the south african 18 - 24 february 2014

18 - 24 February 2014 Issue 553

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VOTER TURN-OUT FOR MAY ELECTIONS SET TO BREAK RECORDS| A record 25.3-million South Africans are now on the voters’ roll – 80.5 percent of eligible voters. Just over 4,000 first-time voters have registered at South Africa’s foreign missions over the last month, with an estimated 3,000 having registered in London.BY STAFF REPORTERSOUTH Africa registered another 1.2 million voters on the final voter registration weekend ahead of the country’s general elections on 7 May, Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) chairperson Pansy Tlakula said on Tuesday.

Speaking at a media briefing in Pretoria, Tlakula said new registrations over the past weekend – 1 259 560 in total – had increased the overall registration level to 80.5 percent of eligible voters, with a record 25.3-million South Africans now on the voters’ roll.

Taking into account the 1.1-million first-time voters who registered in November, some 2.3 million new voters are to be added onto the voters’ roll – about 17% higher than the 2 million target expected by the IEC, she said.

“In total, just short of 3 million people visited our 22 263 voting stations this weekend. That is 16 percent higher than the 2.5-million who visited voting stations in November.”

She said it was “encouraging” to see that 79.89 percent (or 1 006 260 people) of all new registrations were under the age of 30. This included:

691 002 voters aged 20-29;255 398 voters aged 18 and 19;

and 59 860 voters aged 16 and 17.

(who are merely registering for the next elections.) A further 1.48-million registered voters also used the opportunity to

change their voting station, according to Tlakula, while 183 377 people re-registered at the same voting station.

Women comprised 51.50 percent of new registrations, while men comprised 48.50 percent, according to the IEC.

Overall registration levels for estimated eligible voters:

The overall registration level against estimated eligible population for the provinces are as follows:

Eastern Cape – 85.3 percentFree State – 85.8 percentGauteng – 77 percentKwaZulu-Natal – 83.6 percentLimpopo – 81 percentMpumalanga – 77.3 percentNorth West – 78.5 percentNorthern Cape – 84.3 percentWestern Cape – 77.8 percent

Overseas votersJust over 4,000 first-time voters

have registered at South Africa’s foreign missions over the last month. The highest number of applications came from London, Dubai, and Cuba.

“As of yesterday we had received 3,521 applications for registration. According to figures provided by the Department of International Relations and Cooperation, we anticipate approximately 700 more applications being couriered to us for capturing,” Tlakula said.

Registration conducted at correctional facilities resulted in 9 949 registration applications by inmates.

Overseas registration has now closed but eligible voters in South Africa can still register at their local IEC office until 5pm on the day of the official proclamation of the election date, which is expected to be later this month, after which the voters’ roll closes.

2 | 18 - 24 February 2014 | thesouthafrican.com

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

Sertan Sanderson

SERTAN started writing for the South African to find his inner African, or so he claims. With his background in journalism, Sertan has worked on documentaries and news channels, and has also contributed features to the Guardian. Outside the newsroom, Sertan enjoys being involved in Cape Town’s music scene - when he’s not busy collecting air-miles in disparate parts of the world. He holds a Master’s Degree in War Studies but does not believe in the initiation of violence. If that makes him ‘pieperig’, so be it.

BY SERTAN SANDERSONTHE Democratic Alliance (DA) was forced to improvise around a planned march on ANC headquarters in Johannesburg, which had been aimed at demanding delivery on job creation promises set forth by the ruling ANC ahead of the 2009 elections.

The march had been prepared to raise awareness about the actual increase in the national unemployment rate since the last general elections and ahead of the 7 May 2014 polls. Despite promising the creation of 5 million jobs and renewing the promise for the upcoming election, South African unemployment under the ANC’s most recent legislative term effectively grew by 1,4 million.

One day before President Jacob Zuma’s state of the nation address, clashes between the ANC and the opposition DA in Johannesburg threatened to spiral into aggression, as ANC supporters appeared prepared to have the peaceful protest turn violent by arming themselves with bricks and

Provisional sequestration: Can Julius Malema still get to Parliament?

DA march to ANC headquarters compromised amid confrontations

| The provisional order does not prevent Malema being elected to Parliament but the sequestration order is provisional until 26 May 2014 when the matter will again be in court. If the court decides the order should be made final, Malema will immediately be disqualified from being an MP.

| ANC and DA barely manage to shy away from violent clashes, as the election year is pushed into gear.

petrol bombs while also using the protection of the Johannesburg Metro Police Department (JMPD) to pre-empt offensive action using tear-gas and rubber bullets.

Jessica Shelver, policy researcher for the DA, said: “It was scary. I’ve never felt like that before. They just came at us with petrol bombs. They had twice the number of people on us and they had the police on their side.”

Early in the morning, the ANC had managed to file an ‘urgent’ application at the Johannesburg High Court to have a protection order granted, leading to further security measures to be taken around the central Johannesburg protest site with the help of the Metro Police. The DA tried to prevent these measures by sending their own representatives to court, but only managed to hammer out a compromise, assuring the ANC that the protest would be confined to nearby Beyers Naude Square.

The ANC went on to call the court decision, negotiated out by Judge Phineas Mojapelo, a

“victory for democracy”. DA leader Helen Zille’s spokesman Cameron Arendse, however, said, “We are disappointed that we were not granted the route.”

In the meantime, the ANC had also procured the services of a security consultancy firm to “protect its staff”, which was “armed to the teeth with batons, helmets, and shields,” according to ANC spokesman Jackson Mthembu. The ANC Youth League (ANCYL) was also present on location, having planned a human chain around Luthuli House to prevent the DA march from potentially entering the party’s headquarters.

“We regard the planned DA march to the ANC headquarters as an act of provocation. The ANCYL will be out in full force to form a human chain and defend Luthuli House,” said ANCYL convenor Mzwandile Masina. With the ANC Youth League reportedly spilling out onto the streets in the course of the event and not remaining contained to the ANC headquarters site, questions about the legality of the ANC counter-demo have since been raised.

Arendse explained that the court-mediated decision to be kept off Luthuli House was pushed forward by the JMPD to protect ANC interests: “The ANC supporters just poured onto Sour Street while the police protected them. We were all marching peacefully, but the ANC came out and exposed its true colours today. It was a disgrace.”

Jessica Shelver added: “We know the ANC. We knew that they were going to be violent. But with all the media around, I did not expect this. Our march kept up with every single aspect of protocol, but their march was illegal. They had not even applied for it. We will be pressing

charges against them.”Reactions on the ANC side,

however, resounded comparatively unimpressed by the day’s events. “I’m proudly excited to see that we still have that fighting spirit and we can do whatever it takes to defend and protect our movement,” said ANC supporter Aubrey Khanyisani, adding “ANC, I believe. Amandla!”

Despite isolated reports of escalations, tensions between the parties appeared to calm down to a manageable degree, once the decision had been taken to contain the final station of the DA protest to return to its starting point and not march all the way to Beyers Naude Square, one block away from Luthuli House. However, the clashes didn’t stop when the vuvuzelas had quietened down.

“On the way home, a bus with DA supporters from Rustenburg was attacked with stones and rocks. Other supporters were stripped of their DA shirts, and I heard of two people who suffered injuries,” said Jessica Shelver.

All things considered, the protest appears to have been kept fairly at bay but didn’t do any favours to the public image of an ailing ANC, which appears to only gang up support during such perceived publicity crises but faces fragmentation and growing isolation as Jacob Zuma’s leadership continues to be challenged.

A similar march organised by the DA two years ago to COSATU House had actually escalated into violence, leaving several partakers injured. The parties managed to avoid that kind of brutality, but without the confusion of violence in the air it may be easier for onlookers and audiences this time to choose between the aggressor and the victim.

BY STAFF REPORTERON 10 February 2014, the North Gauteng division of the High Court granted a provisional sequestration order against the estate of the leader of the Economic Freedom Fighters, Julius Malema.

The order was granted after an unsuccessful application by Malema for a postponement of the matter until the criminal charges against him are resolved. The sequestration of Malema was applied for by the South African Revenue Services which alleges that he owes the Receiver approximately R16 million.

The effect that a sequestration order will have on Malema’s political aspirations has sparked public interest. Section 47 (1)(c) of the Constitution disqualifies a person whose estate has been sequestrated from being a Member of Parliament. The provisional order does not prevent Malema being elected to

Parliament but the sequestration order is provisional until 26 May 2014 when the matter will again be in court. Then the court will decide if the order should be made final after hearing argument by Malema or any other of his creditors as to why a final order should not be granted. If the order is made final, Malema will immediately be disqualified from being an MP.

