Across South Africa, the malls are crowded with busy shoppers buying presents and food for the festive season. And yet just across the border in neighbouring Zimbabwe, thousands of people are dying of cholera and countless more face starvation, with only a meagre assortment of wild berries, seeds and fruits from the veld to provide sustenance.       Under the brutal oppression of Zanu PF’s dictatorship and the continued post-election stalemate, Zimbabwe has steadily disintegrated. Hospitals have closed. Supermarkets are empty. Raw sewage spills into potholed roads. The politicians continue their interminable bickering. Doubtless both Tsvangirai and Mugabe won’t be going hungry this Christmas. But most of their countrymen (the ones who haven’t fled to safer, saner shores) will.       Zimbabwe is a disaster. It is time for South Africa, and the rest of the world, to step in before any more innocent lives are lost. The unnecessary, intense sufferings of millions of Zimbabweans must come to an end.       Firstly, Zanu PF must no longer govern. Having systematically destroyed a country and having lost the March 29 election (despite blatant vote-rigging and intimidation), those thugs have no claims to being a part of the new Zimbabwean government.       An interim government must be installed by the United Nations, supported by South Africa and other regional players. This government, staffed by non-political technocrats, can handle humanitarian operations to ensure the rollout food supplies and healthcare countrywide.       The UN must demobilise the security and army, and provide a “peacekeeper” contingent of soldiers and police to ensure safety and security.       And then, some time next year, proper elections must be held – free and fair elections implemented and monitored by the international community.       To those who think this is an internal affair, or must be resolved “by Zimbabweans”, the time is long past for such trifling excuses. Quiet diplomacy and regional SADC involvement has been an abject failure – and has merely propped up an illegitimate and wicked regime hell-bent on remaining in power. Of course that was Thabo Mbeki’s intention all along. His inaction on Zimbabwe casts a dark, bloodstained shadow on his presidential record and role as so-called “mediator”.       President Motlanthe must act in the spirit of our constitution and democracy and do his utmost to resolve the situation. This is long overdue. So much suffering could have been avoided. And yet so much suffering still can be avoided.       It is the festive season and yet Zimbabwe has absolutely nothing to celebrate. This Christmas, let us not forget the ongoing crisis – the hunger and pain and misery – across our border.

Google has released its 2008 Zeitgeist list. This is a list that compiles all the movers and shakers as far as terms go in their search index. In that link you can look through all the results which are, wait for it... amazingly American-centric. I know, I was shocked that 'obama' topped so many of the lists. That's a real stunner.       Of course, the more obvious truth in all of this is that when you get down to it, no one gives a damned about Africa. Despite all everything Mugabe does, the new/old conflict in the DRC, nice solid elections in Ghana, and whatever else, nothing about Africa managed to make the top 10 in the list for any country except South Africa, which is kinda a given. Of course even in the ZA, most of the terms are directed towards American events, places, people, and things. And for other countries, you can take a peek here.       All of this goes to show that yes, it's true that most people in the world don't really care what happens there or more to the point that they care more about information on Sarah Palin. But something that really skews the stats is the fact that Africa has such little internet penetration to the continent in general. South Africa is good, which is why they get a spot on Google's list (as well as the fact that Google probably figures they need to have at least one African country in there).       There is obviously room for improvement, but at the same time, people might want to look at how information is being spread about Africa. It is true that most people don't care what happens in the "dark continent", but at the same time Western media is doing little to help them care more. Stories about violence and tragedy only alienate the people in Africa more. We need more good stories and more real stories about everyday life.       For 2009, I'm sure there will be more of this to some degree though, at least out of Europe as the World Cup is going to be hosted in South Africa, which is the first time the Cup will be played on Africa in all its history. Hajdemo Hrvatska! Just had to get that out of the way right now ;)

