The prize for the quickest and smartest off the block for the online news media covering the state of the nation address goes jointly to IOL and The Sowetan.

As of 1.30pm today, IOL broke the speech down into a package of manageable stories (plus the full text of the speech) very fast while the Sowetan put up the best pics gallery of Parly fashion.

I’m more than willing to confess the red-carpet parade piques my interest as much as signals on future policy shifts in the speech. Thanks, guys, I spent most of my Parly catch-up on your site. You get the Tall Horse prize from Grubstreet. And my favourite outfit? Ngconde Balfour’s wife (she doesn’t get a name in the gallery) while Lynne Brown was living rather too large in turquoise. I also notice Worker’s Pain Champion Zwelinzima Vavi was looking dapper in executive blue.

News24 also broke down the speech in manageable parcels quite quickly and their new design allows for a nice big pic of Zuma, which is what you want when you’ve got a big breaking story. The Times was a bit underwhelming and their pics gallery wasn’t half as comprehensive as the Sowetan’s — and then there’s that buffering business. Guys, until that Seacom cable is up and running, please downsize your multimedia. I’m working on a wireless network and even I have problems. Business Day is yet to get something up, which is disappointing as I thought their website revamp of the past two weeks might mean injecting some vooma into their breaking news content.

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The animosity between the ANC and the DA is growing and, with party leader Helen Zille’s breach of protocol (she’s scheduled her state of the province address before President Jacob Zuma’s state of the nation address), it’s likely to get worse before it gets better. (Click here to read The Times story on the latest spat.)

Last week, Grubstreet spoke to the DA’s leader in Parliament, Athol Trollip, who made headlines when he said Zuma should be treated with the respect that his office confers on him.

Trollip, who surprised many when he beat DA strategist Ryan Coetzee to the caucus leader’s job, is an Eastern Cape farmer who is known for his affable and collaborative style. Looks like he’s going to have his hands full in his desire to build a constructive relationship with the ANC.

Athol Trollip

“Anger very often clouds sanity,” Trollip said. “What I’ve been trying to instill in my colleagues at a provincial level and will continue to do so at a national level is to make sure we don’t try to engage the ANC is a shouting contest. Seventy-seven (DA) members will never be able to outshout 264 ANC members.

“I believe that we can do much more than being an opposition in Parliament, where one is typecast as antagonistic and politicking with the ANC. There is a place for it but I am a proponent of political engagement in the plenaries in Parliament… We will be an effective, critical opposition — where the ANC falls down and cannot deliver on (election) promises, we will expose that and come with an alternative that will make government more effective. ”

Those who know him from the Eastern Cape say Trollip will do the DA a lot of good in Parliament as because he grew up speaking Xhosa in rural Eastern Cape, he understands traditional African etiquette that the top people of the ANC appreciate: you can be forthright but polite; there’s no need to shout.

“It would come out very clearly when he addressed the premier,” said Zingisile Mkabile, the former Pan Africanist Congress leader in the Eastern Cape who has since left politics. “He has some understanding of African values in terms of respect… And having operated in the Eastern Cape, I think his approach will be different compared to those who come from the Western Cape or Gauteng, where the DA is much stronger. The opposition parties were overwhelmed by the ANC in the Eastern Cape so you had to find a way of navigating through that territory.”

It was in his new role as spokesman on the presidency that Trollip characterised Zuma as a fallible, “warm-blooded” South African that was read by some as contrary to Zille’s pronouncements on the president. In a letter last week to The Times newspaper, which reported Trollip’s statements at the Cape Town Press Club under the headline “Top DA man’s attack on Zille”, he denied distancing himself from Zille in any “shape or form”. (Click here to read The Times story that caused the mini media storm.)

He told Grubstreet that he thought the headline did not reflect the report or his statements. He says both Zille and he respect Zuma as the country’s president — a sentiment, he says, that has not been returned by the ANC for Zille’s position as premier of the Western Cape.

The DA is the most media savvy of all the parties and when asked if the strategy may be to project the Trollip and Zille as “good cop, bad cop”, Trollip smacked it down.

“It just shows you a week is a long time in politics because a week ago Helen was the darling of the media and the public. I think it’s a very funny question and I don’t want to be contemptuous about it,” he said.

“I believe I was elected on the strengths I bring to the caucus and not because I would be a balancing act for Helen. And I don’t believe she’s a bad cop. I believe she is an incredibly good cop and the reason why people saying she is being aggressive, you must understand the kind of onslaught she’s under (from the ANC Youth League and MK veterans).”

Trollip may be known for his collaborative style but Bobby Stevenson, who has taken over as the DA’s leader in the Eastern Cape legislature, said: “I think it’s wrong to say he’s not confrontational. He’s not afraid to call a spade a spade or point out any failures of government. I think he doesn’t personalise politics. He doesn’t get personal. He sticks to the issues – that’s his style.”