Although Julius Malema cannot appeal the grant of the provisional order he can certainly appeal a decision to grant a final order of sequestration and in all likelihood an appeal will follow whatever the court decides on 26 May. Normally the effect of an appeal is to suspend the operation of the order but in the case of sequestration the final order is not suspended which means that until the appeal is decided Malema is disqualified from being an MP.

Now that a provisional order has been granted a provisional trustee

will be appointed by the Master of the High Court to take control of and preserve Malema’s assets in the interests of his creditors until the appointment of a final Trustee. In practice a provisional trustee will be appointed against proof that the creditors supporting their appointment make up the majority of creditors both in terms of their number and the combined value of their claims.

The effect of the provisional order is that control of Malema’s assets is taken away from him and given first to the Master of the High Court, then to the provisional trustee once appointed and eventually to a final trustee, depending on the outcome of the matter on 26 May 2013. During this process Malema will need the permission of his trustee if he wants to sell or even give away any of his property or sign any agreement which would adversely affect his estate.

Also, Malema may not be a director of a company and he will not even be able to have a personal cheque account. A further consequence may be that the trustee asks the permission of the Master of the High Court to hold a formal enquiry into the affairs of Malema in order to find and recover assets or funds for the benefit of creditors.

While the provisional sequestration order will have a profound impact on Malema’s life it is the effect of a final order and the potential appeal process that has added a fascinating twist to the forthcoming elections.

Expert comment by:Julian Jones, Director, National Head of Insolvency & Business Rescue Unit and Tobie Jordaan, Senior AssociateInsolvency & Business Rescue Unit, Dispute Resolution Practice, Cliffe Dekker Hofmeyr

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South African pastor convicted of fraud in UK escapes jail

South Africa to switch over to new electric plug standard

| As a South African couple are found guilty of defrauding church members of nearly £250,000, the husband goes missing in a bid to escape prison.

| Just when you think you have finished spending a small fortune on all the adapters needed for your transcontinental lifestyle, this happens.

BY SERTAN SANDERSONA South African-born pastor was convicted and sentenced to imprisonment for defrauding members of a Buckinghamshire community of a total sum of almost £250,000 over a 14-year period – but he never pitched up to be led away to prison.

Bruce Scott, 50, and his wife Belinda, 43, were convicted on 11 counts of fraud back in November 2013 and were due to appear again in court for their sentencing last week. When Belinda Scott arrived only to be handed a one-year conditional discharge on a single

BY SERTAN SANDERSON

SOUTH Africa is introducing a new standard for wall sockets and electrical plugs in a bid to catch up with ‘health and safety’ guidelines from around the globe. The switch-over is scheduled to begin next year, but critics fear that it may take decades for the new standard to be fully integrated.

count of fraud, husband Bruce was nowhere to be seen, after having previously been told to expect a prison sentence.

Bruce and Belinda Scott had been operating the evangelical “Covenant Church of the Cross” in Farnham Common, Buckinghamshire, since 2000, which allegedly served as a front to attract unsuspecting worshippers to their fraudulent scheme, as was revealed during the six-week court case last year. They largely coaxed loans out of their congregants under the pretence of church funding while setting up a series of failing start-up businesses. One of their swindle victims lost her house in South Africa on account of not being repaid a personal loan of £41,000 given to the Scotts.

Following the court ruling, a local hate campaign ensued, alienating the Scotts and their four children, aged 7 to nineteen, from their community by way of “harassment and intimidation,” as their defence counsel John Upton pleaded in court.

Bruce Scott is now considered

to be on the run and may possibly have returned to his home in Johannesburg, South Africa; the police had previously confiscated the couple’s passports during the trial but it is unknown whether the couple had retained South African citizenship in addition to their British nationalities. British police would not comment on whether the South African Police Service or Interpol would be informed with regard to the matter.

The presiding judge at Reading Crown Court has ordered a warrant for Mr Scott’s arrest. He was last spotted driving in the general direction of the M4, where CCTV cameras captured the last images of him.

50-year-old Bruce Scott had been an evangelical preacher in the United States in the 1990s before coming to the UK. It is unknown whether there are any outstanding issues with the law against him there or in South Africa. His name joins the list of other South African fraudsters and con artists to have operated in the UK.

On first sight, the new system resembles the European plugs and sockets that we are all familiar with from our cellphone chargers and other such small devices. Over the years, these have actually become a parallel standard in SA, as Asian manufacturers of these devices have not found it lucrative to build plugs adapted solely for the South African market.

But upon closer inspection you’ll discover a third prong nestled in between the now so familiar other two, which is designed to serve the purpose of earthing devices, for instance during lighting strikes. The wall socket itself will also provide additional safety features with its inset, hexagonal design, making it much more difficult for children to accidentally electrocute themselves.

The new standard, coined SANS 164-2 by the South African Bureau of Standards

(SABS), is considered one of the safest electrical configurations in the world, according to the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) in Geneva, Switzerland. The design was workshopped in the early 1990s to be introduced as a new universal, international standard, but this has not been successfully implemented so far.

In South Africa, the aim is to push for the new SANS 164-2 standard to be adopted for all new appliances by 2015, however, the new model remains only a ‘recommendation’ at this point and not a compulsory subscription. The Electrical Contractors’ Association of South Africa (ECASA) said that the news of a ‘new standard’ was “an exaggeration”, stating that the introduction of the new configuration was merely “encouraged” but by no means

binding: “It needs to be clarified that it is not mandatory, and it is not required that existing sockets need not be replaced. The old type may still be installed.”

The phasing-out of the old standard is planned to take place over 10 to 20 years, but it may in reality stick around for much longer than that, especially with a current increase in interest for purchasing ‘vintage’ appliances, such as record player, fridges and ovens.

There are over 50 plug-and-socket standards around the world today – testament to the fact that there are many associations built around these simple electrical configurations that take on cultural and even patriotic character, making a switch in standards as reluctant a symbolic move for many countries as changing the national flag would be.

South Africa’s cherished three-prong model was unique to the country (and to Namibia) for the past 40 years, but featured a British design that was dating back precisely a century. Like other nostalgic remnants from the past, it may be hard for some to part from the old plug for – but only if they live long enough to see the day. But there is one silver-lining for the naysayers: the new SANS 164-2 standard will also be quite uniquely South African, as the only other country that has adopted this configuration thus far is Brazil.

The introduction of the new safety standard, however, does not address any of the country’s energy supply issues, as new solutions continue to be put forward to try to solve the ongoing electricity shortage. But at least we’ll have pretty, new gadgets.


Community Follow us on Twitter:@TheSAnews

BY SERTAN SANDERSONMORE than 200 illegal miners are suspected to have been trapped underground at the Gold One “New Kleinfontein 6″ mine in Benoni, Gauteng Province. As they resurfaced following rescue operations, it wasn’t only emergency services that they had to report to on-site: the police were standing in ready for their arrests as well, as they came up one by one.

Emergency crews had been forced to wait several hours on Sunday for special equipment to be brought in to save the miners. By the time the heavy machinery had arrived, the South African Police Service (SAPS) had got wind of the events and was ready and waiting on-site to spring into action. 11 miners were rescued on the weekend and subsequently taken into police custody; the exact number of those left behind is unknown but is reported to be high, as they continue refusing to face the police. There were no deaths or injuries reported yet.

“The men refuse to come up and have become quiet, and it is too dangerous for rescue workers to go down,” said Werner Vermaak, spokesman for ER24 rescue services.

Grant Stuart, spokesman for the Gold One corporation explained that heavy rain is likely to have caused the collapse. “The illegal

BY SERTAN SANDERSONIRAN has dispatched a small fleet of military vessels into the general direction of the US East Coast, following years of disagreement over the stationing of US naval vessels in the Persian Gulf. En route to America, the Iranian ships have crossed from international waters into South African territory, reportedly sailing past the Cape of Good Hope on 10 February 2014.

According to Iranian state news, the admirals on the warships were even toying with the idea of docking at an undisclosed South African port at some point but abandoned these plans.

The warships are reportedly part of Iran’s 29th Navy fleet and will take almost a month to reach a strategic point of interest in the US such as New York City or Washington DC. This means that during the long journey, the

| The rhetoric between Iran and the United States has turned sour once more, forcing South Africa into a rather compromising position between conflicting loyalties and historic ties.

Desperate gold-diggers trapped underground refuse to be rescued

South Africa caught in US-Iranian diplomatic stand-off

| Underground accidents are turning into a commonplace occurrence for South Africa’s decaying mining industry, as the latest incident highlights the dangers of the trade from a different perspective.

controversial fleet will likely cross in and out of international waters several times, compromising other sovereign borders and potentially leading to further diplomatic stand-offs along their naval route.