Recently I was walking in Cape Town’s city centre with a good friend of mine. As we crossed the road, a few construction workers in a truck nearby began to verbally harass her, calling her a string of disgusting things.       So I yelled to them, “Fuck off!” They seemed rather indignant but obliged. Indignant, because they – like so many other South African men – believe that because my friend is a woman, she’s fair game to abuse, to proposition, to treat like a sexual plaything. They believe she is an inferior being – and because of that they have the right to say (and potentially do) to her what they like.       This isn’t the first time my friend has experienced this sort of thing. As a public transport-user it happens all the time. And not just to her: to many women. And tragically, many women face far more humiliating and painful situations at the hands of men (of men they know, sometimes whom they are even married to). Violence against women is endemic.       Why?       Because we live in a society which still considers women to be inferior and subordinate to men. We live in a melting pot of cultures which all reinforce the notion of women as objects – objects that can be used and exploited and subjugated because of the fallacy that they are lesser beings. It’s no wonder that there are 54 000 reported rapes in South Africa each year. It’s outrageous, unacceptable and tragic – but not surprising.       While the rights of women are enshrined in our constitution, there has been a failure for those rights to be protected. Often the very systems in place that are meant to protect women from abuse are those perpetuating abuse themselves. Police harassment of prostitutes is well documented.       In cases of abuse, the onus is almost always put on the woman. It’s the woman’s fault she was leered at. Slapped around. Beaten up. Raped. And so, should a rape victim sum up sufficient courage to report the incident at a police station, inadequate training and a lack of sensitivity often leads to responses like “But you were wearing a miniskirt. What did you expect?”       There has been a near-total failure for the values of gender equality to be taught and imposed in the home, at school and, in some cases, even the workplace. These values are ignored and violated in virtually every facet of South African life.       This needs to end. The constitutional values that protect women and guarantee their equality with men cannot continue to exist only on paper. They need to become living, celebrated, cherished by all South Africans – both men and women. We need to fight the pervasive inequality that continues to exist between genders, perpetuated by media stereotyping, misguided schooling, negative peer influences, bad parenting and dysfunctional home life. Because not only is gender inequality wrong – that’s a given – but also by fighting for equality we will be destroying the horrifying delusions that justify the abuse of women. We will be striking at the very root of which abuse against women is the symptom.       Currently the annual 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence is being commemorated worldwide. We need to go a step further. We need 365 days against gender-based violence every year. And it needs to start now.

Isn’t it astounding? That a man who incites people to murder and violence, who uses hate speech and insults senior members of his party is still around and playing a prominent political role in the ruling party?       Indeed, most people can’t seem to fathom what lies behind South Africa's ruling party head Jacob Zuma’s limp excuses for the outrageous, undemocratic and ant-constitutional behaviour employed by his most virulent supporter, ANC Youth League head Julius Malema. Zuma has even been at pains to compare the cretin with Nelson Mandela, who he says was also a “hothead” when he was head of the ANCYL – and was more than keen to take on ANC leadership. The comparison is odious and hugely disrespectful to our former president: Mandela might have been passionate in his youth, but he was a fighter for freedom and hardly advocated the use of violence to further the petty, self-serving aims of factional power plays.       There are, however, two very plausible explanations for Zuma’s implicit support for Malema, both of them chilling.       The one is that Zuma is using Malema as a useful idiot to propagate the new party line. In other words: Malema is happily revealing the ANC’s true colours as a movement intolerant of the views of others and militant in its desire for total control. Certainly Zuma’s anthem Umshini wam ["Bring me my machine gun"] takes on a different, more sinister dimension in the light of the violence and intimidation employed by Zuma supporters at meetings of the new ANC breakaway party, the Congress of the People.       According to Malema’s rhetoric (including his attacks on the DA which he has called on to be “eliminated”), the post-Polokwane ANC condones violence to achieve its aims. It is not a movement based on democracy but, rather, is intent on capturing of control through whatever means are necessary.       The fact that Zuma has wholeheartedly failed to rein Julius Malema appears simply to be confirmation of this.       The second possible explanation is that Jacob Zuma is simply too weak – and owes too much to the Youth League – to shut Malema up. They’ve certainly staked a lot on his ascent to power, and in return for their loyalty, they are indeed expecting a lot (tenders, anyone?). That is frightening because how can someone who is not their own man be able to lead a nation? Whenever a decision is made, one would always be left wondering what the exact ulterior motive is behind it.       But while Zuma has indeed prostituted himself to many people who are all desperate for a return on their “investment”, he has done scarily little to convince South Africans that the first explanation is not the correct one.

Come South Africa's 2009 elections, the new ANC breakaway party -- dubbed Shikota by the South African media -- won't be getting my vote. While their pro-constitutional rhetoric is encouraging, it's also hard to believe.       Where was Lekota's commitment constitution when he was in Mbeki's cabinet? He seemed quite happy to toe the party line when it came to Aids, Zimbabwe and other issues.       It's tempting took think the likes of Lekota have had a change of heart, a damascene conversion to safeguarding and promoting our constitution and democracy. But this is extremely doubtful especially when you have Shilowa saying that the dissidents "revere" Mbeki: an autocrat whose tenure was marked by the supression of debate, demonisation of critics, racialisation, Aids-denialism, lacklustre service delivery, rampant corruption and shocking complicity in maintaining Mugabe's oppressive regime.       Something equally revealing are the figures that are emerging within the movement. Nosimo Balindlela, the erstwhile premier of the Eastern Cape, has been welcomed by the breakaway with open arms. And yet this woman led a provincial administration plagued by corruption, ineptitude and wholesale service delivery failure.       Smuts Ngonyama is another influential member in the new party. But this man hardly represents democratic values – indeed, as Thabo’s spindoctor-in-chief and head of the presidency, he epitomised all that was callously vile and Machiavellian about the Mbeki regime.       The mask has slipped. Whatever they might claim, Shikota is not about principles or reform – such utterances appear merely to be a smokescreen to dupe the electorate into giving them back the power and influence that this cabal of Polokwane losers has lost – and now craves.       Opposition parties need to be on their guard. As South African human rights acitvist Rhoda Kadalie says in her latest column:

It seems a bit far-fetched for opposition parties to support Lekota and Shilowa on the grounds of principle — the sanctity of the constitution and democracy — when they know that cabal allowed the president to flout it at every turn, with regard to the weakening of Parliament, the chapter nine institutions, the National Prosecuting Authority and his support of Jackie Selebi.

