what has happened Tom? I ned to go and read what all the fuss is about cos I have been away for a few days.
I cant trust you lot for 5 min to play nicely. Looks like some boys are looking for a good spanking!!!!

i agree with joburg and thryve its not constructive critism ....its become personal and most of the stuff is random insults listen to the mod boys

apparently windhoek wants to bid for the commonwealth games..im serious..its not an april fools day joke

Hmmm that would be really good for them, but.. hmmmm I am very untrusting today, being it April 1st. Haha

-thryve

Hows about that April fools joke the papers & ECR played on KZN today! that was funny, as soon I read it , I was like WTF!, then I saw the date on the paper & sed, oh know, caus elast year they did the same thing! To think KZN will actually give up its electricity for 12hours each week for CT! :rofl:

hey mo whats with this?
DURBAN THE ONLY VENUE IN THE WORLD NOT TO HAVE SOLD OUT TICKETS FOR THE ROBBIE WILLIAMS TOUR. CAPE TOWN SOLD OUT IN FIVE HOURS.
Maybe I should do something like
CAPE TOWN , SO MUCH FOR WORLD CLASS CITY WHEN THEY DONT EVEN HAVE POWER, or CAPETOWN NOT ONLY DO THEY HAVE CRIME AND GRIME BUT NOW THEY HAVE NO ELECTRICITY EITHER

hey mo whats with this?
DURBAN THE ONLY VENUE IN THE WORLD NOT TO HAVE SOLD OUT TICKETS FOR THE ROBBIE WILLIAMS TOUR. CAPE TOWN SOLD OUT IN FIVE HOURS.
Maybe I should do something like
CAPE TOWN , SO MUCH FOR WORLD CLASS CITY WHEN THEY DONT EVEN HAVE POWER, or CAPETOWN NOT ONLY DO THEY HAVE CRIME AND GRIME BUT NOW THEY HAVE NO ELECTRICITY EITHER
u are free to use which ever signature u choose whether it be true or untrue. my signature will be removed when its no longer true. no comment regarding the crime and grime..thats just hilarious.

well I see whare all the issue have started from, antagonising the boys from Durban isint the cleverist thing you have done.
nevermind if you feel the need to put such silly signatures on your posts then knock your self out

maybe now Mo, you will actually talk about buildings and urban issues, for it seems you only talk about sport, politics and crime.

As for windhoek and the games...hmmm....april fool it is....like durban giving our power to CT....i wonder what the rest of the country cooked up?

maybe now Mo, you will actually talk about buildings and urban issues, for it seems you only talk about sport, politics and crime.

As for windhoek and the games...hmmm....april fool it is....like durban giving our power to CT....i wonder what the rest of the country cooked up?
the windhoek thing is not april fools lol

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2014_Commonwealth_Games

Windhoek, Namibia

The Namibian government announced February 28, 2006 that this city will be a great host because it would bring all of Namibia together. The whole city would be revamped with new venues being built. If Windhoek is successful, it would be the first time the games were held in Africa.

I bet most people around the world and in the Commonwealth don't even know that Namibia is IN the Commonwealth, so I think it would be refreshingly nice, and would help the city along.

-thryve

did they get a medal??

^^ I thought they just made good draft, they should get a medal for that:)

I would love to see namibia get more international exposure. It is one of my fave countries

Has anyone noticed that Matthias Offodile has being posting threads here? & everyone seems to be giving him the cold shoulder :rofl:

By Udo W. Froese, newera.com.na
JOHANNESBURG

Destabilisation for Profit

THIS column can confirm that the war for Africa is everything but over. Evidence is aplenty and should not be withheld, as it will shed light on this war and the marginalisation of Africa as a whole.

Former US Congresswoman, Cynthia McKinney, declared during her term of office, "the whole world knows that Uganda and Rwanda are allies of the United States and that they have been given a carte blanche for whatever reason to wreak havoc in the Congo". She was quoted in the New African news magazine.

American investigative journalist specializing in intelligence and privacy matters, Wayne Madsen, testified before the Congressional Sub-Committee on International Operations and Human Rights Committee on International Relations, having written the book "Genocide and Covert Operations in Africa 1993 - 1999". Wayne Madsen based his book on three years of research and interviews in countries with a criminal colonial record such as Britain, the United States of America, Canada, France, Belgium and the Netherlands and some of their stooges in Africa, such as Burundi, Rwanda and Uganda.

Madsen describes for the record, how US Special Operations Command (SOC) and the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) are running the Congo war since 1996 as "destabilisation for profit". In his report Madsen further reveals that US Special Operations personnel were deeply involved in training troops on both sides of the war in the Democratic Republic of the Congo - on the one side the "rebels" (the Rassemblement Congolais pour la Democratie - RCD factions) under the warlords of Uganda, Burundi and Rwanda and on the other, the central government of the late Laurent Kabila and eventually his son Joseph, and the official alliance with Angola, Namibia and Zimbabwe.

According to Madsen's findings, various sources in the Great Lakes Region of Central Africa repeatedly point to the presence of an American-built military base on the border with the DRC near Cyangugu, Rwanda. In fact, the British daily newspaper, The Independent, reported some time ago on secretly CIA funded military operations of Rwanda in the DRC which were well above the means of Rwanda as that country had at one stage some 10 000 troops in the Congo.

There is systematic pillaging of Congo's most valuable natural resources, as observed by the United Nations' "Panel of Experts on the Illegal Exploitation of Natural Resources and Other Forms of Wealth of the DRC".

That UN panel also reported that the "leading military commanders from various countries needed and continue to need this conflict for its lucrative nature and for temporarily solving some internal problems in those countries as well as allowing access to wealth".

It further seems that the US Department of Defense relies to a great extent on so-called Private Military Contractors (PMCs). Those PMCs were previously known as "mercenaries", when they were deployed from time to time as foreign policy instruments by the colonial powers of Belgium, France, Portugal and South Africa and have close links with some of the leading mining and oil companies involved in Africa.

The privately owned "army" of the defunct 'Executive Outcomes' is a prime example.

The above report further points to the findings of a commission headed by the Canadian UN ambassador, Robert Fowler, which inform that Rwanda has violated the international embargo against Angola's former UNITA bandits by allowing them to operate seemingly freely, selling conflict diamonds and dealing with arms traders in its capital, Kigali.

According to that report, the late Jonas Savimbi openly traded rough diamonds for arms in Kigali.

The war casualties (deaths) of Africans in the DRC are estimated by the author, Wayne Madsen, at a total of some two million since the first invasion from Rwanda in 1996. This is based on his three years of research in that region.

During Belgium's King Leopold II's conquest of the Congo, some 10 million Congolese were killed between 1890 and 1910. It seems that the break-up of the DRC into various federal states, all of them becoming members of the SADC, is the final aim of the neo-colonial structures for which they are seemingly prepared to keep that war going at any price.

This would explain the role of the vicious sell-out, Moise Tshombe, who once attempted to rule the mineral-rich Katanga province from its capital, Lubumbashi. The DRC war is not the only one in Africa.

Whenever one watches television, images of peace and wealth come up when focused on Europe, Britain and the US. However, as one sees reports from Africa, war and destruction, abject poverty and diseases seem to be the order of the day.

"Africa, the hopeless continent", as the British magazine, The Economist gave its opinion, has so far been successfully pillaged and bled in order to build the wealth of its former colonial masters. Strange, how white Europe makes good news and black Africa only bad news.

Destructive images of Angola, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Sudan, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Somalia, Zimbabwe and even South Africa continue to make headlines. It is interesting to note that all of the above-mentioned countries have a wide range of highly profitable natural resources of strategic minerals. Yet, Africans have no access to those strategic resources, whether it is diamonds, gold, platinum, gem stones, crude oil, copper, uranium, cobalt and columbite-tantalite (or coltan), a primary component of computer microchips and printed circuit boards, high-quality timber and agricultural produce - a large range of quality and quantity of natural resources nowhere to be found in the industrialized G-7 countries, particularly not for the low prices as only African resources are being traded at.

In essence, this seems to be the real reason why it is that resource-wealthy African countries have to be reduced to so-called civil and ethnic wars without any functional infrastructure and ridiculously irrelevant currencies.

South Africa has paid a dear price for its "negotiated" British Parliamentary Democracy. "Bullied into submission" would be a more appropriate description.

In the four years of violence since the release of its true leaders to the inauguration of Nelson Mandela as president, that is, from July 1990 to April 1994, 48 000 political deaths and 22 000 injured were counted, all of them Africans. Despite sophisticated mining, financial and manufacturing industries, South Africa's former colonial-apartheid robber-barons are able to retain their exclusive hold on the economy, successfully shutting African South Africans out, reducing them to almost permanent unemployment, abject poverty, prostitution, disease and starvation, simply put, margi-nalizing them into crime.

In an exclusive oligo-polistic, cartellised, warehouse and rent-seeking economy with its 'BEE-Uncle Tomism', an almost equally cruel 'free market economy' (new age capitalism) has little space. As reported in previous columns, up to 20 million African South Africans out of a population of about 43 million are starving on a daily basis and only four out of 100 school-leavers annually have a mere hope for formal employment.

The economic war is as much a reality in South Africa, as are the wars in other wealthy African countries. The current debate between the trade union umbrella body, COSATU, the South African Communist party (SACP) and the Presidency, whether or not the country's unemployment rate is as high as between 40% and 50%, or below 26%, is daily reflected in the media.

In essence, Africa needs to determine its own future and has no option, but to pool its resources in order to establish its place firmly in an economically competitive world with its brutal capitalism and powerful judiciary under the cloak of 'neo-liberal democracy'. As the Nigerian Prof Adebayo Adedeji warned explicitly in his position as head of the UN Economic Commission for Africa, any economic policy that marginalizes people is clearly destined for failure.

'Whites-only' money for SA town

A whites-only enclave is launching its own currency just two days after South Africa celebrated the 10th anniversary of the end of apartheid.
Orania is a small town in the northern Cape populated by white Afrikaners, including the grandson of Henrik Vorwoerd, the architect of apartheid.

The currency will be known as the ora and is available in four denominations.

A spokesman said the currency could only be spent within the town and would be worthless if stolen by outsiders.


"The whole idea is that we are actually working towards the idea of a community that is self-sufficient," said spokeswoman Eleanor Lombard.

"The symbols on the ora 10 note showed the Afrikaner's history, the ora 20 note his art, the ora 50 note his culture and the ora 100 note depicted Orania," she said.

A spokesperson for South Africa's Reserve Bank said the voucher or currency must not resemble any of the South African bank notes. An Oranian spokesman told the BBC that the new notes had been designed by a local artist and the celebrations in the town hall would be preceded by songs and on-stage sketches.

The BBC's correspondent in South Africa, Barnaby Phillips, says the ANC government is ideologically opposed to the concept of a whites-only homeland but instead of confronting Orania, has tended to ignore it.

