The South African 20 - 27 May 2014

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20 - 27 May 2014

Issue 566

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REAL STORY BEHIND lynch MOB MURDER VIDEO EMERGES

| An online video showing a brutal mob murder went viral over the past week, featuring some noteworthy discrepancies and even fallacies in much of its reporting. But a fast-tracked police investigation revealed within days that the crime had nothing to do with initial reports claiming that ANC sympathisers were lynching a COPE voter on election day by sertan sanderson A viral video depicting a fatal mob attack in South Africa made global headlines last week, following initial claims that it portrayed a number of ANC supporters violently ganging up on a Congress of the People (COPE) voter on election day.

The graphic video appears to show an aggressive lynch mob erupting into a full-on public execution of what was reported as a helpless woman, but later on would be verified as man. This was the first of many discrepancies to surface, making this a widely misreported and misunderstood story about the nature of crime in Mzansi.

Several of the attackers in the video were wearing ANC-branded T-shirts; the kind of shirts typically circulated for free across South Africa ahead of elections, especially in impoverished township areas.

This was apparently reason enough for initial reports to brand the crime a supposed “ANC killing” while the true motivation behind the murder remained unknown for several days.

In the notorious clip, several people were documented violently attacking a helpless individual with brutal kicks and an axe, causing evident blunt-force trauma, leading ultimately to death.

Adriana Stuijt, a former journalist and controversial “Censor Bugbear” activist, a movement which supports claims of a ‘white genocide’ in South Africa, was accredited with posting the brutal footage online.

She said that a “credible source” had forwarded the video to her and

| AND GOD SAID: REALLY? Zimbabwe-born UK artist Gordon Glyn-Jones is holding a solo exhibition of paintings and drawings at Hoxton Arches Gallery on 28th and 29th May 2014. Read our interview with him on page 7

commented on the video: “I believe that this video was meant as a message to black voters on voting day. These videos taken at this scene were circulated all across South Africa on voting day. And the people who took that video formed part of the propaganda campaign to tell the voters of South Africa to ‘vote ANC’ or else.”

However, ANC spokeman Jackson Mthembu said the attack was “just terrible” while emphasising that the party had nothing to do with the attack at all.

As both the ANC and COPE distanced themselves from the footage, and the South African Police Service (SAPS) launched an investigation into the matter, a different picture soon emerged within days about the real motivation behind the killing.

SAPS spokesman LieutenantGeneral Solomon Makgale had shared his doubts on the authenticity of the video from the beginning, as questions arose about whether the attack was indeed linked to the elections or to any other political movement: “It does not seem to have happened recently. If it did happen, it was not over the past couple of weeks because, given the huge deployment we had countrywide, it would have come to our attention.”

As the investigation progressed, many of the actual details were quickly revealed, leading to three arrests. Locals Joel Lubisi, 51, Duncan Mbokodo-Sambo, 33, and Calvin Sibiya-Suthu, 27, were held in custody in connection with the crime, and are expected to be indicted on various murder charges

this week. It was also established that the video dated back to 17 February 2014, although threories had originally been raised whether it might not date back as far as 2009.

The police investigation also found that the crime happened in the village of Tonga in eastern Mpumalanga, near the border with Swaziland and Mozambique. It had previously only been apparent that the violent mob in the video had descended on the defenceless person somewhere within a Zulu-speaking region, as partakers had been heard saying “uZabanjwa” (translation: “you will get arrested for this”) but the place could not be narrowed down by any markers in the video.

As for the motivation behind the crime, SAPS spokesman Makgale explained that it emerged as another case of a community taking the law

into the its own hands (mob justice), after a local family had been killed and their daughter hijacked and raped by a gang of criminals.

“While the police were busy conducting their investigations, the community organised themselves and conducted a manhunt. The community apprehended one murder and rape suspect and beat him to death. It is alleged that the second suspect was also caught later by the community and killed,” Makgale said.

Although the ANC has been cleared of any direct involvement with this murder, it is significant that a culture of violence perpetuated by an underfunded police force plagued with corruption can compel such communities to resort to vigilantestyle justice over trusting those who have the mandate to keep the peace.

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| 20 - 27 May 2014 | thesouthafrican.com

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Searching for Sugarman director found dead in apparent suicide

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| The death of Malik Bendjelloul, whose much loved documentary brought the amazing story of anti-apartheid voice Sixto Rodriguez to the world’s attention, is mourned in his native Sweden as much as it is in South Africa by sertan sanderson

Malik Bendjelloul, the Swedish director of the 2012 Academy Award-winning documentary Searching for Sugarman has died in Stockholm, Sweden, aged 36 in what appears to be an apparent suicide. Bendjelloul’s family members commented that he had been suffering from depression “for a short period”.

His award-winning film tells the elaborate story of how two South Africans spent almost a decade tracking down the elusive MexicanAmerican singing sensation Sixto Rodriguez, whose music had

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become a household staple in South Africa in the 1970s and 1980s, particularly with the anti-apartheid movement. The documentary took several years to produce and reportedly cost Bendjelloul every last penny, forcing him to resort to filming some of his footage via an iPhone app.

Rodriguez was reported to have heard of Bendjelloul’s death after a concert in Chicago. In a short comment, he said: “Malik was a fantastic person.

He was both unique and very friendly. I saw him two weeks ago in London. He was so full of life,

hope and optimism and happiness, and looking forward to the future and future collaborations. We were talking about working together and talking about specific ideas, so the idea that he is no longer is just too hard to process.”

The news of Bendjelloul’s death also overshadowed the start of the Cannes Film Festival in the south of France, where he had become wellknown since his recent success.

Several celebrities tweeted on the subject of the loss of the director.

Mexican actor Gael Garcia Bernal said in an interview: “I briefly met Malik at the Oscars last year. This is

such shocking news. So sad.”

Before his untimely death, Bendjelloul was working on a film in South Africa based on Lawrence Anthony’s book The Elephant Whisperer.

Speaking to The South African last year, Bendjelloul had looked into a rather promising future, saying: “There’s so many exciting ideas, so many stories to be told. But I’m just aware of time – if you only have another 60 years left then that’s only about another 15 films! But it has to be about the story – there has to be a story to tell, or otherwise what’s the point?”

A national disability: Oscar Pistorius, crime and paranoia

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| A look at global commentary on the Oscar Pistorius trial, and what it reveals about the South African psyche

By Deva Lee Detailed coverage of the Oscar Pistorius trial has ensured that most South Africans have an opinion, and many are glued to daily reports.

The trial has attracted similar attention in international media, though some are opting for a broader perspective. Pistorius’ trial – whether we like it or not – has served as a litmus test for our 20-year-old democracy.

One of the issues holding international attention has been the influence of crime on social dynamic in South Africa. Pistorius’ trial has revealed a deep-seated paranoia about crime, particularly prevalent in white communities.

Two recent articles are worth noting.

Kenichi Serino of Al Jazeera writes that “the fear of crime by affluent, generally white South Africans has raised its head”.

He cites a 2012 report by Statistics South Africa, saying: “About half of white South Africans are afraid to go to parks or public spaces, compared with 32 percent of the black population”.

He then points out the irony that, despite the prevalence of

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white paranoia, the “majority of homicide victims – more than 85 percent – were black, according to the Institute for Security Studies, although blacks make up less than 80 percent of the population”.

The article quotes Dr Johan Burger, senior researcher at the Institute for Security Studies in Pretoria, who comments on the national attitude to crime: “Research shows that the chances of being a victim are much less than a well-todo South African might believe”.

Despite his anxieties about crime, Pistorius’ area “had a crime rate much lower than neighbouring areas”, notes Serino.

Margaret Evans of CBC News also wrote on the trial’s representation of the South African state of mind.

