Refugee VI football club is an initiative by Ephraim Ntlamo 17 years old. Refugee VI is a youth soccer club based in Cape Town, South Africa.  It was formed in September 2009. The purpose of this team is not only to kick some balls around.  According to the United Nations Refugee Agency [UNHCR] South Africa hosts some 40,00 refugees and over 100,000 asylum -seekers. A large part of these refugees are unaccompanied children between the age group of 15 and 18 who fled their countries on their own without any friend nor family member. After the xenophobic attacks in May 2008  the relationship between foreign nationals from other African states  and South African local communities became fragile.  As a refugee child my self I thought it would be necessary to form a sport institution that will can be part of the solution towards the difficult integration process and that will also give refugee children something  to keep themselves busy thinking positively about life, bring back the the fun, friendship, self esteem and confidence which I learned we  refugee children miss badly.

The real issue that drove me to spend most of my time getting this team together was the fact that refugee children face different sorts of discrimination. This discrimination becomes mostly visible in schools or in public transport. I felt that there is a need of communication between and mutual understanding of refugees and the local communities. The challenge is how can this be achieved? In my opinion, this difficult integration process can easily be achieved through sport. So the idea of Refugee VI is that we play soccer while spreading the message and the awareness about refugees. Like, where do we come from? What made us flee our country?  How did we make it to South Africa? The idea is for us refugees not to isolate ourselves from the locals but to have a good rewarding relationship that benefits the community and the country as a whole. We have a few South African players in the team.

Why the name Refugee VI?  Refugees  in South Africa come mostly from the following  6 nations: Zimbabwe, Rwanda, Angola, Uganda, Somalia, and D.R.C

Lastly and most importantly Refugee VI serves to persuade other refugee children to consider education as the way to success or a better life. We meet after training and discuss issues like HIV/AIDS  and other sexually transmitted diseases. So far the idea has worked very well, some of the boys gave up their  jobs in the vine yard farms and look forward to brighten thier futures by attending school next year

IF WE CAN PLAY SOCCER TOGETHER ,WE CAN STOP XENOPHOBIA TOGETHER !

I am one of the proudly South African youth that does not find Caster`s problem funny. We all know that Caster`s gender is neither a boy nor a girl, she is a hermaphrodite as we have seen and heard from the media.

We as the group of students from COSAT running the organisation and website studentsforhumanity.com, do not find this matter as amusing as the media does. In considering this matter we think that at the moment the S.A`s 800m gold medalist Caster Semenya needs our support regarding to her situation.

I, personally, never liked this thing gender testing but in sports it is all about fair play. If Caster was not tested and continued her career it would be unfair to her competitors.

It is not up to us to decide what and how should be done. So we have to watch and correct what’s being done wrongly by the government.

All and all I would like all the South African and others to support Caster Semenya during these hard times of her life.

Regards,

Yamkela (Yara) Hlehliso

Dear Managers of sports,

I’m one of the students that are part of the organisation called Students for Humanity, where I express my views.

I think sports managers and coaches don’t care about people, they just want to win and don’t care about peoples’ reputation and DIGNITY.

The test were done before CASTER participated and she’s a hermaphrodite and they didn’t take that into consideration and withdraw her in the squad, they just go ahead as planned (meaning let CASTER go to BERLIN whereas they know that she’s in this situation) and when the test was done there (BERLIN) they started complaining, saying that CASTER has been stripped of her dignity, whereas they knew her situation in the first place.

I’m putting blame on managers and coaches ,and next time they better be careful because they will destroy many upcoming young athlete, they have just destroy Caster’s future and dignity.

Yours sincerely,

Aphiwe Matiwane (Mr)

Dear South Africa

This is to inform you about how we as young South Africans feel.

We all know what happened to Semenya, now we are afraid because anything can happen to us. We want our rights to be secured as teens.

What you did to Semenya shows that you are capable of doing anything to anyone.

When it comes to sport South Africa have to be fair because there is no sport for both sex organs. Or you have to create sport for them.

When I look myself in the mirror I see who I am and what I can do or cannot do. So no one must criticize me.

I think what you did to Semenya is going to hurt her for the rest of her life. You should have tested everyone before and if you find that there is someone who is not a girl, you should have not allowed that before the game.

So my solution is that you must apologize to Semenya and allow her to be a girl, and continue running. That will show everyone that you care.

