SOUTH AFRICA

SADC (Southern African Development Countries—involves 14 countries which I’ve mentioned before especially on the piece about South African and Nigerian hegemony) is having an upcoming meeting and surprise-surprise: the Botswana president is boycotting the meeting because Robert Mugabe has been invited to attend and is attending!! Botswana rejects the June Zim poll, calls Mugabe’s government illegitimate, and says Mugabe’s government is against SADC policies and he should not be allowed to attend.

Some people criticize Botswana because they don’t have a democratically elected president. The only problem with that is, though it’s not democratic it is legitimate.

The NPA (National Prosecuting Authority—like the Attorney General’s office) is pushing to have Zuma’s trial date set for mid-April next year. He has to say by November 17th when he’ll be ready to stand trial. Zuma has until the 30th of September to file for a permanent stay (meaning he can never be tried for this ever again as opposed to a temporary stay).

Still no medals for South Africa. They’re hoping on one more guy.

And just to remind you, today (Friday August 15) is the day the closed the refugee camps in Joburg.

Lastly, here in Cape Town, I found a publication I like for which I want to write. They’ve asked for a proposal. It’s a university paper but the normal biweekly one called “Varsity” is not very good. The one for which I may write is called the UCT Globalist, similar in content to a world affairs magazine like the Economist. It’s only published once a semester though. So we shall see. Wish me well. We talk about things going on around South Africa and the world, especially in Africa.