Artist’s impression of the complete Assembly Hall for the Crags Primary School.

The owners of the Kurland Estate near Plettenberg Bay have established a Social Responsibility Program to benefit the underprivileged people in their area. The Programme is run on minimalist lines and overseen by their chairman.

One of the projects in the Programme, in addition to two football fields already built in 2007, is the building of an urgently needed Assembly Hall for The Crags Primary (Junior) School in the nearby village. The school has 650 young children, 17 teachers and 3 extra/temporary teachers whose salaries are paid by local residents (R4 000pm).

Construction of the hall has commenced, it will accommodate 550 children for daily assembly, plays, concerts and general recreation, when the necessary equipment for all these activities can be obtained and although substantial donations have been received from the Kurland family, local and overseas donors, further funds are required for this much needed School facility.

The Programme runs projects and on-going programmes which seek to support the school and the under privileged people that need education, housing, feeding, as well as assistance with HIV/Aids, alcohol and drug abuse.

If you are interested in supporting this Programme, please contact Edward Blaine or Peter Reynolds on +27 83 253 1745, peterr@kurland.co.za or speak to one of the managers at the Kurland Estate on +27 44 534 8082 who will give you further details.

The Crags Primary School is a member of the Bitou 10, which is a Non-Profit Organisation focusing on educational upliftment in the Plettenberg Bay area.

By Neil Manthorpe
Last Updated: 6:19PM BST 23 May 2009

South Africa is a very, very different country to the one the Lions last toured 12 years ago.

Back then Nelson Mandela was the country’s first democratically elected president and the only World Cup South Africa had bid for, and staged, was the Rugby World Cup two years earlier – which they won. Rugby was the pre-eminent sport.

A dozen years later an awful lot has changed. Jacob Zuma is the country’s fourth president and a dazzling beacon of proof that South Africa has emerged as the new land of opportunity, where everything is possible and anyone can aspire to, and reach, the top. In anything.

Later this year football’s Confederations Cup will be played as a precursor to the biggest show of them all, the 2010 World Cup.

Cricket’s profile has shot skywards since 1997, too, with the World Cup being staged in 2003, the inaugural Twenty20 World Championship in 2007, the Indian Premier League ending a five-week stopover this week and the ICC Champions Trophy arriving in September.

All of which might appear to have left rugby smelling the other sports’ exhaust fumes. Even the Super 14 competition, once followed almost as avidly as international matches, started shedding interest outside Pretoria once it became obvious that only the Bulls would be in contention for a home semi-final.

So you could be forgiven for thinking that the Lions will face stiffer competition for an audience than ever before, that the cherished history and rivalry between the Lions and the Springboks, dating back to 1891, might have finally begun to lose its lustre.

You could be forgiven – but you would rarely have been more wrong about anything in your life.

The three Test matches sold their 50,000+ tickets before the ink had dried on them and would have done so had both the prices and the stadium capacities been doubled. Not even South Africa’s heady number of sports bars and pubs will be able to cope with the tens of thousands who do not have tickets and massive, ‘marqueed’ villages called ‘Bok Towns’ are in the advanced stages of planning. They will be able to accommodate over 20,000 people each in the three major cities: Johannesburg, Cape Town and Durban.

The tour is expected to boost the country’s economy to the tune of at least R1 billion (£76 million), with direct foreign exchange revenue reaching R250 million (£19 million), making it the biggest international sporting event ever to be hosted by South Africa, said Andre Homan, SA Rugby’s project manager for the series which is being sponsored by the country’s largest and most influential sports sponsor, South African Breweries, under the banner of Castle Lager.

“The recent R25 million deal signed by SAB as the 2009 Lions series sponsor is the richest in the history of Springbok rugby, 50,000 international rugby supporters are expected to follow the Lions to South Africa, with most staying at least three weeks, despite the global credit crunch,” Homan said.