She writes that the trial “digs deep into the psyche of some of South Africa’s darkest fears and suspicions”.

She goes on to analyse the symptoms of South African paranoia, including attempts at maximum security and the avoidance of certain areas. “Fear is a billion dollar industry in South Africa”, she says. “There are 9,000 security companies in South Africa competing for the chance to sell you peace of mind. Registered security

guards outnumber police here by nearly two to one.”

She concludes by saying that “fear — whether real or imagined — is being allowed to shape society” in South Africa.

While these two articles provide an international perspective, Margie Orford’s article for The Daily Maverick in March 2014 invoked the local concept of the swart gevaar to describe Pistorius’ defence. Of the swart gevaar, Orford says: “It is perhaps the most atavistic of white South African fears. Under Apartheid, the threat of the swart gevaar was used to excuse any and all kinds of violence. In the pernicious narrative of “us” against “them”, these dangerous strangers, these “intruders” in the land of their own birth, had to be obliterated.”

It is one of the reasons for the South African tendency to “default to extreme and paranoid violence, whatever its psychological origins”, she says.

According to articles like these, this national paranoia noted by is influencing the way that South Africans relate to each other.

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This is ultimately what Pistorius is claiming in his defence. At this point in the trial, anxiety is one of the reasons he is pleading innocent to murder.

On 14th May the trial was put on hold to allow for a psychiatric evaluation of Pistorius, which will determine whether he suffers from General Anxiety Disorder (GAD).

The defence claims this “may have affected his ability to act in appreciation of wrongfulness”.

Pistorius has repeatedly claimed that his actions – including sleeping next to a gun, and shooting at potential intruders in his house – were a rational response to an unsafe environment.

As Orford explains, the judge will have to decide whether his fear was justified. “If the prosecution is unable to prove its case beyond reasonable doubt,” says Orford “the judge will have to weigh up whether this fear of an imagined intruder is reasonable and therefore a mitigating factor.”

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Jacob Zuma to be inaugurated as president on Saturday 24th May | Members of Parliament, current and former Heads of State and other eminent persons are expected to attend the presidential inauguration in Pretoria on 24th May 2014 by staff reporter

Ramphele to take “break” from politics as Agang infighting continues | In an unexpected announcement, Agang SA leader Dr Mamphela Ramphele proclaimed that she would not be taking up either one of the two seats that her new party managed to gain in last week’s general elections, opting to rather take time to regroup and focus on her future political strategy – if there is any by sertan sanderson Mamphela Ramphele announced in an open letter on the Agang SA website that she will take a break from party politics to “reflect on the Agang SA journey”, following some considerable infighting reported from within the ranks of Agang SA with regard to who might get to occupy the party’s two seats in parliament.

“After such a taxing journey I do need some time and space to settle my mind and body, enjoy time with family and friends, and reconnect with a personal world I have not had time to enjoy for a considerable time now,” Ramphele stated on the party’s website.

She added in her statement that she would be handing the party’s reins over to Agang SA National Youth Forum Co-ordinator Nyameka Mguzulo and Agang Chairman Mike Tshishonga, who are now to take the two seats in parliament that the party won in last week’s national elections. It is alleged that the two rather unknown politicians Mguzulo and Tshishonga received the parliamentary mandates as a clumsily ironedout compromise after the party had spent days agonising over the future of its leadership as well as its parliamentary representation in the immediate future. Mguzulo is poised to be the youngest MP in South African parliamentary history.

“I have always said that I was the bridge and would make sure that the reins are handed over at an appropriate time to a new generation of leaders. Nyameka and Mike will continue to fight for our principles and to achieve our Manifesto within the Assembly,” Ramphele commented about the succession without going into any further detail about the fall-out at the recent party meetings in Johannesburg.

“This is where I believe I can make the most valuable contribution

to the party and my beloved country. I will remain available to provide counsel and advice to the Parliamentary team and help them enrich the national debate. Let us continue to build the party for 2016.”

Ramphele also described her initial foray into politics as “the most exhilarating, daunting, and challenging time” of her life.

She may have hit the nail with that description. Having secured only little over 50,000 votes, Agang SA only narrowly managed to get into the National Assembly with two seats. It was widely expected that one of those two seats would certainly be occupied by party leader Mamphela Ramphele herself, but after ongoing leadership challenges came to a head, it emerged that she must have rather decided to jump boat when she wasn’t given a choice in picking the occupant of that second seat.

Pitting Ramphele’s choice of Cape Town lawyer Andrew Gasnolar against the party’s deputy president (and Ramphele’s inner-party adversary) Andries Tlouamma for the highly-coveted second seat, it would appear that the only compromise the party could manage to reach after several days of meetings was for all three of the hopefuls to bow out and hand the reins over to other candidates, effectively resulting in yet another defeat for Ramphele.

She expressed some disappointment at the election result in her open letter, implying that she had hoped for a better turnout for her party. “The people of South Africa spoke loudly and clearly, and showed a preference for the status quo. For an idealist like me, the national choice is disappointing, but I have to accept and respect it.”

However, the short history of her party had faced several obstacles to overcome before even going to the polls, including challenges from

being painfully underfunded to publicly mismanaging a prospective union with the Democratic Alliance (DA) at the beginning of the year, which ended up costing both parties valuable credibility points.

In an exclusive interview with The South African in April, DA leader Helen Zille had said that Ramphele had backed off from the arrangement between Agang SA and the DA “when a couple of people around her got cold feet.”

“In any event, Mamphela has spent her political capital because she’s not going to do very well in these elections and there’s not much she can bring to any other party now,” Zille had predicted at the time. Little did Zille apparently realise at the time that Ramphele would wind up not even being able to bring much to her own party anymore.

Erstwhile struggle activist Ramphele, however, rather went on to blame the fateful disagreement between the two parties on technicalities, saying that Agang’s interim constitution would not allow the two party’s to merge at that time – while adding that she would still be happy to run as the DA’s presidential candidate, which the DA rejected.

Rumours have emerged in the meantime from sources within Agang that rather than taking only a short break from politics, Mamphela Ramphele might likely be turning her back to this new struggle in her life altogether. As much as she may feel some hearty disillusionment after partaking in party-politics for merely one year, the 50,000-odd people, who have vested their votes and voices in Agang SA largely on the basis of the personality cult built around Ramphele, might feel much more betrayed than the would-be leader from Camps Bay, making the story of this struggle icon’s attempt to return to the stage rather a tragedy for all involved.

Thousands of people are expected to attend the inauguration of Jacob Zuma as South African President on Saturday 24 May, following the ANC’s victory in last week’s fifth democratic elections.

Zuma will be sworn in as President elect at the Union Buildings in Pretoria. Government expects thousands of people to show up for the ceremony, with 4,500 people to be accommodated at the Nelson Mandela Amphitheatre, including Members of Parliament, current and former Heads of State and Government and eminent persons.

Minister for Performance Monitoring and Evaluation as well as Administration and Chairperson of the Inauguration Inter-Ministerial Committee, Collins Chabane, would not be drawn on which well-known names were on the guest list.

Those that have been invited, he said, were still replying to the invitations.

The remaining guests will be accommodated on the Southern Lawns of the Union Buildings, while other members of the

public will be able to follow proceedings on live television, radio broadcasts and public viewing areas at 47 sites across the country.The inauguration ceremony is scheduled to get underway at 11am.

The cost implications of the ceremony, said the minister, in response to a question, will be “far less than the cost implications of the inaugurations that took place before”.

Ahead of the inauguration, the National Assembly will convene its first sitting next Wednesday, where members of Parliament will be sworn in.

This will be followed by the swearing in of the Speaker and Deputy Speaker of the National Assembly and the President of the Republic. According to the Constitution, the President should be sworn in within five days of being elected by the National Assembly.

