especially in South Africa’s mining industry.

Motlanthe left South Africa for the UK on Saturday, accompanied by a delegation consisting of Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan, Minister of Mineral Resources Susan Shabangu, and Deputy Minister of International Relations and Cooperation Ebrahim Ebrahim.

The Deputy President and his delegation will meet with investors, bankers, mining companies and opinion makers over the course of his visit.

Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan, Minister of Mineral Resources Susan Shabangu, and Deputy Minister of International Relations and Cooperation Ebrahim Ebrahim are part of Motlanthe’s delegation.

The mining sector continues to play a central role in the country’s economic, political and social environment. Addressing the Alexkor post-AGM briefing on Friday, Public Enterprises Deputy Minister Bulelani Magwanishe said the industry contributes about 20% to the GDP, over 15% to non-agricultural jobs, accounts for 12% of the total investment and over 30% of exports.

“South Africa’s mining industry has come under sharp scrutiny

over the last financial year alone. The 2012 tragic events at Marikana and widespread labour disputes have significantly impacted the mining industry,” said Magwanishe. While the industry has been faced with numerous challenges in relation to labour and operational costs, several interventions were being implemented by government to assist the industry recover from its setbacks. Gordhan said this was at the back of several perceptions that fuelled doubt from existing and potential investors, including policy uncertainty, political and currency risk and the risk of production stoppages brought about by labour unrest. - SAnews.gov.za

‘All of us are to blame for Malema’ – outgoing SA High Commissioner| ‘I don’t want to hide it, Julius Malema gave us very, very ugly publicity’ said recently retired South African High Commissioner to the United Kingdom, Dr Zola Skweyiya, who named the former ANCYL leader as one of the biggest challenges of his four-year termby HEATHER WALKER

SA HIGH Commissioner to the United Kingdom, Dr Zola Skweyiya has returned to South Africa after his four-year term ended on 31 August 2013. Before retiring from public office to spend time with his family at home in Pretoria, Dr Skweyiya spoke to The South African.com about the challenges and highlights of his time in London, dealing with Julius Malema and meeting the Queen…

What was the greatest achievement of your political career?To encourage South Africans to stop thinking about themselves from the point of race, to think of themselves as South Africans and struggle together to make South Africa. But that does not necessarily mean that they should all vote for one party. As long as they are united as South Africans when it comes to the vote, they can vote for PAC for ANC or DA or IFP or any other party they think can change South Africa for the better. They are free people – but we want to see them united and working together for a better South Africa.

What was your greatest achievement as High Commissioner?Putting South Africa in the spotlight, first during the 2010 World Cup and secondly during the London Olympics. It was nice to be South African and to go and meet other South Africans as we did at Ekhaya [South Africa’s home on the South Bank]. When they saw white and black South

Africans there, some people came over and asked, are you all South Africans? And I said yes we are. What was our biggest challenge as High Commissioner? The question of investment. I don’t want to hide it, Julius Malema gave us very, very ugly publicity. It was clear to everyone that he has a lot to learn.

How did you go about repairing Malema’s damage?It’s an ongoing process. We’re trying to tell the world what he said was not true and it has been proved beyond any reasonable doubt that South Africans do not agree with Malema, in terms of nationalisation and his disrespect for his elders.

Do you think Malema will get support for his new political venture?South Africa is a free country, he can be voted in, that is the choice of South Africans. He might get into parliament but I see no future for his party. If I could, I would stop every South African who is going to vote for him.Do you think the youth need to be better educated about politics?I think the youth ought to sit down

and learn. Malema is not the only person who comes from such a background, most of us have gone through that and unfortunately we did not guide him in the right way. And, as such, all of us are to blame to a certain extent.

Should this issue of investor confidence be the new High Commissioner’s main priority?It ought to be.

Which memory stands out from your time in London?The Queen’s Jubilee was very beautiful. I was on the river. It was then that I noticed the respect the British people have for their sovereign. Even certain left-wing political parties.

You’ve met the Queen, haven’t you?Yes, I have. She is a very fine, highly dignified lady.

Do you think the High Commission is doing enough to engage with South African community in London?It tries but there is a blockage. It is not funded enough.Read the full interview on www.thesouthafrican.com/news

Page 4: The South African, Issue 532, 17 September 2013

4 | 17 - 23 September 2013 | thesouthafrican.com

Community Follow us on Twitter:@TheSAnews

Win a £20 Spur meal voucherVisit www.ukspur.co.uk to locate your nearest Spur

If you have been spotted in the circle on this page please email your address to [email protected] and your voucher will be posted to you.

First Wednesday event with guest speaker Peter Hainby HEATHER WALKER

THE SA Chamber of Commerce hosted an event with guest speaker Peter Hain whose discussion focused on optimism for South Africa’s future, despite the enormous challenges the country faces. Hain’s personal experiences and insights into the impact of immigration and emigration, mining unrest and the situation in Zimbabwe, among other issues affecting South Africa’s development, ensured a lively question and answer session to follow his address.

Page 5: The South African, Issue 532, 17 September 2013

5thesouthafrican.com | 17 - 23 September 2013 |

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The OPTIMIST

For Shaun| He would have readily forsaken all politics and idealistic philosophies for one more day with those he loved more than boundaries.A few months ago, a vibrant, enthusiastic young man was given six weeks to live. An aggressive form of cancer. His wife and young daughters were with him in Australia. His parents in South Africa. A brother in the United States. Botswana mentioned. This is the predicament of migrating families, when tragedy strikes, the supporting threads of familial closeness are stretched far and wide.

The young family tried valiantly to cope on their own; friends offered solace but there is nothing quite like the understanding of a sibling when the nights are darkest and hope fades despite reaching for a miracle; that all the signs will change. This is what I hate most about cancer – we can find

our way around the Sahara on a camel with a GPS but to kill those cells still eludes us. The Medical fraternity closed it doors and spoke of ‘being comfortable.’

A benefactor secured a place at a clinic in South Africa where alternative healing may prolong this man’s – this man with still so much to accomplish - life. Plans were made and funds raised to assist an already weak and exhausted loved one on the long flight. This meant leaving behind his wife and children, and the possibility that they may never see each other again. Who could ever understand that level kind of pain?

His mother and family were there to receive him, at last able to hold a sick child and sibling. For months they were only imagining the circumstances, levels of deterioration from afar. How can one begin to imagine the fear of not knowing and being able to comfort? Guilt for distance?

Shaun fought so terrible hard against the injustice of his short life. He did not see his wife and children again, but his mother was there to hold her little boy at the end.

Why am I telling you this story? Last weekend a memorial was held for Shaun on the most beautiful farm in the Cape Winelands. Friends from around the world, early school days, to racing days

to always gathered to honour his life and be there for his family. A bittersweet day. And no-one stopped to ask why Shaun was living in Australia, whether he had forsaken his ‘country’ or had the right to call himself anything at all. He would have readily forsaken all politics and idealistic philosophies for one more day with those he loved more than boundries.

