Left of What’s Right
Marlan Padayachee jives to a tongue-and cheek sing-along as political dissidents step aside to give way to a babalaas blast of entertaining escapism
DATELINE DURBAN: WITH South Africa’s political drama swirling ahead of the 2009 election, South Africans are taking the arts, culture and entertainment escapism route.
Fourteen years later, there’s growing turbulence in the world’s youngest democracy in the aftermath of the Polokwane Triangle that has changed the political landscape, but take heart because some of the world’s top pop-rockers are heading are to Rainbow Country this sizzling summer.
With the winter of discontent etched the memories of political, crime, social and economic victims, add a spectre of xenophobic violence, compatriots will be letting their hair down as they drown in the soulful and lilting lyrics of Lionel Ritchie. Rod Stewart and marvel at how the Canadian Master of Unusual Comedy, Michel Lauziere, can play Mozart in uptown New York with his skateboard blades tickling the little green bottles.
Soon the sunset clause will be history as the revelers get into the party mood when the big hitters croon and drool on the concert stages.
Maybe, Richie will pop in at the Mandela (P) Residency to say Hello! Is It Me You’re Looking For? As the warring comrades belt out Say You, Say Me to leverage the head-splitting at Luthuli House, the fractured ruling regime may be also toyi-toyiing All Night Long as the breakaway band work out if they could be Truly called counter-revolutionaries.
While Richie croons about Endless Love, hoping Love Will Find a Way, there will be no love lost between the one-time comrades-in-arms as they jive to Stewart’s soulful solos, and declaring that I Know I’m Losing You. With all the parties getting into the voting rhythm from door to door, some may end up Dancing on the Ceiling while looking down on Every Picture Tells a Story with Richie choreographing a famous struggle drowned in sours.
But this is Afrique Du Suid, and the Irish grave-digger will soon grasp there’s Never a Dull Moment as he rubs the political salt into The First Cut is the Deepest before declaring a Three Time Loser by the time Thabo Mbeki is Sailin’ over the Victoria Falls down the Zambezi to have cold turkey with Old Man River. With Richie and Stewart strutting the stages, our own AK-47 dancing president-elect Jacob Zuma declaring It’s All Over Now with Our Endless Love for president-in-waiting Terror Lekota as he takes his gloves off for the Street Fighting Man. Then at the height of the dissensions in the wake of the China Olympics, Katie Malua strummed home the point to Capetonians that There Are Nine Million Bicycles in Beijing to ride to the polling booths without catching the gravy train en route to the Easter election. Broadway musical theatre star Christine Pedi put her foot into politics and gave us a tonic of cabaret, comedy and jazz during a triumphant tour with the ballots re-electing her as the Diva Dame. Then the one-liners took the Mickey Mouse out of us with slapsticks, turning Poetry Africa into a festival of poetic justice. Carlos Gomez put the shutters on the White House as Jitsvinger and Godessa (Three Times A Lady) rapped about rainbowism, leaving Bantu Mwaura probing why Kenyans had lost the political plot. iBushwomen left their footprints about the shifting sands and fortunes of the vanishing Khoi-San tribes while the ink dried on Thomas Mapfumo’s visa before he reached at Beit Bridge. Poet by any name is still a poet as they waxed lyrical about the literary legacy of Mahmoud Darwish, Palestine’s reluctant statesman who died on Poetry Road with his inspiring revolutionary verses. Until I dish out the 2008 Lemons and Naartjies Awards, laugh it off.
Marlan Padayachee, recipient of the British Council Fellow and US International Visitor’s Award, is an independent freelance journalist and socio-political commentator who runs a media-communications strategy consultancy in South Africa: greengold@telkomsa.net
Published in Juluka magazine USA in November 2008
Tuesday, November 18, 2008
Sunday, November 16, 2008
10th Anniversary Message Chatsworth Community Care Centre for Mayor's Office eThekwini Municipality
Message from Councillor Logie Naidoo, Deputy Mayor of the eThekwini Municipality, on the occasion of the 10th anniversary dinner banquet of the Chatsworth Community Care Centre at the Ocean Conference Centre, Durban, on 28 November 2008.