Rob Fleming, Castle’s sponsorship manager who has had a long and successful career in sport, said: “This will be the biggest sports event of the year, comfortably and without a shadow of a doubt.

“The numbers are one thing, both supporters and finances, but you should hear the Springboks talking about what this means to them.

You can play in three World Cups, you can play international rugby for a decade and you can still miss the Lions. Twelve years is the longest period of time between iconic sports events anywhere in the world.

“They have all said this is as big as the World Cup for them, and they are the holders. In fact, many of them regard this as bigger than the World Cup because of the disappointment of 12 years ago. Most of them were just boys back then but they all remember the pain,” Fleming said.

Well over 200 journalists applied for accreditation to cover the entire tour and the media centres have had to be upgraded and expanded significantly since 1997, which was the last time they burst at the seams.

British cricket and rugby fans have made themselves hugely popular in the Republic over the past decade and a half, and not just because of their spending power. “They sing, they are cheerful and they appreciate good sport from both sides,” Fleming said.

“We have no doubt that the nation will get behind the 2009 Lions series in a bigger way than ever before,” Homan said. “South Africans are renowned for creating a phenomenal atmosphere around the games, and ensuring the Lions supporters enjoy their stay, regardless of the results on the field.”

Results on the field will mean everything to South Africans, however. Consecutive losses to the Lions would be more than the nation could take. It is Jacob Zuma’s track record that doesn’t matter, not the result of the Lions Test series.

“[He] is going to win the election . . . so the crisis is going to get much bigger and soon.”

It might have been written about Jacob Zuma, the new leader of South Africa since his victory in last month’s election.

But the columnist quoted above was actually casting judgment on Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva during the tumultuous months ahead of the Brazilian president’s first election success in October 2002.

Mr Lula da Silva, of course, has turned the prediction on its head, leading Brazil not only out of crisis but into a period of relative prosperity. And just as the opinion formers were wrong about Brazil’s president, could they now also be underestimating South Africa’s president?

It is an intriguing idea, partly because the two men have so much in common. Both are political outsiders from poor backgrounds. In the 1950s Mr Lula da Silva sold peanuts and oranges on the streets of Sao Bernardo. During the same period Mr Zuma was herding cattle at a village in rural Zululand.

Both men have dedicated their lives to the cause of revolution. Mr Lula da Silva as a trade union leader and a founder of the leftwing Workers Party; Mr Zuma as an activist underground, in prison and in exile for the African National Congress. Both are affable men, good at listening and negotiating. Mr Lula da Silva won concessions for his members. Mr Zuma helped to parley an end to the violence between the ruling ANC and the Zulu Inkatha Freedom Party that rocked KwaZulu Natal in the late 1980s and early 1990s.

True, their political challenges have differed. In 2002 Brazil was on the edge of a financial crisis, partly via fears that it would default on its debt and slide towards the populist left.

The risk in South Africa has been more about governance. Certainly there are worries about Mr Zuma’s populist leanings and ties with the left. But his critics have been more concerned by allegations of corruption. Mr Zuma has courted disdain too for his views on sexuality (he is a polygamist), which critics fear will make it harder to control the Aids epidemic.

Yet recently those fears about ungovernability have eased. A cloud still hangs over Mr Zuma but evidence that some of those involved in charging him with corruption were politically motivated prompted the state prosecutor to drop the charges in April. And in the first flush of election victory, Mr Zuma has struck all the right notes, emphasising a new “inclusiveness” towards minority white, coloured and Indian communities, who felt sidelined under his predecessor, Thabo Mbeki.

The new president has talked about the need to do more with existing resources, urging ministers and civil servants to work harder. Private investors have welcomed the appointment of Trevor Manuel, the much respected finance minister, to head a new national planning commission – potentially a powerful new cabinet position. Trade unions have failed with a bid to disrupt a big foreign investment in the telecommunications sector, with government lawyers standing firmly behind the deal.
In Brazil, Mr Lula da Silva’s achievement has been to maintain economic stability, place the plight of the poor at the top of the political agenda, and press ahead with reform, steadily expanding social welfare programmes. There now seems at least a possibility that Mr Zuma could start on the same centrist path. It won’t be easy. South Africa’s economy – as figures for the first quarter of 2009are likely to reveal tomorrow – is in recession.

