rob878

Granted the first link has the dubious honour of being printed by the Daily Wail, but does give one side of the current situation.

http://www.box.net/shared/bmnpbjlrg3

and the second one would be considerably better with out the racial slurs, it does give a slightly different view.

http://www.box.net/shared/xgozms9jh5

the graphic images have been removed so it should be safe for work.

The Zohan

Thank God the images are removed as the descriptive is enough, as i said in an earlier post - savages.

Yet the footie world cup comes to SA as did the Olympics to China. Neither great places to live and human rights violations galore in both countries...

Xx-IAN-xX

Hopefully she's next

rob878

I read the posts on another motoring forum before the images were removed,

Mind you I have to weigh that against my very limited experiences of the country.

We were instructed to play a rugby game in Langa township (rugby development in SA requires such games to be played). After spending the day visiting the Red Cross Aids hospital in Cape Town, we were then given a guided tour of Langa. About an hour after we had arrived, we witnessed a guy who had been found thieving beaten unconscious, before being left in the town square for the police to pick up. He even had the holywood style pool of blood around his head as he lay unconscious.

That certainly made up for an "interesting" game of rugby later, and the police escort back to the hotel after the game got called off after 60mins.

On the flip side was having the pleasure of playing a mixed side in Stellenbosch. The dynamic and the atmosphere was totally different, in both the town and on the rugby pitch.

0ctane

iTrader: (1)

I could write countless pages on the situation here in South Africa. In my opinion, anyone who says things are better since the fall of apartheid is sadly mistaken.

I see that on here Terreblanche has been labeled as a terrorist, whether this is true or not is another argument, but don't forget that this is Africa. This is the way to become a government. How quickly everyone has forgotten that the ANC were terrorists placing countless limpet mines in fast food outlets countrywide. Nelson Mandela, Thabo Mbeki, Oliver Tambo... and all those others hailed as hero's today have killed countless civilian blacks, whites, women, children... now they run the country. Personally, I have never condoned terrorism in any form (even if you rename it Freedom Fighting), there is absolutely no excuse for any person, ever, to kill innocent people in your fight. Fight against the army, fight against the police, leave those eating a hamburger in a shopping centre alone.

Anyway, back to the topic at hand. South Africa has turned into a lawless state (although during the world cup this won't be very apparent to tourists as countless temporary armed forces are being employed so all should seem fine and dandy), but the country will no doubt fall straight back into disarray on July 15 2010. The total lack of respect for the law is apparent just by watching the conduct on our roads. It is a danger just driving to work. Stop streets are at best treated as yields, at worst totally ignored. Traffic lights are optional too. If it changes red, you have at least 10 more seconds to keep going through the intersection. The only sort of enforcement done by traffic authorities is to hide behind bushes on long straight sections of highway catching speed limit offenders on probably the safest parts of the roads. There is practically no other traffic law enforcement, and if you are pulled over for some transgression, a bribe of R50 to R100 (less than 5 to 10 pounds) and you're on your way again. The countries infrastucture is falling apart. The only saving grace at this stage is that FIFA has pumped billions into the country for the world cup which has resulted in huge improvements. Outside the main centers however, there is often more pothole than road.

South Africa used to some of the cleanest drinking/tap water in the world. Now it is estimated that 98% of municipalities aren't doing any purification at all, so at best you're drinking water pumped straight out of a river, at worst, you're drinking sewerage. If you're coming to the wold cup, I wouldn't suggest drinking any tap water outside of Johannesburg/Pretoria, Cape Town or Durban.

There are no official crime statistics, but it is estimated that around 25,000 peope are murdered every year. The only countries with a higher death rate are at war.

The income tax system has been streamlined and is now taking in more money than ever before, by far, but yet the coffers are empty and tax/vat refunds take forever to be paid out.

I have lived here all my life, and I find it sad that the new government struggles to maintain what was already here and served to them on a silver platter. Crime and the lack of basic services (water, health etc) affects all, black and white, and there doesn't seem to be anything being done about any of it. The only thing that seems obvious to me is that anyone in government is lining their pockets as fast as they can, and the majority of the population continues to vote them back in election after election exercising their democratic right to allow the degradation to continue.

dpb

We were stopped twice going north from joburg , i think because we had Guateng plates,to discover our drivers door wasnt working - the junior lady suggested this was illegal/dangerous/ and finable ,which it doubtless was . Both times we got away with it , perhaps cos my partner is native - well at least not far away and im british . Who knows

Stop signs in place of traffic lights ( robots ) seem to be ideal to me ,took a bit of getting used to (firsdt car at any junction has right of way )- mus save a bloody fortune

Drove from Randontein North to Polokwane via Pretoria (by accident) and back , and many times around /thro joburg . have to say i didnt really witness any traffic violations,as far as i could tell

Leslie

Could it be that the whites are being attacked these days as a result of the way that the blacks were treated and exploited under apartheid?

Les

0ctane

iTrader: (1)

That's a possibility. It could also be that they were promised the world when the ANC took over, and since none of it has materialised they now are resorting to helping themselves, violently, because the current government has stressed how it is all the white man's fault. (Us whites were just given our prosperous businesses, fancy houses and cars by the previous government, now the people are expected to work for the same priviledges </sarcasm>).

I think the world doesn't realise how much the previous government gave to the blacks, even though they were forced to live in townships. Schools were given to them, hospitals were built for them (the Baragwanath hospital, which was for the blacks, is the largest in the Southern Hemisphere, and at the time more advanced than a lot of non-government facilities).

Leslie

The secret must be how to cope with corruption and greed, as in everywhere else in the world!

Les

0ctane

iTrader: (1)

This is currently what we have to live with:

This is the rubbish strewn on all the city streets by municipal workers striking for more pay. The preturbing bit is not the destruction of the concrete garbage bins, or the stench of the sewerage flowing down the streets because they have intentionally blocked the drains, but the fact that when the illegal strike is over, they will get their increase in pay, they will still have their jobs (even though the country has 40%+ unemployment), and they will have to clean up this mess they have made themselves!!!!!

dpb

Post office workers were striking when i was there ,august last yeart , remember pics on the box ,somewhere on the coast north of Durban .

It was pointed out to me , hundreds of new houses being built ( apparently free for some people ) on the road thro/around Soweto / Lenasia on our way home ( outside Randfontein ) - i wonder whether this would have happened back in the good ole days ?