On behalf of the eThekwini Municipality and the people of the City of Durban, I salute the Chatsworth Community Care Centre on its trailblazing milestone as one of the pioneers of victim empowerment in our city and the new South Africa.
This home-grown community-based organisation, the brainchild of Chatsworth’s stalwart activist, respected community lawyer and chairman of the board of trustees, Siven Samuels, and social-welfare activist and head of secretariat, Marlene Abrahams, and the founding committee members, was launched with a baptism of fire in 1998.
I recall vividly the arrival of a badly needed forum for voiceless victims of domestic violence when the ANC government endorsed the new-wave project with the high-profile presence of the then Safety and Security Minister, Steve Tshwete.
In the spirit of our private-public partnership that we continue to foster in our quest to get companies and communities to support the city government in meeting the delivery rate of the city’s 2020 vision, chiefly to provide a “Better Life for All” by creating jobs, fighting poverty and diseases and providing homes, the Chatsworth Community Care Centre entered the NGO scene at a critical juncture of the nation’s post-apartheid development and transformational phase.
On this tenth anniversary, the Centre richly deserves to celebrate its achievement when all the role-players and stakeholders gather at the Ocean Conference Centre on 28 November 2008 to break bread, pat each other on the back and navigate the two crucial years ahead leading up to 2010.
From humble beginnings in a church hall, the Chatsworth Community Care Centre secured funding from Lotto and other donor agencies and then reached out to people in crisis and provided love and support to the desperate and destitute in impoverished communities.
The city also wishes to salute over 50 volunteers and the 25 people who became functional volunteers. The Centre’s positive leadership resulted in encouraging the Chatsworth SAPS to open a 24 hour service to handle domestic violence, child abuse, wife-battering, drug and alcohol abuse, teenage pregnancy and other social ills.
The Centre’s linkages with Childline provided additional professional support for social workers to attend to sexually- abused children.
This is the hour to honour the Centre for its sterling role during one of Chatsworth’s biggest human tragedies, the death of young people during the Throb nightclub disaster in March 2000. Recognition has to be given for the efforts with the Durban South Doctors’ Guild in the opening of the first “One-Stop Rape Crisis Centre”.
With domestic violence rising daily posing the biggest threat to healthy family lifestyle, right living and communications, the Centre has performed excellently under pressure and amid shrinking resources in its handling thousands of cases on a monthly average of 200-300 incidences.
As the Centre heads for another decade of community upliftment, let me assure one and all that the progressive, people-centred eThekwini Municipality recognises and endorses your valiant efforts in providing relief for all the communities in one of our biggest housing estates and CBDs in the true spirit of Batho Pele (Putting People First).
Have a good one and enjoy your collective achievements and wonderful milestone.
Ends
Researched and written by Marlan Padayachee GreenGold Africa Communications on behalf of the Mayor’s Office, eThekwini Municipality: greengold@telkomsa.net/ 031 266 5599/ 266 1762
On behalf of the eThekwini Municipality and the people of the City of Durban, I salute the Chatsworth Community Care Centre on its trailblazing milestone as one of the pioneers of victim empowerment in our city and the new South Africa.
This home-grown community-based organisation, the brainchild of Chatsworth’s stalwart activist, respected community lawyer and chairman of the board of trustees, Siven Samuels, and social-welfare activist and head of secretariat, Marlene Abrahams, and the founding committee members, was launched with a baptism of fire in 1998.
I recall vividly the arrival of a badly needed forum for voiceless victims of domestic violence when the ANC government endorsed the new-wave project with the high-profile presence of the then Safety and Security Minister, Steve Tshwete.