'Fruit salad'

Ms Lombard rejected suggestions that the new currency was a sign that the community had rejected a multi-racial South Africa.


"South African society is like a fruit salad - if I am allowed to be whatever I am - a banana, an apple or whatever - I can add to the flavour," she told Reuters news agency.
"If I am all squashed up, I cannot contribute."

Many of Orania's 600 residents say they have come here to escape the violence and crime prevalent in the rest of South Africa.

Their main industry is agriculture.

Retrial for SA's 'Doctor Death'
The Constitutional Court in South Africa has ruled that a high profile apartheid-era criminal case against the man dubbed "Dr Death" can be reopened.
The court said ex-biological weapons head Wouter Basson, should face trial on charges of crimes against humanity.

Mr Basson has been accused of being involved in a number of plots to poison anti-apartheid activists, including Nelson Mandela, using deadly bacteria.

However, he was acquitted of murder and other charges by a judge in 2002.

The South African Court of Appeal refused to overturn the acquittal.

But the country's highest court said the original judge had erred when ruling that the original charges fell outside South African law because they involved crimes allegedly committed outside the country.

In an unanimous decision, the high court said the country was obliged under international law to prosecute charges amounting to crimes against humanity.

Many of the original charges stemmed from horrific testimonies during the Truth and Reconciliation hearings.

Prosecutors estimate a retrial could begin within three months.

Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/africa/4230148.stm

Published: 2005/09/09 13:34:53 GMT

© BBC MMVI

Psychiatrist Ernst Rudin’s “racial hygiene” policies in Nazi Germany and Serbian psychiatrist Jovan Raskovic’s “ethnic cleansing” agenda in Bosnia provide examples of how far off the rails things can go when social engineers hold sway.1

Closer to home, Canadian human rights advocate Rod Vienneau told Freedom that Heinz Lehmann, Ewen Cameron and other prominent psychiatrists performed numerous experiments on normal children held at various orphanages in Quebec from the 1940s through the 1960s.

Vienneau believes thousands of the orphans died, many of them from tests that allegedly included powerful psychiatric drugs, brain surgeries and lobotomies. He seeks a government probe of the deaths and related human rights abuses — a matter Freedom is investigating.2

Psychiatrist Robert Heath, who, like Lehmann and Cameron, received funding from the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency for behavioral control or “mind-control” experiments, reportedly preferred African-Americans and hospital patients as subjects. According to fellow psychiatrist Harry Bailey, “in New Orleans, where it was cheaper to use ******s than cats, because they were everywhere, and [they were] cheap experimental animals — they started to use them, Negroes and patients in hospitals....”

The New Orleans experiments, according to Bailey, included implanting electrodes in cat and human brains.


References:
1 Patricia Forestier, “Psychiatric Genocide, ‘Ethnic Cleansing’ in Bosnia,” Freedom, May 1993.
2 Christine Hahn, “A Legacy of Shattered Lives,”



1932 The Tuskegee Syphilis Study begins. 200 black men diagnosed with syphilis are never told of their illness, are denied treatment, and instead are used as human guinea pigs in order to follow the progression and symptoms of the disease. They all subsequently die from syphilis, their families never told that they could have been treated.

1935 The Pellagra Incident. After millions of individuals die from Pellagra over a span of two decades, the U.S. Public Health Service finally acts to stem the disease. The director of the agency admits it had known for at least 20 years that Pellagra is caused by a niacin deficiency but failed to act since most of the deaths occured within poverty-striken black populations.

1990 More than 1500 six-month old black and hispanic babies in Los Angeles are given an "experimental" measles vaccine that had never been licensed for use in the United States. CDC later admits that parents were never informed that the vaccine being injected to their children was experimental.

Africa: The Other Side of the Coin Difficult Being an African in Africa
2005-06-14

By Udo W. Froese
JOHANNESBURG

THE corruption case against Durban businessman, Shabir Shaik, and his relationship with South Africa’s deputy president, Jacob Zuma, have made headlines, particularly since Judge Hilary Squires referred to their association as “generally corrupt”.

The ruling party’s Youth League immediately responded by unmasking Judge Squires as a “white Rhodesian, who had served Ian Smith in his hey-day”. Some even compared Squires to his former white Rhodesian colleague now living at his home in London, Anthony Gubbay. The Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) and the Young Communists from the South African Communist Party (SACP) supported the Youth League.

The South African Judge Hefer of the previous Hefer Commission, initially hearing the Shaik Case, was known as a “hanging judge” during the colonial-apartheid era.

The magistrate, who sentenced Winnie Mandela in Pretoria’s magistrate’s court, was an ex-policeman in the service of the former colonial-apartheid regime.

Many concerned citizens would like to establish why are particularly people with such track records appointed as judges in those cases and who appoints them? Despite retired Judge Squires having worked meticulously in the Shaik case, people express their concern that the judiciary could be used to settle political issues.

There had been many court cases against leading ANC politicians during the colonial-apartheid era and in the “new” South Africa, who were also known as “populists”. Others were discredited and bankrupted. One was assassinated in 1993, a year before South Africa held democratic elections. The killing of the hugely popular Chris Hani had almost caused war in pre-election South Africa in 1993. His assassins remain in jail.

Sidelined “populists” include Winnie Mandela, the late Peter Mokaba, Allan Boesak, Bantu Holomisa and Tony Yengeni. They are no part of the “political mainstream” any longer. Holo-misa, who formed his own party and returned to parliament, eventually returned to “mainstream politics”. Meanwhile, the popularity of the above among the people of South Africa has actually risen substantially. The masses identify particularly with Winnie Mandela and her hardships.

South Africa’s media and their academic analysts already speculate who the successor of Deputy President Jacob Zuma would be. Four names are currently being bandied about: Kgalema Motlanthe, the ANC secretary-general; Cyril Rama-phosa, the party’s former secretary-general; Mosiouo Lekota, the ANC’s national chairperson and Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Jacob Zuma’s ex-wife.

But, the question - what happens to the ANC’s succession plan - remains unanswered. Informed sources explain that particularly after Britain’s Tony Blair’s successful bid for a third term in office, President Thabo Mbeki could consider a third term for himself. It was done before in the SADC region, when Namibia’s retired President Sam Nujoma stood for a third term of office. They also point to the enormous expansion of the executive power of the presidency, analyzing these developments as a “centralization of power”. This could also lead to the doing away with the deputy presidency in the near future.

South Africa’s ruling party, the African National Congress (ANC) is not what it was in pre-1990. It is well-recorded history that this is due to lengthy and intricate negotiations and serious lobbying.

As journalist/author Allister Sparks commented in his book, “Tomorrow Is Another Country”: “Pieter de Lange, chairman of the Afrikaner Broederbond (an elitist, exclusive, white, male Boer Brotherhood of leading members of their community) in 1983 had his first contact with members of the ANC at a Ford Foundation conference on Long Island, New York in 1986. There he met Thabo Mbeki, the ANC’s director of information and adviser to Oliver Tambo (ANC president).” Thabo Mbeki was the protégé of the late Oliver Tambo.

According to above book, “Tomorrow Is Another Country”, Thabo Mbeki recalls Pieter de Lange as saying: “… the reality is that we can remove the Group Areas Act (enforcing segregated living areas based on race) tomorrow and it’s not going to make any difference, because your people (black Africans) don’t have the money to move into the expensive white suburbs. … We’ve not perished as a people because the Group Areas Act is not there. Why do we need a white government anyway?”

For the masses ‘nothing has changed since’. Many informed observers in the townships predict that the masses will not keep quiet. In fact, they demonstrate their frustrations already. Besides the Shaik case in Durban, images of countrywide unrests in black living areas are shown on national television screens and the front pages of the print media.

President Mbeki reacted, accusing a “Third Force Element” of undermining the state. The National Intelligence Agency (NIA) was appointed to investigate. Community leaders however beg to differ, pointing out endemic socio-economic problems and non-delivery on essential issues such as housing. They also claim that government is sending a “cold message” by deploying NIA, which is interpreted as a threat.

Poverty cannot be negotiated. Some community leaders interpret the announcement that a “Third Force” is currently undermining the state’s authority, as dangerous. According to observers in those living areas, the communities had been patient for eleven years. “Our poverty created a vacuum for a Third Force, if there is one”, a community leader explained.

A new momentum developed when former president Nelson Mandela travelled to a meeting with representatives of the G-7 countries in Davos, Switzerland, in 1996. Informed observers explain it was then that the govern-ment’s Reconstruction and Development Programme (RDP) was finally crushed. This caused the first disunity within the tripartite alliance. The ANC made a turnaround, strengthening South Africa’s exclusive economic elite.

A social commentator explained that all colonial-apartheid forces shifted their power from politics to the economy. The five-year- “Sunset Clau-se”, negotiated at CODESA in Kempton Park, Johannes-burg, enabled them to do so in their own time. The powerful and internationally well-connected economic dynasties had bought their first round-of-time.

It is clear, there has been no regime change in the ‘oligopolistic, cartelised, warehouse and rent-seeking’ economy. Socio-economic dynamics have been stifled by continuous opportunistic protectionism from the side of the owners and controllers of this economy.
It has created a problematic situation. Observers highlight that the white economic elite lobbies in Pretoria’s corridors-of-power for self-gain on their own terms.

This also gives them the confidence to expand their empires-of-exploitation into Africa as they follow in the footsteps of Britain’s arch-imperialist, Cecil John Rhodes, conquering the African continent economically from Cape Town to Cairo.

Mbeki agrees that a black South African middle-class should be created. But, without a proper checks-and-balance system and no serious guidelines in place, this could lead to abuse by the very own government officials. In fact, given South Africa’s economic background, the owners of that alien centralist economy would be the first manipulator.

Trendsetters, who loudly announce their “struggle credentials”, having “served on the island (Robben Island)”, lived in “exile” and “served time in detention”, often use their political connections to achieve their business goals, backed by the captains of industry.
Those “business people” are masquerading as “politicians”, but seem to be focusing on enriching themselves only.

The micro-economic plan does not seem to be working out either, as it is accused of not being in touch with the people on the ground, the so-called masses. A fresh approach needs to be urgently implemented with genuine close co-operation with the voters, the only real power base of the ruling party. It is also sad to witness ex-combatants living in abject poverty, dying of Aids and loneliness, when they had previously fought for a regime change in South Africa.

The current Black Economic Empowerment (BEE) is done on terms of the white owners of the economy, publicly supported by the media in South Africa. However, the media is clearly tired with no serious circulation. In fact, the media is indeed ineffectual and unrepresentative and there is no change in sight.

The black middle-class is viewed as a cushion between the ruling class and the masses. The colonial-apartheid system had used the Indians in the province of KwaZulu/Natal successfully as a buffer between them and the indigenous black Africans. A similar approach was implemented in the Western Cape Province where the people of mixed race, or “Coloureds”, fulfilled the same role. Based on their fears as so-called “minority groups” it became quite common that those “buffer groups” developed into worse racists, outdoing whites.