By the time the inauguration takes place, the nine provinces would have elected their Premiers and provincial delegates to the National Council of Provinces (NCOP), which will have its first sitting on 22 May.

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Oh brother, there’s an app for that?

| Dominique Valente wonders if a relationship app designed to help men, may in fact, solve some of her own problems

By Dominique Valente I have a confession to make.

One of those awful truths about yourself that you really should go see someone about. Like a kind, non-judgemental friend, a shrink, or someone who’s a bit of both, like Oprah. Although this is a problem

that even Oprah, may just judge me about.

Because it’s one of those horrible truths that is made worse because most women seem to have it wired into their DNA or at least, so it seems. So here it is, the full awful irony of it: I’m a terrible

communicator. Or corresponder I should say. Which is the absolute pits. As I write. For a living.

But the thing is, while I write articles and profiles and spend my time jotting down ideas and thoughts – none of that helps me one bit when it comes to

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remembering my Aunty Mable’s birthday. And Ok, so while you can get technology on your side for that type of thing (thank goodness for the birthday notifications on Facebook or I wouldn’t have any friends left.) It gets worse. I’m really bad at initiating contact with anyone. I swear I’m part hermit. Give me a few good books, my bulldog, and a mountain of chocolate and you won’t hear from me for weeks. Or at least, until I run out of chocolate.

I even have fantasy about it: I’m buried in a library … it’s all rather safe, I have plenty of space and air but they can’t quite get me out for a few months because if they do the structure may collapse.

So the only thing they can do is funnel some things down to keep me sane: like wine, chocolate, love letters from my husband (which may include how sad he is that I’m not around but maybe just a little happy that the house actually stays clean) and maybe my dog for company.

Although even in my fantasy this has a few glitches … such as my pudgy dog who more than likely will get stuck in the funnel, and the fear that my hubby may leave me if he gets used to the joy of living in a neat and organised home. But I digress.

You see, while I am part hermit I love and cherish my friends and family. And despite my crab tendencies I really enjoy spending time with them. So a few years ago, the best thing that could have ever happened to someone like me, happened: I met and married a man of details. Yes, a man of details.

That should be his super power name: Details Man. A friend of spread sheets and organisation, at home with flow charts and post-its, while still being really cool and a bit of a closet hipster. In short, my saviour, my soul mate. Really.

Every few days, he says something along the lines of : “When last did you speak to your friend?” While I answer, “Which friend?” He’ll roll his eyes, calculate the length of time I haven’t spoken to each and suggest I send proof of life.

Of course, it hasn’t taken long for my friends and family to realise that there is something behind my new found connectivity. Like trained bloodhounds, they all smelled a rat, sniffed out my secret, and went straight for the source. And I feel sort of bad about it. cause they’re shameless.

They phone him all the time … about everything. They send him texts when I haven’t responded … telling him to tell me to respond.

And worse they phone to tell him things like “We’re all going in for Aunty Mable’s birthday, I assume your wife is as well?” While he splutters and eventually agrees.

He once complained to my best friend that he doesn’t keep my diary. To her credit she nodded sympathetically, patted his arm, and said, “Ah shame, that’s rough … so she’s free on Friday?” I’m not proud of this.

No really I’m not. I know it’s not his job … and he really should be concentrating on his other passions like being a closet hipster and riding his commuter bike everywhere … which is why my ears perked up considerably at the water cooler today. Ok it was actually the printer, but whatever.

My COO told me about a fabulous app he heard about on radio 94.7. It’s something that may just save my poor hubby’s nerves if I‘m ever allowed to use it. It’s called the BroApp: “Your clever relationship wingman.” That’s what it’s marketed as. Truly.

Apparently the BroApp automatically sends messages to your girlfriend so that you can concentrate on other things … like time with your bros. And it’s smart too, you add a few messages, set the time of day you want it to send the message and it does it. Not only that but it can detect when your girlfriend’s phone is nearby, so it doesn’t send messages while you are with her and it won’t send messages when you haven’t spoken in a while … it even has built in software so that your girlfriend’s friends won’t be able to uncover your secret. It’s clever.

Revolutionary. And yes, perhaps just a bit of a question mark, I suppose. But the only thing I’m interested in is: do you think I’ll be allowed to use it?

Especially, as I am, not in fact, a bro? And will it judge me if I load more than one ‘girlfriend’?

Somehow, I think it won’t. There’s a bro code, right? Even if you’re not really bro … they’ll help a nonbro in need, right?

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“The Great Herds of Africa”: An Ardmore exhibition in London | The Ardmore artists of KwaZulu-Natal have created an amazing body of work dedicated to and hopefully raising awareness about the diminishing herds of our beautiful but plundered continent and are coming to London to spread the word by staff reporter Ardmore is a ceramic studio founded by Fée Halsted in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa.

It is home to over 70 rural Zulu, Sotho and Zimbabwean artists.

“The Great Herds of Africa” is Ardmore’s latest collection, inspired by a desire to raise awareness of the diminishing herds of our beautiful but plundered continent.

The exhibition will be launched at Patrick Mavros in London on Wednesday 14 May, running until 25 May. More than 300 elephants were poisoned this past year in Hwange National Park. Petros Gumbi has paid tribute to them by creating beautiful elephant families in cream ware. He has invoked memories of ancient ivory carvings that now shame us into action against this needless material desire to own a carved tusk. Alex Sibanda, similarly has taken up the plight of the rhino, who are senselessly butchered daily for their horn.

Closer to home, in the stunning world heritage site of the Drakensburg, wardens from the parks board informed the artists that the eland herds are rapidly diminishing because of gambling parties that arrive with expensive hunting dogs in the night.

These beautiful antelope, always closely related to the

spiritual history of the San people, mean that another part of our heritage will soon no longer be seen grazing on the grasslands of KZN. Fée remembers the vast herds of sable and roan antelope on the family’s Matetsi ranch in Zimbabwe, now only a nostalgic memory. Sculptor Bennet Zondo has wonderfully rendered these antelope bringing a fresh take on the Rider series.

Betty Ntshingila, best known for her bird sculptures, has taken this talent with wings into one the microcosms of nature that is vital to the survival of our planet. The bee. Loss of the swarms of this amazing little insect would have terrible consequences.

The exhibition will be launched

by Fée Halsted at Patrick Mavros, 104 – 106 Fulham Road, London SW3 6HS, on on Wednesday 14 May, running unti 25 May. Open hours: Monday – Saturday: 10am – 7pm Sunday: 11am – 4pm www.patrickmavros.com About Ardmore: Ardmore Ceramic Art was established by Fée Halsted on Ardmore Farm in the foothills of the Drakensberg mountains of KwaZulu-Natal, where she lived after obtaining her BA (Fine Arts) Honours degree and lecturing at Natal Technikon.

Here she met Bonnie

Ntshalintshali, daughter of their housekeeper, whose polio meant that she was unable to work in the fields. Fée and Bonnie quickly developed a synergy and under Fée’s mentorship, Bonnie’s natural skills as an artist blossomed.

Five years later, in 1990, Fée and Bonnie were jointly awarded the prestigious Standard Bank Young Artist Award, the first such artistic partnership to be recognised. With this success came the demands of creating ceramics for their exhibition, so Fée offered other local women the opportunity to train at Ardmore, producing pieces to generate income for the fledgling studio.

The artists from the Ardmore studio are given training, direction, materials, a studio and a guaranteed market for their work, supported by a skilled marketing and administrative team. Over the years, Ardmore’s artists have won numerous awards and exhibited widely in South Africa and around the world. Ardmore artworks feature in leading galleries and collections, including the Museum of Art & Design in New York, the Museum of Cultures in Basel, Switzerland, and the Tatham Art Gallery in Pietermaritzburg, South Africa. The acclaimed auction house Christie’s has acknowledged Ardmore artworks as “modern day collectibles”.