In Brazil Mr Lula da Silva was able to use his “man of the people” image to contain expectations of overnight change, and persuade supporters to stick with him for the long haul. It is a trick that Mr Zuma could repeat.

“The enthusiasm evident in those who queued outside South Africa House (to vote in London)…bodes well for building a brain-bank of South Africans living abroad to assist in the process of image-building, investment and ongoing knowledge exchange and the acquisition of skills,” he said.

“The recently-formed Global South Africans Network , active in the United States and the United Kingdom, has as its objective the building of a global network of skilled and influential South Africans who can help the country attract foreign direct investment and achieve its economic objectives in a globalised world. Government acknowledges the important role of skilled and entrepreneurial South Africans returning to the country and contributing from their positions of influence abroad.”

Here’s the full statement:

Government acknowledges the important role that South Africans abroad played in the special voting last week thereby strengthening their bond with their compatriots at home as well as giving substance to the ruling by the Constitutional Court that South Africans abroad should have the right to vote.

It was significant that 16 240 South Africans living abroad applied for and were granted permission for a special vote and that almost half of these (7 427) voted in London where the South African High Commissioner mobilised the entire mission to ensure the voting went smoothly.

The enthusiasm evident in those who queued outside South Africa House throughout the day bodes well for creating the atmosphere for more South Africans to return and make a contribution through deploying their skills in the nation-building effort or creating more jobs.

It also bodes well for building a brain-bank of South Africans living abroad to assist in the process of image-building, investment and ongoing knowledge exchange and the acquisition of skills.

The Homecoming Revolution has done excellent work over the past five years or so in creating such a climate and proactively connecting South Africans abroad with companies at home seeking skills and disseminating accurate information about opportunities and conditions in the country.

The recently-formed Global South African Network , active in the United States and the United Kingdom, has as its objective the building of a global network of skilled and influential South Africans who can help the country attract foreign direct investment and achieve its economic objectives in a globalised world.

Government acknowledges the important role of skilled and entrepreneurial South Africans returning to the country and contributing from their positions of influence abroad.

Themba Maseko

Government Spokesman.

Head: Government Communications

Contact: 083 645 0810

At 4 am London is dark and raining. While my taxi snakes me through the deserted streets a trainee Jesuit priest is camped outside South Africa House.

In the radio studio the BBC journalist asks why we vote, why it’s important and that hackneyed scribbler question: how does it make you feel?

Why did Matthew Charlesworth, our priest in the darkness and first London voter, queue in that deserted square? Obligation, duty, a desire to count and be counted as a South African. All the reasons that emerge from everyone I speak to and my motivation too.

Eventually every South African overseas is treated like a traitor. Someone who cut and ran and now talks the country down from the discomfort of a damp and foreign shore.

Yet here we are in our thousands filling in forms, fishing out unused ID documents and lining up around the block to contribute our one, small, indelible cross.

At the back of the queue is Heinrich Volmink who travelled down from Glasgow in Scotland, because it is a great honour and a patriotic duty to be here. So much passion and purpose swirls through this five-deep line. We stand only 25 meters from where Mandela gave his last speech to London – perhaps ever. He spent nine hours on the ‘freedom bus’, continues Heinrich, because my ancestors could not vote.

Not everyone is as happy. Like a creature of caricature, a man stands with an old South Africa flag shirt. I suppose he too exercises a choice. We watch him like we would an exhibit. One foot in the old world and a vote in the new, I think. I doubt he will find peace, anywhere. Shame.

