By Ashraf Hendricks
17 July 2017 Snow covers the Matroosberg area of the Western Cape.
Capetonians love snow, perhaps because we don’t
get any in the city. So, in what appears to be an annual tradition, on
Sunday hundreds of vehicles visited the Matroosberg area to see the
snow. People living in northern countries must think we’re mad.
Cars in line to enter the Matroosberg Nature reserve on Sunday.Kids play in the snow.A snow-covered peak in the Matroosberg Nature Reserve.Frozen proteas in the Matroosberg Nature Reserve.Even mortal enemies seek warmth together in cold times.
Published originally on
GroundUp
.
ANC supporters cheer during their party’s final election rally in Soweto, May 4, 2014. Reuters/Mike Hutchings
In 1994 the idea that the African National Congress (ANC) might lose power in South Africa was unthinkable. Now, with elections approaching in 2019, the party is on the ropes. It’s a classic tale of a strong brand that has been allowed to denature, thanks to a string of scandals and the inability to deliver basic services consistently.
The question is, can it be saved?
Lessons learnt from the business world suggest that faltering brands can be saved if they address what is killing them.
Strategy consultant Thabang Motsohi argues that when sales and profits decline in a business – read when votes decline in politics– it means that the brand has started to erode and the faith that it’s adherents have is waning. Rebuilding it can be challenging and disruptive. And this assumes the managers of the brand have realised that they are failing their support base.
To start, the problems that caused the decline must first be recognised and fixed before the brand rebuilding can resume. Some brands literally disappear from history through bad strategic judgements that lead to self destruction.
Brand management theory and strategy emphasises two fundamental transgressions that can lead to the demise of a brand: violating the brand promise and jettisoning the values that are important to the brand and its supporters.
The ANC had developed into a powerful brand over its 104 year history in a way that inspired devotion among its followers that has bordered on the religious.
But Africa’s best known liberation movement is in trouble. For the first time since 1994, the ANC faces the risk of losing power.
In business, and in politics, brands can disappear irrespective of how strong they might have been at a particular time. The same is true of the ANC. Despite President Jacob Zuma’s claim that the ANC will rule until Jesus comes, the party runs the risk of imploding if it doesn’t recognise it’s problems and re-invents itself.
ANC loses its way
The handling of scandals by ANC leaders to date has not been reassuring. Its promise of freedom, peace and a better life for all, as well as a future of hope and democracy, is being violated by a growing list of misdemeanours. They include the Nkandla debacle and serious allegations that the president, his family and allies, are benefiting from dubious deals with the Gupta family.
The fact that the economy is in recession, the ranks of the jobless are growing and that investors are giving South Africa a wide berth because of cronyism, uncertainty and corruption mean that the ANC is seen as unable to govern with integrity and competence.
Some within the ANC are aware of the fact that the party has lost its way. The resistance to a Zuma way is growing. Examples include comments by Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa and ANC member of parliament Makhosi Khoza. With more senior party members speaking openly about the shortcomings of the organisation, there is a glimmer of hope that the brand can be saved.
Johnny Johnson, a brand and communications strategist, argues that everyone in an organisation needs to live up to the brand promise. But, he says, an organisation’s leaders are responsible for looking after the brand and making sure it has integrity. This may even be their most important role.
Jettisoning the values
Taking from the Freedom Charter, the ANC preaches equality, prosperity and security. It says that its core values are to build a country that’s united and based on principles of non-racialism, non-sexism and that’s democratic and prosperous.
But the ANC has stopped living up to these values. Service delivery is chequered, tenders are going to connected family and friends, laws are openly flouted, the elite governing class are disconnected from real life, pockets are being lined and paranoia rules. It’s like an amplified version of a restaurant that now only caters for it’s own staff and treats paying customers with disdain. And then seizes the owners shareholding and gives it to the head waiter and his friends.
To fix its brand, the ANC needs moral guardians who will enforce and promote the party’s core values. Maybe then it can live up to the trust placed in it by its great leaders of the past and the country.
What can the ANC do?