The main vessel reported to be leading the fleet, the Sabalan, is nearly half a century old and has been attacked by US destroyers before, setting an uneasy historic precedent for days to come. Other reports state that the domestically-built Lavan has rather been deployed, alongside a replenishment ship and helicopter carrier to keep the fleet company.

South Africa has not reacted to the presence of the Iranian ships off its coast, but with years having gone into the planning of this naval incursion, more in the way of Iranian war vessels sailing barely shy off the South African coast may yet come. Relations between

the two countries are somewhat problematic at present, especially over the ongoing situation in Syria (despite Iran’s past support of the ANC).

The reaction time of the Iranian military and intelligence services to decades of US presence in the Gulf, particularly in the politically uneasy island-state of Bahrain, which has been suffering various levels of instability since the Arab Spring of 2011, may be perceived as sluggish, to say the least. However, considering that naval warships belonging to the Islamic Republic of Iran are attempting to enter US waters for the first time in history, the political message behind the move resounds loud and clear and is prone to sour international relations – not just between the two main players. The Sabalan - one of the vessels rumoured to be involved in the stand off

miners have dug a tunnel right next to it to access the shaft and it has collapsed behind them.”

The mining industry in South Africa frequently suffers from illegal scavenger gangs entering abandoned mine shafts after the daily end-of-business time, usually during the night. Some even live in the shafts for days on end until they can resurface with enough ore to sell on the black market. With mining shafts shifting underground all the time, such accidents happen on almost a weekly basis. But there have rarely been large-scale arrests carried out in tandem with rescue operations, and certainly never before to such a great extent.

Many of the illegal diggers at the Benoni gold mine seem to feel that they are forced to refuse to come up after hearing of the initial arrests, and are still staying behind, waiting for the police to give up their passive pursuit. The police, in the meantime, remain waiting above ground, hoping that it will only be a matter of time until the miners decide to resurface.

In a bid to force the miners into action sooner rather than later, the SAPS also called off Ekurhuleni emergency service as of Monday.

It is suspected that the miners may have deliberately been trapped underground by a rival group, which is considered commonplace practise among the illegal mining gangs. Fatal accidents occur on a regular basis, but rarely do rescue missions yield to such high numbers of trapped illegal miners facing arrest. In 2009, an underground fire at the Harmony Gold mine in the Free State had killed at least 82 suspected illegal miners. The pressure rests on the shoulders of the police to not repeat such tragedy or any other kind of confrontation with miners while still doing their job.

At the beginning of February, nine trapped miners died underground in the West Rand, drawing more attention to the shortcomings in safety standards within South Africa’s mining industry.


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BY SERTAN SANDERSONWITH rent or mortgage repayments frequently amounting to more than two thirds of many Londoners’ monthly pay cheques (no matter where they opt to live in town), creative solutions to the never-ending housing shortage in London are more than welcome to many desperate commuters. With that in mind, one Londoner decided to take to crunching the numbers and calculating a feasible way to make living in Barcelona while flying to London to work possible:

30-year-old Sam Cookney says that he surprised himself with the straight-forward nature of his sums, stating that he hadn’t thought his exercise in simple book-keeping might be so blatantly easy – and revealing.

Cookney, who is currently living in a flat-share in Shepherd’s Bush, picked a decent-sized London flat designed with a single, young professional person in mind before starting his daring comparison; at an average cost of £1,505 monthly rent, he chose a one-bedroom located in West Hampstead – a popular and fairly fashionable neighbourhood at an average cost (by London standards).

The social media manager then went on to take all other monthly minimum expenditures into consideration, including £75 council tax and a £117 Oyster Travelcard for zones 1 and 2 on the

| A reluctant Londoner puts a whole new twist on the idea of a jet-set lifestyle, making Barcelona practically a suburb of London.

Commuting from Barcelona far cheaper than renting in London

Underground to get to and from work, coming to a total of £1,697 of monthly expenses.

To provide some perspective, in order to afford these expenses alone (without even eating at all), you would need to make an annual salary of £26,000 before taxes. If you wanted to budget another £1,000 per month for food, entertainment, utility bills and a marginal pension scheme, you’d need to have an annual salary of £44,000 before taxes to be able to afford this average lifestyle without any major luxury items taken into account – a depressing prospect for many.

Cookney then compared his numbers for living expenses in London (i.e. £1,697, which is equivalent €1,979 a month) to living in Barcelona:

A spacious three-bedroom apartment in the upmarket Les Corts district of Barcelona would cost merely €680 a month. It’s located right next to the Barcelona metro in a safe neighbourhood, and comes with three balconies as well. The best part: there is no council tax to pay in Spain.

Sam explains why he chose this particular area for his comparison: “I used to live there, and being a fairly upmarket residential district, it’s a very decent and fair comparison to West Hampstead. There are, of course, cheaper flats, but I was trying to compare apples with apples – even in spite of the three bedrooms.”

So far, so good – but what about the flights to London every day?

According to Sam’s research, if you book over six months in advance you can fly back and forth from Barcelona to London Stansted airport for €34 every day using Ryanair. With airport transfer costs on public transportation in Barcelona (€6) and in London (£14 or €17) coming to €23, you’ll still pay only €57 a day for moving about all over Europe on a daily basis, which comes to €912 a month. Sam adds that his calculations did require some minimum poetic licence: “The only assumption I’m making is that I work a four-day week in London, with one day in Barcelona.”

With this four-days-in-London and one-day-working-from-home rhythm, your savings on rent and council tax will still allow you to keep plenty of money in your pocket: this extravagant commute plus the Barcelona rent would only set Sam back by a total of €1,592 a month – saving almost €400 (over £320) monthly – enough at least to eat.

“I could walk to my desk by 9:30am, with time for a Pret coffee and bacon and cheese croissant en route,” claims Sam. “It’s just beyond crazy, and completely unsustainable.”

What do Saffas make of the idea of living on the sun-kissed shores of Spain instead of cramming into overpriced flat-shares and bedsits?

“Sounds good to me! It’s like a slice of Cape Town on the Mediterranean,” says Heather Walker, editor of The South

African.“I proposed to my fiancé in

Barcelona, so we have a soft spot for that city in our hearts. And why wouldn’t you live there?” says Patrick Atherton. “We recently left London after several years to move back to sunny South Africa, but if I had known about this I might have thought twice about it.”

There’s no creative accounting

behind the maths – nor any kind of tricks or treachery: with a little bit of planning and foresight, you too could be livin’ la vida loca in Barcelona, basking in the Basque country and commuting to London for those times when you have to do that pesky little thing we all call ‘work’. Instead of “rain, rain, go away” you could lead a life filled with flamenco, fernet and fiesta. ¡Vamos, olé!

Cass Abrahams’ recipe for dadel blatjang (date chutney)| South African best-selling cookbook author and chef Cass Abrahams shares her recipe for Cape Malay date chutney

BY STAFF REPORTERThis date chutney is an excellent

accompaniment for any meat dish.Ingredients:500g stoneless dates10 cloves garlic125g root ginger, peeled125g dried red chiliesSalt to taste500ml brown vinegarSterilised bottlesMethod:Place all ingredients except

vinegar in a food processor or blender and blend until smooth. Add vinegar and blend. Place mixture in saucepan and bring to the boil. Spoon into sterilised bottles while still hot.Recipe: Cass Abrahams, Cass Abrahams Cooks Cape Malay: Food from AfricaFood Styling: Pete Goffe-Wood, PGW Eat


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| ‘My life and work are intertwined’, says South African artist Dallas Smith, who recently swapped the Knysna coast for the beautiful beaches of Devon.

Meet Dallas Smith, the English Riviera’s South African painter

KAREN DE VILLIERS

The OPTIMIST

In defence of opinion| Putting yourself out there is always a risk. Knowing that others will be offended, possibly enraged, is something that comes with the territory. But that is what it is all about, digging and scraping the surface to find that others disagree and why – it is in the why that we learn.

THE first time I was sent the link to a blogger in Cape Town, who writes about how awesome it was to live in South Africa, I kinda had the gag reflex scenario going on. Boring, trivial, Photoshopped version of commentary dished out by one living firmly in the ivory tower. Easy to comment on life when your own seems perfect.

What I did not expect was the backlash to her blog on maids and madams. Of course it’s a tricky issue, not so PC to talk about especially when you are touching on the sensitive. So much so, that she began to doubt herself, and the validity of writing her own opinions. Therein lies the rub.

