Is it just me ??

Or does the new Moses Mabhida stadium look like a Tupperware cake taker. See the pictures below this one.

I was out and and about on 21 December 2008 and took this picture. The ends of the arch over the stadium seem about to join in the middle.


And another view.

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The coastal cloaca

Last Sunday, which was December 21, 2008, I had a bit of a sad experience. With a a couple of passengers, I had occasion to drive from the Morningside, Burman Bush area, over to the Botanic Gardens, and from there to Essenwood Road, and then down through town to the Point area and back to Morningside. The town has a dilapidated air with pavements which were unswept, and had not been for many moons, judging by the size of the weeds. Street furniture was badly in need of painting, potholes were proliferating in the roads and it was not only the busy downtown areas that are affected in this way, but even the leafy streets in the suburbs were looking down at heel and badly in need of attention.

To say that Point Road, around the the intersections of West and Smith Street is looking squalid, is to be guilty of a gross understatement. The beachfront is our crown jewel, which tourists should be paying big bucks to visit, and yet it is being ruined, and I don't know the cause. Is it greedy building owners, a huge influx of poor people to the area, crime? What? Whatever factors are at work, they must be identified and sorted or we are going to end up as some sort of coastal cloaca. Ever fewer people are going to want come here.

Having travelled a fair way through town on Sunday, it was inevitable and that we would come across another problem which is plaguing Durban at the moment. The matter is, of course, the fact that there are so many malfunctioning traffic lights and, although I can't accurately remember exactly how many were not working, it was more than a double-handful.

By a strange, well perhaps not so strange, coincidence, the Sunday Tribune of the same day, December 21, carried a story headlined "Berea Road's killer corners". In the story, it was reported that faulty traffic lights have been causing havoc at a number of locations in Berea Road. These are the bridges at Essenwood Road and Musgrave Road and the robots have apparently not been working for three weeks. At least 30 accidents were reported from those locations in the last three weeks. In spite of this ongoing problem, City Police pointsmen had not been deployed in the area, which is one of the most busiest in the city. There is a picture heading the story which shows absolute chaos with cars going every which way trying to get through the intersection. An onlooker reported city policemen on a bridge over Berea Road operating a speed trap, but totally unconcerned with traffic chaos at occurring not a couple of yards from where they sat.

In the Natal Mercury of December 22, 2008, there is a reader's letter which notes that city management, because they live here, must pass these intersections and others like them every day, and yet they do nothing. The reader is is quite right to raise this point and you can't begin to understand how these people can neglect their own home in such a fashion.

The Sunday Tribune article of the 21st, said that a contractor was responsible for repairing the traffic lights and the questions should be asked why the city's own staff is not being used for this task, and why, failing that, the contractors are not being supervised adequately.

The Durban streets that we travel in every day are not yet looking quite like the streets of Zimbabwe or the other third-world troublespots that we see so so regularly in the news. But they are deteriorating and will start to look that way before too much longer.
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The arms deal again

In the Mercury of December 2, 2008, the Mercury's Idler columnist reports having been to the Cobb Inn on the wild coast for a couple of days holiday. He notes that he saw what he believes to be an illegal trawler operating just off the coast at night, without any navigation lights. He reports that the locals say that this is a regular occurrence.

I have mentioned in these pages before, the controversy involving the Navy's desire to order new vessels for coastal patrol, which comes in spite of their recent acquisition of four frigates, which are apparently not suitable for the purpose. The Mercury of December 3, 2008, reports that, in a speech by the chief of the Navy on the previous day, it was announced that the Navy intends to buy six additional patrol vessels valued at nearly R2 billion, and also a strategic sealift and sustainment vessel. The acquisition of these items will apparently put the South African Navy on track to becoming the continent's most formidable naval force.

I've asked the question before, and no doubt will again, exactly what enemy it is that the Navy was expecting to fight. In my opinion, the new patrol vessels are probably exactly what was needed in the first place and that there was absolutely no need to buy the very expensive and highly sophisticated frigates which, according to some reports, the Navy can't afford to run anyway. Those who ordered the frigates must have received some benefit and/or been so determined to strike a pose that they were quite prepared to waste R6 billion of our money.

There may be one good item of news in all this and that is that the local ship building industry may receive a benefit from the order for the new vessels.

The paper also reported that, once again, a tall vehicle has come to grief when trying to go under the low bridge which carries Greville Racecourse over the roadway. There is a wonderful picture of a military vehicle which had apparently been towing a refrigerated trailer which had beent totally destroyed, when it tried to drive under the low bridge. The picture shows Samil 50 vehicle, which had apparently just fitted under the bridge, and the wrecked trailer lying behind.
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Buses and renaming

According to the Mercury of November 26, 2008, it seems that Durban's bus service is again in trouble.

Municipal manager Michael Sutcliffe was reported as telling a committee meeting that the Durban transport operator will not be receiving a subsidy from central government for the period January 2009 to March 2009. The amount of money that was due to be paid to the bus operator is by central government was R46 million and, according to a company spokesman, the company won't be able to operate without it.

Both central and provincial governments have said that they don't have the funds to cover that amount and it's beginning to look awfully as if the city is going to have to cough up the money in addition to the 40 million that it will already have to pay the bus company Remant Alton.

According to the Mercury of December 1, 2008, it seems that things are hotting up in the court case which has been brought by the opposition parties in the Durban Council to the street renaming which took place recently. The leader of the Democratic Alliance John Steenhuisen, and city manager Mike Sutcliffe have apparently been trading insults in the court papers.

Steenhuisen called Sutcliffe "nothing more than an ANC lackey".

The opposition are bringing the case in an effort to get the renaming reversed and, of course, the city and its ANC leadership, in the form of her Michael Sutcliffe, are vigorously opposing the move. One of the most controversial of the street renamings was when Kingsway in Amanzimtoti was renamed after Andrew Zondo, who had set a bomb at a shopping centre in the town, killing a number of innocent civilians.

On that particular issue Sutcliffe said "Naturally there are strong feelings each way about Andrew Zondo. Such is our history."
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Bus troubles again

The Mercury of November 25, 2008, reported that the Durban bus service could come to halt next January. The bus operator Remant Alton has apparently not receive national transport subsidies from December to March. The company apparently gets R11.5 million per month and will therefore be R46 million short over the festive season area. Erik Moller, deputy head of the city's transport authority, admitted that it was a big problem said he believed that the best solution would be if the money came from the National Treasury or that the province could come to the assistance of the company. The current municipal subsidy of R10 million was apparently still be paid to Remant Alton by the municipality.

In other news, it appears that contestants from the Miss world 2008 competition will be in town for a couple of days, starting on Wednesday, November 26, 2008. 112 contestants will apparently be in the city for photo shoots on the beach and at the Beverly Hills Hotel, before proceeding to Johannesburg for the competition. Hope they don't get ill swimming at our non-Blue Flag beaches!

The paper reported that Enden Refinery should be back in operation by mid-January after a disastrous fire shut down the installation two weeks ago. The fire was apparently caused by mechanical failure on a pump.
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Another blue-light incident

The Sunday Tribune of November 16, 2008, reported the occurrence of another blue-light incident on the N3 near Pietermaritzburg. A member of the VIP Protection Unit has been arrested for shooting at the tyres of a Mazda car when it didn't move out of the fast lane to allow the VIP convoy past on the N3. Eight people were injured when the diver of a black Mazda lost control and the vehicle veered into the oncoming traffice and crashed into another vehucle

The convoy was apparently on the way to fetch MEC for Social Welfare Meshack Radebe when the incident took place. The policeman has apparently been arrested and charged with 12 counts of attempted murder arising from the incident. I have mentioned blue-light incident before in these pages and this is just another one in a long list where the bodyguards of VIPs and prominent people feel they have the absolute right to push all traffic out of the way from in front of their convoys. They do not appear acknowledge any accountability for their actions and I'm sure that one day, quite soon, we are going to have an even greater tragedy when people are actually killed.

Life in the banana republic goes on...
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Freak storm hits Link Hills and Molweni

The Independent Online reported on November 15, 2008, that a freak storm had torn through residential areas in Molweni and Link Hills near Durban, and had damaged hundreds of low-cost houses and killed at least eight people, leaving thousands homeless. An emergency rescue worker reported he'd never seen such devastation in 35 years of providing emergency services.

