From retrenchment to self-employment

Kgabo Moabelo shows youngsters how to surf the Internet. Picture: Cedric Mboyisa.


FROM being retrenched to being an entrepreneur – that is the story of Kgabo Moabelo (37) from Alexandra township.

A victim of recession, Moabelo was retrenched earlier this year after serving his company for 12 years. Instead of feeling sorry for himself and drowning in a state of despair, the man from Alex – but originally from Polokwane – went about reinventing himself as an entrepreneur. He decided to use his retrenchment package to start a business, not just any business but an Internet Cafe. Today he is the proud owner of the state-of-the-art Internet cafe, The Duke's Cafe Internet Solutions.

He says his retrenchment made him realise that “there's freedom to explore new opportunities”. He adds that retrenchment is “absolutely not the end of the world”. Teenagers and the youth in general are Moabelo main clients. According to Moabelo, their (youngsters') time on the Internet is mostly spent on Facebook. He has since joined Facebook as well... just to keep up with the modern trends of social networking!

The Duke's Cafe Internet Solutions offers other services such as laminating, printing, photocopying, writing Cvs and uploading pictures for Facebook fanatics. Internet access is R5 for 15 minutes, R8 for 30 minutes and R12 for an hour. Alex is truly online, thanks to Moabelo. This man has set an example by overcoming a difficult situation and emerge as a winner! Moabelo is indeed a shining star in Alexandra and a ray of hope to all of us, including those who lost their jobs when the markets collapsed due to economic crisis.

Animal rights versus culture

THE Zulu ritual of Ukweshwama – in which warriors use their bare hands to kill a bull to mark the first fruits before the crops are harvested – has provoked a raging debate.

Animal Rights Africa (ARA) has turned to the courts to prevent this year’s ritual from taking place. In its court interdict application before Judge Nic van der Reyden, ARA wants the bull to be saved from “what we consider to be a cruel and protracted death”.

ARA argues that its action is not driven by any anti-Zulu culture sentiment, but says “our culture of animal rights demands that we oppose cruelty wherever it occurs”. If truth be told, cruelty to animals or human beings or nature has no place in our society and must therefore be rooted out.

The Ukweshwama ritual is presided over by the Zulu king. The age-old custom requires young men to kill the bull with their bare hands (no knives or spears involved) as a demonstration of their courage… a sort of coming of age for the young warriors. This method of killing the bull also involves young warriors simultaneously trampling on the beast, suffocating it and pulling out its tongue. It is said that it takes about 10 (while some say 40) minutes for the bull to die.

The sacrificial bull does indeed meet its death in a cruel manner in the name of culture. The ARA makes it clear that its case against the ritual is “simply and undeniably about cruelty to a sentient being, and any cultural practice that not only involves cruelty but also contravenes anti-cruelty legislation must be subjected to public scrutiny”.

That the ritual is cruel in nature is not in doubt, but looking at the issue in a narrow-minded and emotionally charged way prevents one from seeing the bigger picture and fully comprehending the purpose of the ritual.

It must be borne in mind that this barehanded killing of a bull is not done to satisfy man’s sadistic nature. If that were the case, then those responsible for the practice would have been long prosecuted and the custom done away with. But here we have a ritual that is central to Zulu culture. This has been practised for years.

Mind you, ours is a constitutional state which fully recognises our diversity and different cultures.

The ANC’s Commission on Religious and Traditional Affairs says: “The first fruit harvest celebrations form part of African culture and religion and are more common to the indigenous people of South Africa as a whole.”

Just like Jesus died cruelly on the cross as the sacrifice for mankind in order for us to be cleansed of our sins and be able to return to live with God, the same principle (here in the name of culture, not Christianity) – but for a different purpose – applies to the bare handed killing of the bull. Call it barbaric or whatever, Ukweshwama does enjoy constitutional protection.

In this case, rights of humans to practise their culture trump the rights of animals. Having said that, people who practise their culture must do so in a manner that does not involve cruelty. Without any intention to be in con tempt of court, any sober judge would dismiss the court interdict application by ARA. The Ukweshwama ritual will go on tomorrow.

Cedric Mboyisa is political editor of The Citizen. This article first appeared in The Citizen.

Buthelezi's time is up

Zapiro cartoon sourced from Mail & Guardian Online.


OPPOSITION parties in South Africa, with the exception of the Democratic Alliance (DA) and the Congress of the People COPE), are on their way to the grave.

The April 22 provincial and national election results provided irrefutable evidence that opposition politics in general is in decline. Parties such as the Independent Democrats, the Azanian People’s Party, the United Democratic Movement and the Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) were conspicuous casualties.

While their dwindling support could be attributed to the emergence of COPE and the reinvigorated DA (the powerhouse of opposition politics), these parties need to do some serious introspection and rethinking to avoid death or being wiped off the political map.

The beauty about death is that while it is inevitably a natural process, it could at least be put at bay by employing life-saving measures and strategies. The IFP, in particular, really needs to have a serious look at itself if it is to survive in the current dispensation. Protest as it may, but the IFP is a party caught up in yesteryear politics in an era of ever-evolving modernity.

Without beating about the bush, the main cause of the IFP’s fading fortunes is one Mangosuthu Buthelezi, the party’s founder and leader since inception in 1975. Under his leadership the party is more steeped in tribal politics, hence its prevailing categorisation as a cultural organisation of the Zulus.

Formed as the Inkatha National Cultural Liberation Movement (of course, with the blessing of the then banned ANC) in 1975, the IFP has done little to shake off its tribal party tag. In fact, the party has over the years consciously or unconsciously operated in a manner that conforms to garnering support along tribal lines.

It must be pointed out that there is nothing wrong with the IFP being a tribal party like the Freedom Front Plus, but the party must stop pretending it is not a tribal entity. The IFP seems to use the Zulu culture to stifle internal democratic processes.

It’s a pity when cultures or the gospel of Jesus are perverted for the glorification of individuals or a particular group. This would explain why a political dinosaur such as Buthelezi has been in charge of the IFP since 1975. It’d be naive to say there's no IFP leader who can do better than Buthelezi.

He may have been democratically elected to his position, but again democracy can also be perverted. It is possible to present the fear of an individual as democracy. Apparently, Robert Mugabe is also a democratically elected president of both the Zanu-PF and Zimbabwe.

Now is the time for the likes of IFP chairman Zanele Magwaza-Msibi and secretary-general Musa Zondi to take the party forward. The IFP must allow for contestation – without fear of victimisation or reprisal – to take place freely. Members must exercise their right, of course in compliance with party rules, to voice grievances and to choose their preferred candidates. Buthelezi cannot always go unchallenged for his position.

The time is now for the party to reinvent itself if it wants to reclaim KwaZulu-Natal and pose a serious challenge to its nemesis, the ANC.

Buthelezi has overstayed his stay in the IFP leadership position, to which he is not entitled to by birthright. Fresh blood, please.

Cedric Mboyisa is political editor of The Citizen. This column first appeared in The Citizen.