Click here to read a Q&A with Trollip I did for the Dispatch in 2007 when he campaigned for the top job in the DA and lost to Zille.

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Five things you need to know about SA today

1. Brett Kebble’s art collection of 133 works goes on auction tonight. It is estimated it will raise R100-million. Wowee! That’s a big number of an SA  art auction. But to put this in perspective, says Business Day, it won’t get anywhere near meeting the debts the late Mr Dodgy Dealer, who  illegally sold R2bn worth of assets belonging to companies he controlled and used the proceeds partly to curry favour with the ANC. SARS is  claiming R183m alone from his estate in unpaid taxes. Read the excellent Business Day story about one of kebble’s oddest legacies.

2. And also at Business Day, there is gloomy story saying that Absa figures show that the average price of homes has dropped the most in 23 years because of the sagging economy. Small houses faired the best, big houses the worst. Read the full story here.

3. Independent Newspaper got 150 SMS bids for the Julius Malema puppet that starred in the withdrawn Nando’s TV advert, says IOL. The two highest bids came from the Nando’s London office and a South African named Leo Chetty (they both bid R25 000), the latter in the hope that Malma will become president one day. Read the story here.

4. By all accounts our president in waiting, Jacob Zuma, was charming and pithy in Parliament yesterday and we hear that will have three first ladies at the plush inauguration in Pretoria on Saturday. Read the News24 story here. But I’m  bit confused here. Doesn’t he only have two wives? (And two girlfirends?) My liewe aarde! South Afirca is going to be an odd place with the Big Chief tearing up the rule book right from the beginning.   You got to hand it to him for goedspa though!

5. And those spy taps are still a hot item. IOL has a story saying that Zuma is not keen to release all of them to the public.  This a wee porblem as police bosses have promised suspended police commisioner Jackie Selebi all the tapes to use in his defence and the DA had applied for copies of all documents and evidence that the NPA had before him when he decided to drop the charges against Zuma as part of the party’s court challenge to the decision. Zuma’s lawyers, meanwhile,  have  demanded that the DA be ordered to hand over R1.2-million in security before it is allowed to legally challenge the NPA decision. This little boomerang is on the arc. Read the story here.

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Five things you need to know about SA today

1. For all of you who applied for the “best job in the world” (i.e. to be a slacker on an inland in the Great Barrier Reef, and blog about it), it has gone to Ben Southall, a British charity worker. He went up against 34 000 applicants from across the world and starts the job on July 1. Click here to read the full story at The Australian newspaper and view his video application.
And here’s a vid (below) of the cocky little Brit accepting the job:

2. In the markets, investors act according to what they believe other people believe what others believe. That’s why they call it “sentiment”. So here’s an interesting peak into how SA fits into the global economy. Business Day reports that the rand has become the top performing currency this year after appreciating 15% to R8.26 to the dollar. The reason for this is that investors are looking to export-driven economies as they are ready to take on some risk. Why? Because they are more confident about the US housing market and banking sector. Further, Chinese manufacturing data shows they might be wanting more commodities (and that’s where we fit in as SA exports things like steel to China in the ship loads.) Read the full story here.

3.  The fourth democratic Parliament will swear in 400 MPs in the National Assembly in Cape Town today.

4. And, here’s the surprise: IOL says that Deputy Speaker of Parliament Nozizwe Madlala-Routledge has resigned a day before she was due to be sworn in again as an MP and less than a week after it was announced that she would be the new ANC caucus chairperson. Remember she was axed as deputy health minister by Thabo Mbeki after she spoke out after the Daily Dispatch’s Frere Hospital expose. She has been seen as a rising star in Zuma’s camp and is an influential SACP member but it seems that she has her sights set on being the Speaker of Parliament. Read the full story here. I think that’s a shame as the Speaker’s job has always seemed a bit perfunctory to me and Madlala-Routledge could be better used elsewhere.

5. The Times has an interesting story saying that BEE businessman Tokyo Sexwale is suggesting that Zuma serve two terms. Hmm, What gives, here? We all know Sexwale has presidential ambitions. Read the story by clicking here.

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Five things you need to know about SA today

1. Uh-oh. That dreaded “deflation” word. Business Day reports that house prices have fallen back to levels last seen in December 2006, according to First National Bank’s house price index. Prices reached double-digit deflation last month, a drop of 10.2%. Read the full story here.

2. IOL reports that the police have promised suspended top cop Jackie Selebi copies of the spy recordings that got ANC president Jacob Zuma off the hook but the prosecution team has cried foul over this decision, saying that they have not heard the recordings. Read the full story here.