There were many others close to him that could not be there on that day. A plethora of reasons have taken us all over the world, and many not by choice but by circumstance of marriage and employment for example. Life is messy; the best laid plans change in an instance and will again and again and no, I have no idea what my future holds and where I shall be, but location does not make one more or less a citizen of the place you hold in your heart. I have every right to live my life where I chose and still love, and get frustrated and fight for the country I grew up in. The right to do what is best for my family and the ultimately the right to ‘go home’ – where ever that may be.

I could not be there for Shaun, his family and my daughter – it hurts. But enough of this subject. Optimistic that next week I write about crocheting, doilies, mustard lettuce and vibrators.

Nelson Mandela’s Living LegacyWHILE Mandela languished in jail, the world had not forgotten. A resurgent anti-Apartheid campaign in the West benefitted from renewed international interest in Madiba’s plight in July 1978, when he celebrated his 60th birthday. He was awarded an honorary doctorate in Lesotho, the Jawaharlal Nehru Award for International Understanding in India in 1979, and the Freedom of the City of Glasgow, Scotland in 1981. In March 1980 the slogan “Free Mandela!” was developed by journalist Percy Qoboza, sparking an international campaign that led the UN Security Council to call for his release. Despite increasing foreign pressure, the government refused, relying on powerful foreign Cold War allies in US President Ronald Reagan and UK Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher;

Thatcher considered Mandela a communist terrorist and supported the suppression of the ANC.

Pollsmoor Prison: 1982–1988In April 1982 Mandela was transferred to Pollsmoor Prison in Tokai, Cape Town, along with senior ANC leaders Walter Sisulu, Andrew Mlangeni, Ahmed Kathrada and Raymond Mhlaba. The prisoners believed that they were being isolated to remove their influence on younger activists. Conditions at Pollsmoor were better than at Robben Island, although Mandela missed the camaraderie and scenery of the island. Getting on well with Pollsmoor’s commanding officer, Brigadier Munro, Mandela was permitted to create a roof garden, also reading voraciously and corresponding widely. The steadily aging revolutionary was now permitted 52 letters a year – a rather meagre concession for someone who had become cemented as the face and the

conscience of the anti-apartheid struggle in the outside world. Mandela was appointed patron of the multi-racial United Democratic Front (UDF), founded to combat reforms implemented by South African President P.W. Botha. Botha’s National Party government had permitted Coloured and Indian citizens to vote for their own parliaments in a tricameral legislature which would have control over education, health, and housing, but black Africans were excluded from the system; like Mandela, the UDF saw this as an attempt to divide and conquer.

Pollsmoor - and one letter a week| Having befriended the commanding officer at Pollsmoor, Mandela was able to gain some idea of the global anti-apartheid struggle being waged outside South Africa by a single weekly letter

| Consumer anti-Apartheid boycott poster from the late 1980s

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Page 6: The South African, Issue 532, 17 September 2013

6 | 17 - 23 September 2013 | thesouthafrican.com

Community Follow us on Twitter:@TheSAnews

Celebrate Braai day with other South Africans at The Orange Bull on 21 September 2013 to commemorate Heritage Day

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Young-at-heart South African Londoner still dancing her way around the world

by MOIRA ROWAN

A few weeks ago I watched a programme called How not to get old, which introduced the viewers to Belinda, a woman of a certain age, who had a body that any 25-year-old would be proud of. She shared with us the secret of her success, doing exercises that sculpt the body.

This all brought to mind a super fit lady whom I have the privilege of meeting a number of years ago through the South African High Commission. Her name is Elsa Perez, and at 78 years of age she is a remarkable woman.

Elsa grew up in Rosebank, Cape Town, then after the group areas act her family moved to Lansdowne. She left South Africa in 1961 to study further. She trained as a teacher of maladjusted children at London University, although by this stage had already been teaching for six years, with physical education, dance and puppetry very much part of her work.

Elsa has always loved dancing. Her family could not afford dance lessons for Elsa and her sister, but from the age of eight she was allowed to watch the lessons. Of this time she says, “We stole with our eyes and practised at home.”

The Iberian Folk Dance group in London was already established when she joined, 13 years ago. A friend asked her to teach her partner the female part of the Argentinian Tango, which she did. After this

she was invited to join the group and fell in love with the dances, Spanish, Portuguese and Mexican. After three years she started to teach the newer dances that she had learnt from the guest teachers. She says of herself that she has “a good memory for music and dance”. When the last secretary died, she took over the running of the group.

Elsa also leads the Proteas dance group, made up of mainly expat South Africans, some of whom dance in the Iberian Group.

Recently I crossed paths again with Elsa when I found myself in charge of a rehab ward full of depressed and bored patients. I asked Elsa if she would put on a show, which she readily agreed, appearing a few weeks later with a group of eight dancers including Jackie who is a trained Zumba gold teacher.

Besides dancing various dances from Cuba, Mexico and Spain, they had the patients participating in

chair based dancing. The feedback was very positive; it helped kickstart some of the patients’ rehab progress and some made a full recovery.

The result was that Elsa and her dancers were asked to make a film for the trust I work for. Called Listening to patients, it will be shown at the next AGM to all the different departments of the trust. Because the top management thought this was a very innovative idea, they want to see if this dance programme can be rolled out to other units for the benefit of the patients.

Elsa’s wish list:Elsa does some fantastic work, she is very generous with her time and expertise but like most things, she needs some help to continue.• She asks readers to vote for her

group, the Iberian Folk Dancers, on the Mars Milk site so that they can get some sponsorship for travel costs and hire of facilities etc. marsmilk.com/fund/the-iberian-folk-dance-group

• She would like as many people to attend her Dancing Round the World Festival in November. I have attended this event and can promise it’s very entertaining, and you get to learn and practise some new dance moves. datw.org.uk

• Elsa would like more people to attend her fun-filled Saturday morning classes (especially men, which they are short of).

• Her friend Jackie teaches Zumba Gold (like Zumba but less energetic), which she has adapted to include chair based dancing and is looking for more clients. Her rates are extremely affordable and she teaches one to one or group classes. Contact Elsa on 02087693919 or [email protected]

| At 78 years old, South African-born Elsa Perez is fitter than many people half her age, thanks to her lifelong passion for dancing. She leads two London dance groups, the Iberians and the Proteas, and needs your vote to win them funding

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| Elsa Perez competes with the London School of Samba in Denmark.

| The Proteas dance group

Page 7: The South African, Issue 532, 17 September 2013

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Nelson Mandela film triumphs at Toronto Film Festival| The big-screen adaptation of Nelson Mandela’s autobiography, Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom, moved reviewers to tears at its world premiere in Toronto, Canada, this weekendby ALISON MONDAY

THE first screening of the eagerly-anticipated film documenting the life of Nelson Mandela was followed by a standing ovation lasting almost ten minutes. Audience members were visibly moved by the epic, described by one reviewer as a “deeply respectful portrait of one of the global political stage’s indisputably great leaders.”

