SA Crime

South Africa's UN ambassidor to the UN was robbed upon arrival, from New York, in Johannesburg on saturday night.
After Dumisani Kumalo arrived at his sons home on saturday, three men held up the ambassodor and party guests, demanding wallets, cellphones and the mr. Kumalo's luggage. A man was shot and wounded.

Sybil Seato, Inkatha Freedom Party MP, said in reaction, South Africa was losing the fight against crime. She said the effectiveness of the government's crime combating operations should be questioned in the light of recent attacks on tourists and well-known South Africans.
Seato also said it seemed that there was no war against crime.

The National Civilian Safety and Security Action (Nacissa) lobby group today urged South Africans to deduct expenditure on private security from their taxable income this year.
"The government's neglect of its duty to combat crime compels South African taxpayers to incur various expenses to make up for this neglect," spokesperson Conrad Beyers said.
The result being that South Africans pay double for ensuring their safety.
"It is hence inappropriate to pay tax for services that were not delivered by the government."
"We pay tax to pay the salaries of ministers and a president who are in denial about crime and are thereby worsening the situation," said Beyers.
According to Nacissa, South African citizens can fill in their crime related expenses on their tax forms in the section "other qualifying deductions".

Crime has affected the growth of South African tourism.
South Africa has missed out on more than 22 million potential tourists in the past five years who are worried about the high crime rate.
While speaking at the National Conference of the Southern African Association for the Conference Industry, Environmental and Tourism Minister Marthinus Van Schalkwyk cited a 2005 South African Tourism brand- tracking survey which found that 33,8 percent of a total market of 65,8 million tourists mentioned fears about safety as one reason for not visiting South Africa in the past five years.
Although South Africa has become an attractive tourist destanation, the crime statistics acts as a detterent to potential investors.

South Africa is ranked 23rd by the Union of International Associations as a top meeting destination in the world. It has set a goal of reaching the rank of 10th by 2010.

Van Shalkwyk said Safety and Security allocations had increased by 43 percent since 2003-2004 and that police resources would rise by a further 34 percent over the next three years, from R33- billion in 2006-2007 to R44-billion in 2009-2010.
"By 2010, we will have close to 190 000 police officers on our streets," he said.
"Law enforcement agencies alone cannot win the war against crime, as some of these crimes are committed within industry, by employees and owners of establishments," said Van Schalkwyk. "These include making information on tourists available to crime syndicates, theft of tourists' property in some establishments, illegal use of tourist credit cards, unlawful levy collections, illegal tour guiding and unlicensed tour operators."

IBSA: Permanent UN Seats

South Africa, India and Brazil have agreed to boost their campaign for permanent seats on the UN Security Council in order to achieve "concrete results" by September 2007.

The foreign affairs ministers of the above mentioned countries met in New Delhi, India, where they were co-chairing the Trilateral Commission of the India-Brazil-SA Dialogue Forum (Ibsa) which co-ordinates the actions of the three countries when dealing with international issues.

The three countries, as well as Japan, Germany and some other African nations, have been campaigning for over two years for permanent seats on an expanded UN Security Council.
The campaign started floundering towards the end of last year because the AU and other main campaigners couldn't agree on common key points, with some members, the African contingent, wanted veto rights while the other members (India, Brazil, Japan and Germany) thought that asking for veto rights would jeopardise the campaign.

On the 17th July, the three ministers agreed to pursue permanent seats on an urgent basis, with a view to achieving concrete results by the end of the 61st UN General Assembly". The 61st session ends on September 17 this year.

It is likely that Dlamini-Zuma also discussed the renewed push for permanent seats when she met Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh after the Ibsa meeting.
However, it was not clear whether the three countries had adopted a new strategy for pursuing permanent seats in order to give to the flagging campaign new momentum.

Madiba's B-Day

Nelson Mandela celebrated his 89th birthday yesterday, 18 July, in Johannesburg alongside world leaders and Nobel peace Laureates.

The event kicked off with 250 people singing Happy Birthday, including former US president Jimmy Carter.
"How God must love South Africa to have given us such a priceless gift!" former Archbishop Desmond Tutu told Mandela and other celebrants. "You bowled us all over by your graciousness, magnanimity and generosity of spirit."

Not only did yesterday mark Madiba's birthday but also the creation of a new humanitarian alliance, known as The Elders and his ninth wedding anniversary.
The Elders is the brainchild of musician Peter Gabriel and British entrepreneur Richard Branson, who also celebrated his birthday yesterday.

Mandela and Carter is included in the group with Tutu as chairman. The other members of the group are former U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan; Ela Bhatt, an Indian women's rights campaigner; former Norwegian Prime Minister Gro Harlem Brundtland; Li Zhaoxing, a former Chinese envoy to the U.N. who worked in Africa; Mandela's wife, Graca Machel, a longtime campaigner for children's rights; former Irish President Mary Robinson; and Bangladeshi micro-credit pioneer Muhammad Yunus.
A chair stood empty on the stage for Myanmar opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, who was invited to join the Elders but is held under house arrest by the country's military junta.

The Elders "will support courage where there is fear, foster agreement where there is conflict and inspire hope where there is despair," Mandela said.

The Elders will decide their priorities in the next few months but it already has a Web site at http://www.theelders.org/.

A soccer match between the world XI and the african XI was organised to celebrate Madiba's birthday last night in Cape Town.
The match ended in a 3-3 draw.

Three-time African player of the year, Cameroon's Samuel Eto'o, led his team on to the field at the Newlands Rugby stadium and the 35,400 crowd sang Happy Birthday to Mandela.

FIFA President Sepp Blatter recorded a message, saying: "It is a real pleasure to be able to stage this unique match to honour someone who has dedicated his lifetime to the promotion of human rights and democracy, and who has led the endless fight for freedom not only of his people, the South Africans, but of all mankind."

Organisers said proceeds from the charity match will be earmarked for social programmes including Mandela's 46664 global HIV/AIDS campaign -- named after his inmate number.

Mandela is the first person to have two FIFA games played in his honour. The first match was held in August 1999 to mark the end of his presidency.

Retired Brazilian soccer star Pelé, Eto'o and former European player of the year Ruud Gullit where among 50 soccer stars who took part in the "90 minutes for Mandela".

I guess its time to start organising next years bash for Madiba's 90th birthday.

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