Putting yourself out there is always a risk. Knowing that others will be offended, possibly enraged, is something that comes with the territory. BUT, writers

BY LINDA SMITHDALLAS Smith (born 1969) might be an old hat at painting, but he is brand spanking new to the shores of Devon, having freshly disembarked a mere five months ago. His poetic description of his life thus far goes something like this: “The African sky – turbulent, exhilarating and calm… my birthplace and home for 44 years, from the streets of Johannesburg to the heart of the Caprivi where wild elephants still have freedom to roam. My boot camp and weighing scale for the art of life and simplicity”.

Growing up in South Africa with an artist father, Dallas was surrounded by art from a young age and soon would make a full-time living out of being a painter himself. A memorable highlight was the sale of one of his paintings on auction at Christie’s, London. Throughout his career the market for his work continued to expand across the globe with clientele from afar visiting his studio in the scenic seaside town of Knysna. Now seeking middle ground with his British ancestry (his grandfather hailed from England), Dallas has relocated with his family to a similar

should never pander to popular opinion, play it safe when they feel it is important to comment on issues close to their hearts. Many of us South Africans, bloggers with opinions, are always going to wade into murky waters. What do we really know about the lives of those who have not have the privileges or opportunities? We have never walked in those shoes, and so we need to be sensitive to all, need to learn about all – and thinking about it now, her blog unleashed a well of opinion that I think even she learnt from. And that is what it is all about, digging and scraping the surface to find that others disagree and why – it is in the why that we learn.

I grew up during apartheid. I had the best childhood, the best education and lived a life that was good. Yet now, my childhood feels like something I cannot talk about, or reminisce about with pleasure, because it was lived during a time when others suffered the worst oppression in history. What does that make of me? Of course I would never have chosen to live as happily as I did during such a horrible time, had I really known, but I cannot

setting by the sea, The English Riviera.

His large canvas paintings are executed in acrylic and vary in subject ranging from yachts and birds to figurative beach scenes. Described as clean, crisp and peaceful, his work is easy on the eye yet with a distinctively striking effect. Dallas draws his inspiration from a quiet inner appreciation of life and outwardly from the nature that surrounds him. As for human inspiration, that would be attributed to the 19th century artist Albert Moore: “I have been drawn to him for his use of colour and composition, revealing to me his deep understanding of harmony in tones. I just love the grace which comes across in his work”.

Cotton canvas, pigments and brushes are the tools he uses to reflect his zeal for inner balance with simplicity at its core.

“I have peeled off the elaborate drapery on my work, and substituted detail for untainted colours, but my hope is that the essence of the art would reveal the same grace and harmony as Albert Moore”. This really sums up the humble, talented man.

erase my own life, feel guilty for living it because I was white and privileged. Just as I cannot tell you that the maids I employed in my life did not, at times, drive me up the wall. The love/hate relationship between employer and employee is a story on its own, but we South Africans, all, have to stop feeling guilty about the whole issue. Guilt is a killer for those suffering from it and those using it against us. Be gone guilt and move forward.

Today, everyone has a voice and blogging, social media, whatever, is giving everyone a chance to be heard. You may not like the criticism and doubt yourself at times, but I think it is fantastic that we can now speak without fear as long as we remain responsible and open ourselves to the fact that others have their opinions too. So please do not stop, Mrs Disco Pants, you opinions are what every South African has a right to. Just remember that there is a lesson in there somewhere. It’s called growing up.

TheSouthAfrican.

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| Hilton Caswell’s new Seven Sins EP features the charismatic vocals of Lexy Kill, covering an impressive array of ground across its four scintillating tracks.

Saffa DJ Hilton Caswell confesses Seven Sins

Mark Gevisser launches ‘Dispatcher’ at Jewish Book Week in London| Leading South African author and journalist Mark Gevisser’s new book ‘Dispatcher’, about memory, identity and his intense personal relationship with his home-town, Johannesburg.

BY STAFF REPORTERTHIS year’s Jewish Book Week festival at King’s Place in London (22 February to 2 March) will feature Mark Gevisser, one of South Africa’s leading authors and journalists. He’ll be talking to Gillian Slovo on 24 February about his next book, Dispatcher, which is about memory, identity and his intense personal relationship with his home-town, Johannesburg.

As a boy growing up in apartheid Johannesburg Mark Gevisser would play ‘Dispatcher’, a game that involved sending imaginary couriers on routes mapped out from Holmden’s Register of Johannesburg. As the phantom fleet made its way across the troubled city’s atomised geographies, so too did the young dispatcher being to figure out his own place in the world.

With the maps and photographs he has collected over two decades, Gevisser plots his path across the city, from his early exploration of his gay identity to his brutal

BY STAFF REPORTERSA-born and UK-based producer and DJ Hilton Caswell has released Seven Sins – an EP packed with electronic music goodness, having spent years working through the ranks of the London club scene and building a firm profile as a producer as well.

The Extended Play release includes tracks like “Fed Up”, which features some eclectic electronica energy interlaced with organic subtlety, as well as “In The Beginning”, a more demure track with a deep house bass-line, sure to get the party going. “Seven Sins”, the track which gave the album its alluring name, packs a punch and is sure to push listener onto the dance-floor and hopes to propel DJ Hilton Caswell into the pop charts.

The four-track album points to the kind of diversity that Hilton Caswell wants to use to solidify his career and establish him as a lasting maverick for the dancefloor.

Seven Sins will be released on 24 February 2014. To purchase the album go to https://itunes.apple.com/gb/artist/hilton-caswell/id417801369. Go to www.hiltoncaswell.com for more information.

experience, as an adult, of an armed home invasion. He tracks back across his Jewish immigrant family’s routes to South Africa, from Vilnius, Dublin and Jerusalem, before immersing himself in the Johannesburg of today.

In a style that balances gripping storytelling with deep lyricism, Gevisser finds himself, loses himself, and finds himself again in the city of his birth.

Mark Gevisser’s last book, A Legacy of Liberation: Thabo Mbeki and the Future of the South

African Dream, won the Sunday Times 2008 Alan Paton Prize. His journalism has appeared in publications and journals including Granta, the New York Times, the Guardian, Newsweek, Vogue, the Wall Street Journal and the Los Angeles Times. He is an Open Society Fellow 2013-2014, and lives between France and South Africa.His talk on on Monday 24 February at 7pm will be the UK launch of his book.Book on http://www.jewishbookweek.com/


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| As the diamond mining industry is embarking on a path of recovery and undergoing major reforms after the demise of the De Beers stronghold, examining the meaning and history behind the gem may provide some insight into this ‘asset’s’ future.

Diamonds are aBY SERTAN SANDERSONWE’VE been hearing it everywhere in popular culture ever since we first played house as children. You need to have a diamond ring to join in ‘holy matrimony’ – or else the deal is practically off. Wherever we may go it is that same message that lingers on with a tirade of catchy slogans to support it like “diamonds are forever” or “don’t be fooled by the rocks that I got” and even, more recently, “shine bright like a diamond” because “if he liked then he would have put a ring on it.”

The dames behind these chart-topping hits – be it old-timers like Marilyn Monroe and Shirley Bassey or more recent starlets like Jennifer Lopez, Beyoncé Knowles and Rihanna – can all easily afford the sparkly carbon rocks that have come to symbolise affluence (as well as romance) in all the colours of the rainbow. But as those vivid colours passively reflect back right into the eye of the beholder, i.e. the buyer, you have to ask yourself: what is the real value behind a diamond?

The real value of South Africa’s unique asset

Diamonds provide a uniquely South African story to tell, actually. Nowhere in the world has diamond mining ever been as prolific as at the bottom of Africa. Great names of industrialist magnates from Cecil Rhodes to Ernest Oppenheimer are thrown into the often-uneasy narrative of the diamond’s conflict-ridden history – like reluctant protagonists stringing along to an unavoidable yet shiny destiny.

What is easily overlooked, when you think about the lack of intrinsic value of diamonds, is the fact that it is the market that drives their demand, which means every young lady out there in the world hoping for her beau to propose

marriage to her with a nice, big ‘rock’. But diamonds don’t hold any value in and of themselves, as they’re actually not precious nor rare – a truth that will likely hurt any débutante with the perfect ring on her finger.

Nor do diamonds appreciate in time – unlike gold or platinum, which, with their respectively finite amounts available, are circulated many times over on the world’s financial markets; it is even said that all the gold in the world would not be able to fill a single Olympic-sized swimming pool. But with diamonds, there is no finite amount or other limitation given, as any carbon stone has the potential of turning into a diamond over the course of time (or with the help of artificial treatment). Hence, diamonds do not and cannot appreciate in value.