I went out yesterday morning to have a look at the path damage that the storm cut through the Link Hills area, which is very near my home. I was shocked at the scale of devastation and the evident power of the storm. Sturdy pine trees had been twisted and snapped off halfway up their trunks and the roads were littered with fallen branches and trees. Many residents were trying to clear the wreckage from their properties and many of the houses had missing tiles from their roofs. As I walked through the area, the sound of power saws filled the air as people tried desperately to clear away the wreckage from their properties.
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Fire at Engen refinery

The Engen refinery in Durban will be closed for four weeks after a fire, according to the Mercury of Friday , November 14, 2008, which reported that a fire had broken out the day before and is likely to cost the company more than R6-million per day while the repairs, themselves, are expected to cost more than R50-million.

The fire broke out after midnight in the unit which feeds crude oil into the refinery's processing units and was put out by 3:10 a.m. in the morning. This fire is the fourth at the refinery in two years according to general manager Willem Oosthuizen. Last year in November, R120-million was lost when a tank containing petrol 7.5 million litres of petrol was struck by lightning.
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Snippets from the week

The Mercury of Monday, November 10, 2008 reported, amongst other things, that:

• The city hall organ, which is unserviceable as reported here, is not going to be fixed. This according to municipal manager Michael Sutcliffe, who said that fixing the organ was not a priority and that it was not something that ratepayers should paying for. The city can't afford a couple of million to fix an organ dating back to 1894 but it can afford billions for an unecessary football stadium??
• A local artist Jenny Cullinan held a Dirty Durban exhibition at the Botanic Gardens consisting of photographs of the filth and litter in Durban. The pictures were apparently all taken after the end of the Durban Solid Waste strike.

The Mercury of Tuesday, November 11, 2008 reported, amongst other things, that:

• That a heist had taken place the previous day in Maphumulo in rural KZN. Sixteen men, armed with assault rifles and pistols, had ambushed a convoy taking money to a pensions pay point, killing two policemen and critically wounding two others. By the sounds of things, the robbers drove up to and opened fire on the police vehicle without warning.
  

The Mercury of Wednesday, November 12, 2008 reported, amongst other things, that:

• There was a growing tide of protest at the decision not to fix the city hall organ.
• Moses Mabhida Stadium visitor's centre manager Florina Maphalala was quoted as saying that the stadium would be like Durban's Table Mountain - a great tourist attraction. She apparently doesn't think she'll be watching the world cup final because it would conflict with her Christian beliefs.
  

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An angry white man?

Some while ago, our city manager Dr. Michael Sutcliffe was accosted by an irate ratepayer while he and his wife were having Sunday breakfast (I seem to remember) in a restaurant. A letter from Dr Sutcliffe was subsequently published in the local papers in which he slammed the failure of 'angry white men' to accept transformation in society. There wasn't so much as a hint that the 'angry white man' might have had a legimitate grievance and reasons, like the litter and deteriorating infrastructure, for taking the city manager (who is, after all, his employee) to task.

Now it seems, according to the Independent on Saturday of November 8, 2008, that Dr Sutcliffe has himself become an angry white man. He is apparently furious that people are defacing the new streetname signs which he and his cohorts have forced on an unwilling city. He is so angry, in fact, that he is reportedly trying to ensure that anyone caught defacing the signs gets an automatic jail sentence. This for an offense which is currently on a par with putting up posters illegally or spraying graffiti on walls and which would only attract a fine. Sounds to me like vindictiveness brought about by an inability to tolerate being crossed.

The opposition DA party in the council said it didn't condone the destruction of property but pointed out that these sort of things happen when you force things on people who have no legitimate redress. The ANC, of which Dr Sutcliffe is a member, was brought into being to offer resistance to a system in which people were denied the right to decide things for themselves. I wonder if he and the rest of our city management see any parralells at all between their behaviour and that of the previous regime?

Here's a suggestion: I'd be in favour of renaming any street provided it has the approval of the majority of people living or doing business there.
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Point watersports good news

The Mercury of November 7, 2008, reports that a long-running acrimonious disagreement between the city and various watersports clubs based around Vetch's Pier has been solved. The Durban Point Development Company and the city were very keen to get the clubs to move from their prime beach locations. The developers have apparently now agreed to accommodate the clubs in premises adjacent to the new North Pier in the mooted Point Marina.

This was announced at a function held in a marquee in Timeball Square on Thursday in what was to be the announcement that the Environmental Impact Assessment concerning the building of the Marina had been approved. The approval has not yet been granted and it might take months longer.

I'm not usually in favour of the buraucratic process (particularly slow in our case) but this time I'm wondering if approval would be merited. Building a nice marina just outside the harbour entrance sounds like a hell of a good idea on a nice calm sunny day, but it overlooks the fact that this area was known as extremely dangerous. To prove it, there are literally dozens wrecks of ships within sight of where the new structure is to be built. The wall needed keep out the 1-in-a-100-year and 1-in-a-50-year high tides and storm surges, which we seem to be getting quite frequently of late, would need to be mighty indeed.
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Blue Flag rears its head again

The Mercury of October 6, 2008, reported that Blue Flag status was awarded to four beaches in KZN excluding Durban, which unfortunately decided to back out of the scheme. The awards were made at a function held at San Lameer on the KZN South Coast on Tuesday. A new fact that that was revealed by local Blue Flag manager Alison Kelly was that Durban-based hospitality groups were so concerned by the city's decision to go it alone that they approached the Blue Flag organisation in an effort to take over responsibility for getting the beaches into shape.. The request was apparently refused because attaining Blue Flag status did not have municipality support.
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Not so racist after all ?

It would seem that 'white' America may not be as racist as might have been believed. Barack Obama was elected president of the USA last week and, if the Mercury of November 6, 2008, has its figures correct, 43% of white voters voted for him. These folk were clearly not voting along racial lines, and I aplaud that, but can the same be said for the 96% of black voters who supported him?

You may wonder what this has to do with a South Africa and, particularly, a Durban-related blog. The trouble is that we are also afflicted by the view that racism can only really exist only among whites [I felt guilty about this for years] but it is a view which is clearly wrong. We cannot become a truly non-racial society until everyone stops acting (or voting) along racial lines.

Anyway, America has a lot to be proud of. The best man won last week's election and it will hopefully inspire others around the world to vote for candidates in their elections on that basis in future.
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Diwali & Moses Mabhida

The Hindu celebration Diwali took place in Durban last week on 29 &30 November, 2008. I was in a good vantage point in Moreton Hall (on the Berea near Kensington) and the sight of fireworks going off all around was awe-inspiring. It was hard to photograph them because you couldn't predict where the next one was going be and train the camera, fixed to its tripod, onto the spot. I had a bit of luck and produced the following pic of the new Moses Mabhisa stadium with a small firework:

and this one looking towards Jacob Zuma's house, with Durban in thebackground:

City hall organ

Our city organ is urgently in need of repair according to an interesting mail I received from Wim Mutsaerts. His mail also has a lot of information about the history of the organ and I have posted it onthe Facts About Durban website.
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Quite a procession

On Friday, October 31, 2008, I was driving down the M19 from Pinetown to Springfield Park and came across an mazing sight. The first sign of anything unusual were members of the city police directing traffic where the road passes under the N2 ring road. They were not wearing their usual summer uniforms, but their Number Ones or stepouts which included heavy jackets, and they were sweating like bullets. A little further down the road towards Makro there appeared a procession, the like of which I've never seen.

There were two huge stretch limousines with the logo of a funeral home on their doors and following them, the biggest collection of expensive black cars that I've ever seen. They filled the three lanes of the road in a queue that could have been 500m or even longer. I have absolutely no idea how many vehicles there were, because I had to pay attention to the road and was unable to count, but there were a hell of lot. There were Mercedes and BMW, and a wide selection of SUVs including Range Rovers, Mercedes and BMWs and, I think, Jeeps, many of them, otherwise unmarked, had flashing blue lights on their dashboards.

I later found that this was the funeral procession of anti-apartheid struggle stalwart Billy Nair, who died in St Augustines Hospital on October 23, and that all the great and the good of the new South Africa were in attendence, including the president of the country and everyone else who is anyone. I don't grudge Nair his sendoff but all I wonder is how a country with as many poor people in it as ours', can afford so many expensive black cars for its officials. As I've said, I don't know how many there were but there were enough to make the scene look awesome and, at possiblyR50000 a pop, the amount of money spent must be awesome too.
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Harbour congestion

The Mercury, of October 29, 2008, reports on congestion on routes leading to the container terminals and of the long delays experienced by truckers waiting load to and offload cargo. The truckers have apparently been threatening to block the port. The truckers apparently often wait for periods longer than a day with no facilities, including toilets, available to them. Drivers were complaining that they do not get paid for time spent waiting, which should be source of shame to their employers.