David Rooney, writing for The Hollywood Reporter, also praised the efforts of British star Idris Elba, who plays the lead role for the majority of the film. Noting that it “takes a commanding actor to fill the shoes” of a man like Mandela, he goes on to say that charismatic Elba “proves equal to the task.”

Director Justin Chadwick admits that Elba was a “brave choice” because he bears little resemblance to Madiba. However, while watching the actor in character last year, Nelson Mandela had trouble believing that it wasn’t himself he saw on screen. Anant Singh, who produced Long Walk to Freedom

and is a friend of the Mandela family, showed the former president a clip of the film at his home during production and says that after viewing it, he asked: “Is that me?”

The country’s marketing agency, Brand South Africa, released a statement congratulating the film-makers after the positive reception they received at the premiere on Saturday. CEO Miller Matola said: “The production of this film that celebrates the life of our national icon is indeed timely, especially as South Africans will celebrate 20 years of democracy in 2014.”

Despite the universal praise for Idris Elba, critics have mixed opinions about the pace and narrative of the biopic. Screen International says it is “too tasteful and conventional to offer much insight into the remarkable man it wishes to celebrate”.

Others have pointed out that the struggle to condense the extraordinary life of Mandela into a film lasting two-and-a-half hours is obvious. In that time viewers follow his journey from young lawyer to president, through his recruitment by the ANC and the 27 years he spent in prison.

The film also delves into Mandela’s relationships, refusing to shy away from the more controversial aspects of his personal life such as his early womanising. Speaking at the 38th Toronto International Film Festival, lead actor Elba said: “I didn’t want to deface Mr Mandela in any way. But I didn’t want to portray him in a way that wasn’t honest.”

South Africans will get a chance to judge for themselves when Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom is released in cinemas nationwide on 28 November, while those in the UK have to wait until 3 January 2014 to catch it here.

| South African stars take to the Red Carpet at the Toronto Film Festival: Riaad Moosa, Lindiwe Matshikiza, Deon Lotz and Terry Pheto.

Page 8: The South African, Issue 532, 17 September 2013

8 | 17 - 23 September 2013 | thesouthafrican.com

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Grape success for South Africa at Decanter World Wine Awards| Aletia Upstairs spent an evening in high society at the Decanter World Wine Awards, a lavish London ceremony where South Africa took joint second place of countries awarded international trophies, along with Spain and Chile.by ALETIA UPSTAIRS

SOUTH Africa took joint second place of countries awarded international trophies at this year’s Decanter World Wine Awards (DWWA), the world’s largest wine competition, held at the Royal Opera House in London on Wednesday 4 September.

At the table assigned to journalists, I was squeezed in cosily between the French wine connoisseur (who spoke about the nose and the palate), the Italian playboy (who pretend to receive numerous phone calls from Naomi Watts) and the Argentinian, who became bolder and more flirtatious with every glass and took to touching my leg ever so… professionally. We were served by an exceptionally nervous wine waiter, whose arm trembled so much that I offered to hold it for him; pleased for him that he was assigned our table, not one with the élite.

We were all pretending to be a tad more upper-class than our usual selves as we were there to drink the kind of wine we couldn’t afford.

The DWWA aims to celebrate the world’s best wines and enthuse wine lovers with their list of recommendations. The winners were determined by the world greatest palates: a panel of over 200 wine merchants, sommeliers, journalists and authors from 27 countries, including Masters of Wine and 13 Master Sommeliers.

We sampled award winning wines, the best of which, we agreed, was La Rioja Alta 890, Rioja Gran Reserva 1998, a recipient of the Red Rioja Gran Reserva Trophy. To my disappointment there was no South African wine to be tasted and I was unable to show off the brilliance of my home country’s wine to the three men of other wine producing countries sitting smugly around me.

Out of the 820 South African wines tasted at this year’s Awards, 633 were awarded a medal, equating to a 77.2% success rate. The top tier of awards given out at the DWWA are the international trophies.

Australia came tops with six international trophies while South Africa harvested these in four categories:• Sauvignon Blanc over £15 –

David Nieuwoudt, Ghost Corner Sauvignon Blanc, Elim 2012

• White Blend over £15 – Cape Point Vineyards, Isliedh, Cape Point 2012

• Dry Aromatic under £15 – Paul Cluver Gewürztraminer, Elgin 2012

• Red Rhône varietal under £15 – Boschendal, Reserve Collection Shiraz, Stellenbosch 2011

I interviewed two of the award winners on the night:

Lizelle Gerber, winemaker, representative of Boschendal, Reserve Collection Syrah, Stellenbosch 2011, winner of the International Trophy in Red Rhône varietal under £15 category.You have just accepted the award for the Boschendal, Reserve Collection Syrah, Stellenbosch 2011, yet you are represented as a white winemaker on the Boschendal website. Why is that?I’m in the UK now and we’re doing Beautiful South. The actual winemaker who made this particular wine is not with our company any more. I didn’t officially make it as such, but we’re all very entwined by the making process, because the cellar has been put in a way that there is a divided responsibility.

What made you move from the whites to the reds?My main responsibility is the whites, but this year, some of the Pinot Noir has been given to me so it has become my baby. Shiraz is normally on the red winemaker’s side, but at the end of the day we all need to have the knowledge still, him of the white and I of the red. We do communicate a lot and we’re very involved in the blending together. So not the fermentation as such, but the final blending of the products, selecting the components going into the final blending – that’s pretty much a team effort. It is better having more than one palate, because you get steered in a direction by yourself.

What do you think makes this wine an award winner?There is one word that describes this particular wine, 2011 was a great vintage and to me it is a great vintage to portray elegance – the elegance that South African wine can present. We don’t always have this and a lot of people perceive South African wines not necessarily to be elegant. But as Boschendal, our main aim is to present you with wines that are true to the variety, have elegance, good balance,

intensity, length, all those aspects, and the wood needs to be complimentary to the wine. For us it’s important that the wood should just be there to support whatever is already there. It shouldn’t be something you would want to use because you have to add something. It’s just there to make it more intriguing, for that matter.Pippa Wood, MD of Seckford Agencies, representative of Paul Cluver Gewürztraminer, Elgin 2012, winner of the Dry Aromatic under £15 category.

What is your opinion of the South African wines represented here today?These wines are fantastic and I think, surely, the public can get to the stage where they don’t want to know when they taste the wine whether it’s Chardonnay or Sauvignon Blanc; they just want a really good, interesting wine and South Africa does that so well. We’re really excited about the wines we’re developing and bringing through and events like this just shows, nobody said you can’t sell Riesling and Gewürztraminer from South Africa, but you can. These are our world class wines, this one – the single varietal trophy from South Africa; being a South African Gewurz, obviously that is unusual in itself, ‘cause there aren’t many top quality Gewurzes from South Africa, so to win the international trophy for Gewürztraminer over all the Chardonnays and Sauvignon Blancs and everything else – a single varietal Gewurz from South Africa, is quite special, I think.

