Five things you need to know about SA today

1. Here’s a perfect example of plonkonomics at work: The M&G has a business story saying that SABMiller says that South Africans are drinking cheaper beer brands and are partying more in their own homes — rather than in the pub. This has emerged in the brewing giant’s  preliminary results for the 12 months to March 31. Click here to read the story and pass me another Black Label from the cooler box.

2. The Witness in Maritzburg has an interesting crime story today. A KZN Midlands farmer was ambushed and killed  in what is believed to be a hit related to a land claims dispute. Read the full story here.

3.  Talk about adrenaline junkies. SA’s only microlight formation flying team will produce a first for the country when they take to the skies at the  Rand Airshow on Sunday at sunset — with fireworks. Read the story at The Times here. Nothing like doing flips in a flying bicycle packed with incendiary goods to pump the nads.

4. And on to more serious matters. Not! DA leader Helen Zille says her  all-male Western Cape cabinet is here to stay because she is not interested in “50-50 bean counting”. I’m with you on this one Helen. I think most womenfolk  — except that odd anacronysm, the ANC Women’s League — have moved beyond demanding skirts in power for their own sake. Read The Times story here.

5. And the Dalai Lama is now apparently welcome to visit South Africa except this is probably the last place on earth — except Beijing — he wants to swan off to, methinks.

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Can South Africa really risk incurring the wrath of China over the Dalai Lama? Sure, we should have taken a principled stand but even the United States treads softly on China on WTO issues because everybody needs to trade with them.

South Africa is particularly vulnerable to the China factor as the country buys huge amounts of commodities from us, without which we’d quite literally be up the creek. This said, though, I do feel our government has mishandled the PR on this.

Frankly, we look like right plonkers and it would have been far better for President Kgalema Motlanthe to just own up to the fact that China pressured the government to deny the Tibetan spiritual leader a visa than trotting out a wishy-washy “we don’t want him to divert attention” away from the peace indaba.

On top of that — and I’m not alone here — many feel that we’ve undermined our crediblity as an international leader in human rights, free speech and neutrality. (We are, after all, one of the most important members of the Non-Alligned Movement). That’s our USP (marketing speak meaning Unique Selling Point) — or it used to be.

Thought Leader has a very thoughtful piece by Azad Essa, a journalist and lecturer, about the Dalai Lama saga (click here to read) built around a trip he made once to the north Indian town Dharamsala, which is the Dalai Lama’s headquarters. With him on the trip was a Chinese sports journalist turned academic.

Essa pokes some very astute holes in the Dalai Lama myth. This rang a cord with me:

I had always felt that the Dalai Lama, as holy as he was, spent far too much time touring, lobbying and smiling with his palms together at liberal Westerners only too keen to maintain the regurgitated rhetoric, “the Chinese are bad”, to actually forward, pressure real changes to China’s stranglehold over their Tibetan quest.

And, on the latest fracas, he’s spot on. South Africa gave up the moral high ground long ago:

First, it was South Africa’s despicable decision to vote against a UN Security Council resolution aimed at sanctioning the military junta running Myanmar in 2007. Then it was Mbeki’s “no crisis in Zimbabwe” comment last year following the general elections which only just found some semblance of a resolution a month or so ago.

Quite right! This is a far bigger deal than the Dala Lama.

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1. The lawyer for the three doctors who treated Jacob Zuma’s former financial advisor, Schabir Shaik, says they did not sign documents recommending medical parole for Shaik. Read the story at The Times here.

2. Top Durban businessmen have been linked to a child prostitution ring, reports The Witness. There’s no names yet but they have been charged so all will be revealed when they enter their pleas in court. Read the story on News24 here.

3. President Kgalema Motlanthe has (through his spokesman) made the silliest statement of his short presidency: that the government did not want the Dalai Lama to divert attention away from the peace conference he was meant to attend in SA. The less said about this the better. This is topped only in gross hypocrasy by the Chinese government itself. Read this recently posted piece on a Chinese government website about the Dalai Lama (that he’s been striving to send Tibetans back into serfdom). Click here.

4. The SA government has launched a kids website today, says it’s news agency BuaNews. There’s no link to the website from Bua but the Minister in the Presidency, Manto Tshabalala-Msimang, said:

As a caring nation, we have an obligation to teach our children about their country and national identity. We can only do that by ensuring that children understand the national symbols.

“We also deemed it important that our children should be afforded an opportunity to understand the responsibilities of the Presidency.

Ahem, ANC president Jacob Zuma needs to do a little surfing of the site, methinks. Read the BuaNews story here.

5. South African businessman Maxim Krok is courting the media to sell his Sandhurst residence in Joburg for R25-million, says MoneyWeb, after spending a record price (R180-million) for an Australian mansion. Read the story here.

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