In the spirit of our private-public partnership that we continue to foster in our quest to get companies and communities to support the city government in meeting the delivery rate of the city’s 2020 vision, chiefly to provide a “Better Life for All” by creating jobs, fighting poverty and diseases and providing homes, the Chatsworth Community Care Centre entered the NGO scene at a critical juncture of the nation’s post-apartheid development and transformational phase.
On this tenth anniversary, the Centre richly deserves to celebrate its achievement when all the role-players and stakeholders gather at the Ocean Conference Centre on 28 November 2008 to break bread, pat each other on the back and navigate the two crucial years ahead leading up to 2010.
From humble beginnings in a church hall, the Chatsworth Community Care Centre secured funding from Lotto and other donor agencies and then reached out to people in crisis and provided love and support to the desperate and destitute in impoverished communities.
The city also wishes to salute over 50 volunteers and the 25 people who became functional volunteers. The Centre’s positive leadership resulted in encouraging the Chatsworth SAPS to open a 24 hour service to handle domestic violence, child abuse, wife-battering, drug and alcohol abuse, teenage pregnancy and other social ills.
The Centre’s linkages with Childline provided additional professional support for social workers to attend to sexually- abused children.
This is the hour to honour the Centre for its sterling role during one of Chatsworth’s biggest human tragedies, the death of young people during the Throb nightclub disaster in March 2000. Recognition has to be given for the efforts with the Durban South Doctors’ Guild in the opening of the first “One-Stop Rape Crisis Centre”.
With domestic violence rising daily posing the biggest threat to healthy family lifestyle, right living and communications, the Centre has performed excellently under pressure and amid shrinking resources in its handling thousands of cases on a monthly average of 200-300 incidences.
As the Centre heads for another decade of community upliftment, let me assure one and all that the progressive, people-centred eThekwini Municipality recognises and endorses your valiant efforts in providing relief for all the communities in one of our biggest housing estates and CBDs in the true spirit of Batho Pele (Putting People First).
Have a good one and enjoy your collective achievements and wonderful milestone.
Ends
Researched and written by Marlan Padayachee GreenGold Africa Communications on behalf of the Mayor’s Office, eThekwini Municipality: greengold@telkomsa.net/ 031 266 5599/ 266 1762
Saturday, November 15, 2008
Karlen Padayachee SABC Radio on the Obama Presidency
From: Ashok Ramsarup <ramsarupak@sabc.co.za>Date: Fri, Nov 14, 2008 at 12:54 PMSubject: re; obamaTo: Marlan Padayachee <marlan.padayachee@gmail.com>
obama indians... Indian Americans - people of Indian Origin - have played a pivotal role in supporting President-elect Barack Obama's 21-month presidential election. India-born United States Hindu scholar Varun Soni has made history after being appointed Dean of Religious Life at the University of Southern California. His organisation - South Asian for Obama - made great strides in fundraising events, voter registration, outreach and education for the Chicago Senator's blistering campiagn. Soni is married to former Durban physician Shakti Naidoo. Newsbreak's Maya Jagjivan has asked Media and Communications Strategist Karlen Padayachee, who is studying law at the William Mitchel Law School in Minnesota, whether he has been heartened by the South Asian support for Obama in: out: dur:outtro: that was Media and Communications Strategist Karlen Padayachee talking to Maya Jagjivan
obama indians... Indian Americans - people of Indian Origin - have played a pivotal role in supporting President-elect Barack Obama's 21-month presidential election. India-born United States Hindu scholar Varun Soni has made history after being appointed Dean of Religious Life at the University of Southern California. His organisation - South Asian for Obama - made great strides in fundraising events, voter registration, outreach and education for the Chicago Senator's blistering campiagn. Soni is married to former Durban physician Shakti Naidoo. Newsbreak's Maya Jagjivan has asked Media and Communications Strategist Karlen Padayachee, who is studying law at the William Mitchel Law School in Minnesota, whether he has been heartened by the South Asian support for Obama in: out: dur:outtro: that was Media and Communications Strategist Karlen Padayachee talking to Maya Jagjivan
Friday, November 14, 2008
Tuesday, November 11, 2008
Zulu Kingdom a domestic tourism leader
The Kingfisher-Marlan Padayachee
Durban Dateline: Aside from SA's political intrigue and social and economic challenges, I recently revisited beaten track to explore country's domestic tourism leader, the Zulu Kingdom. Tourism is beginning to peak ahead of 2010. Everyone, from the poor vendor selling souvenirs to international tour and hospitality groups, is getting into the act to put their best foot forward to welcome 400,000 football fans from Lima to London. Egoli, Johannesburg's City of Gold and home to 70% of the country's corporate head offices, is the all-year flavor for millions of business visitors and tourists, but KwaZulu Natal is becoming a hugely popular destination "must-see" on continental Africa. Perceptions of a "Cinderella" or "Garden" province and a rural backwater or a "dead-end" Durban are being eclipsed by the skyline of a giant soccer stadium or wide-bodied runway as government and the private sector pour millions into transforming the gateway where the ancient multicultural battlefields and economic success stories of the Zulus, British, Dutch, Germans, Indians or the Portuguese.