Yours faithfully,

Mkhuseli Mpu

Dear Caster`s Family

We as the Students for Humanity know you are in a terrifying situation. We want you to stay strong because the Lord has created this situation for a special purpose .Caster is the hero, Caster is an undisputed champion. She is an example that needs your encouragement.

She needs tour encourage and blessings to have strength to conquer this situation .To Caster we want you to know that you the best and we love you unconditionally, so be smart and be wise,open your eyes don’t let the devil come in your way carry on with your destiny .We will all behind you all the time, our blessings will pour to you like rain. Be yourself and focus on the future.

To the people all over the world, please support our champion “CASTER!!!!!!”, our queen .Lets courage her not discourage her. Let’s wish good for her, not anything bad. Let’s give her love and respect.

Yours sincerely,

Siphamandla Marenene

Dear South Africa,

How do we start believing in ourselves?, if we start by tearing our soul apart?

Yes, she has won a gold medal we proud of her, but what are we doing to repair her soul that was torn apart by the world and her own people. If we say she is both sex then where do we categories her and what rights will she have access to. To me Caster you are a beautiful young woman , who now needs support from us. As we all know that a shepherd always takes cares of his/her own sheep and goats. That what we need to do is take care of her and try to make her gain her self-esteem.

Yours faithfully,

Mlamli Gadi

Dear Sir/Madam

As sensitive person, I have a problem when it comes to this situation. If Caster has bisexual hormones, isn’t her career going to vanish because she won’t be able to participate in both men and women events. I think as she has participated in the women events, she must not be
taken out but let her do her best because she has talent.

This thing, I am sure, isn’t only affecting her but the country as a whole. We must take this as a great gift from God. I am sure He knew what He was doing and He makes everyone unique because we can’t be all look the same.

Yours truly,

Siphe Mananga (Mr.)

Dear South Africa,

Here is a story of a young woman whose bright future has been taken away from her just because of a natural cause that even she cannot change or control.

People around the world including here in South Africa have done nothing but open up old wounds of her sexuality and take her self-confidence away from her.

All of us South Africans should just put ourselves in Caster Semenya’s shoes and feel her pain for just one minute, let’s not take a person’s life and turn it into a newspapers article. We should all just give her a break and give her a spiritual hug to comfort her and show her that we care. Instead of making her life miserable let’s just take one day to acknowledge her for her strength, because it takes a strong woman to be able to deal with such an inhumane experience.

South Africa, let’s just all give Caster Semenya a big hug.

Yours Faithfully,

Nanzi

Dear South Africa

We must understand the gift of Caster Semenye, if she is both genders then it’s a miracle after all the centuries that have passed.

We must learn to appreciate and if she has advantages then that’s our advantage as a country of South Africa. We not simply criticise other people but accept who they are because; for example Caster, she did not make herself like this (being both genders), if we push her away we will be faced with a problem because she will also not appreciate herself.

Yours Sincerely,

Sibuyiselo (Sbuja)

Dear South African

RE: She is what she wants to be.

Caster Semenya is a girl that has special abilities and she has a gift like anyone else in the world and that is the gift of running.

People, the press, the media, people from out of this country and people who call themselves ‘AFRICANS’ are discriminating against Semenya, abusing her rights of being an African.

Yes!!! I know that she has some other special hormones and abilities in her but why do we have to see her gift as a negative thing and we see the negative things about her talent. Why do we have to be jealous just because we do not have the talent that she has and that because in our lives we are not famous as she is. Why don’t we just be happy for her and be happy that she won for South Africa, and not just South Africa but OUR South Africa.

In my language, there is a saying: ‘UMNTU GUMNTU NGABANTU and many South Africans know about this saying and I also say that UMNTU NGUMNTU NGABANTU, especially those who you are close to. I can tell you that Semenya and South Africans are the only people that she is close to. Now we are discriminating against her, her family (South Africa) is the people who are among those who are discriminating her and they we are not ashamed of it.

South Africans, let us change our behaviours; if we do not support Caster, how do we expect the world to. When she meets other people /she will get even more hurt because we are the people that we did not comfort her first.

I end here by saying, as a South Africans let’s think of this: HOW WOULD IT FEEL WHEN YOUR FAMILY STARTED DISCRIMANTING YOU?

SHE IS WHAT SHE WANTS TO BE!!!!

