Marikana Round two?

A woman battles the Police at Lwandle informal settlement during the evictions in the Western Cape. www.iol.co.za

It’s barely two years since the miners were shot and killed for what they believed to be rightfully theirs. Less than a month after the 5^th democratic elections were held and the homeless are thrown out on the streets, on the eve of winter. What happened to all the election promises of building the better life for all? What happened to the ‘batho pele’ principle? This people all they ever did was to run away from renting backyard rooms for the rest of their lives and they are trying to raise their own families but it looks like that is not enough to the few elite.

It is disturbing to look at the images of a school girl sneaking her books through razor wire, just to make sure that in all of this, her future may be safe. All of this no one cares about because the mandate is to erect the e-tolls. The very same e-toll that has been shoved down the throats of taxpayers without permission from the “funders”.

What is the difference between this image and that of miners being slaughtered on the hills of Marikana in 2012? Those same family men tried to feed their families but in the end had to lose their own lives? The image above says it all about freedom in the new South Africa. Is this the price humanity has to pay for erecting a shack?

As I watched the evening news on my favourite channel I could not help but repeat in my heart the famous quote of Nelson Mandela’s speech in 1994, the man who had also sacrificed his own families’ happiness for that of the nation. I am sure he somehow knew that this day would come when he uttered this words; “Never, never and never again shall it be that this beautiful land will again experience the oppression of one by another”. I can’t imagine what Madiba would be saying if he was around to see this photos.

www.iol.co.za

Another one bites the dust

There we go again

A disappointed Igesund when he heard that SAFA won't keep him beyond August

The marry-go-round of South African Football has started again and the grinding machine does not seem to stop firing coaches. Whoever is next on that hot seat will not last even the mere 2 years. As Ted Dumitru has said, South African brand of football is long overdue and honestly, whoever takes that seat won't last unless someone at SAFA house understand that the reason Brazil are five times world champions is because in all those golden years, they were playing their own home-grown brand.

I am not saying foreign coaches are bad; all I am saying is it will take time for a local coach to get the correct combination but in time, results will come. Do we only want a quick fix as a footballing nation or we want consistency the results? That will not happen overnight. My point is; the sacking of Igesund was premature. Didn't Bafana at some stage under the very same Gordon upset the current world champions on home soil? Isn’t this man's track record at the helm of the national team enough to make him keep his job?

My plea to Dany Jordan and the rest of his crew: put the interests of South African football before your own personal glory. We all know that you are a good administrator of football hence under your leadership we were able to stage the best World Cup ever on African soil, but at the moment it’s not about wielding that axe just because you can. Think about our football in say 10 years from now. Where will Bafana Bafana be at that time? The only tournament that they will play is the COSA FA...that because no one really has to qualify for that, or we will play big tournaments only if we get to host them, like it has been the trend in the past four years (2010 World Cup included).

It’s about time someone put the country first now that Madiba is gone.