Meanwhile, the white owned economy entices and bullies government to adopt policies that eventually set it up against its own people, actually undermining the ANC-led government. The result is that government becomes unpopular. Global politics and IMF policies with too many concessions for an economic elite seem to be adding to the unpopularity among the constituency. The formation of a ruling elite with lesser hands-on contact with its constituency could be feared.

Frightening examples of insular dictatorships are former and late dictator Sani Abacha of Nigeria; former and late dictator Mobutu Sese Seko of the former Zaire, now DRC; former and late dictator, Dr Hastings Banda of Malawi and Houphouet Boigny of the Ivory Coast. They formed a vicious elite, endorsed by the international West, who profited handsomely from their abuses.

Instead of always agreeing like guilty young schoolboys, when addressed by their cowboy school principals on how to implement “peace and stability” as well as “neo-liberal democracy” in their countries, African leaders should seriously criticize human rights records of the leaders of the international West.

As Washington (US), London (UK) and Brussels (EU) dictate to African heads-of-state on how to handle Zimbabwe, Sudan, the Great Lakes District in Central Africa and Eritrea, African leaders should remind the global community of the continuous violation of the Geneva Convention, referring to the human rights abuses in the Middle East, Afghanistan, Iraq, Abu Graib, Guan-tanamo Bay and, of course, in foreign induced destabilised parts of Africa.

Zimbabwe’s President Robert Mugabe is a shining example, how to return the heat, reminding the West’s political and economic elite of the continued dehumanizing greed and brutal human rights violations.

South Africans need to define democracy for themselves. Africa needs to know and understand its own democracy and should refrain from importing an American neo-liberal democracy with its free market economy, hidden agendas and stifling economic vice grips, when the economic playing fields are far from being levelled.

African leaders should try to solve their own problems by closing ranks and formulating the way forward for Africa, without aspiring to Western imperialist norms. Otherwise, it will be too difficult to become an African in Africa

"Sorry, whites only"


Milton Nkosi encounters one of Orania's residents




The BBC's Milton Nkosi, a black South African, recently visited Orania, a whites-only community in his native land. He recalls his experience.
I grew up during the most cruel years of apartheid rule between the 1960s and the 1980s.



Orania: admission restricted

I recently visited, Orania, the whites-only small town.
Its founders believe that they have laid the foundation for a Volkstaat - a mini homeland for the white tribe of Africa, the Afrikaners.

I arrived in Orania on a Saturday afternoon, part of a three-person team, two of whom were white.

Admittedly, I expected to confront open racism from my fellow countrymen, who spent the last 50 years trying very hard - I mean very hard - to run away from people like me, black people.



Orania residents want to establish a new 'volkstaat'

To my surprise the opposite happened. I was warmly received by everybody.
I will not even mention how most of them were so nice and courteous to me simply because they thought I came from Britain.

Little did they know that I was one of the stone throwers during the anti-apartheid protests!

The Hendrik Verwoerd room

We were shown our rooms at the Herberg guest house.




Here I am right in the heart of Afrikanerdom, me, Milton Majaha Nkosi, born in South Africa's most populous black township, Soweto!

Milton Nkosi
A young, soft-spoken blonde woman, Janneke Steyn, opened the door to the first room.
She said: "This is the Hendrik Verwoerd room."

Those words sent shivers down my spine: Hendrik French Verwoerd was the architect of apartheid.

My mind was made up: "I am not sleeping in this room."

I thought: "Jesus Christ! Here I am right in the heart of Afrikanerdom, me, Milton Majaha Nkosi, born in South Africa's most populous black township, Soweto!

"Never in my wildest dreams did I ever think that one day I would be standing right in the middle of the Karoo, in the Northern Cape province, being shown around my accommodation in a so-called Volkstaat."



Betsie Verwoerd, widow of apartheid's architect

Believe it or not, I did - at the turn of the century, in 1999, in the new South Africa.
Luckily they had another room called the Blue room. I thought: "Now that is better!"

When the time came, I slept like a baby.

Going to church

The first event we covered was a church service of the combined Dutch Reformed Church denominations.

It was held in the local town hall on the small hill top under the hot African sun.

The temperature was about 40C (102F) in the shade.

As the members of the congregation gathered, an old woman in a wheelchair emerged from one of the cars.

Haunted by the past

It was Mrs Betsie Verwoerd, 98, the widow of Hendrik Verwoerd himself.

These included the Group Areas Act, Separate Amenities Act. He was also the architect of the Bantu education system: inferior to that offered to whites, it was designed to kill the brain rather than to develop it.



Professor Carel Beloff: Orania founder

I held my own mini-Truth and Reconciliation Commission during the church service.
I also came to understand, in real terms, where Nelson Mandela and Desmond Tutu had come from - even though I literally come from the same township as they do.

As ArchbishopTutu has said: "We are the rainbow people of God, we are free all of us, black and white together".

I came across many people in the 670-strong population of Orania. Among them was Orania's founder, Professor Carel Boshoff.

He is also Hendrik Verwoerd's son-in-law. The rest of his family was also there - a real dynasty in the future Volkstaat.




This place is going nowhere, there's no money coming in, no jobs, no future.

Orania resident
Uncertain future

The most emotionally moving meeting I had was after the church service.

I met a middle-aged woman who, after the interview, confided: "This place is going nowhere, there's no money coming in, no jobs, no future."



Orania children: future uncertain

She seemed to suggest that the future of the Afrikaner people was in the new South Africa and not outside it.
She is worried about her beautiful children who I had met earlier at the church service.

"I want good education for my children. I want them to go to a normal school in South Africa. Our children are being brain-washed day in and day out," she said with tears flooding her green eyes.

She spoke to me with both her hands on mine.

My last words to her were: "Thank you very much for your time. Please look after your children because they are the future and peace be with you always."

A few minutes later with her colleagues listening, all she could say then was, "Thank you too, I will and have a safe journey back ..."

Very powerful... I must read the whole thing later... leave it up :) and thanks alot for posting it!

-thryve

That is some deep shit there, just imagine hey.

http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showthread.php?goto=newpost&t=338175

oi that robbie williams concert.

Stadium upgrade behind schedule for World Cup

Kingston, Jamaica - Renovations on a stadium that will host first-round matches and a semifinal at the 2007 cricket World Cup is three months behind schedule, a Jamaican cricket official said Thursday.

Robert Bryan, a member of the local World Cup committee, blamed local contractors for the delay and gave the company upgrading the stadium six days to say when it would finish the project.

Sabina Park, one of the oldest stadiums in the Caribbean, is undergoing a $29-million (about R178-million) facelift in preparation for the tournament. The stadium is also scheduled to host a test between the West Indies and India in June.

The contractor has cited a Caribbean-wide cement shortage as a factor in the delay.

Don Lockerbie, the International Cricket Council venue development director for the tournament, has said he hopes the nine host countries' stadiums will meet their timelines when ICC inspectors arrive at the end of April.

The 2007 World Cup will run from March 11 to April 28. Sabina Park is scheduled to host the opening match between Pakistan and India. - Sapa-AP

Quickwire

Published on the Web by IOL on 2006-04-13 18:26:44

^^ All lies, they took too many 'smoke breaks'

Hijackings take a nosedive
Thembisile Makgalemele
April 15 2006 at 06:38PM

Hijackings are steadily declining, the police's Anti-Hijacking Unit as well as at least three vehicle tracking companies have all claimed recently.

National police spokesperson Ronnie Naidoo says that according to recent statistics there has been a decrease of 27 percent nationwide since 2001.

Some of the reasons for the decline, says Naidoo, include the fact that vehicles are becoming more technologically advanced and are more difficult to steal, and the re-registering of stolen vehicles is harder since the identification and prosecution of corrupt officials.

Other reasons given are more efficient border controls, successful recoveries by tracking companies and an increased awareness by drivers of their surroundings.





--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


More technologically advanced
Gauteng police spokesperson Senior Superintendent Mary Martins-Engelbrecht adds that there has been a 36 percent decrease in hijackings in the province since 2001.

"We have seven task teams who deal specifically with hijackings and syndicates.

"The National Director of Public Prosecutions also established seven specialised courts. This resulted in a conviction rate of 76 percent, with an average sentence of 12 years' imprisonment. Several people have also received life sentences," says Martins-Engelbrecht.

Tracking company Tracker says that, based on its customer base of some 360 000 vehicles, hijacking in South Africa is down by 43% since 1999.

Says Tracker's communications manager, Gareth Crocker: "Our statistics are not a direct reflection of the climate of hijacking in South Africa, but they provide a reasonable indication. We are very encouraged by this trend but are well aware that the war is far from won.

'The war is far from won'
"Interestingly, our statistics also show that despite our increasing subscriber base, our activations have reached a plateau. As our customer base grows, our activations have not increased in proportion. In fact, they have stabilised. This is again an indication, certainly from our base, that vehicle theft is on the decline." Crocker adds that Tracker feel the main reason for the decline is better collaboration between them and the police.

"We would like to think that, in partnership with the SAPS, our more than 28 000 vehicle recoveries, some 6 000 arrests and the shutting down of more than 280 chop-shops and crime syndicates over the past nine years have played a significant role in bringing down both vehicle theft and hijacking. This, together with the contribution of the rest of the stolen vehicle recovery industry, is certainly making a difference," says Crocker.

David Shipton, divisional manager: operations at Netstar, also attributes the decline to a successful partnership with the police.

"Our dedicated recovery teams work closely with the SAPS when a hijacking occurs. Should there be a syndicate involved or arrests, we hand it over to the SAPS, who are with our teams at the busts.

"To date we have been instrumental in exposing and closing 93 chop0shops and syndicates, with about 121 arrests during these operations," says Shipton.

Brent Grüng, communications officer for Matrix, says that although they have noticed a sharp decline in vehicle hijackings in the past five years, there has been an increase in intelligent vehicle theft.

"Intelligent vehicle theft is crime where the criminal follows and records the driver's movements. For example: the criminal knows that they are in the gym between 6am and 7am every day. Therefore, this is the perfect time to obtain the keys from the locker and make a clean getaway. And this is just one example of many methods being used," says Grüng.

Happy Birthday giles....

Giles b'day was on the 16th? my friends in on the 16th too,
& mines is on the 20th! turning 21 on thuday :(
oh why do I have to grow!

oh well happy belated b'day Giles :D

I was gonna put this in the CT discussion but I thought the CT ppl will think its a Durban ploy & start gunning us again. But being a crazy monkey fan, the news is pretty shocking

Double murder shock
April 18, 2006

By Caryn Dolley

Cape Town: South Africa's entertainment and fashion industry is in mourning today for top South African actor Brett Goldin and designer Richard Bloom, who were killed with single shots to the head in Mowbray after leaving a Camps Bay party on Saturday night.

