Should football fans fear for their lives at the World Cup?

"While crime might be going down, it is [often] extremely violent, armed robberies, hijackings. It is very in your face, it is very gruesome. The robbers will come in and not only attack a couple, [but] rape the wife, and severely assault the husband.

"People are worried about what the government is trying to feed them. The violence associated with crime is increasing."

SHOOT: I'm a South African, this was my take on the same question > http://www.nickvanderleek.com/2009/03/just-how-dangerous-is-south-africa.html

clipped from news.bbc.co.uk With a multitude of tourists heading to South Africa for the World Cup, a question hangs on many lips: how dangerous is the country? South Africa is a place where a lot of violent crime happens. That much is hard to dispute. Each day an average of nearly 50 people are murdered. In addition to these 18,000 murders each year, there are another 18,000 attempted murders. Kwa Mashu, a township outside Durban in KwaZulu-Natal, has the unfortunate honour of being dubbed South Africa's murder capital by the media, with 300 last year. It took the unwanted honour from Nyanga, a township outside Cape Town. "There are extremely high rates of unemployment in some areas. All of this leads to a large element of frustration. Often this is the thing that sparks violence. Of the 18,438 house robberies in South Africa last year, 8,122 were in the province of Gauteng, which includes Johannesburg. The likelihood of being a victim is twice the national average there.

New York Times editor in chief: How I plan to charge for online content

SHOOT: Intwisting. Well I'm sure all the bloggers out there welcome the news that media companies plan to charge for access to their exceptional journalism. But here's an idea. When these companies are charging for online content, what it stopping bloggers from going out, buying the newspapers, and summarising these stories on their own sites, for free, in their own words?

clipped from venturebeat.com The New York Times’ slow-cooked plan to charge some readers for some of its online content will be put into place in January of next year, editor in chief Bill Keller told other journos at a dinner in New York on Thursday night. The Times’ previous attempt to charge for content, TimesSelect, was canceled later that year because too few subscribers had signed up for what was basically a premium content package. Most TimesSelect content was what newspaper editors categorize as commentary or opinion, rather than news reporting. People were uninterested in paying an extra $50 per year to read the Times’ columnists. Chances are Keller and company are still trying to calculate exactly how much to give away, and how much to charge for greater access. Without those numbers, the only safe prediction is that they won’t start with a high bar to access. Better to start with a lenient setting that blocks few readers, then ratchet it up to see what the market will bear.

KULULA SPECIAL OFFERS - starts and ends 6 May 2010

SHOOT: Have a look at what it involves below, prices and destinations. If you want to take part in this visit:

https://www.kulula.com/default.aspx?utm_source=kulula-com&utm_medium=email&utm_content=branded-header&utm_campaign=take-off-sale-6-may

clipped from mail.google.com Jo'burg (OR Tambo) <- -> Durbs Jo'burg (Lanseria) <- -> Durbs Cape Town <- -> PE Durbs <- -> PE from R299 one way incl. taxes Jo'burg (OR Tambo) <- -> Cape Town Jo'burg (Lanseria) <- -> Cape Town Durbs <- -> Cape Town from R399 one way incl. taxes Should you want to travel during the "sporting event that can't be mentioned" in June and July, don't despair; we've got some great deals on off-peak flights for you to choose from. Remember, book online before midnight on the 6th of May 2010.

Boer maak 'n plan - Vanderbijlpark oke decides to fix potholes himself

SHOOT: I like this guy.

clipped from www.news24.com Pierre Bouwer, 54, a businessman from Vanderbijlpark and a committee member of the Vanderbijlpark NTU, started fixing potholes on the Stokkiesdraai Road, just outside the town, along with some of his workers on Wednesday. "I'm fixing the potholes myself, because my family and I drive to and from our smallholding on this road at least seven times a day, and each time our lives are in danger." Mari Myburgh, chairperson of the local NTU, said she was threatened with arrest if they fix the potholes by themselves. "Supposedly we don't have the expertise to do it alone, but Pierre has done his homework. He learned from the supplier of the material that one of the most important steps is to compact the base filler and tar," said Myburgh. Bouwer said: "I'm not just filling the hole with soil to hide the problem. "Rain water won't be flushing out these potholes so easily any more. I'll be giving lessons on Sunday afternoons," he joked.