Andries Berger, the winemaker, is a Burgundy fanatic; he’s a Francophile. He comes to France every year to make wines in September/October. With more aromatic varieties such as Gewurz, you get a lot of appeal on the nose and then the palate doesn’t necessarily follow through quite as you expect it to. The thing about this wine is it’s sort of the whole package. The nose has this sort of wonderful spicy lychees and then the palate is also just as enticing, but the real joy is the balance between the acidity and the fruit so you don’t get any of that sweetness, you just get a really good balance and I think a lot of Gewurzes struggle to get that; to make it a really drinkable wine.

Can you tell me why we are not able to taste any South African wine tonight?I don’t know.

The question remained unanswered, but Pippa invited me to another wine tasting the following week.

Later that night as everyone stumbled home, the Argentinian and the South African journalists reminisced about the evening’s grand victory for South Africans and failure for Argentinians.

| Lizelle Gerber collects the award for Red Rhône Varietal under £15: Boschendal, Reserve Collection Syrah, Stellenbosch 2011, South Africa

Page 9: The South African, Issue 532, 17 September 2013

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Knowledge of Language and Life requirement for settlement in the UKby STAFF REPORTER

AS the implementation date of the new Knowledge of Language and Life requirement for settlement in the UK looms closer, BIC are getting numerous queries about the issue from clients.

The facts are as follows;From 28 October 2013, all applicants for settlement (Indefinite Leave to Remain) in the UK, as well as UK citizenship

would be expected to fulfil two requirements, unless exempt;• To pass the Life in the UK test;

and• To have an English speaking and

listening qualification at the B1 Common European Framework of Reference for languages (CEFR).

• This is known as the KoLL requirement – Knowledge of Language and Life requirement.Persons who are nationals

of majority English speaking countries, and those who have obtained a degree taught in English will be required to take the Life in the UK test, but will not be required to take the English test. Note that South Africa is not reckoned to be an English speaking country.

Certain persons will be exempt from the KoLL requirement; including inter alia children under the age of 18, persons aged 65

years and older; persons with a physical or mental condition; persons on the adult dependent relative, and retired person of independent means migration routes; spouses of British citizens or persons settled in the UK who have been victims of domestic violence or whose spouse has died etc.Please contact our offices for more information about your unique situation and specifically the

different categories of exemption.JP BreytenbachDirector of BIC, Breytenbachs Immigration Consultants Limited.www.bic-immigration.com or [email protected]

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The Oasis Group is looking for Financial Advisors to be based in London Knightsbridge. The core function of the position is to provide sound financial advice and meet agreed targets and deadlines.

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by DYLAN GOATÉ

THE RAND began trading at around 15.6309 to the British Pound last Monday and around 9.9577 against the US Dollar. The Rand strengthened against both currencies towards the middle of the week and then weakened again to close at 15.7664 to the Pound and 9.9318 to the Dollar. The Rand recovered losses against the Dollar on Wednesday as manufacturing output beat forecasts. Manufacturing output was up 5.4 per cent year-on-year in July, far outpacing market expectations of 1.5 per cent and cushioning the Rand from further pressure after Tuesday’s weak Current Account numbers.

The Rand held its ground above the psychological 10 mark against the Dollar on Friday, but is unlikely to post significant gains ahead of the US Federal Reserve’s meeting this week. The US Federal Reserve has telegraphed its intentions to pare back the monthly purchases of US $85bn in bonds at its two-day meeting that ends on Wednesday. The scale of the tapering and what Fed Chairperson Ben Barnanke

Strong factory data eases pressure and helps the Rand recover

might say at his press conference are going to be key data. Looking ahead this week, there is a lot of data to be released out of the US, UK and Eurozone. The most important data release will be on Wednesday, when the US Fed Reserve releases their Interest Rate decision and their Monetary Policy Statement. South African CPI (Consumer Price Index), Month-on-Month and Year-on-Year figures, are also due to be released on Wednesday.

GBP / ZAR: 15.5619EUR / ZAR: 13.0460USD / ZAR: 9.7645NZD / ZAR: 8.0098AUD / ZAR: 9.1430Rates as of 10h37, 16/9/2013

Page 10: The South African, Issue 532, 17 September 2013

10 | 17 - 23 September 2013 | thesouthafrican.com

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Building Africa’s 10 Cities of the Future| The real success of the Africa’s shining new cities will be in demonstrating the value of high-density, sustainable patterns of land use, such that they are widely implemented in Africa’s burgeoning metropolises

1. Wescape | Cape Town, South AfricaWescape is a planned community of 800 000 outside of Cape Town, an already-sprawling city with several existing nodes at Claremont, Bellville and Century City in addition to the historic core. The Wescape project promises to help alleviate Cape Town’s dire shortage of affordable housing, and is conceived as a fully autonomous community, with educational, civic, health, commercial and industrial amenities as well as a transport network that is fully integrated into that of Cape Town. However, critics have questioned the need for an entirely new development far beyond city limits, as well as the wisdom of housing so many people within 15km of Koeberg, Africa’s only nuclear power plant.•Projected Population: 200 000

homes•Size: 3100 hectares•Projected Cost: R140 billion •Backers: CommuniTgrow – private•Status: currently in planning, with

initial approval from the Western Cape Province (and substantial public opposition)

2. Eko Atlantic | Lagos, NigeriaEko Atlantic City is a planned district of Lagos, Nigeria’s – and Africa’s – largest city. The burgeoning metropolis of Lagos has expanded economically to become an engine of growth for all of West Africa, but the city’s spatial expansion is blocked by land pressure. Because Lagos is famously congested, and subject today-longtrafficjams,inner-cityspace is at such a premium that Eko Atlantic will be built on entirely reclaimed land off Victoria Island, Nigeria’s Manhattan. Critics have pointed out that Eko Atlantic will therefore be vulnerable to rising sea levels in the coming century.•Projected Population: 400 000, plus

250 000 daily commuters•Size: 1000 hectares•Projected Cost: developer Gilbert

Chagoury is keeping mum, but

costs will run into the billions•Backers: Lagos State Government

and South EnergX (private-sector partner)

•Status: under construction since 2009, land reclamation now complete

3. Konza Technology City | Nairobi, KenyaSilicon Savannah – that’s what Konza Technopolis’s backers hope to see rising from the verdant countryside 60 kilometres north of Nairobi. The city is to create an enabling environment where talent can cluster in a context of reliable power, abundant green and public space, and good road links with Kenya’s capital and its airport, and with East Africa’s busiest port, Mombasa.•Projected Population: 185 000

residents and 100 000 jobs by 2030

(Phase One: 30 000 residents, 7 500 knowledge workers, 16 700 total jobs)