Their bodies were found by police next to the M5 motorway yesterday and five people are in custody for the murders.

Bloom, 27, was a label manager for the Cape Town-based Maze Clothing company and was considered a talented, up-and-coming fashion designer.

Goldin, 28, was performing in Janet Suzman's production of Hamlet, currently on at the Baxter Theatre. It was to move to Stratford-upon-Avon in England at the end of this week.

'Gutted'
His latest television work included roles in Yizo Yizo 3, Fela's TV and Stokvel. Goldin also starred in the Crazy Monkey skits on MTV, which resulted in Crazy Monkey - the movie (Straight Outta Benoni).

A "gutted" Suzman described Goldin as someone who lit up a room, and Hamlet's star, John Kani, said he was "a wonderful actor and great human being who died too young".

Suzman said Goldin was "so excited about the trip that he had already packed his bags".

Goldin's parents, Peter and Denise, were in Cape Town when their son was murdered. They had especially travelled from Johannesburg last week to see him off on his trip.

Yesterday his distraught mother, Denise, who is staying in Sea Point, echoed Suzman's sentiments.

"He was so excited to go.

"My husband and I feel like our hearts have been torn out. He was such a wonderful, loving man who was always cheerful and full of life," she said. Brett's only sibling, Samantha, was flying from Johannesburg to be with her parents.

Suzman's production was to have played at the Swan Theatre in Stratford as part of the Royal Shakespeare Company's Complete Works Festival.

Five young Athlone men have been arrested. Three are to appear in court today for possession of stolen property. All five will be in court tomorrow in connection with the murders.

Camps Bay policemen patrolling early on Sunday spotted a blue Peugeot being driven in what they described as a "reckless" manner.

They pulled the car over and searched the three occupants. One of them had Goldin's credit card.

Police spokesman Billy Jones said that officers, using the information on the credit card, tracked down Goldin's family, who indicated that he had been at a party in Camps Bay on Saturday night and had not been heard from since.

Bloom and Goldin had left the party in Bloom's Polo Playa just before midnight.

"They told us they hadn't seen him . . . and they opened a missing persons report," said Jones.

The three suspects were taken to the Camps Bay Police Station, where Jones said they were questioned on the whereabouts of Goldin and Bloom until early yesterday.



"Finally, they accompanied some police officers and directed them to the bodies," he said.

Both men were found in a stand of trees on the circular traffic island created by the Klipfontein off-ramp of the M5. They were naked except for their socks, and their clothes had been strewn around them.

Jones said it appeared the two had been shot at the scene, but this had yet to be confirmed. Their cellphones and Bloom's Polo Playa, registration CA 351 474, were still missing.

The provisional motive for the murders was robbery, Jones said, but this might change as the investigation progressed.

Goldin had been acting professionally since the age of 11 and had completed his BA degree in English and Drama at the University of Cape Town.

Suzman was at the Baxter Theatre last night, despite the fact that the show had been cancelled because of Goldin's murder.

Many of the cast members had known him for years and would have been unable to perform, a Baxter spokesman said. But the show would go on.

"He was so looking forward to going (to England); we are going to go on this adventure for him," Suzman said. "Every single one of us will carry him in our hearts and minds.

"I'm going to miss Brett. He had the most mischievous smile. Brett was a superb actor and an integral part of the production. We leave in two days - but we go without Brett Goldin.

"I have very few words to say how terrible it is to travel without one of our number, because he's lying in the ground."

Kani was equally distraught.

"I am doing as well as can be expected under the circumstances. Brett had great respect for me, the rest of the cast and acting. He also had a sense of humour.

"The cast is shattered and we are trying to find our way forward. We will complete this trip as an honour to Brett," Kani said.

Stunned
Mark Sacks, co-director of Maze Clothing, for which Bloom had worked, described him as an "up-and-coming designer who was doing very well".

Bloom had worked for the company for about four years and managed one of its labels, X and O, at Young Designers Emporium.

"He was incredibly well-liked by the people he worked with and those who bought our clothes. He had a lot of honour and integrity, he had the potential to grow into something great," said Sacks.

"We're shocked by what happened. We (Sacks and his wife) saw him on Friday. He came down from Johannesburg for this job and was incredibly well-liked by our clients. I am stunned at the moment. I am sitting at the office, looking at Richard's desk."

Sacks indicated that Bloom's parents, also from Johannesburg, were unlikely to travel to Cape Town.

They were simply too shocked and distraught. Bloom's family wanted his body to be flown to Gauteng for burial.

u know its really sad and all they were killed but such a BIG FUSs is made about it cause they are actors..its sad and awful..but really people die everday in cape town..kids get raped people in durban die in hijackings people in joburg get driven over...it happens all the time..i dont believe in this big hoo har just cause its actors...other peoples deaths are just as tragic.

^^ I know what you saying, these killings are sensless, at least they caught the basturds. but I have been watching the news & the cape flats are getting pretty hectic.

i dont believe in this big hoo har just cause its actors...other peoples deaths are just as tragic.


Well said Mo...

"i dont believe in this big hoo har just cause its actors...other peoples deaths are just as tragic."

Most definitely. I hope I did not come across the wrong way in my post- it is if anything MORE tragic to me when some average family is hit by a crsis like this one.

-thryve

The more high profile killings at least make people and those in power aware of the hideous killings. Nontheless, all the violence, especially the new spades of farm killings are apalling and shameful to our country. Everyday I look forward to reading news24, just to read about more killings. Some of my colleagues like to read the SA news as well, whilst I'm reading it. Most of the times I'm too embarrassed to open up the page infront of them because of the continuing violent reports, especially after a korean colleague commented about a korean citizen being kidnapped recently :( I know news should not be censored, but God, when will it end, and when the government be serious about tackling this seroius, serious problem of crime? In contrast, there's hardly a murder mentioned in the 'korean herald'- for the simple fact that murdering people is not a pastime overhere! It's all about daily chit-chat and positive business & development news.

My thoughts exactly harkerb...

Mike 2005,

That is totally unacceptable to call someone a "fat bitch" solely because their skin color is different from your own. I fear for the future of SA with verkrampt people like you that will inevitably lead SA to a Zimbabwe scenario. Your racism harks back to Ian Smith, former UDI PM of Rhodesia, and how he patronisingly spoke about blacks or as he called them at the time "Afs".

Ok I know I am gonna get shot down for doing this, but I am confused, how was Mike being racisist by calling her a 'fat b*tch'? I dunno.

Thryve I am with harkeb on this one, I dont see how closing down a thread will sort all this out, he needs to go, he has hardly contributed any news on new cronstruction taking place in SA, the main reason I joined this forum was to keep up to date on all the developments that were taken place around the country, I love construction & design, hence I got a job in the field, I did not come hear to bicker on some other provinces politics. okay fine its fun to talk about other stuff now & then but this guy is going over board here!

So as Harkeb said, we want him :banned:

BEP are coming to SA for night only at Sun City

I agree durbsboi. lets ban him but I must make one thing clear I dont think he is a member of the anc or anything remoitely connected with it. I think he is ajust a idiot making trouble. Besides he is a white boy anyway so I think he is a just a little confused by the new SA and all that and probably a bit mentally ill!!!!!!

1. ban cape town now
2. our previous mayor was a FAT COW BITCH FAT UGLY USELESS COW like it or not...
3. wallace mcqoqiqoqoq is and brainless idiot of mfeketo's who is shitting in his pants
4.OMG i just tuned two black people in a row....please dont ban me shock horror

cape town i think has issues, im not sure how much of his views are his fault...ive seen many of these people before..and they are usually the ones who believe that the various races shoud stick together and they usually the ones who dont mingle or socialise with people of other races or refuse to as such...it was very apparent at the talk with helen zille...the people who had the biggest problem with the white people leaving the meeting after the talk during the Q&A session were the ones who prob dont have white friends or coloured friends or pink or yellow friends...until they travel a bit more and widen their perspectives on life themselves we really cant help them...they've been living in a box for too long ...no pun intended i hope thats not racist.

The more high profile killings at least make people and those in power aware of the hideous killings. Nontheless, all the violence, especially the new spades of farm killings are apalling and shameful to our country. Everyday I look forward to reading news24, just to read about more killings. Some of my colleagues like to read the SA news as well, whilst I'm reading it. Most of the times I'm too embarrassed to open up the page infront of them because of the continuing violent reports, especially after a korean colleague commented about a korean citizen being kidnapped recently :( I know news should not be censored, but God, when will it end, and when the government be serious about tackling this seroius, serious problem of crime? In contrast, there's hardly a murder mentioned in the 'korean herald'- for the simple fact that murdering people is not a pastime overhere! It's all about daily chit-chat and positive business & development news.

Its probably another one of my "living in a bubble" kinda opinions....but i believe that high crime rates should directly imply high security costs..i believe civilians are paying these costs in protecting themselves and sometimes they pay with their life...instead government should be investing heavily in security police officers, crime prevention programs and patrol trucks if neccessary in gang infested areas....bash down areas in which gangs get together..the few extra security officers in the the city at night has made a BIG difference in crime levels and safety im not saying it will solve crime..but government needs to be spending on security not us as civilians

^^ And at the same time, of course, we need social programs to fight off any issues that could arise in the future- this, combined with security forces in moderate, healthy doses, would make for a nice "proactive" crime-stopping force.

Social healing is needed, quite obviously, to lower the amount of crime. But your ideas are very credible too, if used in accordance with a less forceful method.

-thryve

Thryve I am with harkeb on this one, I dont see how closing down a thread will sort all this out

Politics threads are a bad idea online... I mean, I wish it wasn't that way, but how can you convince someone or sway their opinion online? It's a very rare opportunity, very rare rate of occurrence.

I'm being pressured by site admins. to follow orders that other sections do around political discussion... usually zero tolerance.

People like capetown will be around, and what can we do about it? No political thread is going to sway his opinion from racism.

Sorry, guys... it's zero tolerance on politics now... it just gets ugly. Even the Cape Town mayoral stuff got that way, as has Olympic bid stuff.

-thryve

"Those that built high walls, invite break ins; those with no walls, invite welcome"

Politics threads are a bad idea online... I mean, I wish it wasn't that way, but how can you convince someone or sway their opinion online? It's a very rare opportunity, very rare rate of occurrence.

I'm being pressured by site admins. to follow orders that other sections do around political discussion... usually zero tolerance.

People like capetown will be around, and what can we do about it? No political thread is going to sway his opinion from racism.

Sorry, guys... it's zero tolerance on politics now... it just gets ugly. Even the Cape Town mayoral stuff got that way, as has Olympic bid stuff.

-thryve

Its cool I understand what you trying to say, everyone has a right to an opinion, so its cool. Capetown, if you reading this, lets stop all this crap & talk some construction..okay? all's forgiven?