Regards,

Yandisa Mtsotso

Do you have a life when you don’t have confidence, don’t believe in your self and when you have a low self esteem? This a question that we need to ask our self as people and as a nation. We as nation have struggled in the past but we don’t realize that we are still struggling. We are not struggling as a nation, we are struggling to gain confidence. We do not gain confidence if we don’t encourage,

love and care for one another, we would have a better nation were we as the people stand together to create a better South Africa. So by giving someone words of encouragement each day, you are making a difference in someone else life. All we need is support and we need to start believing in our self. The change is not in the government it is in us we need to change our selves to make our country better.

Mfundo:

The One.

I woke up one day asking myself if am I the one,

The one who is recognized by the world,

The one who sets goals and achieves them,

The one who wakes up every morning knowing his ambitions

The one who is the one.

Many things happened in my life,

People discriminated and took my courage away from me,

For once in my life I despair,

I thought God has turned His back on me,

I cried every now and then,

Crying for hope and recognition,

I cried to be the one.

I thought my voice was not heard,

The guys on the street corner teased me and made me feel their negativity around me,

People have always been a load on my shoulders

I then realized that it was time to stand on my bare feet and build my confidence from Scratch,

Because I knew that I was the one.

Living on the negative atmosphere that made me not to recognize my mission of living really was,

My confidence needed my attention and this time I was committed to give it all,

My confidence blocked my ears and when they came and made their negative comments I couldn’t hear them,

It was then that I realized that I’m unique,

It was then that I realized that I started living my life the way I liked,

It was then that I realized that I am the one.

Sbuja:

Being a person you have certain characteristics and you are unique, but being a unique person you can not love your whole body. There are certain parts of your body that you don’t mind people teasing you about,  because you have accepted them. There are also things that you don’t like to be teased about. I like my big hands and i don’t mind to being teased about them because i love them but when you tease me about my head then I get a very low self-esteem and at the same time I get very angry about it. I have a low self-esteem because i was teased about my head for almost three years and it convinced me that i do have big a head, even though i didn’t notice before. This lead to me being angry at my own self and that is why i am like this now not able to have questions but accept what is being offered.

Tasch:

Dear you

Here I am listening to what you are saying. Is it going to build me and make me a better person? Is it going to make me look at the mirror and listen to that small voice which already made cracks around my foundation?

I’m being interrogated by you, where you make me doubt my self-love, I see myself as a no-body. Where the crops of hurt starts being planted and few more words get involve then the hurt explodes directly to me. You are the detective who supposes to use your power to protect me but you just using your power to destroy me, starve me by not sharing positive things but only sketching the nightmare of being inferior to others.

I have been brutally abused by what comes out of your mouth.

Hey! Be careful of what you are saying because you are striking a rock. Remember “Wathinta abafazi wathinta imbokodo”, I am neither inferior nor superior but I am me.

FIND THE INNER BEAUTY AMOUNG YOUR SELF AND TELL THAT LITTLE VOICE TO CALL IN 400 YRS TIME.”

Apihwe:

be careful if you make a woman cry because god counts her tears

a woman comes out of a man’s rib, not from his feet to be walked

not from his head to be superior, but under his arm to be protected

next to his heart to be loved.

These words come down from the deepest of my heart

I’m just comparing the nowadays; because a woman used to have no value.

The reason why i wrote this poem is because i want to encourage people not to be let down by negative comments

all you need to do is just believe in yourself and look at yourself and take the mirror and say “this person that I’m seeing in the mirror

is beautiful and i love him/her” and just forget about what people say about you.

Mkuseli:

Why Am I Hating My Self?

Is it the way I look?

Is it the way that other people see me

Where can I improve?

Where can I correct my self?

Where did I go wrong?

God created me the way I am.

Now I have to accept it

There is no recipe for me to fix myself

I have to accept it!!!

Comments that come from other people really affect the way you think and feel

There is this saying in the Bible “Tongs have a power over everything “

that means with just speaking you can hurt other peoples feelings

Nosizwe:

Words like bullets

Kill myself esteem in seconds

Destroy me as if i’m a house with no proper foundation.

I know people will always have something to say about me

Just like a car knows a dog will always run after it

But it never stops going until it gets to where it’s going

Why is it different with me?

If your words can destroy me

Don’t you think they can also empower me, build me?

Why not put your energy into something useful

Your words go thru me just like the sun

Goes through a crystal

If you’ve got nothing better to say about me

SHUT UP!

If you don’t like who I am change your attitude towards me

If you can’t

Stay out of my way because I am not going anywhere

Ephraim:

Comrades like Steve Biko represent African unity. They strived for continental integration. Unfortunately they were unable to see that dream come true. We must be really glad that they showed us the way. Let’s walk to honor those gentlemen. There is an emerging need for African governments not to allow legislations that would make life difficult for other Africans. Let our vision be: the united states of Africa!!