After three radio interviews and breakfast its time to vote. The early morning bankers, accountants and the priest have retreated to their terminals. Now the back packers, students and out-of-work consultants shuffle forward in unison. You mustn’t lower your standard says one man to a girl 20 years his junior as he enquires about her job. He doesn’t have one: tough times.

London is South Africa’s largest polling station. Over seven and a half thousand citizens – almost twice as large as the next biggest venue. But our queue is orderly. The mood is good natured but also reflective. Examining my compatriots it’s clear that for most of us, democratic elections are all we have ever known. As you would expect it’s a mostly white queue with the occasional darker face. Around them cluster journalists: the British one’s asking who they are voting for. My vote is my secret, we all say.

Throughout I ‘tweet’ from my phone. These micro-blogging sms’ capture the moment when a man claiming to be a Freedom Front Plus candidate marches up to the door demanding to see the electoral officer. I leave them in a huddle and fill in my forms. First an envelope with your name and voter district number. Then downstairs to check documents, receive a ballot and cast my vote. I get three calls in voting booth.
Your smile has stamina, I say to the official and we all chuckle. It will be a long day but so far it going smoothly: if all your documents are in order.

So why did I vote? To reaffirm my citizenship; to exercise my rights; to respect my heroes and dignify their sacrifices and yes, to make a difference. Though Rudi Talmakkies from Saldanha said it best: Obama gave people a totally new view. The youth realise they are part of the solution. For me, that works.

• Timothy Schultz works in Communications & Marketing at The Learning Trust, London

Twenty-five years ago, the crowds that gathered in Trafalgar Square to protest and demonstrate against apartheid South Africa played a major role in galvanising international opinion against apartheid and hastening its downfall. Yesterday, South Africans gathered in their thousands in orderly queues to have their say in the future of the democratic South Africa in the same place that the demonstrators once stood.

With 7427 South African voters marking their crosses in 12 hours the South African High Commision was not only the largest voting station abroad but was also nearly twice the size of the largest one in South Africa – Joubert Park in Johannesburg with between 3000 to 4000 voters, according to the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC).

I have never seen such a large group of South Africans behaving in such a subdued manner.

Perhaps it had something to do with being in the historic Trafalgar Square on an initially overcast -and later fine – London spring day.

Perhaps it had something to do with the the tiny figure of Lord Nelson on his towering column peering out over Parliament Square where an animated statue of our own Nelson Mandela is flanked by the likes of Winston Churchill, Margaret Thatcher and General Jan Smuts, the only other South African in the Square.

Perhaps, it had to do with the fact that it was very early in the morning.

But I suspect it had more to do with the reverence of voting – the universal way for ordinary citizens to have a say in their country and the future.

They queued ten-deep across Trafalgar Square and the length of the facade of the iconic South Africa House.
It was a day on which South Africans filed onto South African soil in unprecedented numbers thanks to a decision by the Constitutional Court – the cornerstone of South Africa’s democracy – which required government to extend voting facilities to all South Africans abroad who are on the voters roll.

They waited quietly, patiently, reading the latest copy of The South African, chatting quietly about why they were in the UK, why they were voting, exchanging their memories, hopes and fears for their beloved country.
It also took me back to 1994 when I had felt so priveleged to be part of the first election in which all South Africans were able to vote – most for the first time. The long queues snaked sometimes for kilometres and many South Africans got to know each other for the first time as they waited for hours to make their crosses.
Back then it was both a deeply moving and empowering experience.

And so it was again yesterday.

This time, the voters were mainly young, mainly white and all were united by the decision to have a say in their country and in choosing the next government.

It also took me back to the mid-1980’s when I served as a correspondent for the South African morning group of newspapers – including the Rand Daily Mail and the Cape Times – when I covered almost constant demonstrations and protests by South African exiles and large numbers of committed members of the British public who played such a crucial role in ending apartheid.

Seldom in the history of freedom struggles has there been such a display of international solidarity by a nation as was the case with the British public’s involvement in the Anti-Apartheid Movement.

