What's happening?

Will this be the last gorgeous sunset? No, but its close.

I'm teaching now, and the boys are in school. The days are spinning by, and the blog is quiet. What a short time ago was a new adventure, has simply become our lives. We've moved to a new and more comfortable house. There seems an inexhaustible supply of social, cultural, and scenic events to attend.  There's a growing sadness that our time here is coming to an end. And, we are busy; commuting, playing cricket, art clubs, chess tournaments, running... Against this background I prepare an entry that I've been planning for a while, but afraid of.

As you can imagine, the legacy of apartheid is a significant part of modern South Africa. To read the papers here, is to step into deep water. You find a large cast of characters, moving across stage littered with historical artifacts. Dramatic tension is delivered by economically dominate ethnic minorities, living in a paradise stained with violent crime. Nearly all these stories are new to a typical American. Well, that South Africa is a country and not a continent is new to a typical American. Instead, say that one can consider themselves informed, and still find South African current affairs perplexing.

Never-the-less, to ignore the happenings in this country is to eliminate one of the my major reasons for coming; I'd like to know what's happening, post-apartheid. With that in mind, I'm sitting down with a typical newspaper, although I confess that I've been waiting almost a month for a 'typical' paper. Too often the paper is consumed with something so hopelessly complicated, I dared not try and explain it. Or it's just about cricket, which I'm also at a loss to explain.

I'll try to relate the contents of several articles in terms that a non-South African can understand. Apologies in advance to all the erudite South Africans who will scoff at my naive interpretations. I'm reading the weekend edition of the Argus. It seems to be a good seller, and is available everywhere.

Front page news.

The lead story this weekend is Protests hit Cape Flats. The flats is a large area south east of Cape Town, designated during apartheid for non-white residents. It continues to be a home for the economically disadvantaged. In the flats and similarly impoverished areas of South Africa, a very hot issue is what is called delivery of services. This phrase is applied when discussing the quality of all forms of government service to communities, for example; electricity, water, sewer, trash collection, schools, roads, and policing. To understand the delivery of services, one has to go back to 1994, when there was genuine optimism about the changes that would come with a democratic society, and a more equitable distribution of government resources. My sense in that many believed that government would spend money improving the areas where they lived. This was seen as being an issue of fairness at the deepest level, South Africa had moved from being a nation that served the interest of 20% of the population, to one that served everyone's interests.

Some 17 years have passed, and in that time there have been significant improvements in many of the communities that suffered from neglect under apartheid. New schools have been built, roads paved, electricity provided, teachers hired, police forces expanded, etc. A new problem has emerged from the new found freedom of movement within South Africa. Economic migrants of come to wealthier areas, such as Cape Town. Naturally, these migrants put a strain on the ability of government to provide services, as what are called informal settlements spring up across the unsettled areas of the Cape Flats. As time passes, residents of informal settlements demand services. Some informal settlement have existed for at least 15 years, and the protests have been gaining momentum for the last 6 years.

In the nine months I've been here, front page news about delivery of service protests has been coming at a rate of about one every few weeks. The photos associated with these stories are often lurid and frightening, like the one posted here. Smaller incidents seem to occur almost daily, with a short note about someone injured in a protest buried deeper in the paper.

Recently, probably due to the elections that are coming in about a month (May 18th), there have been more delivery of service protests. The protests have become more intense, with burning of tyres, looting, toyi toying, blocking traffic, and violence. Key points in today's article are:

• Electricity has been turned off to residents of an informal settlement. 
• The electricity had been delivered via lines that were illegally strung from government built houses in a neighboring informal settlement.
• The electric company claims that the power was turned off by the people living in the houses that the electricity was being stolen from. The protesters claim that the electric company turned off the power.
• The electric company points out that such schemes involving the theft of electricity with adhoc networks are very dangerous, and illegal.
• Protesters counter that burning kerosene to light derelict shacks in also dangerous.
• Protesters also point out that they are unemployed, but operate small businesses, which require electricity and refrigeration. 
• This informal settlement has existed for 11 years.
• Police responded forcefully, and calm was restored within 5 hours.