      I hope I’m proved wrong. But Shikota seems little more than Mbeki 2.0: a reincarnation of the self-interested, craven elite who undermined South Africa’s hard-won democracy and, while earnestly amassing power and fortune for themselves, failed to uplift and empower the masses of people who were oppressed by apartheid.

The date for South Africa’s elections have not been announced but, according to the constitution, must fall sometime within the first half of 2009.       The preparations are already underway, however, with voter registration days scheduled for 8 and 9 November.       In many respects, this is possibly the most important election for the nation since 1994. After 14 years the ruling African National Congress is wracked by division, with a breakaway party, headed by the movement’s former chairperson, Mosiuoa Lekota, on the verge of being formed.       Successive elections have seen a drop in turnout, as voter apathy has set in. A lot of people, especially in rural areas, have become increasingly disillusioned with the ANC’s slow pace of service delivery, as well as the patronage and corruption that forms a mainstay of local and provincial politics. Believing there was no alternative, many chose to stay at home in 2004’s election.       Others, in South Africa’s growing urban black middleclass, feel alienated by the militant rhetoric of the party’s new left-leaning leaders that since the party’s conference in Polokwane in December last year seem intent on dragging the country away from the macroeconomic policies that saw an unprecedented period of economic growth.       Now, with the advent of Lekota’s new movement – as with other opposition parties (some of whom are doing much to appeal to as wide a base as possible) – South Africa’s political landscape could be radically transformed, with an emasculated ANC no longer the monolith that threatened the advent of a one-party state.       In building South Africa’s post-apartheid future, a lot remains to be done: poverty remains endemic with many people still without adequate housing, running water and sanitation. Social infrastructure – such as schools and hospitals – have in many cases deteriorated, with a loss of vital skills and chronic resource shortages.       The upcoming elections, therefore, provide an important opportunity for South Africa’s to voice their views on government.       Registration Day details:       When: 8am - 5pm on Saturday 8 and Sunday 9 November       Where: at your nearest voting station       Check out the Independent Electoral Commission’s website for more details.

One of the time waster sites that I read published, 6 Real-Life Vigilantes Crazier Than Batman and 5 Real World Criminals Who Were Certified Super-Villains. They're pretty wild lists, but maybe a bit incomplete, because if they're going to mention Papa Doc as a Super-Villian, then they should probably list Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo who is the current president-for-life of Equatorial Guinea. If you're not familiar with this country, that's not surprising. While it's on the west coast of Africa, it's rather small and it happens to be the only country in Africa with Spanish as its official language. Not a lot of information comes out of the country and this is mostly due to Obiang who seems quite happy to run the place for nearly 30 years and amass $600 million in ill-gotten money from plundering the state in a small homage to Mobutu.       But beyond being corrupt, the man is a bit nuts and drunk with power. For instance he believes that he is "in permanent contact with the Almighty" and "can decide to kill without anyone calling him to account and without going to hell." Of course this only natural given that he declared himself to be a god, although he still swears he's Catholic. I suppose it's in case the whole self-deification thing doesn't pan out. Then of course there are the rumors circulating that he's a cannibal as well, although that's most likely just to keep the masses in line. It's rather surprising how Robert Mugabe gets all the press these days, when Obiang is far, far worse.       Maybe it's because of this or maybe it was just because Spain, South Africa, and maybe the US and UK thought that they wanted to have more of a hand in governing the third largest oil producing country in Sub-Saharan Africa that they decided to set in motion and assassination attempt. And if it wasn't enough to have several large countries backing this, why not toss in Mark Thatcher (yeah, the son of former British Prime Minister, Marget Thatcher) in to the mix as well. But wait, that's not really enough. Let's hire one of the most impressive mercenaries I've ever heard of in the form of Simon Mann. Take a look at that guy's Wikipedia page. While he's more mercenary than vigilante, he still should have been on one of the lists I mentioned earlier. He's like a real life manifestation of any lead character in Michael Bay film.       I'm not going to get in to intricacies of how the whole assassination plot when down, but needless to say, it failed and failed hard when the mercenaries involved were in Zimbabwe of all places and got captured by Mugabe's forces. If you want to read all the gritty details, take a look at CNN and Reuters . Then read up on Executive Outcomes. Due to the fact that Mann was extradited to Equatorial Guinea and is now serving time in Black Beach Prison (where he'll probably die), I see a good chance of a movie being made of this beyond the British production of Coup! in 2006. Something big. Something with a lot of money. Something with Michael Bay as the director perhaps? I like the odds.