Today photographic records of those protests are displayed on the walls of South African House and many famous faces are still recognisable – Thabo Mbeki, the late Harold Wilson, the late Archbishop Trevor Huddleston, Abdul Minty, Peter Hain, the late Mike Terry and many more.

As I stood waiting and chatting to fellow South Africans, I was humbled that we would not be standing there voting in a democratic election in South Africa had it not been for the suffering and sacrifice of thousands of South Africans in resisting apartheid for all those years . Many gave their lives, many sacrificed family members and friends.

I was overcome by a deep humility tinged with pride.

• UK Country Manager of the International Marketing Council of South Africa and former editor of the Sunday Independent

They seek a South African national who is fluent in Spanish to appear on their most popular sports program, “Sports Republic”. Sports Republic is a live 2-hour sports magazine show hosted by 3 extremely well known Latino sports personalities and is the highest rated Spanish speaking sports show in the US.

The show would be recorded live in Miami, Florida and they would discuss South Africa, its culture, tourist attractions, food and the like in a light hearted, fun way.

If you would be interested in representing South Africa on this show, please contact :

Mandy Ellison
South African American Business Club
Tel: 561-628-4338 Fax: 305-538-7912
mandy.ellison@saabc.org

www.saabc.org

It seems like ages ago that FIFA President Sepp Blatter announced that South Africa would host the 2010 FIFA World Cup; and since then an incredible amount of work has gone into ensuring that the concept becomes a reality. The dust is beginning to settle and countdown fever is in the air, so if you’re not on the ground, now is a great time to become a member of the FIFA.com Club, an online community that will keep you on pulse with 2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa events.

At first glance, FIFA.com, may appear to be quite cluttered, but the heart of the site is truly in exploring it, and it takes about two minutes to register for the FIFA.com Club. Complete with access to a FIFA profile, your very own customisable avatar, a profile page where you can message other members, add friends, personalize news’ feeds and play predictor and fantasy games, the FIFA.com Club is an excellent way to get involved in the build up to the games, wherever you are.

After styling my avatar with a designer bob, aviator sunglasses and an official South African (Bafana Bafana) jersey of course, I delved into the world of FIFA and discovered that it is not just about football, the World Cup and the excitement of hosting such a prestigious event, but that it is also about social development, health promotion, peace building, children rights and education, the environment, anti-discrimination and social integration.

For football fundi’s the FIFA.com Club provides and opportunity to test your knowledge on World Cup statistics and football in general, and in fact it’s guaranteed that you will learn something new and exciting… for instance that name of the official leopard mascot designed and produced exclusively for South Africa 2010; ‘Zakumi’, is a composition of “ZA”, which stands for South Africa, and “kumi” which translates into “10″ in various languages across Africa.

And that Adidas has for the first time in history created a match ball specifically designed for the FIFA Confederations Cup 2009 – the ‘Kopanya’ – a vibrant Ndebele modern art inspired design. Aptly named, Kopanya means “join together” in Southern Sesotho; the name of the ball and its unusual design pays tribute the first country, to host the World Cup on the African continent, South Africa, the country that will bring continental and world champions together in 2010!

The FIFA.com Club provides members with the platform to make football loving friends, select and proudly display their favourite team flags, receive a selection of newsletters, have a say on the latest news, download widgets, wallpapers and screensavers amongst other activities.

With hundreds of video clips and photography showcasing football history dating from as far back as 1930 – best goals, player and coach interviews, stadia, development projects, the FIFA.com Club is a great way to get football fanatics (and South Africans all over the world) in the mood for what is set to be a legendary FIFA World Cup… in Africa!

If you would like to book tickets for the FIFA World Cup South Africa, click here.

There will be five distinct Ticket Sales Phases; the first commenced on 20 February 2009 and will close of 31 March 2009 and the entire Sales Phase will terminate on 11 July 2010.