“I know only one thing - that I know nothing.” - Socrates

The Mail & Guardian has established that the Scorpions recently registered an investigation into South Africa’s multibillion-rand purchase of jet trainers and fighter jets from British arms giant BAE Systems and Sweden’s Saab. The BAE/Saab contract, worth R16-billion in 1999 and R30-billion at the current exchange rate, was the single largest purchase of the entire arms procurement.The “commissions” BAE paid dwarf the R500 000 annual bribe African National Congress (ANC) president Jacob Zuma allegedly took from French arms firm Thales and the $25-million (R200-million) in commissions German prosecutors claim were partly paid to South African officials and Cabinet ministers to clinch the warships contract.

link : http://www.mg.co.za/articlePage.aspx?articleid=335106&area=/insight/insight__national/

Blair role in SA arms contract

Tony Blair may have some explaining to do over a major arms deal with South Africa on the last leg of his week-long Africa tour.

One awkward question which may not be on Mr Blair’s agenda during this week’s visit to South Africa will be his role in helping a leading British arms supplier to win a multi-million dollar arms contract.

The deal, signed by BAE, was part of a much larger arms procurement programme, with contracts signed by a range of European companies.

Some of these contracts have become bogged down in controversy.

And more recently it has also been alleged that BAE itself paid what have been termed “commissions” to ensure that it won the contract.

While there is no suggestion that the prime minister knew of or participated in any wrongdoing, his role in supporting the BAE bid has never been fully explained.

link : Blair role in SA arms contract

link : the real story

South African Super 14 teams have done reasonably well in this 2008 post RWC season, despite far reaching changes to the laws of the game which do not favor the South African style of play.

The Springbok team that won the 2007 Rugby World Cup looked like this :

15 Percy Montgomery
14 JP Pietersen
13 Jaque Fourie
12 Francois Steyn
11 Bryan Habana
10 Butch James
9 Fourie du Preez
8 Danie Rossouw
7 Juan Smith
6 Schalk Burger
5 Victor Matfield
4 Bakkies Botha
3 CJ van der Linde
2 John Smit (c)
1 Os du Randt

16 Bismarck du Plessis (hooker)
17 Jannie du Plessis (prop)
18 Johannes Muller (lock)
19 Wickus van Heerden (flanker)
20 Ruan Pienaar (scrumhalf)
21 Andre Pretorius (flyhalf)
22 Wynand Olivier (center)

Pieter De Villiers has been appointed as new Bok coach. He takes the reigns from Jake White who built his world cup winning squad over a period of four years, opting to select “class over form” and reaping the benefits of consistency in squad selection to field the most experienced Bok team ever.

Pieter would be well advised to follow in Jake’s footsteps. I believe he should retain the core of the 2007 team and introduce new blood to build towards the 2011 RWC. A Bok team selected on S14 performance in 2008 and sticking with form players of the 2007 squad may look like this:

15 Conrad Jantjes
14 Tonderai Chavanga
13 Jean De Villiers (c)
12 Francois Steyn
11 Bryan Habana
10 Butch James / Peter Grant
9 Enrico Januarie
8 Ryan Kankowski
7 Juan Smith
6 Schalk Burger
5 Victor Matfield / Andries Bekker
4 Bakkies Botha
3 Brian Mujati
2 Schalk Brits
1 Gurthro Steenkamp

16 Bismarck du Plessis (hooker)
17 Jannie du Plessis (prop)
18 Johannes Muller (lock)
19 Luke Watson (eightman/flank)
20 Pierre Spies (eightman/flank)
21 Ruan Pienaar (utility covering scrum half and fly half)
22 JP Pietersen (utility covering wing and fullback)

Newcomers to the Bok jersey are indicated in red. Players like John Smit, Butch James and Victor Matfield have left South Africa for club rugby in Europe and may not be available for selection in the upcoming tests to be played against Wales, the current Six Nations champions.