The Mercury reported that they had been unable to get comment from Transnet, which runs the harbour and the container terminals. No surprises there, then! It matches up perfectly with my experience of the monolithic Transnet. The story about congestion at the container terminals has been around for years. I wrote about it at least a year ago for the publication I edit and it has been around for much longer than that. There are a couple of efforts underway to try and ease the situation, including the building of the Khangela Bridge to connect Bayhead Road to Sydney Road, but no there is a yet no decision on how to solve the problem.

One plan, which seems to make sense, is to built a container park at Cato Ridge and ferry containers there from the harbour by train. They can be fetched from there by truck which would have the effect of keeping them out of Durban. Another idea, which I described in an earlier post, is to take a leaf out of Dublin's book and built a tunnel from the harbour to the ring road, for trucks to use.

Banana Republic

Every day there is more and more evidence that our masters do not view themselves as accountable to citizens. There are two examples in the Mercury of October 28, 2008 which show that quite well.

The first example is local and has been mentioned in these pages before. The municipality has now declared that the report is too sensitive to be disclosed to the public. Deputy information officer Joseph David came out with that statement. Overpayments to security companies could hardly be a matter of national security and so, to my mind, there are only a few possible reasons why our employees (the municipality) should be refusing to publish a report on what happened to our money. I don't like the thiught of any of them.

The other story in the paper concerns a so-called blue-light incident in which motorists are forced off the road to make room for official motorcades. Over the years, motorists have been threatened with firearms and have, on a few occasions, been hauled out of their cars and beaten up. I have seen a couple of these convoys, which roar past at great speed past with tinted windows [surely illegal] and blue lights flashing. Never to my knowledge has anyone been brought to book for assault or intimidation or have the VIPs within been asked to account for the strongarm tactics and dangerous driving of their escorts.

The particular incident mentioned in the paper took place in Johannesburg and involved vehicles belonging to the presidential protection unit. The convoy consisted of at least six black vehicles led by two Johannesburg Metro Police Police vehicles. At least one of the officers in the convoy was seen brandishing his weapon at motorists. The president was out of the country and his deputy was not in Gauteng province. The head of the presidential protection unit, Tau Thekiso, would not say who was being driven in the convoy and Johannesburg metro police chief Wayne Minnaar apparently didn't know, in spite of the fact that his vehicles were escorting the convoy.

We will not have any sort of democracy until our officials are made to be accountable to us!
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Jet fuel woes

I will be creating a page on the main Facts About Durban website for our new airport at La Mercy but, in the meantime, there was an interesting story in the Sunday Tribune, of October 26, 2006, which states that there have been protests at plans to ship jet fuel from the refineries to the airport by road. The airport is apparently going to need a million litres of the stuff every day, which will take about 20 trips by road tanker, and cost between R40000 and R80000 per day to transport. Mind-boggling figures! There is the option to build a pipeline to deliver the fuel.

Mismanagement or corruption?

It was good news about the buses, as mentioned in the previous post, but the Sunday Tribune, of October 26, 2006, also carried a story to do with the episode that wasn't such good news. It turns out that the amount of government subsidy received by the Remant Alton bus company, and what it was spent on, is not open to public scrutiny. The Tribune apparently asked to see financial statements and the request was refused by Remant Alton and the municipality. There is suspicion in some quarters that the money has been misused and that there are people in bed with each other who should not be.

The ANC-appointed city manager Mike Sutcliffe dismissed such 'crazy claims' and said that there had been an oversight process. This is in spite of the fact that John Steenhuisen, leader of the Democratic Alliance caucus on the council, said that no Remant Alton financial statements had been presented to the EXCO in the last five years.

It seems pretty clear to me that there has to have been incompetance or dirty work at the cross roads but the really worrying bit is why city management is feeling the need to cover up. Are they involved? And how?

This is not the first episode mentioned in these pages which involves the municipality refusing to give us details about how our money is spent. They are actually our representatives and our employees and are supposed to be accountable to us, but they are not behaving in the least like it. Some democracy this is turning into.....
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Bus strike over !!!

The good news in the Sunday Tribune, of October 26, 2006, apart from KZN winning the rugby Currie Cup yesterday, is that the strike by bus drivers is finally over. The news was very unexpected and it isn't all together clear how the breakthrough came to be. The article is a bit confused, to my eyes at least, but it seems that a deal was brokered with the help of eThekwini ANC chairperson John Mchunu. It seems that a consultative forum to decide on the future of public transport in city is to established and that it is to include driver representation. More details when I get them.

I'm very glad that things are sorted and I hope that they stay that way. I am sympathetic to the drivers but feel that they could have played the game a bit better and kept essential services running. One of the papers last week reported that disabled people were among the ones to suffer most from the strike because their bus service was also suspended and minibus taxis don't have facilities for wheelchairs. Some disabled school pupils at sleep over at their schools for a time because the strike started after they were dropped off at school and the drivers didn't even pick them up again before knocking off work. I also know that senior citizens, dependent on the buses to get out from their retirement complexes to pay bills or whatever, have had a very hard time as well.

GUYS, YOU COULD HAVE DONE BETTER.
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DSW strike

A short article in the Mercury of October 21, 2008, says that DSW refuse workers currently working for agencies will be able to apply for full-time jobs with the municipality when positions are advertised later this year. Apparently, 25% of DSW are hired through agencies. Deputy city manager Derek Naidoo has apparently said that all agency workers would NOT automatically be hired. I hope this will not be the start of more trouble if the current temporary workers see other people getting employed.

In the meantime, I took a drive through the centre of Durban today and was struck by the fact that it looked quite a lot less filthy than usual. That's progress, I suppose.

On another topic, I don't know if it's my imagination but I have the feeling that deputy city manager Derek Naidoo is being quoted in the papers a lot more lately. In the past, Mike Sutcliffe rather dominated whenever city officials were quoted and it makes me wonder if there's something cooking behind the scenes.
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Stadium bags award

I came across a press release from the Concrete Manufacturers Association that the new stadium had won an award. That's impressive whether you agree or not on the fact that its being built in the first place. The following is taken from the press release:

Picture Courtesy CMA

Moses Mabhida Stadium - Durban

Regional Winner - Coastal
Category - Innovative Products: other innovative concrete products showing ingenuity.

Straight and raking precast concrete columns were used for the construction of the Moses Mabhida Soccer Stadium. The façade incorporates cast-in-situ columns with anchor bolts up to level 3.

Precast concrete columns, comprising a stub at the base and an upper section, were placed above the in-situ columns. Steel base plates on the stub columns were custom-designed and fabricated on site to correct any discrepancies in the anchor bolts.

At 15m long and weighing up to 65 tons each, the columns were manufactured on site to exact specifications and tight dimensional tolerances. A total of 30 raked columns of varying skew angles and 200 straight columns were deployed. The weight of the straight columns held them in place, whereas the raking columns were further secured by means of a push-pull tie on the field side of the bowl. The ties were removed after the upper slab, which was tied back to the column, was in position.

Through careful calculation, using a small working model for demonstration purposes, it was determined that if the precast concrete columns were lifted slightly above the centre of gravity, they would be aligned for positioning onto the stub column.

Once the columns were correctly positioned and bolted down, the splice slabs were shuttered and filled with concrete, and the gaps grouted. The completed columns were topped by steel caps. These support ring beams which transfer the vertical and high horizontal forces off the roof.

Professional Team
Architect: BKS/Group Five Design and Planning
Consulting Engineer: BKS
Quantity Surveyor: Ibhola Lethu Consortium
Contractor: A joint venture comprising Group Five, WBHO, and Pandev
Manufacturer: Group Five, WBHO, Pandev

Product Information
104 Precast concrete columns and raking columns (approximately 50 different types)

Judges' Comments
Innovative engineering saved construction time and produced an aesthetic product.

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Snippets from the week

I had intended to use this blog on a very occasional basis to record noteworthy things happening around the city but I'm starting to feel withdrawal symptoms if I should miss a couple of days, as happened this week when I had to go away on business. So here goes...

The Mercury of October 14, 2008, reported that Helen Zille, the mayor of Cape Town, was recently voted best mayor in the world. See mention of a reader's letter, below, for an explanation of why this is unlikely to happen in Durban. Also, according to the paper, Independent bus operators have refused Remant Alton's offer for them to take over its routes for fear of being targeted by striking workers.

The Mercury of October 15, 2008, reported that police had arrested two men for alledgedly plotting to kill a Durban Solid Waste Manager. They were arrested in Sydney Road and their car was to to contain two revolvers, ammunition, and some petrol bombs. In other news, Alfred Zondi, the chairman of the KZN Bus Council, called on the KZN Transport MEC Bheki Cele to intervene in the dispute between Remant Alton and its striking workers.