Broome – with a view

There’s still money to be made at the end of the world, if you have the courage to get there. And if you’re after magic rather than money, there’s plenty of it, scattered in the sun and the moon, the tides, the stillness and that rare abandonment that one finds in the most faraway places. - by Nick van der Leek

clipped from www.gotravel24.com Broome, for starters, has a history worthy of an entirely new genre of cinema. Replace cowboys with Japanese pearl divers, horses with camels, and guns with that great killer of divers, ‘The Bends’ and you’re beginning to stir up the mythos - and those blood red sands of Roebuck Bay where Broome is situated. Even the name of this place evokes ‘boom’ and ‘bust’. Broome is a place filled with the memories of money and murder, a place where tides swell a massive 9 metres (nearby Derby has the world’s second highest tides, peaking at 11.8 metres) and storms so heavy and impregnated with rain that houses are built without gutters. View the gallery here Nick van der Leek was a guest of Tourism Australia Click here to find out more about holidaying in Australia.

Truck explodes on N1 in Pretoria destroying crane and bridge

Police said one of the reasons for closing the highway was that one of the crane's support pillars had been destroyed sparking fears that it was unstable.

A woman whose car was flattened when the truck drove over it, sustained serious injuries, while three other motorists, whose cars were destroyed in the smash, walked away with slight injuries.

Information given to the Pretoria News last night indicated that the truck driver had jumped from his truck moments before the crash.

SHOOT: There needs to be more inspection of loads and whether vehicles are fit to carry them. Our potholed roads are a symptom of too heavy freights. One person commentated that they felt, during the heat of the explosion, that it was 'the end of the world'. Well, perhaps just the area around the Atterbury turn-off.

clipped from www.iol.co.za Traffic in Pretoria east was chaotic on Wednesday evening when a truck transporting chemicals and industrial cables careered out of control, crashed into a construction crane and four cars before exploding underneath the Atterbury Road Bridge killing a motorist. Panicked motorists abandoned their vehicles, hid behind their cars and fled for safety up embankments alongside the highway. The crash and subsequent explosion saw the highway shut down during peak time, and caused significant jams on adjacent roads. The accident, which was on the northbound side of the highway, is believed to have been caused by a mechanical fault on the flatbed horse-and-trailer truck which smashed into a cement truck before it went headlong into the crane and the four cars. The explosion, which led to the truck and sections of the bridge burning for nearly 15 minutes, could be heard nearly a kilometre away. It is believed the person killed in the smash was the truck driver's co-driver.

Zille: If the constitution cannot, on its own, prevent us from becoming a failed state, what can?

The only guarantee of success is citizens who understand that they are personally responsible for preventing power abuse. These citizens understand the power of their vote and use it to protect the constitution and hold their leaders to account. Their leaders know that if they abuse power they will lose power. For a democracy to work, the politicians must fear the voters, not the other way around.

Voters in a consolidated democracy would never have allowed the rape of their prosecutorial authority. Developments like this show us how far we still have to go.

SHOOT: Zille would make an excellent president...

clipped from www.politicsweb.co.za Limpopo has been much in the news this week because of the endemic corruption that is the inevitable consequence of the power abuse inherent in the ANC's version of economic empowerment. It is legalised corruption. It enables the ANC in government to award tenders to the ANC in business to enrich the ANC's leaders. That is how companies, of which Julius Malema is a director or major shareholder, got tenders to the value of R140-million. Three bridges they constructed washed away in a matter of months. According to Sello Moloto, the former Premier of Limpopo, Malema "got those tenders by intimidating mayors and municipal managers that they would lose their jobs if they did not approve the appointments of his companies". Malema did this with the help of his ally Cassel Mathale who, as the ANC's Provincial Chairperson in Limpopo, had the power to appoint mayors and deploy municipal managers. Mathale himself is now Premier of this Province.