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| 20 - 27 May 2014 | thesouthafrican.com

Community The Optimist

Karen de Villiers

Some people in my life are what you would call ‘the solid type’.

Pragmatic and sensible, and I am sure they think me a tad leaning towards insane, but as a Libran, when the balances are out of kilter, I take it quite personally.

Life is being unkind, and it’s just not right.

It’s all subjective, isn’t it? When things are going swimmingly, and it’s you on the up, viewing mortal issues from a distance, it’s simple to be philosophical – you ain’t trying to escape on some boat to a new world. Some people never get to leave the ground on their see-saw of life.

My life on the Schengen side

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Schengenanigans

| I have single handedly funded the entire town of Schengen with a dozen applications when all I ask is to go and spend my hard earned money at their squares and beaches. Then I hear about those who have no real love for French baguettes or Swiss fondue, think Napoleon was born in Napoli, and lo and behold, are granted a five-year visa for a threeday holiday of the border? Unfair. I have single handedly funded the entire town of Schengen with a dozen applications when all I ask is to go and spend my hard earned money at their squares and beaches. I sweat blood when shuffling in the chain gang of ‘wannabee’ Schengen visa hopefuls and pray that my documentation will not muster a huge red ink rejection.

I photocopy at the risk of killing the last of the rain forest and finally, breathe deeply and light a

candle when the powers offer me a few meagre months in return.

Then I hear about those who have no real love for French baguettes, Italian olive oil or Swiss fondue; have yet to discover what Ladurée is, think Napoleon was born in Napoli, and lo and behold, are granted a five-year Schengen for a threeday holiday. I ask you – is that a lesson in fairness or what?

When I tried to justify my case of unfairness to one of my unfazed

friends, another shrug and an eyebrow suggested I needed a more compelling job. Grapes past their sell by date were hinted at.

The more I tried to explain… even I could see the pattern of self pity in my whiny voice. I was in full complaining mode and the ‘me against the world’ scenario was becoming tiresome.

The real lesson, really, that life is totally not fair, but all the complaining about it is going to do less damage than a sandwich in a rainstorm. I have, finally, received my last ever Schengen visa before my true stamp of Britishness arrives. I have the ability to pop over the Channel for a weekend.

Europe is an enchanting continent and I get to be a part of that.

Getting the visa each time may have been super frustrating but I was never rejected or unwanted, or like some, given entry and exit dates only.

Those Roman and Greek gods must love watching us mortals ranting about an unfair life.

Our dramas are pitiful by comparison.

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Anthony Biggs & Clive Chenery for Jermyn Street Theatre present

SOUTH

AFRICAN

SEASON

10th June-12th July 2014 | Gordon Glyn-Jones in his studio in London

AND GOD SAID: REALLY? An interview with London artist Gordon Glyn-Jones

| We chat to Zimbabwe-born UK artist Gordon Glyn-Jones, who is holding a solo exhibition of paintings and drawings at Hoxton Arches Gallery on 28th and 29th May 2014 by heather walker How did you get to this point?

In the ‘90s I studied Fine Art at the University of Cape Town.

Michaelis is a good academy, but at the end of apartheid was steeped in post colonial angst.

I was from Zimbabwe and mentally we had begun our transformation ten years earlier.

I also had a fair measure of technical expertise but not much to say visually. At the time there was amazing new press freedom and opportunity on offer, so I started a magazine similar to Time Out. I also felt that if I was to make interesting art I needed to be punched in the face by life a few times.

So after a successful publishing career now is the time?

I have been evolving my work over the last eight years but now is the time to start showing. To use the chrysalis metaphor might seem quaint but this is how I feel.

I have been a pupa fattening up on experience; hopefully my wings will be worth looking at.

Why have you chosen such a big venue for your first exhibition in London?

My work is large by nature and its best presented in a venue of this size. Plus it’s a beautiful old upcycled railway arch and I couldn’t resist. (It’s 50m from the Hoxton Overground station, so also easy for people to get to). There are places left on the guestlist, so if anyone wants to come they can contact me via my website: gordonglyn-jones.com What is your work about?

I seek to represent the beauty which is always a by-product of

the change between two states. For example, the most striking skies are formed at dusk and dawn. The drama surrounding conception and death fuel our greatest works of art.

My oils inhabit the space between our animal and sentient selves; they are evocative altars to a dying natural world. My pencil works, much more simply, explore the essence of kites.

How do kites fit in?

The kite is a simple, human construct that connects two elements. I am investigating the sculptural and metaphoric nature of ‘kite-essence’.

This very personal motif has grown well beyond what you’ll find hobbyists flying each weekend. I travelled to China and Taiwan and discovered a rich ancient heritage of totemic kite making.

It was refreshing to bring my academic training to a completely new (but ancient) artistic tradition.

It struck me that the intersection of Chinese and Western culture is an interesting and exciting place to inhabit. I do large 4m-wide scrolls consisting of a grid matrix of scores of smaller, highly detailed pencil works similar to the tradition of technical drawing.

How have you found the reception of the London art scene?

I have had extremely positive feedback. As a matter of fact the demand for Southern African art has increased tenfold in the last five years.

Artists such as the Wylie brothers, Craig and Duncan, Lionel Smit, Tapfuma Gutsa and Paul Emsley have all laid the ground and gallerists are on the lookout for new diaspora artists. I

believe there will be a group show quite soon celebrating the best of them.

I will be writing a monthly column in The South African so watch this space!

What does the title: AND GOD SAID: “REALLY” mean?

My work can also be read from an environmental perspective and the title is to do with what we are doing to ourselves. In essence we are the first species to have dominion over the animals, but forget that we are still animal in nature and subject to its laws. I guess you could say my work is nature staring us down for a fight that it knows it’s gonna win. I think growing up in Africa with animals in their natural state ensures that relationship is strong in my mind.

Did growing up in Zimbabwe influence your work?

I was very lucky to have started my art career under the fabulous artist, Helen Leiros who runs Delta Gallery in Harare. Anyone who has ever had this privilege will tell you it’s like dashing towards the embrace of a tornado. If you make it out alive with Helen’s approval you have some chance in the artworld; if not, you’ll know about it. She’s passionate, deeply loves her students but tells it like it is.

GORDON GLYN-JONES | SOLO EXHIBITION | AND GOD SAID: REALLY? Hoxton Arches Gallery, next to Hoxton Overground Station There will be two nights to choose from: Private View - THURSDAY, MAY 29, 2014 - 5.30pm and Open Night - FRIDAY, MAY 30, 2014 6.30pm.

For guestlist email: contact@ gordonglyn-jones.com or visit: www.gordonglyn-jones.com

Jermyn Street Theatre presents a season of theatre, featuring some of South Africa’s most acclaimed playwrights and best-loved performers. The season includes major work

by Athol Fugard and Reza de Wet, and performances from Janet Suzman, Jack Klaff, Doreen Mantle and Basil Appollis.

Box Office:

020 7287 2875 www.jermynstreettheatre.co.uk

Artistic director Anthony Biggs

‘...the tiny but pioneering Jermyn Street Theatre.’

Mark Lawson - BBC

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A South African jazz evening with Adam Glasser and Pinise Saul

| The LondonJazz TransLATES series celebrates South African music on 23rd May 2014 with a performance by Pinise Saul, Adam Glasser and Eugene Skeef by staff reporter LondonJazz TransLATES is a monthly music series at London cabaret and performance venue The Crazy Coqs on Friday nights from 10.30pm.

