16 January, 2007

Shane Pillay, I can’t thank you enough, a very worthy cause and definitely something worth demonstrating about. Publicising the severity of the situation is part of the solution, sweeping it under the carpet is part of the problem.

South Africa is without doubt the most dangerous and violent country I have ever visited. Yet last night this happened:

Cape Town - President Thabo Mbeki says crime is not getting out of hand.

And most South Africans would agree with him, said Mbeki in an interview flighted by SABC television on Monday.

He admitted that crime - and the damage it was causing to South Africa’s image internationally - was something of a concern. Mbeki added, however, that it was wrong to suggest crime in the country was uncontrollable. “There is crime, but this does not mean it is out of control,” he said.

He blamed certain South Africans for not being “careful” on how they communicated the issue of crime. The president said it was the way they communicated that created the perception crime was out of control in the country.

Although Someamongus believes Mbeki is on another planet I don’t think our deranged president is totally wrong. He is certainly right about most people agreeing with him.

On the whole I don’t believe people living in SA think crime is getting out of hand. The number of middle class, supposedly educated people I met who told me “I choose Read the rest of this entry »

So there we were, in South Africa trying to catch licensed taxis to get around instead of doing the usual South African trick of driving drunk, my experience was pretty interesting.

Durban was fairly shite although there are cab firms which seem to do a good service within central Durban but don’t try getting back home from Kloof at 2am. Joburg was annoying, the taxis were bangers, it was expensive and promptness is not a word they could use to advertise their business without blatantly lying. Cape Town was brilliant by comparison, there appeared to be an abundance of taxis which seemed fairly well maintained and managed but again I spent most of my time in and around the city bowl and Atlantic seaboard.

There is a very big gap in the market for a well maintained, efficient and safe taxi service in all 3 cities. A gap that is increasingly becoming evident the more people realise that it is just not acceptable to drive under the influence. Unfortunately until this gap is filled there will continue to be a plethora of drunk drivers on the road because public transport simply does not exist in South Africa as a viable alternative.

When a Commission of Correctional Services, a High Court Judge and a Metro Police Chief have recently been caught driving drunk (and crashed) you know we have a problem. Just take another look at that carpark outside your favourite nightclub next time you’re there, if all those cars had designated drivers the nightclub would go bankrupt!

I can’t stand the “don’t worry we’ll have it sorted by 2010″ mentality which currently pervades the entire South African psyche because essentially I am more concerned with 2011, but if somebody does create a successful licensed taxi service prior to the World Cup I have no doubt that it will continue to benefit SA long after the World Cup has left our shores.

All those people still patting the South African government on the back for their enlightened and progressive approach in passing the Civil Union Bill (gay marriage) please also note that our first major play from our new non-permanent seat at the UN security council was to team up with China and Russia (both with great human rights records!?!) in voting against a security council resolution that condemns Myanmar for it’s continued human rights abuses.

As Farrel says:

If South Africa wants to be seen as a champion of human rights then at some point they will have to actually champion human rights.

Check out the M&G article here where Douglas Gibson is also quoted as follows:

South Africa’s first significant vote since taking up its non-permanent seat on the United Nations Security Council raises a question — will South Africa ever meet a dictator it does not like?

From Wikipedia:

In January 2006, United States submitted a draft Security Council resolution, backed by Great Britain, in an effort to end political repression and human rights violations to United Nation Security Council. Belgium, France, Ghana, Italy, Panama, Peru, Slovakia, the UK and the US voted in favor of the resolution, while China and Russia vetoed, and South Africa voted against the resolution.

According to several organisations, including Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International, the regime has a poor human rights record. There is no independent judiciary in Myanmar and political opposition to the military government is not tolerated. Internet access is highly restricted through software-based filtering that limits the material citizens can access on-line, including most political opposition, pro-democracy web pages, and pornography. Forced labour, human trafficking, and child labour are common.