Issue Photos

One of the biggest issues in downtown St. Augustine is the reconstruction of the Bridge of Lions. This is a continuing problem for not just tourists, but locals as well.

"Of course the bridge goes up when I need to be somewhere in ten minutes and it takes 20 just for it to go down", said Sam Kunsch

Soccer News

The confederate cup will start on June 14th and will last about two weeks. This is will be the first and final game hosted in Johannesburg. The city doesn't seem completey ready for this event because they haven't been able to advertise like they wanted to due to the election. After the election is over they are hoping to sell more tickets and gather more fans.

South Africa will be in Group A along with New Zealand, Iraq, and Spain.

The USA, Egypt, Brazil and Italy will meet in Group B.

This will be hopefully an exciting summer.

Election Update

It looks like Jacob Zuma is going to be elected President. They are projecting him to win by a two/thirds vote. Not everyone is happy by this potential outcome

"I don't believe the Zuma charges should have been dropped. He should've been tried for what he did," said one local.

According to another source, the reason why the ANC has such a majority of black votes is because they threaten the people if they don't vote ANC.

The day to vote is April 22nd, which is coming up in about a week.

Crime in South Africa

Crime in South Africa has been increasingly a problem. Within a year (spring of 2006 to spring of 2007) there were almost 20,000 murders reported. South Africa is rated the 6th highest country for crime just falling behind Columbia.

Lucky Dube has been on everyone's mind this week after the men who killed him were found guilty on Tuesday. Dube, who was a famous Reggae artist, had been killed during a carjacking in the fall of 2007. Dube is survived by his wife and seven children. His music tried to inspire horrible effects of crime and what others could do to prevent it.

So I post this video to honor the talented artist.

Video about the president

Video: Zuma's campaign

Election 2009

(Mbeki left, Zuma right)


When the next president is elected by the National Assembly, it will be a five year term served. The election is between current President Thabo Mbeki and ex-Vice-President Jacob Zuma. The African National Congress president Zuma is probably going to be re-elected. He has had some legal troubles with fraud that was supposed to go to trial, but because of the elections they have moved the trial to August.

If President Mbeki is elected it will be for his third term and therefore won't be allowed to be the actual president. He will be able to appoint someone else, which won't be ex-VP Zuma.

The elections will be held April 22nd. This is the first time in over a decade that the election is free.

World Cup 2010

World Cup 2010

It's an exciting time for Cape Town, South Africa. Summer 2010 may be over a year away, but for them, its approaching quickly. They are looking to honor the most popular footballer David Beckham. The ceremony is to honor Beckham's outstanding career. The president of South Africa is in communication with the chief executive of the world cup organization about this ceremony.

The FIFA Confederate Cup is June 14th-28 2009 in South Africa and is a good test run for the organizations involved in World Cup 2010.

TIckets are in demand and already 140 countries are in the purchasing madness since tickets went on sale in February.

If you plan on attending World Cup 2010, you might want to get going on your tickets.

UPDATE on Election blog

Here is an update on what is going on with the election.


Each president serves a five year term. The current president (who was elected originally in 1999 and re-elected in 2004) is Thabo Mbeki. In 2004 there were 26, 674,926 people registered to vote. The total valid votes counted were 15, 612, 671. The political system is a democracy. Elections are set for April. The three that seem to be competing are Jacob Zuma, Cyril Ramaphosa and Tokyo Sexwale.

More updates to come.

The Magic Freesbee

IOL

I was really surprised today when I was glancing at Independent Online, a south african news source. There were so many different subjects and categories on their website I had no idea where to start. From sailing, to golf to the 2009 election, it was all quite interesting. One article particularly interested me on the election and how the candidates were trying to create a mutual respect for one another during the time of the campaigning. To me this is something every country should be able to do. South Africa seems to want to come together and support one another. I am looking forward to keeping up with the election and learning more about the candidates. For more information on the article I was refereing to go to : http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=3086

Introduction

Hello.
I am Lauren and for the next few months I will be writing about the South African Media. I am looking forward to sharing my ideas about different media companies and how they are forming and building in South Africa. This third world country is very important to me and I hope their media continues to grow like the USA.