Journalism awards generally laud work that uncovers lies and chicanery in government or the dire circumstance in which South African’s poor live but last week a courageous piece of journalism appeared in Business Day that has got Media Land hugely indignant – and rightly so.

Enterprising media reporter Chantelle Benjamin revealed that Avusa’s CEO, Prakash Desai, pocketed more than R24m when he split the company in two and sold a valuable stake in pay-TV channel MNet. Business Day’s editor, Peter Bruce, must have held his breath when he decided to run the piece because Avusa owns half of Business Day.

I was once a media reporter for Business Day and would fret dreadfully when it came to writing stories involving our owners or bosses. The master doesn’t take kindly to having his little hounds ask uncomfortable questions of him. It only happens if the editor has balls.

There’s nothing illegal in Desai’s payout of share options and I guess R24m buys you a pretty thick skin. For his part, Desai – more used to toadying half pages in Business Times when the company’s results are released (Avusa also owns the Sunday Times) – didn’t even bother to speak to Benjamin though they work in the same premises in Rosebank. He said in a statement, according to Business Day: “I was forced, obliged to exercise all options allocated over the past 10 years of employment at the group when the legal entity ElementOne was formed and I parted company to a new legal entity”.

Being forced to cash in R24m because of a plan you were involved in hatching must have been a trial and now the minions of Avusa are being damn ungrateful.

To read the rest of my column, go over to Moneyweb

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by Dave Macgregor

The smoking life. This is not Dave Macgregor...he has a goat

I met god – with a little “g” – three months ago when I decided to finally kick a butt burning addiction that has cost me thousands of Rands over the past 25 years.
An average of 20 ciggies a day, 365 and a quarter days a year for 25 years, you don’t need to be a rocket scientist to realize how much I have wasted since I sucked my first “cancer stick” – long before I even started shaving.
What the hell…I would have could have should have been a tycoon if I did not spend hundreds of thousands of hard earned clams on puffing.

Nobody held a gun to my head and – yes – I did know every smoke was “another nail in your coffin.”

But still I puffed.

I convinced myself I was so hooked, I would literally walk miles to buy some twak – no matter how poor I was – always fearing that if I did not get my nicotine fix I would climb walls.

Or so I thought.

It was so bad, I would be reaching for my smokes and lighting up – even before I realized what I was doing.

Before going to bed every night, I would make sure I had at least two “skyfs” left for the morning, one with a cup of mocca java – cos everybody knows it “tastes better” like that.

What a joke.

I found that all out during a five hour quit smoking session with god with a little “g” – taking a puff break every 30 minutes, nogal.

If a friend of mine could kick her 80 a day habit with god with a little “g” I could nail down my much smaller addiction.

Five hours later I realized how much smoking really sucked and stopped.

After huffing and puffing my way through 25 years of my life, the past three months have been the best.

Hooked as a teenager, 90 days after I had my last smoke I am slowly starting to feel like a teenager again as my lungs get to grips with some fresh air for a change.

Pity about the prune faced wrinkles I got from sucking on a million smokes or more though…

The hacking morning cough has gone; the wheezing before falling asleep is not as audible as before and I can hike up hills without huffing and puffing.

The body is slowly adjusting to being given a second chance at life.

For years Malcolm Robinson was just another surfing buddy – who also smoked 30 plus a day.

Now he is “Little g”.

After several failed attempts to quit, Malcolm stumbled on Allen Carr’s Easyway to Stop smoking last year and is fast becoming a give-it-up guru.

Endorsed by major medical aid companies – with a money back guarantee if it does not work after three tries – I kicked it on the first attempt.

Not using any “nicotine substitutes” – like patches or sprays – or hypnotherapy, it is the sheer simplicity of the message that breaks down all the myths associated with smoking.

No shock tactics no horror pictures of tarred up lungs – just common sense.

I always thought I was hopelessly addicted until it was pointed out to me if it was so bad – how could I get eight solid hours of sleep a night?

Bingo.

A few more chirps like that and I did not want to smoke.

Eureka.

I now know coffee tastes much better without a smoke. A few puffs after a meal do not bring out the flavour.

“Little g” got hold of me and I really woke up and smelt the coffee…and really tasted my food

Forget the Iluminati and other conspiracy theories – the biggest hoax are the myths associated with smoking.

The joke is on us.

Sex may seem better after a smoke, but try kissing a mouth after 25 of those suckers and you will know what I mean.