Full story in Juluka : www.julukanews.com
Durban Dateline: Aside from SA's political intrigue and social and economic challenges, I recently revisited beaten track to explore country's domestic tourism leader, the Zulu Kingdom. Tourism is beginning to peak ahead of 2010. Everyone, from the poor vendor selling souvenirs to international tour and hospitality groups, is getting into the act to put their best foot forward to welcome 400,000 football fans from Lima to London. Egoli, Johannesburg's City of Gold and home to 70% of the country's corporate head offices, is the all-year flavor for millions of business visitors and tourists, but KwaZulu Natal is becoming a hugely popular destination "must-see" on continental Africa. Perceptions of a "Cinderella" or "Garden" province and a rural backwater or a "dead-end" Durban are being eclipsed by the skyline of a giant soccer stadium or wide-bodied runway as government and the private sector pour millions into transforming the gateway where the ancient multicultural battlefields and economic success stories of the Zulus, British, Dutch, Germans, Indians or the Portuguese.
Full story in Juluka : www.julukanews.com
Monday, November 10, 2008
Billy Nair - Epitome of an Activist for Change
PEOPLE
BILLY NAIR – Epitome of the Struggle for Democracy
LATE in 2008 South Africa lost one of its pioneering foot-soldiers for democracy, human rights and social justice. MARLAN PADAYACHEE penned this piece on one of South Africa’s remarkable bridge-builders for peace, progress and prosperity.
Billy Nair finally laid down his arms for a “Better Life for All”, aged 79, culminating in a lifelong sacrifice for the nation’s poorest of the poor as political praise singers chronicled the life of one man and his mission to change a skewed landscape.
Nair was given a state funeral befitting a Black Nationalist leader in Durban on 30 October as his widow Elsie Nair heard speaker after speaker pour praise on her husband’s impeccable integrity as one of the leading catalysts for change during South Africa’s liberation struggle.
His casket was draped in the green, gold and black colours of the African National Congress.
Twenty years on Robben Island alongside the icons of the human drama that engulfed apartheid South Africa, notably Nelson Mandela, Walter Sisulu, and his fellow Little Rivonia saboteurs Zulu Moonsamy, Kisten Dorasamy and Curnick Ndlovu, had transformed a consummate campaigner into a gentleman of new resistance politics.
Nair returned to Durban without rancour. There was no bitterness in his voice when I interviewed him after his release from prison in February 1984. His spirit of forgiveness and hope was overwhelming at a time when state repression was at its worst. Not even a taste freedom stopped this tireless worker from achieving the big political prize.
It was this spirit of political maturity, level-headedness and humility that catapulted the former guerilla commander back into the trenches, this time navigating Operation Vula alongside Mac Maharaj, Pravin Gordhan and other ANC Umkhonto weSizwe operatives, a contingency unit in case the apartheid regime reneged on its détente deal with the ANC in the early 1990s.
