Will I be one of these?

I'm moving to the sports sections of The Times as of Monday 14th July..and day and night I keep thinking to myself..."Will I be like one of these"? Now these men have built a name for themselves in the sports (soccer) fraternity and they are well respected for their knowledge of the business...

I'm talking about Mninawa Ntloko and Bareng-Batho Kortjaas. Ntloko wrote for The Times but was later recruited back by Business Day and BBK is currently with the Sunday Times and does the Metro FM sports show...Clearly these men have built a name for themselves, no doubt about that. I'm a bit nervous and excited at the same time...Is passion enough for this or I need more than just passion,determination and hard-work?

Whatch this space...I resume my duties on the 14th July.!

New Talent discovered..

Moeketsi Moticoe, The Times photographer..has done it again. He is discovering new South African Talent in the form of music, fashion and whatever is there to be scouted..check-out his latest discovery in PHONE BOOTH..
http://multimedia.thetimes.co.za/photos/2008/06/the-phone-booth/

Happy Birthday to us..

Can you believe it..We (The Times newspaper) are a year old..its has been a year full of Drama and excitment. From being load-shedded to almost dying during the recent xenophobic attacks, we have managed to keep our heads up...I have however been hear for 2months and can not do justice to how the past year has been so check out our Multi-media producers relating the stories they loved doing..

http://multimedia.thetimes.co.za/videos/2008/06/its-been-a-memorable-year/

Enjoy..! (pictured, is Ray Hartley..our Editor)

The aftermath of the xenophobic attacks..

People are traumatized, women have given birth in these hostile situations and shacks have been burnt - leaving people homeless and seeking refuge @the Methodist Church in the Johannesburg CBD...! Sounds crazy but its true..
Here is a video of what some people are going through after the heavy xenophobic attacks that took place 11 days ago..!

When will it end?

The front page of The Times newspaper had these words: "Please Forgive us"..this was a plea by Bishop Desmond Dudu asking the Foreigners to forgive the South Africans for the violence and hate that has taken place over the past 10days...! What I was wondering today is - Are the police making the situation worse by running around shooting rubber bullets? You tell me..How should the violence be stopped?

-Desmond Tutu's article
-Violence ascalates in Reiger Park..!

Life of a journo.

You know what they say: "From hero to zero.." This is how I feel after I had two stories in a row this week (one of them included the almost traumatic event in Alexandra township). I then went to a press briefing @the COSATU house on Wednesday and had what i deemed to be a good story..actually I wrote up three stories on the day. Guess what, none of them got published..I have to say this has left me feeling down. A journalist needs to get more things published so his confidence can be built up..especially if you are a juniour journo!!

Aaaggg..the sub-editors had their reasons as to why they did not put my stuff in there, NO HARD feelings. I need to deal with it now because that is going to be the story of my life as a journo..! I will continue to thrive in my skills coz I believe I am a damn good writer and no one can take that away from me..! I'm not angry just low in confidence..! OK..!
Guess what..you can still google my name to find more stories that I have done..They have certainly increased in number..!

The Corporate World…

A couple of people would not necessarily agree with me in this particular piece of writing…I am really referring to those who are in the corporate world. Not all of them who just started working in these big companies. I am talking about your Trainee Engineers (at McKinsey), Accountants (KPMG and PWC), Economists (at ABSA and Standard Bank) and so forth. Some of these newbies are so ignorant and I have no idea why!

Let me explain: A certain Engineer I know mentioned to me the other day that he did not read newspapers unless he has to and is looking for something that would relate to him. These are his exact words and I quote: “You guys (journalists) write crap and I don’t have time to read all of that”. I just literally laughed it off because I was amazed by his ignorance of what is going on around the world. I believe he has been entangled in all these corporate jargons and way of looking at things. BUSINESS AND MONEY MAKING that’s it. There is a need to revolutionize the thinking of our future tycoons. One might argue that the current businessman/woman of this country were part of the struggle and some went into exile therefore know more about our history and the humanitarian aspect of our country.

I am in no way saying that these newbies do not have any humanitarian bone in them but they are so concerned about the next big “FIX”…which is how to keep the Benjamin (money) flowing. Once again don’t get me wrong. I would also like to have more money in my pocket as time goes on but I never want to be clueless about the state in which our country is in. Even if our country is not in a state…I would always want to know how the latest government projects are being put in place, how the ordinary layman on the street is surviving. Let’s face it; there will always be a gap between the rich and the poor all around the world (it would be nice to have everyone be wealthy). SO I am calling our young entrepreneurs to “Please make a decision to know more about our country because they are…our future”.

Popularising struggle heroes

Struggle leader Chris Hani, was murdered 15 years ago and some of South Africa’s prominent figures celebrated his heroics yesterday. Hani was one of the many political figures who fought against the apartheid regime to see SA being where it is today.

How many of our struggle leaders are celebrated? It is good that the likes of Govern Mbeki (the Presidents father), Steve Biko and events such as June 16 are still being remembered. But what worries me the most is “Why has it become fashionable to wear Steve Biko and Chris Hani shirts”? I mean when I was still at University (even now) people used to wear the very tight fitting shirts with Steve Biko and these struggle heroes on the front of their shirts. That is all fair and well…but the real issue is that these young people did not even know a thing about the struggle. Ok…they were not there but I am sure being their age they should know something about their History.

I am fed up with people who do not read and like acting all intellectual and what not. A lot of young people do not read History books. Actually forget History books, they do not read period because the internet has been provided and all that they can think of is “DOWNLOADING” the latest tracks from the British Top 50 Chart..! What more should be done to get young people to read. If you think about it carefully, you will realize that some students/young people decide that they are going to start reading and stop watching a lot of TV and this only goes on for a week and then they are back to their usual self (Non-Readers).

How would that help us commemorate our struggle Heroes in future if our next generation does not even know how they moved from racial segregation to multi-racial tertiary institutions? One thing that they will keep doing though is selling their “new found” brands with pictures of our fallen heroes in front of them…

PS: I however, give credit to those who were the struggle heroes shirts and have all the knowledge needed about that person is and why they are hailed as struggle heroes in Mzantsi.
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