Opposition parties are waiting in the wings to capitalise on the ANC’s weaknesses. So, what can the party do to stave off this challenge?
A good place to start would be honest self searching and a realisation that the party needs to serve the country and not itself. Perhaps a good old fashioned “SWOT” (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats) analysis might help the situation. It must clearly identify, among other things, the party’s core values, strengths that it can build on and the weaknesses that have led to its current state. And then to decide if it is a party that puts the country and all it’s people first, or if it caters only to one target audience and doesn’t care about alienating others.
An honest self appraisal and resistance to special interest factions is key to an analysis that informs future strategies of re-building or re-positioning the ANC brand. One of the few strengths of the party is the fact that it has been in government for a very long time and has done quite a lot of good.
It should look to highlight some of these achievements while reiterating and acting on the noble ambitions of 1994. It has to put able and honest people in positions of influence, not compliant and greedy cadres whose self interest is a deterrent to economic stability, growth, opportunity creation and non-discrimination. The brand promise needs to become the brand reality.
The ANC also has an opportunity to renew itself by promoting a new breed of uncorrupted young leaders, and taking strong action against those seen to be tarnishing the brand or playing to the tune of an alternate or captured state. Thus far, the party has failed to take this opportunity with all the enthusiasm and purpose that it is capable of, and regrettably seems unlikely to do so. This brand is in trouble.
Raymond van Niekerk, Adjunct Professor, with expertise in Branding, Marketing, Business Strategy, Corporate Citizenship and Social Responsibility. Graduate School of Business, University of Cape Town
Cape Town is experiencing the worst drought in 100 years. Shutterstock
Human population growth, urbanisation, and climate change are all changing the world. To adapt, attitudes and behaviour must change and unsustainable attitudes and behaviours must shift. In addition, the social and political will to implement technological solutions must increase. Without these changes the world will continue to be vulnerable to the impact of climate change and the over-use of limited resources like water.
Populations in cities are growing, putting pressure on resources like water. This is likely to increase as climate change leads to more frequent and extreme droughts, particularly in southern Africa.
For decades Namibia’s capital city, Windhoek, has faced serious challenges providing water for its citizens. Water is a precious commodity in the city which gets a mean annual rainfall of a meagre 360mm. For comparison, Los Angeles receives about 380mm every year.. In addition, evaporation levels are high and the closest perennial river, the Orange river, is 750 kilometres away. And the city’s population has grown.
Even though they have very different weather patterns, there’s a lot a city like Cape Town, which is experiencing the worst drought in 100 years, can learn from Windhoek and how the city has conquered multiple water crises.
Windhoek, which is dry and gets a summer rainfall, has proved that technology can come to the rescue. But technology alone is not the solution. Water management has historically been engineer based with a focus on technical solutions. A change in culture around perceptions of water use formed a major part of Windhoek’s efforts. And learning from others can help to save water.
Lessons from Windhoek
Cape Town has very different weather patterns to Windhoek. The city has a Mediterranean climate with wet winters and warm dry summers. It usually gets over 500mm per annum, has a lower evaporation rate and has a number of rivers within a 150km radius of the city. These include the Breede, Olifants and Berg rivers.
Cape Town’s current water crisis follows two consecutive years of low rainfall in catchment areas. This has been in conjunction with an increase in the size of the city’s population.
Even though the cities have different characteristics, Cape Town should consider the actions taken by Windhoek which stretch back over the last 50 years.
Namibia has suffered a succession of droughts over the past 40 years. Shutterstock
Namibia has suffered a succession of droughts over the past 40 years. But by the time of a major drought in 1996 the city had built three reservoirs and a waste-water reuse plant. On top of this water supply regulations were being strictly enforced. These included:
A public awareness and education campaign.
Water control officers and meter readers actively reducing wastage on private properties and enforcing watering times, the covering of pools and water saving equipment like low flow showers.
Fixing leaks and the reduction of water use on municipal gardens.
