Is khosi for life worth that tag?

I am a fan, but since the Jabu Pule saga they have never recovered they have never played as posed any threat to any team. They have set their standard so low it is not funny anymore. I think it is okay to have a family business run by family members, but I think Kaiser has just taken it to another level. You can’t have an incompetent son as a team manger of a big club like Kaiser chiefs, a brilliant daughter as a prodigy of some marketing manager, under performing son playing in the field and a daughter with no clue about television producing a clubs monthly TV programme.

Bobby don’t deserve to be a the team manager, Jessica strikes me as this brilliant hard working young woman who deserve better at Chiefs. I am sure if we can remove this stereotype of no women can run a soccer team successfully. We can see what a good manger this woman could be. Nastasia did with aplomb at Sundowns, Rocky Dlala left it to her sister Mato to do it and her record speaks for itself. Her team is the least team to fire coaches they are true to their identity, I can talk until the cows come home. Ria Ledwaba did with some success even though I am not sure if she can be proud of her record.

Maybe Bob steak can do a better job in marketing instead of all these shenanigans he is doing at Chiefs currently. I am disappointed in Kaiser in allowing this to take so long. There is no hope that Steak is learnt anything from Kaiser who ran that team whilst he was a player and coach at the same time. I remember Nastasia Chiklass on Sports centre mentioning this one evening for different reasons of course, but I could not agree with her more. We buy under performing players we pump them with so much money they can’t play anymore. The less we talk about boardroom politics and court cases the better. Can Kaiser see that things are not happening and change in desperately needed around?

Are you ready for 2010

Now that the Flags of 32 nations that have qualified for World cup have been hoisted, even the doubting Thomas’s must accept defeat. The world cup is not going to Australia. I think David Bullard wanted to the world cup to go to Australia with all his heart. He wrote in more than one occasion about fans who will leave in body bags come 2010 if FIFA dare allowing South Africa to host World cup. Ironically in his brave hospital bed after he was attacked he said he was going nowhere SA is his home. Most white people are paranoid by the scourge of violent crime and they think blacks are not affected. Blacks are not immune but they have lived with crime all their lives.

Why are we so negative about our country, this questions positivism amongst South African about the World cup? When you watch foreign TV channels you see how much they put in ensuring their viewers know about South Africa not only about soccer but about all that will help them enjoy in between soccer matches. I watched CNN one evening and I was impressed with what some of South Africans a doing to attract foreign visitors to their towns. Is it not time now for all South African to show the world that Africa is capable? Keeping our streets clean will be a good start don’t you think.

CNN reported that the coastal town of Walvis Bay has gone a step further. They are doing everything possible to attract South American Spanish speaking teams to use their town as their base during world cup. The city mayor and the community as well as tourism industry are looking beyond 2010. They want to ensure that the fans and sports personnel come back to their town after 2010 as tourists. To ensure a better hospitality more than anywhere in the country, the residents are taking free Spanish lessons so that they can interact with tourists. Traffic officer were the first ones to take these lessons.

Few years back I spoke to then Secretary general of National Council of Trade Unions (NACTU) Mahlomola Sikhosana who suggested that to prepare for the world cup the national government should invest in teaching the unemployed youth the major European languages, as they would come in handy during the World for visitors and beyond. It is not a secret that major European languages are spoken all over the world (we all know the history behind that) He said this would help the youth to help translate for the visitors during and after the world cup. Since we are envisaging that after the world cup fans will come back, the lessons will then be used continuously to help tourists understand our country better. I thought that was practically impossible until I saw it on TV that it is possible. What are you doing in you community to ensure that the World cup legacy touches your community? Are you waiting for the government to set the agenda? You might just be too late we are less than 200 day to the Soccer show piece

.