The requirements of Fifa for the World Cup in 2010 sound draconian to say the least. The Mercury reported 2010 Project Head Julie-May Ellingson as saying that, by 2010, the city will be empowered to immediately remove offending signage from buildings, especially anything which conflicts with Fifa's requirements. At the moment, the city needs a court order before it can remove signage and that's fine by me.

It's a puzzle why we should tolerate such interference in our affairs. It would have been better in the longrun to have told Fifa to keep their World Cup. It seems that the city is running out of money (not surprising when you consider the extravagance onvolved in the new stadium) because Ellingson also appealed to business for R15-million to upgrade facilities around the stadium.

In another story, the eThekwini Municipality was awarded the best credit rating of any municpality in Africa. This is bad news as far as I'm concerned, because our masters are surely going to be tempted to borrow more money on the strength of that.

Residents around Inanda Dam have been warned not to eat fish caught in the dam or vegetables grown nearby. Apparently the water has been found to contain elevayed levels of Mercury. A further study is to done.

The Mercury of October 16, 2008, reported that riot police, snipers and helicopters had prevented a march by Remant Alton and Durban Solid Waste workers through Durban the previous day. City Manager Michael Sutcliffe said the decision had been taken for security reason because the march had the potential to turn violent.

Sounds to me like something that a National Party functionary might have said in the bad old days, not a senior member of an organistion that, itself, has a long history of fighting against injustice. You'd expect the authorities to be more sympathetic to workers who feel they are victims of injustice but I guess its only injustice if it's done to you, not if its done by you...

The paper also reports that environmental affairs and tourism depty minister Rejoice Mabudafhasi has spoken negatively about the city's loss of its Blue Flag beaches. The comments were made the previous day at a meeting at the Point Yacht club to launch a national action plan to protect our coastline. A brochure describing the plan apparently says that the loss of Blue Flag status could have a severe impact on tourism and business.

A reader's letter, signed 'Saddened', in the Independent on Saturday, of October 18, 2008, has some comments about the recent award of Best Mayor in the World to Helen Zille, mayor of Cape Town. The reader says that he or she recently spent a week in Cape Town and found the streets to clean and well-maintained, that the traffic signals all worked and that he or she felt safe walking around in the evening. This contrasts strongly with the situation in Durban and the writer wonders whether this has anything to do with the fact that the DA is running Cape Town and the ANC, with its pre-occupation with minor issues such as street-renaming, is running this city.
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Taxi strike?

The Natal Mercury of October 9, 2008, reported that the minibus taxi industry is threatening to strike in sympathy with the striking Durban Solid Waste & Remant Alton workers. The threat was made by KZN Transport Alliance Chairman Eugene Hadebe.

Meanwhile, at the launch of the SA Communist Party's Red October campaign in Umlazi on Thursday, secretary-general Blade Nzimande called on the municipality to sort out the strike forthwith. I agree with this sentiment but can't help wondering how on earth there can possibly be still be a communist party in this day and and age.

The paper has a splendid aerial picture of the aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt and a number of other vessels, including the SAS Drakensberg and SAS Isandlwana, particpating in exercises (Operation Flower II) off Durban. So that's why needed we needed those smart and expensive frigates!
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Another truck torched

The natal Mercury of October 9, 2008, reported that a fifth vehicle belonging to Durban Solid Waste had been set alight the previous day, Wednesday.

As I've said before, I have some sympathy with the strikers but I cannot condone arson or attacks of any sort in furtherance of their aims. I'm sure the majority of the strikers are honest decent people but attacks of this nature are likely to set people against them.

The same paper reports that talks are to begin between the ANC and the IFP about the proposal to rename of Mangosuthu Highway fter Griffiths Mxenge, an ANC activist.
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Short updates

The bits and pieces of news have been piling up so I thought I'd have a clear-out.

Sunday Tribune - October 5, 2008.

The paper reports that there are plans to declare the beachfront area a glass-free zone and outlaw public drinking. This is in response to the events described I described here. In addition, on the Friday night, there was a strong police presence and mini-bus taxis and buses were barred from entering the beachfront area. There are apparently also plans to keep a track of where buses and taxis come from in future.

In act assumed to be somehow connected with the bus drivers' strike, 19 buses were set alight at the depot at Ntuzuma early on Friday morning. A picture in the Tribune shows the buses absolutely gutted and one doubts if they could ever be repaired. This is not the first time that Remant Alton buses have been set alight, with 59 having been burnt in an attack on the Umlazi depot on April 23, 2006. You would have thought that with that experience, and given the present tense situation, they would have stepped up security at ther depots.

The Mercury, October 6, 2008

The paper reports that commuters are likely to be without buses for another week.

The Mercury, October 7, 2008

A heist at the Riverside Hotel (ex Athlone) netted millions in jewells which were going to be auctioned at the hotel. The robbery took place at 7am on October 6, as the jewells were being moved into the auction area.

I've already noted that two Durban Solid Waste trucks were set alight last Wednesday. Two more were burnt in an attack at 11pm on the DSW depot at Clairwood onOctober, 4. The paper reported that 80% of DSW workers were back on the job and that some collections were being done over the weekend. As noted in an earlier post, our rubbish was collected today in Waterfall.

The Mercury, October 8, 2008

The paper reports Remant Alton as having closed down indefinitely as result of the the three week drivers' strike. Executive officer Paul Rush said that the company was planning to recruit sub-contractors to operate its routes. Now, that should be fine recipe for chaos. And there could be more on the way if strikers go ahead with plans to march through town on Friday, in spite of being refused permission by the city to do so. I find it ironic that a city run by the ANC, an organisation founded to fight for democracy, has no problem denying others the right to protest.
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What a relief!

The familiar sound of a rubbish truck compacting garbage floated into the complex yesterday. When I left to go to work, a crew was still busy loading the garbage from last week. DSW's return to work caught us on the hop, a bit, because we hadn't taken out this week's bags. Next week for sure.
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Metro snippets

Metro Esasegagasini, which accompanied The Mercury on October 3, 2008, reported, amongst other things, that:

* A streamlined public transport system which would allow commuters to travel on trains, buses, and taxis on one ticket. There were plenty of comments from politicians but little detail and no dates. One assumes that this would have to happen before the soccer fans arrive in 2010.

* A time capsule has been sealed at the Natural Science Museum and is due to be opened in two stages in 2058 and 2108. It contains an ipod, a cellphone, DVDs and messages from children of today to the children of those eras. From my other research, there is also a capsule built into the foundation of the Millennium Tower. That one contains a brassiere, if memory serves me correctly.
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Waste matters

The Mercury of October 2, 2008, also reported that two Durban Solid Waste trucks were set alight on the previous day in separate incidents.

Those must be the trucks that were on they way to our complex because I see that, onn Sunday, we still have a rubbish Matterhorn outside our gates, which has now received plenty of attention from passersby and dogs.

The strike of DSW workers was inevitable, said Independent Municipal & Allied Trade Union spokesman Dempsey Perumal, due to the fact that the municipality was employing workers through agencies on a long-term basis. Agency staff were paid less than than municipal workers and did not receive any benefits which, said Deputy City Manager Derek Naidoo, saved the municipality a lot of money. The Mercury gives the example of an agency-employed street sweeper earning R1200 a month.

To my mind, there may be an odd occasion when using agency staff is justified but that it is mostly the refuge of organisations out to circumvent racial employment quotas or save money, no matter what the cost to workers. It is a process that is apparently legal but often times not that ethical, and I am genuinely surprised that eThekwini Municipality would stoop that low. This situation is attributable either to deliberate policy or gross inefficiency but I don't suppose we will really ever know.

*** This issue of The Mercury has a page devoted to the street names which were recently changed and who they were originally named after.
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Secret audit

The Mercury of October 2, 2008, reports that the eThekwini Municipality has blocked access to an internal audit report (numbered 05287) and that Democratic Alliance Cllr. John Steenhuisen is using the Promotion of Access to Information Act to try and obtain a copy. At issue is a sum of R15-million which the municipality paid to various security companies for work which the security companies did not do but charged for, in error, say the companies. City Treasurer Krish Kumar admitted last year that the city was owed the money and that it is being paid back. It is believed, however, that audit report will show that the companies were let off repaying the money.

The city uses the companies for access control, armed response and for escorting city workers in dangerous areas. The whole issue is confused with contracts having been extended several times, despite new tenders having been issued, at least one ex-city employee now being involved with a security company, and several of the security companies sharing the same addresses and phone numbers. The whole system appears to be very badly organised and for there to be many opportunities for graft and corruption to flourish.