During the past, in the apartheid era protests, street-burnings and school burnings were common; it was done when ever people were requesting something they were in need of from the Government. And the government would then attend to their needs as quickly as possible, thus satisfaction will be found inside their blameless hearts.

Lately, in the 15th of May 2009, my fellow neighbors demanded various services from the government which where basically consisting of the basic human rights in the accordance of the Legislation of South Africa. The first day of the strike, all government transportation was invaded, stoned and many vehicles burnt. As a result many innocent passengers got injured. It went on, other public transports were not allowed to pass on. They then started doing what lead to what I call ‘My communities misconception’. In a blink of an eye, over a distance of approximately 225 meters on the travel road, there were burning tires everywhere.

Cardboard, cans, papers and plastics were burnt; no public or private car would have been able to pass through that extremely dangerous fire, or in a more precise way ‘combustion’. Teachers say “combustion, is a process in which a substance reacts with oxygen to off heat and light”, in a more comprehensive way, combustion is the act of burning something to release heat and light and mostly gas. My neighbors performed this right next to their houses. They inhaled the toxic chemicals laden air, and that might lead to horrible illnesses that might take them to their last home.

The pictures alongside were taken vigilantly by me, Nkosikhona at six o’clock when the combustion process was commencing. The fire you perceive was made up by the burning of tires and plastic papers. The other effect (currently under investigation) caused by this act is called global-warming, that increments every time chemicals including carbon dioxide and sulphur are released to the atmosphere. Briefly, the chemicals will react with the oxygen atoms of the ozone, thus ozone depletion will occur. In addition, the ozone acts as a blanket for most momentously people who have photosensitive skin, polar bears, and as a result the harmful UV (Ultraviolet) light will pass through the ozone layer without getting absorbed or reduced, thus extinction will play its role.

As people continue burning substances, the diseases acquired through breathing in their smokes will not affect the government who fails to provide, but, interestingly, will affect the innocent citizens who are just protesting not aware of the consequences. What troubles me is the children playing right next the burning fire (if you looked closely you’ll see them at the pictures). At the end of the day, the government does nothing while the innocent people get infected by airborne diseases. The misconception I see in my community is that we think we are getting the attention from government and pointing our finger to them by burning substances, while -unwarily- we are burning our own fingers and future.

Misconceptions seem to exist, mostly -unwarily- on the side of the spectators or catalysts. Let me give you the example within politics. Let me first compare politics with sports: There are two main kinds of people in sport, those who play the game and know the difficulties of the game and those who watch the game and have assumptions/conclusions. Same applies in politics, there are politicians who studied political studies and members of parliament and there are those who are informed by the media about the results of the meeting held in parliaments.

South African political parties vary hugely. The parties are divided, one party wants votes and the other parties also want votes. The problem is that they want those votes from the very same people. The competition that emerges causes complete division. This division often results in violence and physical fighting.
If we look back at the political leaders: their different believes do not make them fight (physically). Politicians do have conflicts -obviously- but those conflicts are resolved (like Mandela insisted to do: weapon down pens up.) Politicians fight their fights using words not spheres and swords like in the past.

Now, I see that the majority of the people in my community hate each other because of being in different parties. During the manifestos for the 2009 national elections many people got serous injuries because they attended the manifesto of a certain party. One of the well known leaders in the community was gunned down, only because of his political choice. As a young person who watches news daily, I often ask myself: how many people died because of their political choices and how many more will? There are fewer cases of politicians being killed because of their political view, then followers being killed because of their political choice. It shows that people are fighting among themselves while the ones who created this chaos are free in their big houses living happy lives. Through all this, many people say it is life but I personally see it as a misconception.

In sport, players do fight sometimes when they provoked each other by mistake in the game. Most players are friends or relatives thus they do not really fight but in the game they fight like hell, not physically but through getting the ball and scoring the goals. After the game all players usually greet each other saying thing like, it was a good game you played well and e.t.c. If we look back again at the people in the communities -like my community-, the people go mad when their team wins or looses. They tend to use alcohol for celebrations or to escape their losses. They create conflicts if they favor different teams.

Please let me know if you see possibilities how to help reduce the misconceptions within my community.  Let me know if you want to help me address the issues and get the attention of people who are able to make a difference. Let’s do it for the children in the community and their future.