Each session of the series celebrates the directness of expression and communication that vocalists can achieve when performing songs in their mother tongue. Think of the series as hassle-free travel for people who don’t have the time to plan, or to take a weekend away. Order a drink, house lights down, and you’re taken – in the mind – straight to a foreign country and connected directly to the emotional heart of a different culture.

The series is devised, and the singers and songs will be introduced and explained by jazz journalist, Sebastian Scotney, editor of LondonJazz News.

The May date in the LondonJazz

TransLATES series celebrates South Africa.

Vocalist Pinise Saul is one of the foremost living exponents of South African jazz, with a distinctive sound and approach forged from a combination of her rural Xhosa roots in Port Elizabeth and the influence of the vibrant township music scene of the ’50s and ’60s.

Saul has been based in London since the mid ’70s when she arrived as a key member of the Johannesburg originated musical Ipi ‘Ntombi. It was here that she began to tour, compose and record with the band Zila, led by fiery ex-Blue Note alto saxophonist Dudu Pukwana.

In 1985 South African pianist and harmonica player Adam Glasser joined Zila for several years playing gigs on the London scene as well as forays abroad to Spain, Sardinia and Italy, recording the album Zila 86 in 1986.

This was the beginning of a creative partnership between Glasser and Saul which has lasted to this day. Saul was a key composing contributor and performer on two Adam Glasser albums: Free at First which won a Sama in 2010, and Mzansi, nominated at the 2012 Samas. Since 2009 Pinise has been vocalist with the Township Comets, a London based band formed by Adam Glasser and Chris Batchelor exploring the music of Dudu Pukwana and more broadly SA Township Jazz, who will be heard this year at the Brecon Jazz Festival.

Pinise Saul and Adam Glasser will be joined on Friday 23 May by the extraordinary South African percussionist, composer and poet Eugene Skeef.

Book on www.brasseriezedel.com/ crazy-coqs/londonjazz-translatesadam-glasser-and-pinisesaul/11162330

Hit production returns to London | Hampstead Downstairs’ 2013 sell-out hit ‘A Human Being Died That Night’ returns following hugely successful runs at The Fugard Theatre in Cape Town and Market Theatre in Johannesburg

by staff reporter Hampstead Downstairs’ 2013 sell-out hit A Human Being Died That Night returns following hugely successful runs at The Fugard Theatre in Cape Town and Market Theatre in Johannesburg.

The play’s second London run is presented by Eric Abraham, an award-winning South African film and theatre producer in the UK. With a script by Nicholas Wright based on the best-selling book of the same name by psychologist Pumla GobodoMadikizela, A Human Being Died That Night explores her extraordinary interviews with Eugene de Kock, her time on the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, and how a fundamentally moral person could become a mass murderer.

Pretoria Central Prison, 1997.

Psychologist Pumla GobodoMadikizela sits opposite the apartheid regime’s most notorious assassin, the man nicknamed Prime Evil. A member of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, she is interviewing Eugene de Kock while he serves 212 years for crimes against humanity, murder, conspiracy to murder, attempted murder, assault, kidnapping, illegal possession of firearms, and fraud.

How did Eugene de Kock become one of the most reviled figures in apartheid history?

Is Gobodo-Madikizela able to overcome her disgust and hate for this monster and find the human within? And will he be prepared to open up and tell an educated black woman the truth?

Directed by Jonathan Munby,

Matthew Marsh plays De Kock while Noma Dumezweni plays Gobodo-Madikizela. Born in Swaziland to South African parents, Dumezweni came to England with her family as a child, first living in Suffolk, where she was educated, before moving to London.

Her theatre roles have included Romeo and Juliet, Julius Caesar, Breakfast with Mugabe, Antony and Cleopatra, Macbeth (all RSC) and A Raisin in the Sun (Winner – Olivier Award for Best Supporting Performer).

“I was a veteran fighter. That’s how I saw myself. But at the end of the day, all that I really am is a veteran of lost ideologies. Once you realise that, you lose your innocence” – Eugene de Kock.

‘A suspenseful, profound production that hits you hard in all the right places. There’s no two ways about it: you need to see it.’ – Cape Times Dates: 22 May – 21 June 2014 Tickets £12 – £20 Book online: www. hampsteadtheatre.com Tel: 020 7722 9301 Hampstead Theatre, Eton Avenue, Swiss Cottage, London NW3 3EU

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Book review: ‘Young Man With A Red Tie’ – Bob Hepple | ‘Young Man With A Red Tie’ is a gripping memoir that reconstructs how the author Bob Hepple was caught up in the revolution planned by Nelson Mandela and his comrades in the ANC and Communist Party in the period from 1960 to 1963

By Joseph Nthini In April 1954, aged 19, Bob Hepple stepped out of his father’s shadow.

Alex Hepple was the leader of the South African Labour Party.

Bob Hepple reveals in his memoir, “I stepped into the limelight after being arrested for breaking a petty apartheid law and spending a night in the cells.”

At the subsequent trial, Die Vaderland (Fatherland), a progovernment newspaper reported that a “young man with a red tie” had given evidence; the description became the title for his memoir.

For the next decade, while serving as an advocate, Hepple acted as Nelson Mandela’s legal adviser; courier, ferried Mandela and other leaders between safe houses and acted as a conduit between the underground leaders and other members.

Furthermore, he arranged assistance for activists charged with

sabotage and other offences, plus provided free legal advice to the struggling trade unions. This was the culmination of a career that began in his childhood and youth inspired by his parents’ political actives.

Young Man With A Red Tie reconstructs how Hepple was caught up in the revolution planned

by Mandela and his comrades in the ANC and Communist Party in the period from 1960 to 1963.

Though the revolution failed, it was the spark that lit the fire which consumed and destroyed the white supremacist regime.

The gripping memoir describes the dramatic events that led to the arrests of Bob Hepple, Govan Mbeki, Walter Sisulu, Ahmed Kathrada, Rusty Bernstein and Raymond Mhlaba at Lilliesleaf Farm, an ideal safe house for those engaged in underground activities.

The arrests culminated in the

Rivonia Trial and subsequent imprisonment of the leaders of the ANC on Robben Island.

Young Man With A Red Tie is a nonlinear narrative told in the first person present; it’s divided into different periods which create a cohesive and coherent account.

Although the main focus of the story is the failed revolution, the narrative timeline covers events from 1934 to 2013; providing the foreground to the revolution and the aftermath to contextualise it historically.

The revolution is sandwiched between accounts of Hepple’s experiences growing up in a racist society; detention without trial, interrogation, his audacious escape from South Africa to avoid being called as a state witness and the state’s retaliation to what Mandela described as Hepple ‘outwitting the enemy’.

Young Man With A Red Tie

The closest thing London has to a drive-in cinema

| Do you fondly remember regular visits to the drive-in while growing up in South Africa and wish you could do it again? BA’s new Rooftop Film Club in London offers the chance to sit under a starry sky eating popcorn and watching a movie

reveals behind the scenes esoteric details about the Treason and Rivonia Trials, the underground movement, including the problems and controversies surrounding the establishment of the Communist Party, and plans for a full scale guerilla war.

Hepple’s memoir is an important historical document; providing fresh perspectives about Nelson Mandela, Walter Sisulu, Govan Mbeki and other leaders’ characters plus the difficult conditions they operated under.

In addition, Young Man With A Red Tie exposes the vital role white activists played in fighting white privilege, complimenting the ANC’s struggle.

Hepple exposes the dangers they faced and how their activities led to direct confrontation with the apartheid authorities’, including the scare tactics employed by the secret police who warned him that, “I will

never be released. I will be hanged.”

Young Man With A Red Tie is an inspiring memoir about Bob Hepple’s lifetime struggle for human rights and democracy.