City Manager Mike Sutcliffe is reported as saying that he will not enter into a discussion on the matter. He further said that the report was an 'internal' one and that the municipality did not distribute such 'work in progress'. He said that it would be referred to the executive committee when the work was done. Cllr. Steenhuisen reponded that he had been a member of the committee since 2006 and had never seen such such a report served up to the committee.

A hell of a fire

The Mercury of October 1, 2008, has a spectacular picture of an articulated trailer full of cooking oil on fire on the N3 near spaghetti junction. The fire apparently happened on Tuesday night and the cause was unknown.

Uh oh, is right

I see that the mini-Matterhorn of rubbish at the gate of our complex is still there. That means that the workers from Durban Solid Waste must still be on strike. Joy!

Uh oh!

I've just been to the gate of our complex and spied a minor Matterhorn of black and orange rubbish bags. Seems as if our Tuesday morning collection didn't take place and that the DSW strike has spread this far.

The litter crisis widens

The Natal Mercury, of September 30, 2008, reports that Durban Solid Waste workers trashed the city yesterday, emptying litter bins onto the pavement and obstructing traffic. The workers were demonstrating in solidarity with the striking bus drivers and because they now also want to become full-time employees of the city???? It comes as news to me that they aren't.

In the same issue of the Mercury, there is a follow-up report on the chaos and litter left on the beachfront last Friday night by celebrating pupils. Metro Police spokesperson Supt. Joyce Khuzwayo is quoted as saying the force had not anticipated the influx of revellers. She said buses loaded with pupils had come from as far afield as the Eastern Cape.

It would probably infringe on their human rights so I don't suppose we could turn them away at Tollgate in future. Next time, let's ban all glass containers and get enough police and army to keep a lid on things when they start going pear-shaped.

The bus strike continues

The Natal Mercury, of September 29, 2008, reports that the buses could be off the streets for another two months. The drivers are objecting to having to work for Remant Alton and I can't say I blame them much. The lack of transport is causing all sorts of problems, as you might expect, and it's all down to the municipality's fatally flawed decision to sell off the bus service in the first place. I've got a car, thank God, but I feel for all those who do not.

Beachfront trashed

Making the front page of The Sunday Tribune, of September 28, 2008, is report describing the horrific amount of litter, including huge quantities of broken glass, left on the beachfront on Friday night, September 26. The carnage was put down to youngsters celebrating the end of the school year but the party must have been a far cry from those in my day. We just wouldn't have been allowed to run riot and smash glass to the extent that people had to turn from the beaches the next day because it wasn't safe to walk.

A former municipal employee apparently contacted the Metro Police and was told that they had only had 20 staff on duty on Friday night who were unable to control the situation. I didn't see the devastation but I did got through town at about 6:30 on Saturday morning and, to say that the streets were disgustingly littered, would be a gross understatement.

We have time and money to change street names and build vast new stadiums but we don't have enough money for esssentials like adequate policing and, for that matter, enough firemen to do the job of keeping us safe.

The strike continues

The Mercury of Wednesday, September 24, 2008, reports that Remant Alton (our lovely bus company) has fired over 350 bus drivers for participating in an illegal strike. The strike was precipitated by Deputy City Manager Derek Naidoo's article on the background to the ongoing bus debacle which I reported here.

The drivers were reported in Wednesday's Mercury as saying that they did not want to work for Remant Alton, because of its history of financial mismanagement, and that they would prefer to work for the municpality. Naidoo replied to the drivers by saying that the munipality was not in a position to take them on. I can imagine how that soothed the drivers' passions.

The Mercury of today, September 25, 2008, reports that Remant Alton was to use trainee drivers and advertise for new staff in an attempt to beat the strike.

The comment was made along the way by Naidoo that the city could not break its contract with Remant Alton unless it defaulted. So why buy the buses from the company? The best course would have been to let it go bust and for the municpality to take over the bus service. It seems to me to be the height of folly to buy the buses back from them but, despite their poor history, let them still run the service.

There are few details available as yet but city management have come up with what seems like another harebrained scheme. This time they have some notion of getting the minibus taxi operators involved in the running of the bus service once remant Alton's contract expires in late 2010. More details as and when...

King Dinuzulu unwrapped

By now now King Dinuzulu should have been unwrapped on his plinth facing Louis Botha in Botha Gardens at the bottom of Berea Road. Ooops! I mean King Dinuzulu Road, of course. I took a swing past the gardens on Friday morning to find that the King had been removed from his hessian, cleaned, and re-wrapped in plastic and packing tape in readiness for the formal unveiling the following day.

The king on his plinth across the park from Louis Botha who was first the first prime minister of the union of South and who released him from prison. In the background are the Technikon buildings.

Also in the the park, to practice for the parade on Saturday, were the State President's Guard. They looked smart enough but why not one our local regiments like the Durban Light Infantry, for example. There's more politics there, I'll be bound.

The ceremony on Saturday was also to formally rename Berea Road after the King.

Strike on the buses

An article in the council mouthpiece Ezasegagasini Metro, which accompanied the Mercury on Friday, September 19, 2008, had an unintended consequence when it caused an impromptu strike among staff members of Remant Alton, the company which sort of runs our bus service. The article was written by Deputy City Manager Derek Naidoo and was intended to lay to rest the puzzlement felt by most citizens when it was learnt that that the bus service had originally been been sold to Remant Alton for R70-million and was being bought back for a R405 million.

Naidoo pointed out that included in the deal were many buses that had been bought by Remant Alton since acquiring the service. He said that the R405-million purchase price included 514 of Remant Alton's best buses and some equipment.He said that the municipality would buy a further 162 new buses which would all be leased back to Remant Alton until their contract expired in 2010. The operation of the bus service will then be farmed out to a number of smaller operators. Crucially, the article said that the deal applied only to buses and equipment and not Remant Alton staff. Accordingly, many of them went on strike leaving commuters stranded, as reported here in the Independent Online. It's not yet clear what the outcome will be.

Dear Derek: I said before the last sale that it would be a mistake to privatise the bus service. Farming it out to small operators would be another mistake! Public transport is not something that can be done really well at a profit.

A good decongestant?

It all came on very suddenly but I ended up in Ireland for a couple of days last week and reinforced the affection I have felt for the place since I first set foot there in 2001. I am also more convinced than ever that Guinness really is good for me!

What has all this to do with a blog concerned largely with happenings in Durban? Well, both Durban and Dublin have been suffering from traffic congestion and, in particular, from container trucks travelling to and from the harbour. Both cities have harbours pretty close to the centre of town which has the potential to cause great congestion. This has happened in Durban's case, as we all know well, but the Irish have more or less solved the problem by digging a whacking great tunnel from the port, under the city, to the freeway. You don't see the trucks in town any more and its a great help. The job must have huge but it was completed and opened since I left in 2001. Here some more information about Dublin Port Tunnel and here's a video of it, courtesy of YouTube.



I was lucky enough to be driven through it because it is also a great shortcut for cars going to the airport. I wasn't lucky enough to have a ride of the other new transport innovation to come to Dublin. When I was last there, there was some talk of building a tram system to cut traffic congestion. The tram, known as the Luas, now has two lines running into the city and offers cheap fast transport. Here's video of it, again courtesy of YouTube.

No corruption here!

President Mbeki, speaking at the Naval Review mentioned in the previous post, declared that there was no corruption involved in the acquisition of frigates and submarines for the SA Navy. Hmmmm. Well, that will likely never be proved one way or the other, but there was certainly stupidity involved in the purchase. Quite apart from the fact that the weapons seemed far too sophisticated for any enemy we are likely to encounter, it has recently emerged that the navy is after new patrol boats and the inference is that they can't afford to run the new frigates

King Dinuzulu and others

The Mercury of September 5, 2008, reports that the SA Police Service has sprung a surprise on is members and declared them all to filling vacant posts. Everyone is going to have to reapply for their positions and only have days to to do so. Nobody is apparently going to lose their jobs so I wonder what the whole thing is for.

President Mbeki has reviewed the Navy's fleet and the paper carries a picture of our four frigates in False Bay. I hope that having all four of them at sea at the same time hasn't blown the Navy's budget for the year...

There has been a very weird thing going on in the park adjacent to the Technikon at the bottom of Berea Road. It has a statue of General Louis Botha, the famed Boer war leader and first prime minister of the Union of South Africa. Something like two years ago, a statue of King Dinuzulu was erected in the park but was left wrapped in hessian until it could be officially unveiled. Now, two years later, the unveiling still has not occurred but the Mercury did report that KZN Premier S'bu Ndebele has announced that the unveiling of the R600000 statue will happen this month. I can't imagine why it has taken so long, but doubtless the King will be glad to see the sun and to be free of his itchy hessian coat, at long last.