These interventions had lasting effects. After the drought, residents reduced their garden sizes and changed garden types and irrigation methods. There was also a move to build houses in new suburbs that had smaller gardens. Changes were also made to industrial policy: no new development of water intensive industries like Coca-Cola was allowed.
During the 1990s there was an increase in the capacity of the waste-water reuse plant and consideration was given to recharging Windhoek’s aquifer. Storing water underground was an attractive option. More water was evaporating from water reservoirs than was being used by the city.
By 2002, the new Goreangab wastewater treatment plant was completed with the aim of providing potable water. By 2004, four boreholes were equipped for aquifer recharge with treated surface water – a process of pumping treated water from above ground into the aquifer.
But in 2016 water storage levels became very low again and immediate action needed to be taken. Severe water restrictions were imposed on residents and industry’s like Coca-Cola stopped production. Abattoirs had to cut down on production and there were job losses in the construction industry.
rapidly implementing abstraction from the aquifer.
On top of this the country’s Prosperity Plan for 2016 prioritised the development of water infrastructure. In particular, recharging Windhoek’s aquifer and seawater desalinisation were identified as areas for immediate action.
Cape Town also has water saving goals and water restrictions plans. These include pumping water out of aquifers, constructing desalinisation plants and building more water treatment capabilities.
The proposed plans are in line with actions that have been successful in providing water to Windhoek.
Looking ahead
Windhoek hasn’t always got it right. Despite attempted public awareness and education campaigns, a major criticism has been the city’s failure to sustain a public awareness and communication campaign – particularly when there isn’t a perceived water crisis.
This has meant that targets for water use haven’t always been met. There’s a lesson in this for Cape Town. The fact that there’s been a slow response by residents to reducing their water use could mean that more communication, awareness and education is needed.
People won’t save water unless they perceive the need to do so. In Windhoek, about 60% of the water used is used by private households. Around 50% of this is used for gardens. This means that changes in household consumption can play a major role in water saving.
Other steps that can be taken include increasing awareness by teaching water conservation in schools. In times of crisis, Windhoek is a good example of how raising awareness can play an important role in coping with water scarcity. Cape Town needs to follow suit.
Costumes tell a story through their design and give the viewer a look at the character’s personality. HBO
Game of Thrones, which returns today for its seventh season, offers fantasy, horror and intrigue, and, as Sarah Mower has put it, shines a light on “our cynical, sophisticated, brutal, hopeless new Dark Ages”. It is also great fun to watch as a fashion expert, whether you are a “pedant” who needs everything to be historically correct, or a “swooner” who doesn’t mind if it is not.
The show is infamous for its ability to brutally shock audiences. Such visceral, sensorial overload can mean that the breathtaking beauty of the costumes — and especially Michele Carragher’s stunning embroidery – is sometimes lost on viewers.
It may be fantasy, but, if we take the time to look closely, we can see myriad historical influences, from medieval northern Europe to 1960s Balenciaga. Designer Michele Clapton’s claim that “we were never bound by the rules of any particular time period” is certainly true. The influences are scattered and often not consistent, which makes the discovery of them all the more piquant.
Whether a particular influence was the designer’s intention or not is, in many respects, unimportant. As with literary analysis, television dramas are an art form open to interpretation.
Sansa Stark’s second wedding dress
Sansa Stark (Sophie Turner) and Theon Greyjoy (Alfie Allen) HBO
The circumstances of Sansa Stark’s second wedding to Ramsay Bolton in season five are dark and traumatic. Her groom is a psychopath and her terror as she walks towards him is palpable. Her dress is threaded with reminders of her past life and family, but it also has some very unexpected influences.
A 1960s Vogue pattern for a Misses coat/poncho cape. Pinimg.com
To me, the sculptural sleeves of the bodice, a moulded extension of the body of the dress (which was intended to look somewhat like the statues in the crypt at Winterfell, her ancestral home) are reminiscent of 1960s cape coats with their fluid body and high neck.
An especially useful comparison is a 1963 design from the French fashion house Balenciaga, which has a very similar upper-body silhouette. Sansa’s undersleeves, meanwhile, correspond to the 19th-century “bishop” style – a lightweight sleeve, full to the wrist, where it is gathered into a cuff. This could be seen from around 1810 until the early years of the 20th century. In Sansa’s dress it provides a softer edge to a rather severe and encased design.