I believed it all – until Malcom started his shpeel.

Every myth was met with a logical explanation and the smoke breaks started seeming a little pointless.

And, as promised I am not a miserable sod – even during the first week.

Nowdays my friends say that I am glowing. I can stand in a smoky room and not feel like a puff. I also do not feel like public enemy number 1.

Billed the “number one smoking cessation method in the world” – I have little reason to disagree.

When my son came home from school in tears after being shown the lungs of smokers – I knew I had to quit.

Thanks “Little g”

* Dave Macgregor is the wayward, surfing and butt-kicking correspondent for the Daily Dispatch in Port Alfred. He is also famous for adopting a goat while on a newspaper travel trip

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It was an unfuckinbelievable out there this week – the good, the bad and the laughable:

1. Some stories are so bizarre that a straight headline is quite literally  the most compelling: “King in Libya instead of facing murder charge” in the Daily Dispatch. And, yes, it was one of our many kings in the Eastern Cape. This one is an endelss source of hard news stories… murder, mayhem, smoking dube and wrecking Mercs.

2. Then across the pond, Libya’s Fearless Brother Leader had the erecting of his tent stopped by New York cops because he didn’t have a permit to erect a temporary shelter. Turned out it was on land leased from Donald Trump, who denied all knowledge of the deal. Read the story at Times Live here.

3. While we’re in the States, the Huffington Post had a funny story about a tell-all book published recently by one of George W Bush’s speech writers. There’s some hysterial aencdotes about the Republican hawks and twits here.

4. An audit of the SABC revealed a staggering pile of chicanery and mismanagement. Read the IOL story and weep.

5. On the flipside, many were surprised when John Hlophe failed to make the shortlist for the vacant constitutional judge positions. In response, Cope’s KZN wing said: “Another racist bites the dust” though I’m sure our sober judge is already plotting other routes of advancement.  Cope also called him a “jumbo embarrassment to the legal fraternity”. You got that right — a great big fat one. Read the News24 story here.

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Yep, it’s old but “Diamonds on the Sole of her shoes” is a still classic. A great collaborartion and we got to love Paul Simon, who looks so young and trim here, for reminding the world out there what great music South Africa had. Watch out for Ray Phiri and Hugh Masekela with major chop sideburns. It’s worth watching the full 8 minutes. Remember, across the border, it was 1987.

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My four-year-old daughter thinks the doowap dog in this vid is hysterical, especially when he pats his bum in time to the music. Another cheerful ditty for ya’ all…

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It’s a week of cheerful ditties on Grubstreet (probably becuase I’m going on holiday up the coast north of East London on Friday) and if you’re in your 30s or early 40s, you’ll remember this and love it: The Wombles theme tune. Besides being an early stop-animation kids TV show and the Wombles showing the world the way in terms of recycling, the Wombles had the best names: Orinoco, Wellington, Bungo and my favourite, Great Uncle Bulgaria.

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Grubstreet talks to Elan Lohmann, general manager of Avusa media online, about the launch of the new Times Live website, dealing with nasty user comments and losing Google page ranking.

QUESTION:  So it’s been a week since Times Live launched. What are you happiest and unhappiest with?

ANSWER: OK, I’m happiest with the fact that we’ve taken the great step forward in terms of the brand – creating a new identity for ourselves which is not linked to print. It’s a start for us to say we do want to be a digital product and, for me, a digital product must be real time. There are operational issues that need to be resolved before that is actualised but at the end of the day, to me, it’s a vision statement.

QUESTION: So this is the start then. What’s the goals medium and long term?

ANSWER:  The first step is to get the guys into the swing of breaking news because the product was never run in that way in the past so a shift in mindset needs to happen. I want to create a breaking news stream as quickly as possible and then it’s a matter of getting our journalists to help populate that during the week as and when things happen.

The new look for a new domain.

QUESTION:  So what are you unhappiest with?

ANSWER:  I think just minor details – minor layout details. We’ve got a whole lot of feedback from our users – some of it civilised and some not – and things that they point out, we take to heart. Things that we feel they have a really good point on, we’ll fix or change. The thing about the web is that it’s not big bang. It’s always nice to launch a site and it’s 100% perfect and everyone goes: “Yay”. But the beauty of the web is that I can change the navigation tomorrow if I want, I can add in an extra section or I can decide that news should actually be South African news elevated over African and international news.  So it’s really just a matter of refining the product. I’ve said to my team that must realise that is a launch; not the end. It’s a daily work in progress.