An article by Patrick Compton in the paper reveals that the brain drain is just as bad in cricket as it is in other sectors. He lists over 30 names of South Africans players playing for county sides in England, and gives the example of a recent game between Northamptonshire and Leicestershire which had 10 South Africans playing in it.

It seems a no-brainer for me that talented white youngsters may seek a career abroad in the face of racial quotas, inspired by affirmative action principles, which apply to South African cricket teams. Add to that a highly attractive pay package, and we may soon have the situation where team talks in the England dressing room are conducted in Afrikaans.

ANC backtracks, slightly

According to the Mercury of September 3, 2008, it seems as if the local ANC, who run the city, have been told by their KZN branch to back off from attempts to rename Mangosuthu Highway after Griffiths Mxenge. Two violent protests, and the certainty of much more where that came from, have prompted the change of tack. The city is adamant that all the other name changes will still stand and I'm not that hopeful that a court case in progress, in which opposition parties are challenging the name changes, is going to help much.

It was the Nationalist Party and Apartheid thing to force things on people without regard to their feelings on the matter. I seem to remember that someone once commented along the lines that the more things change, the more they remain the same. How true!

The thing that could end up finishing off this country, as far as I'm concerned, is the bery hard-arsed approach that our new rulers display. The people with the skills to run the place may have received them as a benefit from Apartheid but, even if it wasn't fair, they are still the ones with the skills.

The bad thing about skills is that they take a long time to get and cannot quickly be replaced if they are lost. Again, it may not be fair, but it seems logical to me that the way to proceed with the owners of such skills is to use kid gloves. It should also be remembered that a majority of these people voted for democracy in the referendum.

They won't understand when someone then comes to them and says in a very democratic way: "Your street is going to be renamed and I don't care what you think or feel about it". That alone, probably wouldn't be enough to send them hurrying off to emigration seminars but it could very well be the final staw for people already worried about the high crime rate, affirmative action, and whether their kids can get a good education and jobs.

Deadline will be met

The Mercury of September 2, 2208, reports that about half the new street name signs have been put up around the city and that the rest are expected to be up by the deadline at the end of November. The same paper has a full-page (page 7) listing of the people who have been honoured by the city by having streets renamed after them. The great majority were members of the ANC, the SA Communist Party or the UDF, with a sprinkling from the Natal Indian Congress.

Sea water quality

I've mentioned here and there in these pages that Durban has lost the internationally recognised Blue Flag grading on its beaches. The surprising part, for me, was that the city decided not to reapply, but to introduce its own grading standards. The whole thing is pretty complicated and I'm grateful to Tony Carnie's article in the Mercury of September 1, 2008, for shedding a bit of light on the subject.

What's at issue is how to measure the levels of faecal contamination in the sea water off our beaches and how to determine what the unsafe level is. There are many organisms that could pose a threat to bathers but the city has chosen to follow World Health Organisation (WHO) recommendations that tests are done to determine the levels of e.coli and enterococci in the water. These two organisms are used as indicators and the thought is that, if you count how many there are, you can assess how many other baddies are present.

There doesn't seem to be much scientific objection to this way of going about things but the arguments start when it comes to deciding what the acceptable levels of e.coli and enterococci in the water are. The WHO says that seawater can be classed as excellent in quality if it contains less than 40 units of enterococci per 100ml of sea water. The standard for excellent water quality decided on by Durban is that it should have less than 100 units of enterococci per 100ml.

The WHO says that seawater should be classed as poor if the it contains more than 500 units of enterococci per 100ml which, they say, gives swimmers a more than 10% chance of contracting gastroenteritis. Durban has defined poor quality water as that which contains over 2000 units of enterococci per 100ml of sea water. Durban's standards do not seem consistent with the WHO ones, and that that's where the arguments start.

The city's water and waste chief Neil McLeod argues that enterococci flourishes in warmer tropical waters and that you'd get more of them in the seas off Durban, without a corresponding increase in the quantity of other harmful organisms. Scientific opinion seems spilt on this matter leaving at least some room for doubt either way. Durban's response seems to be less cautious than in other locations, such as in New South Wales in Australia. The state has beaches with cold water and beaches with warmer water but has apparently decided to adopt the WHO standards across the board. This will be until it is proved whether warmer water with increased levels of enterococci is really as safe as colder water with lower levels.

Waiting until there's proof! Now, there's a novel idea.

Brain drain

Yesterday's Sunday Tribune, August 31, 2008, had an article by a reporter and photographer who had ventured into town to canvas opinions on the street-renaming. Those interviewed seem to have been predominantly from previously disadvantaged groups, for whose benefit the changes were allegedly made. They included business people, street traders, taxi drivers and shoppers and most still seemed to be using the old names. Some respondents didn't know that there had been changes.

There was also a long article on the skills shortage which is partly due to the exodus of skilled individuals from the country but also to retirements and resignations and the fact that not enough people were being trained. The 2007 national scarce-skills list reveals that there is a shortage of about a million skilled people. These include 20700 health and welfare support workers and 25000 health diagnostic professionals (??) and midwives and nurses.

Rates errors

There has been an ongoing thread running through many news reports regarding the recent revaluation for rates purposes, of all properties in the municipal area. It has emerged from these reports that the property valuations were arrived at on a thumb-suck basis. Adjacent properties of similar size have been valued at radically different amounts and humble properties have been valued in millions.

Today's Mercury, August 29, 2008, reports that that city manager Mike Sutcliffe, has admitted to 9000 errors having been found among the 50000 objections received. The errors add up to a R1.72-billion over valuation of the properties concerned. At the time he reported, there were still 20000 objections to be processed and 11000 which had been returned to property owners for more information, so there may be many more than the initial 9000 errors.

** The paper has a follow-up to the story in the previous post, that the navy was after new patrol vessels. The paper reports various experts as saying that the navy's four frigates, which cost R6-billion, "are not ready or up for the job". Other sources reported that the navy does not have the funds to properly operate or support their sophisticated Meko-class frigates. The cost lack of suitable patrol craft apparently prevents the navy from protecting our marine resources from rape.

It comes as no surprise to me that the frigates are unsuitable by being too sophisticated and/or expensive for our needs. I have been aboard one of them, the SAS Mendi, when it visited Durban. There is a write-up on my visit to the ship in the entry for November 9, 2004, on this page. Even to my untutored eye, the vessel looked far too elaborate for patrolling our coasts and seeing off the odd illegal fishing boat. It has a stealth design, is able to seal itself against nuclear and biological hazards, and its primary armament is Exocet ship-to-ship missiles and surface-to-air missiles. What particular enemies, I wondered, was the navy planning to fight.

The manufacturers surely didn't offer any bribes to secure the sale, so I guess that the illegal fishermen are better armed than I gave them credit for... ;-)

Reversing street renaming

The front page in yesterday's Mercury, August 28, 2008, reports that opposition parties in the city council have launched a court attempt to reverse the name changes. The paper reckons that this is the first salvo in what will be a bitter court battle. In another article in the same issue, it was reported that the sister of one of the namees [if there is such a thing] has claimed that her sister's name has been misspelt. Manning Road has been renamed after Lena Ahrens but the signs apparently have her as Lina Arense.

** Not directly applicable to Durban, but it seems the navy are demanding 12 new patrol vessels to a value of about R3.6-billion. This is in spite of the fact that they recently bought 4 frigates worth R6-billion as part of the highly controversial R30-billion arms deal.

See the next post for more on this.

No mass action, please

In a previous post, I mentioned the ongoing Jacob Zuma saga. The threat by local ANC branches to picket procedings is serious enough that KZN Judge President Vuka Tshabalala has called on the ANC not to inimidate the courts. The most worrying thing for the long-term future of this place, as I've said before, is that his supporters seem to have no concern about whether he is guilty or not.

The same paper also reports:

* The new Moses Mabhida stadium is going to cost R200-million more than expected but should still meet the October 2009 deadline. Work is about to start on the stadium precinct.

* The sad fact that 30% of South Africa's municipal councillors are illiterate. Some can't speak English and, therefore, follow the procedings in council meetings. More than two thirds don't understand their roles, responsibilities or local government legislation. These figures are a horrific indictment of our education system and the apartheid regime which spawned it. The report concludes that adult education must become a priority for municpalities and I suppose that might help.