3. Cope has told Mosiuoa Lekota that he can’t go to Parliament, says The Times, so it looks like there’s a battle for power between the former defence minister and party head Mvume Dandala and its deputy, Mbhazima Shilowa. Click here to read the story.

4. You’ve got to hand it to Nando’s for genius marketing. A Julius Malema puppet, the star of a withdrawn Nando’s TV advert, is up for auction that the fast food franchise believes  will fetch “at least R5-million”. Says the company’s marketing head:

We do expect him to fetch a good price — he has become a celebrity overnight. And his whole wardrobe comes out of the Woolworths children’s section. He’s completely on trend.

Read the full story here at The Times.

5. And it’s off to the Dispatch for tales from the Far Side. A gang of hapless burglars were found skunk drunk in an Mthatha bottlestore after breaking into it and then parking off and laying into the beer. One beer was found wearing a balaclava.  Read the full story here.

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Five things you need to know about SA today

1. This is top of the pops today! The Dispatch’s wayward Port Alfred correspondent Dave Macgregor, who has a special talent for ferreting out oddball people, has a story about a man in Hamburg (a little coastal resort between Port Alfred and East London) who is converting the farmers in the area into fine imported coffee that he serves up from a trailer. His children, Kei and Che, are making cookies to sell from the traveling business so that they can save up and buy a tractor. My favourite thing in the story is this nifty turn of phrase:

Investing R50 000 in state of the art roasters, a grinder and coffee machine, after four months in Hamburg, McConnell has already converted longtime chicory chuggers into caffeine junkies.

Chicory chuggers — I love that! Read the story here.

2. Cope’s Allan Boesak says that the ANC needs to give the DA and Helen Zille a chance in the Western Cape after promising last week to give her major uphill. Quite so, Reverend, who said the ANC’s response to losing the Western Cape to the DA smacks of a “child-like”  tantrum. Read the story here.

3. Unfortunately, the ANC is ignoring this call for constructive opposition politics, with ANC heavyweight and Labour Minister Membathisi Mdladlana calling Zille a “witch” while in Dutywa in the Transkei at the weekend. Read the story here. Honestly, someone as senior as the minister should not be going around trying to give Julius Malema a run for his money.

4. And while we’re on the DA, their former leader Tony Leon (writing in the Sunday Times at the weekend) about his hope that Jacob Zuma will usher out an era of frosty Mbeki politics in Parliament, suggested that the party’s parliamentary leader could be either Ryan Coetzee or Atholl Trollip. It will be interesting to see. Read the story here.

5.  Sasha-Lee Davids from Atlantis won Idols last night. If, like me, you can’t be bothered to follow the show but are curious about how she sang click here to go to KykNet, which has a range of Idols videos up from the finale. Be warned, thouhg, there’s lots of buffering and it’s a tad slow.

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So the ANC has “welcomed” the Independent Electoral Commission’s decision to dismiss objections lodged against ANC candidate Winnie Madikizela-Mandela. Well, I’m sure they are but there’s a teeny weeny problem here: It’ deosn’t look like it’s legal.

Earlier this month Paul Hoffman, a Senior Counsel with the Institute for Accountability in Southern Africa, wrote an excellent piece for Business Day laying out why in terms of the law (he focused on Madikizela-Mandela, Allan Boesak, and Tony Yengeni) is entitled to stand for public office. Click here to read the full, very insightful story.

In terms of the law, says Hoffman, Boesak qulifies as his record was expunged when he was pardoned. Madikizela-Mandela, however, is quite a different matter and is open to challenge in the courts.

The law says that you can’t be a Member of Parlaiment until five year after you’ve completed your sentence. And you start your suspended sentence after your appeal has been ruled on, which in Madikizel-Mandela’s case was July 2004.

This means she is not eligable to go to Parliament until July 2009 and would therefore have to wait until the next election (after this year’s one) to become an MP.

The Freedom Front have already said today that they’re taking the matter to court but, for heaven’s sake, what a waste of money. Firstly, if the ANC had any integrity it should not have Madikizela-Mandela on its party list (she was convicted for fraud after all) — just as Cope should not have Allan Boesak as a provincial premier candidate.

And, secondly, the IEC should have refused to allow Madikizela-Mandela on the ANC list on the basis of legal uncertainty. Meanwhile, the ANC is crowing on its blog and try not to choke on your coffee while you read this:

This decision reinforces the ANC’s contention that it has made every effort to ensure that its list of candidates is compliant with all relevant provisions of the Constitution and Electoral Act.

The extensive process of candidate selection within the ANC has produced a list of candidates with credibility and experience, and a strong commitment to working with communities to address their needs.

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