Police are victims too

Over the past few weeks we experienced a serious media assault on police for serial offences of shooting innocent people and bystanders. To my Knowledge they have been doing this all along. Ask Independent Complains Directorate (ICD) in KZN they will tell you about countless number of cases they have been dealing with over the years. We must admit that there are those police who have little regard for the law and lives. What has changed is the media attention to vilify Bheki Cele and Nathi Mthetwha on the use of deadly force against criminals. Just like in the case of Zuma where the media led everyone to believe that the judge said, “there was a generally corrupt relationship” between Zuma and Shaik, the media again has coined the “Shoot to kill” as if it is Cele and Mthethwa who said it like that.

Media set the agenda and what they say over and over again becomes the gospel as the “ generally corrupt relationship” tag line proved. In Jeppestown massacre when police were murdered like animal the media was concerned that the police killed those murderers after they had surrendered. This made more headlines than the death of men and women who died trying to protect you and me.Few weeks ago Captain Scheepers pointed a gun at a criminal and ordered him to drop the gun. Do you think that criminal cared to listen? Captain Scheeper was shot dead. What made headlines the following morning was the fact that Captain Scheepers was not wearing a bulletproof vest, how sick is that? They stopped short of saying he brought this to himself. Between 2007and 2008 staggering 213 police we gunned down by criminals and still counting for 2009, but this did not make headlines because it is not sensational.

I have heard Bheki Cele on numerous occasions saying police should kill when they are in Danger or the public is in danger. He questions Section 49 of police Act. I also do, what if a criminal is running away from the scene carrying an AK 47 do we then say he pose no thread. Let him go until we have a proof that the AK 47 in his hand is not for decorating the streets? Section 49 should be clear on that as to when to shoot, but when you are under threat you know and you should act. There will be isolated incidents of police who go out of hand and I think ICD is there for that.

We can’t allow trigger-happy police to act with impunity. We need a holistic approach where as civilians we can help the police to send criminal to where they belong. Stolen goods are a hot property in our townships; in a country where 23% of the population is unemployed most want to keep up with the Jones’ in a country where materialism is everything. Let’s stop glamorising criminals I am not sure how many time have I read Sowetan telling its reader about the shoes and the cars the Mashobane “King of Bling” girlfriend was driving. It is this kind of reporting that is disappointing; instead of discouraging criminality we boost it by giving it the positive image. Instead of the main focus being on a criminal who is running out of time as a free man we put a spin by looking at his assets (needless to say accumulated trough blood sometimes even of police men & women)

Even the ministers are not helping with their push for more bling. Our ministers choose to buy the most expensive cars which have been assembled elsewhere when we actually assemble good cars in our back yard, Ask Blade Nzimande and Trevor Manuel where their cars were assembled you will be shocked. Will it not be better if they were helping to create jobs by buying local other than fuel inflation further.

We need a solution blaming shoot to kill won’t solve problems we are approaching Christmas and every criminal want to have a good Christmas and that is very terrifying for ordinary people. I think police intelligence post apartheid is poor, it need to be beefed up to minimise the killing of innocent people, further education is a must for police as crime changes all the time, some of the police can not even take a proper statement from a victim and this lead to high failure rate of convictions. But ordinary people should come on board in most case we know criminals in our midst.

How safe are we?

Is it not interesting that Gauteng government under Qedani Mahlangu dep’t abdicated their responsibility long time ago on Zimbabweans who live in the Methodist Church? Bishop was struggling alone with them until recently when the government decided to pay them an unannounced visit. What was striking from what they were saying was that they were united in calling for the closure the place of safety. Do they have buildings to relocate these refugees now? Since early this year Qedani and crew promised to move these people to other buildings. Now they complain that the place is not safe, but those people feel safer than out in the streets where the government is planning to relocate them to. If they care so much why did it take so long for them to think of those kids, if they care so much why did they fail to relocate them earlier. Do they have time for them now? Do they have a building for them now? When people get fat salaries to service people they should do that and not wait until the problem get out of hand. Ineptitude is the problem of our office bearers, but they never see that because they are too important. We are waiting to see what they are going to do with those destitute.