Container port

The Port and Shipping page in the Mercury today, August 27, 2008, has some interesting facts about the Port of Durban. We're apparently no longer the busiest container port in Africa or in the southern hemisphere and slot in behind Jakarta in Indonesia, Port Said in Egypt and Santos in Brazil. In world terms, Port Said ranks as the 38th busiest container port, having handled 2.8 million TEUs (20ft. container equivalents) in 2007. In the same year, Jakarta ranked 27th (3.689 million TEUs), Santos 43rd (2.55 million TEUs) and Durban 44th (2.51 million TEU's).

The page is compiled by Terry Hutson whose Ports and Shipping website is a valuable resource on our harbours and other matters maritme. He tells me that Richards Bay does a bigger cargo volume than Durban but that we are still the busiest harbour in African and the southern hemisphere if you measure by the value of the cargo handled.

Petulance

In the last post, I mentioned the ongoing problem that many of our political supporters don't seem to care if their chosen ones are honest or not. There is a prime example in today's Mercury, of August 26, 2008, which reports that a meeting of the ANC branches in the Durban area has decided to picket the courts and police stations to try and upset Jacob Zuma's trial which resumes next month.

He's very likely going to be our next president and there's no fear that the courts are going to find him guilty if he isn't. Come on, the whole world will be watching closely for any sign that the trial is unfair!

** In the same paper is a comment by city manager Mike Sutcliffe on the new street signs which have been defaced. Sutcliffe is reported as coming up with the somewhat petulant threat that, if the vandalism continues, he will consider pulling down the old street signs as soon as the new ones are put up. Now that'll really teach us a lesson!

John Steenhuisen, leader of the Democratic Alliance caucus in the council, said he was not suprised by the vandalism. I agree. The ANC has had comparatively recent experience of being in the position where no weight at all was given to their views and grievances. I would have thought that they would have been a bit more sensitive about putting others into exactly the same position. Unless the liberation struggle was really only about changing elites....

Right-wing sabotage

There was an article on the street renaming on the front page of the Sunday Tribune yesterday, August 24, 2008, which worries me. It seems that there has been some vandalism of the new street signs which have been going up around town. Deputy Mayor Logie Naidoo was reported as saying that there would always be right-wingers who wouldn't accept transformation and that "if people can't accept it, tough luck for them".

The thing is that the people which rule this city apparently don't get how undemocratic they are being. They are full of the evils of apartheid and yet don't see that forcibly renaming a street, against the wishes of the people that actually live in it, is a product of the same authoritarian mindset. The statement that "if people can't accept it, tough luck for them", sounds like the sort of thing that PW Botha, the Groot Krokodil himself, might have said.

This place is going to end up like Zimbabwe if the ruling party doesn't manage to "get" democracy soon and abandon its strong tendency to authoritarianism. While on the long-term future of this country (and city), I might as well say that, in my opinion, the ruling party is also going to have to abandon the practice of protecting its own, no matter what. The Zuma case is the prime example and it looks as if we are going to get him as president, irrespective of his guilt or innocence.

No wonder we are losing so many skilled people to emigration.

On the buses, again

The Mercury on Friday, August 22, 2008, carried a long article on the background to the city's sale of it buses to Remant Alton and the recent decision to buy them back. Remant Alton claims that they got into trouble because they did not receive as large a subsidy as other bus operators in the country. At the time of the original sale in 2003, I'm on record as saying that the sales was a mistake because the provision of a public service, such as transport, could not be done well by an organisation whose main objective was to make a profit.

Unfortunately, it seems as if the lesson has not been learned because, not only is Remant Alton going to be allowed to continue to manage the bus service until the expiry of their contract perriod, but the service will then be farmed out to a number of smaller operators.

This will also be a big mistake !!!

Note to city fathers: Don't do it! The way to fix the bus service is for city to take over over the running of the buses as soon as possible. The prime advantage is that the bus service will not have to make a profit and the money, which would have been siphoned off, could be ploughed back into improving the service. Durban Transport once did a good job and it can again.

SmartCity Experience

I mentioned the imminent launch of Durban as a SmartCity here and Ethekwini Girl got in touch to say that she has a new blog on the subject here.

Guest blogger: Niki Moore

This piece was written by Durban freelancer Niki Moore back in June 2008. She mentions Moore Road being renamed as Che Guevara Road. I am reliably informed that the first new Che Guevara signs have just made their appearance. Allan Jackson.

I have survived armed robbery, I have survived affirmative action. I have survived bombs and riots and taxi violence. I have even survived load-shedding. But I don't think I am going to survive name-changes.

Durban municipality this last week published the list of 99 streets that are going to have their names changed. I read this list with - at first - idle curiosity, as the entire name-changing process has only held a peripheral interest for me. What's in a name, after all? But as I read the list I was overtaken by a growing sense of unreality. I kept checking the date on the paper to make sure it was not April 1st.

Whoever compiled this list of name changes has almost certainly stepped over the bounds of sanity and is peacefully grazing in the valleys on the other side. What could have been a wonderful opportunity to unite the entire city behind a series of adjustments has instead been turned into the biggest game of one-upmanship that I have yet to encounter.

Taking a very detached view of things, a few of these names are completely innocuous. We all need to honour people who made a contribution to Durban's history and who up till now have been overlooked.

But most of these proposed names have - and have never had - any connection to Durban at all. (Swapo Road? Really? Swapo Road?? Can you really imagine naming the main road through the mink-and-manure Durban North Swapo Road?)

A lot of these people or groups have been fulsomely honoured in other cities where they lived or worked. Some of them are just plain difficult and unwieldy to pronounce. And there are some glaring omissions - Papa Sewgolum is the first one that springs to mind. There are many others.
I think what will really work people up is the fact that many of the existing names have really valid reasons for being there. But they are being replaced by names that are notable only for their sheer ridiculousness.

Let's look at Moore Road. No-one appears to know who Moore was or why a road was named after him. Could have been named after me, for all I know. There does not appear to be anything offensive or objectionable about this Moore. But there would have been no problem if his/her name had been whipped away and substituted for some overlooked Durban luminary. However, these dotty councillors have decided to rename it Che Guevara Road.

So who was Che Guevara? He was a Cuban revolutionary, the gritty darling of the pot-smoking hippies of the 60s - mainly because his half-toned image looked so darn good on a T-shirt. He was Fidel Castro's chief executioner, responsible for the murder of thousands. He was appointed Cuba's Minister of Economics in 1960 - within months the Cuban Peso was worthless. A year later he was given the job of Minister of Industries and within a year Cuba's industries had collapsed. (Actually, now that I think about it, and looking at the city management's current trend, they've chosen quite an apt role model.) He wouldn't even have known where Durban was - that is, if he even knew where Africa was. And the city father's want to name a street after him? Puh-lease - what his link to Durban is I have no idea - unless it's the pot.

However, I am feeling a sneaking sympathy for the councillors who have forced through these names: they reflect the deep-seated and indelible inferiority complex shared by all Marxists. All good Communist revolutionaries are terrified that the uneducated proletariat will forget about their glorious revolution in the daily hurly-burly of making money, and therefore they have to make sure that the great unwashed are reminded of them at every turn. This is why it is simply not good enough to have a Dadoo Street (which actually has a rather nice ring to it and will look good on a signpost). No - it has to be Dr Yusuf Dadoo Street, to prevent anyone thinking it's another Dadoo , perhaps even - gods forbid! - that lazy layabout Yosemite Dadoo who ducked the Struggle and never finished matric.

And then there is the matter of what street names are for. I always thought that a street name was simply a way of defining an address. Sending a letter to "That big white house on the beachfront, you know, the one with the blue curtains, unless it is Monday when the curtains are being washed, then it's the big white house without curtains, and the Beemer parked in front, unless its Tuesday when Madam goes shopping," simply won't do. The shorter and easier-to-pronounce a name, the better. So what's wrong with a Dube Road? Nothing. Not bad. But Dr Langalibalele Dube? Try giving that address to your taxi driver at 2am when you have had a few. You won't know when to stop.

This is how I have found myself living in the Dawn of the Glorious Revolution Crescent. It looks out over the Rates Will Not Be Increased To Pay For The Stadium Park, which regularly gets hit by lightning.

But perhaps there is a certain malevolent genius at work here: these outrageous full-length names are merely a feint - softening up the opposition in order to pave the way for Durban to be renamed Mikeville.

Not that I care much, actually. I am about to move to Sutcliffe's End. It's got a much better view.

