The GrowCon (District 74 Toastmasters Mini Conference)

I thoroughly enjoyed the GrowCon held at the Johannesburg over the weekend of the 17th of October. Apart from the good people and good food I enjoyed the speakers that were there. A few points that stood out for me during the conference:

Poh Kim Siong, DTM, International Director based in Singapore:

His address was around success as members of Toastmasters and focused on Confidence, Leadership and Service and I manage to jot down the most important points:
Confidence: Stage Time: Never decline it, never lose the opportunity
Leadership: Leadership should come from the heart, everything else will work out.
At the end it will all work out. If it hasn’t worked out, it’s not the end yet”.
Service: Always vacate your office better off than how you found it.

Billy Selekane: Key Note Address "Awakening the Spirit of Tribal Consciousness"

His address was an inspirational take on the leadership that enabled Zulu warriors to defeat the British troops at the Battle of Isandlwana. The learnings from the battle were:
Right of Passage: All leaders and members should earn their full right to be there. We need a culture of excellence (meritocracy)!
Collectivism: Need to put collective goals before roles.
Service: Serve first before being served.
Organisational traditions: Do they inspire people to achieve great things? What is the impact of your rituals?

Growth in Challenging Times, Mike Perry, Perry & Associates

District 74 has been having a decline in a number of active clubs (from 160 in 2005 to 119 today). If we compare ourselves to Australia, the whole of District 74 should be having 2400 Clubs. The challenge to start new clubs is on!

Awards

I was amazed at the 31 people who got the Triple Crown Award (3 or more educational awards in a year) because I thought just one award was all is needed in any year. Well done to all of them and for being an inspiration to the rest of us.

A big thank you to all who took time to organise the conference. Hope not to miss other future conferences

Lebo Mphahlele
Vice President Education
Nedbank Toastmasters

Caster Semenya debacle: Athletics South Africa has a lot to answer

I am still shocked about how Mr. Choene, the President of Athletics South Africa (ASA) handled the Caster Semenya debacle and am one of those calling for his resignation asap.

Mr Choene doesn’t seem to understand the context of gender testing as it relate to elite athletes and his answers were far too amateurish. It is quite clear (even by doing a Google search) that when it comes to highly competitive sport (where there’s millions to be made), gender is a lot more complex that simply pulling down a pair of panties.

It also came out during the radio show on SAFM that Caster’s gender has been questioned throughout her running career (as early as high school) and even Limpopo Athletics consulted ASA about her case. For Mr Choene and his team at ASA to have not pre-empted this and put a coherent response on the matter is simply unacceptable. Caster should have been tested (away from the media glare) and duly counselled long before the Berlin event. ASA had known for a while that she would stand a chance of a podium finish at Berlin because she had broken a few records (e.g. Zola Budd’s SA juniors record, among others) and was on her way to the highest league of athletes.

I wish Caster all the best and hope she will pull through this traumatic experience. I hope ASA learn a lot from this spectacular PR disaster of their making.

When last did you see a well-behaved minibus taxi driver in South Africa?

I watched 3 matches at the Ellis Park stadium, opening match, Italy vs. Egypt and the closing match and must note a marked improvement in logistics throughout the Confederations Cup. The logistics of the final match felt like they were conducted with military precision. To think that it sounded almost impossible to sit 60 000 South African soccer fans on their correct seats for a match, let alone move them into a stadium via park and ride.

What tops my list is the Gauride park and ride, who were friendly, warm and for once drove at respectable speeds. Our dangerous tigers had become nice cuddly pussy cats. In the taxi we returned in on the last day, the driver even asked us if the heater was warm enough for us since we froze our teats off inside the stadium. I even fell asleep by the time he dropped us at Wits University. Now I’m wondering if they got back to their usual foul mouthed selves and abusive behaviour that poorer South Africans are used to. I remember one incident almost 15 years ago in a minibus taxi when an elderly woman complained about the high speed at which we were going. The driver then dropped the speed to 35 km/h and kept complaining about how he’s doing us a favour by getting us home as fast as he can and we ruined it all.

Am I the only one irritated by the Vuvuzelas at the Confederations Cup?

Please don’t get me wrong, I like the vuvuzelas played in moderation. What I find sickening is the continuous buzzing sound that goes on forever and ends up being too noisy and uninspiring. Pray that you don't end up sitting next to one of those over-enthusiastic blowers who struggle to keep it quiet for a few minutes during the singing of the national anthems.
I’d rather we sing shosholoza or any other songs, just like we do at all our social gatherings. I suggest that SAFA and FIFA consider giving drums and other instruments to the passionate soccer fans that are always shown on tv so that we can do more singing and dancing. The rest of the people who can’t sing can blow the vuvuzelas.

Chaos at Confederations Cup opening match

It took us two hours to get into the Wits University Park n Ride and ended up arriving during the disappointing opening ceremony. This is the worst I have seen coming from South Africa and hope they will have a better plan for the World Cup.

Other issues I feel could've been better organised:
1. The Park n Ride at Sunninghill was cancelled without warning so we had to look around for an alternative. I had to use my mobile phone to locate other Park n Rides through joburg.org.za.
2. At Wits we were not allowed through the Empire Road entrance, which was totally unnecessary. We had to use the overcrowded Jorrisen Street entrance and had to queue for over 2 hours. Wits security only opened the second and third gate much later despite being warned of long queues.
3. FIFA didn’t bother letting people know about using other Park n Rides when Wits was obviously not working out. We didn't know whether it was worthwhile going to Nasrec or Bez Valley.
4. At the stadium food ran out before the opening ceremony so we had to snack on chocolate and biltong. People running the stalls were not even embarrassed about it.
5.Returning back was apparently a bigger nightmare but we thankfully left the stadium before the final whistle.