All of this is closely tied to the lead stories on page two of the paper; Police retain weapons, and Town's residents united in protest, which are about the aftermath of a police crackdown on a delivery of service protest in Ficksburg (in the Free State) that lead to a protester being shot and killed by a police officer. The weapons retained are those of the officers suspected of shooting the man. The town's residents are united against police brutality. There is amateur video of the events leading to the shooting. This protest was about delivery of service, primarily water in this case. This is not a case where the settlement is informal, but a township outside of an existing community. The community appears affluent, with a terrific web site for tourists. This remains very common in South Africa, affluent communities with good delivery of service, and surrounding, historically non-white townships, where conditions are bad. I live in just such a place.

Another thing might be involved that is worth relating. The African National Congress, the party most closely identified with the struggle against apartheid, the party of Nelson Mandela, and overwhelmingly the ruling party, selects elected representatives at national or regional conventions. Which is to say that you vote for the party and not the person. The party determines the person. Many communities dislike this intensely, but for lack of credible alternative continue to vote ANC. Indeed, ANC has a lock on power in this country unlike any majority government we've see in the United States. I reckon that people would like a representative that they know, rather than one that is appointed to them. Certainly this plays a part in the anger fueling the protests, if you watch the video, I believe that you see protest signs to that effect.

The second article, about the residents united in protest, goes on to reveal some of the forms that the protest is taking. A library was burned, municipal buildings sacked, and shops looted.

The weekend Argus: it's got sizzle.

There are other, less depressing things in the newspaper. For instance,  on the eve of the elections, there are new political parties forming. One of the more entertaining has to be the 'Dagga Party', who's members encourage the electorate to 'listen to the herb'. Another party, the Cape Party, is seeking any and all constitutional means for the Western Province to secede from the republic of South Africa. That is a big deal.

South Africa is about to have its first African Playmate in Playboy magazine. The Argus has more salacious content than the other papers, and manages to find a story like this every weekend. "Bootiful", I wonder if that's funnier to dagga party members?

In this part of the world, the English Premier League football players are the sports stars. Just ask my kids. These guys are not only amazing athletes,  they also seem to lead the sorts of lifestyles that only an attorney general of New York might aspire too.

Cape Town is in the running to become one of the 7 natural wonders of the world. This would bring a lot of tourism dollars. Is it more than just a marketing gimmick? Absolutely, this place is a natural wonder. Come if you can. Nine months in, and I still feel we haven't even scratched the surface of what is here. We discover new delights every weekend.

And, finally, I'll conclude with the story of Shrien and Anni Dewani. They were honeymooning in South Africa in November 2010. The couple decided to investigate a highly recommended, and colorful eatery in the Cape Flats. At this point, facts become a matter of dispute. According to Shrien, the hired vehicle they were in was car-jacked. Shrien got out, and his bride was driven away and murdered.

Nothing like this crowd to bring on a giggle.

We were in South Africa when this happened, and the spirit of the country was really troubled. This was a beautiful couple and for her to have died so senselessly reflected poorly on the status of modern South Africa. However, police quickly found the murderers, and they claimed that Shrien had paid them to kill his wife. Police also traced cellular phones, and records of conversations and text messages between Shrien and the killers.

There are other twists in the story that don't have the same credibility as the facts above, but are interesting. Another unsolved murder took place involving an associate of Shrien's in South Africa. Shrien was known to have been in South Africa at the time. And, a U.K. based male escort known as 'The German Master', and having a fondness for leather apparel, has publicly revealed a relationship with Dewani.

The Master. Screaming for vengeance?

Shrien has been in England, fighting extradition to South Africa since January. His dramatic manoeuvrings have kept the press (and me) interested in the story. I think his basic argument is that his health is too frail to face trail in South Africa, and that the South African justice system is barbaric. I'm not quite sure how the British legal system is supporting him on this. I think he is just delaying the inevitable with appeals, exercising due process.

This week's story is just more of the same. As part of his bail agreement, Shrien is now in a mental hospital where he is being evaluated in some way. His behavior there has been erratic and volatile, and he's running out of options for interment, as the authorities at the facility would like him to leave. The judge is involved with the question of where Shrien can go until the extradition case is resolved. Shrien collapsed while leaving the court house.

Phew, that was hard. Perhaps I'll strive to make more, less challenging posts in the future. Note, there are some photos of a recent trip to Kruger in the upper right corner of the blog. Have a look.