A Smart City

The Mercury of August 20, 2008, has provided plenty of grist to my mill over the past few days with the latest item being an article on the progress being made towards making Durban into a smart city. The idea has been to throw open open Durban's extensive fibre optic network to residents to provide us with very low cost phone calls and internet access. Sounds like a great idea and there was a successful pilot, but the idea has has been cooking for so long that we had just about forgotten about it.

It was announced at recent press conference that the system is to be opened up to business and educational institutions before the end of the year. The system was much-hyped by the notables present but I'll believe it when I see it. There were few journalists present for the announcement and no questions. [Edited 24-8-2008]

Scaring off the skilled

In a previous blog entry I remarked that our political leaders seem to be hell-bent on scaring off the very people who have the skills to keep this place running. There are migration consultants who visit Durban every month to service their clients but now we've gone a step further. I see an advert in the today's Mercury, August 20, 2008, which announces that the government of Western Australia is visiting us next month to provide seminars and interviews for people considering packing for Perth. Scary huh?

A land grab ??

The Mercury of today, August 20, 2008, reported that there is a gathering storm after an Ethekwini Municipality threat to expropriate 1200ha of sugar cane land near Umhlanga. The aim is fast-track a low-income housing development on the land which is owned by the Tongaat-Hulett Group. Negotiations are underway about a development in the area but their slow pace is apparently frustrating the housing committee led by S'bu Gumede.

An anonymous property specialist is quoted as saying that the Cornubia development could become "a model for integrated living between people of various race and income groups" but that, it was rushed through and merely consisted of 15000 low cost Smartie-box houses, then it would become a financial and human disaster.

The Democratic Alliance has said that the move to fast-track the development is electioneering and, considering that the next election is in 2009 and that the ANC has been busily making itself enemies all over town, I think they're dead right.

Encouraging developments

I was down at North Beach just after 10AM last Saturday morning, August 16, 2008, and I was amazed to find the place immaculate. There was no litter in evidence, a circular flower bed looked neat and tidy and there were even information signs up describing the fish to be found off our coasts, and on the ins and outs of surfing.

A new addition to the wall of the lifesaver's building was one of the notice boards promised by the city to publicise such information as water quality. Regular readers will know that there has been a major controversy regarding the city's loss of Blue Flag status for its beaches and its decision not to reapply but, instead, to apply its own standards. Background information is here and here and you'll read that the boards were to be put up. As you can see from the picture below, no information had been added to this board by Saturday but, what the hell, Rome wasn't built in day.

I still think we should have reapplied for Blue Flag but I'm pleased with how North Beach was looking on Saturday. All that's still needed in that area is some pots of paint and then to keep it looking that good, no matter what.

Church bell stolen

The Highway Mail, of August 22, 2008, reports that an historic bell has been stolen from St John's Anglican Church in Pinetown. The bell is believed to be 200 years old, or more, and to have have brought from Scotland by Mr AK Murray. It was hung in the market square to warn residents of fire or Zulu attack and was moved to the original church building when the railway arrived in Pinetown.

Moses Mabhida Stadium

Reaching for the sky: the arches that will span Durban's new stadium are coming along. I was passing by there today and stopped off for this picture. The arches, and the stadium itself, are nothing if not impressive in size. The daredevils are probably already considering the feasibility of a trip up and over the stadium via the arches.

I'm still not convinced that a city that can't afford a proper fire department or, apparently, to replace the bulbs in traffic signals should be building such a thing. This is especially so when you consider that there is already a perfectly good stadium situated not a stone's throw from this one.

A city's shame

The Independent on Saturday of August 9, 2008, (Women's Day), has a story on its front page which should make us all hang our heads in shame. It concerns former Metro Police Constable Cherise Cox, who was apparently a highly effective member of the force's dog unit and participated in many arrests. While on duty five years ago, she was shot in the belly through her bullet-proof vest . She has since undergone 15 operations, has lost her large intestine, has suffered tuberculosis of the colon for two years, has been severely scarred, and has major nerve damage in her leg.

She was injured in our service and what do you suppose the city's response has been? She is apparently heavily in debt, having had to pay her medical bills herself, and she has to submit a motivation every two months as to why she should be paid a salary. She has apparently been forbidden to discuss the incident by the city. To make matters worse, the firearm used had belonged to the Metro Police. The weapon was apparently one of many which went missing, but the city's reaction was not a model of promptitude, as reported here in 2006, and here in 2007.

The article in last week's paper seems to have done a bit of good and the Independent on Saturday today, August 16, 2008, reports that a former Metro Police colleague is setting up a trust fund for Cox. I'll keep you posted on developments.

Mayoral Mazavaroo

The past week has not been that cheerful but a column which appeared in the Mercury on Friday, August 15, 2008, made me feel much better. It's in the paper every Friday and consists of open letters penned by Greg Arde and addressed to Mayor Obed Mlaba. In his weekly letter Arde, the self-confessed most prominent member of Durban's Mauritian community, describes the latest developments in his campaign to unseat Cllr. Mlaba as mayor of the eThekwini Munipality.

On Friday, he mentions a recent case in which a worker, caught sleeping on the job, was successfully able to claim he had been praying. Arde makes the point that the councillors (and Michael) [referring to city manager Michael Sutcliffe. Ed.] must have been praying when they agreed to buy back The Remant Alton bus company for R405-million, having sold it for only R70-million in the first place.

Arde says that his latest plan to unseat the mayor will consist of getting politicians to sleep more by luring them into massage parlours for soothing rubs and he even contemplates putting a mild sedative in his Mayoral Mazavaroo, a Mauritian chillie-based relish which always seems to play a large part in his plans for becoming mayor. He reckons that getting politicians to sleep more will radically reducing their opportunities to cause damage.

Thursday snippets

** This is not totally relevant to a Durban blog but it does apply. The Mercury today (August 14, 2008) reports that the Deputy Justice Minister Johnny de Lange has said that the justice system is unacceptably dysfunctional and that fragmented and inadequate crime statistics don't reflect the true situation. The findings of this report have apparently shocked ministers including President Thabo Mbeki. I can't see how they could possibly be shocked when everyone who lives in this country knows of the rampant crime and the disintegration of the justice system. I fear that the ministers might be fools or liars.

** The cost of preparing for the World Cup are going to be R2-billion more than planned. There are many reasons including foreign exchange fluctuations and the fact that some of the new stadiums being built have [unnecessary] "complexities". Have I got news for them! In some cases, the whole stadiums are unnecessary. Like Durban's, for example.

** The paper also reports that the Zulu Royal House is objecting to plans to rename Amanzimtoti after bomber Andrew Zondo (see here for background) and that a ceasefire has been declared in the Taxi war referred to in the previous post. Eleven lives have been lost this year in the feud which was between the Cato Manor and Chesterville taxi associations

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I went to a course being held at the Blue Waters Hotel on the beachfront yesterday. The course was for cold storage operators and was being sponsored by the American government. There were several Anerican speakers present and, after I took the photo I had to take, I went for quick stroll over to the beach. In front of the hotel under the palm trees was a comfortable-looking bench complete with what was clearly not a recent mess nearby.

I wonder what sights like this lead our guests to think about us?

Anyway, back to the course and the thought that you really do learn something new every day. I was there long enough to find out that fire is one of a cold store operator's worst nightmares and that frozen chickens are seriously combustible.

Another day in La La Land

Yesterday's Mercury (August 13, 2008) reported that the city is buy back the buses it sold to Remant Alton but still let Remant Alton run the service. The city is going to buy more new buses and let Remant Alton get its greasy paws on those too.

Sometimes you have to laugh or burst into tears. We sold the buses to them in 2003 for R70-million and are now buying them back for R405-million. And then we're going spend another R192-million on 162 new buses. And Remant Alton is going to be given this bus fleet to run into the ground as well. It seems as if we are to pay off Remant Alton's debts but I can't think why.

At around the time of the sale to Durban Transport in 2003, I wrote in the second edition of Facts About Durban that the sale was a bad idea. Business, and especially the South African model which includes more naked greed than most anywhere else, is not the solution to supplying social services. I knew this but our city fathers, with all their large salaries, didn't.

All I can say is: "I TOLD YOU SO !!!!"

** It seems as if the minibus taxi associations have been having a shooting war. There a spectacular picture on the front page of the Mercury of a taxi, whose driver had been shot and wounded, parked with its front wheels on the roof of a house in Mayville, its back wheels on steep bank and the body of the taxi suspended over a deep chasm. Lord knows how the vehicle managed to jump the gap.

** One cheerful thing about that issue of the Mercury is that they had a fact box on the front page with some stuff about the history of public transport in Durban. Most of these were drawn from the main Facts About Durban site and we were given credit for it.