QUESTION:  I noticed that the users were exceedingly irritated with the comments running most recent at the top.

ANSWER:  Yes, we’re changing the comments process. They didn’t like the fact that the comments were on another page and a cutting the comments off (to a certain length) was a mistake but changes will go live soon. So, yes, you make a mistake but the question is can you fix it quickly. And, you know, you say “the users” but there is a group of about 20 to 50 people who are trolls.

QUESTION: Yes, there usually are.

ANSWER:  They’re racist and, frankly, I’m quite happy if they don’t use our site… A lot of the stuff they write is disgusting and I think it’s bad for the brand. I also think it puts off a lot of other users  who want to say something intelligent because they fear for their lives; that they going to get flamed.

QUESTION: Well, a website’s not a democracy.

ANSWER:  I’m going to implement comment moderation. I don’t believe that we have an obligation to publish everyone’s comments in the name of freedom of speech. At News24 (where Lohmann was before Avusa), we had comment moderation.

QUESTION: But with thousands of comments, don’t you need a lot of manpower for that?
ANSWER:  It wasn’t a problem at all at News24. It’s manageable but obviously I’m only going to turn that on when we’re ready operationally.

QUESTION: But let’s backtrack a bit. Why do you guys want a digital identity in its own when you’ve got strong brands such as the Sunday Times.  Are you moving along to charging for content?

ANSWER:  In terms of the brand, I arrived here recently to find the brand was launching but I’m happy it’s been done as it’s the perfect catalyst to say: “This is a different product. It works differently. It’s not The Times or the Sunday Times. It’s  Times Live”…
In terms of charging for content, there’s obviously a buzz globally because of what Mr Murdoch said. Frankly, I think he’s bluffing. I really don’t think Rupert Murdoch announces what he’s going to do a year in advance. He’s not like that. He knows that competitors will react and maybe he wants to test the waters or otherwise he’s trying to sabotage them. This paid-content debate has been going on forever and one of the problems is when the average consumer buys a newspaper, they think they’re paying for the journalism. But they’re not paying for the journalism. They’re paying for the distribution; for you getting it into their hands. But content is expensive so it stands to reason that you would want to extract the same amount of value from your digital product because online advertising is very undervalued…  You can charge if it has value to somebody so for ex-pat South African users, there s value in the (online) Sunday Times because they can’t get their hands on the newspaper. So we might try it out. Nothing’s cast in stone. But it has to make business sense. I’m not going to rush into something on whim. The numbers have to be right.

QUESTION: Now, with the new Times Live domain, you guys have lost your Google page ranking. Isn’t that a problem?

ANSWER: It’s a short-term problem. We’re looking at taking about three months of pain.

QUESTION: But page ranking is based on years of traffic unless you’re contacting Google directly to sort this out.

ANSWER: We’ve got a few things in the works. I’m looking at basically losing about 20% to 30% of traffic in the first three months. That’s as bad as I think the damage will be but on the flipside, the previous site didn’t have a single SEO (search engine optimisation) principal in it whatsoever… I would personally like to get some SEO resources into our business on a permanent basis…
I believe once we over that hump, we’ll be in a much stronger position than we ever were. The only traffic we’ll use is search traffic and lot of that was international but, even with the loss of traffic, there should be no financial loss to us. So I’m not too concerned but if we leave it to chance, we’re looking at six months of pain so we’re doing everything we can to mitigate the damage.

QUESTION: The new content management system is Escenic (from Norway)  but you can do more with it, can’t you. I like the new site but I’d like to see more integration, for instance, multimedia embedded in stories and more links to other Times stories to give more context.

ANSWER: Escenic is integrated but we could probably do more with the user interface. So, for instance, under “related links” there is a little icon of a camera to indicate video. It’s probably not something you’ve noticed.

QUESTION: No.

ANSWER: In that particular instance, there rather needs to be a thumbnail These are the little user interface improvements I’m talking about. There will be a teething period before we are flying. That content has been integrated – just not in a way that it’s visual enough.

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“So it’s a recession. What you going to do? Lie down and die?”