The book is available to purchase in the UK on www.centralbooks.co.uk

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By Marianne Gray If you have happy memories of spending Saturday night at a drive-in such as Top Star, Booysens or Velskoen, just off Malibongwe Drive in Randburg, despair not. BA’s new Rooftop Film Club in London means you CAN sit under a starry sky eating popcorn and watching a fliek.

Admittedly it’s not in a car packed with friends, cushions,

snacks and a demijohn of Tassies to watch an old Tarzan movie. It’s slightly more sophisticated.

At this Film Club you sit outside on deckchairs with wireless headphones on and watch a movie while eating popcorn, ice-cream and choccies.

The views are sensational and the night sky is full planes rather than stars.

There’s one on the roof of an

old cricket bat factory in trendy Peckham, another on the Queen of Hoxton, in equally trendy Hoxton, and a third at the Roof Gardens in Kensington.

They are screening over 170 films from now until September 30 and instead of R70 per car to get in, single tickets are from £13.

More info : http://www. rooftopfilmclub.com

Ina Paarmans Lime Coriander dressing £ 2.25 Robertsons Portuguese chicken spice £2.00 Steers BBQ 375ml £2.10 Steers Monkey gland sauce 375ml £2.10

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| 20 - 27 May 2014 | thesouthafrican.com Follow us on Twitter: @TheSAnews

Hwange, Zimbabwe’s largest game reserve. All photos by Kris Griffiths

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| Zimbabwe’s political leaders may not bring their country much favourable publicity, but beyond the headlines is a determined tourism industry fighting to show the world all this gorgeous nation has to offer. You’ll need at least 10 days to see the best of Zimbabwe, which will indubitably dispel any misconceptions you may hold

By Kris Griffiths I’VE heard of an elephant in the room but this is the first time I’ve heard one outside the room. I’ve just bedded down in a Davison’s Camp luxury tent lodge in Hwange National Park sited near an elephants’ water-hole, and one of the peaceable pachyderms has chosen the quiet of night to plod up to the acacia tree beside my tent for a midnight snack. A few minutes of branch-shaking later and he’s off again with a snort.

It’s a special feeling being ensconced in their world, with no fences or boundaries. Safe at all times though, with veteran park rangers lodged nearby, and the next morning riding high in the back of one of their open jeeps, camera and ‘noculars at the ready, absorbing the front-row view of an epic wild landscape.

Hwange, Zimbabwe’s largest game reserve (roughly 15,000 sq km – bigger than Wales), is home to more than 100 species of mammal and 400 bird species, disproving any misconception that the country lacks wildlife.

Thousands of elephants trudge a migratory route from here to neighbouring Botswana every year.

I’d spent the previous two days in Zim’s second largest reserve Gonarezhou, part of the vast Great Limpopo Transfrontier Park, incorporating Kruger in South Africa and Mozambique’s Limpopo – animals can move freely between the three sanctuaries.

Between both parks I see buffalo, giraffe, jackals, wildebeest, zebra, and hundreds of elephants – rewardingly intimate photos are taken of all of them.

At the heart of Gonarezhou is Chilo Gorge Safari Lodge, perched high on a rocky outcrop overlooking the Save River and its resident crocs and hippos.

As with much of the country, Chilo had suffered over the preceding 15 years from a drop in tourism and investment but was refurbished and reopened in 2012 by a local team led by internationally-acclaimed conservationist Clive Stockil, who has pioneered communitybased preservation here for 40 years.

Its lodges and their lush surroundings are Eden-like; the wider area’s rejuvenation encapsulated by local village Mahenye, whose school and medical facilities are flourishing.

It’s all wonderful to witness.

An earlier leg of my itinerary was spent driving through the ‘Eastern Highlands’ bordering Mozambique, so-called because its wet local climate has helped cultivate a verdant landscape evoking the rainsoaked Highlands of Scotland. But Caledonia’s dark, craggy mountains are here replaced by smooth, lightcoloured granite peaks that rise from the fertile terrain like giant thumbs.

Near one of the bigger

mountains – Nyanga’s Mt. Rupurara (Shona for “bald head”) – lies the award-winning Inn on Rupurara, whose 17 rustic lodges cling to a hillside overlooking the valley, maximising the view. After breakfast you’ve the option of a game drive through its private estate or ascending Rupurara’s summit. Choosing the latter, my group is rewarded an hour later by unforgettable views stretching hundreds of miles.

As well as such satisfying activities and rich wildlife on offer in Zimbabwe, there’s equally rich historical culture also to be absorbed. Here is southern Africa’s highest concentration of ancient rock art: 3,500 sites recorded in Matobo, its oldest national park.

After an overnight stay and morning swim at the perfectly placed Matopo Hills Lodge, I observed one such wonderwall close to the hill where Cecil Rhodes chose to be buried (so he could eternally overlook the park he cherished). Nswatugi Cave’s high back wall is emblazoned with a dexterously painted animal gallery at least 2,000 years old. The huge gravity-defying granite boulders that perch atop the slopes around the caves create another visually arresting landscape in a country containing many.

Its greatest crown jewel though is the ruined city of Great Zimbabwe in Masvingo – the UNESCO World Heritage Site

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Bungee jumping over the Zambezi river

Hwange game reserve

flourishing Zimbabwe beckons after which the country was named, covering nearly 1,800 acres and inhabited from the 11th century. The photography opportunities here alone can fill a whole memory card, particularly its lofty monolithic acropolis and the Great Enclosure with its conical tower monument. (The Lodge at the Ancient City is an ideal overnight base here – constructed in Great Zimbabwe’s style, with huge thatched lodges for accommodation).

Further inland, Zimbabwe’s cities are thriving. Capital Harare will surprise you with its clean streets and leafy suburban areas as well busy central markets – its higher-end Rainbow Towers hotel offers an impressive elevated view over it all. Meanwhile in second city Bulawayo, the main avenues are wider and lined with even more heritage buildings, including the largely unchanged Exchange Bar where Rhodes conducted his business deals – an evocative spot for an afternoon beer. Zim’s foremost museum is also here, offering a compelling visual digest of its history.

My final destination is, fittingly, one of earth’s most spectacular natural wonders: Victoria Falls.

At twice the height of Niagara, its thunderous noise and iridescent mist clouds can be perceived from miles away, and is aweinspiring at closer quarters.

I stayed at two distinguished places here – the Stanley & Livingstone Private Game Reserve, whose plush lodges overlook its own 6,000-acre game park, and The Victoria Falls Hotel, one of the world’s grandest Edwardian-era hotels, encircled by tropical gardens and centuryold trees.

The latter overlooks the imposing Victoria Falls Bridge over the Zambezi, linking Zimbabwe to Zambia, off which I find myself plummeting 120m towards the rapids after breakfast before the attached bungee cord halts my fall. It’s another unforgettable experience (run by this professional company) that any thrillseekers worth their adrenaline should do while here.

My final day is spent soaring over the Falls in a helicopter for the ultimate panoramic view (‘Flight of Angels’); cruising the river on a luxury boat, around Livingstone Island and briefly into Zambia (‘Zambezi Explorer’); and dining at an ebullient local restaurant (‘Boma’) where the experience is fully immersive: playing bongos, eating mopani caterpillars, and not wanting to leave.

An apt conclusion to my tour of Zimbabwe, which I certainly didn’t want to leave. You’d need at least 10 days to see the best of it, which will indubitably dispel any misconceptions you may hold. The city’s streets are safe and clean, the lodges and hotels of a superlative standard, and the main highways traffic-free. Above all the people are welcoming and hospitable, and their country fully primed for tourism to return.

Once you’re beneath the stars in the game parks with elephants strolling past your tent, it becomes clear what everyone’s been missing out on for too long.