In fact, diamonds tend to depreciate, if anything, usually below 50% of their original purchase value within less than one generation, but often the very moment you leave the jeweller’s shop with new brand-new carats on your ring finger. Let’s face it: who wants to buy a used diamond ring that symbolises someone’s else failed or expired promise of matrimonial bliss? There is a reason why those tend to end up in pawn shops.

So without intrinsic value or even resale value, why is it that we think of diamonds as ‘assets’?

Playing monopoly with the De Beers brothers

The rise of the diamond trade is rather an ingenious – and rather inglorious – story about the acquired value that American ad campaigns have imprinted onto South African diamonds in the course of several decades, probably making the little sparkly stones the greatest success story in marketing history, and creating a market force that no competitor

can even begin to reckon with – all within less than half a century.

It wasn’t always this way. There was a time, roughly 100 years ago, when diamonds were considered an exotic choice for jewellery, only ever showing up on the crowns of rulers and kings ‘from the colonies’ but never reaching popularity with the ladies on the high street. Rare they were indeed, but in no way so special as to fuel entire future wars and an international slave trade in their names, or to give reason for the global community to become complicit in supporting apartheid’s cheap labour force in South Africa for many decades to come.

It wasn’t until the massive diamond deposits in Kimberley (in what is today the Northern Cape) had been found in 1870 that diamond mining took on industrial levels of output. And where there is an industrial supply, there needs to be industrial-sized solutions to create demand – or else you’re running at a loss; economics 1-0-1.

This is where the De Beers brothers came in, and they were absolutely ace at business: single-handedly, they managed to convince, cajole and corrupt all the small owners at the Kimberley mines (and later elsewhere in the country) to sell their mines over to the growing De Beers cartel and its many international affiliates. Within a matter of a few decades in the late 19th century, De Beers was well on its way to dominate this emerging market. By the time the 20th century had begun, De Beers, under the guardianship of Cecil Rhodes, had planted its diamond flag all over Southern Africa, effectively turning the diamond trade into a worldwide monopoly – all driven by the idea (or rather by the epic myth) that diamonds should somehow have an intrinsic value.

You see, when you already are the big kid on the playground,


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girl’s worst friend

BY ELIZABETH BRITZLAST week saw the South African Rand taking major punishment against the British Pound, peaking

at 18.477 on Tuesday. Retail sales slowed to 3.5 percent in December 2013 from 4.4 percent in

November the previous month. Investors raised concerns that the largest economy in Africa was not

able to generate steam during this turbulent economic period.

The unexpected repo rate increase in January has added pressure to many South African wallets as

many struggle to deal with high personal debt levels. With consumer spending making up 60 percent

of the SA economy, will the Rand be able to return below 18 on the back of sluggish growth?

South African President Jacob Zuma delivered his State of the

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Rollercoaster week for the Rand as it battled the iron-fisted Pound

Nation address on Thursday evening.

Some of his key points regarding the economy and its future were around the high Rand exchange

rate, violent strike action in the mining sector, and rising inflation. National elections will be taking

place later this year on the 7th May, and Jacob Zuma will be in the hot seat as the run up to elections

begins with the unemployment rate still uncomfortably high (especially among the youth of South

Africa). The Rand is likely to remain volatile before the elections as political statements often cause

investors to rearrange their risk profiles.

Tuesday morning we will see the release of UK inflation data, which could impact the Bank of

England’s decision to increase the interest rate. If the CPI is not reported in line with expectations of

2 percent, many of the Pound’s trading partners – including the Rand – will be affected.

GBP / ZAR: 18.1501EUR / ZAR: 14.8507USD / ZAR: 10.8348AUD / ZAR: 9.7812Exchange rates as of 11:49, 17

February 2014Note: The above exchange rates are based on “interbank” rates. If you want to transfer money to or from South Africa, please register/login on our website, or call us on 0808 141 2335 for a live dealing rate. You can make use of a Rate Notifier to send you alerts when the South African exchange rate reaches the levels that you are looking for.

you can quite easily dictate your terms onto others and drive market prices in your favour – much to the chagrin of your competition. Or you can tell the competition to join you instead of partaking in the futile exercise of fighting your Goliath strength. That is exactly what happened, as square-meter by square-meter at the Kimberley mines and elsewhere was gerrymandered into the De Beers empire, making the company’s name inherently synonymous with the bright, sparkly rocks and all things that relate to them.

From Kimberley Mines to Madison Avenue

But driving market prices wasn’t enough. With the end of World War I and later the impending start of the Great Depression came a serious threat to the diamond industry, which during the 1920s was still a struggling emerging industry. And so it was then that De Beers took to Madison Avenue in New York to launch an ad campaign with the help of the N.W. Ayer advertising agency in 1938. This is where diamonds were transformed from being mere sparkly rocks from the Dark Continent into a first-rate status symbol. Everyone from Hollywood to the Royal Family were in on the elaborate marketing campaign, which eventually turned the image of diamonds into the ultimate symbol of wealth and success in Western culture, particularly in the United States, which was the biggest market for De Beers.

And it worked: within a few years of this incredible marketing initiative, the market price of diamonds had increased by 55 per cent – despite the woes of the Great Depression and the onset of World War II looming. By the end of the war, there was no stopping of this advertising machinery, which eventually would tell all young men in the US and beyond to save up two months’ salary – another arbitrary marketing choice taken by the N.W. Ayer agency – to woo for their ladies in style, proving their respective socio-economic statuses in the form of a rite-of-passage centred around a highly-polished carbon rock. Within forty years, this campaign and other similar initiatives made the De Beers cartel grow a hundredfold in annual sales figures.

What all the pining gents, who have chosen to buy into this ‘social’ (but really economic) convention, may not realise even up to today, is the fact that this aggressive marketing campaign wound up unleashing a financial brand of warfare on any and all competition in the world. This war would, among other things, see De Beers unloading bulk diamonds at discount prices in Australia to ensure that the competition wouldn’t be able to sustain itself, or dealing closely with Soviet Russia by buying literal heaps of diamonds from Siberia to guarantee the monopoly’s position on the global market. This way, De Beers managed to control 90% of the planet’s diamond trade for the remainder of the 20th century, by

ruling over production, output, distribution, pricing, marketing and trading.

R.I.P Oppenheimer – R.I.P De Beers?

Fast-forward to today, and De Beers’s stronghold as a cartel may look like it is slowly waning under the control of its parent company, Anglo American plc, which still controls the production of at least 35 per cent of the world’s current diamond output – as well as several other distribution channels. Gone may be the days of blood diamonds and gangster cartels, but it wasn’t until 2001 that De Beers had finally settled a long-standing US anti-trust lawsuit to pave the way for a more ‘sustainable’ (if that is the correct term) practice of diamond mining – to a tune of merely $10 million, which is equal to the price-tag of the more expensive jewellery items in the current De Beers collection.

Paying large sums of money to change a perceived ‘image’ appears to be a trademark move for the South African company as part of yet another PR campaign designed to turn the tide in favour of ongoing diamond mining in Africa.

The last heir to the old Oppenheimer family syndicate, Harry Oppenheimer, died in 2001, only weeks after the funeral bells for De Beers under its ‘old guard’ had rung. Ten years later, the remaining Oppenheimer heirs decided to sell 40 per cent of their remaining De Beers stock, signing 85 per cent of total control of the company over to Anglo American in London. Business practises under the new ownership may be more transparent,

but nothing can change or gloss over the fact that the history of the diamond trade is the first successful, viral marketing campaign in history – with or without De Beers considered.

But not all the family’s fortunes are gone, at least not from the shareholders’ perspective; in fact, De Beers remains as the ‘safety net’ of Anglo American plc, providing a constant source of reliability when market fluctuations in the company’s other mining branches force down stock prices; in 2012, when Anglo American took over full control over De Beers, the company began to see a long-awaiting stabilisation trend in its ongoing company losses.

Amid the volatile climate in the financial markets, Anglo American plc seems to be more than happy to rest on the lores of the likes of Cecil Rhodes and Ernest Oppenheimer, continuing the greatest myth ever sold: diamonds are forever.


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| You have a great idea for a business and are excited that the finances are all in place. You have set yourself up and may even have staff working for you. Perhaps you’re now looking for premises and are about to close your first deal or take on your first client.

| Many clients are unsure about when it is possible to apply for Indefinite Leave to Remain (ILR) or, as it is sometimes known, Permanent Residence.

Top ten legal tips for any new business venture

BY STAFF REPORTER

AS a general rule of thumb one can usually apply for ILR within the 28 day period preceding the point that one’s visa expires, or within 28 days before the completion of your residential period from the date you entered the UK, whichever is sooner.

So if you had to complete 5 years, you will usually be able to apply 28 days before the completion of this period. If the visa was issued for 5 years only, then you can usually apply 28 days before the visa expires, but some visas are issued for a little longer and then it would be 5 years from your date of entry.