THANK YOU FOR TAKING YOUR VALUABLE TIME READING THROUGH THIS TEXT WRITTEN BY A YOUNG STAR LIVING IN SOUTH AFRICA. TAKE CARE. GOD BLESS.

Are western ” non governmental organisations” (NGO’s) really doing what they are expected to be doing for Africa ?

Please sit back and prepare to challenge  my opnion. What ever you  thought about Africa, think again. One can’t ran from the naked fact that Africa is a troubled continent, devastated by civil wars, poverty and HIV/Aids. The good news  is having all these obstacles doesn’t mean there is no hope for Africa. Let  me put it in this way: we Africans are very forntunaty, we must appreciate the truth that we are  not climbing the huge mountain to success alone. Our international  friends [ countries ]  are  helping us to pull ourselves out  this distress times.  But the question is: are Western  agencies as  a helping hand  apprecciated by masses of  Africans pulling us into the right direction?

Here is what i suggest: It is very clear that Western NGO’s are doing  a very great job for the ordinary people of Africa, but the question mark is: are our Arican politicians as happy as ordinary Africans with  this  great work being done by Western agencies?  The answer is clearly not at all.  Why do I say this?  because  NGO’s are involving themselves a lot on domestic political issues, but that’s not the reason behind African leaders  feeling feverish of the work of  NGO’s. Western NGO’s together with their media fail to balance things, let me give you these examples: Amnesty international, Human rights watch and International  federation for human rights. These organisations claim to be  the paragons of objectctivety and  balanced human rights defenders, but the fact is these organisations don’t lead by example. For instance Amnesty international recently campagned for the international arrest of Sudanese president  Omar -al  Bashir, the move which i personal believed was right for Africa, but in my eyes the African union was underrated, because I think it was a decission the African union was suppossed to make, not Amnesty International.

If  we  were to look at things more closely, Western Agencies talk about being against African presidents entrenching themselves in power, but in what ways?  These Western organisations talk about Robert Mugabe  having stayed  too long in power for his 29 years at helm. The fun part is you will never hear  these Human rights organisations and Western media pointing an accusing finger at Gabon’s Omar Bongo ’s 41 years in power. Bongo just like Mugabe went to sleep whenever he wanted to, while his people wallowed  in abjective poverty. Then believe it or not, France, the United states  and the UK support  Gabon, Cameroon, Equitoria Guinea /Guinea-Bissau …all these countries have poor human rights records, but nothing is being said about this by Western agencies.

I predict that if the Western agencies (NGO’s) go on with this habbit of not acting fairly on certain matters, there will be a big fall out in a near future between the agencies and African governments. To make my words more clear: Western agencies will be unwanted or restricted in a near future, because African leaders and some individuals are starting to believe that NGO’s just act as propagandanists for Western Governments to overthrow certain African leaders.

photograph under the creative commons by Julien Harneis

It is the day that honors the deaths of hundreds of Soweto schoolchildren, a day that changed the course of the country’s history on 16 June 1976. The day where government and the police were caught off guard by the group of angry students fighting against Bantu education, living a large amount of brave dead students. These students were marching because they were against Bantu education, which was introduced by the national party in 1954 by the apartheid government. The Bantu education was introduced so that all students can be taught in Afrikaans. In that time about 10 % of black teachers had a matric certificate and the school was poorly equipped, had no science laboratories or sport fields and they were overcrowded. They fought for all of those things, so that their grandchildren will have a better education.

June 16 is now being celebrated by the youth to honor and show respect to our heroes that made things to be possible for us to have this better life that we have. We now have poets and hip hop artist who speaks their lungs out in praising the ‘special ‘day of youth. The youth are very passionate about what they do and they appreciate what was done by our heroes. Cape Town has many local artists who walk the footprints of our heroes by embracing out their voice about social issues.

On this day I also went out on a rap, hip hop, poet show, which was held in Mandalay Hall in Cape Town. People were very supportive on this day because they know how special the day is. The show was so honorable and unforgettable, that I even treasure it in my heart. It was the first time I go out and see what they do on June 16 and I don’t regret it but to regret the fact that I did not support the day years ago. I thank BraZuka who is the host of the show, for inviting me and let me explore how they do it to honor the unforgettable day of June 16 and to other artists for participating on the show.

We all thank Hector Peterson and other heroes for making things to be easy to us. We thank their bravery of fighting south Africa’s most feared people, with out you guys we wouldn’t be having this freedom the=at we are having now. We thank the blood that oozed from our brothers and sisters and flooded in streets of Soweto. A blood of angry minds, minds who wanted nothing but freedom. In your success and bravery we thank you very much.

