IS THIS LOVE OR IS IT BUSINESS?

The South African president Jacob Zuma got married for the sixth time this past weekend in a traditional Zulu culture. the president is a person who follows the polygamous ways of doing thing s in his culture. the ceremony took place in his home town of nkandla where there was over 500 guests that attended the ceremony.

this is just when he celebrated his 70th birthday party. people were being bussed to the venue and even ministers attended the ceremony in support of their president.
living in a country like south Africa where the practice of polygamy is legal makes it easy for the cultures that follow this practice, but only if it is done for the right reasons. the questions is, is this about love or is business? is our tax money going to be spent on maintaining all the first ladies?

the ordinary citizens in the country have been against how  the Swaziland king has been utilising the wealth of his country by splashing it on his wife's. is this how our own president is trying to play it now? what kind of message are we sending to the world out there? this makes it had for the taxpayers because the budget for his spouses doubled when he took to office.

being a president of a whole nation is a huge responsibility and when a person is in office it does not mean that they can use the country's finances in which ever way they want, but in the best way that would suit the country. so what we have to ask ourselves is, are we being blinded when things like these are being done by some who is in power or is it just business to them as it is the king of Swaziland? WHERE ARE WE GOING?

COSATU AT IT AGAIN

the south African national road agency limited (SANRAL) is pushed to put the implementation of the new E-tolling system on hold, because of the court applications that are piling up against the tolling. this comes after SANRAL released its new toll tariffs that drew criticism from cosatu, business and other various organisations.

cosatu is planning to embark on another nation wide strike that will bring in all its two million members. the new tariffs indicate that gantries have different toll rates, that will see a non e-tagged motorist pay three times the ordinary rate if they do not pay their tolls within seven days. cosatu says that the strike will go ahead next week if the government insists on going ahead with the tolls.

this has cause an outrage on different organisations like AfriForum, it too says it has instructed its legal team to prepare to oppose the decision by SANRAL. the CEO of AfriForum Kallie Kriel says that "SANRAL was using punitive tariffs to entrench themselves and the e-tolls dominant and non competitive position in an irregular manner". their legal action ison top of another legal action that was raised by OUTA (Opposition to Urban Tolling Alliance), which is seeking an urgent interdict to stop the go ahead of the tolling system. this highlights different mixed feelings towards the tolls and what they really stand for.

is this the way in which the government sees fit to make people pay for what they did not come to an agreement for? why should people be forced to have e-tags if they do not want to? is it really to help with the traffic on the Gauteng roads or is it just a money making scheme? What is the presidents view on the matter that the road users in Gauteng find themselves in or has he turned his head like the others have???

BUCKLE-UP FOR THE EASTERS

The Easters are one the biggest holidays for South Africans, because they mark the resurrection of Jesus in the christian calender. During this time people travel to various destinations to celebrate and  this is when accidents do occur. The department of  transport always preaches that people should buckle-up, respect the road signs and the laws that govern them while on the road. A road report that was taken out in march 31 of 2011 by AA on its arive alive compagn, states a comparison of stats for2008-2009 as 10948, and 2010-2011 as 10845 http://www.arrivealive.co.za/documents/March%202011%20Road%20Traffic%20Report.pdf. 

the department of transport has encouraged people to be prepared for the visibility of police every where on the road for this years holidays. the department has teamed up with the arrive alive campaign to try and encorage travellers to adhere to road principles http://mype.co.za/new/2012/04/arrive-alive/. They say that this time they want to operate in a defferent way than in the other previous years. the campaign is aime at removing anyone or anything that threatens the llives of people on the roads during the easters. the minister of trasport Sibusiso Ndebele said that the road safety campaigns will only succeed when the road users change their behaviuor http://mg.co.za/article/2011-11-08-transport-minister-launches-new-road-safety-campaign/. 

The question is, do these campaigns realy have an impact when it come to the stats being realesed? or are they just for show that they can decrease a percent or two in the death tolls? are they realy effective when it comes to communicating the message across? with this campaign the minister said they have mapped out routes, sharpend their strategies and oile their battle plans. he enforced that the department is now going to go back to basics, where we will find primary school children being tought about the basic rules of the road, this will be a campaign that the goverment will be starting off with this year. But will it improve the situations on the roads??? Will have to Wait and See...