Man I dunno what gotten over me, maybe its cos I'm older! :runaway:

Its cool I understand what you trying to say, everyone has a right to an opinion, so its cool. Capetown, if you reading this, lets stop all this crap & talk some construction..okay? all's forgiven?

Man I dunno what gotten over me, maybe its cos I'm older! :runaway:

the olympic bid stuff was fine..of course cape town and durban people have opposing views but its all good and well its not the same as racism..we all have huge ego's regarding our cities..competition never killed anyone of us...however being racist is just not tolerated on these forums...

^^Yeh as long as it doesnt get personal, & bring race into it. I am not saying we should sledge each others cities all the time, but now & then alittle competition doesnt hurt ;)

Durbsboi, your acceptance of what capetown did and your forgiveness was really impressive... I'm glad we've got great attitudes like that on this board! *thumbs up*

Thanks,

-thryve

Durbsboi, your acceptance of what capetown did and your forgiveness was really impressive... I'm glad we've got great attitudes like that on this board! *thumbs up*

Thanks,

-thryve
Well I saw no point in fighting, cause its just a forum, Wats the point hey? We all here to have fun & check wats being constructed!

:cheers: Guess who got Friday off??? that means a 5 day weekend!:tongue3: :cucumber: :banana: :drunk: :booze: :tongue4: :bowtie:
:lock: :cheer: :cheers2: :pepper: :cheers1: :dance2: :happy: :banana2: :horse:

lucky. I doubt I will get any of the weekend off at all.

haha :) I have every friday and monday off :) So this time i get an added thurs!!

GRRRRR! I may not visit South Africa again for a while. The bank is working on a new loan project related to some regulatory changes upcoming in Japan. Not only will I not be able to go on vacation for a while, but I have to work many extra hours once the changes are enacted. :bleep:

ahhh...u poor thing! You living permanently in osaka now? think i should head to japan when i go to Hong Kong then LA next year...never thought of visiting cos it sounds so expensive

"so expensive" says the guy who travels frequently. :hahaha:

glad to see everything is going good hear...just got off the flying air machine..hope ya'll had an amazing long weekend...

"so expensive" says the guy who travels frequently. :hahaha:

hehe...but Japan does come across more expensive than almost anywhere else. Must do some research on the touristy things to do...or should i just go to a kareoke bar? hmm... :)

I wonder whatever happened to Caisson Boy and Clive?

me too...guys are u out there?????????

Twenty20 World Championship

South Africa to host inaugural Twenty20

Cricinfo staff

April 30, 2006

Click here for a list of all events awarded by the ICC

South Africa will host the inaugural Twenty20 World Championship in September next year, the ICC announced in Dubai. The tournament will feature 12 countries, including all 10 Test-playing countries, in a nine-day event.

"The members of the ICC board have embraced Twenty20 cricket while at the same time managing its growth," said Malcolm Speed, the ICC's chief executive. "South Africa has been an early-adopter of Twenty20 cricket and will be an excellent first venue for the Twenty20 World Championship."

England, who invented the format, will stage it in 2009, and the next event will be in 2012.

© Cricinfo

Source: www.cricinfo.com

Just heard this news in the morning, exellent news for SA, should draw a decent amount of crowds, hope it doesnt die off like the rugby 7's (nobody gives a shit about that anymore).

oh & since the Championship will be played in our winter, Cape Town will NOT host any matches due to the wild winter weather. (I'm serious, heard it on the news too)

I also heard on the news that CT will be left out of the loop on this one. Sorry CT!

they said that on the news? really?

The sports news on ECR, 7.05am, if I'm not mistaken.

I also heard on the news that CT will be left out of the loop on this one. Sorry CT!
ill find out more but we all know that would be a huge mistake.

well...lets be honest...it wouldnt be a huge mistake if it is in the middle of your winter...playing cricket is not something they can do in the rain and hurricane winds...

Seriously, the ICC chairman or some shit like that, recomended that CT should not host any matches cause of the bad winter weather, I heard the news on 5fm as well on ECR, both said that CT wont host any games, & what was even more funny, as soon as they announced that SA will host da cup the Western Cape Cricket board started jumping to host da opening ceremony or closing, but they were given the bad news, shame CT it will be sad, but they said they cannot afford to waste time of having delayed games, for a match that will take max 3hours.

Seriously, the ICC chairman or some shit like that, recomended that CT should not host any matches cause of the bad winter weather, I heard the news on 5fm as well on ECR, both said that CT wont host any games, & what was even more funny, as soon as they announced that SA will host da cup the Western Cape Cricket board started jumping to host da opening ceremony or closing, but they were given the bad news, shame CT it will be sad, but they said they cannot afford to waste time of having delayed games, for a match that will take max 3hours.
gerald majola wants matches in cape town..he will try and move the world cup to october to include cape town....the things people do to have events in cape town...the ICC know just as well the marketing potential of awesome crowds in cape town will do for the future of the world cup...

Dude the event will go ahead with or without CT. Yes CT should be involved being the third largest city, but if that is the only time available, then sadly they will have to miss out. A government minister has no control over the ICC, so gerald can stomp his feet and take off his glasses, but if they feel they cant fit it anywhere else in their calandar thats the way it will be...i doubt they care about CT hosting a match if it will ruin their strict timetable and tv schedule...and with rain and wind on ur side you cant promise u will be able to host the games.

Dude the event will go ahead with or without CT. Yes CT should be involved being the third largest city, but if that is the only time available, then sadly they will have to miss out. A government minister has no control over the ICC, so gerald can stomp his feet and take off his glasses, but if they feel they cant fit it anywhere else in their calandar thats the way it will be...i doubt they care about CT hosting a match if it will ruin their strict timetable and tv schedule...and with rain and wind on ur side you cant promise u will be able to host the games.

cape town has some of the best crowds for cricket for most cricket matches in general...newlands is iconic..the world cup would really be missing out...however...we'll see what happens...u cant blame everything on the weather...and u cant doubt cape towns ability to host the entire event by itself :D

hey question about the shaka airport in durbs is it going to be controlled by acsa coz that would be a horrid and the airport will never reach its full potential

meeeeouw

More people needed on my tsotsi thread:
http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showthread.php?t=346341

Mo..u gotta stop underestimating the effect the weather has on a decision. it is vital!

Mo..u gotta stop underestimating the effect the weather has on a decision. it is vital!
it just seems to be ur only argument for most things regarding why durban should rather host an event than cape town...but anyhow,

Durbs is humid. Cape Town is windy.

Come to Joburg. (but dodge the guns)

Meeeeoww. :D

^^lol, but is everyday in winter shitty in CT?

hey question about the shaka airport in durbs is it going to be controlled by acsa coz that would be a horrid and the airport will never reach its full potential
At first they werent, but since we needed them to approve, they are , coz they are the Aiports Company of South Africa. Unless we start our own airports company & submit a tender to KSIA heads :D

Indaba 2006 starting tomorrow, they expecting 11 500 ppl over the 4 day event

Indaba 2006 starting tomorrow, they expecting 11 500 ppl over the 4 day event
i is being one of the 11 500 :D

not every winter day is shit in cape town there are some superb winter days!! But cricket in the winter would be stupid cos it does tend to rain too much!!

Why u coming to indaba mo??

Listen to this interview: It's about 10 mins, but I think it is a good description of what has happened in South Africa over the last 10 years.

http://economist.com/media/audio/A_Survey_of_S_Africa.mp3

Hey guys i was going to brng this up in the durban thread, but i think it has a national context...

Do you think we can experience a boom in high rise development around the country? ir will it merely be confined to Durban/Umhlanga, Strand and a smattering in Sandton? (Yes central CT too...but everything there seems to be no more than 14F!!!)

I wld hope it wld be more widespread...but i dont see it happening... your opinions? and do u see more happening in the mentioned areas?

I dont know, if its because we at the tip of Africa or what, but nobody wants to build skyscrapers!!!!! I mean over 50 floors, is like if they do, satan will come get them. Not sure if its got to do with demand or what, but I seriously thought with 2010 & all these international investors coming to the country they would have been a need to get some really high rise buildings up, but it seems to me that what everyone wants is either flats or hotels? Thats all I am busy with now at work, Apartment blocks & Hotels oh & shopping complex's the only jobs we doing for buisness's is office parks or renovations of exsisting buildings.

Bot sure if we will recieve a boom in the high rise development, maybe its too early? maybe after 2010, when the world see's us then they might wake up?

I agree with Durbsboi. I can't see too many skyscrapers coming up in SA, aside from limited growth in the areas Mike (Dysan) mentioned. IO think there are several reasons:
1. Space - with all the new suburbs coming up we have sufficient space in all the major cities. There's just not sufficient demand in downtowns, where highrises traditionally arise (right now, sideways sprawl seems to be the name of the game, as is evidenced in Umhlanga, Sandtown, etc);
2. Cost - I think skyscrapers are more expensive to build (special cranes, etc) and to maintain (window cleaning anyone, at 60 floors??)
3. Fire-fighting - I think that all municipalities in SA lack specialised firefighting equip for high buildings. That was one of the chief concerns raised by the Pearls objectors. However, how do other highrise cities elsewhere manage highrise blazes?

In any event, I can't see a general boom in highrises in SA anytime soon.

Guys, as has been mentioned in a way, there are so many factors. You can't blame developers for not buildings things over 50 floors. Toronto, where I live at the moment, could only DREAM of any more 50-storey office buildings anytime soon, apart from a few projects.

I am not preaching about Toronto, but I am just saying, for example, here, every highrise project is residential, even some really really tall towers. So no matter what role a city has on the world scene, it doesn't guarantee tall towers.

I think a boom is quite possible though... give it a few... GULP... years. In a few years, perhaps about five years from now, there could be a boom... I can see that happening :)

-thryve

Own a piece of cricket history!

BOWLINE PRESS RELEASE
ISSUED BY BOWLINE

[Johannesburg, 23 May 2006] - On 12 March 2006, the Proteas re-wrote cricket history in the 5th Standard Bank One-Day International by reaching 438-9 and clinching a series winning victory in the greatest one-day game of all time.

To commemorate the South Africa vs Australia Standard Bank ODI Series and the historic 5th Standard Bank ODI, Cricket South Africa (Pty) Ltd has produced a DVD which will be available for purchase by cricket fans around the globe.

The three-DVD set consists of a highlights package of the International Pro20 match and all five ODIs. The highlights of the 5th ODI include personal accounts of the experience by Graeme Smith, Mark Boucher, Herschelle Gibbs and Makhaya Ntini.

The second and third DVDs provide ball-by-ball footage and commentary of the dramatic 5th ODI, to be enjoyed and marvelled at for years to come.

The DVD set will be available from 26 May 2006 in retailers across South Africa. The recommended retail price is R149.99 (incl). The set will also be available for purchase online via www.kalahari.net and www.bowline.co.za.