Kris flew from London Heathrow to Harare via Johannesburg with South African Airways For further info on visiting Zimbabwe go to www. zimbabwetourism.net

Victoria Falls

Mahenye Village School

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Business

| 20 - 27 May 2014 | thesouthafrican.com Follow us on Twitter: @TheSAnews

South Africa to produce own smartphones

| In a bid to compete with the international market, South Africa-based MINT Electronics is set to launch its first smartphone products next month – with the cheapest model rumoured to be priced only around R600 by sertan sanderson A Boksburg-based company is set to launch the first South African-produced smartphones next month, aiming to appeal to the low-income market with affordable budget models.

Mint Electronics, a subsidiary of Sekoko Holdings, will share details about its mobile phone models alongside a tablet, which is also in development, next month. However, it has already been revealed that the phones will feature the Android operating

system as well as boast dual SIM ports to switch between various service providers – a feature that is highly coveted on the African market.

While much of the phone’s components will truly be “made in Mzansi”, the processor chips are

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rumoured to be provided by US manufacturer Qualcomm.

The announcement comes after the manufacturing branch of the company had previously invested almost R10 million in research for the local product to be designed and developed.

It will be the first product of its kind to be built in SA, as over a third of cell phone users in South Africa have already switched over to using smartphones in recent years. Over half of all South African consumers likely to have purchased smartphones by 2017, according to recent market research studies, as the country is beginning to catch up with global technology trends.

With Nokia poised to hit the South African market with its lowmarket Asha models later this year, the South African-produced brand is trying to compete for budgetsavvy consumers, while higher-end products built by international brands such as BlackBerry, Apple

and Samsung are set to remain the staple of the middle classes.

The company, which is headed

by Oupa Magashula, the former commissioner of the South African Revenue Service, is confident that the market is ready for his product: “We are not going to try to compete with the likes of Samsung. Our products will have unique features, content and will be priced below some existing high-end products,” Magashula said ahead of next month’s launch.

While South Africa’s mobile data landscape is trailing behind the western world in many respects, analysts hope that access to more affordable and better performing phone models might give service providers a push to create better data products.

Before the phones and tablets can run off the assembly line, however, there is still a legal disagreement that needs to be settled in court over varying shares held in the manufacturing process.

Rand remains on a knife edge | The ZAR started the week with its back against the wall, along with other emerging market currencies, as focus remained on the violence in Ukraine

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by Herman Howell The situation in Ukraine seemed to stabilise towards the end of the week, bringing relief to investors worldwide. The ZAR is a risky investment, and with the stability came renewed confidence in higher-yielding, riskier currencies.

Unfortunately for the ZAR, this is not the only hurdle it is facing at the moment. The strikes on the mines are still looming and sadly turned violent at the start of last week as four miners were killed. Miners are asking for a minimum of R 12,500.00 a month and tensions were aggravated by comments from Amplants CEO Chris Griffith that his pay of R17m was “fair”.

Rand strengths were also reversed as investors’

expectations for an interest hike this week waded. Fears of more labour violence are keeping the ZAR on a knife’s edge. Such is the life story of the ZAR; it will always weaken faster than it strengthens, as investors are very weary of the risks involved with Africa’s second largest economy.

The ZAR is expected to remain range-bound this week; it’s worth noting that bond inflows since February are almost R60bn – a record for any four-month period.

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London event: Making sense of the elections with Jonny Steinberg

| Join renowned South African political analyst and academic Dr Jonny Steinberg for an evening of post-election analysis, discussion and debate in London by staff reporter First Wednesday with Jonny Steinberg – Making sense of the May elections: The future of governance and politics in South Africa.

Join renowned South African political analyst and academic Dr Jonny Steinberg for an evening of post-election analysis, discussion and debate in London on Wednesday 28 May. Questions to be explored will range from what the election

result will mean for South African business both at home and abroad to how proposed policy shifts might impact the South African commercial space.

Jonny Steinberg is an Associate Professor of African Studies and Criminology at Oxford University.

He has twice been the recipient of South Africa’s premier non-fiction prize, the Sunday Times Alan Paton Award, and was an inaugural winner of the Windham-Campbell Prize for Literature awarded by

Yale University. He is the author of several books about everyday life in the wake of South Africa’s transition to democracy, including Midlands, about the murder of a white farmer, The Number, a biography of a prison gangster, and Three-Letter Plague, a young man’s journey through the AIDS pandemic.

This event will be hosted by the South African Chamber of Commerce at the offices of Standard Bank in London.

Right of appeal provision for visa applications to effectively close

| The Immigration Act has now been enshrined into law. The Act contains significant amendments that any applicant for a UK visa, either from outside or inside the UK, should be aware of

by JP breytenbach Previously, there were seventeen grounds under which a person could appeal against an immigration decision. These are now replaced with three; a ‘protection claim’ (i.e. a claim for refugee status or humanitarian protection), refusal of a human rights claim or a decision to revoke a person’s protection status.

This means that the vast majority of visa applications will no longer attract the right of appeal to an independent Immigration Judge. Instead, those applicants receiving a refusal will be entitled to have UK Visas and Immigration conduct an internal administrative review of the decision only.

This causes obvious concern as there is a distinct lack of checks

and balances, with the resulting fear that applications will not receive the necessary scrutiny.

Furthermore, ambiguous terms contained within the Immigration Rules will no longer frequently be the subject of judicial interpretation Those who made their application in the UK before the expiry of their visa will be entitled to carry on living and working in the United Kingdom pending this process, as before.

However, the only recourse post the administrative review, would be to seek a judicial review of the decision in the High Court, which can be a costly process, during which time a person will not be permitted to work.

It is therefore now more important than ever that a person seeks proper advice from

regulated immigration advisors, before making an application for a visa, as there are now serious consequences for those facing a refusal.

For more information or for assistance with your appeal, please contact our offices at info@bic-immigration.com or visit our website www. bic-immigration.com for more information.

Ben Isherwood, Senior Immigration Consultant, C, Breytenbachs Immigration Consultants Limited. www.bic-immigration.com or info@bic-immigration.com

14

Business: Classifieds SERVICES

| 20 - 27 May 2014 | thesouthafrican.com Follow us on Twitter: @TheSAnews

SERVICES

SA SHOP DIRECTORY The Chichester Biltong Company www.biltongcompany.co.uk The best of British from a friendly bunch of South Africans who made Sussex our home. But there was one thing we couldnt live without from our native land..Biltong!

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The Springbok Café The Springbok Café offers traditional South African food, wine and beers served with a smile in a friendly atmosphere. All this plus the option to grab your favourite S.A. groceries before you leave after relaxing and kuierring with us for a while.

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Sport

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Jake’s Sharks show how it’s done

| What a weekend for South African rugby, and what a weekend for the Sharks, who beat the Crusaders in Christchurch for the first time in history

By Michael Todt

What a weekend for South African rugby, and, more specifically, what a weekend for the Sharks! The Super Rugby logs have made for grim reading outside of Durban for much of the season, as many of our teams have lurched from one abject defeat to another.

The strength of New Zealand sides is taken as given, but more worrying was the apparent gulf developing between the South African franchises and many of the Australian ones. Wallaby rugby has been at a low ebb in recent years, yet the Stormers, Cheetahs and Lions have trailed all but the

unexpectedly poor Reds for the entire competition.

But while a glimpse at the current combined conference still engenders precious little to smile about, Springbok coach Heyneke Meyer will have no doubt been reinvigorated after witnessing a mightily impressive weekend’s rugby.

What the Sharks accomplished in Christchurch on Saturday was a whole lot more than the “anomaly” that Crusaders coach Todd Blackadder is so keen to write it off as. It was a performance and result that showed character of the highest echelon.