Some examples are:EEA family visas are issued for

6 months entry and the applicant will get a 5-year residential card. So in effect the applicant receives a 5 years and 6 months leave to remain. The applicant will be able to apply for ILR 28 days before the completion of 5 years from the date of entry as you can count the 6 month entry clearance as part of the residence period.

Ancestral visas are issued for 5 years from the offset, so applications can apply for ILR 28 days before their visas expire.

The above provides general guidance in regards to when one becomes eligible to apply for ILR, but this can vary depending

When can I apply for Indefinite Leave to Remain?

on the unique circumstances of each case, so we would always recommend that applicants seek advice specific to their individual matter.JP BreytenbachDirector of BIC, Breytenbachs Immigration Consultants Limited.www.bic-immigration.com or [email protected]

BY PAUL FLUDETHIS article focuses on the value and importance of seeking professional legal advice before embarking on any new business venture. Paul Flude is a practising Attorney of the High Court of South Africa, based in London as a Life Planning Consultant at A City Law Firm LLP. He is a specialist Estate Planner and Entrepreneur in his own right.

Decide on an appropriate business vehicle – If you have just started up on your own, the likelihood is that you’re a sole trader. Being a sole trader is actually the most exposed (in many ways) and you risk your own personal assets. Conversely, this form has the fewest regulations to adhere to whilst private companies have the most reporting obligations, but are significantly protected. There is also an alternative structure: Limited Liability Partnerships (LLPs), which have the ‘best of both worlds’. Do you know which business structure is right for you and your particular circumstances? Do you understand the risks and benefits or your liabilities? Have you taken into account the growth in value and considered the tax position should you decide to sell one day?

Protect your business ideas – trademarks, company name registration, domain name registration, website address and other forms of intellectual property protection can help protect your valuable business ideas and developing goodwill from being exploited by others in the UK and globally.

Protect yourself – ‘limited liability’ is afforded to those running companies or LLPs, which means that it is the company

or LLP which is sued, not the individuals behind it. This may be the best way of avoiding personal liability, but insurance is also usually a must – Public and Employers Liability insurances are the most common. If public access is allowed on your premises, ensure that your insurance covers Occupier’s Liability. If your business relies on one or two key individuals, ‘key person’ insurance should also be considered.

Obtain your premises – deciding on the type of Lease or purchasing a property outright will have financial consequences (Rent, Deposit, Stamp Duty, Purchase Price, Repairing Liability, Service Charge and Rates). Most landlords request personal guarantees, but it is better to offer a Rent Deposit instead to avoid the risk of personal liability.

Ensure your company documents are up to scratch – Letterheads, Purchase Order Forms and Terms & Conditions should be scrutinised from a legal perspective and need to be effective in two ways – protecting your cash flow and binding your customers into the terms on which you want them to behave. If and when a dispute does arise, these documents need to be able to stand up to scrutiny and not be attacked easily.

Know your obligations when employing staff – get the right Employment Contracts (for Employees) or Contracts For Services (for Contractors) to avoid disputes and costly litigation. Do you know what obligations you have to your staff under Employment Law? Have you planned for the necessary statutory allowances, such as sick pay and maternity leave? Generally, there are fewer obligations when hiring Contractors, but you still

need to be careful that they aren’t ‘deemed’ to be employed.

Ensure you are contracting with the right person – due diligence on who you are doing business with is essential, particularly when chasing an unpaid invoice. If contracting with a company, check they are registered at Companies House and confirm their registered number (a company can change its name several times, but the number always remains the same). Do the people representing the client company have the authority to do so?

Make sure your business processes are legally sound – you may have excellent Terms & Conditions, but did you know that if the customer’s attention is not drawn to these before the contract is formed, then they are not incorporated at all? The offer and acceptance process can be complex, especially when dealing with two or more sets of Terms & Conditions (for example when dealing with multiple businesses). There are also terms that are imposed into contracts by Law for goods or services and each business will have different terms implied.

And finally… disaster planning – what if your offices burn down, or you and your business partner have a falling out, or one of you dies? What if the business needs to be wound-up or goes into business rescue? What if you need to sell a major asset? Having Directors/Shareholders/Partnership agreements in place can help to avoid many of the big decisions turning in to even bigger disputes. Also, the key role players should embark on proper Estate Planning and ensure that their Wills are up to date and are aligned with the business interests.


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| The judging panel for this year’s Caine Prize for African creative writing includes South African-born novelist and playwright Gillian Slovo and Zimbabwean journalist Percy Zvomuya.

Writers Slovo and Zvomuya named as 2014 Caine Prize judges

Penniless Zimbabwean varsity students stranded in Siberia| Students enrolled in Russian universities are forced to sleep at train stations, as the Zimbabwean government fails to send financial assurances for their upkeep.

BY SERTAN SANDERSONZIMBABWEANS on university exchange programmes in Russia are forced to live homeless lifestyles on the streets of Siberian towns, as the government barely manages to provide 10 per cent of the financial support required to keep them enrolled and in accommodation. Reports have also surfaced that some female students may have had to resort to prostitution in order to get by.

Many of the students affected by the cash-flow problem come from disadvantaged backgrounds. They form part of the country’s ‘cadetship scheme’, which was introduced by the Zimbabwean government in 2007 under a scheme named after Robert Mugabe to make higher education accessible to a broader base.

Washington Mbizvo, the Permanent Secretary for Higher and Tertiary Education, confirmed that the financing of the study abroad programmes had been all but cut off entirely, leaving his department – as well as the students – stranded rather desperately amid the Siberian winter.

“In Russia some students are now sleeping along railway lines. The ambassador had to come here to plead with me, and I had to also to plead with the ministry of finance to release something for those students who were living along the railway,” Mbizvo pleads.

He also said that the

BY STAFF REPORTERSOUTH African-born novelist and playwright Gillian Slovo and Zimbabwean journalist Percy Zvomuya have been named on the judging panel for this year’s Caine Prize for African Writing. The panel chaired by award-winning author Jackie Kay MBE also includes Dr Nicole Rizzuto, Assistant Professor of English at the University of Georgetown and 2001 Caine Prize winner Helon Habila. This is the second time that a past winner of the £10,000 Caine Prize will take part in the judging.

Percy Zvomuya is an arts and features writer for the Mail and Guardian newspaper in Johannesburg. He is currently writing a biography of Robert Mugabe, to be published by Pan Macmillan. Gillian Slovo is a London-based writer whose novel Red Dust explores the meaning and effects of the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission.

This year a record 140 qualifying stories have been submitted to the judges from 17 African countries. The judges will meet in late April to decide on the shortlisted stories, which will be announced shortly thereafter. To commemorate 15 years of the Caine Prize this year, £500 will be awarded to each shortlisted writer. The winning story will be announced at a dinner at the Bodleian Library in Oxford on Monday 14 July.

The Caine Prize, awarded annually for African creative writing, is named after the late Sir Michael Caine, former Chairman of Booker plc and Chairman of the Booker Prize management committee for nearly 25 years. The Prize is awarded for a short story by an African writer published in English (between 3,000 and

Zimbabwean government was almost $63 million in the red from previous debts incurred to universities globally, making it near-impossible to make money available to those currently affected by the crisis. The treasury only managed to release $54,000 in a bid to alleviate the tensions as it awaits at least another $8 million to be granted.

The news comes weeks after the country applied for foreign aid to fund its primary schools, following massive donations from the United States the previous year.

Last week, more than 100 Zimbabwean students were also banned from the Cape Peninsula University of Technology in Cape Town after defaulting on payments. There are currently over 7,000 Zimbabwean students under various government schemes enrolled at higher institutions in South Africa.

Zimbabwean students are frequently sent to higher education institutions abroad, chiefly in South Africa and Russia but also to other foreign countries (such as Cuba and Algeria) to complete science courses mainly in medicine.

10,000 words). An “African writer” is normally taken to mean someone who was born in Africa, or who is a national of an African country, or whose parents are African.

Previous Southern African winners are Brian Chikwava (Zimbabwe, 2004), Mary Watson (South Africa, 2006), Henrietta Rose-Innes (South Africa, 2008) and NoViolet Bulawayo (Zimbabwe, 2011).

The five shortlisted stories, alongside the stories written at the annual Caine Prize workshop, are published annually by New Internationalist (UK), Jacana Media (South Africa), Cassava Republic (Nigeria), Kwani? (Kenya), Sub-Saharan Publishers (Ghana), FEMRITE (Uganda), Bookworld Publishers (Zambia) and amaBooks (Zimbabwe). This year’s workshop will be held in Zimbabwe.