Bowline Fulfilment (PTY) Ltd has concluded a distribution agreement with Cricket South Africa (Pty) Ltd for the three-DVD set in South Africa.

Bowline is a South African-based manufacturing and distribution company servicing the ICT and music/entertainment market sectors.


Dont worry I already posted it in the Auz forum :D

im buying this the minute i arrive at the airport when i come home

u gonna watch a cricket game over and over again?

^^Why not? with ol simthy around I dont see us Smashing the shit out of the aussies again.

deffinatly, my wife is an aussie and I will be giving them as xmas gifts to all her family (there is a big time rivalry in the family between me and 20 of them)

Tell me if this is crazy or not! (as I post drunk in the middle of the day)
I have a new gaijin boss at work, who has invited me to his house for this Saturday. He and I flirt incessantly at work, which has me convinced that he is gay. SHould I visit him at home or no? Office romance can never end up well, apart from the fact that we'd both get fired if discovered. What should I do. He is freakin hot, but at the same time, I don't want to lose this job. I like the money too mcuh.

^^ Well an invite to his home is not an immediate "come fuck me" sign.....so I say go. Doesnt mean that anything has to happen Saturday night, and yall could become friends..maybe its just dinner or beers.

Well I aint gay, but if a hot chick asked me that, I would go, but let her make the first move, as datil said, it could be a friendly invatation dont fuck it up by thinking otherwise.......oh & if his trying to set you up with his unkown hot sexy under 21 daughter, tell him I'm available :D

go for it u only live once...

be careful...if he does like u then too many drinks could mean awkward times ahead...

Isn't this typical? He's a bottom. There go any chances of anything meaningful happening. How is it that a guy can look like a top, act like a top, then turn out to be a bottom? And why is the bottom to top ratio something like 10 to 1 in this world?
I'm officially on relationship/dating/sex boycott.

Whats a bottom? :?

^^:hilarious
Bro? You crack me up at the funniest of times :lol: A Bottom doesn't do the work. Less strenuos. sure...give it a go...let someone else do the work for a change!!

lol

omg...

Interesting read!

Tall storeys


If South Africa's cities want to successfully brand themselves as international business hubs, they need to replace dated, unattractive skyscrapers - such as Johannesburg's Carlton Centre, Ponte City and Shell House - with distinctively designed high-rise buildings.

SA's lack of modern skyscrapers was one of the issues raised by international speakers at Sapoa's annual convention held in Durban earlier this month, attended by a record 1 100 delegates. The debate centred on whether SA should follow the global example of signposting its cities as commercially prominent hubs through attractive, uniquely designed skyscrapers.

Richard Kauntze, CEO of the British Council for Offices, says that successful global business and tourism centres such as London, New York, San Francisco, Tokyo, Hong Kong, Singapore, Kuala Lumpur and (more recently) Dublin and Dubai, are all characterised by an impressive skyline of modern, high-rise buildings.

Alastair Collins, CE of international construction consultancy Davis Langdon & Seah International, echoes the same sentiment. He says that, unfortunately, the bulk of skyscrapers in SA were built in the Seventies, which has left most cities with a legacy of ugly buildings.

Architectural and building research portal www.emporis.com confirms that only a handful of high-rise buildings taller than 100m were added to SA's skyline in the 16 years since 1990. These are the Metlife Centre (150m) in Cape Town's CBD, the Old Mutual Centre (120m) and Embassy Building (120m) in Durban's CBD and, most recently, the luxury apartment building, Michelangelo Towers (122,5m) in Sandton, Johannesburg, but still under construction.

But there are those who question why it's necessary to go tall at all. Sociologists and environmentalists generally aren't in favour of tall buildings, as they're regarded as energy and cost intensive.

However, Kauntze and Collins dismiss arguments against high-rise developments. Both admit that skyscrapers do cost more to develop and demand higher operating costs, as they're large and often complex projects. But Collins says that great advances have been made over the past five years in structural design and engineering practices, which have led to the emergence of safer and super efficient high-rise buildings.

Be that as it may, the most compelling argument for going taller in SA is probably the fact that major cities may run out of well-located development land sooner rather than later, particularly in prime commercial areas.

US architectural consultant Tony Harbour says that in central business nodes such as London, New York, San Francisco, Tokyo and Hong Kong, land costs have escalated to such an extent that the only way developers can go is up. For example, Harbour says that in Tokyo land costs already represent close to 70% of the total development cost of a new commercial building.

Mike Klostermann, development director of SA developer Legacy Hotels & Resorts, says that until recently there was no need for SA developers to go higher than two or three storeys, as the decentralisation trend away from traditional CBDs meant that there was plenty of land available in new, suburban business nodes.

But Klostermann says that lifestyle changes and traffic congestion will see people increasingly wanting to live closer to their places of work. That would no doubt push land values in commercial hubs to new highs.

Source: Joan Muller, Finweek

Some tall facts

CURRENTLY, Taiwan's capital Taipei boasts the world's tallest building - the 509m (101 floors) Taipei 101 office tower. Taipei 101 surpassed the world's previous record holder - the 452m (88 floors) Petronas Twin Towers in Malaysia's capital Kuala Lumpur - in August 2003, according to international real estate research group Emporis. However, Dubai could soon rival Taipei as the city with the world's highest building if plans to build the 705m (160 floors) Burj Dubai materialises.

In stark contrast to those lofty skyscrapers, SA's highest structure - the Hillbrow Tower - measures a "mere" 270m. The Carlton Centre Office Tower in downtown Jo'burg remains SA's tallest commercial building at 223m (50 floors), followed by the Ponte City flats at 173m (54 floors).

Marble Towers in Johannesburg's CBD, the SA Reserve Bank in Pretoria's CBD, the Metlife Centre in Cape Town's CBD and 88 on Field (previously 362 West Street) in Durban's CBD also rank among SA's 10 tallest buildings.

Global city's comprehensive competitiveness index rankings

National and regional cities ranked

New York the United States 1 Dublin Ireland 2 London British 3 Paris France 4 Frankfurt Germany 5 Milan Italy 6 Brussels Belgium 7 Los Angeles the United States 8 Copenhagen Denmark 9 Barcelona Spain 10 Tokyo Japan 11 San Francisco the United States 12 Madrid Spain 13 Rome Italy 14 Chicago the United States 15 San Diego 16 U.S. states Philadelphia the United States 17 Washington, 18 Hong Kong Chinese 19 Boston the United States 20 Hamburg Germany 21 Munich Germany 22 San Jose the United States 23 Seattle the United States 24 Dubai UAE 25 Minneapolis the United States 26 the first Fall Korea 27 Houston the United States 28 Sacramento the United States 29 Dallas the United States 30 Amsterdam the Netherlands 31 Glasgow United Kingdom 32 Charlotte the United States 33 Phoenix the United States 34 Denver the United States 35 Las Vegas the United States 36 Baltimore the United States 37 Toronto Canada 38 Zurich Switzerland 39 Berlin Germany 40 Detroit the United States 41 Nuremberg German 42 Melbourne Australia 43 Miami the United States 44 San Antonio the United States 45 Singapore and Singapore 46 Helsinki Finland 47 Chinese Taipei 48 Milwaukee the United States 49 Atlanta the United States 50 Austin the United States 51 Yokohama Japanese 52 Columbus the United States 53 Geneva Switzerland 54 Osaka Japan 55 Pittsburg the United States 56 Canberra Australia 57 Lyon France 58 Portland the United States 59 Kawasaki Japanese 60 Memphis the United States 61 Sao Luis the United States 62 Indianapolis the United States 63 Brisbane Australian 64 Nagoya Japan 65 of Cincinnati the United States 66 Calgary Canada 67 Nashville the United States 68 Shanghai China 69 Beijing China 70 Vancouver Canada 71 Cleveland the United States 72 Shenzhen China 73 Guangzhou Chinese 74 Sapporo Japan 75 Ottawa Canada 76 Kao - Hsiung China 77 Sendai Japanese 78 Montreal Canada 79 Macao and China 80 Vienna Austria 81 Sydney Australia 82 Edmonton Canada 83 Liverpool British 84 Hangzhou Chinese 85 Auckland New Zealand 86 Kyoto Japanese 87 Dalian Chinese 88 Suzhou China 89 Xiamen China 90 Winnipeg Canada 91 Qingdao Chinese 92 Tianjin China 93 Chengdu China 94 Wellington New Zealand 95 Pusan Korea 96 Nanjing Chinese 97 Zhuhai Chinese 98 Wenzhou Chinese 99 Rio de Janeiro Brazil 100 Kobe Ulsan Korea 102 Japan 101 Changsha China Xian China 104 103 105 Cape Town South Africa 106 Hefei China Chongqing China Johannesburg South Africa 107 109 108 Buenos Aires, Argentina Cairo Egypt 110

those things are so funny

Let's hope that artcile got some bigshots thinking ,and re-examining SA's poor skylines.

i agree...i find joburg being the biggest shame since it is Africa's powerhouse and that should be represented in its skyline!! But all the highrise is happening in Durban and CT

What you guys think of this, Joburg SAPS bought 4 Hummer H2's at R1,4 million each, plus fitting 26inch rims on it for the force!

http://img228.imageshack.us/img228/9898/image7349cx.jpg
http://img96.imageshack.us/img96/6750/image7361rs.jpg

If they needed a Hummer, they should have waited till GM started production of the new H3 in P.E! Maybe we could have got a discount or something.

what the fuck for, I mean whats with the rims? do they think they are CSI or something?

Mmm I wonder who's Horatio?

seems like a stupid ego boosting idea!! Those things dont go very fast, eat petrol like a joke and cant even put the criminals in them...guess they to ferry VIPS around...utter waste of money...its pathetic

Here's how we rank on friendliness...

------------------

City falls short in national friendliness
Willem Steenkamp
June 24 2006 at 02:33PM

Wealthy South Africans are generally unfriendly and unhelpful while poor people are not only friendly, but willing to help their fellow man.

This is one of the findings of a hospitality survey done by Reader's Digest in the top six SA cities.

And the good news is that when it comes to attitudes, the rainbow nation seems to have finally reached equality among all races.

Blacks and whites are equally unfriendly or friendly, as the case may be.

The research team said they were "helped, rejected, ignored, treated politely and rudely in equal measure by all race groups" in cities across SA.




The survey also found Durban is the friendliest city, Bloemfontein the most unfriendly and the so-called "Friendly City" of Port Elizabeth is nowhere near as friendly as it's thought to be.

Cape Town lies a disappointing and average third in the hospitality test done by Reader's Digest journalists who visited each city to find out which showed a generosity of spirit.

Durban was top of the national courtesy ratings, and comfortably outscored Pretoria, Cape Town, Port Elizabeth, Johannesburg and Bloemfontein.