Hopefully FIFA will iron out some of the issues we experienced because I can’t imagine going through this again. I’ll be at Ellis Park on the 18th for Egypt vs. Italy.

Zuma's 500k jobs make perfect sense

Everybody is concerned about President Zama’s promise of 500 000 jobs in a time when our economy is in a recession. I say give him a break; surely he has done his home work. After all he’s a president, isn’t he? Now as far as I recall he didn’t quite elaborate what those 500 000 job are, so, nobody should shoot him down just yet. Here’s how I break it down.

Firstly, each municipality will be asked to issue a tender for picking up papers on the streets for only one day. That’ll amount to a substantial number of jobs. If this still doesn’t add to 500 000, then Public Works will be requested to employ people to each dig up a hole for one day to make up the balance. If this still doesn’t add up, the balance will be made up by the guys asked to cover the holes that have been dug. There you are - 500 000 jobs for the masses.

What I didn’t get though, is why all his wives fell asleep during the opening of parliament.

There is something about The Comrades Marathon

My family and I went to Durban to support my twin sister (Tumi) who was running her second Comrades this week.

We went in two cars so I only had to see my sister for the first time just after the halfway mark. At that point she was feeling strong and excited and was running on target. When I saw her again at about 31 km to go she was taking strain but was fine. At 12k's to go her legs were beginning to pack up and she was in pain and was really down. My younger sister and I were not so sure whether we still wanted to attempt this monster as we looked at all the runners going past.

Contrast this with the finish at the Sahara Kingsmead stadium where we saw Tumi running fast, jumping, waving and in very high spirit. All that pain gone! The high of the finish is something out of this world and gives me goosebumps just thinking about it. There is indeed no better sporting inspiration for me that the Comrades. Tumi's picture appeared in The Times on the 25th of May and can also be found here

A new gift policy to address the S'bu story

Is the present gift policy in line with our new plan of getting rid of corruption? I guess not, because according to Jacob Zuma, Sbu Ndebele simply needed to declare the R1 million Merc and two cows for him to be on the right side of the policy. It is also not clear why Sbu is being sent these gifts because if everyone of us deserves gifts for doing our jobs, then we would be a very expensive place to do business. The other issue is the stringency of procurement practices if people can earn the sort of profits that allow them to send back lavish gifts to individuals.

My proposed policy is the following:
1. It is against the law for anyone to offer a gift of any size to any anyone in a privileged position of granting contracts or performing business favours
2. It is against the law for anyone (including business associates and relatives) to receive a gift of any size from any member of the public wishing to or doing business with government.
3. If anyone would like to recognise any outstanding contribution then a trophy or certificate should be acceptable.

There we are. This is clear and simple and levels the playing fields for everyone.

Zille ANCYL Boxing Match - The score

Enough said about the political punches between The Helen of The Cape and ANCYL in the last few days. Much as I feel very strongly about how both sides have trampled over women's issues, i've decided to stand aside and keep scores just for fun.

PS I deduct a point for any below the belt punches.

Here we go: Round 1

Comrades 2009 - Cheering my sister on

I'm a little distracted with my running but no sweat because after Comrades I will have enough inspiration to start again.

My sister is getting ready to run her second Comrades and I will be in Durban and Pietermartitzburg to cheer her on. This time she will also be running for charity - check her page on www.backabuddy.co.za/tumi and donate
I'm not sure if I have the time or the heart to run Comrades but my sister assures me that since we are identical twins and have exactly the same genes, I have no excuses.

My three year old ran the 300m Toddler's Trot at Two Oceans Marathon - he's very proud of his medal.

White Wedding - What a Movie!

I thoroughly enjoyed the White Wedding this Friday and would highly recommend it to anyone, even those who hardly go to movies these days (talk about myself). It is one of those movies that depict our lives without the usual struggle politics that leave you exhausted after a movie. I also like the fact that it touched on issues relating to black weddings without being too deep and touched on the AWB types in a funny way. All in all, a brilliant comedy, which most of us identify fully with, especially the dialogue.

I hope to see more and more movies coming from Rapulana and Kenneth - they don't disappoint. Between White Wedding and Jerusalema I'd have to choose White Wedding. I'm looking forward to a time when movies such as these do better than the trashy Leon Schuster movies (no disrespect) at the box office.

True Love Magazine - All the Woman Needs Day

I spent my Saturday at the Sandton Convention Centre where ladies were supposed to get all the pampering and love that we deserve. From True Love's point of view this was a hugely successful affair, but from the women's point of view it was not (at least speaking for myself and my friends). We spent more time on queues than anything else and did not even get to some of the stalls we wanted to touch. The number of ladies far exceeded the facilities available and it made the whole experience disastrous. There were also some organisational issues that I thought could have been handled better but maybe I should stop here. Fortunately I got a complimentary ticket, but for R350 surely every woman should have received their money's worth?

Other magazines such as Destiny and O supposedly run more well-organised workshops and True Love should pick up their socks.

PS I am still waiting for a response from the email I sent to Dora Sitole (the Editor) on this issue.