It was only yesterday when I got back from the US that I was able to tune into the rest of the world again, only to hear about the latest bird flu outbreak (yawn) and yet ANOTHER attempt by the South African government to gag anybody who criticises them.
In this case it was First National Bank who sought to undertake a campaign to make the government sit up and take notice about crime. Well the blogosphere and the media thankfully are not going to be silenced and you can see exactly what the campaign entailed over at realsouthafrica.co.za. Thank-you FNB for standing up to the Government and helping the people of South Africa who are brutalized daily by crime! Its not easy to promote South Africa abroad, paint too rosy a picture and either you’re lying or the national news broadcaster is, like this one in New Zealand. Clearly S’bu Ndebele does not care about South Africans.
Got this comment the other day on a previous post about Virsa:
Thank you for linking us and for all the support.
My name is Pinky, one of the virsa members. We’ll be having marches in Cape Town, Durban and Johannesburg on March 10th 2007; to make our president aware of the millions of South Africans suffering.
We’d like people to help as much as they can. The things we need help with are: Paper (for printing pamphlets), Printing of pamphlets, T-shirts that people can wear at the march, Volunteers to help sign petition forms and money so the volunteers can eat and have sunscreen.We’d also like to put ads in newspapers to create awareness. There is a petition that we’d like signed too. Please go to http://www.virsa.org.za/articles/what_is_VIRSA.htm and read the things we’d like to do. Please contact us on crime@virsa.org.za
The least you can do is join the march, although I prefer to call them demonstration as march sounds too militant, but hey, maybe being militant is the only way to get the message across to this government.
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8 February, 2007 at 7:04 am
Albo
I believe that Messrs Raymond Ackerman and Johann Rupert have thrown their not inconsiderable weight behind the FNB campaign: http://www.int.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=594&art_id=iol1170831342634F512
The union Solidarity also has a website dedicated to the crime situation and perhaps a bit more effective than the chain e-mails currently doing the rounds:
http://www.stopthemurders.co.za/
Should be interesting to see what Thabo has to say in tomorrow’s State of the Nation address. Not holding out for any bombshells though.
8 February, 2007 at 1:18 pm
Katie Possum
Hey. its not all doom and gloom
Check out a new website, www.sarocks.co.za
Its about being positive about SA, without any denial of the issues.
8 February, 2007 at 1:29 pm
David
Katie, I already checked out the site from your post the other day. Very good albeit that what most South Africans can’t seem to grasp is that we do not lose the good things about South Africa when we fix the negative things. Just focus on fixing the bad things, not continue to bang the drum that SA is great, because it won’t be great for that much longer if most people continue to ignore the big elephant sitting in the room!
I don’t really think most people tolerate crime, but there hasn’t been nearly enough pressure on the government to make them actually care. The government is far to involved in their own corrupt dealings to worry about a few white people complaining, if everybody complained that would be a different story.
Our number one priority should not be to promote South Africa, it should be to sort out crime, promoting South Africa will then take care of itself. Zimbabwe is also a beautiful and wonderful country after you turn a blind eye to the political, social, economic catastrophe it is currently going through.
8 February, 2007 at 5:02 pm
Toby
Dude, link to New Zealand broadcaster doesn’t seem to work.
8 February, 2007 at 5:21 pm
David
OK now it does, thanks for pointing it out!
9 February, 2007 at 2:34 pm
Katie Possum
Dave: would that be the big elephant shitting on the carpet?
I know, I know - and I dont disagree at all. But i kind of wish the pressure could be internal, and I could still be an ambassador for my home while I’m over here…
P.S. I dont think its just white people complaining - but want to know why fnb pulled out of their plan, pressure from a business consortium doesnt seem like much…
P.P.S. the comparison to Zim is a bit harsh, dont you think?
P.P.P.S. did you see the bbc report on jhb crime last night?