The national "friendly" average for all cities tested was 64 percent.

Durban scored 82 percent, while Pretoria finished second with a creditable 70 percent and Cape Town third with 68 percent. Port Elizabeth managed a mere fourth place with 67 percent, while Johannesburg scored 57 percent in fifth place.

Bloemfontein fared worst with an embarrassing 43 percent.

In a global assessment done in cities across the world, Johannesburg - as the SA representative - came 15th, New York, came first, while eight cities in Asia filled the last 11 positions. Sydney in Australia is one of the world's most unfriendly cities, ranking a sad 47th place.

Had Durban been chosen as the SA representative city, the KwaZulu-Natal metropole might well have ended among the top 10 friendliest cities of the world.

To test "friendliness" the survey teams went into 20 shops to make a minor purchase and noted if the sales assistant said "good morning", "please" and "thank you"; they dropped a file of papers at 20 busy points in each city (10 in rush-hour and 10 off-peak) to see if anyone would help retrieve the document.

Lastly the team members walked behind 20 other pedestrians into public buildings with closed entrances to see if they would hold the door for them.

While Cape Town scored 68 percent for courtesy, it scored a very poor 40 percent in the paper drop tests, ahead only of Johannesburg (25 percent) and Bloemfontein (20 percent).

In Cape Town in one incident a woman dropped her papers in front of two men chatting in Milnerton. But instead of rushing to help the woman who was picking up the documents on hands and knees, one of the men actually kicked away one of the dropped papers.

And at Canal Walk at Century City, not a single person came forward to help pick up dropped papers.

In a Bloemfontein mall a cleaner carefully continued her mopping duties in between the dropped papers, simply ignoring the plight of the researcher.

Also in Bloemfontein, doing the "shop test", two shop assistants totally ignored the female researcher.

Again in Bloemfontein when two young men were asked why they did not open a door for the young woman researcher, one of the men said: "Why should I hold the door for her? She is not an invalid. Women can't have it both ways. If they want equality then they must be equal and do things for themselves."

In Durban researchers were pleasantly surprised. At a food outlet, matric pupil Andre Vermeulen held the door open for a researcher.
When asked why, he said: "Dude, in Durbs we are buddies with everyone."

And at an upmarket shopping mall in Westville, Durban, shop assistant Zain Aboobaker thanked researchers profusely for their small purchase of chocolates at the sweet shop.

The survey showed that the more expensively dressed a person was, the less likely they were to offer help. Wealthy areas in all cities, with the exception of Durban, fared poorly.

This article was originally published on page 4 of Saturday Argus on June 24, 2006

http://www.int.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=13&art_id=vn20060624132815309C886682

hhaahhaa I cant wait to see one!!!! but I fail to see how it is going to help them catch the bad guys!!!

^^they gonna blow the criminals away with the 22inch kicker solabarics in the back

The results of this survey are interesting. I am happy to see South Africans are amongst the most patriotic people on earth, crime and all (at least we beat the Aussies at something!) :bash:

-----------------------

Americans have most national pride - survey

June 28 2006 at 02:15AM

By Megan Reichgott

Chicago - Americans are at the top when it comes to national pride, according to a survey of 34 democracies released on Tuesday.

Venezuela came in a close second for having the most patriotism, according to the report from the National Opinion Research Centre at the University of Chicago. People rated how proud they were of their countries in areas such as political influence, economic success, sports and history.

They survey ranked 34 countries, mostly in Europe and the Americas, with several Asian countries represented. Only Israel was included from Middle Eastern countries.

"The two things (Americans) rank high on are what we think of as the political or power dimension," said Tom W. Smith, who wrote the report and directs the General Social Survey at the university's research centre. "Given that we're the one world superpower, it's not that surprising."

Patriotism is mostly a "New World" concept, the survey said. Ex-colonies and newer nations were more likely to rank high on the list, while Western European, East Asian and former Socialist countries usually ranked near the middle or bottom.

The report was based on a survey in 34 countries conducted by the International Social Survey Program. People rated how proud they were of their countries in 10 areas: political influence, social security, the way their democracy works, economic success, science and technology, sports, arts and literature, military, history, and fair treatment of all groups in society.

The US ranked highest overall and in five categories: pride in its democracy, political influence, economy, science and military. Venezuela came in second by ranking highest in four categories: sports, arts and literature, history, and fair treatment of all groups in society.

Eric Wingerter, a Washington-based spokesperson for the Venezuelan government, said the country previously imported much of its television programming, movies and pop music from the US, but that has changed under President Hugo Chavez's leadership.

Many Venezuelans say Chavez has helped create a new sense of national pride, he said.

"There's been a real emphasis on rediscovering what it means to be Venezuelan," he said.

The debate in Venezuela over Chavez, who makes headlines for nationalistic, anti-US rhetoric, might account for the country's No. 2 ranking, Smith said.

"We looked at, 'Well, is it just the Chavez support, or is it the image of the country?' and they're actually both high," Smith said.

Cultural differences might explain lower rankings for the three Asian countries on the list - Japan (18th), Taiwan (29th), and Korea (31), Smith said.

"It is both bad luck and poor manners to be boastful about things there," Smith said.

Countries that were part of the former Soviet Union or in the former Eastern Bloc ranked lower because they are still struggling to find new national identities, Smith said. Hungary was the highest Eastern European country on the list at 21. - Sapa-AP


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Overall rank of countries in patriotism survey

1. United States

2. Venezuela

3. Ireland

4. South Africa :cheers: :dance:

5. Australia :baaa:

6. Canada

7. Philippines

8. Austria

9. New Zealand

10. Chile

11. Great Britain

12. Israel

13. Uruguay

14. Finland

15. Spain

16. Denmark

17. Switzerland

18. Japan

19. France

20. Portugal

21. Hungary

22. Bulgaria

23. Norway

24. Russia

25. Sweden

26. Slovenia

27. Germany (West)

28. Czech Republic

29. Taiwan

30. Latvia

31. Korea

32. Slovakia

33. Poland

34. Germany


http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=79&art_id=qw1151445066547B221

lol, dumb Asstralians

The Americans are always coming up with these dumb biased surveys. New Yorkers? Nicest city on earth, give me a break. And I think Koreans should rank really high up on the list. They are some of the most patriotic people on earth. A Korean will tell you he is Korean before he even tells you his name.

I don't think the Americans rigged it, considering it was all done with mathematical criteria, but okay. It does seem a bit fishy though... so who knows.

The fact that Canada came 6th in national pride is hilarious... we're very... not typically patriotic.. I'm just really surprised.

-thryve

I didn't know this thread I've started up years ago still existed :D

GO ARGENTINA!!!!!!!! yu kandoo it!

^^Ukraine are gonna win,..............i'm telling you

yellow is evil! :devil:

Todays game is gonna be a cracka! Its crap that its an early kick off!

Taxi-scrapping agency selected
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The national transport department announced on Thursday that Siyazi Consortium was selected as the preferred bidder for the Scrapping Administration Agency in the roll-out of the R7,7-billion taxi-recapitalisation project.

The Siyazi Consortium, comprising Siyazi Transportation Services Gauteng, Neo Solutions, Tshalata & Tshalata Associates and Tirhani Auctioneers, will be tasked with the removal of old and unworthy taxi vehicles from South Africa’s roads.

The consortium was selected from 14 proposals and the transport department said that it aimed to sign the contract with Siyazi in the next month.

Government’s taxi-recapitalisation programme aims at replacing about 120 000 of the country's 16-seater taxis with 85 000 new minibus taxis and the Scrapping Administration Agency would assist in this task.

It would also develop the necessary proprietary information-technology systems to support its duties and design a business architecture and work-flow process to guide the scrapping process. The agency would also coordinate the electronic funds transfers to the qualifying operators upon successful scrapping of the old taxis.

In December last year, the Department of Transport issued a request for proposals inviting interested parties to submit proposals for the establishment, setting up and management of the Scrapping Administration Agency.

I heard that Kaiser Chiefs are building their own stadium :? why?

I heard that Kaiser Chiefs are building their own stadium :? why?

Just because we can LOL!!! just kidding, that's the question I'm asking myself as we will be having SOccer City and Ellispark, even Johannesburg Stadium.

^^ to me its stupid...cos its not even in Joburg proper. At the end of the day, some of the stadiums will start to go bunkrupt and fall into disrepair, because there are not enough events to support all these stadia...who even uses Joburg stadium anymore?? Who will use Soccer city when complete?? it is all scaring me!!

he's the article

Chiefs launch R680m Chiefs Stadium project

Kaizer Chiefs literally covered new ground while launching the R680 million Amakhosi Stadium project at a sod turning ceremony in Mogale City (Krugersdorp) this week.
The glamour club of the PSL, with more supporters than any other team in South Africa, will become the first Premier League combination to own a stake - 20% - in their home venue.

The modernised project, which is due to be completed in December, 2008, will cater for 55 000 spectators and will be situated at the former Bob van Reenan Stadium in the Mogale City CBD.

"The day marks a significant turning point in the history of Chiefs," said club chairman Kaizer Motaung at the opening ceremony, "and is one of the most important moments in the 36-year history of the club."

The property development company, Lefika, Chiefs, the Kaizer Chiefs Supporters Trust and a consortium from Mogale City residents, are the joint shareholders in a venture with far-reaching consequences.

"At last," said Motaung, "a South African soccer team will be able to host their games at a stadium that can truly be called their own."

Designed with an emphasis on safety, the new Chiefs Stadium will incorporate many of the innovations of modern-day stadiums and will accommodate 38,200 seats for the general public, 10,000 for Chiefs season ticket holders, a distinctive Chiefs club area that will cater for 3,000 spectators and private suites that will hold 3,500 people.

Although some have questioned the advisability of Chiefs moving out of their traditional base in Johannesburg, where they are currently playing home games at FNB Stadium, officials pointed at the proximity of Mogale City to Soweto - the cradle from which Chiefs grew as a breakaway off-shoot from Orlando Pirates in 1970.

"It's also situated a matter of 30km from Johannesburg," said Motaung.

"Part of the success story of European soccer is that almost all the top clubs there own their home grounds," he added.

"Until now this has almost never happened in South Africa."

^^ to me its stupid...cos its not even in Joburg proper. At the end of the day, some of the stadiums will start to go bunkrupt and fall into disrepair, because there are not enough events to support all these stadia...who even uses Joburg stadium anymore?? Who will use Soccer city when complete?? it is all scaring me!!

he's the article

Chiefs launch R680m Chiefs Stadium project

Kaizer Chiefs literally covered new ground while launching the R680 million Amakhosi Stadium project at a sod turning ceremony in Mogale City (Krugersdorp) this week.
The glamour club of the PSL, with more supporters than any other team in South Africa, will become the first Premier League combination to own a stake - 20% - in their home venue.