•Size: 5000 hectares (Phase 1: 400 acres)

•Projected Cost: USD 1,06 billion•Backers: PPP•Status: Phase One to commence

2013

4. Tatu City | Nairobi, KenyaTatu City is, like Konza, a fully autonomous city projected to provide its own amenities, housing, job opportunities and, this being East Africa, generate a portion of its own electricity. Like its cousin, it will lie to the north of the capital, and, in accordance with New Urbanist principles, it will be a high-density, totally walkable neighbourhood where the private motor car yields

to other forms of transport. Tatu City, like Konza, is an attempt at creating a total environment from scratch and from a blueprint without the potential for learning-by-doing. However, if this kind of plug-and-play neighbourhood is what it takes to convince skilled foreign labour to move to Kenya – and provided it brings jobs and investment – it may just be worth it.•Projected Population: 77 000

residents and 30 000 day visitors•Size: 1000 hectares •Projected Cost: USD 3 billion•Backers: PPP•Status: Phase One in planning

5. Hope City | Accra, GhanaHope City is a $10 billion high-tech hub that will be built outside Accra, aiming to turn Ghana into a major ICT player in competition with the nascent East African ICT industry. The planned hub, which it is hoped will house 25,000 residents and create jobs for 50,000 people, will be made up of six towers of different dimensions, including a 75-story, 270 meter-high building that is expected to be the highest in Africa. The project therefore combines the engineering vulnerabilities of amassiveDubai-styleedificewiththe vulnerabilities of tall buildings: if anything changes, they are very hard to adapt to new uses. It must be said, however, that the value of an iconic building – like South Africa’s hosting of the 2010 World Cup – is to be measured as much in symbolism and in altering perceptions of what an African country can achieve as it is by the bottom line.•Projected Population: 25 000

inhabitants, 50 000 ICT workers•Size: 100 000 m² technology park•Projected Cost: USD 10 billion•Backers: Government of Ghana

with AGAMS Group and Rlg Communications

•Status: Ground broken March 2013 for completion 2016

6. Westown, Eastown | Cairo, EgyptCairo,Africa’sfirstmodernmega-city, now houses 10 million Cairenes; this number is projected to grow to as many people as currently live in Tanzania (about 38 million) by 2050. To house this very modern population density in such an ancient city, the Egyptian state has traditionally resorted to very limited, Modernist planning borrowed from the lexicon of Western cities: elevated highways, car-centred transport planning, and urban high-rise blocks built largely ad-hoc by residents themselves. The result has been a city in which orderly | Hope City, Accra, Ghana

| Westown, Eastown, Cairo, Egyptby BRETT PETZER

AFRICA is urbanising at a rate that will soon exceed that of any other region in the world. This provides a once-in-a-century opportunity to nudge the continent into a growth and consumption pattern that anticipates the future, rather than copying European and American cities of the last century. Instead of emulating Dubai in creating oil-dependent, sprawling cities, Africa has an opportunity to create something new: to learn from its strengths in informal trade and spontaneous organisation to create sustainable, equitable cities that are cheap to run and that work.

This is a tall order for any government, but Africa’s

governments have more to lose than most from a business-as-usual approach, and so the stakes (and political will) are great. Below are ten New Towns to be built outside African business and political capitals. Their backers hope that each of these will be, in some small sense, a hub of innovation and job creation that,bytheirfirst-worldstandardsandinfrastructure, will lure investors who balk at the chaos and congestion of Lagos or the power cuts of Nairobi. Much depends on the outcome, but the real success of the cities below will be in demonstrating the value of high-density, sustainable patterns of land use, such that they are widely implemented in Africa’s burgeoning metropolises.

Page 11: The South African, Issue 532, 17 September 2013

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expansion is becoming impossible, and in which traffic congestion and omnipresent air pollution present a poor welcome to investors and the business community.

The Cairene elite have responded by building massive new towns and satellite cities in the desert outside the densely-inhabited Nile Delta. These were initially intended to become mixed-income communities, but the middle classes have colonised them entirely, grateful to leave behind a teeming and smoggy city but often retaining an apartment there for business use. Eastown and Westown are two of the largest of these planned communities, but even the smaller ones easily attain 400 000 inhabitants – larger than many African capitals.

However, these oases comes at a heavy price, because they are not, in fact, real oases – just plain desert. The diversion of drinking and landscaping water to these cities of privilege, which have been built without any meaningful public participation, are an act of will by an authoritarian state; but if that is the price of conducting business at an international standard in Cairo, city residents seem prepared to pay it.• Projected Population: 25 000

(Eastown), 60 000 (Westown)• Size: 112 hectares(Eastown), 122

hectares (Westown)• Projected Cost: EGP 10 Billion

(Eastown), EGP 15 Billion (Westown)

• Backers: SODIC Egypt• Status: currently under construction

7. Cidade de Kilamba | Luanda, Angola“Kilamba New City” is a large housing development 30 km from Luanda, the capital city of Angola. It is being built by the China International Trust and Investment Corporation and is largely empty. Kilamba was designed to accommodate 500,000 people and includes 750 eight-storey apartment blocks, over 100 commercial premises and a dozen schools.

The cost is reported as US$3.5 billion, financed by a Chinese credit line and repaid by the Angolan government with oil. As of July 2012, the buildings were largely complete but still unoccupied. Only 220 apartments had been sold out of the first release of 2,800. Sales have been slow because of the difficulty in obtaining mortgage loans.

One school is in operation, but children are bussed in from other areas as there are none living nearby. The government plans to use some of the residential blocks as social housing. Although Kilamba contributes to meeting the election pledge made by President Jose Eduardo dos Santos in 2008 to build a million new homes in four years, Angola does not have a large middle class able to buy such homes.

The city, long famous as a white elephant, is starting to fill up in the wake of legislative changes that make it easier for Angolans to finance home ownership; however, for many, the city is still an example of the kind of top-down planning that explains Angola’s failure to convert its oil wealth into the guarantee of a minimum level of basic services for its people.

• Projected Population: 200 000 (built), 15 000 (currently occupied; this number grows weekly)

• Size: 880 hectares• Projected Cost: rumoured to

approach USD 3.5 billion• Backers: Imobiliaria Sonangol

(Angola’s state-owned oil utility), Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (as well as other Chinese contractors)

• Status: built, still mostly empty, now filling up

8. La Cité du Fleuve | Kinshasa, DRCLa Cité du Fleuve is an exclusive development situated on two islands reclaimed from sandbanks and swamp in the Congo River, adjacent to Kinshasa, the capital of the Democratic Republic of Congo. The main island will be mixed-use, while the smaller island will house residential villas. The appeal of Cité du Fleuve may seem obvious – a salubrious environment close to the water, with controlled access via a single bridge – and yet, the clue of the most compelling aspect of this land-reclamation project lies in a typically Congolese detail in the sales literature: ‘indisputable land title’. That is, because the land is all reclaimed from water, buyers here rest assured that they will never have to fend off challenges to the title deed for their investment. Because of the chaos of the DRC’s deeds registry after years of civil war, the expense, hassle and risk of disputed ownership is a part of landownership in the DRC. • Projected Population: Unspecified• Size: 375 hectares of reclaimed land• Projected Cost: rumoured to

approach USD 1 billion• Backers: Robert Choudury• Status: land reclamation underway

9. Appolonia and King City | Accra, GhanaAppolonia and King City represent yet another attempt to create a sanitised, international-standard gated community that benefits from proximity to a major, and fast-growing, African capital city without expecting residents to share in any of the burdens of life in that city.