Included in the 2013 anthology is the story by last year’s Nigerian winner, Tope Folarin. Chair of judges Gus Casely-Hayford said at the time, “Tope Folarin’s ‘Miracle’ is another superb Caine Prize winner – a delightful and beautifully paced narrative, that is exquisitely observed and utterly compelling.”

The African winners of the Nobel Prize for Literature, Wole Soyinka, Nadine Gordimer and JM Coetzee, are Patrons of The Caine Prize.

The Caine Prize is principally supported by The Oppenheimer Memorial Trust, Miles Morland, the Booker Prize Foundation, Sigrid Rausing & Eric Abraham, Weatherly International plc, China Africa Resources, Exotix and CSL Stockbrokers. Other funders include the DOEN Foundation, The Beit Trust, British Council, The Lennox and Wyfold Foundation, the Royal Over-Seas League and Kenya Airways.


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BY GORDON GLYN-JONES

Paris - Too heavy with expectation I defy you not to be charmed by the Hogwartsian fizz of boarding a commuter train in London and - what seems like mere moments later - stepping out into an orderly new world, where everyone says words like ‘coquelicot’ and ‘lumière’.

I had met my partner only weeks before this trip, so we took something of a risk choosing Paris to ‘get to know each other’. We arrived as President François Hollande’s sex-scandal broke; so whilst we held hands on street corners, Le Grande Romance French-style swirled portentously above our heads.

So why was it such a risk?Well, so much has been written

about the ‘city of light’ as some hydroponic love nursery, the weight of expectation was pretty intense. What would happen if we ended up somewhere that didn’t impress and instead of lingering looks, there had to be glazed eyes and moans about the cost of coffee?

Break through the barricades

Coming to Paris on a weekend trip can be quite a challenge. You think that as long as you tick off the Eiffel Tower, Moulin Rouge, Bridge of Locks and tut-tut about rude Parisians, you can pretty much come back to London -

Arriving and ‘Dériving’ in| In the wake of millions of vaguely disappointing Valentine’s Days, we jump on the Eurostar to show you how to have a really romantic weekend in Paris. comforting yourself that you’ve

‘done it’. In truth, however, did you even need to bother? What one experience among all those clichés served to expand you as a human being?

Perhaps we have to think like the French to see Paris in a different light. There’s recently been a revival of a French philosopher called Guy Debord, who warns of us being subsumed by ‘The Society of the Spectacle’. In essence, Debord says we become so obsessed with living a life that looks like what we’re told we need, that we forget to engage in real human experience. (“All I need to be happy is that next: sofa/computer/Sky Box” - we all do it). If ever there was an example of ‘The Spectacle’ it’s certainly the idea of the romantic weekend in Paris.

What does Debord suggest?

One of his strategies was the Dérive, (which means ‘a stroll’ - but with a difference); a way of being ‘constructively playful’ in a city. Instead of following a map or must-do-list for the day, rather make up a random set of rules to follow. For example, when you see a woman with a dog, turn right; a man in a red coat, turn left. If you see a baguette in a window, find some stairs to climb. The idea is that by embracing random events you have real experiences rather than pre-imagined versions.

‘Oh a-Dériving we will go’

On our first day we sat outside the Louvre having fun mapping out our rules, aware that the sheer weight of the museum’s reputation should have drawn us in. To the woman and the dog and man in red coat rules, we added the wildcard that if we got too hungry all bets would be off.

In truth, is Paris is a very logically laid out city, so if you stay within the confines of the centre (i.e. Paris St-Germain and up towards Sacré Cœur in Montmartre), no matter what the rules, you’re not likely to stumble across a modern-day Rimbaud setting fire to his own chest, or be stabbed in one of the dire residential ghettoes aux banlieus, meaning on the outskirts of Paris.

We chose the Seine and Notre Dame as a starting point, as it really is the heart of tourist Paris. Our clues came hard and fast and within an hour we had obeyed five separate commands. It is tougher than you might think. Sometimes the rules take you places that are bland and decidedly un-fun but as a couple that’s the good part; these now are ‘your’ places.

In truth, we had to stop following rules after dark and followed our stomachs instead. However, the game had done its job. We were released from the belief that our next guidebook destination would make us happy. Over the course of the weekend, we ended up in a shop that sold

Broaden your horizons, do something different

One minute London, the next another world

Be in the moment, engage with Parisian life

You’ll be amazed at what you can discover


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Paris: a whirlwind romanceantique Indian masks, at an exhibition where we felt what it must be like to be inside a large book, playing pool in a football supporters’ bar and eating at the best Tapas Bar in the world. But not once did we stress about where was next.

Find your own romantic Paris

Instead of penning the sort of travel feature where we lovingly describe places and experiences for the reader to replicate, I prefer advocating the Dérive; it just wouldn’t be fair to revert back to being agents of ‘The Spectacle’, would it?

However, it would be fitting perhaps to describe the headspace of our last night in Paris; we spent it tucked away in a Crepes bar, on the corner of Rue Poulbot & Plaice Du Tetre in the shadow of the almighty Sacré Cœur on Montmarte. The gruff but lovely proprietor was French as a crumpled packet of Gitanes cigarettes and throughout that night, a lone piano player sung songs from Moulin Rouge (the movie). We sipped red wine and, not saying much, took turns adding to an Escher-style drawing until closing.

This may or may not sound romantic to you but for us it was, very. We had arrived here by discarding preconceptions of romance - and it felt good. So if you ever feel bucket-list fatigue on holiday, I recommend a little Dériving to awaken your spirit.

How to get there● Eurostar to Paris - We

travelled Standard Premier, which meant bigger seats, food and refreshments served on board, and enough space for stowing luggage (no baggage charge). Standard Premier fares: £189 return. (We brought our own bubbles and were happily given glasses to drink it).

● Eurostar connects London St Pancras to Paris Gare Du Nord.

● Returns from £69. Journey time 2hr 15 minutes.

● Boarding experience is more relaxed than at airports.

● Tickets to Paris, Brussels and Lille get 2 for 1 entry into some museums and galleries.Tickets are available from eurostar.com or 08432 186 186.

Where to stayPavillon des Lettres - This

beautiful little (and dare we say romantic?) boutique hotel is based on a literary theme, with each room representing a famous writer such as Hans Christian Andersen and Émile Zola. The service is brilliant, the facilities are impeccable and it’s merely a short walk away from the Champs-Elysées.To book - +33 (0)1 49 24 26 26| [email protected]. Pavillon des Lettres, 12 rue des Saussaies, 75008 PARIS www.pavillondeslettres.com

Not ‘must sees’ but ‘maybe sees’

We did visit two things that were cool enough to share... just saying.

● Centquatre (www.104.fr) Is a literal ‘creative centre’, where you’re as likely to see hiphop crews learning their skills as cutting edge art shows or street level French food. It’s all very youthful French, democratic and laid back.

● Tape Bar (http://www.tumblr.com/tagged/tape-bar) This graffiti saturated bar is in an area that has just enough grime to take the edge off all that Parisian perfection. 21 Rue de la Roquette, 75011.

Beginners Guide to Dériving

Dérive v. (literally: “to drift”) A playful-constructive journey that turns the city into a playground of the mind, enriching your experience in unforeseen ways.

● Invent a game that introduces not just’ random’ motives for moving (i.e. turn left when you see a child crying) but rules that challenge your idea of your place in that city. For example, when you see a seagull, find the highest point you can see within 300m and climb it. Or when you hear a siren, walk for the next three blocks with your ears blocked.

● Be conscious of how these moves enhance your understanding of your place in the city, or simply how they make you feel.

● Have fun, be playful and don’t take yourself too seriously.

Explore the hidden corners of Paris


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2014 looks like being the biggest and best touch rugby/football year yet| With only days before the beginning of our 2014 Winter League, already we at In2Touch can see this shaping into our biggest and best year to date! Recording our highest number of teams in our Winter league so far, this is only setting the bench mark for the various other leagues that will go on across London in coming months.

| The Proteas were comprehensively thrashed by a supremely confident and red-hot Australian side at SuperSport Park inside four days, and what rankles most is not the fact that we lost but the manner of the defeat.

BY STAFF REPORTERThe month of April at Clapham

Common will see the return of the ever popular “April Shoot-out” league. Shootout Leagues were a huge success last year and proved to be a hit with all players and teams. Therefore with such a demand we will be running the April Shoot out League again this year. The format is quite different from the normal Spring and Summer touch games in that each team will play 2 x 20 minute games a night and the league will run for 4 weeks, finishing just before the Spring Leagues start. The last week will be a Finals week with teams playing 2 x 20 minutes of special format ‘Drop Off’ games. For those of you who have never

played in a ‘Drop Off’, it is a really exciting way to decide a normal knockout game of touch, where the team drops a player after a certain time period until there are 3 on each team and then it is first to score that wins! The April Shootout is the perfect way to get into the normal touch season, whilst getting some early season fitness and socialising in at the same time.