The modernised project, which is due to be completed in December, 2008, will cater for 55 000 spectators and will be situated at the former Bob van Reenan Stadium in the Mogale City CBD.

"The day marks a significant turning point in the history of Chiefs," said club chairman Kaizer Motaung at the opening ceremony, "and is one of the most important moments in the 36-year history of the club."

The property development company, Lefika, Chiefs, the Kaizer Chiefs Supporters Trust and a consortium from Mogale City residents, are the joint shareholders in a venture with far-reaching consequences.

"At last," said Motaung, "a South African soccer team will be able to host their games at a stadium that can truly be called their own."

Designed with an emphasis on safety, the new Chiefs Stadium will incorporate many of the innovations of modern-day stadiums and will accommodate 38,200 seats for the general public, 10,000 for Chiefs season ticket holders, a distinctive Chiefs club area that will cater for 3,000 spectators and private suites that will hold 3,500 people.

Although some have questioned the advisability of Chiefs moving out of their traditional base in Johannesburg, where they are currently playing home games at FNB Stadium, officials pointed at the proximity of Mogale City to Soweto - the cradle from which Chiefs grew as a breakaway off-shoot from Orlando Pirates in 1970.

"It's also situated a matter of 30km from Johannesburg," said Motaung.

"Part of the success story of European soccer is that almost all the top clubs there own their home grounds," he added.

"Until now this has almost never happened in South Africa."

Yeah i read about this story on the internet at an internet cafe and I wanna do an inventory of stadia in south africa over 30,000 by 2010/2.

Yeah i read about this story on the internet at an internet cafe and I wanna do an inventory of stadia in south africa over 30,000 by 2010/2.
WOW internet at an internet cafe? how original!

WOW internet at an internet cafe? how original!
blonde moment OK!!.lol..the internet cafe was quite an event for me :)

Canada is very patriotic from what I know.....

And muckingfutz.....NYC is a very friendly city. Get over it. (Obviously a lot more friendly than ABQ judging from my comment hehehe ;) )

blonde moment OK!!.lol..the internet cafe was quite an event for me :)
Dont take that comment seriously, I was plasterd at the time,..........July party's, the Miller girls just kept them coming, & they were soo hot I couldnt let them down :scouserd:

Dont take that comment seriously, I was plasterd at the time,..........July party's, the Miller girls just kept them coming, & they were soo hot I couldnt let them down :scouserd:
i know i know

ahh...the july was great...but boys what were u doing online on the nite of the july??? i was still out til 6am...u fade early!!!

Nah I retired from the 5fm party stopped home, because my dad wasnt well, had to take him hospital............HECTIC WEEKEND!

And now for something compleatly different.


In a quite eerie act of clairvoyance, iafrica.com's sporting editor and resident Nostradamus brings you a match report on the opening match of the 2010 World Cup between South Africa and England.



Bafana Bafana got off to a winning start at the 2010 World Cup last night, Jomo Sono's side beating England 8-3 to cap a controversial build-up to the South African tournament.



Sono was brought in just a month ago to replace former England coach Sven-Goran Eriksson, who had replaced former Italy coach Marcello Lippi, who had replaced former Ajax Cape Town coach Gordon Igesund, who had replaced former Australia and Russia coach Guus Hiddink, who had replaced Sono, who had replaced former Brazil coach Carlos Alberto Perreira, who had joined the national squad after the 2006 World Cup, as the South African Football Association sought continuity and stability in moulding a winning team for the tournament on home soil.



Sono's 23-man squad for the tournament includes 19 players from Jomo Cosmos, a controversial move, with 53-year-old striker Shaun Bartlett one of the few non-Cosmos players in the squad. Somo also sparked seating trouble in the dug-out, his technical team of 91 having to be accommodated in temporary seating. Adding to the problem was an overbooking of the opening match, with Botswana-based firm Bhamjee Ticketing having accidentally sold 230 000 tickets to the opening game in Cape Town.



After a three hour delay, the match finally got underway, with the first half played at Green Point’s new stadium, due for completion in 2015, and the second half played at the Athlone Stadium, the result of a compromise settled on after a local government dispute. England took an early lead through 14-year-old Theo Walcott, and followed quickly with a second from Wayne Rooney, before the game was briefly disrupted by striking Togolese players who stormed the field.



Bafana clawed one back, before England got a third just before half-time, Bartlett penalised for throwing his dentures at Frank Lampard. 3-1 at the break, at which point players were taken through to the Athlone Stadium in the official 2010 World Cup minibus taxis. While the South African players looked comfortable on arrival, the English appeared pale and shaken on arriving at the ground, the standard 25-minute journey having been made in just eight minutes through oncoming traffic to ensure a speedy resumption of the game, and with the full England squad of 23 plus management squeezed into one vehicle for added efficiency.



The second half was slightly delayed as guest of honour Ronaldo, the former Brazilian star, got wedged in the players' tunnel on the way out onto the field to receive an honorary plaque. Ronaldo was freed just before full time by the local fire brigade, by which time England, strangely distracted after the half-time break, had fallen 7-3 behind. An eighth goal by Sono, who brought himself on for the last ten minutes, sealed a famous victory for South Africa in the opening match of the tournament.



"The taxi ride was a nightmare," veteran England captain David Beckham said after the game. "And in the second half the security staff and marshals on duty inside the stadium kept pestering our players for autographs, cigarettes and small change every time we had a corner or throw-in." Sono declared himself "absolutely delighted" with the result, and is now looking forward to the second match of the tournament against Nigeria, who are hoping to have six key players out on bail in time for the game, after a small incident involving credit cards at the V&A Waterfront earlier in the week.

And now for something compleatly different.


In a quite eerie act of clairvoyance, iafrica.com's sporting editor and resident Nostradamus brings you a match report on the opening match of the 2010 World Cup between South Africa and England.



Bafana Bafana got off to a winning start at the 2010 World Cup last night, Jomo Sono's side beating England 8-3 to cap a controversial build-up to the South African tournament.



Sono was brought in just a month ago to replace former England coach Sven-Goran Eriksson, who had replaced former Italy coach Marcello Lippi, who had replaced former Ajax Cape Town coach Gordon Igesund, who had replaced former Australia and Russia coach Guus Hiddink, who had replaced Sono, who had replaced former Brazil coach Carlos Alberto Perreira, who had joined the national squad after the 2006 World Cup, as the South African Football Association sought continuity and stability in moulding a winning team for the tournament on home soil.



Sono's 23-man squad for the tournament includes 19 players from Jomo Cosmos, a controversial move, with 53-year-old striker Shaun Bartlett one of the few non-Cosmos players in the squad. Somo also sparked seating trouble in the dug-out, his technical team of 91 having to be accommodated in temporary seating. Adding to the problem was an overbooking of the opening match, with Botswana-based firm Bhamjee Ticketing having accidentally sold 230 000 tickets to the opening game in Cape Town.



After a three hour delay, the match finally got underway, with the first half played at Green Point’s new stadium, due for completion in 2015, and the second half played at the Athlone Stadium, the result of a compromise settled on after a local government dispute. England took an early lead through 14-year-old Theo Walcott, and followed quickly with a second from Wayne Rooney, before the game was briefly disrupted by striking Togolese players who stormed the field.



Bafana clawed one back, before England got a third just before half-time, Bartlett penalised for throwing his dentures at Frank Lampard. 3-1 at the break, at which point players were taken through to the Athlone Stadium in the official 2010 World Cup minibus taxis. While the South African players looked comfortable on arrival, the English appeared pale and shaken on arriving at the ground, the standard 25-minute journey having been made in just eight minutes through oncoming traffic to ensure a speedy resumption of the game, and with the full England squad of 23 plus management squeezed into one vehicle for added efficiency.



The second half was slightly delayed as guest of honour Ronaldo, the former Brazilian star, got wedged in the players' tunnel on the way out onto the field to receive an honorary plaque. Ronaldo was freed just before full time by the local fire brigade, by which time England, strangely distracted after the half-time break, had fallen 7-3 behind. An eighth goal by Sono, who brought himself on for the last ten minutes, sealed a famous victory for South Africa in the opening match of the tournament.



"The taxi ride was a nightmare," veteran England captain David Beckham said after the game. "And in the second half the security staff and marshals on duty inside the stadium kept pestering our players for autographs, cigarettes and small change every time we had a corner or throw-in." Sono declared himself "absolutely delighted" with the result, and is now looking forward to the second match of the tournament against Nigeria, who are hoping to have six key players out on bail in time for the game, after a small incident involving credit cards at the V&A Waterfront earlier in the week.

this has been posted before..thanks

"oo" tough crowd.

I will be here all week. Try the fish!

"oo" tough crowd.

I will be here all week. Try the fish!
prefer chicken.

Grilled please with peeri peeri, wats ur flava?

just opened a new nandos around the corner next to the new wagga mamas . my 2 favourite places to eat here in Dubai

My folks brought back a menu from Wagga Mama's top stuff there!

Grilled please with peeri peeri, wats ur flava?
i had that ad stuck in my head for a week..not good.

I know, I had stuck in my head too! then I forgot about it then the blody add came on again! .....& you know where this is going, nice marketing though, they know that tune will get stuck in your head, so when you hungry, that thing will immeaditly pop in your head "Wats ur flava" then u'll want Nando's!

I wa sin london last week and had supper in nandos in Camden. They are EVERYWHERE in london. Its great to see an SA company doing to well overseas. They even had castle available!!!

I wa sin london last week and had supper in nandos in Camden. They are EVERYWHERE in london. Its great to see an SA company doing to well overseas. They even had castle available!!!
u shud try gourmet burger as well..im suprised they havent done as well as they have in london..its very "in" in london to have lunch or dinner there...nandos are doing well in london though..but the vibe is a bit different..

I shall try that one. Sadly when I am in london I tend to be with clients so tend to eat at the Carlton Club or rowleys on jermyn street or simpson on the strand. They are my fave 3 places to eat in london.

I shall try that one. Sadly when I am in london I tend to be with clients so tend to eat at the Carlton Club or rowleys on jermyn street or simpson on the strand. They are my fave 3 places to eat in london.
u shud def branch out of ur usual places and discover other places to eat if u have the time...its like discovering a new awesome restaurant in cape town..but in london there sooo many to find...

or you can pop down to Wembley & get some Lamb Vindaloo from the Indian restaurants & you'll be looking for the loo

or you can pop down to Wembley & get some Lamb Vindaloo from the Indian restaurants & you'll be looking for the loo
i hate london but then i love it

well i had not heard it before...and suretrack u gotta learn quick...nothing pleases mo very easily...

well i had not heard it before...and suretrack u gotta learn quick...nothing pleases mo very easily...
look who's talking i'd say...hehe

What were we talking about again?

Isnt Enigma the biggest twat you have ever met?

look wat his saying in the Aussie Forum:
http://skyscrapercity.com/showthread.php?t=370304&page=1&pp=20