This time, the city is Accra, burgeoning in growth on the Accra-Lagos axis, and the twin new towns are nicknamed the ‘City of Light’ and King City. They are conceived as self-contained playgrounds for the middle class where all possible amenities and services are provided without the need to enter Accra, but in fairness to the developers, environments such as this one in most

cases merely meet the minimum that a certain class of investor or business person expects as standard from international or South African cities.

The ability to offer a quality of life at this standard is thus far from frivolous: it strengthens the investment case for these cities because it means that investors’ families can join them in-country. Appolonia and King City will also likely constitute a premier shopping and commercial node for Accra, and, if this development enhances class distinction and economic segregation, it is at best mitigated by a planned light-industrial park in the precinct. The promise of industrial-level jobs within a new town is a rare feature not seen in any of our other Future Cities, and could mean that semi-skilled and unskilled workers have a valued and essential role in the new towns.• Projected Population: 160 000

(divided evenly between both sites)• Size: 1,000 hectares (King City),

800 hectares (Appolonia)• Projected Cost: USD 600 million• Backers: Renaissance Group in

partnership with two traditional authorities in Ghana

• Status: all baseline studies, master plans and detailed designs have been completed and approved; basic infrastructure work in Appolonia is expected to begin in the third quarter of 2013

10. Umhlanga Ridge | Durban, South AfricaJust 20 kilometres north of Durban, the city’s middle-class city centre sits on a ridge facing the sea. In common with Jo’burg and, to a lesser extent, Cape Town, Durban has seen plunging property values in its historic centre manifest in a wholesale move of the business elite to a new, more highly controlled, privately-developed urban core to the north.

Umhlanga, powered by the centrifugal force of the massive Gateway mall, has established itself as a meaningful rival to Durban’s CBD in middle-class minds and habits.• Projected Population: 3 000

residential units, 633 000 m² of commercial and mixed-use space

• Size: 24 hectares (residential), 118 hectares (commercial & mixed-use)

• Projected Cost: Civils infrastructure cost: R200 million to date

• Backers: Tongaat Hulett• Status: substantially built; in-fill

development underway

| La Cité du Fleuve | Kinshasa, DRC

Page 12: The South African, Issue 532, 17 September 2013

12 | 17 - 23 September 2013 | thesouthafrican.com

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BILTONG DIRECTBiltong Direct, in the business of making superior South African meat products since 2004. Online or from our shop (directions on website – www.biltongdirect.co.uk). Retail and wholesale sales.We manufacture Biltong, Droewors, Snap Sticks, Boerewors & Gluten and MSG free products, offer quick dispatch and a 100% Satisfaction guarantee. Call 01268-685728

SA SHOP DIRECTORY

LIMPOPO BUTCHERSWe believe in small, well run family businesses, where quality is the number one priority. Come and try our delicious traditional recipe biltong, drywors, and boerewors, as well as aged beef steaks, chicken flatties, and succulent lamb.9 Horn Lane, Acton, W3 9NJTel: 020 8993 8823 www.thesaffashop.com

SAVANNAGood friendly customer service is Savanna’s core principle. Our standards are high, and our rapidly-expanding network of shops are clean and bright and well-laid out, with friendly first-rate staff. Find us at: 20-22 Worple Road, Wimbledon London SW19 4DH Call us at: 0208 971 9177 Online: [email protected]

ST MARCUSOne of the most amazing emporia the capital offers to the carnivorous gourmet. People have been flocking to St. Marcus for their amazing range of Biltong & BoereworsVisit us at: 1-3 Rockingham Close, Priory Lane, off Upper Richmond Road West, Roehampton, London SW15 5RWCall us at: 0208 878 1898Online: [email protected]

Design B Photography Portrait, Lifestyle and Wedding PhotographerCapture your moment and frame it to keep forever. I am a London-based mobile photographer who will come to a location of your choice, allowing you to enjoy your photo shoot in the comfort of your home.Contact Leanne on 07522554093 or [email protected]

THE AFRICAN CORNER Three miles off Junction 26 of the M5 in the centre of Wellington, Somerset, TA21 8LS.A family run business for your Padkos. Biltong, Boerewors, Droewors, Rusks and other Nik Naks. Pull in if you’re in the West Country or find us online at www.theafricancorner.co.uk and we’ll come to you.Email: [email protected]: 01823 619184

LIFESTYLE

1-3 Rockingham Close Priory Lane, RoehamptonLondon SW15 5RW21c Holmethorpe Avenue

Holmethorpe Industrial Estate, Redhill, Surrey RH1 2NB

Tel: 0208 878 1898www.biltongstmarcus.co.ukEmail [email protected]

Gold Medal Winners for Beef Biltong and Boerewors 1998.

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CHICHESTER BILTONG COMPANYBILTONG doesn’t get any better than this ! Arguably the best and most authentic South African biltong in the UK. WE ONLY USE ORGANIC SPICES. Our FINEST range has no e’S , gluten, sugar or preservatives. Use promo code SAFFA10 for 10% EXTRA FREE. www.biltongcompany.co.uk / 01243 699 722

1st Contact Visas are regulated and authorised to provide immigration advice/services by the Immigration Services Commissioner number F200100004.

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Contact us to discuss your eligibility and all your options!Have all the visas changes left you confused? 1st Contact Visas have the skills, knowledge and experience to take all the hassle away. We have helped thousands of people move around the world, be it to immigrate, travel or work.

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SNOGGY’SOur staff pride themselves on the level of personal service they offer. We have the best matured steaks top class cuts at very affordable prices. We season your meat for free and even offer cooking advice and ‘take home’ cooking instructions. We look forward to seeing you [email protected]

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Page 13: The South African, Issue 532, 17 September 2013
Page 14: The South African, Issue 532, 17 September 2013

14 | 17 - 23 September 2013 | thesouthafrican.com

Follow us on Twitter:@TheSAnewsZimbabwe Community

Zimbabwean events in London21 September: Have a beer for charity: Oktoberfest in aid of Zimbabwean charity Vimba

Where:Blossom House School 8a The DriveJoin Vimba for an evening of Oktoberfest celebrations including a choice of different types of beer and wine, a hog roast and live entertainment.