With the excitement from the April Shoot-out still coursing through players veins, we see the blue skies take over, along with the smell of the spring flowers and the beaming sunshine just about to break through – we all know what time of year it is – Spring and Summer League time!

That’s right! With 2014 set to be

Proteas beaten by a rampant Australia

BY JEREMY BORTZI was lucky enough to be at SuperSport Park over the weekend – although some would say unlucky. Day four capped what was without doubt the worst four days of cricket the Proteas have played in years, and outside of the first sessions on days one and two, we were comprehensively thrashed by a supremely confident and red-hot Australian side at the top of their game.

What rankles most is not the fact that we lost but the manner of the defeat. On day three especially, when we dropped numerous chances and fielded poorly, we looked like our hearts weren’t in it. And in our final innings, we were unable to last even 60 overs and take the game to a fifth day.

This Proteas side has achieved the impossible before: chasing down 414 to win the first Test against Australia in Perth in 2008, surviving 148 overs at the Adelaide Oval in 2012 to draw the second Test, drawing with India last year, when set over 450 to win with 136 overs to see out. This time, however, with a mammoth 482 to win or an improbable 174 overs to survive, they just didn’t look up for the fight.

Credit must be given to the Australians who played superbly well in all departments. Their batsmen showed great heart when in trouble. On the first morning at 98/4, the fielders caught absolutely everything that came their way while Mitchell Johnson was simply sublime, finishing with career-best figures of 12/127 (This is the first time a bowler has taken 12 against the Proteas since Muttiah Muralitharan in Sri Lanka in 2008;

which incidentally was the last series we lost away from home).

After a heavy defeat like this, the urge is to make wholesale changes, but I don’t think that’s the solution. A few players will definitely be on edge; including opener Alviro Petersen and off-spinner Robin Peterson. Peterson has failed to make significant runs for far too long; he last scored a century 15 innings ago and has since averaged just under 24. Many will be clamouring for youngster Quinton de Kock to be given his chance while Peterson doesn’t add any more in the spin department than JP Duminy.

I think playing de Kock would be a mistake against a red-hot Johnson and co, and I feel that Petersen should be given until the end of the series to prove himself. I do, however, feel we need variety in our attack and thus I believe that left-hander Wayne Parnell should possibly replace Petersen, with JP playing as our spinner. Alternatively, Parnell could replace Ryan McLaren, who did what was of expected of him – but certainly nothing more.

Graeme Smith was quick to acknowledge just how poor his side were, saying there was no place for them to hide and that they let an expectant country down: “There’s going to be a lot of criticism and emotion from the fans. We didn’t live up to expectations and we deserve everything that comes our way”.

The second Test starts at St. George’s Park on Thursday, which is a slower and lower wicket. With this being just a three-Test series, the Proteas will need to bounce back quickly and remind us all just why they’re the #1 side in the world.

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SPORT18 - 24 FEBRUARY 2014 NEWS FOR GLOBAL SOUTH AFRICANS www.thesouthafrican.com

2014 SET TO BE BEST TOUCH RUGBY SEASON YET P15PROTEAS BEATEN BY A RAMPANT AUSTRALIA P15

LIONS SHOCK CHEETAHS IN SUPER RUGBY COMEBACK| A 78th minute drop-goal helped the Lions to a 21-20 victory against the Cheetahs in the opening match of the Super Rugby season at the Free State Stadium in Bloemfontein.BY STAFF REPORTERTHE Lions celebrated their return to Vodacom Super Rugby with a surprise win over the Toyota Cheetahs in Bloemfontein before the Cell C Sharks showed they mean business in 2014 with a bonus-point victory over the Vodacom Bulls in Durban.

For the Sharks, under a new coach in former Springbok mentor Jake White, it was a perfect start to the season. They got their fourth try at the death of their 31-16 win after scoring three great five-pointers in the first 40.

Interestingly enough, it was the first time ever the Sharks managed to score a bonus-point victory at home in February, when Durban’s notorious high heat and humidity often play havoc with handling.

In fact, it was only the second time since the inception of Super Rugby that a side managed four February tries at Growthpoint Kings – the Cheetahs did just that when they beat the KwaZulu-Natalians by 27-26 in 2006.

On Saturday the Sharks were firmly in control, but the Cheetahs’ performance was unlike that day when they won in Durban in 2006 – they came unstuck against a spirited Lions side that shocked a lot of people with a 21-20 victory in Bloemfontein.

Lions flyhalf Marnitz Boshoff contributed all of his team’s points with a near-flawless kicking display – he slotted all six of his attempts at penalty goals and got one from two drop-goals. His opposite numbers, however, struggled with the boot, and between Johan Goosen and

Elgar Watts they squandered nine points with missed kicks at goal.

Boshoff’s exploits were similar to those of Elton Jantjies in 2012, when the currently injured Lions flyhalf kicked all of his team’s points as they beat the Cheetahs by 27-25 in the opening round.

Toyota Cheetahs 20 (10) Lions 21 (9)

Marnitz Boshoff, making his Super Rugby debut, broke the Cheetahs’ hearts with a 78th minute drop-goal to help the Lions to a good 21-20 victory in the opening match of the season at the Free State Stadium in Bloemfontein.

Even though they were outscored by two tries to nil, the Lions – back in Super Rugby after missing out last season – never gave up. The home side simply gave away too many kickable penalties and Boshoff duly made the scoreboard tick over when he got an opportunity.

When the Lions played themselves into a promising attacking position late in the match, fans of the Toyota Cheetahs must have been on the edge of their seats; Boshoff’s antics were enough for the visitors, as he pushed his personal tally to 21 points thanks to six penalty goals and a drop goal.

Both sides showed some early-season rustiness, and were very keen on throwing the ball around, which resulted in way too many unforced errors.

The Cheetahs though did get the first two tries of the season after some enterprising play – first by Raymond Rhule, and in the second half Cornal Hendricks, who was this week named the SA Sevens Player of 2013, capped

| BLOEMFONTEIN, SOUTH AFRICA - FEBRUARY 15: Marnitz Boshoff of the Lions during the Super Rugby match between Toyota Cheetahs and Lions at Vodacom Park on February 15, 2014 in Bloemfontein, South Africa. (Photo by Louis Botha/Gallo Images/Getty Images)

his Vodacom Super Rugby debut with a good try.

For the Lions, this was just the way to re-enter Vodacom Super Rugby, while last season’s surprise package, the Toyota Cheetahs, will be left wondering where things went awry for them.

Scorers:Toyota Cheetahs – Tries:

Raymond Rhule, Cornal Hendricks. Conversions: Johan Goosen (2). Penalty goals: Goosen, Elgar Watts.

Lions – Penalty goals: Marnitz Boshoff (6). Drop goal: Boshoff.

Cell C Sharks 31 (23) Vodacom Bulls 16 (9)

The Sharks, thanks mainly to a superb first-half effort, got their season off to a great start, as they beat the Bulls by 31-16 at Growthpoint Kings Park in Durban on Saturday evening.

The home side scored three crucial tries in the first 40 minutes of a match that was played at a great pace by two teams having a full go.

The Sharks though were more composed, took their chances, and bagged the points. On the other hand, the Bulls were not patient enough on the attack and didn’t manage to convert their opportunities into points.

Their maul was very good, but the team from Pretoria got little reward when they came within striking distance. Their only try, by Jono Ross late in the second half, came from a rolling maul.

The home team though looked sharp on the attack and scored three great tries in the first half, followed by a crucial fourth one, by Pat Lambie, in injury time.

The first two tries came from

Paul Jordaan, after a sniping run by Lwazi Mvovo, and Cobus Reinach. However, Odwa Ndungane’s superb effort in the right-hand corner, coming from a pin-point cross-kick by Frans Steyn after the buzzer in the first half, was probably the pick of the tries this weekend.

Scorers:Cell C Sharks – Tries: Paul

Jordaan, Cobus Reinach,

Odwa Ndungane, Pat Lambie. Conversion: Pat Lambie. Penalty goals: Lambie (3).

Vodacom Bulls – Try: Jono Ross. Conversion: Handré Pollard. Penalty goals: Louis Fouché (2). Drop-goal: Fouché.

The DHL Stormers had a bye this weekend but will be in action this week when the teams from Down Under also get in on the action.

the south african 18 - 24 february 2014

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