So said Terry Volkwyn, CEO of Primedia’s broadcasting division, to the company’s sales staff when the economic gloom set in earlier this year. And ad spend for the division, whose stations range from Highveld and 702 in Gauteng to Kfm and Cape Talk in Cape Town, has in fact shown a small increase this year as it has slogged away to find new business and focused on direct-response ads (advertising that calls for a response such as phone call to make a purchase).

The point, says the canny Volkwyn, is that even when we come out of the recession, the big spenders aren’t going to come rushing back with megabuck ad campaigns – that’s going to take years.

There are indications that the worst is over for the media in this recession. American advertising agency Magna said recently, for instance, that ad spend in the US bottomed out in the first half of this year and it will slowly begin to pick up next year though it will remain in negative territory. In South Africa we also have the Soccer World Cup to look forward to, which should boost the coffers somewhat in the ad-spend department.

Even the beleaguered Irish owners of South Africa’s Independent newspapers saw a rise in Independent News & Media’s (INM) share price when it released its dismal interim results recently – because the drop in revenue wasn’t as awful as the analysts expected… TO READ MY FULL COLUMN, CLICK HERE TO GO TO MONEYWEB

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Now if this doesn’t lift your spirits on a Monday, then you’re terminal. I played this at a house party in Brixton years ago and got the whole dance floor rocking.

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Michael Hulley, President Jacob Zuma’s lawyer, might do well to have a sidebar with Judge Willem Heath on his legal argument that the president cannot be prosecuted while in office.

A little chat with Heath, who has advised Zuma’s legal team in the past, would reveal that in 1993 Heath ruled that another head of state — Brigadier Oupa Gqozo of the Ciskei — was not above the law and could in fact face criminal prosecution.

Zuma’s affidavit — which was filed with the Pretoria High Court in response  to the Democratic Alliance (DA) seeking a review of the decision by the National Prosecuting Authority to withdraw charges against Zuma shortly before the April 22 election — argues that the president cannot be charged with criminal conduct while in office.

“Charges can only be brought if he is successfully impeached in terms of the Constitution or after his term of office ends,”  Zuma’s papers say.

Click here to read the Mail & Guardian story and here to view the DA’s statement with a link to Zuma’s affidavit.

The 1993 court case in the Bhisho High Court was a fascinating one in which Gqozo’s lawyer, Dup de Bruyn, used a principal of English common law – the king can do no wrong – to argue that Gqozo was immune from criminal prosecution.

De Bruyn, a senior counsel based in Port Elizabeth, told Grubstreet that it was a highly strategic case and the principal invoked was that Gqozo could not be prosecuted in his personal capacity for what he had done as military ruler of the homeland.

Sebe, the former chief commander of the Ciskei’s combined forces and the brother of Ciskei’s ousted ruler, Lennox Sebe,  was shot in 1991 near King William’s Town.

Heath found that the principal did not apply  because  it clashed fundamentally with  the Ciskei’s bill of rights that held that “all persons are equal before the law”.

Story continues below clipping…

The king can do wrong... Courtesy of the Daily Dispatch library

That Heath was the presiding judge is not the only irony here. After Gqozo was aquitted of the murder charge, the ANC supported the Sebe family’s subsequent civil suit against Gqozo. Click here to read the 1993 statement by the ANC on  Gqozo’s acquittal.

Pretoria lawyer Julian kinght, who was a human rights lawyer in the Eastern Cape in the 1980s and early 1990s, says there is nothing in the South African constitution that says our president is above the law and that Zuma’s latest move puts him in the dubious ranks of Silvio Berlusconi of Italy and Jacques Chirac of France.

“Unless you want to call it the Rogue’s Charter, there is no certainly no foundation in South African law for this,” says Knight. On the “king can do no wrong” principal, Knight says: “You do have a royal perogative to make a decision but you can’t absolve yourself from any wrongdoing.”

Legal expert Pierre de Vos has rubbished Hulley’s argument in the strongest terms while legal layman Grubstreet is of the opinion that the 1993 Ciskei ruling does indeed have a bearing on this case.

Like the Ciskei bill of rights, the South African constitution holds that we are all equal before the law. The king can do wrong and we can hold him accountable. God save the king.

Click here for an insight into the shenanigans of the Ciskei: 1997 TRC amnesty application by Kwanele Thoba.

Click here to read the Grubstreet exclusive earlier this year on why the Hong Kong judge, who was key in the NPA’s decision to drop the charges against Zuma, believes the corrpution case should have gone to trial.

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