president Zuma – praag.org

Zuma invites struggle heroes to very colonial affair

President Jacob Zuma met with special guests for a regal and lofty “high tea”, a British meal, ahead of Thursday’s state-of-the-nation address (Sona), the presidency said on Wednesday.

The choice of the meal highlighted South Africa’s return to the Commonwealth, subservience to colonial power Great Britain – despite being a Republic – and the latest fancy of the “classless”, “non-racial”, “non-sexist” society.

“We believe the opening of Parliament and the state-of-the-nation address is an event for all South Africans because Parliament is an institution of the people and we therefore want people to visit Parliament to feel part of it,” Zuma told the illustrious guests without irony.

“That’s why every year we invite special guests of the president on the strength of the good work that they do in the development and promotion of our country and the sacrifices each has made for South Africa.”

He said those who were representing the country internationally were invited, as well as the families of struggle heroes.

Here are some pointers to tea etiquette, if you happen to be a struggle hero with an invitation:

Do not stir your tea, with your teaspoon, in sweeping circular motions.

Place your tea spoon at the six o’clock position and softly fold the liquid towards the twelve o’clock position two or three times.

Never leave the spoon in the cup especially when actually drinking your tea.

Milk is served with tea, not cream. Cream is too heavy and masks the taste of the tea.

When serving lemon with tea, lemon slices are preferable, not wedges. Either provide a small fork or lemon fork for your guests, or have the butler neatly place a slice in the tea cup after the tea has been poured. Be sure never to add lemon with milk since the lemon’s citric acid will cause the proteins in the milk to curdle.

Do not use your tea to wash down food. Sip, don’t slurp, your tea and swallow before eating.

There is only one correct placement for a napkin, to the left side of the place setting. The napkin, when placed to the left of the place setting, should be folded with the closed edge to the left and the open edge to the right. There are no exceptions! This rule applies for rectangular, triangular, and square shape folds.

Lesotho wants SADC peacekeapers

Lesotho’s prime minister has asked southern African states to send peacekeepers into his mountain kingdom to restore order after an apparent coup over the weekend, his aide said on Monday.

Thomas Thabane fled to South Africa, whose territory surrounds Lesotho, early on Saturday, hours before the army surrounded his residence and overran police stations in the capital, Maseru, in what the prime minister called a coup.

Lesotho’s army said it had not tried to oust Thabane but had moved against police suspected of planning to arm a political faction. One policeman was shot dead and four others wounded.

The unrest stems from a power struggle between Thabane, who is supported by the police, and Deputy Prime Minister Mothetjoa Metsing, who has the loyalty of the army, diplomats said.

Tension has risen since Thabane, who has accused Metsing of orchestrating the coup, suspended parliament in June amid feuding in the two-year-old governing coalition.

The Southern African Development Community (SADC) defence and security troika, which includes foreign ministers from South Africa, Namibia and Zimbabwe, met through the night with Thabane and Metsing to try to find a peaceful settlement to the crisis.

Thabane asked the SADC, a co-operative group of 15 southern African states, for military support, said officials.

“On top of the table was a need for intervention based on the situation. We called on the SADC peace force to intervene,” said Thabane’s aide, Samonyane Ntsekele.

On Monday, Thabane and Metsing met South African President Jacob Zuma, who chairs SADC’s defence and security body, with the regional group agreeing to send a facilitator to help resolve the crisis.

“SADC further agreed to deploy an observer team on politics, defence and security as a matter of urgency,” a statement issued after the meeting in South Africa’s capital, Pretoria, said.

Thabane was now on his way back to Lesotho, Ntsekele said.

In Maseru, the atmosphere was quiet but tense on Monday. The police commissioner said soldiers had carried out further raids on police installations and even officers’ homes, taking away weapons and uniforms.

Commissioner Khothatso Ts’ooana told Public Choice FM radio station that this meant police would not be able to carry out their normal duties. Police stations were deserted and some officers had fled over the border into South Africa.

In Washington, the US State Department said in a statement it was “deeply concerned by uncertainty over the political process and the state of public security” in Lesotho’s capital. It has ordered non-employed family members of US mission personnel out of the country.

Source: Reuters

President for sale

President for sale. This was the tagline of a Gumtree ad that disappeared soon after it was posted – but not before doing the rounds on social media.

The tongue-in-cheek advert was posted on Thursday by username Average Joe.

Featuring a picture of President Jacob Zuma, it offered him for sale, either for a price or a replacement.

The text of the ad humourously implored readers to make an offer.

“Desperately in need of a functioning president. This one costs too much to maintain. Will take whatever we can get at the moment… just make an offer.”

The ad said the seller was willing to “swop for smarter/cheaper model”, but would not entertain offers from chancers – “only barcode ID holders or TAX payers please”.

Source: IOL

Guptas launch 24-hour news channel

A new 24-hour news channel was launched in South Africa on Wednesday, owned by a wealthy family close to President Jacob Zuma.

Africa News Network 7 (ANN7) will focus on “constructive, nation-building stories in the interests of building a culture of unity and pride”, according to its website.

ANN7 is likely to face an uphill battle for viewers as it joins the existing and established eNCA (DStv 403) and the SABC’s new 24-hour TV news attempt, SABC News (DStv 404) which launched at the beginning of this month.

Based in Johannesburg and employing more than 75 journalists, the channel is owned by the wealthy Gupta family who moved to South Africa from India.

The family own Sahara Computers and The New Age newspaper, which is considered pro-government.

“ANN7 heralds a new era in news broadcasting which will give South Africans access to both sides of stories of national importance,” said CEO Nazeem Howa, quoted by The New Age.

The well-connected Guptas sparked outrage in May after flying in wedding guests from India to a military base on the outskirts of Pretoria.

A probe found that Zuma’s name had been dropped to secure landing rights, but that he was not involved in the scandal.

ANN7 is the third round-the-clock TV news channel in South Africa and follows the public broadcaster SABC’s launch of a continuous service on 1 August.

The 24-hour private eNCA channel went live in 2008.

These three channels are broadcast on the satellite DStv pay service, which also carries several foreign news channels. DStv belongs to Naspers which has a media monopoly in South Africa.

Industry insiders and TV critics are of the opinion that ANN7 come with a certain level of perception problems due to who the financial backers of the new channel are and whether news will be politically slanted and it remains anyone’s guess as to whether viewers will gravitate towards ANN7’s news offering.

The ruling African National Congress welcomed the new network, saying it “trusts that it will play a constructive role in our national discourse”. – AFP

Cabinet congratulates Zim ahead of SADC meeting

Cabinet has congratulated the Zimbabwean government for their successful parliamentary and local elections, but would not make any early pronouncements on whether the elections were free and fair.

Zanu-PF’s long standing leader, Robert Mugabe, won the presidential poll with 61% while his party obtained a two-thirds majority in parliamentary elections.

Defeated Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) leader, Morgan Tsvangirai, cried foul and has taken the matter to court.

The Cabinet has commended President Jacob Zuma as the Southern African Development Community (SADC) facilitator on the Zimbabwe dialogue for ensuring that all political parties were committed to peaceful elections.

However, Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Minister Tina Joemat was cautious in stating that the Cabinet is not commenting on the state of elections before the next SADC meeting.

Botswana, a SADC member, has expressed doubts about the fairness of the elections.

She was speaking during the post Cabinet briefing in Pretoria.

“We’re in no way making a pronouncement on the elections, we’re congratulating them that the elections ran smoothly without violence and without incidents of severe violence”.