Pieter Botha sent me this little bit of information that I thought was quite interesting.

Basically, Ster Kinekor’s service is getting worse, and it has to do with certain folks getting jobs where they have either no experience, or are just really crap at what they have to do.

Some people are also quite grumpy about the fact that the CEO fired Saudi Arabian Mustafa Sleem (who was apparently quite shit anyway) to make way for her niece Merice.

The original complaint on Hello Peter has been deleted, which is quite odd, but luckily a screenshot was taken for proof. My take? Deleting posts like that off Hello Peter, and getting busted, is dodgy. We’ll see what happens.

 Update: I posted a comment on Hello Peter about this issue and they replied with this: Comments about Human Resource issues are deleted as the site is designed for comments relating to Customer Service issues only. We review comments looking for inappropriate material and delete comments that attack individuals, or that are slanderous or libellous.

Which is fair I think. 

I have two issues with this:

1. A meeting was held with Jacob Zuma and the Forum of Black Journalists. All white journalists were asked to leave the meeting.

2. When 2 non-white journalists stood up and left the meeting along with the whiteys, they were called ‘coconuts‘.

Okay, I understand the fact that a Forum of Black Journalists will not consist of any white folk, but a meeting held with the soon-to-be-president of this country, who has plenty of contempt for press freedom and claiming the media are ‘minority voices out of tune with the majority in the country’, should, in my opinion, be allowed to be viewed ad documented by all journalists, regardless of race.

Something just doesn’t seem right. Imagine Helen Zille held a press conference for only white journalists, the shit would hit the fan instantly. Racial discrimination, either way, is not only against the constitution, but it’s also just nasty.

I’m still not fully sure how I feel about this, all I know is that something is dodgy, and with Zuma’s dodgy past, I don’t think I’m far from right.

You owe me a carwash…!

Update: Respect to Piet for responding in the comments below. Even more respect for not bringing it down to my level, I’m such an uncouth bastard

Okay, so it looks like we’re becoming a billboard review blog. Last one for a while, promise, but this Town Lodge set made me laugh out loud.

It’s on the corner of Malibongwe…

(the text in brackets reads “if you don’t mind the walk”)

…and Republic.

Like I said, I laughed out loud. Here’s the pig picture:

Much respect…!

I didn’t see this myself, but spotted the release on BizCom:

Nicely done…!

See, I like my eggs hard and broken.

Twits…!

So I just caught a good part of Trev’s budget speech. As a presentation specialist I can tell you that I’m in awe – that guy knows how to tell a story.
All in all, pretty good news. A few things I liked.

- Sin tax is up, you’ll pay 60 odd cents more for 20 cigs, a few cents per beer, and just over 2 bucks for a bottle of hard tack – as a tee-totaling non-smoker, I’m down with that like a sweet-toothed lesbian on a chocolate vagina (thanks Ross).

- Electricity will cost 15% more. This is a good thing. Here’s the thinking, our electricity by global standards is already too cheap, we also don’t have enough of it. The belief is that this will force people to be a little more conservative with their energy (save 10% of your current usage and you’ll break even). The also gave R60bn (ish) loan to Eskom to sort their shit out. Like I said, a good thing.

- Oh, and about R9bn in tax cuts, mostly for us. Nice.

For more detail, I’m sure you can pop over to our friends at Commentary, or if your quick, catch Bruce Whitfield and Trevor Manuel breaking it down on 702 (Cape Talk) tonight at 18h00 (transcript here). Or if you’re really interested, you can read the transcript courtesy of Old Mutual.

Now to the greenback reference in my subject line. I thought this was a very rad touch:

It’s a small detail, but I’m super-stoked that it found a place in something as serious as this year’s budget speech.

Trevor Manuel for Pres…!

I attended the press thingamebob for Google South Africa earlier, along with fellow bloggers Paul, Scott, Alastair, Mathew, Mike, and his Mum.

The event, about Google’s local plans was presented by two very talented speakers, Douglas Merril, Google CTO, and Stafford “air-bracket” Masie – so all the right ingredients were there.

Alas, it was a load of wank.

Douglas flew half way around the world to eloquently deliver what was essentially The Google Story executive summary. And Stafford other than wobbling his fingers a lot and telling us that his goal was to “light up Africa” with search, didn’t have much to say of substance at all.

What irritated me the most though was what they did say. In a nutshell, they do not see any difference in rolling out Google’s search in a market like South Africa than they do elsewhere in the world. This is madness. They just have to look at their own Zeitgeist for proof.

While the world is searching for Britney’s tits, South Africans are searching for “Absa” and “Standard Bank” (sadly, I had to refer to old data, as contrary to what was said today, Google don’t consider us important enough to list on their international zeitgeist anymore).

What this means is that we are not a search driven market, but a delivery driven one, people want to be taken places they know, they don’t necessarily want to find things they don’t. Regardless, we’re a fundamentally different market to the States and other first world countries, and it is only arrogance that would lead someone to think otherwise.

That, and the fact that for the first time ever I realised that Google was actually just another big corporate – it was like the day I found out there was no Santa. Sad indeed.

I guess in this case “No news” is bad news. ..!

So Thabo Mbeki and the ANC created the Scorpions, announcing “a special and adequately staffed and equipped investigative unit will be established urgently, to deal with all national priority crime, including police corruption”.

Then Jacob Zuma, one who has been prone to investigation by the Scorpions, becomes ANC leader and now they’re getting dissolved.

Coincidence?

No way.

Zuma has vowed to step down from party leader if he’s convicted in his ongoing corruption case. I reckon, and I’m no expert on the matter, that he’s chicken shit of the Scorpions, ‘cos they’re the only ones who can make some headway on the case.

Stories at BBC, Reuters, M&G, Citizen and more.

Update: Just received an email for an online petition against it. Have your say here.

Everyone has their own USP, or should I say, everyone should have a USP, it’s what makes people remember you. I’m lucky, or very smart, to have two, and a third which clenches the deal (imao).

People, I’ve been told, don’t have a super warm fuzzy feeling about me if seen from afar, but when they meet me their perceptions change, ‘cos I’m an alright guy, and they remember that.

Last Thursday I was in the casualties and x-ray wards of Olivedale Clinic. When I went back yesterday, I couldn’t believe how many people asked me how my leg was doing. And, I’m embarrassed to say, some of them I can’t even remember speaking to.

These are people that see a number of different patients every day. Yet, they remembered I was there, and why I was there.

If you’ve never believed USP’s work, there’s plenty more stories where this came from.

And, if you’re ever at a clinic or hospital any time soon, grab a wheelchair and go for a spin, it’s awesome while waiting for your results!

A big hat-tip to Virgin Mobile for their Bransonesque up yours to Vodacom this week. Here’s the deal.
Late last year pensioner Hendrikus Wessels ran up a bill of R48, 000.00 trying to win a blue BMW by sending a shit-tonne of premium priced SMSs (approx 320 p/day). After Vodacom let him know the ammount he owed, he confessed that he couldn’t pay and was cut off and given terms to pay – terms that apparently still would have him in the poor house (oh, and he didn’t win the car – but you guessed that, right?).

This is where Virgin Mobile come in – in a great example of a big company thinking small, they announced this week that they’d pay his debt in full… directly to Vodacom. From IOL:

Now no-one will believe that this is pure philanthropy from Virgin, and you have to think that it’s a R50k cheque just to give the finger to Vodacom, either way though it’s very well played, and a good laugh to boot.

I would kill to see the Vodacom execs’ faces when they get that cheque…!