Early Bird Ticket: £15 before 15 AugustStandard Ticket: £20

Ticket includes a traditional Oktoberfest stein glass, German entertainment, live music and fun games.

For more events and details: www.thesouthafrican.com/events

For the latest news, and to have your say on issues affecting you, visit thesouthafrican.com/news

NoViolet Bulawayo becomes first Zimbabwean shortlisted for Man Booker Prize| NoViolet Bulawayo’s novel ‘We Need New Names’ has been shortlisted for the £50,000 literary award from the most ‘wonderfully’ diverse longlist

by HARRIET MANN

NOVIOLET Bulawayo has become the first Zimbabwean author to be shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize.

Her novel We Need New Names was picked from a longlist that was “wonderfully various in terms of geography, form, length and subject,” chair of judges Robert Macfarlane said at the time.

The six shortlisted novels are by authors from across the globe, including Canada, Britain, Ireland, New Zealand and of course , Zimbabwe.

When announcing the shortlist, Macfarlane said: “Global in its reach, this exceptional shortlist demonstrates the vitality and range of the contemporary novel at its finest.

“These six superb works of fiction take us from gold-rush New Zealand to revolutionary Calcutta, from modern-day Japan to the Holy Land of the Gospels, and from Zimbabwe to the deep English countryside,” he said.

Of the six shortlisted nominations, Macfarlane said, “World-spanning in their concerns, and ambitious in their techniques, they remind us of the possibilities and power of the novel as a form.”

ParadiseWe Need New Names tells the story of Darling and her friends Bastard, Godknows, Sbho, Stina and Chipo, the latter who is pregnant with her grandfather’s child.

The friends live in the shanty town Paradise, play games like ‘Looking for Bin Laden’ and try to get rid of Chipo’s baby. After Darling is whisked away from her friends, the first person narrative explores her new life in

America.TheSouthAfrican.com reviewed

Bulawayo’s shortlisted book in June, describing it as “a work of outstanding quality from an exceptional talent. It’s like a mature wine; it’s ready to be consumed.

“She [Bulawayo] sensitively addresses issues such as displacement, delinquent fathers, incest, political violence, stigmas like AIDS and tradition. It questions themes such as colonialism, Christianity, dictatorship, immigration, and Chinese and Western imperialism. No subject is untouched,” said the reviewer, Joseph Nthini.

RootsBorn Elizabeth Zandile Tshele in Tsholotsho, Zimbabwe, in 1981, NoViolet Bulawayo (her pen name) studied a BFA creative writing course at Cornell University, where she was awarded a Truman Capote Fellowship. She is also a Stegna Fellow at Stanford University in California.

Her other work includes the 2010 short stories Hitting Budapest and Snapshots, released in 2009.

Hitting Budapest won the leading African literary award, Caine Prize for African Writing, in 2011. Snapshots was shortlisted for the South Africa PEN Studzinsi Award.

The other shortlisted novels are The Luminaries by Eleanor Catton, Harvest by Jim Crace, The Lowland by Jhumpa Lahiri, A Tale for the Time Being by Ruth Ozeki and The Testament of Mary by Colm Tóibín.

In making the Man Booker Prize shortlist, each author has won £2,500 and a hand-bound edition of their book.

The winner, who will receive £50,000, will be announced on 15 October 2013 at London’s Guildhall.

Zimbabwe intends to build a ‘Disneyland for Africa’ in Victoria Falls

by ALISON MONDAY

ZIMBABWE has announced that it is looking to build a theme park in the resort town of Victoria Falls to encourage tourists to flock to the area. As Tourism Minister Walter Mzembi unveiled his plans to the United Nations World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO) general assembly, Mzembi said: “We don’t know how big the Garden of Eden was, but it will be our model”. Early proposals suggest that the government will contribute the land and “invite investors to come in and build”, sparking fears that developers will turn the site into a low-budget version of the successful chain of Disney theme parks. Although insisting at the event that he envisions a place “where flora and fauna can co-exist”, Mzembi himself has

spoken previously of his aim to build a Disneyland-style attraction.

“We think it should be modelled along the size and the kind of vision that is on Disneyland, including hotels, entertainment parks, restaurants, conferencing facilities. This is the vision and we need people who can run with it”, he told the

BBC in the days running up to the UNWTO meeting. The government says that it intends to plough over $193 million into the park, and has set aside 1,200 hectares of land for the project. A zoo, skating rink and garden housing a replica of Victoria Falls are expected to form part of the plans. Victoria Falls has been described as a “sleeping giant” by Mzembi, who says more must be done to promote it as a visitor attraction. “We must build a new tourism facility with an impact”, he declared. Zimbabwe is attempting to rebuild its tourism industry after a decade of conflict and hyperinflation, with figures from the country’s tourism authority showing that visitor numbers have risen by 17% in the first three months of this year.

Government officials have already announced plans to expand the airport at Victoria Falls, and say they have put aside almost $150 million to invest in the venture. It is hoped that an improved transport hub will bring more tourists to the area.

| Tourism Minister Walter Mzembi unveils plans to convert Victoria Falls into an entertainment attraction to boost visitor numbers, but will it be more of a low-budget Disneyland than a Garden of Eden?

Fundraising Reception

Tickets available at www.zane.uk.com. 020 7060 6643

Join us for a superb fundraising reception in

aid of ZANE incorporatingHomes in Zimbabwe

at the Middle Temple 3rd October 2013

6.30 - 9.30pm

The evening will begin with a recital and tour in the historical Temple Church. Canapes, wine and a light supper will be provided in the Elizabethan Main Hall of the Middle Temple where guests will be entertained by guest speaker Rt Hon Andrew Mitchell MP. Tickets are priced at just £50 with all proceeds from the evening going to supporting impoverished pensioners in Zimbabwe.

CLASSIC TRAVELwww.goclassic.co.uk

BOOK & CONFIRM *£75 only* (deposit)

INSURANCE & CAR HIRE

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Tel: 0207 586 1234

Cape Town 530 Accra 480 Bue.Aires 645 Auckland 865Durban 620 Cairo 305 Chicago 509 Bangkok 449Gaborone 750 Dakar 519 LA/SFO 610 Bejing 529Harare 485 Douala 440 Manila 545 Dubai 329 Jo’burg 488 Entebbe 465 New York 399 India 459Mauritius 719 Lagos 488 Rio 529 KUL/SING 475Maputo 709 Lusaka 545 Toronto 485 Pakistan 430Windhoek 745 Nairobi 440 Vancouver 525 Sydney 699

Page 15: The South African, Issue 532, 17 September 2013

15thesouthafrican.com | 17 - 23 September 2013 |

SportLike us on Facebook:facebook.com/thesouthafrican

There is no Poite in staying upset when the In2Touch Autumn Season is Open for Registrations!| Late Summer is a great time to join In2Touch and benefit from our exciting initiatives. Shoot Out League, anyone?by MIKE ABROMOWITZ

IN2TOUCH are always looking to provide our players and teams with new exciting initiatives and leagues for the Late Summer period while the weather is still good and 2013 has been no exception.