By 1994, Nair was taking his seat as an ANC MP in Parliament as President Nelson Mandela ushered the new South Africa. He retired a few years ago to his constituency in Tongaat with his faithful wife Elsie who stood by this remarkable socialist-communist trade unionist throughout his political life.
The resister they called Muna, isiSotho for comrade, or the Cat, because he often landed on his feet during his fighting trade union days, was paid the highest honour by the ANC. A flag draped on his coffin was later handed to his widow, a heart-warming reminder of the life and legacy of one man they called a gallant revolutionary, true hero, legend, principled political activist, outstanding, humble and selfless leader, born organizer, underground operator, keen dancer, punter and someone who also enjoyed a good whisky and chuckle. I will always remember his charming smile, inner strength and the honour of being called Boeti, as if it was yesterday when he walked out of prison into the arms of his wife. Hamba Kahle, Chief.
MARLAN PADAYACHEE is a freelance journalist and media communications strategist, who covered the frontline politics of the anti-apartheid movement from the 1970s to the 1990s.
BILLY NAIR – Epitome of the Struggle for Democracy
LATE in 2008 South Africa lost one of its pioneering foot-soldiers for democracy, human rights and social justice. MARLAN PADAYACHEE penned this piece on one of South Africa’s remarkable bridge-builders for peace, progress and prosperity.
Billy Nair finally laid down his arms for a “Better Life for All”, aged 79, culminating in a lifelong sacrifice for the nation’s poorest of the poor as political praise singers chronicled the life of one man and his mission to change a skewed landscape.
Nair was given a state funeral befitting a Black Nationalist leader in Durban on 30 October as his widow Elsie Nair heard speaker after speaker pour praise on her husband’s impeccable integrity as one of the leading catalysts for change during South Africa’s liberation struggle.
His casket was draped in the green, gold and black colours of the African National Congress.
Twenty years on Robben Island alongside the icons of the human drama that engulfed apartheid South Africa, notably Nelson Mandela, Walter Sisulu, and his fellow Little Rivonia saboteurs Zulu Moonsamy, Kisten Dorasamy and Curnick Ndlovu, had transformed a consummate campaigner into a gentleman of new resistance politics.
Nair returned to Durban without rancour. There was no bitterness in his voice when I interviewed him after his release from prison in February 1984. His spirit of forgiveness and hope was overwhelming at a time when state repression was at its worst. Not even a taste freedom stopped this tireless worker from achieving the big political prize.
It was this spirit of political maturity, level-headedness and humility that catapulted the former guerilla commander back into the trenches, this time navigating Operation Vula alongside Mac Maharaj, Pravin Gordhan and other ANC Umkhonto weSizwe operatives, a contingency unit in case the apartheid regime reneged on its détente deal with the ANC in the early 1990s.
By 1994, Nair was taking his seat as an ANC MP in Parliament as President Nelson Mandela ushered the new South Africa. He retired a few years ago to his constituency in Tongaat with his faithful wife Elsie who stood by this remarkable socialist-communist trade unionist throughout his political life.
The resister they called Muna, isiSotho for comrade, or the Cat, because he often landed on his feet during his fighting trade union days, was paid the highest honour by the ANC. A flag draped on his coffin was later handed to his widow, a heart-warming reminder of the life and legacy of one man they called a gallant revolutionary, true hero, legend, principled political activist, outstanding, humble and selfless leader, born organizer, underground operator, keen dancer, punter and someone who also enjoyed a good whisky and chuckle. I will always remember his charming smile, inner strength and the honour of being called Boeti, as if it was yesterday when he walked out of prison into the arms of his wife. Hamba Kahle, Chief.
MARLAN PADAYACHEE is a freelance journalist and media communications strategist, who covered the frontline politics of the anti-apartheid movement from the 1970s to the 1990s.
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