Cersei’s wedding outfit
Cersei Lannister (Lena Headey) and Margaery Tyrell (Natalie Dormer) HBO
Cersei Lannister’s dress at the fateful wedding of her son, King Joffrey, in season four embodies many of the staples of “fantasy” costume: long flowing sleeves, emblematic embroidery, a trained skirt. These aspects often fall under the pseudo-medieval banner and indeed this era was on Clapton’s radar when designing the costumes.
More recently, Cersei’s dress also recalls the appropriately royal costume of Queen Elizabeth I in the 16th century. The portrait of Elizabeth I as princess from around 1546 is a beautiful example of the Tudor silhouette: a low, almost off-the-shoulder neckline, a long slender torso, voluminous oversleeves, gold trimming and ornamentation, and a rich colour scheme.
Attributed to William Scrots, Elizabeth I when a Princess.
The way women held themselves in these dresses, with clasped hands in front of the waist (helping to show off those sleeves), can also be seen in Cersei when she wears her dress. The style both empowers and constrains women.
On the one hand it has an armour-like appearance that might suggest strength and perseverance against the world. On the other, the hampering skirts, sleeves and constraining bodice could imply the very opposite. Clapton has said of Cersei: “I don’t know how strong she is really, but she wants to project that image.”
Self-professed “Stormborn, Mother of Dragons” and other titles too numerous to mention, Daenerys Targaryen is given some of the most striking costumes of the series. Her costumes sit somewhere between Lord of the Rings’ ethereal royal elf Galadriel and the angular lines of Star Trek uniforms. By the most recent series they had evolved to portray – in Clapton’s words – “this sense of power and also a sense of immortality … this rather untouchable [quality and] a removal from reality”.
With Daenerys’s insatiable wish to power forward in life, coupled with her constant re-invention of herself, it is perhaps unexpected that her clothes should have any strong historical connections.
A ‘Delphos’ Tea Gown designed by Mariano Fortuny. Museum of Fine Arts, Houston
Quite a few of her costumes appear to be influenced by the iconic pleated dresses of Spanish-born Mariano Fortuny, one of the most important designers of the 20th century. His innovative rolled pleated technique (patented in 1909) recalled the classical statues of ancient Greece and Rome.
Similarly pleated skirts, reaching to the floor, can be seen on a number of Daenerys’s garments and give softness to an often rather harsh ensemble. The connotation of ancient Greece and Rome is an appropriate one for this burgeoning queen, who aims to build empires and tame mythological beasts.
Fortuny’s gowns were also associated with rational and aesthetic dress advocates in the 20th century, who argued for practical yet attractive female clothing. Likewise Daenerys wears trousers under every dress. Clapton has said: “I like that sense of, ‘I can play this [queen] but underneath, I can run’.”
Clapton retired from Game of Thrones after five series, having completed, in her words, “a complete look” for the show’s diverse geographic regions. She left not only a complete “look”, but also a complete mood board of historical influences for successors to draw on. As we move into the seventh season, it will be interesting for eagle-eyed viewers to spot and enjoy new parallels.
South
Africa has a high crime rate, andrecent
statistics showed that an average of 50 murders
a day happensthroughout the land. Besides the killings,
there are approximately 50 motor vehicle
accidents and 20 suicides happening every day. South Africa has a group of
rebel criminals who have more power than the ordinary citizens. Weapons are readily available although there are strict gun
controls set by the government. However,
this does not deter the criminal element from obtaining guns and other weapons
to commit crimes in the most heinous manner.
Over the past few days, the
police have managed to arrest several suspects – read the story -
Image credit - South African Police
THREE
SUSPECTS ARRESTED FOR THE POSSESSION OF ABALONE
Western Cape: The vigilance of police members on patrol in
Kiewiet Street Okavango Business Park, Brackenfell this morning paid off with
the arrest of three suspects for the possession of a large quantity of abalone.