We decided to bring in a new format to touch and run some Shoot Out leagues in Clapham Common. These leagues are only 4 weeks long and each team gets to play 2 x 20 minute games against 2 different teams each week. This ensures teams get to benefit from the social aspect of the leagues as well as getting to play lots of different styles of touch. This is a social league so many teams like to sit and watch the other games while on their break and also have a few social drinks. It is a great atmosphere for all and this league is a perfect way to wind down the spring and summer seasons. Why not come down on a Monday or Wednesday evening in September between 6:30pm and 8pm to take a peak?

In2Touch also run a Late Summer competition in Regents Park, as that is most teams favourite and most the picturesque venue to play touch. The league runs for 6 weeks and is played in the normal format of 1 x 40 minute game every week with leagues running on Tuesday and Wednesday evenings from 6pm. They are mixed leagues with a men’s league on a Wednesday evening as well. This league is almost halfway through and the teams are loving being able to play some more touch before the Autumn seasons begins. The games have been very close this season so it will be a very exciting finals week to see who will take the top prize.

Due to popular demand we have moved our Autumn League venue to Clapham Common this year as this is where most players like to congregate on a Sunday to play touch and enjoy the Autumn

sunshine and social drinks.It will be an 8 week league

starting from the 6th October and will be played on Sundays from 12:00 to 15:00 each week. We run this competition on Sundays due to the lack of light in the evenings through the Autumn and Winter periods. Teams love this social league as it has many divisions and teams like to socialise with each other on the fields as well as in the pub afterwards. There are 3 divisions; Women’s, Men’s and Mixed so there are various styles of touch happening here.

We have also started up our Active Touch leagues again in Putney/Wandsworth, The Wandle Recreation Centre on Tuesdays and Thursdays, which will run for 8 weeks. This new indoor sport has taken London by storm and any players involved in Active Touch get hooked on playing. It is a perfect way to keep fit and agile in the colder weather as it is a fast paced game that gives you great ball skills and coordination. Due to unprecedented demand, we have also opened up the opportunity for more people to play this fantastic sport by starting a new league in Canary Wharf at the Playonsports venue where we play on Mondays for 8 weeks with 30 minute games. To have a look at this amazing new game click Here.

The Shootout and Regents Park leagues are completely full but there is till time to enter the Active Touch Canary Wharf and Clapham Common Sunday Autumn Leagues, so if you are interested in entering as an individual or as a team into any of these leagues, please send an email to [email protected] or give the London office a call on020 8542 0827.

With 16 venues around England from Clapham Common and Regents Park to St Albans and Manchester, with over 600 teams playing in the London leagues alone and over 1,000

teams playing country wide, this growing sport is taking the nation by storm.

For more information or if you would like to register for an O2 Touch league or competition, go to www.in2touch.com/uk or e-mail [email protected]

Page 16: The South African, Issue 532, 17 September 2013

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SPORT17 - 23 September 2013 NEWS FOR GLOBAL SOUTH AFRICANS www.thesouthafrican.com

GET AN IN2TOUCH LATE SUMMER REGISTRATION AND SOAK UP THE LAST OF THE SUN - P15

IRB TO SANCTION ‘THAT’ REF AS HE ADMITS ERROR AFTER FAN FURY | A Facebook petition to ‘stop Romain Poite ever reffing a Rugby game again’ has already gained over 52 000 Likes as fan forums and Twitter explode with the key question: what is wrong with Eden Park refs? by BRETT PETZER

FRENCH referee Romain Poite has officially admitted the mistake that drove passionate Springbok fans to apoplexy on Saturday at Auckland’s Eden Park, where South Africa went on to lose 29-15 to New Zealand.

Fans of both nations were outraged at Poite’s red-carding of Bismarck du Plessis after his hard, but apparently legitimate, tackle of the All Blacks’ Dan Carter; Poite then went on to yellow-card the All Blacks twice. The social-media community of Springbok supporters are in uproar, with many hoping for Poite’s removal from top-level rugby adjudication in South Africa.

The win confirms New Zealand in their current No.1 world position, but the victory is a hollow one as the All Blacks played 50 minutes of Rugby against a Springbok team with a defanged attack. But Springbok supporters are taking heart from the example of Bryce Lawrance, who after his notorious decisions in the 2011 Rugby World Cup effectively ended his career. In New Zealand paper The Bay of Plenty Times, Lawrence was quoted as saying, “I was told I would be brought back in the middle of this year, as I was ranked in the top three or four referees in the world. But because of the political reaction from rugby unions like Australia

and South Africa behind the scenes, they dropped me.” Nothing less for Romain Poite would satisfy the 52,000 Facebook members who have liked Marky Warren’s petition against the French referee.

The shock decision has deprived fans of 80 minutes of meaningful rugby beteen the world’s first- and second-ranked teams, and also raised concerns about the power that a single referee, at this point, has in the outcome of international rugby matches.

Poite’s decision on Saturday deprived the Springboks of star player Bismarck du Plessis early in the game, after du Plessis had received two yellow cards; the final straw was a tackle by the 113-kilogram Springbok against Carter that the New Zealander himself admitted was perfectly legal on Twitter (@DanCarter).

The loss of Bismarck left the Springboks with a man down against the world’s best team, unable to scrum or drive in the lineout, according to Springbok captain Jean de Villiers. While Sprinbok coach Heynecke Meyer and de Villiers stuck firm to the gentlemanly ref’s-always-right philosophy, New Zealand media were more forthright, with former All Blacks captain Sean FitzPatrick writing in his New Zealand Herald on Sunday column that the Carter tackle was legitimate. Unlike in

the famously technology-averse of football refereeing, however, Poite had access to instant replays of the tackle; he could have seen these on the Eden Park big screens or consulted the match’s television official, George Ayoub.

While officials deliberate and embittered supporters dissect the

| CHARITY TEE-OFF: More than 300 golfers took part in this year’s Nedbank South African Charity Golf Day on Friday 13 September at the stunning Foxhills Club in Surrey. Later that evening, players and their supporters enjoyed a three-course dinner with patron and special guest FW de Klerk. the Over the past 16 years, the annual golf day has raised £800,000 for deserving charities in South Africa. Photo by Ronel van Zyl

match, senior Boks strategists would do well to examine the robustness of a team for whom the loss of a key player is a game-ender. Bismarck’s sin-binning unbalanced the entire Bok attach, as loose forward Willem Alberts sat on the sidelines. Adriaan Strauss filled in at hooker. Meyer said, “We

were always short in the driving mauls because we didn’t have a loose forward there, and a lot of our plays are based around the loose forwards”. As the consequences for Poite are determined, this loose forward vulnerability should leave the Springboks, and their fans, with much food for thought.