My name is EPHRAIM NTLAMO. I was born in March 1992 in a rural village, Binga in Zimbabwe. Being born in this impoverished part of the world, there are lots of challenges to overcome. For example, your own parents do not believe in education that much, they are very traditional and think that the child must either become a herd boy or a farmer.

When I started school in 1997 my dream was to become an electrical engineer (The reason behind my dream, was to one day own a car, live in the city, where I would own a European style house — oppose to a traditional hut where I grew up in).  Because of political violence and hyper inflation in Zimbabwe, our parents couldn’t afford to pay our school fees/uniforms/stationary/books. And even if they did and we had the chance to get to school, there wasn’t proper education anymore. Robert Mugabe’s ruling party in Zimbabwe, helped by the militia, could just come and pick up students to campaign for ZANU-PF. Also, teachers were earning peanuts (very little- 70Rand/month). For them to survive they had to involve themself in corrupt businesses to survive, instead of teaching.

In 2008 there was no food at home, I couldn’t go to school. I didn’t want to involve myself in crime and corrupt business in Zimbabwe (like illegal smuggling of diamonds), so I thought  it was a good idea to go to South Africa. A visa was 2000 Rand, which I couldn’t afford (even in my dreams). I thought the only wise decission to make was to cross the Limpopo river illegally into South Africa.

I wanted to work for my family and send food back home, at the same time try and raise money for me to continue school back home in Zimbabwe. Unfortunately that idea didn’t work, because I am under aged, no one wanted to employ me. I ended up strolling in the streets of Cape Town, where I was exposed to crime, violence and drugs. Although I slept in the drain,  I still had hope that my dream would be fulfilled one day. Living in the streets is very stressful, the situation forces you to take substances, but I resisted. I kept on believing in my dream. Today I am at school, eating fresh food, sleeping in a bed with proper blankets and now I’m even proudly sitting in front of a laptop.

To me, life is a challenge (today you overcome one problem, tomorrow you face another).  You do not have to give up, be like a ship in the storm, keep on sailing. Let’s not loose hope just because of our disadvantaged backgrounds, we all have the chance to be great in life.

Mr Obama has a big challenge to rule a powerful, complicated nation and fulfil his promises. As any president he has to make sure that his country is happy with his work. But Mr Obama is a different president and because of his black skin colour he has an extra task to perform. And that task is to prove to the American citizens and the world that it was not a mistake that he got elected president of America. Clearly Obama has made “HISTORY”.

Some people say that he is very young to take power and so there is a big possibility that he can become greedy. And some say that America did need change so he is the perfect man for the job. But the real question is will he be able to complete his tasks? We all know that the world is watching, and that indeed some people out there are expecting the worst out of him.

Enough about Mr.Obama and America lets talk about a similar but complicated situation, South Africa. Let me brief you about our previous president Mr Thabo Mbeki, he was humble, dignified and an extra ordinary leader.

Last year September Thabo Mbeki was kicked off as president of South Africa. And as many people were left speechless as his due date was as close as tears in the eye, some said that he deserved it because they didn’t see that much improvement in his work in his second term of office. But either way he was out and a new president was needed, and that is how we got our current president Mr Motlante.
On 22 April 2009 year we will be holding presidential elections, and many people believe that current ANC president, Mr Jacob Zuma, stands a good chance of becoming South Africa’s new president.

Jacob Zuma has been in and out of court several times in the past few years on rape and corruption charges. Jacob Zuma has not yet been found guilty but chances are he could be. And the question is what if he succeeds as the new president of South Africa, on April, and is then later found guilty of corruption? What would other nations think of South Africa? Is Jacob Zuma ready for the challenges that lay ahead? Doesn’t he need time to solve his problem before standing in the upcoming elections because most people want to know weather or not he is guilty?

As much different as Jacob Zuma’s and Barack Obama’s stories may be, they both have one thing in common, to prove to the world that they can make it, against all odds that is.

2009/200SHINE/200MINE, IS IT A GOOD START FOR THE TWO MEN AND IS IT A NEW BEGINNING FOR THE TWO COUNTRIES?

These pictures are placed on flickr under a creative commons license. The obama picture can be found on Image Editor’s flickr account, the one of Zuma on Albert Bredenhann ’s flickr account.

BY EDITOR
TASH BUSIE