“Life is not a philosophical problem - it is a religious mystery.” - OSHO, Creativity

“Rest at ease - don’t desire spiritual things, don’t desire heaven, don’t desire even God. God cannot be desired - when you are desireless, he comes to you. Liberation cannot be desired - because desire is the bondage. When you are desireless you are liberated.” - OSHO, Creativity

In South Africa, more than ten years after the end of Apartheid and the advent of our new nonracial democracy, the South African government still choose to refer to its citizens by racial categories that date back to the Population Registration Act, Act No 30 of 1950. In terms of this act South Africans were classified as Black, White, Coloured and Indian. In post-Apartheid South Africa the racial category “Black” was changed to “African” while the other three categories were retained. Although this racial classification is not entrenched in law it is used in Affirmative Action and Black Economic Empowerment policies to differentiate between candidates in allocation of employment and ownership equity.

The apparently innocuous shift from “Black” to “African” has introduced chaos in the heavenly abode of the politically correct.

CAPE TOWN, South Africa — The South African Rugby Union re-elected president Oregan Hoskins for a two-year term on Friday after a stormy campaign dominated by race and politics.Rugby and cricket have been engulfed in disputes that the national squads are too white, overshadowing successes on the field and causing clashes between coaches and management.

Hoskins defeated SARU deputy president Mike Stofile, who said the result proved there was racism in the sport.

“I’ve been saying for four years now there is no place for black people in SA rugby and this is the final nail for black people in this country,” Stofile was quoted as saying by the South African Press Association. “Black people are not trusted.”

Stofile - the brother of Sports Minister Makhenkesi Stofile - called on the government to intervene.

However, Hoskins himself is mixed race as is South Africa coach Peter de Villiers who was appointed in January as the first nonwhite coach since the country began playing internationals in 1891.

De Villiers succeeded Jake White, who coached the Springboks to victory at last year’s rugby World Cup. White clashed repeatedly with rugby administrators who said there weren’t enough black players on the team.

Hoskins said South Africa had made progress toward racial transformation of a sport which was long seen as a bastion of white supremacy during apartheid.

“Transformation is not just about colour and numbers. It’s about transforming our thinking, about coping with challenges facing us at international level,” Hoskins said, noting that more blacks now played rugby in schools and clubs.

De Villiers himself clashed with SARU and refused to sign his contract unless he was given final say over the composition of the team. Hoskins said SARU had agreed to amend the constitution to allow the coach the final say.

South African cricket coach Mickey Arthur had a furious selection dispute last month when Cricket SA president Norman Arendse rejected his team for the tour of Bangladesh because it included seven nonwhites.

Cricket SA chief executive officer Gerald Majola, who is black, supported Arthur and clashed with Arendse, who is mixed race. Majola and Arendse subsequently issued a joint statement apologizing for undermining the “integrity and reputation of the sport.”

The ruling African National Congress’s sport and recreation committee said Friday that continuing rumours that Arendse would face a vote of no-confidence were merely “a desperate cry by those who have abandoned the principle of nonracial sport to justify the inequalities of cricket and sport in general.”

South African fast bowler Andre Nel threatened to pull out of international cricket altogether after he was axed from the squad against India in favour of Charl Langeveldt, a black player. Langeveldt subsequently withdrew from the Indian tour.

“I have always fought for a place in the team but I don’t want to be put there because of my colour,” Langeveldt said.

Of South Africa’s three national sports, soccer is the only one that has fully passed the racial test because the majority of its players and fans are black.

But a series of poor performances by the national team prompted the sports minister to suggest that top soccer players should be released by their clubs for the next two years and instead contracted by the South African Football Association. This would allow coach Carlos Alberto Parreira to prepare the team for the 2010 World Cup in South Africa.

Parreira avoided the issue ahead of South Africa’s 3-0 win over Paraguay in a friendly match Wednesday, saying he would not get involved in politics.

“And those who know nothing about soccer should not dabble in football matters either,” Parreira said.

link : South African rugby union re-elects president in race-dominated campaign