It’s one thing to acquit yourselves admirably once you go down to 14 men (or 13, as they were for the 10 minutes that Willem Alberts found himself in the sin bin), but quite another to still believe you can win when the lead changes hands a further seven times. On any of those occasions in which they relinquished the lead, the Sharks could have fallen away without any shame. Instead, they continued to sense that their opponents were there for the taking, and dug deep to pull off an unprecedented and extraordinary triumph.

Make no mistake, this result sent shockwaves all around New

Zealand too. The manner of the Crusaders’ defeat encompassed everything All Black fans, up until the 2011 World Cup, spent 24 years trying to ignore.

Some choose to simplistically use the word “choke,” but more than that, it provided a first-hand expose of what makes top Kiwi sides vulnerable. A sturdy and committed defence, and some unsettling physicality. It’s a draining, sapping way to play rugby, and it isn’t easy on the eye. But it works.

To draw direct comparisons between franchise sides and a national team is hazardous, but Crusaders sides of the past 15

years have typified what makes All Black teams so formidable. The Crusaders’ current crop is by no means the worst either, and they would have found themselves top of the combined conference had they registered four tries and won by more than seven points – which they arguably should have.

But they didn’t. Instead they contrived to snatch defeat from a team who has demonstrated the blueprint for prevailing against such revered opposition. All in all, a brilliant weekend for them, their fans and for Jake White. But I daresay no one will have had a broader grin yesterday than Meyer.

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It’s time for Summer Touch

| Well, after the amazing end to last week and the weekend – Summer is definitely around the corner

by Jessica Powell With this week seeing the half way mark for some of our venues, the countdown to the much anticipated Summer league is on. With 7 venues across London, playing across 4 evening weeknights, there is no shortage of Touch to be involved in.

Along with the many social leagues and divisions we have running, the highest level of Touch to be involved in is our SuperLeague competition at Putney/Wandsworth.

This competition is held at King Georges Park, and each week displays some of the best players in England and their abilities.

With a Men’s, Women’s and Mixed Divisions – the skill and talent on showcase is next to nothing.

With many old rivals taking part in our mixed league, each week is sure to create some elite team play.

From the 10 teams we have competing in the mixed SuperLeague, 8 of them compete in either the National Touch Series (NTS) or Championship Touch Series (CTS).

The NTS is the highest level of touch competition that runs annually in Europe (and look how many O2Touch players are playing in it!). Those 8 teams competition

are only our London based teams as well, as many of the other O2Touch venues across England will also have a team competing.

Thursday evening each week during Spring and Summer is when the competition is held, and Thursday just gone saw some very competitive games! On pitch 1, we saw BBR London take on Tumeke Mixed. With both teams bursting at the seams with international players, the game was less than ordinary! After a gruelling 40 minutes, it was BBR London who managed to come out on top, taking the win 10 touchdowns to 3.

BBR London can’t celebrate too much though, as the games ahead will only get harder! Two other front runners for the gold, The Scorpions and Galaxy London Mixed also went head to head on Thursday. In what we can only call a Batman vs Superman battle, the score came out an even 10 all after the hardest 40 minutes of the day.

With many of the Superleague teams also clubs who love to develop players, if you want to get involved in a higher level of touch, make sure to get in touch!

To enter your own team or join as an individual, go to www. in2touch.com/uk or email jess@ in2touch. com

Victoria Station Tel: 0207 931 9314 (open Mon-Fri 7am-8pm, Sat 9am-6pm, Sun 9am-6pm) London Bridge Shop Tel: 0207 357 9314 (open Mon-Fri 7am-8pm, Sat 9am-6pm, Sun 9am-6pm) Raynes Park Shop Tel: 0208 4170044 (open Mon-Sat 10am-8pm, Sun 11am-5pm) Southfields Shop Tel: 0208 780 3727 (open Mon-Sat 10am-8pm, Sun 11am-5pm)

Liverpool Street Shop Tel: 0207 374 4994 (open Mon-Fri 7am-8pm, Sat 10am-4pm) Wimbledon Shop Tel: 0208 971 9177 (open Mon-Sat 10am-8pm, Sun 11am-5pm)

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20 - 27 MAY 2014

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its time for summer touch p15

NEWS FOR GLOBAL SOUTH AFRICANS

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SMASHING WEEKEND FOR South African RUGBY | Saturday’s three Super Rugby matches involving the Sharks, Stormers and Cheetahs ended with a whitewash for the South African teams as they all recorded victories, while The Sharks became the first SA team to ever win in Christchurch since the franchise started back in 1998

By staff reporter The Cell C Sharks will be celebrating one of the finest achievements in their history after what can only be described as an epic 30-25 win over a shell-shocked Crusaders at AMI Stadium in Christchurch on Saturday.

The Sharks consolidated their spot at the top of the Vodacom Super Rugby log with their superb victory over the in-form Crusaders – the first defeat for the team from Canterbury in New Zealand since 2001 against South African opposition and also the maiden victory for a team from the Republic in the Land of the Long White Cloud this season.

The Durbanites became the first South African team to ever in Christchurch since the franchise system was put in place in 1998.

It was only the second time a SA team managed to beat the Crusaders in Christchurch, when Northern Transvaal won there in 1996, and the third time out of 46 matches that the seven-time Super Rugby champions lost at home to a team from the Republic – the Cats beat the Crusaders in Nelson in 2001.

The Crusaders also drew twice at home to teams from South Africa in the early years of Super 12, in 1996 against Western Province and in 1997 against the Sharks.

Not only was it the first win scored by a South African team against the Crusaders at that stadium – and it came on the

CHRISTCHURCH, NEW ZEALAND: Tendai Mtawarira of the Sharks celebrates after the round 14 Super Rugby match between the Crusaders and the Sharks at AMI Stadium on May 17, 2014. (Photo by Martin Hunter/Getty Images)

occasion of stalwart front-rankers Jannie du Plessis and Tendai Mtawarira celebrating their landmark 100th game – it was also achieved by a team that were down to 14 men from the 17th minute and were even reduced to 13 players on the paddock at one stage.

Jean Deysel was sent off in the first half for stomping, and it was a legitimate call. At that stage, with the scores level at 7-all and the Crusaders recovering from

what had been a very loose start by their standards, it looked like the sending off might be the ball game.

But Crusaders flanker Richie McCaw and Sharks skipper Bismarck du Plessis summed up in separate interviews what happened from there. As Du Plessis put it, the sending off drew the Sharks players together and made them a heck of a lot more determined.

McCaw, speaking at the halftime interval, suggested the sending off

had made his team complacent and had forgotten they still had work to do.

It was a brave and passionate defensive effort from the Sharks, while the Crusaders showed they may be vulnerable mentally, as they returned to their stuttering performances of the early rounds.

This wasn’t the Crusaders team that buried the Brumbies. It was more like the Crusaders team that lost at home to the Chiefs and Hurricanes and very nearly lost

there to the Stormers.

The win was an important one, not only for the Sharks but also South Africa, as Christchurch has long been a barrier to South African players, and it proved that the New Zealanders aren’t invincible. At the same time it perhaps also sent out a message about where the South African strength lies. The Sharks were no more inventive than they had been in previous weeks, with kicking, defence and the allround suffocation strategy that took them to the top of the log prevailing on this occasion.

Later on Saturday, the DHL Stormers won their third successive home game of 2014 when they easily beat the highflying Force by 24-8 in Cape Town, outscoring their visitors by three tries to one –the same try count as in the Sharks/Crusaders match.

Saturday ended in ecstasy for the Toyota Cheetahs as they managed to beat the Brumbies for the first time since 2011 when they won this replay of their 2013 qualifier by 27-21, thanks mainly to a very good second half performance.

On Sunday morning, the Lions started very well against the Waratahs in Sydney, but the home team had too much left in the second half and eventually won this match by 41-13.

The Vodacom Bulls, currently second in the South African Conference behind the Sharks, had a bye this weekend.

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