The vehicle of the suspects raised suspicion and prompted the
members to investigate, which led to the discovery of 40 boxes of dried
abalone, possibly destined for export. The suspects aged 27, 27 and 37 are due
to make a court appearance on Monday in Blue Downs for the illegal possession
of abalone. The exact value of the abalone is yet to be determined.
FOURTEEN SUSPECTS ARRESTED -
Western Cape:
Information gathered by Crime intelligence which was operationalized led to the
detention of 14 suspects last night in
Milnerton for the illegal possession of abalone and shark fins with an
estimated street value of R 5.5 million. Cash to the tune of R50 000 and an
Isuzu LDV was also confiscated. The
suspects are all due to make a court appearance in Cape Town on Monday.
FOUR MORE SUSPECTS ARRESTED ON R21 BY ORTIA INTERVENTION
TEAM
Gauteng, Friday 14 July 2017: Last night,
Thursday 13 July 2017, four suspects were arrested
in a crime intelligence driven operation as part of an integrated effort to
foil “follow-home robberies” and other crimes
in the area of the O R Tambo International Airport (ORTIA) and surrounding
clusters.
Last night’s operation was conducted by a
multi-disciplinary team from Head Office Crime Intelligence, the Gauteng Provincial Trio Task Team,
and other stakeholders and they notched up another victory against criminality
in the area.
The team received information
regarding suspects allegedly involved in the recent spate of robberies. During
patrols on the R24 and R21, a suspicious vehicle was identified and followed at
about 20:00. When the members attempted to stop the vehicle, the occupants fired on them. The members returned fire and
disabled the vehicle causing it to come to a halt on the R21 North outside the
airport just before the Atlas Road off-ramp.
Four suspects were arrested, and three unlicensed firearms were
recovered. The suspects will appear in the Kempton Park Magistrate’s Court soon
on charges including attempted murder and possession of unlicensed firearms and
ammunition. The investigations are continuing,
and there is a possibility that the suspects could be linked to other crimes.
These arrests and seizure of
firearms come shortly after three other successes during which three suspects
were arrested, five unlicensed firearms recovered and a large consignment of
drugs was recovered.
The team’s combined effort and commitment in arresting the
suspects is highly commended. The prevention and investigation of crime in and
around the airport remain a priority for
this multi-disciplinary team. The safety and security of passengers and
visitors to OR Tambo International Airport and our communities remain of paramount importance to all
stakeholders involved, including the SAPS. This multi-disciplinary intervention
will continue.
SUSPECT
APPEARING IN COURT -FOR THE MURDER OF A
4-YEAR-OLD IYAPA YAMILE
Western Cape: Eager to ensure that the killer of four-year-old Iyapa Yamile is brought to
justice, detectives working on the case pursued every avenue which resulted in
the arrest of a 29-year-old man on Wednesday evening in Khayelitsha.
The suspect arrested on Wednesday is due to make a court
appearance in Khayelitsha this morning to face charges of murder and rape.
Crime committed against children is a top priority of the
Western Cape police, and we will use all
our resources to apprehend those responsible for preying on young victims who
cannot defend themselves.
Well done and let us hope the police continue to curb crime.
The ANC also has an opportunity to renew itself by promoting a new breed of uncorrupted young leaders, and taking strong action against those seen to be tarnishing the brand or playing to the tune of an alternate or captured state. Thus far, the party has failed to take this opportunity with all the enthusiasm and purpose that it is capable of, and regrettably seems unlikely to do so. This brand is in trouble.
Other steps that can be taken include increasing awareness by teaching water conservation in schools. In times of crisis, Windhoek is a good example of how raising awareness can play an important role in coping with water scarcity. Cape Town needs to follow suit.
Clapton retired from Game of Thrones after five series, having completed, in her words, “a complete look” for the show’s diverse geographic regions. She left not only a complete “look”, but also a complete mood board of historical influences for successors to draw on. As we move into the seventh season, it will be interesting for eagle-eyed viewers to spot and enjoy new parallels.
